ovision was rarely made for this in eighteenth-century churches. It is
mentioned as somewhat exceptional on the part of Bishop Bull, that 'he
always offered the elements upon the Holy Table himself before
beginning the Communion service.'[923]

Puritan feeling had very unreasonably regarded the cross with almost as
much jealousy as the crucifix. This idea had, in the last century, so
far gained ground, that the Christian emblem was not often to be seen,
at all events in the interior of churches, and that those who did use it
in their churches or churchyards were likely to incur a suspicion of
Popery. An anonymous assailant of Bishop Butler in 1767, fifteen years
after the death of that prelate, made it a special charge against him
that he had 'put up the Popish insignia of the cross in his chapel at
Bristol.'[924]

Steele, speaking, in one of his papers in the 'Guardian,' of Raphael's
picture of our Saviour appearing to His disciples after His
resurrection, makes some remarks upon religion and sacred art. 'Such
endeavours,' he says, 'as this of Raphael, and of all men not called to
the altar, are collateral helps not to be despised by the ministers of
the Gospel.... All the arts and sciences ought to be employed in one
confederacy against the prevailing torrent of vice and impiety; and it
will be no small step in the progress of religion, if it is as evident
as it ought to be, that he wants the best sense a man can have, who is
cold to the "Beauty of Holiness."'[925] Tillotson, and other favourite
writers of Steele's generation, had dwelt forcibly, and with much charm
of language, upon the moral beauty of a virtuous and holy life. But
there had never been a time when the English Church in general, as
distinguished from any party in it, had cared less to invest religious
worship with outward circumstances of attractiveness and beauty. As to
the particular point which gave occasion to Steele's remarks, whatever
might be said for or against the propriety of painting in churches,
there was in his time little disposition to open the question at
all.[926] One of the very few instances where a painting of the kind is
spoken of, was connected with a very discreditable scandal. At a time
when party feeling ran very high, White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough,
the well-known author of 'Parochial Antiquities,' had made himself
exceedingly obnoxious to some of the more extreme members of the High
Church section, by his answer to Sa