I proceed to recommend the distreffed widows and children of the English clergy to your benevolent protection.

The nature and defign of the several charitable institutions, which have now brought us together, are, I prefume, fo well understood in this place, that there can be no need to take up any of your time in explaining them. The generous fupport they have hitherto met with demands our most grateful acknowledgements; and in order to keep this friendly difpofition towards us alive and warm in your breasts, I fhall attempt to show that

the

But it may not perhaps be generally known that there are three diftin&t focieties formed for the benefit of the indigent widows and children of the clergy, and all closely connected with

each other.

The first and principal, is The Corporation for the Relief of the poor Widows and Children of Clergymen, established by charter in the reign of King Charles the Second. The funds of this charity are employed chiefly, in giving penfions to the widows of the clergy.

The second, which rofe not long after, is The Society of the Feast of the Sons of the Clergy, confifling of the company annually affembled under that name at St. Paul's church, and Merchant Taylors Hall. The money collected at thofe two places is wholly expended in apprenticing out the children of neceffitous clergymen. The expences of the mufic and the feaft are generously defrayed by the stewards of that fociety. T

The

the clergy of the Church of England have, both on account of their public fervices, and (with respect to too large a part) their private neceffities, a peculiar claim to your kind attention and affiftance.

If we go back to the early ages of Chriftianity, our own Ecclefiaftics had their fhare, with others of the facred order, in first introducing the light of the Gospel into this country; and in facrificing to its advancement their ease, their health, their fortunes, their lives. When in after-times, by a variety of concurrent causes, this kingdom was, in common with all its neighbours, overwhelmed with the

The third, is The Society of Stewards and Subfcribers for maintaining and educating the poor Orphans of the Clergy till of age to be put Apprentices.

This fociety was formed in the year 1749. It is composed of those who have been stewards of the former fociety, and any others who chufe to become members of it. It is fupported by annual fubfcriptions of one guinea each, and maintains twoschools, one for boys, and the other for girls, in which the or phans of the clergy are educated till they are of fufficient age to go out to apprenticeships.

It might be of ufe if a short and clear account of these societies was printed in a small tract, describing their nature and defign, together with the proper time and method of applying to them for relief, and the perfons to whom fuch applications should be made.

most

most deplorable darkness and ignorance; and when that stupendous fabric of popish tyranny and fuperftition was, like another Babel, raised up with incredible art and diligence, to the very fkies; yet ftill the Chriftian clergy in general, and ours among the reft, were of no fmall benefit to the community. It is acknowledged by an hiftorian, who has never betrayed any partiality to our order, that in the period we are fpeaking of," the profeffion and (let me add) "the difpofition of the churchmen, averfe to "arms and violence, tempered the general "turn to military enterprises, and maintained,

even amidst the shock of arms, those secret "links without which it is impoffible for hu

man fociety to fubfift*." Nay, even many privileges of the order that were justly looked apon with a jealous eye, yet proved, in those turbulent ages, a check to the defpotisin of our monarchs, and at the fame time kept the community from falling to pieces by the factions and quarrels of the nobles. And it ought never to be forgotten, that for what we call our MAGNA CHARTA, that main foundation (as

*Hume's Hift. of England, Hen. III. vol. ii. p. 10. rft edit. 4to. 1762.

it is generally held to be) of our free conftitution, we are principally indebted to the eloquence, the spirit, and the activity of an Englih primate, affifted and fupported by almost the whole body of his clergy. It is true, indeed, in other refpects the conduct of our Ecclefiaftics was not always fo irreproachable as might have been wifhed; for they must needs partake in fome degree of the corruption and barbarity which then generally prevailed, Yet great numbers of them did, notwithstanding, preferve themfelves pure and undefiled from the vices of the age, and were exemplary in their manners, temperate, charitable, meek and heavenly-minded. Their cloysters were a retreat not merely, as is commonly fuppofed, for the idle and diffolute, but for the

Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury; "a man "whofe memory," fays the hiftorian above-mentioned, "ought always to be respected by the English." Vol. I. p. 382.

66

In the following reign the abbots and prelates were very inftrumental in obtaining the fame fecurity from Hen. III. and they endeavoured to guard against all future violations of it by a moft tremendous ceremony, They flood round the GREAT CHARTER, Whilft it was read in parliament, with burning tapers in their hands, and denounced the fentence of excommunication against every one that fhould thenceforth dare to infringe that fundamental law. Ib. Vol. II. p. 25, 26.

ftudious,

ftudious, the afflicted, the penitent and the devout. They afforded fupport to all the neighbouring poor, and in thofe days of lawless violence, were extremely ufeful as places of refuge and fecurity to the defenceless and the weak. In them too were depofited many of those precious remains of antiquity which we now peruse with so much delight, and which, had it not been for the protection they found in religious houfes, would, in all probability, have perished by the hands of those barbarians that fpread ruin and defolation over Europe. In these peaceful fanctuaries, the leisure and tranquillity which the monks enjoyed, enabled them not only to record (however uncouthly) the tranfactions of their own times, but to transcribe the compofitions of former and more valuable writers. Nor was this the only object of their attention. They found time to cultivate even fome of the finer arts. Those fublime powers of harmony, which have been this very day fo nobly and laudably exerted in the cause of the fatherlefs and the widow, owe their birth in this country to monaftic diligence and ingenuity, Both the theory and the practice of mufic were firft ftudied and taught here,