g, that will
not call them too often or too far from their spiritual offices (for
unless I misapprehend, they are supposed to have episcopal ordination).
For example, they may be lappers of linen, bailiffs of the manor, they
may let blood, or apply plasters, for three miles round; they may get a
dispensation to hold the clerkship and sextonship of their own parish
_in commendam_. Their wives and daughters may make shirts for the
neighbourhood, or if a barrack be near, for the soldiers. In linen
countries, they may card and spin, and keep a few looms in the house:
they may let lodgings, and sell a pot of ale without doors, but not at
home, unless to sober company, and at regular hours. It is by some
thought a little hard, that in an affair of the last consequence, to the
very being of the Clergy, in the points of liberty and property, as well
as in their abilities to perform their duty; this whole reverend body,
who are the established instructors of the nation in Christianity and
moral virtues, and are the only persons concerned, should be the sole
persons not consulted. Let any scholar shew the like precedent in
Christendom for twelve hundred years past. An act of parliament for
settling or selling an estate in a private family, is never passed till
all parties give consent. But in the present case the whole body of the
Clergy is, as themselves apprehend, determined to utter ruin, without
once expecting or asking their opinion, and this by a scheme contrived
only by one part of the convocation, while the other part which hath
been chosen in the usual forms, wants only the regal permission to
assemble, and consult about the affairs of the Church, as their
predecessors have always done in former ages; where it is presumed, the
Lower House hath a power of proposing canons, and a negative voice, as
well as the Upper. And God forbid (say these objectors) that there
should be a real separate interest between the bishops and Clergy, any
more than there is between a man and his wife, a king and his people, or
Christ and his Church.

It seems there is a provision in the bill, that no parish shall be cut
into scraps, without the consent of several persons, who can be no
sufferers in the matter; but I cannot find that the Clergy lay much
weight on this caution, because they argue, that the very persons from
whom these Bills took their rise, will have the greatest share in the
decision.

I do not, by any means, conceive the cryi