THK 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RIGHT REVEREND 
 BEILBY PORTEUS, D. D. 
 
 LATE BISHOP OF LO]NDO]\ T . 
 
 B THE 
 
 KEY. ROBERT HODGSON, A. M. F. R. 8. 
 
 Rector of St. George's Hanover-Square, and one of tlje 
 Chaplains in ordinary to his Majesty. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY EZRA SARGEAKT, 
 
 Xo. 86 Broadway, opposite Trinity CLurclu 
 
 1811. 
 
NO, 5 BURLING -SLIP- 
 
THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 SHUTE, 
 LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM, 
 
 AND 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 GEORGE, 
 LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING 
 
 LIFE OF DR. BEILBY PORTEUS, 
 
 XATE BISHOP OF LONDON, 
 FOR WHOM, 
 
 AS A PRELATE, 
 
 THEY ENTERTAINED THE HIGHEST RESPECT, 
 AND, 
 
 AS A FRIEND, 
 
 THE MOST AFFECTIONATE REGARD, 
 
 is* 
 
 1VITH GREAT DEFERENCE, 
 
 INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY 
 
 THEIR OBLIGED 
 
 AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, 
 
 ROBERT HODGSQJY. 
 
 , Grosvenor-street, 
 May 1811. 
 

THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 DR. BEILBY PORTEUS, 
 
 BISHOP OF LONBON. 
 
 UPON the merits of the venerable 
 Prelate, of whose writings a new and com- 
 plete edition is now presented to the world, 
 the public sentiment has long and justly de- 
 cided : and it is under the impression, that 
 whatever relates to him will be read with in- 
 terest, that a History of his Life is here pre- 
 fixed. I could much have wished that the task 
 of preparing it had fallen into abler hands; 
 but thus far I feel justified in saying, that 
 it has been drawn from the most authentic 
 sources, and certainly with no intention to 
 raise his character by undue panegyric. 
 The portrait of such a man is best delineatecj 
 ill the simple colouring of truth; and it has 
 A 2 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 been my anxious endeavour, so to repre- 
 sent it in the following pages. 
 
 Dr. BEILBY PORTE us, late Bishop of 
 London, was the youngest but one of nine- 
 teen children, and was born at York on the 
 8th of May 1731. His father and mother 
 were natives of Virginia, in North America. 
 They were both descended from good fa- 
 milies, and, during their residence in that 
 colony, were on a footing with its principal 
 inhabitants, to many of whom they were al- 
 lied. His father was of no profession ; but, 
 being born to what in that country was con- 
 sidered as an independent fortune, lived 
 upon his own estate. It consisted chiefly of 
 plantations of tobacco ; and on one of these, 
 called Newbottle (from a village of that name 
 near Edinburgh, once belonging to his fa- 
 mily, but now in the possession of the 
 Marquis of Lothian), he usually resided. 
 The house stood upon a rising ground, with 
 a gradual descent to York river, which was 
 there at least two miles over: and here he 
 enjoyed within himself every comfort and 
 convenience that a man of moderate wishes 
 could desire; living without the burthen of 
 taxes, and possessing, under the powerful 
 
V 
 BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 protection of this kingdom, peace, plenty, 
 and security. The Bishop had a singular 
 picture, which, though not in the best style 
 of colouring, was yet thought valuable by 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, as a specimen of the 
 extent which the art of painting had reached 
 at that time in America : and he hhnself 
 very highly prized it, as exhibiting a faith- 
 ful and interesting representation of his fa- 
 ther's residence. 
 
 His mother's name was Jennings. She 
 was said to be distantly related to Sarah Jen- 
 nings, the wife of John, Duke of Marl- 
 borough: and two of her ancestors, Sir 
 Edmund and Sir Jonathan Jennings, lived at 
 Ripon in Yorkshire, for which place, it ap- 
 pears, they were both representatives in Par- 
 liament in the reign of James the Second. 
 Her father, Colonel Jennings, was Sir Ed- 
 mund's son, and the first of the family who 
 settled in Virginia, where he was superin- 
 tendantof Indian affairs for that province; 
 became afterwards one of the Supreme 
 Council; and for some time acted as De- 
 puty Governor of the Colony. 
 
 The principal reason which induced the 
 Bishop's father to quit a situation so per. 
 
LIPS Off 
 
 fectly independent and comfortable, as that 
 he had in America, was the desire of pro- 
 curing for his children better instruction than 
 he could there obtain. His health besides 
 had been much impaired by the climate ; 
 and these causes combined, determined him 
 at length to leave the country, and remove 
 to England, which he accordingly did in 
 1720, and fixed himself in the city of York. 
 
 In one respect, however, and that an im- 
 portant one, this change in his situation was 
 attended with consi erable inconvenience; 
 for, whilst his expenses every year increas- 
 ed, his re venue diminished almost in the same 
 proportion; and either by the negligence or 
 dishonesty of his agents, he received little 
 more than a fourth part of what ought to 
 have been his real income. But still, even 
 with such contracted means, he accomplish- 
 ed the object nearest to his heart, that of 
 giving his children an excellent education; 
 anel certainly, in the instance at least of the 
 subject of these memoirs, his kindness was 
 repaid beyond his most sanguine expecta- 
 tions. 
 
 After having been for several years at a 
 .small school at York, Mr. Porteus, then at 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 the age of thirteen, was placed at Ripon, 
 under the care of Mr. Hyde, an upright, 
 sensible, judicious man, of whose attention 
 he ever entertained a grateful remembrance ; 
 and from him, at an earlier age than is now 
 usually the case, he was sent to Cambridge, 
 where, by the recommendation and under 
 the immediate superintendance of his elder 
 brother, Mr. Robert Porteus,* he was ad- 
 mitted a sizer at Christ's College, of which 
 Dr. Rooke was at that time master, and the 
 only person whom lie then knew in the 
 University. 
 
 His attention, whilst he continued un* 
 der graduate, was directed chiefly to rnathe- 
 
 * This excellent man had the living of Cockayne 
 Hatley, near Potton, in Bedfordshire ; and I canuot 
 mention his name, without offering in this place a tri- 
 bute of a^ectionate respect to his memory. With very 
 considerable iUerary attainments, he combined the great- 
 est gentleness and simplicity of manners. Exemplary 
 in all his domestic duties, he was beloved by his family : 
 Indefatigable in the labours of his sacred office, he was 
 revered by his parish. No one ever more uniformly 
 maintained the Christian character : and by those who 
 knew his many virtues, he was most sincerely regretted. 
 He died in the prime of life, and is buried in Hatley 
 church. 
 
10 
 
 LIFE OP 
 
 matical studies ; and in these, he gave the 
 best proof of industry and ability, by the 
 situation he obtained of tenth wrangler 
 amongst the honorary degrees of his year. 
 After having taken his Bachelor of Arts de- 
 gree in 1752, he became a candidate for one 
 of the gold medals, instituted not long before 
 by His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, on 
 his election to the chancellorship, as the re- 
 ward of eminence in class.<cal literature: and 
 on this, the first occasion of their being ad- 
 judged, he had the merit, after a long and 
 severe examination, of obtaining the second ; 
 the other successful competitor being Mr. 
 Maseres, then a student at Clare Hall, and 
 now Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a 
 man of great erudition in every department 
 of learning, and more particularly distin- 
 guished by his uncommon depth and acute- 
 ness in the abstruser parts of analytical 
 science. 
 
 In the spring of the same year, Mr. Por- 
 teus was elected Fellow of his college, and 
 became a resident in Cambridge. This, as 
 I have frequently heard him say, was one of 
 the happiest periods of his life. By a series 
 of unlocked for occurrences, he had been 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 placed in a situation which of all others he 
 most coveted; he had leisure to prosecute 
 at his own discretion those pur qits which 
 were best suited to his taste and disposition ; 
 and durine"4he intervals of study he was pas- 
 sing his time in the society of friends whom 
 he respected and loved. 
 
 The happiness however which he thus 
 experienced, was not long without alloy ; for 
 about this time he was called suddenly into 
 Yorkshire by the death of his mother ; an 
 event which filled him with the deepest 
 grief, and, together with a severe cold 
 which he caught in travelling, brought on a 
 most serious illness, the effects of which he 
 felt occasionally during his whole life. 
 
 On his return to college, he found that 
 without his knowledge, his friends had been 
 soliciting for him the situation of Esquire 
 Beadle, which had become vacant by the 
 promotion of Mr. Borroughs, afterwards 
 Sir James Borroughs, to the headship of 
 Caius College. It was an office but ill suit- 
 ed with his turn of mind, and he was at 
 first disinclined to accept it ; but in conse- 
 quence of the kind exertions which had 
 been made in his favour, and, above all, his 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 anxiety to relieve his father from any fur- 
 ther expense, he .at last complied. He kept 
 it however little more than two years, hav- 
 ing determined to make up the deficiency 
 in his income in a way more agreeable to 
 himself, by taking private pupils. These, 
 with his established character and acknow- 
 ledged talents, were easily obtained: and, 
 amongst others, was the late Lord Gran- 
 tham, afterwards ambassador to Spain, and, 
 for a short time, as his father had been be- 
 fore him, Secretary of State. He was a 
 man of the most amiable disposition, of un- 
 blemished integrity, and a highly cultiva- 
 ted understanding ; and his death, which 
 happened prematurely in 1785, was general- 
 ly and deeply lamented; by none however 
 more sincerely than by his early friend and 
 tutor, who-had conceived the highest opinion 
 of his abilities, and had lived with him for 
 nearly thirty years on terms of mutual inti- 
 macy, confidence, and regard. 
 
 Mr. Porteus had been long destined for 
 the church, as well by his own deliberate 
 choice, as the wishes of his family; and ac- 
 cordingly, at the age of twenty-six, he took 
 orders, being ordained deacon at Buckden 
 
BISHOP PORTEl'S. 
 
 in the year 1757 by Dr. Thomas theii 
 Bishop of Lincoln, and, not long after, priest 
 by Archbishop Hutton at York, where he 
 preached the ordination sermon. On his 
 return to the University, he resumed the 
 charge of his pupils ; but, amidst the cares 
 of tuition, he found time for other pursuits, 
 iindmore particularly for the exercise of his 
 poetical talents, which were certainly of no 
 ordinary stamp. Of this indeed he soon 
 after gave a public proof, by obtaining Mr. 
 Seaton's prize for the best English poem on 
 a sacred subject. The subject fixed upon 
 was " Death ;" and it was one perhaps at that 
 time better suited than any other to his feel- 
 ings, in consequence of his father's death, 
 which had occurred a little before. The 
 loss of so kind a parent, whom he most sin- 
 cerely loved, had very deeply afflicted him; 
 and he was .therefore well prepared to des- 
 cribe in the language of the heart the sad and 
 solemn scenes of human mortality. How 
 admirably he has done it, those who know 
 and can feel the poem, are best able to judge* 
 It has been long in print, and, I believe,, 
 has been uniformly considered as a very 
 
14 LIFE OP 
 
 able composition. Undoubtedly, as a juv 
 vcnile performance, there are few superior ; 
 for it displays a correctness of taste combined 
 with a sublimity of thought, and a power 
 and justness of expression, which have sel- 
 dom been exhibited in the first effusions of 
 poetry. 
 
 In the mean time he was not inattentive 
 to the duties of his profession, nor unmind- 
 ful of. the engagement into which he had 
 entered, " to banish and drive away all er- 
 roneous and strange doctrines contrary to 
 God's word." A profane and very licen- 
 tious pamphlet, entitled, " The History of 
 the Man after God's own Heart," was about 
 that time much in circulation, and had made 
 a dangerous impressica on the public mind. 
 Its object was to strike a secret blow at Reve- 
 lation by ridiculing the habits, manners, and 
 religion of the Jews, and, particularly by 
 representing the character of David in a most 
 odious point of view. Mr. Porteus saw at 
 once the fallacy and mischief of this publi- 
 cation ; and, with the view of checking its 
 pernicious tendency, composed and preach- 
 ed before the University a sermon in answer 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 15 
 
 to it, in which he forcibly exposed its many 
 errors and misrepresentations ; vindicated 
 the Mosaic Law from the charges brought 
 against it; and gave the clearest and most 
 satisfactory reasons for the high and peculiar 
 name by which David was distinguished, 
 namely, " the man after God's own heart." 
 Nothing indeed can be more strictly just, 
 than the character which he has there given 
 of the Royal Penitent, or more impressive 
 than the moral application ; and it is there- 
 fore no wonder that the sermon should have 
 been heard, as it was, with great attention at 
 the time, and afterwards, when in print, most 
 favourably received. It is now the fifth in 
 his second volume of discourses ; with the 
 omission however of some passages of a 
 polemical nature, in order, as he has himself 
 observed, " to render it more practical, and 
 of course more generally useful." 
 
 Before the appearance of this sermon, he 
 stood high in the estimation of the Univer- 
 sity for literary attainment ; but it tended un- 
 doubtedly to raise him still higher in the pub- 
 lic opinion ; and, as a proof of it, he was not 
 long after appointed by Archbishop Seeker 
 one of his domestic chaplains. This appoint- 
 
J6 Ll'FE OF 
 
 ment took place early in 1762, and in the 
 course of that summer he quitted college, 
 where he had lived most happily for the last 
 fourteen years, to reside at Lambeth. Here 
 he had ample leisure for his professional 
 studies ; and it was besides a singular advan- 
 tage, which he did not fail to improve, to 
 have constantly before him such a guide as 
 the Archbishop ; a man whom he well de- 
 scribes " as endowed with superior talents, 
 which he had highly cultivated ; of a strong 
 and sound understanding ; of extensive and 
 profound erudition, more particularly in 
 Hebrew literature, and every branch of theo- 
 logy ; an admired and useful preacher ; of 
 unblemished purity of manners, unaffected 
 piety, unbounded benevolence, and exem- 
 plary in the discharge of all his various func- 
 tions, as a parochial clergyman, a bishop, 
 and a metropolitan. 5 ' " He was to me," 
 he adds, " a most kind friend and a bountiful 
 benefactor : but far beyond all the other 
 benefits I derived, was that invaluable one of 
 enjoying his conversation, of being honoured 
 with his direction and advice, and of living 
 under the influence of his example. These 
 were advantages indeed ; and, although I did 
 
BISHOP PORTET7S. 17 
 
 not profit by them so much as I ought, yet 
 to them, under providence, I ascribe what- 
 ever little credit I have attained in the world, 
 and the high situation I have since arrived 
 at in the Church."* 
 
 On the 13th of May 1765, Mr. Porteus 
 married Margaret, eldest daughter of Brian 
 Hodgson, Esq. of Ashbourne in Derby- 
 shire ; and in the course of the same year 
 he was presented by the Archbishop to the 
 two small livings of Rucking and Witter- 
 sham in Kent, which, however, he soon re- 
 signed for the rectory of Hunton, in the 
 same county, in addition to a prebend at 
 Peterborough, which had been given him by 
 His Grace before. Upon the death of Dr. 
 Denne, in 1767, he obtained the rectory of 
 Lambeth; and soon after this, he took his 
 degree of Doctor in Divinity, on which oc- 
 casion he preached the Commencement ser- 
 mon. In this discourse, which is now the 
 
 * This and other passages in the Bishop's own Avords, 
 which the reader will find introduced into his life, are 
 extracted . chiefly from several manuscript volumes in 
 my possession, and in his' own hand-writing, containing a 
 great variety of facts, and observations on the principal 
 incidents of his life. 
 
I* J.IFfe O*' 
 
 eighth of his first volume, " I ventured," lie 
 says, " to recommend it to the University to 
 pay a little more attention to the instruction 
 of their youth, especially those designed for 
 orders, in the principles of revealed religion. 
 I proposed that these should have a place 
 assigned to them among the other initiatory 
 studies of the place ; that they should have 
 the same encouragement given to them as 
 all the other sciences; that they should be 
 made an indispensable branch of academical 
 education, and have their full share of acade- 
 mical honours and rewards. This produced 
 no practical effect at the time ; but some 
 years afterwards, Mr. Norris, a gentlemen of 
 fortune in Norfolk, into whose hands some 
 extracts from this discourse happened to fall, 
 was induced by them to found and endow a 
 professorship at Cambridge, for the sole pur- 
 pose of giving lectures to the students there 
 in the doctrines of revealed religion, and af- 
 terwards to bequeath by his will a premium 
 of twelve pounds per aim. to the author of the 
 best prose essay on a sacred subject; the lar- 
 ger part of that sum to be expended on a 
 gold medal, and the remainder in books." 
 These, as may be well imagined, were 
 
BISHOP rORTECS* 19 
 
 most gratifying circumstances to Dr. For- 
 tens, and far exceeded his expectation. At 
 the same time, the object which he had in view, 
 was in itself so reasonable, so evidently ne- 
 cessary in all Christian education, and he 
 had enforced it in a manner so powerful and 
 convincing, that one cannot wonder it should 
 make on serious minds a very deep impres- 
 sion, and be followed by some endeavour, 
 either on the part of the University, or of 
 some pious individual, to carry it into execu- 
 tion. The result unquestionably has been a 
 most beneficial one ; for it has not only pro- 
 duced some excellent prize dissertations on 
 various important subjects, and made the- 
 ology an essential part of academical in* 
 struction, but has been the means of giving 
 to the world one of the ablest and most com- 
 pendious systems of divinity, of which it is 
 at present in possession, namely, the Lee- 
 tures delivered by the first Norrissian Profes* 
 sor, the late Dr. Hey. The reader will no 
 doubt be struck with a great originality and 
 sometimes eccentricity of illustration; but, 
 as a work of reference, full of deep research, 
 and accurate and extensive information, 
 more particularly with respect to the his- 
 
20 LIFE OF 
 
 tory and doctrines of the Church of England, 
 it cannot be too strongly recommended to the 
 biblical student. 
 
 On the third of August 1768, after a 
 most harrassing and painful illness, which 
 he bore with the greatest fortitude, and the 
 most profound acquiescence in the divine 
 will, Archbishop Seeker died at Lambeth; 
 leaving his two chaplains, Dr. Stinton* and 
 
 * Of this learned, amiable and excellent man, tlie 
 Bishop has left the following short, but interesting ac- 
 count : " The death of Dr. George Stinton, which oc- 
 curred April the 30th, 1 783, was a very severe and un- 
 expected misfortune to me. He was one of my best 
 and dearest and most intimate friends. I had known 
 him, and lived with him in habits of the most perfect in- 
 timacy, for near twenty years; during nhich time, not 
 the slightest difference ever arose between us. He was 
 a man of great integrity and worth, of superior abili- 
 ties, and very extensive erudition. Of the learned lan- 
 guages, he was a complete master, and was also well 
 skilled in French, German, and Italian. He wrote but 
 little, and published only four sermons, all on public 
 occasions, and all excellent. He possessed the talent 
 of conversation in a degree superior to almost any man 
 I ever knew, and spoke, as he composed,with remarka- 
 ble elegance and correctness. To this he added a 
 large share of wit and humour, all which rendered him 
 i most agreeable and entertaining companion. 
 
BISHOP PORTE? S. 21 
 
 Dr. Porteus, joint executors, and amongst 
 other directions of his will, committing to 
 their care the revisal and publication of his 
 Lectures on the Catechism, his manuscript 
 Sermons, and other occasional writings, 
 This trust was faithfully fulfilled : and in 
 order to render the work more complete, as 
 well as to pay the last tribute in his power to 
 his deceased friend and benefactor, Dr. Por- 
 teus prefixed a " Review of the Archbishop's 
 Life and Character." It is unquestionably 
 a masterly performance, and one of the hap- 
 piest specimens of biographical composition, 
 The character of the Archbishop is drawn 
 with accuracy and discrimination. There 
 are no false tints thrown in to embellish and 
 set off the picture. It is touched with the 
 firm hand and in the sober colouring of truth; 
 
 " He was in appearance, a strong, robust man, and 
 seemed calculated, as much as any one I ever saw, for 
 long life. But he was cut off very suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly, and added one more to the number of those 
 striking instances of the uncertainty of human life, which 
 are everyday occurring, and which ought to make a 
 stronger impression upon us, than they usually do. He 
 was buried in the church of All-Hallows Barking, of 
 which he was Vicar. I attended his funeral, and shed 
 tears of sincere grief over his grave.'' 
 
LIFE or 
 
 and the impression left on the mind, is a 
 mingled sentiment of admiration and esteem 
 for the talents, the erudition, the unostenta- 
 tious beneficence, and the profound Chris- 
 tian piety, of that illustrious Prelate. 
 
 It was not however merely by giving to 
 the world this " review of his life," that 
 Dr. Porteus testified his respect and affec- 
 tion for the memory of his great Friend. 
 He neglected afterwards 110 opportunity of 
 defending him privately or publicly. He 
 suffered no calumny to go abroad, no unjust 
 insinuation to be thrown out against him, 
 without instantly stepping forward to refute 
 and to repel it. His anxiety in this particu- 
 lar was unremitting and incessant. As an 
 instance of it, I can never forget the surprise 
 and pain and indignation, which were exci- 
 ted in his mind, upon reading two passages 
 in the late Lord Orford's works, in one of 
 which the point of an Epigram is made to 
 turn upon the supposition, that the Arch- 
 bishop was a hypocrite; and in the other, 
 he is expressly charged in direct unqualified 
 terms with having been the President of an 
 Atheistical Club! Such assertions as these, 
 so disgraceful in themselves, and so utterly 
 
BISHOP PORTEtiS. 23 
 
 and grossly false, the Bishop of London, as 
 he then was, could not suffer for a moment 
 to pass uncontradicted. He wrote immedi- 
 ately to the Editor, Mr Berry, stating in 
 the strongest terms the injustice and mis- 
 chief of such flagrant misrepresentations, 
 and offering, if the thing were possible, to 
 have the leaves, which contained them, 
 cancelled at his own expense. Unfortu- 
 nately, the book had got too much into 
 cir\ ulation to render this proposal feasible : 
 but he so far succeeded, as to obtain a direct 
 promise from Mr. Berry, that, should the 
 work in question ever reach a second edition, 
 the obnoxious passages should be expunged. 
 
 The same solicitude was also very strong- 
 ly marked in another instance, upon his pe- 
 rusing the Life of Bishop Warburton, by 
 Bishop Hurd. His own words, which fol- 
 low, show how quick and alive his feelings 
 were upon this subject, at the same time that 
 they had nothing in them of bitterness and 
 animosity. 
 
 " In this work," he says, " I found the 
 merit of Archbishop Seeker greatly under- 
 rated, as a writer, a scholar, a divine, and 
 a critic in Hebrew. I therefore thought my- 
 
24 LIFE O* 
 
 self called upon, by honour and by gratitude, 
 to vindicate my old master against these un- 
 just and injurious attempts to lower his cha- 
 racter ; which I did by publishing, in a sepa- 
 rate form, a new edition of the life prefix- 
 ed to his works, adding at the same time a 
 preface, and a few notes tending to confute 
 Bishop Hurd's misrepresentations of him and 
 his writings. Still, however, this act of jus- 
 tice to my great Patron, never in the least 
 diminished the high respect and veneration 
 which I always entertained for the character 
 of Bishop Kurd; whose piety, learning, 
 taste, and genius, rendered him the great 
 ornament of literature and religion, and very 
 justly gained him not only the esteem, but 
 the affection, friendship, and confidence of 
 his Sovereign, and raised him to that dis- 
 tinguished situation, which he filled with so 
 much dignity both in public life, and in an 
 honourable retirement for so long a course of 
 years." 
 
 After Archbishop's Seeker's death, Dr. 
 Porteus devoted his entire attention to the 
 care of his two benefices, Hunton and Lam- 
 beth. Till his parsonage at the former place 
 ^yas ready for his reception, he resided at a 
 
BISHOP PORTEVS. 
 
 small neat cottage in the village of Linton, 
 which was near enough to enable him to per- 
 form with ease his parochial duties, superin- 
 tend the repairs, and make such alterations 
 as the great capability of the situation sugges- 
 ted to his mind. He had found the premi- 
 ses at first in a very ruinous and neglected 
 state, no rector having lived there for above 
 thirty years: but he saw at one glance the na- 
 tural beauties of the place, and that it requi- 
 red only a little skill and taste to display them 
 to advantage. This was gradually and at 
 some expense completely effected". A new 
 room was afterwards added to the house; 
 and, by ornamenting the grounds about it, 
 and letting in the rich luxuriant prospect, 
 which it commanded on every side, he made 
 it at last a most comfortable and delightful 
 residence. Every thing indeed concurred 
 to attach him strongly to Hunton. " It was 
 to me," he says, with all that animation, 
 which was so peculiar to him, " a little ter- 
 restrial Paradise : for though there are many 
 parsonages larger, handsomer, and more com- 
 modious, yet in comfort, warmth, repose, 
 tranquillity, and cheerfulness, in variety of 
 walks, shelter, shade, and sunshine, in peiv 
 c- 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 fectly rural and picturesque scenery, I know 
 few superior to it. What however is of 
 more importance, no place was ever better 
 calculated to excite and cherish devout and 
 pious sentiments towards the great Creator 
 and Preserver of the Universe. The sol- 
 emn silence of the thicket and the grove, the 
 extensive horizon that opened to the view, 
 the glories of the rising and the setting sun, 
 the splendour of a moon-light night and a 
 starry sky, all which presented themselves to 
 the eye, to a vast extent, without interruption 
 from the lawn before the house; these, and 
 a variety of other sublime and pleasing ob- 
 jects, could not fail to soothe and tranquil- 
 ize and elevate the soul, and raise it up to 
 high and heavenly contemplations. But it 
 was not the charms of the country only, 
 which formed the delight of Hunton. The 
 neighbourhood was excellent, consistingprin- 
 cipally of ancient and long established fami- 
 lies, who lived ontheir own estates in that de- 
 cent hospitality, and that judicious mixture 
 of society and retirement, which constitute 
 the true felicity of human life, and which so 
 remarkably and so fortunately distinguish 
 the gentry and nobility of England fromal* 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 27 
 
 most all other countries in Europe. The 
 greater part of them too were not only pol- 
 ished in their manners, but of exemplary pie- 
 ty, probity, and benevolence. " 
 
 Much however as he enjoyed such a re- 
 treat and such friends as these, it never with- 
 drew his thoughts from more serious and 
 more important pursuits. He discharged 
 with zeal the duties of his parish: preached 
 almost always in the morning; in the after- 
 noon very frequently lectured on the cate- 
 chism ; and lost no opportunity, when he saw 
 fit occasion, of private admonition. In his 
 attention to the poor, he was uniform and 
 indefatigable; he visited the sick, comforted 
 the afflicted, relieved the indigent : he enter- 
 ed, in short, with assiduity and earnestness 
 into whatever could promote in any degree 
 their temporal and eternal welfare, and he 
 did not labour in vain. "I had the happi- 
 ness," he says, " to see my church well filled 
 with a congregation, neat and decent in their 
 attire, with cheerful and satisfied looks, seri- 
 ous in their devotions, and attentive and 
 grateful to their instructor." 
 
 In the winter months he resided at Lam- 
 beth, w r here, not less than in the country, he 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 supported the high character of a faithful, 
 laborious, conscientious parish priest. Un- 
 fortunately, there was here no parsonage in 
 which the rector could reside : but as there 
 was a piece of ground of about two acres, be- 
 longing to the glebe, in an extremely good 
 situation, and at a convenient distance from 
 the church, he thought that by obtaining an 
 act of parliament for that purpose, a part of 
 this might be sold; and with the sum which 
 that produced, a fit and commodious resi- 
 dence might be built upon the remainder. 
 Accordingly, an agreement upon this princi- 
 ple was made with a builder at a stipulated 
 price, and a ground-plan and elevation of the 
 intended house were drawn under his own 
 direction. He was not however incumbent 
 long enough to carry himself this design in- 
 to execution ; but he had made such excel- 
 lent arrangements, that his successor Dr. 
 Vyse, had no difficulty in accomplishing it; 
 and the present parsonage, than which there 
 arc few better, was, with little variation, built 
 upon the original plan proposed by Dr. Por- 
 teus. 
 
 Beside the active part which he thus took 
 in regard to the rectorial house, he found that 
 
BISHOP TORTEUS. 29 
 
 the affairs of the parish had fallen, from some 
 neglect or mismanagement, into great confu- 
 sion, in consequence of debts inadvertently 
 contracted by the overseers. This was not 
 a creditable circumstance ; and, in conjunc- 
 tion therefore with the parish officers, and 
 the principal gentle men then resident in Lam- 
 beth, he took great pains to reduce them into 
 order. With this view, the sum of eighteen 
 thousand pounds was borrowed upon annu- 
 ities ; with which they not only cleared off 
 old incumbrances, but had a considerable 
 surplus left, which was very judiciously ex- 
 pended in repairing and embellishing the 
 church, and in other essential improvements. 
 There was nothing indeed that tended to 
 the credit and benefit of the parish, which 
 escaped his attention ; but that especially 
 which occupied his thoughts, and to which 
 his chief anxiety was earnestly directed, was 
 the salvation of those committed to his care. 
 This was his great, his never-ceasing ob- 
 ject ;^nd there cannot be a stronger instance 
 of it,*han the Letter which he addressed to 
 them, on the more religious observance of 
 Good Friday. In this excellent little tract, 
 which has long been in the catalogue of " TJie 
 c2 
 
30 LIFE O* 
 
 Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, 5 ' 
 after lamenting the neglect, which then uni- 
 versally prevailed, of that sacred day, he took 
 occasion to state the various benefits, which 
 it was intended to commemorate ; the im- 
 portance of them to the welfare of mankind ; 
 the unbounded compassion in which they 
 originated ; and the unparalleled sufferings 
 by which they were accomplished : and from 
 hence he inferred the indispensable obliga- 
 tion under which a Christian lies, from every 
 motive of interest, of duty, and of gratitude, 
 to observe with peculiar strictness and devo- 
 tion the anniversary of the Crucifixion ; a 
 day, which recalls forcibly to the mind the 
 stupendous doctrine of atonement; for which 
 our Church has wisely provided a most so- 
 lemn service, and which is calculated more 
 than any other to lay us low before the Throne 
 of God in penitential humiliation, and to fill 
 the soul with thankfulness and love. All 
 these points he touched upon in so strong, so 
 impressive, and so affectionate a nwmer, 
 as could not fail to have the happiest*ffect. 
 It was indeed even greater than he had rea- 
 son to expect ; for, not only was a more de- 
 vout observance of Good Friday produced 
 
BISHOP POttTEUS. 31 
 
 in his own parish, but, as he has himself ob- 
 served, " on the very next return of that day, 
 the shops were all shut up, the churches were 
 crowded, and the utmost seriousness and de- 
 corum took place, throughout the cities of 
 London and Westminster, and their envi- 
 rons." 
 
 In the year 1769, he had the honour of be- 
 ing appointed chaplain to His Majesty, and 
 soon after he obtained the mastership of the 
 Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester. 
 This piece of preferment had been selected 
 by Archbishop Seeker, as one of his options, 
 and the presentation to it, when it became 
 vacant, was left to the discretion of certain 
 trustees, to whom he gave authority for that 
 purpose. The two persons, who were con- 
 sidered, on mature deliberation, as having 
 the strongest claims, were his Grace's chap- 
 lains at the time of his decease ; and it was 
 determined that Dr. Porteus should have the 
 mastership, and that he should resign his pre- 
 bend of Peterborough to Dr Stinton.^ In 
 consequence of this arrangement, he for some 
 years afterwards resided occasionally at St. 
 Cross. The place had nothing very strik- 
 ing to recommend it, especially after the 
 
32 LIFE OF 
 
 beautiful scenery which he had in such per- 
 fection at Hunton : but there was yet a still- 
 ness about it, which pleased him. The 
 neighbourhood afforded excellent society, 
 and he had the satisfaction of improving in 
 some degree the condition of the poor breth- 
 ren in the hospital, by adding a small increase 
 of salary to each. 
 
 About this time a circumstance occurred, 
 which then excited considerable interest, and 
 in which the part that Dr. Porteus took has 
 been much misinterpreted and misunder- . 
 stood. The following statement, in his own 
 words, will place the fact in its true point 
 of view. " At the close of the year 1772, 
 and the beginning of the next, an attempt 
 was made by myself and a few other clergy- 
 men, among whom were Mr. Francis Wai- 
 laston, Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore, 
 and Dr. Yorke, now Bishop of Ely, to in- 
 duce the Bishops to promote a review of the 
 Liturgy and Articles, in order to amend in 
 both, but particularly in the latter, those 
 parts which all reasonable persons agreed 
 stood in need of amendment. This plan 
 was not in the smallest degree connected with 
 the Petitioners at the Feathers Tavern, but 
 
BISHOP PORTE US. 
 
 on the contrary, was meant to counteract that 
 and all similar extravagant projects ; to 
 strengthen and confirm our Ecclesiastical 
 Establishment ; to repel the attacks which 
 were at that time continually made upon it 
 by its avowed enemies; to render the 17th 
 Article on Predestination and Election more 
 clear and perspicuous, and less liable to be 
 wrested by our adversaries to a Calvinistic 
 sense, which has been so unjustly affixed to 
 it; to improve true Christian piety amongst 
 those of our own communion, and to dimin- 
 ish schism and separation by bringing over 
 to the National Church all the moderate and 
 well disposed of other persuasions. On these 
 grounds, we applied in a private and respect- 
 ful manner to Archbishop Cornwallis, re- 
 questing him to signify our wishes, (which 
 we conceived to be the wishes of a very 
 large proportion both of the clergy and the 
 laity) to the rest*of the Bishops, that every 
 thing might be done, which could be pru- 
 dently and safely done, to promote these im- 
 portant and salutary purposes. 
 
 " The answer given by the Archbishop, 
 February 11, 1*73, was in these words : ' I 
 * have consulted severally my brethren the 
 
'34 LIFE O* 
 
 f Bishops, and it is the opinion of the 
 ' bench in general, that nothing can Li pru- 
 c dence be done in the matter that has been 
 c submited to our consideration ' 
 
 There can be no question that this deci- 
 sion, viewed in all its bearings, was right ; 
 and Dr. Porteus, and those with whom he 
 acted, entirely acquiesced in it. They had 
 done their duty in submitting to the Bench 
 such alterations as appeared to them to be 
 conducive to the credit and the interest of 
 the Church of England, and of religion in 
 general ; and their manner of doing it was 
 most temperate and respectful. At the 
 same time, as it appears to me, the proposal 
 was rejected on very satisfactory and suf- 
 ficent grounds. That in our Established 
 Liturgy there are some redundancies which 
 might be spared, and some changes which 
 might be made with advantage, few will be 
 disposed to deny. That in*the articles also, 
 a clearer and more intelligible mode of ex- 
 pression might in parts be introduced, and 
 some passages amended or expunged, which 
 give a colour to false interpretation, may 
 equally be conceded. But the main point 
 to be considered is, whether, however desira- 
 
BISHOP PORTETJS. iJ5 
 
 ble it may be to remove all possible ground 
 of separation and schism, such alterations as 
 those suggested, or even any at all, would 
 provluce hat eftect. It has been said by an 
 eminent Divine, and I perfectly agree with 
 him, that " it is not in the wit or in the power 
 of man to prevent diversity of opinion, since 
 this is the unavoidable result of human im- 
 perfection and human liberty, and is not to 
 be removed, unless we had more light or less 
 agency." Suppose the Liturgy and Articles 
 to undergo a revision, would the conse- 
 quence be an union of sentiment ? What one 
 approved, there would be still another to con- 
 demn; and even " amongst the moderate 
 and well-disposed of other persuasions," I fear 
 the Church, with all her concessions, would 
 gain few converts. It is always dangerous 
 to innovate, more so in things connected 
 with religion than in any other ; and after all, 
 is there any absolute need of change ? " The 
 men," says Dr. Hey, " who were at the head 
 of the reformation, were men of the first a- 
 biiity . As scholars, we are mere children to 
 them. They were conversant in Scripture 
 to a degree, of which few now have any con- 
 ception. Ecclesiastical history lay open be- 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 fore them. Yet they were not mere scholars, 
 nor monks, nor monkish men ; but skilled 
 in government, knowing men and manners, 
 liberal in behaviour, free from all fanaticism, 
 full of probity, yet guided in their measures 
 by prudence. None then could be chosen 
 more likely to frame a good set of Forms 
 and Articles. They would fall short of no- 
 thing attainable, through indolence or cow- 
 ardice. They would set down nothing 
 carelessly, on the presumption of its passing 
 unexamined. They would overshoot noth- 
 ing, in the hope of catching a few. They 
 had in short nothing for it, but to fix on that 
 which right reason and good feelings would 
 embrace." Surely then in the labours of 
 these illustrious men we may contentedly ac- 
 quiesce. They were the result of fervent 
 piety, profound learning, consummate pru- 
 dence, long, anxious, and patient deliberation: 
 and I should therefore think any change in- 
 expedient and unwise, which was not deman- 
 ded by a strong necessity, and justified by 
 the clear and certain prospect of some deci- 
 sive advantage. 
 
 The period had now arrived, when Dr. 
 Porteus was to be called to that high station 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 37 
 
 in the Church, to which his character and 
 talents so well entitled him, and which he af- 
 terwards filled with so much credit to him- 
 self, and so much advantage to his country. 
 On the 20th of December 1776, he kissed 
 the King's hand on his promotion to the see 
 of Chester; a preferment on his own part 
 perfectly unsolicited, and so entirely unlook- 
 ed for, that, till a short time before it hap- 
 pened, he had not the smallest expectation 
 of it. In consequence of this accession of 
 dignity, which was conferred in the most 
 flattering and gracious manner, he resigned 
 the living of Lambeth, though he had per- 
 mission to retain it: but he thought that 
 with so many additional cares he should not 
 be able to attend to so large a benefice, at 
 least to the satisfaction of his own mind; 
 and he therefore hesitated not a moment in 
 giving it up into other hands. It was a 
 resolution founded only on a strong sense of 
 duty; for it was with feelings of sincere 
 and painful regret that he discontinued his 
 pastoral connexion with a parish, where he 
 had lived with many on terms of friendly 
 intercourse, and in which he had so much 
 reason to hope, that he had not laboured in 
 
38 LIFE OF 
 
 vain- But the affairs of a large diocese now 
 demanded his attention, and to these he de- 
 termined to sacrifice every other considera- 
 tion. 
 
 From various causes, it was not till the 
 4th of July 1777, that he went to Chester, 
 where he lost no time in entering with zeal 
 and ardour into the functions of his office. 
 As soon as circumstances would permit, he 
 confirmed in several places, and in the sum- 
 mer of the year following, held his primary 
 visitation. The Charge which he delivered 
 to his clergy on that occasion, was printed 
 at their request, and is now for the first time 
 added to his works. Why it was omitted 
 in the volume of tracts, which he afterwards 
 published, I am unable to say. It is un- 
 doubtedly a performance of great merit, and 
 should not be suffered to sink into oblivion. 
 The reader will find in it the main outlines 
 of the clerical character very ably drawn. 
 The education which a clergyman should 
 receive ; the peculiar studies which he should 
 afterwards prosecute; the dignity and im- 
 portance of the ministry ; the various duties, 
 exclusively of the mere stated discharge of 
 the offices of the church, which are insepa- 
 
BISHOP FORTEUS. 
 
 rably attached to it ; the advantages of per- 
 sonal residence upon his cure; more espe- 
 cially the indispensable necessity of example, 
 to give weight and efficacy to his instruc- 
 tion ; all these considerations are urged with 
 force and impression: and, amongst other 
 points, the following remarks upon a sub- 
 ject deeply involving the respectability of 
 our order, cannot be too widely diffused* 
 " Under the head of appearance" says the 
 Bishop, " give me leave to mention the ar- 
 ticle of dress, in which I have observed with 
 concern, that some of the younger clergy in 
 several parts of the kingdom (I mean not 
 particularly in this) have been gradually 
 departing from that gravity and sobriety, 
 which the nature of their profession, as well 
 as the injunctions of the church, require. 
 We are distinguished from all other persons 
 by a peculiar habit, and instead of being 
 ashamed, w r e ought rather to be proud of it, 
 as a badge of that high and honorable calling 
 to which we have been admitted. If, from 
 a childish passion for show, we endeavour to 
 drop this distinction as much as possible, 
 and to appear as little like clergymen, as 
 with any decency we can; instead of pro- 
 
40 LIFE OF 
 
 curing us admiration and respect, it will only 
 expose us to contempt." 
 
 Towards the conclusion of this year, 1778, 
 the Bishop had an opportunity of very high- 
 ly gratifying his own feelings, by being en- 
 abled to relieve the distress of a poor cler- 
 gyman in his diocese, whose situation and 
 circumstances were made known to him in 
 the following letter: 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " IMPELLED by a gloomy fit of reflec- 
 tion (and many I have God knows) on my 
 condition, I prostrate myself at your feet, 
 imploring in the humblest manner compas- 
 sion and regard. If distress has eloquence, 
 and may be permitted to plead, I have, alas ! 
 but two powerful an advocate in my favour, 
 
 " lam, my Lord, the Curate of Wood 
 Plumpton, near Preston, where I have serv^ 
 ed, as such, for about forty-two years sue- 
 cessively, and led withal an obscure contem- 
 plative life. I am now in the sixty- seventh 
 year of my age, and have brought up six 
 sons and six daughters to men's and women's 
 estate, and am grand father to twenty- seven 
 
BISHOP PORTELV. 41 
 
 children. All my annual income is only 
 something more than forty pounds. I had a 
 small tenement here that came by my wife, 
 but, as I had contracted small debts time af- 
 ter time, in so long a series of family occa- 
 sions, have sold it to discharge those engage- 
 ments; so that my bare salary is all that I 
 now enjoy for the support of myself and fa- 
 mily : and such is the indigence I am redu- 
 ced to at present, that were it not for reli- 
 gious prospects, 1 should be wretched be- 
 yond the utmost energy of language to ex- 
 press. Although poverty and old age toge- 
 ther be but a mortifying fate, yet as to any 
 personal misery, I hope I could defy it to 
 touch me with impatience. But, oh! my 
 Lord, the thing that enervates all my fortitude 
 and cuts me to the heart, is, to see my poor 
 family in want, and to be a spectator of their 
 misery without the power of relief ! 
 
 " As you may have the direction of some 
 charities, be pleased to use your influence in 
 the case of 
 
 " Your Lordship's 
 
 " Faithful servant, 
 "MATHEW WORTHINGTON." 
 
42 LIFE OF 
 
 It will easily be imagined, that a letter , 
 such as this, written with all the pathetic elo- 
 quence of undissembled distress, could not 
 fail to make a strong impression on a feeling 
 mind. The Bishop was exceedingly struck 
 by it; and with the assistance of the Chan- 
 cellor, Dr. Peploe, immediately opened a 
 subscription, towards which he contributed 
 largely himself, as a temporary relief : soon 
 after which, the Living of Childwell, a vica- 
 rage in his gift, becoming vacant by resigna- 
 tion, he immediately presented it to Mr. Wor- 
 thington. I have related this occurrence, 
 not only because it is in itself an extreme- 
 ly interesting one, but as it marks a very 
 conspicuous feature in the Bishop's charac- 
 ter ; namely, the eagerness with which his 
 mind always seized a benevolent object. It 
 was not a mere compliance with judgment. 
 It was not a frigid, dilatory, reluctant chan- 
 ty, extorted by the occasion. On the con- 
 trary, I never yet saw any one, who appear- 
 ed to me to possess in a more exalted degree 
 the true spirit of beneficence. It came warm 
 from the heart, unchecked by cold calcula- 
 tion; whilst the good he did became doubly 
 valuable by his manner of doing k. 
 
BISHOP PORTECi?. 43 
 
 On the 10th of March 1779, a motion was 
 made in the House of Commons, for leave 
 to bring in a Bill for the further relief of 
 Protestant Dissenters ; the purport of which 
 was to exempt them from subscription to 
 the Articles, and to entitle them to the full 
 benefit of the Act of Toleration, on their 
 taking the oaths of Allegiance and Supre- 
 macy, and subscribing the Declaration 
 against Popery. To this the Bench had no 
 objection; but were at the same time of 
 opinion, that in a Christian country none 
 ought to be allowed to preach or teach with- 
 out some formal acknowledgment of their 
 being Christians and Protestants, and that 
 they will make the Scriptures the rule of their 
 faith and practice. Upon this principle it 
 was agreed to move an amendment to the 
 Bill, containing a declaration to that effect, 
 and with the exception of a few expressions, 
 the same with that proposed by the Dissen- 
 ters themselves, on a former application to 
 Parliament in 1773. In the Bishop's papers, 
 I find the following reasons assigned for the 
 part which he himself took in this question. 
 
 " On the most mature consideration," he 
 says, " I am clearly of opinion that some 
 
4-4 LIFE OF 
 
 declaration was proper and necessary, and 
 that for several reasons. First, Because the 
 English clergy in general, and many of the 
 laity, would have been, and I think justly, 
 exceedingly dissatisfied, had the Bishops 
 consented to an unlimited indulgence of re- 
 ligious opinions, without any declaration at 
 all. 
 
 " Secondly, When anyone applies for li- 
 berty to preach and teach, the State has a 
 right to know what the leading principles of 
 his religion are, in order to be assured that 
 they contain nothing injurious to civil socie- 
 ty, or to the established form of Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " Thirdly, If there be no declaration, not 
 only Protestant Dissenters, but Mahome- 
 tans, Deists, Atheists and Pagans, will by 
 this Bill be entitled to preach and teach their 
 opinions with impunity ; for any of these 
 may pretend to be Protestant Dissenters. 
 And although these may be connived at, as 
 they now are, so long as they behave peace- 
 ably and inoffensively, yet I apprehend the 
 legislature would not chuse to give them a 
 legal toleration. Indeed some of their opin- 
 ions are dangerous to the State. A Maho< 
 
BISHOP PORTEU3. 43 
 
 metan, for instance, holds it lawful to propa- 
 gate his religion by the sword ; and Mr. 
 Locke himself thinks that Atheism ought 
 not to be tolerated. Certain however it is, 
 that the intention of the present Bill is to 
 give relief to Protestant Dissenters only ; 
 and therefore there ought to be some test, 
 to distinguish who are and who are not Pro- 
 testant Dissenters. This, I think, will be 
 sufficiently done by the proposed Declara- 
 tion." 
 
 It was accordingly proposed by Lord 
 North himself to be inserted as a clause in 
 the Bill, which was at last agreed to, though 
 not till after much opposition from several 
 members, particularly from Mr. Wilkes, 
 whose language on that occasion forms a ve- 
 ry sufficient illustration of his religious prin- 
 ciples. He contended for unlimited, uni- 
 versal toleration ; observing, " that Mr. 
 Locke was much too confined in his notions, 
 when he asserted that Athesists ought 
 not to be tolerated. For his own part, he 
 should wish to see pagodas, mosques, and 
 temples of the sun, rising up in the neigh- 
 bourhood of our finest gothic cathedrals." 
 Notwithstanding this pious declamation, the 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 clause was agreed to ; and when the Bill 
 was brought into the House of Lords, it 
 passed unanimously without debate or di- 
 vision. "Thus," says the Bishop, u what 
 the Dissenters had been so long struggling 
 for, and for which they had twice before 
 applied to Parliament in vain, was at length 
 obtained. It was a measure generally ap- 
 proved as wise and just, and no less conso- 
 nant to the principles of sound policy, than 
 to the genuine spirit of the Gospel." 
 
 Whilst the Government and the Church 
 of England w^ere acting with this moderation 
 towards the Protestant Dissenters, it was 
 reasonable that some indulgence should be 
 shewn to the Roman Catholics ; and accor- 
 dingly in the course of this year an Act was 
 passed, repealing a severe, oppressive law, 
 which had been enacted against them in the 
 reign of King William. But this measure, 
 though sanctioned on the same principles 
 of charity, and grounded on the same policy, 
 was very differently received. In Scotland, 
 the Calvinistic clergy, in particular, imme- 
 diately took the alarm; and from the exas- 
 perating language of their sermons, aided 
 by some furious pamphlets, which were dis- 
 
BISHOP PORT 11 S. 47 
 
 seminated amongst the people, many dis- 
 graceful outrages were committed in various 
 places; public meetings were held for the 
 security of the established religion, and the 
 General Assembly even passed a vote, that 
 any alteration of the penal laws against Pa- 
 pists would be dangerous to civil and reli- 
 gious liberty. About the same time a simi- 
 lar spirit, though at first less violent in de- 
 gree, manifested itself in England. A Pro- 
 testant Association, as it was called, was 
 formed in London, the avowed design of 
 which was to oppose the progress of Pope- 
 ry, and to counteract the effects of the late 
 Act, which was affirmed to be of the most 
 dangerous tendency. It was stated that 
 several Popish schools, and mass houses, 
 which had before been kept private, were 
 made public ; that many new ones were 
 opened in several parts of the Metropolis, 
 and that the numbers resorting to them 
 greatly increased. At the same time the 
 Association disclaimed persecution, as con- 
 trary to the Christian rule, and professed to 
 make use of no other means, but what were 
 clearly consistent with moderation and pru- 
 dence. All this was plausible : and had it 
 
18 LIFE OF 
 
 in a single case been clearly substantiated, 
 that a priest or his congregation had refused 
 to take the oath prescribed by the At; that 
 doctrines had been inculcated injurious to the 
 Constitution ; or that any attempts had been 
 made to seduce Protestants from their faith ; 
 there would then have been sufficient ground 
 for alarm: but no such facts were alleged, 
 and still less were they made out in evidence. 
 The Bishop's sentiments upon this sub- 
 ject are perfectly just, and worthy of his own 
 liberal and enlightened mind. " Undoubt- 
 edly," he says, " we ought to be on our 
 guard against the arts and industry of those, 
 who profess to teach the tenets of Popery; 
 we ought to combat their manifold errors, 
 as occasions offer, both in the pulpit and 
 from the press; and we should in an espe- 
 cial manner instil carefully into the minds 
 of the young, the true principles of Protes- 
 tantism. But, on the other hand, admitting 
 the facts, as represented, to be true, if it ap- 
 pears that the schools and mass houses so 
 much complained of, are only frequented 
 by persons of the Roman Catholic persua- 
 sion; if the priests and their congregations 
 take the prescribed oath ; if no undue en. 
 
BISHOP POllTF.US. 40 
 
 dcavours are used to make proselytes, and 
 no doctrines are taught hostile to the gov- 
 ernment of the country ; I do not see how, 
 on the principles of Toleration or of Chris- 
 tianity, any other opposition can be made to 
 them, but that of argument and persuasion, 
 and increased activity and zeal on our part 
 in guarding those entrusted to our care 
 against the superstitions and errors of the 
 Church of Rome." 
 
 This surely is precisely the language as 
 well of sound reason as of true religion : 
 but it was not that which answered the 
 views of the Protestant Association. Men 
 under the influence of passion and preju- 
 dice are not easily repressed : and therefore, 
 though against the concurrent opinion of 
 the Bishops and the .whole body of the 
 English Clergy, they determined, as they 
 expressed themselves, in the most prudent 
 and respectful manner in other words, at 
 the head of 150,000 people to present 
 their petition to Parliament. The conse- 
 quences, as is well known, were the riots of 
 1780, when a scene of desperate outrage was 
 exhibited in this Metropolis, than which 
 nothing could be... more disgraceful to the 
 
i)() LIFE OJb' 
 
 national character, or more injurious to the 
 credit of the Established Faith. 
 
 Early in 1781, the returns to an inquiry, 
 which the House of Lords had ordered to be 
 made, into the number of Papists in England 
 and Wales, were laid upon the table : when 
 Earl Ferrers, who had moved for that inquiry, 
 observed, that it appeared evidently from 
 these returns, that there had been a very con- 
 .siderable increase of Papists in this kingdom, 
 and particularly in the Diocese of Chester, 
 " In that Diocese," he said, " the number in 
 1717, was 10,308 ; in 1767, it was 25,139 ; 
 and at this time the number given in to the 
 House amounts to 27,228. He therefore sub- 
 mitted to their Lordships, whether it would 
 not be highly expedient to lay such restric- 
 tions upon the Catholics, as might consis- 
 tently with the true principles of liberality 
 and candour, prevent their further increase. 
 He was no friend to persecution ; but he 
 believed the spirit of Popery was not chan- 
 ged : and if it was allowed to spread in the 
 minds of the multitude without control, the 
 worst consequences at.a future period might 
 be j ustly 2 pprehended. ' ' 
 
 This proposition, as the facts on which it 
 
BISHOP rORTEUS. 61 
 
 I, referred principally to his own Dio- 
 , made it necessary for the Bishop to re- 
 ply : and he has left the following abstract, 
 as the substance of his speech on that occa- 
 sion. " As the discussion of this subject 
 appeared to me exceedingly dangerous, and 
 as I well knew that there was no just ground 
 for dreading any increase of Popery, I 
 thought it right to say something in answer 
 to Lord Ferrers : and undertook to prove, 
 that his statement of the number of Catholics 
 in the Diocese of Chester in the year 1717, 
 was extremely erroneous, having been taken 
 only from very inaccurate returns to Bish- 
 op Gaskell's visitatorial inquiries, and not 
 from any Parliamentary survey, which alone 
 could be depended upon : that two such sur- 
 veys had been lately taken of the number of 
 Papists in England and Wales, one in 1767, 
 the other in 1780; that the number returned 
 at the former period was 67,916, at the lat- 
 ter, 69,376; that the increase therefore in 
 these thirteen years, throughout the whole 
 kingdom, was only 1,460, and that this was 
 owing entirely, not to the increase of 
 popery, but to the increase of population : 
 that I had in my own possession, in conse- 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 quence of inquiries made upon the sub- 
 ject, very convincing proofs, that in the Dio- 
 cese of Chester alone there had been with- 
 in the last sixty years an increase of more 
 than 250,000 souls, and that this would more 
 than account for the progress which Popery 
 had made in that See. Upon the whole I 
 contended, that, considering the great in- 
 crease of general population in this realm, 
 the Catholics were a decreasing rather than 
 an increasing quantity, and that there was 
 therefore no ground for the alarms, which 
 some well-meaning but certainly not well-in- 
 formed people had taken on that subject. 
 These observations were satisfactory to the 
 House, and Lord Ferrers withdrew his mo- 
 tion." 
 
 Whilst however the Bishop of Chester 
 thus expressed his sentiments in Parliament, 
 and endeavoured to rectify errors, which, if 
 left uncontradicted, might have tended to in- 
 flame the already irritated state of the public 
 mind against the Catholics of this country, 
 he was not unmindful of the real nature of 
 their religion, nor inattentive in guarding 
 those committed to his care against its false 
 and dangerous tenets. As the best and mild- 
 
BISHOP PORTKV?. 
 
 est, and most effectual mode of doing this, 
 he addressed a letter to his clergy, and at the 
 same time printed for the use of his diocese, 
 in the compendious form of a small tract, 
 the substance of five very admirable sermons 
 by Archbishop Seeker,, which appeared to 
 him to contain the most complete refutation 
 of Popery that he had ever seen in so small 
 a compass. It is indeed one of the many 
 treatises on this subject, which should be par- 
 ticularly put into the hands of those, who are 
 at all unsettled and waveringintheir religious 
 principles. It is a short, perspicuous state- 
 ment of all the points at issue between Pa- 
 pists and Protestants. The spirit in which 
 it is written is truly Christian, and the gener- 
 al argument, in my judgment, and, I think, 
 in the judgment of every unprejudiced and 
 candid man, is altogether unanswerable. 
 
 Besides the dispersion of this valuable 
 little tract, the Bishop made it a primary ob- 
 ject in the course of visiting his See, to in- 
 quire as minutely as possible into the con- 
 duct of the Catholics ; directing his clergy 
 to keep a vigilant eye upon their motions, 
 and to inform him of any transactions respec- 
 ting them, which were worthy of notice : 
 
 E2 
 
54 LIFE Oi? 
 
 and I have his authority for saying, that the 
 result of this inquiry was, that he could not 
 find that they had in any instance attempted to 
 make converts ; that they adhered quietly to 
 their own persuasion, without disturbing the 
 faith of their Protestant neighbours; and 
 thdt so far from adding to their numbers, a 
 Popish priest had on the contrary been con- 
 verted, and regularly admitted into the church 
 of England. 
 
 These were important facts at that time ; 
 and I have entered more largely into the sub- 
 ject than perhaps I otherwise might, under 
 the conviction that they are not unimportant 
 now. It is the full persuasion of my own 
 mind, that the Catholics in this country, 
 whatever may be the case in Ireland, are con- 
 tent with the liberty of maintaining their own 
 doctrines, and their own forms of worship, 
 without endeavouring to proselyte others; 
 that their numbers only increase in pro- 
 portion to the increase of population ; and 
 that in the present advanced state of pub- 
 lic knowledge, Protestantism has nothing 
 to apprehend from the toleration of Po- 
 pery. In fact, the real evils to be dreaded, 
 and on which the attention of every man 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 iiis for the preservation and the honour 
 of Christianity should be incessantly fixed, 
 are dissoluteness of manners, and the diffu- 
 sion of infidel opinions. These, if I may use 
 the term, are the P Y T H o N s we should strive 
 to crush. They are destructive monsters, 
 which assail the vitals of religion. They 
 strike at the very foundation and root of all 
 social virtue and all social order; and it is 
 therefore against these, above every thing, 
 that our penal laws should be framed, and 
 the power of the magistrate directed. The 
 great Prelate, whose life is the subject of these 
 pages, undoubtedly so thought and acted. 
 He was never wanting in zeal for the Church ; 
 but as one of the guardians of that Church, 
 he was persuaded, that zeal could never be 
 so well employed, as against vice and infi- 
 delity. 
 
 The following statement I insert exactly 
 as I find it. It marks in the strongest manner 
 his vigilant, firm, and persevering mind, and 
 the unremitting assiduity with which he ever 
 laboured to discharge the high and sacred 
 duties of a Christian Bishop. 
 
 " The beginning of the winter of 1780," 
 he observes, " was distinguished by the rise 
 
50 LIFE OJF 
 
 of a new species of dissipation and profane- 
 ness. A set of needy and profligate adven- 
 turers, finding every day, and almost every 
 hour, of the week occupied by some amuse- 
 ment or other, bethought themselves of try- 
 ing what might be done on a Sunday. It 
 was a novel and a bold attempt, but not the 
 less likely to succeed in this country and in 
 these times. They therefore opened and 
 publicly advertised two different sorts of en- 
 tertainment for the Sunday evening. One 
 of these was at Carlisle House, and was cal- 
 led a Promenade. The other was a meet- 
 ing at public rooms hired for the purpose, 
 and assumed the name of Christian Socle- 
 ties, Religious Societies^ Theological Socie- 
 ties , Theological Academies, &c. The pro- 
 fessed design of the former was merely to 
 walk about and converse, and take refresh- 
 ments, the price of admission being three 
 shillings : but the real consequence, and pro- 
 bably the real purpose of it, was to draw 
 together dissolute people of both sexes, and 
 to make the Promenade a place of assigna- 
 tion : and, in fact, it was a collection of the 
 lowest and most profligate characters that 
 could possibly be assembled together from 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 57 
 
 every part of London. It gave offence, not 
 only to every man of gravity and serious- 
 ness, but even to young men of gaiety and 
 freedom, several of whom I have heard 
 speak of it with abhorrence. Nay, even for- 
 eigners were shocked and scandalized at it, 
 considering it a disgrace to any Christian 
 country to tolerate so gross an insult on all 
 decency and good order. 
 
 " The business, or, as it should be rather 
 called, the amusement proposed at the Sun- 
 day Debating Societies, was to discuss 
 passages of Scripture, which were selected 
 and given out for that purpose ; when every 
 one present, ladies as well as gentlemen, were 
 to propose their doubts, receive explana- 
 tions, and display their eloquence on the 
 text proposed. It was to be, in short, a 
 school for Metaphysics, Ethics, Pulpit Ora- 
 tory, Church History, and Canon Law. It 
 is easy to conceive what infinite mischief 
 such debates as these must do to the young- 
 er part of the community, who, being un- 
 employed on this day, would flock to any 
 assembly of this sort; would look upon 
 every doubt and difficulty started there as an 
 unanswerable argument against religion, and 
 
5S LIFE OF 
 
 would go home absolute sceptics, if not 
 confirmed unbelievers. Thus, as the Pro- 
 menade tended to destroy every moral sen- 
 timent, the Theological Assemblies were 
 calculated to extinguish every religious prin- 
 ciple; and both together threatened the 
 worst consequences to public morals 
 
 " It was therefore highly necessary to put 
 a speedy and effectual stop to such alarming 
 evils. I mentioned it early in the winter to 
 several persons of rank and authority, and 
 waited a considerable time in the hope, that 
 some one of more weight and influence than 
 myself, would have stood forth on this oc- 
 casion. But the Session being now far ad- 
 vanced, and finding no one inclined to take 
 the matter up, it became absolutely necessa- 
 ry to do something ; and I therefore resolv- 
 ed to try what my own exertions would do. 
 I first consulted several eminent lawyers, as 
 well as the principal acting magistrates in 
 Westminster, in order to know, whether 
 either the statute or the common law, as they 
 now stood, was sufficient to check this evil. 
 They all assured me that both were insuffi- 
 cient, and that nothing but an Act of Parlia- 
 ment, framed on purpose, could effectually 
 
BISH01* POllTEl S. 59 
 
 suppress it. In consequence of this opinion, 
 I applied to a legal friend, and with his as- 
 sistance got a proper Bill sketched out, which 
 I afterwards shewed to Lord Bathurst, Pre- 
 sident of the Council, and to Sir John Skin- 
 ner, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer; 
 and it was afterwards communicated to the 
 Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and Lord Mans- 
 field. After it had received their approba- 
 tion, I applied to the Solicitor General, Mr. 
 Mansfield, who undertook to move it in the 
 House of Commons; and Sir William Dol- 
 ben agreed to second it. This they did on 
 the 3d of May 1781, and the Bill was en- 
 titled, ' An Act for preventing certain 
 ' Abuses and Profanations on the Lord's 
 i Day, commonly called Sunday.' It was 
 violently opposed in its different stages 
 through the House by saveral members, 
 particularly Mr. Wilkes ; but it passed 
 without a division. On the second reading 
 of the Bill in the House of Lords, it was 
 opposed principally by the Duke of Man- 
 chester, who thought that there were not 
 sufficient proofs of the mischievous tendency 
 of the Sunday evening amusements. * The 
 subjects of this kingdom, 1 he said, ' should 
 
GO LIFE 01? 
 
 be left at perfect liberty to confer upon reli-> 
 gious subjects without controul : and he did 
 not believe that there was any thing impro- 
 per either in the Promenade or the Societies. 
 In his apprehension, they were perfectly in- 
 nocent : but, even if the fact were otherwise, 
 there were law r s already in force sufficient to 
 restrain them ; and there was no necessity to 
 add to the number of our penal statutes, al- 
 ready sufficiently numerous.' 
 
 " In answer to this, I observed, that al- 
 though there was no evidence at the bar, 
 to prove the allegations of the preamble, 
 which in a public Bill, and in a matter of 
 such notoriety, I conceived was seldom, if 
 ever, required ; yet there were the very best 
 grounds for believing the pernicious tenden- 
 cy of the Sunday evening amusements to be 
 much greater than the preamble stated. I 
 had conversed with many persons, who had 
 themselves been present in these places, and 
 was perfectly satisfied that they were highly 
 dangerous in every point of view. But, 
 even without entering into their interior con- 
 stitution and consequences, I could not but 
 think that the very external appearance of 
 them on the Lord's Day, was an offence 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. *6t" 
 
 against common decency, and the most an- 
 tient and venerable customs of this country. 
 They were places of public amusement 
 opened on a Sunday. They were publicly 
 advertised; where in a public room; money 
 was publicly taken at the door, and that for 
 the avowed purpose of public amusement. 
 This, I apprehended, was the very definition 
 of a public diversion ; and it was notorious, 
 that public diversions had never been permit- 
 ted by the laws of the land in this kingdom, 
 from the time of the Reformation to the pre- 
 sent moment, and I hoped they never would. 
 In Popish countries they were indeed permit- 
 ted, though even there they were condem- 
 ned by many serious men; for a friend of 
 mine, Dr. Lort, in the year 1768, saw an 
 injunction or admonition of the Archbishop 
 of Mechlin, in one of the towns under his 
 jurisdiction, in which he complained heavily 
 of the liberties taken by the people on Sun- 
 days, and spoke in high terms of the con- 
 duct of the Heretics, that is, the Protestants, 
 in that respect. But, however these indul- 
 gences might suit the spirit of Popery, they 
 did not accord with the temper of Protes- 
 tantism, They were contrary to the spirit of 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 our constitution ; contrary to the spirit of 
 our laws and our religion, They were new 
 invasions of the sanctity of the Lord's Day, 
 and had never been heard of in this country 
 till within these few years. The different 
 method of observing Sunday in England 
 and in foreign countries, was one great mark 
 of distinction between the Church of Eng- 
 land and the Church of Rome, and it was a 
 distinction which I hoped never to see abol- 
 ished. It was not my wish to go to the 
 Church of Rome, to know in what manner 
 Sunday ought to be observed in England. I 
 was therefore for resisting these dangerous 
 innovations in the very beginning, If they 
 were not crushed at their very outset, it was 
 impossible to say ho\v far they might go. If 
 the legislature suffered them to pass at first 
 without notice, their Lordships must not 
 imagine the mischief would stop where it 
 now is. The places of entertainment lately 
 opened for the Sunday evening, were only 
 the beginnings of a regular plan to introduce 
 Sunday diversions into this kingdom; they 
 are only trials and experiments to feel the 
 way, and to see how the Government will 
 bear such violations of decency; and if the 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 proprietors of these places find that they are 
 perfectly secure, they will very soon take care 
 to have fresh amusements for every hour of 
 the Sunday, even for those which ought to 
 be spent in the celebration of divine worship, 
 Unless therefore their Lordships were prepa- 
 red to say, that public diversions ought to 
 be allowed in this country, they must resist 
 this artful attempt to introduce them under 
 the specious name of a Promenade, and the 
 sacred plea of religion. 
 
 " It has been said, indeed, that this Bill is 
 a restraint upon religious liberty. It is no 
 such thing. It restrains no one from profes- 
 sing that mode of religion, and joining in 
 that form of public worship, which his con- 
 science best approves. It restrains no one 
 from speaking, conversing, or writing upon 
 religious subjects. It imposes no other 
 restraint than this, which is surely no very 
 great hardship, that no one shall either pay 
 or be paid for talking blasphemy or profane - 
 ness in a public room on the Lord's Day. It 
 takes away, in short, no other liberty, but the 
 liberty of burlesquing Scripture, and making 
 religion a public amusement, and a pub- 
 lic trade, which I was inclined to think their 
 
- T.IFE OP 
 
 Lordships would not consider essential 
 marks of religious freedom.- 7 
 
 A division then took place on the commit- 
 ment of the Bill, which was carried by a ma- 
 jority of 26; and it afterwards passed with- 
 out further opposition. 
 
 In this manner did the Bishop, by his own 
 energy and perseverance, carry through Par- 
 liament an Act, which by its judicious pro- 
 visions effectually checked a most wicked 
 and licentious system, calculated to produce 
 the worst consequences to religion and to 
 public morals. There were many difficul- 
 ties in the way, which would have stagger- 
 ed, as in fact they did stagger, ordinary 
 minds. But his was not of that stamp. He 
 saw them all, and surmounted them. He 
 stood alone against a crying evil, and suc- 
 ceeded. It was the opinion indeed of Lord 
 Mansfield at the time, that the Bill, though 
 in itself a good one, would soon be evaded. 
 But, contrary to the sentiments of that great 
 lawyer, the very reverse has been the case. 
 It has completely answered its object; and 
 from the period of its passing into a law, no 
 attempts have been made, in the same way 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 65 
 
 at least, to profane and desecrate the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath. 
 
 Towards the close of 1781, the great ques- 
 tion between the then Bishop of London, 
 Dr. Lowth, and Mr. Disney Fytche, a gen- 
 tleman of Essex, with respect to the validity 
 of a general bond of resignation, that is, a 
 bond to resign, whenever called upon by the 
 patron, came to a hearing in the Court of 
 Chancery ; when it was determined by Lord 
 Loughborough, that such bonds were good 
 in law. Notwithstanding however this de- 
 cision, it was deemed expedient in a matter 
 of such consequence to carry the cause be- 
 fore the House of Lords; and k must ever 
 redound to the Bishop of Chester's honour, 
 that such a man as Bishop Lowth, who in 
 the fullest meaning of his own words, as ap- 
 plied to Archbishop Seeker, was " vir sum- 
 mus summo in loco," but who was then un- 
 able from illness to attend in Parliament, 
 should particularly have selected and re- 
 quested him to undertake the management 
 of it. I mention the circumstances, merely 
 with the view of marking the high sense, 
 which that distinguished prelate entertained 
 of his character and talents. With respect 
 F 2 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 to the contest itself, the issue is well known. 
 The judgments of the courts below were 
 reversed; general bonds of resignation, when 
 given, as in the present case, to procure a 
 presentation, were declared to be illegal, and 
 tht presentation procured by them to be cor- 
 rupt, simoniacal and void. 
 
 On February llth, 1783, the Bishop 
 preached before " the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel ;" and he chose as his 
 subject, the Civilization and Conversion of 
 the Negroes in the British West-India Is- 
 lands. It appears that for some time before 
 this, he had turned his mind very much to 
 the condition of that oppressed and suffering 
 people, and had corresponded and conver- 
 sed on the subject with several persons pos- 
 sessing property in the Islands, and others in 
 this country. The result of his inquiry was, 
 that the state of the Negroes was a most de- 
 plorable one, as well in a temporal as a spi- 
 ritual point of view: and he therefore thought 
 himself called upon by every principle of 
 justice and of policy to excite if possible 
 the attention of the public to this great ques- 
 tion. This he did, in the first instance, by 
 recommending it strongly to the Society, in 
 
BISHOP POUTEV3. 
 
 the discourse which he addressed to them, 
 to begin on their own trust-estate in Barba- 
 does a regular system of religious instruc- 
 tioii, as an example to the planters, and to ap- 
 propriate a portion of their funds to so desi- 
 rable a purpose. The suggestion at the 
 time met with general approbation; and he 
 was therefore induced early in the following 
 year to lay before the Society a plan* which 
 he had drawn up, and in which he had the 
 concurrence of several of the Bench and 
 other intelligent friends, for carrying it into 
 execution. It however very soon appear- 
 ed that nothing would be done ; for a Com- 
 mittee, to whom after much opposition, the 
 question was referred, gave it as their opin- 
 ion, in a short sitting of four hours, that his 
 Lordship merited the thanks of the Society 
 for the great pains and trouble he had taken, 
 but that the circumstances of the Society 
 
 ' This plan is now incorporated in " an Essay," 
 which he afterwards printed and published, " towards 
 the more effectual Civilization and Conversion of the 
 Negro Slaves on the Trust Estate in Barbadoes, belong- 
 ing to the Society for the propagation of the Gospel in 
 Foreign Parts." The reader will find it in his Volume 
 of Tracts. 
 
08 
 
 LIFE OP 
 
 rendered it at that time unadvisable to adopt 
 the plan. 
 
 . " Thus," says the Bishop, " was a final 
 period put at once to a most interesting and 
 important subject, and the spiritual condition 
 of near half a million of Negro Slaves de- 
 cided in four hours. That the particular 
 plan offered to the Society might stand in 
 need of improvement, and that a better 
 might have been substituted in its room, is 
 very probable. I would have given my 
 hearty vote for any wiser plan in preference 
 to my own. It was not the mode, it was 
 the measure I had at heart. But that the 
 discussion of this subject should have been 
 entirely finished at one meeting, which every 
 one expected would have taken up two or 
 three; that no other plan should be adopt- 
 ed or proposed, nor any one effectual mea- 
 sure taken for the conversion and salvation of 
 near 300 Slaves, who were the immediate 
 property of a religious Society, did, I own, 
 a little surprise me. The Society had un- 
 doubtedly an opportunity of rendering their 
 name illustrious in every part of the world, 
 by beginning on their own plantation the 
 civilization and conversion of the Negroes, 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. GO* 
 
 and thereby at once shewing the possibility 
 of it, and the method of doing it, and set- 
 ting an example, which might excite the at- 
 tention, and by degrees the imitation of all 
 the West-India proprietors. If this example 
 be not set : if this attempt be not made by a 
 Society, whose professed purpose is to ' pro- 
 pagate the Gospel in Foreign Parts' among 
 Infidels and Heathens; by whom is there the 
 least probability that it can or will be under- 
 taken ? It is not small difficulties, it is 
 not great difficulties, that should have deter- 
 red us from an undertaking, in which our 
 credit, our reputation, our interest and the 
 interests of religion, are so essentially con- 
 cerned. Nothing less than an absolute de- 
 monstrable impossibility should have dis- 
 couraged us from the attempt. This was 
 the opinion of Bishop Gibson half a century 
 ago, as expressed in the admirable Letters, 
 which he wrote upon this subject; and it is, 
 I will venture to say, the opinion of every 
 unprejudiced man in this kingdom, who has 
 considered the subject with sufficient atten- 
 tion and sufficient sensibility." 
 
 From this passage, it appears evidently 
 that the Bishop was both disappointed and 
 
70 LIFE OF 
 
 hurt by such a hasty rejection, on the part 
 of the Society, of a plan on which he had 
 bestowed considerable care and thought, and 
 which it was admitted came within the letter 
 and spirit of thtir charter. But though he 
 failed in this endeavour, he was not discour- 
 aged, as the following pages will shew, from 
 pursuing steadily his favourite object, the 
 civilization and conversion of the Negro 
 Slaves in our West- India colonies. 
 
 In the mean time, his attention to the du- 
 ties of his diocese was constant and unweari- 
 ed. Amongst other things, he took infinite 
 pains to establish an annual subscription for 
 the relief of his poorer clergy. Such an 
 institution, more particularly in the Arch- 
 deaconry of Richmond, was greatly wanted ; 
 and by urging the subject in the course of 
 conversation, and circulating besides a print- 
 ed letter, in which he very strongly pressed 
 the necessity of the measure, he at last suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 His efforts were also directed with the 
 same active zeal to the establishment of Sun- 
 day Schools. Of this admirable plan first 
 suggested by Mr. Robert Raikes, of Glou- 
 cester, for diffusing amongst the poor the 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 71 
 
 principles of religious knowledge, at an age 
 when they are most capable of receiving 
 them, and in a manner which in no respect 
 interferes with their ordinary occupations, he 
 had early conceived a very favourable opin- 
 ion, and in several instances privately en- 
 couraged it. But, as an act of prudence, 
 he determined not to give it the sanction, of 
 his public approbation, till, as he observes, 
 "' time and experience, and more accurate 
 inquiry, had enabled him to form a more de- 
 cided judgment of its real value, and its 
 probable effects." When, however, repea- 
 ted information from various quarters, and 
 particularly from some of the largest manu- 
 facturing towns in his diocese, had convinced 
 him that such institutions, wherever the ex- 
 periment had been fairly tried, had produced 
 and could not fail to produce if discreetly re- 
 gulated, essential benefit, he no longer he- 
 sitated in promoting them generally through- 
 out his diocese. With this view, as the wi- 
 sest and most effectual mode of giving pub- 
 licity to his sentiments, he addressed to his 
 clergy a very excellent letter, containing, in 
 a short compass, a plain, temperate, and ju- 
 dicious exposition of the advantages of Suiir 
 
72 I-IFE o* 
 
 day Schools, and of the rules by which they 
 should be conducted. 
 
 The time had now arrived, when the Bish- 
 op of Chester was destined to fill a still more 
 distinguished situation in the English church. 
 The high character he had long maintained ; 
 his zeal, his activity, his judgment, his 
 powers of usefulness in every branch of his 
 profession, and all these illustrated and ador- 
 ned by a most unblemished life, and the 
 most conciliating and attracting manners; 
 naturally marked him out, as the person best 
 qualified to supply the vacancy which had 
 for some time been expected in the See of 
 London. Accordingly, the very next day 
 after the death of Dr. Lowth, which took 
 place at the Palace at Fulham, November the 
 3d, 1787, the Bishop, who was then at Hun- 
 ton, received by a king's messenger the fol- 
 io wing letter from Mr. Pitt: 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " IN consequence of the death of the 
 Bishop of London, which took place yes- 
 terday, I lost natime in making it my hum- 
 ble recommendation to His Majesty, that 
 your Lordship might be appointed to sue- 
 
BISHOP PORT i I - \o 
 
 ceed him. I have this moment received His 
 Majesty's answer, expressing His entire ap- 
 probation of the proposal, and authorizing 
 me to acquaint your Lordship with His gra- 
 cious intentions I have peculiar satis- 
 faction in executing this commission, and 
 in the opportunity of expressing the senti- 
 ments of high respect and esteem with 
 which I have the honour to be, 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " Your Lordship's most obedient 
 
 " and most humble servant, 
 
 " W. PITT." 
 
 This important communication, made in 
 such flattering and gracious terms, was most 
 gratifying to the Bishop's feelings : but yet 
 the high station to which he was raised, did 
 not for a moment carry his thoughts from the 
 great and only Disposer of all earthly good. 
 Much as he felt the honour conferred upon 
 him by his Sovereign, he looked beyond 
 this world, up to Him, who is the King of 
 kings; for, subjoined to a copy of the pre- 
 ceding letter, are written in his own hand the 
 following words: . . . . " I acknowledge the 
 
:LIF;E OF 
 
 goodness of a kind Providence, and am ful- 
 ly sensible that nothing but this could have 
 placed me in a situation so infinitely transcen- 
 ding my expectations and deserts." 
 
 This appointment, like all that he had be- 
 fore filled, was on his own part perfectly un- 
 sought for and unsolicited. So far indeed 
 from being desirous of a change of station, 
 he had on the contrary many substantial rea- 
 sons for wishing to retain the Bishopric of 
 Chester. During his residence in that city, 
 the attention he had uniformly shewed to all 
 ranks of people; the ease and affability of 
 his whole deportment; his kindness to all 
 who needed his assistance ; the warm inter- 
 est he took in the affairs of his clergy ; his 
 endeavours to promote in every way the 
 cause of religion, and the good of those com- 
 mitted to his charge ; all this had placed him 
 high in public estimation, and rendered him 
 in every part of his diocese respected and 
 beloved. It was not therefore without much 
 regret, and a hard struggle with his own feel- 
 ings, that he quitted a situation to which he 
 was most sincerely attached, to enter upon 
 another, where the duties were more burthen- 
 some, and the responsibility greatly increa- 
 sed. 
 
BISHOP TORTEVS. 75 
 
 In addition to this, he was under the ne- 
 cessity, by accepting the See of London, of 
 giving up his living at Hunton; that calm, 
 delightful retreat, where he had spent so ma- 
 ny years of happiness, and which, I am per- 
 suaded, no accession of dignity, no increase 
 of revenue, would have ever induced him to 
 resign, had it not been for the high and hon- 
 ourable principle, which in all circumstan- 
 ces governed him through life the relin- 
 quishment of private enjoyment for the sake 
 of public usefulness. To those who knew 
 him well, as it was my privilege to do, it is 
 superfluous to say, that he quitted this fa- 
 vourite residence with infinite regret* His 
 own words will best express what he felt up- 
 on the occasion. 
 
 " When I took my leave of Hunton early 
 in the morning, and cast a parting look on 
 the rich vale below, (the sun shining glo- 
 riously upon it, and lighting up all the beau- 
 ties of that enchanting scene) my heart sunk 
 within me ; and as I went slowly up the hill, 
 I could not forbear repeating and applying 
 to myself those exquisite lines of the Min- 
 strel : 
 
76 LIFE Of 
 
 O ! how canst thou renounce the boundless stofe 
 
 Of cliarms, which Mature to her vot'ries yields ; 
 
 The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, 
 
 The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields ; 
 
 All that the genial ray of Morning gilds, 
 
 And all that echoes to the song of Even ; 
 
 All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, 
 
 And all the dread magnificence of Heaven ; 
 
 O ! how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiv'n I 
 
 " It was indeed a long time before I could 
 forgive myself. But various circumstan- 
 ces rendered this sacrifice necessary; and 
 by degrees custom reconciled me to a scene 
 very different from that to which I had been 
 so long accustomed, and which it cost me 
 no small pain to renounce." 
 
 AFTER kissing the King's hand for his 
 new See, on the 8th of November 1787, and 
 being confirmed at Bow Church on the 7th 
 of December following, one of the iirst ob- 
 jects, which engaged the Bishop's mind was 
 the advancement of a Society, which had 
 been set on foot about a year before, and 
 which bore the title of " The Society for en- 
 forcing the King's proclamation against Im- 
 morality and Profaneness." The necessity 
 of taking some active measures for endea- 
 
OP PORTEt'S. M 
 
 .ing 10 check, if possible, the increas- 
 ing profligacy of the times had been long ap- 
 parent; and it was thought, that it would 
 be one very likely mode of furthering that 
 important purpose, if persons of distinguish- 
 ed name and character would combine to- 
 gether to enforce the execution of the laws, 
 and to support the magistrates in the con- 
 viction of offenders. This by great perse- 
 verance was at last effected; and the Bishop, 
 who had been from the first a zealous pro- 
 moter of the Association, and afterwards 
 was elected President of it, had the satisfac^ 
 tion of seeing it productive of the best re- 
 sults. Many useful Acts of Parliament were 
 obtained by its influence : many persons 
 were prosecuted and punished for dissemi- 
 nating licentious books ; and amongst other 
 acts of beneficial interference, a check was in 
 some measure given to that most pernicious 
 custom of exhibiting publicly indecent 
 prints. Most earnestly is it to be wished, 
 that it could be repressed altogether ; and if 
 this cannot be done by any statute at present 
 in force, it is surely incumbent upon the 
 wisdom of the Legislature to take the sub- 
 ject into consideration, and to enact some po~ 
 
78 LijfE OF 
 
 sitive law, which, by the infliction of a hea- 
 vy penalty, may ultimately, tend to the anni- 
 hilation of a system, than which there can 
 be none more injurious to good morals nor 
 any more prejudicial to the best interests of a 
 State. 
 
 On the 10th of July 1788, Sir William 
 Dolben's Slave- carry ing Bill passed the 
 Lords ; an event, which afforded the Bishop 
 the utmost satisfaction. During its pro- 
 gress, so great was his anxiety for its suc- 
 cess, that he attended the House daily from 
 Fulham for a month together ; but had the 
 Fatigue of that attendance been even greater 
 than it was, he would most cheerfully have 
 submitted to it with such an object in view. 
 The measure indeed fell far short of the 
 whole extent of his wishes : but, as under 
 the existing circumstances, more could 
 hardly be expected, he considered it, as in 
 fact it was, a most important measure ; 
 since it lessened, at least in some degree, the 
 horrors of the passage, and prevented the 
 merchants from crowding into their ships 
 too large a number of slaves, under the a* 
 larm of an approaching abolition of the trade 
 itself. About the same time, on a motion 
 
BISHOP FORTEUS. 
 
 by Lord Bathurst for an address to his Ma- 
 jesty to instruct the Governors of the Is- 
 lands to secure by some legislative measure, 
 a better treatment of the slaves, and provide 
 for their religious instruction, he expressed 
 in the strongest terms his entire approba- 
 tion of the noble EarPs proposition; and 
 availed himself of that opportunity to assure 
 the House, that in the hope of promoting 
 particularly the last of these purposes, he 
 had addressed to the Clergy of the differ- 
 ent Islands a circular letter, earnestly exhor- 
 ting them to take the condition of the Ne- 
 groes in their respective parishes into their 
 consideration, and to instruct them in the 
 principles of the Christian Faith. 
 
 On the 23d of April in the following year 
 1789, in obedience to the King's express 
 command, he preached at St. Paul's on the 
 day of public thanksgiving for His Majesty's 
 recovery. The subject, which he chose, 
 was, " Trust in God," and he enforced it 
 with all that warmth and spirit and energy, 
 which the peculiar circumstances of the case, 
 and a scene so uncommonly grand and strik- 
 ing, could hardly fail to inspire. That part 
 of his discourse, which bears more imme- 
 
ci- 
 
 diately upon the occasion, is touched with 
 great delicacy and judgment. There is 
 no elaborate eulogy, no overcharged des- 
 cription ; but he stated simply and strongly, 
 what he knew upon indubitable authority to 
 be true, that " the heart of his Sovereign was 
 deeply impressed with the conviction, that 
 in God was his help ; and that throughout 
 the whole of his severe trial, his trust in God 
 had never forsaken him." Of the reality 
 of this declaration, I believe, out of all that 
 vast assembly, there was not an individual 
 present who entertained the slightest doubt. 
 It came home to every one's feelings, and 
 called up one united thanksgiving to the 
 Great Disposer of events, for having preserv- 
 ed and restored to them a Monarch not more 
 illustrious for his high station, than revered 
 and beloved for his many private virtues. 
 
 More than two years had passed from the 
 time of his taking possession of the See 
 of London, before the Bishop held his pri-. 
 mary visitation ; but the cause of the delay 
 arose, as he himself observes, " from a wish 
 to collect all the information he could from 
 various quarters, and more particularly from* 
 the answers to the several queries which had 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 8fc 
 
 been some months before circulated through 
 the diocese." 
 
 With these materials before him, he was 
 enabled to select such topics for his Charge, 
 as appeared the most important ; and accord- 
 ingly he insisted principally on the necessity 
 of more constant residence*, an increase of 
 
 * The residence of the beneliced Clergy on their cures 
 was one of the objects, connected with the discipline and 
 good order of the Church, which the Bishop was unceas- 
 ing; in his endeavours to promote ; and the following ex- 
 tract from a mo-t useful and able Charge delivered by 
 Mr. Archdeacon Cambridge in 1808, to the Clergy of the 
 Archdeaconry of Middlesex, is an honourable and con- 
 vincing proof how successfully those endeavours were ex- 
 erted. " It will now," he says, " be expected, that I 
 should make some report of the state and condition of 
 the Parsonage Houses, which it was a part of my duty to 
 inspect ; but it was with real pleasure I found, that the 
 difficulty and trouble, which may readily be supposed 
 to attend the due performance of this delicate branch of 
 our official inquiry, were considerably lessened, and the 
 duty in a great measure anticipated by the unwearied 
 exertions of our excellent Prelate, whose constant en- 
 deavour it has been, ever since he presided over this im- 
 portant diocese, to establish resident clergy on every pre- 
 ferment, whereat was possible to accomplish it; an en- 
 deavour, in which he had most meritoriously and suc- 
 i-> fuUy persevered for many years previous to the late 
 Act for enforcing the Residence of the Parochial Clergy, 
 
LIFE O* 
 
 salaries to curates, and the improvement of 
 our parochial psalmody. In regard to the 
 last of these subjects, he states the following 
 reasons for pressing it on the attention of his 
 clergy. 
 
 " Of all the Services of our Church none 
 appeared to me to have sunk to so low an 
 ebb, or so evidently to need reform, as our 
 parochial psalmody ; more especially, as Dr. 
 Burney in his History of Music, had very 
 injudiciously taken great pains to ridicule 
 and discredit the vise of psalmody in our 
 churches, and to introduce in the room of it 
 cathedral music. In consequence of this, 
 many churches and chapels in London had 
 already adopted his ideas ; and at their cha- 
 rity sermons, professional singers, both male 
 
 Of this, his first concern, the repair and improvement of 
 the parsonage house, in which the incumbent was re- 
 quired to reside, formed an essential and often a prelimi- 
 nary part. And it is now with infinite satisfaction I can 
 state, that with the exception of a very few cases, where 
 accidental circumstances have occasioned delays in the 
 accomplishment of the wishes and directions of the Bish- 
 op, on almost every living, the income of which is suffi- 
 cient to supply the means of maintaining a decent resi- 
 dence for the incumbent, this important object is already 
 attained. 
 
BISHOP PORTKCb. bo 
 
 and female, were brought from various pla- 
 ces of public entertainment, to sing hymns 
 and anthems for the benefit of the children. 
 Nay, in one or two churches, there had been 
 musical entertainments upon Sunday even- 
 ings, without even prayers or a sermon. I 
 therefore thought it highly necessary, in or- 
 der to prevent our places of public worship 
 from being converted into concert rooms, to 
 endeavour to check this musical madness, 
 and if possible to bring back our psalmody 
 to its antient purity and simplicity." 
 
 For his opinions and advice, both which 
 are extremely judicious, upon this subject, I 
 must refer the reader to the Charge itself, 
 which will be found in his Works. It is a 
 composition throughout of great elegance 
 and ability ; and there is one circumstance in 
 it, which I cannot suffer to pass without no- 
 tice, namely, the high testimony which it 
 bears to the talents and virtues of his vene- 
 rable predecessor, Bishop Lowth. The See 
 of London had never been filled by a more 
 distinguished prelate ; and his successor felt, 
 that it would have been an act of injustice to 
 so great a man, if he had not offered some 
 part at least of that tribute, which was just- 
 
34 LIFE OF 
 
 ly due to his memory, and publicly! expres- 
 sed his deep regret for the loss sustained by 
 the church, and by the world at large. The 
 character he has given of him, is forcibly and 
 ably drawn, and, although the necessity of 
 enlarging upon other important matter, pre- 
 vented him from saying much upon the sub- 
 ject, he would yet but ill have satisfied his 
 own feelings, or the expectations of his cler- 
 gy, if, with such an opportunity before him, 
 he had said less. 
 
 Not many months after his return from 
 the visitation of his diocese, a decree given 
 in his favour by the Court of Chancery, ena- 
 bled him to prosecute a plan, which he had 
 long had much at heart, for improving the 
 condition of the Negro Slaves employed in 
 the cultivation of the West-India islands, 
 and particularly for their better instruction 
 in religious knowledge. As he has left in 
 manuscript the following statement of the 
 causes and consequences of that decree, it is 
 here inserted. 
 
 "In 3691, the great Mr. Boyle left a sum 
 of money, amounting to 5,400/. for the ad- 
 vancement of the Christian Religion amongst 
 infidels. With this sum, an estate was af> 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS, 6 
 
 icrvvards purchased at Brafferton, near Bo- 
 roughbridge in Yorkshire. The Earl of 
 Burlington, and the Bishop of London for 
 the time being, were constituted trustees of 
 the charity; and in 1693, they directed that 
 the profits of the estate should be paid to 
 the President of William and Mary College, 
 in Virginia, to be by them applied to the 
 education and instruction of a certain num- 
 ber of Indian children. This appointment 
 was confirmed by a decree of the Court of 
 Chancery in 169S. The charity continued 
 to be so applied till the breaking out of the 
 American war, soon after which the then 
 Bishop of London forbad the Agent of the 
 College to remit any more money to Vir- 
 ginia. After the peace, the College claimed 
 the rents of the estate, and all the arrears 
 that had accumulated, which, with the sale 
 of some timber, amounted to a very large 
 sum. This was resisted by Bishop Lowth; 
 and on my succeeding to the See of London, 
 a regular suit in Chancery was commenced 
 between me and the College in Virginia. 
 The question was, whether they, being now 
 separated from this kingdom, and become a 
 foreign, independent state, were entitled to 
 
 H 
 
fctf LIFE OF 
 
 the benefit of this charity. It was the first 
 question of the kind, that had occurred in 
 this country since the American Revolution, 
 and was therefore in the highest degree cu- 
 rious and important. The Chancellor, Lord 
 Thurlow, decided against the College. He 
 excluded them from all share in the charity, 
 and directed that the Trustees should offer 
 a plan for the appropriation of the charity 
 to some other purpose. In consequence of 
 this decree, I gave in to the Master in Chan- 
 cery, Mr. Orde, my plan for the application 
 of Mr. Boyle's charity, and proposed for its 
 object, 'the conversion and religious instruc- 
 tion of the Negroes in the British West- 
 India Islands? This has been subsequently 
 approved by the Lord Chancellor, and there 
 will now be a revenue of near 1000/. per 
 annum, applied to that purpose." 
 
 To this, his own account of the origin 
 and establishment of that Society, I am. 
 enabled to add from my own personal obser- 
 vation and knowledge, that he not only in 
 his capacity of President took a leading part 
 in all its transactions, but that he was inde- 
 fatigable in his efforts to promote the objects 
 of it. With the view of rendering the 
 
BISHOP POBTEUS. 87 v 
 
 Scriptures more generally useful to the Ne- 
 groes, he undertook to make a selection of 
 such parts, both of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment, as appeared to him best adapted to 
 their understandings and condition. He 
 spared no pains in procuring able and con- 
 scientious ministers to fill the office of mis- 
 sionaries. He corresponded frequently with 
 them on the state of their mission. He en- 
 deavoured by all the means in his power to 
 conciliate the good-will of the planters, to 
 remove the apprehensions they expressed, 
 and to convince them of the policy as well 
 as humanity of educating and instructing 
 their slaves. In short, he did all that the 
 most active and unwearied zeal could do, to 
 advance in every possible way the great pur- 
 poses of the institution. If, after all, its suc- 
 cess fell short of his hopes, as I have heard 
 him often lament that it did, the failure is to 
 be ascribed, not to want of effort in him, 
 but to difficulties, which, though in some 
 instances overcome, he found in others insu- 
 perable. The chief of these always has been, 
 and still continues to be, an invincible re- 
 luctance on the part of the proprietors and 
 planters of estates in our West- India colo- 
 
LIFE 01? 
 
 nies, effectually to promote any plan, how 
 ever quietly and prudently conducted, for the 
 Christian education of their Negro slaves. 
 To this general assertion indeed, there are 
 I know, some honourable exceptions ; but, 
 on the whole, there does appear to be an in- 
 creasing disposition, as far as my information 
 and experience enable me to judge, to dis- 
 countenance and impede all attempts to in- 
 struct that unfortunate part of our fellow be- 
 ings in the principles and practice of religion. 
 I trust, however, that no obstructions, which 
 the Society may experience, will induce 
 them to relax their endeavours. Perseve- 
 rance may gradually surmount all difficulties* 
 It must, by God's blessing, ultimately tri- 
 iimph ; for it stands as the recorded word of 
 that great Being, who has said, " Have I 
 spoken, and shall I not do it?" that" the 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 
 
 During the interval w r hich elapsed between 
 the Bishop's first and second visitation of 
 his diocese, the French Revolution burst 
 forth; overturning from its very foundation 
 one of the most powerful governments in 
 
FOJXTF.US. 
 
 .. 
 
 Europe ; substituting a republic in the room 
 of an jntient monarchy, and ovenvhelming 
 all law and order in one wild, sanguinary 
 scene of anarchy and confusion. In a con- 
 vulsion such as this, which threw down 
 every barrier, that the wisdom of ages had 
 raised for the consolidation of a great empire, 
 it was not to be expected that Religion would 
 pass unmolested : and in fact it very soon 
 appeared, that the revolutionists of France 
 aimed at nothing less than the utter subver 
 sion of all moral principle, and the complete 
 abandonment of public worship. Their ob- 
 ject was to degrade and vilify the truths of 
 Revelation, and to propagate in its place a 
 blasphemous and infidel philosophy. The 
 attempt succeeded but too effectually in their 
 own country ; and the contagion soon spread 
 ,to this. No efforts were spared, which could 
 tend to contaminate the public mind, and ob- 
 literate from it all reverence for our civil and 
 religious establishments; and had it not been 
 for the vigorous measures of that great Min- 
 ister, who was then at the head of the admin- 
 istration, and to whom, under Providence, 
 we owe our preservation, we might have 
 witnessed here the same frightful scenes, 
 H 2 
 
LIFE OP 
 
 which convulsed and desolated a neighbour- 
 ing kingdom. 
 
 At a crisis such as this, in which all that 
 is dear to us hung suspended on the issue, 
 it was plainly every man's bounden duty to 
 exert himself to the utmost for the public 
 welfare : and, in a situation so responsible as 
 the See of London, comprehending a vast 
 metropolis, where the emissaries of infide- 
 lity were most actively occupied in their 
 work of mischief, the Bishop felt himself 
 called upon to counteract, as far as in him 
 lay, the licentious principles which were then 
 afloat, and to check, if possible, the progress 
 they had too evidently made in the various 
 ranks of society. The best mode, as he 
 conceived, of doing this, was to rouse the 
 attention of the clergy to what was passing 
 around them ; and nothing surely was ever 
 better calculated to produce that effect, than 
 the charge which he addressed to them in 
 1794. I know not where, in a short com- 
 pass, the character of the French philosophy 
 is more ably drawn, or its baneful influence 
 more strikingly developed. He had mark- 
 ed its course with an observing eye. He 
 had read all that its advocates could allege in 
 
BISHOP FORTEl/fr, 91 
 
 its favour. He had traced the motives which 
 gave it birth, the features by which it was 
 marked, and the real objects which it was de- 
 signed to accomplish. It was not therefore 
 without much deliberation and a full know- 
 ledge of his subject, that he drew up for his 
 second visitation that eloquent and most im- 
 pressive address, in which he gave such a 
 picture of the infidel school of that day, 
 and of the industry which was then employ- 
 ed to disseminate its principles in this coun- 
 try, as at once carried conviction to the mind 
 and most powerfully awakened the attention 
 of every serious and thinking man. But it 
 was on the clergy, in an especial manner, 
 that he was anxious to leave a strong and fix- 
 ed persuasion of the necessity of increased 
 assiduity and vigilance in the discharge of 
 their religious functions. Christianity, at- 
 tacked as it was on every side, required more 
 than common efforts, and more than ordina- 
 ry zeal on the part of its natural defenders ; 
 and he therefore called upon them " to repel 
 with vigour and effect all those charges of 
 fraud, falsehood and fanaticism, which had 
 been so liberally thrown upon it ; at such a 
 perilous crisis to contend with peculiar ear- 
 
Lit* OF 
 
 nestness for ' the faith once delivered to the 
 saints,' and to shew that it is not, as our en- 
 emies affirm, * a cunningly devised fable,' but 
 a real Revelation from Heaven" 
 
 In particular he recommended it to them, 
 with the view of stemming more effectually 
 the overwhelming torrent of infidel opin- 
 ions, " to draw out from the whole body of 
 the Christian Evidences the principal and 
 most striking arguments, and to bring them 
 down to the understandings of the com- 
 mon people." " If this," he says, " or any 
 thing of a similar nature, were thrown into 
 a regular course of sermons or lectures, and 
 delivered in easy, intelligible, familiar lan- 
 guage to your respective congregations, I 
 know nothing that would, in these philoso- 
 phic times-, render a more essential service 
 to religion, or tend more to preserve the prin- 
 ciples of those entrusted to your care, un- 
 corrupted and unshaken by those most per- 
 nicious and dangerous publications, which, 
 I have too much reason to apprehend, will 
 very soon be disseminated with dreadful in- 
 dustry and activity through every quarter of 
 this Island." 
 
 It is almost superfluous to add, that the 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 93 
 
 effect of this admirable Charge was very 
 soon apparent. It was calculated to make, 
 and it did make, a great impression. The 
 Clergy gave full proof, that the advice of their 
 Diocesan" 2md not been offered in vain ; and, 
 I am well convinced, that in combination 
 with other causes, the zeal and energy, which 
 they displayecfat that period, contributed in 
 no small degree to the defeat of Infidelity, 
 and, by necessary consequence, to the essen- 
 tial welfare of the State. 
 
 On the 3d of December 1795, the Bish- 
 op presented an address to the King, from 
 himself, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's 
 and the Clergy of the cities of London and 
 Westminster, on the outrage offered to His 
 Majesty by a seditious mob, in his way to 
 the House of Lords ; a circumstance in his 
 life, which perhaps I should not have men- 
 tioned, but that it gave occasion to the asser- 
 tion of aright, which, as it had immemori al- 
 ly been observed, he thought it his duty 
 not to relinquish upon that occasion. The 
 following is his own account of the transac- 
 tion: " When I sent a copy of the Address 
 to the Duke of Portland, and desired him 
 
I 
 
 94 LIFE Of 
 
 to take the King's pleasure, when He would 
 receive it, he in a few days returned an 
 answer, that His Majesty would receive it, 
 not on the throne, but at the levee. As I 
 conceived it did not become me to give 
 up a privilege of the London Clergy, which 
 I knew to be founded in antient custom, I 
 desired an interview with the Duke, and, on 
 shewing him the papers in my possession, 
 soon convinced him that addresses from the 
 Clergy of London were always received on 
 the throne. He promised to state this the 
 next day to ther King, which he did, and his 
 Majesty very graciously then appointed us 
 to be received on the throne as usual." 
 
 It has been already mentioned, that the 
 Bishop filled the situation of President of 
 " the Society for enforcing the King's Pro- 
 clamation against Immorality and Profane- 
 ness," and that under his active and discreet 
 direction the licentiousness of the Metropo- 
 lis had to a certain degree been checked. It 
 was not then probable, that when a publica- 
 tion of such an infamous description, and 
 calculated to produce such infinite mischief, 
 as Paints Age of Reason, made its appear- 
 ance, and was disseminated with inconceiva- 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. .95 
 
 ble industry through every town and village 
 of the kingdom, the Society would suffer 
 it to pass unnoticed. The book indeed, 
 in point of argument, and composition, was 
 perfectly contemptible : but, as the Bishop 
 has well observed, " it was addressed to the 
 multitude, and most dexterously brought 
 down to the level of their understandings. It 
 compressed the whole poison of infidelity 
 into the narrow compass of an essence or an 
 extract, and rendered irreligion easy to the 
 meanest capacity." The progress therefore 
 of a work like this was to be checked instant- 
 ly, and with a high hand. It is true, an an- 
 tidote, and with all thinking men a most ef- 
 fectual one, had been sent abroad into the 
 world, in the admirable answer of Dr. Wat- 
 son, the present Bishop of Llandaff ; but 
 still it was necessary to inflict some signal 
 punishment on the person, who, in violation 
 of all decency, had dared to be the publish* 
 er of The Age of Reason. The man was 
 a bookseller, of the name of Williams ; and 
 against him, though unquestionably only an 
 instrument in the hands of more experien- 
 ced adepts in the school of infidelity, a pro- 
 secutiou was set on foot in the Court of 
 
Ot> LIFE Ojv 
 
 King's Bench. Upon the issue of this trial, 
 the credit and influence of Religion were in 
 a great measure at stake ; and it was there- 
 fore of the very last importance, that the 
 cause of the Society should be well defended. 
 Accordingly the Bishops of London and 
 Durham had an interview with Mr, Erskine, 
 who, at their joint and earnest request, most 
 cheerfully undertook the management of the 
 prosecution ; and it is well known how suc- 
 cessfully he employed his splendid talents 
 in the execution of that office. " His 
 speech," says the Bishop, " was a noble 
 specimen of true eloquence on the noblest 
 of all subjects, the defence of Christianity. 
 There were passages in it as sublime as any 
 thing to be met with in the writings of any 
 orator whatever, antient or modern. There 
 is one in particular, uncommonly striking 
 aud forcible from the mouth of a layman and 
 a lawyer. Mr. Erskine declared in reply, 
 that ' bred as he was to the consideration of 
 evidence, he considered the Prophecy con- 
 cerning the destruction of the Jewish temple 
 and nation to be, even if there were nothing 
 else to support Christianity, absolutely irre- 
 
97 
 
 In addition to these exertions on the part 
 of their Counsel, the Society received the 
 thanks of Lord Kenyon, for their spirited and 
 manly conduct. In his charge to the jury, 
 than which nothing could be more able or 
 perspicuous, he spoke of the prosecution in 
 terms of high approbation ; and at the same 
 time availed himself of that opportunity to 
 make a public avowal, in a most solemn lan- 
 guage and manner, of his own sincere, deli- 
 berate and entire conviction of the truth of 
 Christianity. 
 
 Without a moment's hesitation, the Jury 
 found the Defendant guilty ; and thus was 
 a stop effectually put to the sale of a publica- 
 tion, which concentrated in itself more im- 
 piety, and was calculated to inflict a deeper 
 wound on religion, than any that had ever ap- 
 peared in this or any other country. 
 
 In the Charge addressed to his Clergy in 
 1794, which I have already noticed, it has 
 been seen how strongly he pressed upon 
 them the necessity of greater zeal and activ- 
 ity in their sacred calling. But he never 
 imposed a burthen upon others, of which 
 he was not always disposed and anxious to 
 i 
 
LIFE Oi 
 
 take a full share himself: and of this he gave 
 a memorable proof, by undertaking to pre- 
 pare and deliver in St. James's church, on 
 the Fridays during Lent, a course of Lec- 
 tures on the Gospel of St. Matthew. The 
 reasons, which determined him thus to exert 
 himself out of the ordinary course of his 
 professional duty, at a time of life too then 
 far advanced, and amidst all the other em- 
 ployments of a most laborious diocese, he 
 has himself stated in his Preface to the Lec- 
 tures ; and they are such as could not fail to 
 make a deep impression on a mind like his. 
 The gloomy aspect of the times; the alarm- 
 ing and perilous situation of this country; 
 the astonishing success, which every where 
 attended its enemies abroad ; the indefatiga- 
 ble industry of other enemies, still more 
 formidable, at home, in diffusing disloyalty 
 and infidelity and wickedness amongst the 
 lower orders of the people ; the unabated 
 dissipation of the upper ranks ; their ex- 
 treme prodigality, luxury and voluptuous- 
 ness ; the marked indifference, which was 
 every day more visible in their conduct, to 
 all moral and religious obligations; a train 
 of circumstances such as these called loudly, 
 
BISHOP POUTEUS* 
 
 he thought, on the serious and reflecting 
 part of the community, to make some vi- 
 gorous struggle, and to stand boldly forward 
 in the maintenance of good order and of pub- 
 lic morals. He felt too, that these were ex- 
 ertions in a peculiar manner incumbent on 
 the clergy, and that not only on the parochial 
 minister, but on those, in a still higher de- 
 gree, who filled the more exalted stations in 
 the church, and to whom therefore attached 
 a weightier responsibility. 
 
 Influenced by these reasons, he resolved 
 on discharging his share at least of such a 
 solemn and imperious duty. He consider- 
 ed that " it \vould be no unbecoming conclu- 
 sion of his life, if the labours of his declining 
 years should tend in any respect to render the 
 Holy Scriptures more clear and intelligible, 
 more useful and delightful ; if they should 
 cpnfirm the faith, reform the manners, con- 
 sole and revive the hearts of those who heard 
 him ; and vindicate the honour of our Di- 
 vine Master from those gross indignities 
 and insults, which had been so indecently 
 thrown on Him, and his religion." In ad- 
 dition to these leading objects, he was at the 
 same time not without the hope that " it 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 might be the means of drawing,", as he well 
 observes, " a little more attention to that ho- 
 ly, but too much neglected season, which 
 our Church has very wisely set apart for 
 the purpose of retirement and recollection, 
 and of giving some little pause and respite 
 to the ceaseless occupations and amusements 
 of a busy and a thoughtless world." With 
 these views, he commenced his Lectures on 
 the 23d of February 1798, and never surely 
 was any undertaking more successfully pur- 
 sued, or more evidently favoured by the di- 
 vine blessing. The eagerness to attend 
 them was beyond all example. The church, 
 long before the service begun, was crowded 
 to excess; and the congregations consisted 
 not only of the higher orders, or of persons 
 attached exclusively to the Church of Eng- 
 land, but of people in every rank and station 
 of life, and almost of every possible religious- 
 persuasion. There seemed, in short, to be 
 but one motive, one principle in all an anx- 
 ious desire to hear the great truths of Chris- 
 tianity enforced by a prelate, who stood high 
 in the public estimation for his powers of 
 oratory and his enlarged and liberal views, 
 and higher still, as exemplifying in his con- 
 
BMHOP PORTELS. 10 i, 
 
 slant practice the true character of a Chris- 
 tian Bishop. 
 
 I know indeed it has been said, but most 
 unjustly and disingenuously, with a view of 
 detracting from their merit, and the effect 
 which they produced, that it was the fashion 
 to attend his Lectures. To this my first an- 
 swer is, that if a mere compliance with fash- 
 ion had been the ruling motive, it would not 
 have continued without intermission for four 
 years together. The solicitude of persons, 
 actuated by no higher impulse, would, in- 
 stead of increasing, have diminished; where- 
 as, on the contrary, it is an undisputed fact, 
 that the church was every successive year, 
 more numerously attended, and the public 
 desire to hear him carried, if possible, to a 
 still higher pitch. But a second, and a bet- 
 ter answer is to be found in the Lectures 
 themselves ; which, a part from the earnest, 
 devout, animated, and dignified manner in 
 which they were delivered, and by which he 
 gave such peculiar force and interest to all 
 his discourses, exhibit such a luminous in- 
 terpretation of Scripture ; such a clear and 
 ample refutation of the most specious objec- 
 tions against particular parts of it ; such a 
 
102 LIFE OF 
 
 convincing statement, wherever the subject 
 offered itself, of the evidences on which it 
 rests ; such an unqualified avowal of its fun- 
 damental doctrines ; such a powerful enforce- 
 ment of its moral duties; such a felicity in 
 applying the characters and incidents, which 
 it records, to the heart and conscience; in a 
 word, such an awakening view of the vast 
 importance of religion, and such fervid ex- 
 hortations to all ranks of men to feel, to study, 
 and to practise it, as could not fail deeply, 
 to affect and edify the persons he addressed. 
 He had himself, as he expressly says, " the 
 satisfaction of being assured, that several 
 even of those amongst his audience, who 
 disbelieved or doubted the truth of Chris- 
 tianity, were impressed with a more favour- 
 able opinion both of its evidences and 
 its doctrines, and with a higher venera- 
 tion for the Sacred Writings, than they 
 had before entertained ;" and indeed, I 
 am most fully persuaded, that these Lee- 
 were, under God, eminently useful, at that 
 critical juncture, in checking the wild career 
 of Infidel opinion, and exciting a habit of 
 closer. inquiry into the grounds of Revela- 
 tion ; that they were the means of reforming 
 
&ESJ1OV PORTEUS. 
 
 and reclaiming many, who had been seduced 
 into error; and that generally throughout the 
 Metropolis, they produced at the time an 
 evident change in the tone of public morals. 
 They have now been some years in print , 
 and have passed through several editions ; 
 and they are, I believe, universally acknow- 
 ledged, by the deliberate judgment of all 
 candid men, to be in every sense worthy of 
 the Bishop's reputation, and to have render- 
 ed essential service to the cause of virtue and 
 religion. 
 
 It was not however merely by his exer- 
 tions in the pulpit, .that he laboured to pro- 
 mote those great objects. He had long ob- 
 served with regret a growing disregard for the 
 sanctity and solemnity of the Lord's Day, 
 and had addressed to his Clergy the very ex- 
 cellent Letter on that subject, which the rea- 
 der will find amongst his Tracts. This was 
 attended unquestionably by some benefit : 
 but still he thought it highly expedient that, 
 at such a time, and in a matter of such mo- 
 ment, some more vigorous measures should 
 be adopted ; and, accordingly, at a meeting 
 of the Society for enforcing His Majesty's 
 Proclamation^ it jnras proposed, as the mode 
 
104 -Lies. OF 
 
 likely to be most effectual, that the higher 
 ranks of society should be invited to bind 
 themselves by a voluntary resolution to ob- 
 serve the Sabbath more strictly and religious- 
 ly, and that, as an example to the lower or- 
 ders, the resolution should be made public. 
 With this view, the following Declaration 
 was then drawn up and adopted : 
 
 " We, whose names are hereunto subscrib- 
 ed, being deeply sensible of the great im- 
 portance of the religious observance of the 
 Lord's Day to the interests of Christianity 
 and of civil society, do declare, that we hold 
 it highly improper on that day to give or 
 accept invitations to entertainments or as- 
 semblies, or (except in cases of urgency, or 
 for purposes of charity) to travel, or to exer- 
 cise any wordly occupations, or to employ 
 our domestics or dependents in any thing 
 interfering with their public or private reli- 
 gious duties. And as example, and a pub- 
 lic declaration of the principles of our own 
 conduct, more peculiarly at this time, may 
 tend to influence the conduct of others, we 
 do hereby further declare our resolution to 
 adhere (as far as may be practicable) to the 
 due observance of the Lord's Day, according 
 to the preceding Declaration.'' 
 
BISHOP FORTH >. 10 J 
 
 It might naturally have been expected, 
 that a measure of this temperate and judi- 
 cious description, in which enthusiasm had 
 no share ; in which there was not the most 
 distant intention of promoting melancholy or 
 austerity, or oT excluding from the Sabbath 
 any innocent relaxation compatible with the 
 sacred purposes of its institution ; would 
 have met with general approbation, and re- 
 ceived the cordial support of all candid and 
 reflecting men. Many of this character did 
 in fact approve and sign it ; but as it always 
 happens, when more than ordinary efforts 
 >\re made on the side of Religion, an outcry 
 was immediately raised by the trifling and li- 
 centious ; and the most shameful misrepre- 
 sentations of the objects of the Society were 
 industriously and widely circulated. A- 
 mongst other things, it was confidently af- 
 firmed in the newspapers of the day, that the 
 Declaration was only a preparatory step to 
 the introduction of a Bill into Parliament, 
 in order to take away from the common peo- 
 ple all the usual comforts of the Sunday ; to 
 prevent them from seeing a single friend, or 
 from taking their evening walk ; to confine 
 them rigidly in their own habitations, and to 
 
tOG LIEE OF 
 
 oblige them to spend the day in fasting and 
 in prayer. In all this there was not, and 
 could not be, a particle of truth : yet this, 
 and other gross perversions of a most lauda- 
 ble design, but too well answered their pur- 
 pose, by exciting groundless alarms and pre- 
 judices in a part of the community, who 
 would otherwise, it is probable, have had no 
 scruple in supporting a measure, the real and 
 the only object of which was a more rational 
 and a more religious observance of the 
 Christian Sabbath. Upon this point, the 
 Bishop makes the following just observa- 
 tion T "That men," he says, "who wish 
 to see not only the Lord's Day, but the 
 Christian Religion, extinguished in this 
 country, should raise such an outcry against 
 a measure calculated to preserve both, is no 
 wonder : but that men of sense, of piety, 
 and of virtue, should adopt the same lan- 
 guage, and join in the profane and senseless 
 uproar, is perfectly astonishing." 
 
 Early in 1800, his long and memorable 
 contest with a Clergyman in his diocese, was 
 brought to a favourable conclusion by the 
 latter suffering judgment to go by default, 
 and the consequent forfeiture to the Crown 
 
BISHOP POKTEVS. 107 
 
 of a valuable living in Essex. The ques- 
 tion thus terminated was of great importance 
 to the Church of England ; as it was the 
 means of putting an effectual stop to a spe- 
 cies of Simony at that time gaining ground ; 
 namely, purchasing the advowson of a living, 
 and then taking a lease of the tythes, glebe, 
 house, &c. for ninety-nine years, at a pepper- 
 corn rent, and entering into immediate pos- 
 session of the premises, and all the profits ? 
 just as if there had been an immediate resig- 
 nation. It is evident, that a practice such as 
 this> was subversive of the proper exercise 
 of ecclesiastical discipline, by virtually taking 
 from the Ordinary the power, which by law 
 he has, of rejecting the proffered resignation 
 of a benefice under a suspicion of Simony. 
 The Bishop therefore had long determined, 
 whenever the living in question should be- 
 come vacant by the demise of the incumbent, 
 to refuse institution on the above-mentioned 
 ground ; and when the time arrived, he ad- 
 hered inflexibly to his purpose, and tried the 
 question. In doing this, he was well aware 
 that he was bringing upon himself much 
 trouble, and no slight expense ; but such 
 considerations had no weight upon his mind ; 
 
103 LIFE OF 
 
 nor was he tempted by any solicitations, 
 though very strong ones were made, to change 
 his resolution. Amongst others, he receiv- 
 ed a formal application, from the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, and nearly the whole Magistracy of 
 the county of Essex ; but though he concur- 
 red with them in giving full credit to the gen- 
 tleman, in whose favour they had interested 
 themselves, for his agricultural exertions, 
 and his great activity as a county magistrate, 
 he yet declared unequivocally in his answer, 
 that he could not on that account connive at 
 a simoniacal contract ; a contract of which 
 he had in his possession the clearest proof ; 
 which he considered as pregnant with the 
 worst consequences to the Established 
 Church ; and which therefore he felt himself 
 called upon, in his episcopal character, firm- 
 ly to resist. 
 
 The same paramount principle of public 
 duty had induced him some time before to 
 withhold his assent to an appointment by the 
 East-India Company to a chaplaincy in Ben- 
 gal. As the transaction alluded to was in its 
 consequences of great importance, and was so 
 considered by the Bishop, I shall give the 
 account of it in his own words, 
 
BSIHOP POIilLliS. 100 
 
 ^ k The charter of the East- India Company 
 requires, that the chaplains, whom they shall 
 appoint, shall be approved by the Archbish- 
 op of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London. 
 The Clergyman therefore elected on this oc- 
 casion, applied to me for my approbation: 
 but as I had been informed, upon unques- 
 tionable authority, that he was a very im- 
 proper person for the situation, I peremptorily 
 refused to confirm the appointment. This 
 produced much clamour, violence and oblo- 
 quy from him and his friends ; and amongst 
 other things I was threatened with a Manda- 
 mus from the Court of King's Bench. But 
 I stood my ground, and carried my point. 
 I was also strongly urged and called upon to 
 assign my reasons for the opposition I had 
 made -to him ; but I refused to give any, ex- 
 cept that I thought him an unfit person for 
 the place: conceiving the power given me 
 by the charter to be perfectly discretional. 
 By this resistance, and the final, though re- 
 luctant acquiescence of the East-India Com- 
 pany, the right of the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury and Bishop of London, to refuse 
 their assent without assigning a reason, is 
 fully established; and it is on this accpunt 
 K 
 
i 
 
 HO LIFE Of 
 
 that I leave the transaction on record, for the 
 information of my successors in the See of 
 London ; it being a matter of the utmost 
 importance to the interests of religion in our 
 East-India settlements." To this I am en- 
 abled to add, that since this opposition, which 
 marks in a strong point of view the Bishop's 
 firmness of mind, in a matter which nothing 
 but spirit and energy could have accomplish- 
 ed, the Company have been much more care- 
 ful in recommending clergy men of approved 
 principles and morals, than they had former- 
 ly been. Some of the Directors in particu- 
 lar have paid, much to their honour, pecu- 
 liar attention to this subject; and there can 
 indeed be no question, that it is of the ut- 
 most moment, in a country like India, where 
 there is no general ecclesiastical establish- 
 ment, that the services of the church should 
 at least be performed by men deeply impres- 
 sed with the dignity of their sacred function, 
 and able and zealous in the discharge of its 
 duties. 
 
 In April 1800, Lord Auckland presented 
 a Bill to the House of Lords, the object of 
 which was to render it unlawful for persons 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 1 H 
 
 divorced for adultery to intermarry with each 
 other. This unhappily failed; and it was 
 matter of very sincere regret to the Bishop, 
 that a measure, as he conceived, imperious- 
 ly called for by the increasing profligacy of 
 the times, recommended by every motive ot 
 expediency, and sanctioned by the most ex- 
 press declarations of Scripture, should not 
 have been permitted to pass into a law.* 
 During its progress in the Upper House, he 
 .spoke strongly in its favour ; and he took oc- 
 
 * The absolute necessity of some legislative measure 
 to check the progress of adulterous intercourse, cannot 
 be more strikingly exemplified than by a declaration 
 made by Lord Auckland, that from the reformation to 
 the beginning of the present century, he could only find 
 four instances of parliamentary divorces : but that in the 
 present reign they had then increased to the enormous 
 number of 198. If, however, any further proof were 
 wanting, it would be the still more alarming growth of 
 adultery within the last few years, and, above all, the 
 tool, deliberate, unblushing indifference with which it is 
 committed. In a recent instance, more particularly, it 
 seems to have been reduced into a system, and to have 
 set at open defiance all decency and all law. Surely 
 those, in whose hands the government of this country is 
 placed, are bound, as they value the Divine blessing, to 
 provide without delay some effectual barrier against the 
 further spread of so much shameless iniquity. 
 
112 LIFE Ot 
 
 tasion to express the same sentiments, when 
 an unsuccessful attempt was after wards made 
 by the present Marquis of Buckingham, to 
 introduce a clause into a private Divorce 
 Bill, with a view of prohibiting the intermar- 
 riage of the guilty parties. His speech, on 
 this last occasion, was as follows : 
 
 " After the very able manner in which the 
 clause proposed has been now supported, I 
 certainly do not mean to take up much of 
 your Lordships' time, in prolonging the dis- 
 cussion of it. But, on a question of such im- 
 portance, in which the interests of morality 
 and religion are so essentially concerned, it is 
 impossible for me, in the situation which I 
 have the honour to hold in the church, to give 
 a silent vote. I therefore rise merely for the, 
 purpose of declaring publicly my entire con- 
 currence in the clause proposed by the no- 
 ble Marquis. I have on former occasions 
 fully explained my sentiments on this sub- 
 ject, and every thing I have heard in the 
 course of this day's debate confirms me in 
 those sentiments. The clause, though it 
 will certainly not go to the root of the evil, 
 yet will surely be some check -to adultery, 
 at least on the part of the female. It will 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 take away the encouragement at present giv- 
 en to that detestable crime, by the prospect 
 of a future marriage of the adulteress with her 
 seducer; which is in fact offering a reward 
 to vice, and holding out a premium to adul- 
 tery. This premium operates most forcibly 
 on the female mind r and tends to destroy 
 that connection, which God and nature have 
 established between guilt and disgrace; a con- 
 stitution of things, much wiser, I apprehend, 
 and much more conducive to the general wel- 
 fare of mankind, than that very liberal system 
 of modern ethics, which inculcates so much 
 pity and tenderness and indulgence to crimes 
 of the very worst complexion. I am aware, 
 my Lords, that this clause is only a partial 
 remedy. It does not go to the punishment 
 of the seducer, who is, I confess, generally 
 the most culpable of the two guilty parties. 
 But this may be brought forward on some 
 future occasion. In the mean time, let us 
 do something; let us do what we can. To 
 crush an evil of such magnitude, we must 
 go on gradually, and proceed step by step. 
 The hydra of adultery cannot be subdued all 
 at once: but we may cut off the many heads of 
 K 2 
 
11-1 LIFE 0* 
 
 the monster one by one, till at last it may be- 
 come a lifeless trunk. 
 
 " My Lords, I shall only detain your 
 Lordships a few moments more, just to no- 
 tice an argument, which has been very much 
 relied upon by the Noble Lords, who ob- 
 ject to the clause in question, and which ap- 
 pears to me wholly gratuitous and unfound- 
 td. They have always taken it for granted, 
 and assumed it as a kind of postulatum, that 
 if the adulteress be not permitted to marry 
 her seducer, she is necessarily and of course 
 driven into prostitution for life. Now this 
 I hold to be an assumption which cannot be 
 maintained. Is there no 'alternative, no mid- 
 dle and better course between marriage with 
 the seducer and a life of prostitution? Is 
 it not possible, that the adulteress may be 
 struck with horror, with contrition and re- 
 morse for her crime? May she not even wish 
 to seclude herself for a time from the world; 
 to withdraw herself from the observation of 
 mankind, and endeavour to recover in the 
 privacy of retirement those virtuous habits 
 which she has unfortunately lost? Instances 
 of this sort are undoubtedly to be found, es- 
 pecially amongst those, who have been edu~ 
 
BISHOP PORT l 
 
 cated in principles of virtue and religion, but 
 in some unguarded hour have, by the vile 
 aits of an abandoned man, been betrayed into 
 guilt. This, my Lords, has, I know, some- 
 times happened; and sure I am, that this 
 temporary seclusion gives a woman an infi- 
 nitely better chance for recovery, than a 
 marriage with her seducer. For, can your 
 Lordships suppose, that the conversation 
 and society of a man, who has shewn him- 
 self destitute of every principle of honour 
 and virtue ; who has been guilty of so foul 
 and base a crime, as to corrupt the wife, of 
 perhaps his dearest friend, and plunge the ve- 
 ry object of his affection into a gulf of sin 
 and misery ; can your Lordships, I say, sup- 
 pose, that the society of such a man can pos- 
 sibly be the means of restoring to her that pu- 
 rity of mind which he has himself destroyed ; 
 or that his house should be the proper school 
 for repentance and for reformation? No, my 
 Lords, the true, the only way to bring the 
 unhappy victim back into the path of virtue, 
 is to separate her from the arms of her vile 
 betrayer; to lead her into retirement; to 
 place her under the protection of a few kind 
 relatives or friends, and thus give her an op- 
 
110 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 portunity of making her peace with her of- 
 fended Maker; and, by the discreetness and 
 circumspection of her future conduct, of re- 
 covering in some degree her former character, 
 and re- establishing herself in the good opin- 
 ion of the world." 
 
 It was during the debate on this subject 
 in the House of Lords, that Lord Clare, at 
 that time Lord Chancellor of Ireland, pub- 
 licly declared in Parliament, that, in his opin- 
 ion, marriage was a mere civil contract, and 
 that where that contract was declared void 
 by a competent jurisdiction, the parties were 
 at liberty to marry again. " Now this posi- 
 tion," says the Bishop, " I hold to be a false 
 and dangerous doctrine. Marriage is indeed 
 a civil contract; but then it is also some- 
 thing more. It is a divine ordinance. It is 
 so pronounced to be by our Saviour. It is 
 also declared so to be in our Marriage Cere- 
 mony. Now the Christian religion is incor- 
 porated into our Constitution, and made a 
 part of the law of the land ; and the Litur- 
 gy besides is formally established by Act of 
 Parliament. It follows therefore that matri- 
 mony is considered by the law of England 
 as a divine institution. Indeed, if it were 
 
BISHOP PORTED. 117 
 
 not so, why should adultery be considered 
 as so very heinous a crime ? What would 
 the breach -of marriage be as a mere civil 
 contract, but a mere civil offence." 
 
 To this I may add, that Lord Loughbo- 
 rough, then Lord Chancellor, at the Bishop's 
 earnest and particular request, took occasion 
 to give a direct contradiction to Lord Clare's 
 assertion, by declaring it to be his fixed 
 opinion, that " marriage was not only a civil 
 institution, but also a divine ordinance, and 
 that k was uniformly so considered by the 
 laws of England." 
 
 The year 1800 closed by a singular con- 
 currence of circumstances ; the commence- 
 ment on the same day of a new year, a new 
 century, and the Union of Ireland with Great 
 Britain. Such a combination of events 
 would naturally make a strong impression 
 on a thinking and religious mind, and it evi- 
 dently made a very strong one on the Bish- 
 op. " The present/' he says, in a passage 
 written with his thoughts full of the subject, 
 and elevated by the warmest patriotic feel- 
 ings, " the present is a memorable aera in 
 the annals of this kingdom. God grant it 
 
11& LIFE OF 
 
 may be a happy one ! Auspicium melioris- 
 revi! replete with the choicest blessings of 
 Heaven upon this land, and bringing back to 
 us once more that Divine assistance and pro- 
 tection, which have lately been withdrawn 
 from us, and without which all the efforts of 
 human wisdom and power, as we have found 
 by sad experience, can avail us nothing I" 
 
 " To me," he adds, " a gracious Provi- 
 dence has marked the close of this centu- 
 ry by many propitious circumstances ; more 
 particularly, by favouring me with success 
 in a contest of great importance with a cler- 
 gyman of my diocese, in which the interests 
 of Religion and the Church of England 
 were materially involved. Would to God I 
 the century had closed in a manner equally 
 favourable to this country. But, alas ! it 
 has been the reverse. The last year has en- 
 tirely blotted out all the glorious events and 
 fair prospects of the preceding one, and left 
 us in a more perilous situation than we were 
 ever placed in before ! In truth, the sud- 
 den, frequent, and astonishing vicissitudes 
 of this war have no parrellel in history, and 
 are plainly out of the ordinary course of hu- 
 man affairs. They bear the most evident 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. I !l) 
 
 marks of an Almighty overruling hand ; and, 
 sure I am, that nothing but the interposition 
 of the same irresistible Power in our behalf 
 ^an rescue us from ruin." 
 
 Such were the sentiments of this great 
 Prelate more than ten years ago on the state 
 of this country. How much greater reason 
 have we at the present day, and amidst the 
 present awful and tumultuous scene of things 
 to stand amazed at the mysterious ways of 
 Providence, and to send up our devoutest 
 prayers to the Supreme Disposer of all human 
 events, not to forsake us in this hour of pe- 
 ril ! Unless He protect us, we must sink in- 
 evitably beneath the dangers which surround 
 us: and yet who must not tremble at the 
 thought, how very little we deserve to be 
 protected ! 
 
 In the Autumn of 1801, a very interest, 
 ing scene took place, which, though strictly 
 of a private nature, I cannot forbear from 
 mentioning. It is thus related by the Bish- 
 op : " Yesterday, the 6th of August, I 
 
 passed a very pleasant day at Shrewsbury 
 House, near Shooter's Hill, the residence of 
 the Princess Charlotte of Wales. The day 
 was fine; and the prospect extensive and 
 
i20 LIFE OF 
 
 beautiful, taking in a large reach of the 
 Thames, which was covered with vessels of 
 various sizes and descriptions. We saw 
 a good deal of the young Princess. She is 
 a most captivating and engaging child, and, 
 considering the high station she may hereaf- 
 ter fill, a most interesting and important one. 
 She repeated to me several of her hymns 
 with great correctness and propriety; and 
 on being told that, when she went to 
 South-End in Essex, as she afterwards did 
 for the benefit of sea-bathing, she would then 
 be in my Diocese, she fell down on her knees 
 and begged my blessing. I gave it her with 
 all my heart, and with my earnest secret 
 prayers to God, that she might adoni her il- 
 lustrious station with every Christian grace ; 
 and that if ever she became the Queen of 
 this truly great and glorious country, she 
 might be the means of diffusing virtue, piety, 
 and happiness through every part of her 
 dominions!" 
 
 Soon after this incident occurred, the Bish- 
 op went, as usual, to his little cottage at Sun- 
 dridge. It has been already stated, that on 
 his accession to the See of London, he was 
 Obliged very reluctantly to relinquish Hun- 
 
BISHOP PORTIAS. 121 
 
 ton. From that time he lived principally dur- 
 ing the summer at Fulham Palace, which, by 
 the successive improvements it had under- 
 gone, and particularly by some very judicious 
 alterations of his own, adding much both to 
 its beauty and convenience, was in all respects 
 a truly venerable and most desirable resi- 
 dence. So indeed he always considered it : 
 but still, from its proximity to the Metro- 
 polis, and its being close to a poor and popu- 
 lous village, it had not that tranquillity and 
 retirement about it, which he so much co- 
 veted : and therefore, soon after entering 
 upon his new bishoprick, he determined to 
 obtain some small habitation in his favourite 
 county of Kent, where he might spend a 
 month or two every Autumn ; and one of 
 that description being vacant at Sundridge, 
 he immediately secured the lease of it. The 
 situation was a most delightful one, about 
 the middle of the beautiful valley, which 
 runs between Westerham and Sevenoaks, in 
 a country remarkable for its rich, picturesque 
 and varied scenery, abounding in the best 
 society, and possessing, in short, all the at- 
 tractions which could recommend it to his 
 choice. Here then he always passed a part- 
 t 
 
122 LIFE OF 
 
 of the year in a manner most agreeable to his 
 wishes ; enjoying that rural quiet, which car- 
 ried to his mind so many charms ; mixing 
 cheerfully and frequently with the excellent 
 neighbourhood by which he was surround- 
 ed; inquiring into and relieving the wants 
 of the poor people who needed his assistance, 
 and benefiting them in every way by his 
 care, his counsel, his instruction and his ex- 
 ample. Amongst other instances of atten- 
 tion to them, he contributed liberally, at the 
 time I am speaking of, towards repairing 
 and embellishing their parochial church* : 
 and I shall soon have occasion to record an 
 act of still greater munificence, which, if 
 any thing could have added to the respect 
 and veneration in which he was before held, 
 will immortalize his name as the benefactor 
 of that parish. 
 
 * The chancel was at the same time much improved at 
 the expense of the present worthy Rector of Sundridge, 
 Dr. Vyse ; and Lord Frederick Campbell, who resides 
 at a most beautiful place in the parish, called Coomb 
 Bank, and of whose benevolence on all occasions, where 
 it can be usefully, exerted, it is impossible to speak too 
 highly, undertook to makje an excellent road to the 
 church, instead of a very narrow and bad one, which be- 
 fore led to it from the village. 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 123 
 
 In the months of April and May in the 
 following year, 1802, he undertook for the 
 fourth time the visitation of his Diocese. 
 This at his advanced age was an arduous and 
 laborious undertaking; more particularly, 
 as from its increasing population he thought 
 it necessary to extend his confirmations to 
 the more distant parts of the county of Es- 
 sex, where they had never been held before, 
 On this occasion, I had the honour of atten- 
 ding him, as his chaplain; and I can never 
 forget the admirable and striking manner in 
 which he executed all the duties of his high 
 station ; the attention, the respect, the kind- 
 ness which he shewed to his Clergy ; the 
 anxiety he displayed to rectify all that was 
 wrong, to encourage all that was good ; the 
 dignified solemnity, with which he perform- 
 ed the rite of Confirmation, and the deep im- 
 pression, which was uniformly made by his 
 animated, simple, and affectionate address to 
 the congregation, when that service was con- 
 cluded. This address, I doubt not, is still 
 fixed, in substance at least, on the recollec- 
 tion of thousands : but as a correct copy of 
 it has never been before the public, and as 
 those, who heard it, cannot but feel an inter- 
 
MPE OF 
 
 st in reading, what so much touched and 
 affected them at the time of its delivery, I 
 shall here insert it at length. 
 
 " The office of Confirmation is now over:' 
 but before you leave this place, I have a few 
 words to say to you, to which I desire you 
 will all pay the most serious attention. Re- 
 member, I beseech you, every one of you, 
 as long as you live, what has passed here this 
 clay. Think not that it is a mere formal, un- 
 meaning ceremony, which extends not be- 
 yond the moment ; which may be forgotten 
 as soon as it is over, and which can have no 
 influence on your future conditon either here 
 or hereafter. On the contrary, it is one of 
 the most awful, one of the most important, 
 and, if it is not your own fault, one of the 
 most useful acts of your whole lives. It is 
 a solemn dedication of yourselves in this sa- 
 cred place to God and to religion. It is a 
 voluntary oblation of yourselves, your souls 
 and bodies, at your first entrance into the 
 world, at the first commencement of your 
 rational life, to the service of your Maker 
 and Redeemer. You have, in short, chosen 
 this day whom you will serve ; you have 
 chosen Christ for your Lord and Master ; 
 
15I5HOP PORTEUS. 125 
 
 you have, in the presence of God and of 
 this congregation, professed yourselves his 
 disciples; you have vowed fidelity and alle- 
 giance to him ; you have promised to believe 
 his doctrines and to obey his laws. 
 
 " Take care then, every one of you, that 
 you punctually fulfil these sacred engage- 
 ments; and be assured, that, upon your do- 
 ing so, depend the whole comfort and happi- 
 ness of your future lives, both in this world 
 and the next. And that you may be enabled 
 to do all this, you must frequently and fer- 
 vently apply for the assistance of God's Holy 
 Spirit; you must never let the morning 
 rise nor the evening close upon you, without 
 addressing God in private prayer; you must 
 be constant in your attendance on the public 
 service of the Church, on the Lord's Day, 
 both morning and afternoon ; you must re- 
 member that God claims that day as his orvn 
 and that he has stamped upon it a peculiar 
 mark of sanctity, which you must never dare 
 to violate by following your ordinary amuse- 
 ments, or ordinary occupations on that day, 
 or by any act of levity, dissipation, profane- 
 ness and immorality. 
 
 " And you must not only attend to the 
 L2 
 
126 LIFE OP 
 
 general duties of the Church, but must pre- 
 pare yourselves, as soon as possible, for that 
 most solemn rite of our religion, the Sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper: that supper, 
 which Christ himself did almost with his dy- 
 ing breath command you to receive in remem- 
 brance of him. Above all things, let this 
 consideration sink deep into your hearts, and 
 be for ever present to your thoughts;* that 
 this world is not the only one you have to 
 live in ; but that after death you will pass 
 into another, where you will be judged for 
 every thing that you have thought, said, or 
 done in this ; and according as you are found 
 innocent or guilty, by your Almighty Judge 
 you will, through the merits of your Redee- 
 mer, be rewarded with everlasting happiness, 
 or, on the contrary, be doomed to never-cea- 
 sing misery. 
 
 " Eternity, in short, with all its awful 
 train of consequences, is now before you, 
 and whether it shall be a happy or a misera- 
 ble one, will in a great degree depend on the 
 course you now take at your first setting 
 out in the world; for the habits you now 
 form will determine your future character 
 and conduct: the steps you now take will 
 
BISHOP PORTEVS. 127 
 
 probably decide your doom for ever. Be 
 resolved then at once, and Remember your 
 Creator in the days of your youth. If you 
 do, you may depend upon it, that your Crea- 
 tor will not forget you all the days of your 
 life. He \vill look down upon you with an 
 eye of uncommon favour and approbation. 
 He will bless and prosper you in all your ho- 
 nest designs and undertakings ; will conduct 
 you through the dangers, the difficulties, the 
 distresses of this mortal scene, to a state of 
 endless felicity hereafter ; and in the mean- 
 while, like your blessed Master in the same 
 period of life, you will be growing in wis- 
 dom, and in stature, and in favour both with 
 God and man. 
 
 " You may now depart to your respective 
 homes, and may the blessing of God for ever 
 rest upon you." 
 
 The Charge, which he delivered on this 
 last visitation, was inferior in spirit, energy 
 and usefulness, to none of the former. It 
 embraced a variety of the most important 
 topics ; and, in particular, the necessity of 
 redoubled zeal, on the part of the clergy, not 
 only to counteract the pernicious tendency 
 of that multitude of foreign infidel publi- 
 
123 
 
 Of 
 
 cations, which during the short interval of 
 peace, had found their way into this country; 
 but also to check in the most effectual way, 
 the growth of fanaticism, and of separation 
 from the Church. The way which he re- 
 commended to them, as best according with 
 the true spirit and genius of Christianity, 
 was, not violence and animosity, not bitter- 
 ness and persecution, but a faithful, fervent, 
 conscientious discharge of the whole and 
 every part of their ministerial duty; and it 
 is assuredly the only way by which we can 
 ever hope to prevail against that sectarian 
 zeal, which strengthens with our weakness, 
 and triumphs by our inactivity .... I hesi- 
 tate not to quote the following passage, be- 
 cause it speaks the language of wisdom, 
 and cannot be too widely diffused through 
 every part of the kingdom. " It is," says 
 the Bishop, " a fact, which admits of little 
 doubt, that when the itinerant preacher goes 
 forth upon his mission, he commonly looks 
 out for those parishes, where either the shep- 
 herd has entirely deserted his flock, and is 
 employing or amusing himself elsewhere, 
 or where he unfortunately pays so little atten- 
 tion to it, is so indolent, so lukewarm, so 
 
lilSHOP PORTEUS. 129 
 
 indifferent to its welfare, as to make it an easy 
 prey to every bold invader. There that in- 
 vader finds an easy access and a welcome 
 reception, and soon collects together a large 
 number of proselytes. But, in general, he 
 very prudently keeps aloof from those par- 
 ishes, where he sees a resident minister con- 
 ducting himself in the manner I have above 
 described ; watching over his people with 
 unremitted care; grounding them early in 
 the rudiments of sound religion ; guarding 
 them carefully against the false glosses and 
 dangerous delusions of illiterate and unau- 
 thorised teachers; bringing them to a con- 
 slant attendance on divine worship in their 
 parish churches: and manifesting the same 
 zeal, activity, and earnestness to retain his 
 people in the Church of England, which he 
 sees others exert to seduce them from it. 
 Into parishes so constituted, the self-commis- 
 sioned preacher seldom, if ever, enters ; or, 
 if he does, he rarely gains any permanent 
 footing, any settled establishment in them. 
 He is in most cases forced to give way to 
 the superior weight and influence of a regu- 
 lar, a learned, an exemplary, and a diligent 
 pastor. This then is the true, the most cf- 
 
130 LIFE OF 
 
 fectual way, of counteracting the progress of 
 schism and fanaticism. There are numbers, 
 I am persuaded, here present, who can, from 
 their own experience, and their own lauda- 
 ble exertions, bear testimony to the truth of 
 this position ; and whenever this remedy is 
 universally applied (as I hope and trust it 
 gradually will) I do not hesitate to predict 
 that the evil complained of will be consider- 
 ably lessened, ?n some instances entirely sub- 
 dued. 
 
 " Indeed, it would, I think, be degrading 
 to the honour and dignity of our antient and 
 venerable Establishment, to suppose that a 
 Church founded on the Gospel of Christ ; 
 cemented with the blood of its martyrs; con- 
 structed by some of the wisest, most learned, 
 most pious, most eminent men of that or al- 
 most any other period ; a Church, which has 
 stood the test of ages, and the shock of perse- 
 cution; which is the great bulwark of Protes- 
 tantism in Europe, the admiration of foreign 
 nations, and the glory of our own ; it would, 
 I say, be paying but an ill compliment to such 
 an Establishment to suppose, that a Church so 
 constituted, and at the same time suppor- 
 ted and protected by the State, can be 
 
BISHOP PORTEVS. 131 
 
 ken, or in any material degree injured, by the 
 invectives or misrepresentations of any ad- 
 versaries that we have to contend withe 
 No, my Brethren, let us think better of our- 
 selves ; let us be true to ourselves ; let us 
 make the best use of the vast advantages we 
 possess ; let us exert ourselves in our se- 
 veral stations with diligence, with vigour, 
 with energy and with perseverance, and we 
 have nothing to fear." 
 
 In addition to these admirable observa- 
 tions, which I would to God were universal- 
 ly felt and followed, he exhorted his clergy 
 to encourage amongst their people, peculi- 
 arly at such a time, a spirit of loyalty, obedi- 
 ence and subordination ; and, with that view 
 recommended to them in the strongest terms 
 the adoption in their respective parishes of 
 those excellent institutions, Sunday Schools; 
 or, if these should be disapproved, or thought 
 impracticable, the propriety at least in some 
 'way or other of educating the lower classes 
 of the people, and instructing them in the 
 principles of the Christian Faith. The con- 
 clusion of this Charge, the last he ever deli- 
 vered, is very affecting. " I have now sta- 
 ted to you," he says, " what appeared to me 
 
132 LIFE OF 
 
 most worthy of your attention, and most 
 necessary to the present moment. And as. 
 at my advanced period of life, I dare scarce- 
 ly indulge the hope of being permitted to 
 meet you again in this place, I was anxious 
 to take this opportunity of collecting into one 
 view, and pressing upon your most serious 
 consideration, every thing that presented it- 
 self to my mind, as most conducive to your 
 real credit and welfare, to the best interests 
 of the Church of England, and to the gener- 
 al diffusion of sound morality and genuine 
 piety and religion throughout the great mass 
 of the people of this land. What I have 
 here offered to your thoughts, I do in my 
 best judgment, after the most mature consi- 
 deration and the experience of a long life, 
 most conscientiously believe to be well cal- 
 culated for those important purposes ; and I 
 entreat -you to receive it as the advice of one, 
 who can now have no other possible view in 
 this world but that of discharging the various 
 duties incumbent on him (more especially 
 those which he owes to you) to the best of 
 those abilities, which God has given him. 
 And it will be my last and most fervent 
 prayer to Heaven^that both you and I may 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 13o 
 
 be well prepared for that most awful account, 
 which we must all of us give, of the sacred 
 and important trust reposed in us, at the 
 tribunal of our Almighty Judge." 
 
 On the subject of Residence, in this 
 Charge, the Bishop stated that the considera- 
 tion of the question was then before the Le- 
 gislature. The fact was, that under the 
 Statutes of the 21st of Henry the Eighth, 
 many vexatious prosecutions had been in- 
 stituted by common informers, for the mere 
 sake of the penalties, against non-resident 
 clergy; inconsequence of which, many ex- 
 cellent men had been subjected to great hard- 
 ships. It was therefore extremely desira- 
 ble, that such persons should be relieved 
 from the pressure of these Acts; and accord- 
 ingly with this view a short Bill was in the 
 first instance introduced, to suspend all ac- 
 tions on the Statutes of Henry till the 25th 
 of March 1802. And during the interval 
 another Bill was brought forward by Sir 
 William Scott, the outline of which, as 
 stated by himself in a speech of great learn- 
 ing, ability and eloquence, was shortly this: 
 first, on the matter of farming for on that 
 point also the Act of Henry was extremely 
 M 
 
r i34 LIFE OF 
 
 rigorous and severe to give the clergy the 
 liberty of farming in cases where they had 
 been injuriously prohibited; and, secondly, 
 in the matter of residence to give a fair 
 and reasonable allowance of time to the cler- 
 gyman for the occasions of private life, free 
 from the vexatious suits of an informer, 
 though still subject to the superintendancc 
 of his proper superior : to allow an exemp- 
 tion from all penalties for clergymen bearing 
 certain offices, during the times required for 
 the duties of those offices: to restore the 
 power of bishops to grant licenses for ab- 
 scence in certain enumerated and expressed 
 cases ; and in other cases, which cannot be 
 specifically foreseen or provided for, to allow 
 the concurrence and consent of the metropo- 
 litan to have that effect. This Bill, which, 
 before it was introduced, had been long in 
 contemplation, was afterwards warmly deba- 
 ted in Parliament, and every point of it ma- 
 turely weighed and thoroughly discussed. 
 Many of its clauses were very strongly op- 
 posed; and, amongst others, the Bishop 
 was himself of opinion, that the exemptions 
 were too numerous, so as considerably to 
 weaken the general good effects of the Bill. 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 135 
 
 w Those," he observes, a which I particu- 
 larly wished to be omitted, were, in the first 
 class of absolute exemptions, those granted 
 to the Chaplains of the British Factories 
 abroad and to Fellows of Colleges ; and, in 
 the second class of discretionary exemptions, 
 those allowed to Masters of Hospitals, Lec- 
 turers and Preachers of Proprietary Cha- 
 ples, or to the Masters or Ushers of Schools, 
 not endowed. I also objected to the permis- 
 sion given to persons possessing small bene- 
 fices to serve curacies in great towns or other 
 places; and to the omission of the Oath of 
 Residence formerly taken. Experience will 
 shew, whether these and perhaps a few 
 other exemptions will not open too wide a 
 door to non-residence, and in some degree 
 defeat the good intentions of the Legislature, 
 and the great object of the Bill. I admit 
 however that, in its general frame and struc- 
 ture, it is undoubtedly a very judicious one, 
 and that it reflects the highest credit on the 
 temper, moderation, and distinguished ta- 
 lents of the excellent person who drew it up, 
 and who took upon himself the laborious 
 task of carrying it through the House of 
 Commons.' 7 
 
126 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 During the discussion of this question ia 
 the Committee of the House of Lords, the 
 Bishop proposed a clause, empowering the 
 ordinary to require a resident curate, wher- 
 ever the incumbent himself was exempted 
 from residence. This he considered abso- 
 lutely necessary to remedy the imperfections 
 and render effectual the beneficial operations 
 of the Act. It was thought however at 
 that time that the introduction of such a 
 clause might risk the passing of the original 
 Bill, and that it would on the whole be a 
 safer course, if a separate Bill were brought 
 in for that purpose ; which was afterwards 
 done by Sir William Scott, though without 
 success ; for so many objections were made 
 from various quarters, and such unforeseen 
 difficulties arose in the prosecution of the 
 measure, that he at length determined not to 
 proceed with it further. This to the Bishop 
 was a mortifying and severe disappoint- 
 ment : but yet with such an object in view 
 an object, as he considered it, strictly conso- 
 nant with every principle of justice, and es- 
 sentially involving the best interests of reli- 
 gion he was not discouraged, as I shall soon 
 have occasion to state, from making another 
 effort to carry it into effect, 
 
BISHOP POKTEl 'js. 137 
 
 In the mean time, a question of considera- 
 ble importance to the London Clergy enga- 
 much of his attention, and it was, I be- 
 lieve, in no small degree owing to his exer- 
 tions, that it finally succeeded. The cir- 
 cumstances, in which it originated, were 
 shortly these. In consequence of the fire of 
 London in 1666, eighty-five churches were 
 destroyed : of these, fifty-one were rebuilt, 
 .and the eighty-five parishes were also re- 
 duced to the same number. Instead how- 
 ever of the maintenance of the clergy being 
 regulated, as before, by a rate increasing 
 with the increase of property and the 
 augmented expense of living, an Act of 
 Charles the Second, commonly called the 
 Fire Act) limited their incomes to certain, 
 fixed sums, the largest of which did not ex- 
 ceed 200/. per annum. This, though at the 
 lime it was considered, and perhaps might 
 be, an adequate provision, became soon a 
 very insufficient one ; and, in fact, exactly 
 in proportion as their parishioners grew 
 rich, the incumbents became less capable of 
 supporting themselves with that decency 
 and respectability, which, especially in a 
 large commercial city, their stations requir- 
 
133 LfFE OF 
 
 ed. But, in a peculiar degree in the pre- 
 sent times, when from various causes the 
 price of all the necessaries of life has been 
 so enormously advanced, the inadequacy of 
 such a maintenance was felt with such seve- 
 rity, as to render it absolutely necessary to 
 call in the aid of the Legislature : and it 
 \vas- therefore the object of the Bill, then 
 proposed by the Bishop, to improve, on the 
 authority of Parliament, all the livings under 
 die Act of Charles, by an increased rate up- 
 on property. This, however, though call- 
 ed for equally by justice and necessity, was 
 strongly opposed ; chiefly on the ground, 
 that there was no consent of the parties af- 
 fected by it, namely, the inhabitants of the 
 several parishes where the augmentation was 
 to be made ; and that without that consent 
 it would be an unreasonable and unjust inva- 
 sion of private property. But it was answer- 
 ed, and amongst others, with great impre3- 
 bion, by the Bishop, that the Bill had then 
 been eighteen months in agitation, during 
 which period no petition against it of any 
 kind had been received from any one of 
 the parishes ; a circumstance, he observed, 
 which ought surely to be considered as an-ac- 
 
BISHOP FORTktS. 139 
 
 quiescence on their part, implied though not 
 expressed, and, as in fact it was, a tacit con- 
 sent to the measure. This reasoning was 
 considered sufficient, and the Bill passed 
 without further opposition. " Thus," ho 
 says, " after a long delay, and difficulties of 
 various kinds, was a most important mea- 
 sure brought to an issue ; the London Cler- 
 gy were highly gratified by it, and express- 
 eel themselves much obliged by the exer- 
 tions I had made. It was indeed an object, 
 in which I felt most deeply interested, and 
 its success has given me heartfelt satisfac- 
 tion : for it has not only procured a consi- 
 derable addition of income to fifty of the Lon- 
 don Incumbents, but has also, I hope, in its 
 principle, laid a foundation for a future aug- 
 mentation of their benefices, whenever par- 
 ticular emergencies may render it necessary ; 
 and from what fell from several Noble Lords' 
 in the course of the debate, I cannot help flat- 
 tering myself, that it may ultimately lead the 
 way to a reasonable increase of all the poorer 
 livings throughout England and Wales." 
 
 In the winter of the following year, 1805, 
 Bishop, with that unceasing attention 
 
 iich he paid, in every thing, to the great 
 
140 LIFE OF 
 
 concerns of religion, took considerable pains 
 to suppress a custom, which he justly con- 
 sidered, in common with many others, as a 
 most glaring violation of public decency, 
 and which was evidently gaining ground in 
 the fashionable world ; namely, that of Sun- 
 clay Concerts at private houses by profes- 
 sional performers, at which large numbers 
 were assembled, and much disturbance cre- 
 ated on the evening of that sacred day. This 
 was a profanation, which in his high respon- 
 sible station, as Diocesan of the Metropolis, 
 it was his duty, if possible, to prevent ; and 
 accordingly with this view he separately ad- 
 dressed the following letter to three ladies of 
 high rank in society, who, by opening their 
 houses for these musical exhibitions, had 
 contributed principally to their introduction. 
 " Although I have not the honour of be- 
 ing personally known to your Ladyship, you 
 will, I hope, allow me to take up a few mo- 
 ments of your time on a subject which ap- 
 pears to me of the highest importance to the 
 interests of religion, more especially in this 
 great Metropolis, of which providence has 
 been pleased to constitute me the spiritual 
 guardian and superintendant. 
 
BISHOP PORTEtTS. 141 
 
 k< Your Ladyship, if I am not misinform- 
 ed, is one among other ladies of high rank 
 and distinction in this town, who are in the 
 habit of having concerts at their own houses 
 on Sunday evenings, where there are hired 
 professional performers, and a large number 
 of persons of fashion assembled together to 
 partake of the entertainment. It is very 
 possible your Ladyship may be of opinion, 
 that there is no kind of impropriety in this 
 sort of amusement on the evening of the Sun- 
 day, after the Service of the day is over, and 
 the sacred duties of it are fulfilled. But 
 a little consideration will, I am persuaded, 
 convince you that this is a very unfortunate 
 mistake. This practice is a direct violation 
 of the express injunction of God himself; it 
 is an infringement of that rest , which in the 
 fourth Commandment we are enjoined to ob- 
 serve on the Sabbath ; of that respite from 
 toil and labour of every kind, which we are 
 directed to give to our servants, and our cat- 
 tle, throughout the whole of this sacred day. 
 Besides this, it evidently tends to efface, or 
 at least to weaken greatly, those useful im- 
 pressions which may have been made upon 
 our minds, and upon those of our children 
 
142 LIFEOE 
 
 and servants, in the offices of public wor- 
 ship, or in our private meditations and devo- 
 tions ; and it mingles too much of the gaie- 
 ties and the pleasures of this world with 
 those serious thoughts of another, which thig 
 day was peculiarly intended to excite and 
 to cherish in our hearts. 
 
 " Allow me also to add, Madam, that the 
 laws of this kingdom expressly prohibit all 
 public diversions on the Lord's Day, and I 
 entreat your Ladyship, to consider, whether 
 the Sunday evening concerts do not in eve- 
 ry respect resemble a public diversion, ex- 
 cept that they are given in a private house, 
 instead of a Theatre, or an Opera House, 
 This does not escape the observation of the 
 lower orders of the people, who, when they 
 see the crowded doors and splendid assem- 
 blies of the wealthy and the great on the 
 Lord's Day, are apt to express (as I happen 
 to know from good information) much dissa- 
 tisfaction and most discontent at the grating 
 difference. 
 
 " I am aware, that in Roman Catholic 
 countries on the Continent, both public and 
 private amusements are permitted on the 
 Sunday evening. But your Ladyship will. 
 
BISHOP TORTP.rs. 143 
 
 1 am sure, agree with me in thinking, that 
 is not exactly the precedent which a Protes- 
 tant country ought to follow. In fact, it is 
 well known, that for a long course of years 
 the Church of England has been distinguish- 
 ed from the Church of Rome, not only by 
 its doctrine, its discipline, and its purer mode 
 of worship, but also by the decency, the 
 propriety, the solemnity, with which the 
 Christian Sabbath has been usually observ- 
 ed. It is a distinction, Madam, which does 
 us honour ; which is altogether worthy of 
 the first Protestant Church in the world ; 
 and it is of the very last importance, that we 
 should always preserve inviolate this glorious 
 pre-eminence amongst the nations of Europe. 
 It is my decided opinion, that on the due ob- 
 servance of the Lord's Day, according to the 
 antient and venerable usage of our ances- 
 tors, depends in a great measure the very 
 existence of Christianity in this kingdom. 
 
 " When we look around us in this im- 
 mense Capital, and observe how every day 
 of the week, and almost every hour of the 
 day, is occupied with one scene of gaiety or 
 other, one would imagine there could be no 
 very pressing necessity for intrenching on the 
 
14-i LIFE OP 
 
 repose of the Sabbath; one would think, 
 that six days out of the seven would be suffi- 
 cient for the purposes of amusement, an4 
 that one day of rest and tranquillity in 
 the week, would be to all persons a welcome 
 Sabbath, a desirable pause, a relief from the 
 incessant toil of diversion and of pleasure. 
 
 " But let me not, Madam, be misunder- 
 stood. I am no friend to a pharisaical or pu- 
 ritanical observance of the Lord's Day. I 
 do not contend, that it should be either to 
 the poor, or to the rich, or to any other hu- 
 man being whatever, a day of gloom and 
 melancholy, a day of superstitious rigour, a 
 day of absolute exclusion from all society. 
 No, it is on the contrary a festival, a joyful 
 festival, to which we ought always to look 
 forward with delight, and enjoy with a thank- 
 ful and a grateful heart. It is only to those 
 amusements, which partake of the nature 
 and complexion of public diversions, on the 
 Lord's Day, that I object; to large assem- 
 blies, for instance, and large concerts con- 
 sisting of hired performers, where numer- 
 ous parties are collected together, occasioning 
 a great concourse of servants in one place, 
 employing them at a time when they have a 
 
BISHOP 
 
 right to ease and rest, and producing much 
 of that noise and tumult in the public streets 
 which are so opposite to the peaceful tran- 
 quillity that should prevail on that day a 
 day which the Almighty himself has distin- 
 guished with a peculiar mark of sanctity, 
 and which he claims as his own. It is against 
 these open infractions of the Lord's Day, 
 that I think it my duty to remonstrate. But 
 in hearing sacred music on the Sunday eve- 
 ning, confined to a small domestic circle of 
 relations and friends, without any hired per- 
 formers, I am so far from seeing any impro- 
 priety, that it appears to me a relaxation 
 well suited to the nature of a Christian Sab. 
 bath, perfectly congenial to the spirit of out 
 religion, and calculated to raise our minds to 
 heavenly thoughts, and sublime and holy con- 
 templations. 
 
 " Your Ladyship will, I hope, do me the 
 justice to believe, that, in addressing these 
 lines to you, I meant not to intrude myself 
 needlessly on your notice, much less to give 
 you the slightest offence ; but merely to dis- 
 charge a very important duty resulting from 
 that most respons ible situation, in which it 
 has pleased God to place me. And I cannot 
 
143 LIFE OP 
 
 help flattering myself, that when your Lady- 
 ship reflects a little on the arguments I have 
 offered to your consideration, you will see 
 reason to relinquish (and even recommend it 
 to your friends to relinquish) a practice, 
 which you probably took up from mere want 
 of attention to the subject, and from not be- 
 ing aware of the mischievous consequences 
 resulting from it. 
 
 " Should you come to this determination 
 I have no hesitation in saying, that you will 
 add greatly to that respect, which is so just- 
 ly due to your high rank and station : you 
 will do a most essential service to the holy 
 religion we profess ; and you will store up 
 a reflection in your own mind, which will af- 
 ford you the most substantial comfort and 
 support, at a moment, when all the splendour 
 and gaiety of the world will fade before your 
 eyes and vanish into nothing." 
 
 Upon this admirable letter it would be su- 
 perfluous to make a single comment. So 
 much rational, yet fervent piety ; so much 
 earnestness in the cause of virtue ; so much 
 anxiety to promote the best interests of man, 
 could hardly plead in vain; and it did not. 
 He received assurances, that the practice, of 
 
POP.TTU5. 147 
 
 which he complained, should, if not imme- 
 diately, at all events the following year, be 
 discontinued : and I feel persuaded that a 
 promise thus solemnly made and hitherto 
 observed, will not be forgotten, " Though 
 dead, he yet speaketh r' and it is in the hope 
 that the sentiments he expressed on this oc* 
 casion, may still operate as a powerful check 
 on the licentiousness of public manners, and 
 be the means of fixing, on the minds of ma- 
 -eriousa impressions, that I 
 
 have thought it my duty to leave his letter 
 cm record. 
 
 In the interesting and important disc 
 sioiis, which took place in Parliament in 
 1805, on the great question of Catholic 
 Emancipation, when it was rejected by a 
 large majority, he abstained from any public 
 expression of his sentiments; but, though 
 he contented himself with giving only a 
 lent vote, he gave it, as the following state- 
 ment in his own words will shew, after much 
 deliberation, and with a perfect comiction 
 of its being a right one. " If," he obser 
 " the Petition from the Catholics of Ireland 
 bad been for a more complete toleratic 
 
148 LIFE OF 
 
 matters of religion, though it can hardly, 1 
 think, be more complete than it is, there was 
 not an individual in the House that would 
 have given a more hearty and cordial assent 
 to the prayer of the petition than myself. I 
 am and ever have been a decided friend to 
 liberty of conscience, and a full and free to- 
 leration of all who differ in religious opinions 
 from the Established Church. It is a sen- 
 timent perfectly consonant with the spirit of 
 the Gospel, the principles of the Church of 
 England, and every dictate of justice and 
 humanity. It is a sentiment deeply engra- 
 ven on my heart, by which I have ever regu- 
 lated, and hope I ever shall regulate my con- 
 duct. But this was not an application for 
 liberty of conscience, and freedom of reli- 
 gious opinion and religious worship. The 
 truth is, it is an application for political 
 power; and that power I, for one, am not 
 disposed to grant them : because, I believe 
 that it would be difficult to produce a single 
 instance, where they have possessed political 
 power in a Protestant country, without using 
 it cruelly and tyrannically. And this indeed 
 follows necessarily from the very doctrines 
 of their church, several of which are well 
 
BISfcOP PORTEUS. 149 
 
 known to be hostile not only to the Protes- 
 tant Religion, but to a Protestant Govern- 
 ment. It has been said, indeed, that these 
 are not now the tenets of the Church of 
 Rome ; that they may be found perhaps ' in 
 some old musty records,' but that they are 
 now grown obsolete and invalid, and are held 
 in utter detestation by the whole body of Ro- 
 man Catholics both in England and Ireland. 
 But those * musty records,' in which these 
 doctrines appear, are nothing less than the 
 decrees of general councils confirmed by the 
 pope ; and Dr. Troy, Titular Archbishop of 
 Dublin, in his pastoral instructions to the 
 Roman Catholics of his diocese, published 
 in 1793, tells his flock that * they must ad- 
 here implicitly to decrees and canons of the 
 church assembled in general councils and 
 confirmed by the pope;' and the celebrated 
 lay Roman Catholic writer, Mr. Plowden, 
 in his 4 Case stated, 5 published in 1791, main- 
 tains the same doctrine, and the infallibility 
 of general councils. These therefore are 
 unquestionably at this day the tenets of their 
 church ; they have never been renounced or 
 disavowed ; and till they are so disavowed 
 N 2 
 
150 LIFE OF 
 
 by authority, every good Catholic is bound 
 to obey them. 
 
 4 ' It is true, that they have been renoun- 
 ced by the Petitioners from Ireland : but 
 they can renounce them only for themselves ; 
 they cannot renounce them for the whole bo- 
 dy of Catholics in that country ; and this 
 renunciation besides comes unaccompanied 
 by any competent authority. It is neither 
 authorized by the pope, by a general coun- 
 cil, by their bishops or by their clergy. On 
 the contrary, it is very remarkable, that not 
 one of the latter signed the Petition ; and 
 one cannot therefore help fearing that the 
 .same thing may happen in this case that hap- 
 pened in 1793, when the Lords Petre, Stour- 
 ton, and many other Roman Catholic gen- 
 tlemen, on applying to Parliament for fur- 
 ther indulgence, made the same renunciation 
 of the same obnoxious doctrines, that ap- 
 pears in the Irish Petition. The Church of 
 Rome immediately took the alarm, and an- 
 nounced their entire disapprobation of that 
 measure by her Apostolical Vicar in Eng-r 
 land, who wrote an energetic letter to those 
 gentlemen, condemning what they had done; 
 and that condemnation was sanctioned by 
 
BISHOP rORTEUS. 1"51 
 
 tlie pope, and by all the Catholic bishops in 
 this countiy and in Scotland. 
 
 "But, laying these doctrines out of the 
 question, there is one certainly, which the 
 Petitioners have not renounced, and indeed 
 cannot renounce, namely, the supremacy of 
 the pope the acknowledgement of a foreign 
 jurisdiction. It is contended, indeed, that 
 this jurisdiction is only a spiritual one : but 
 the jurisdiction of a foreign Catholic poten- 
 tate of any kind "whatsoever must always be 
 a dangerous thing in a Protestant country ; 
 and at this time it is particularly so, consi- 
 dering the present abject state of the Roman 
 Pontiff, and his absolute vassalage to the em- 
 peror of France. This argument has, I 
 know, been considered of little moment, and 
 treated with little respect*: but in my appre- 
 hension it is a most important and alarming 
 circumstance. A spiritual authority can ne- 
 ver be wholly separated from a temporal one. 
 An unbounded influence over the hearts and 
 consciences of men in spiritual matters, 
 must necessarily be attended with great in- 
 fluence in civil and political concerns : and 
 when we consider, that the Romish clergy of 
 Ireland have an almost absolute command 
 
152 LIFE OF 
 
 over their flocks ; that the clergy are appoin- 
 ted by the bishops ; that the bishops are no- 
 minated by the pope ; and that the Pope is 
 now a mere tool in the hands of the French 
 Emperor ; it is easy to see what power this 
 must give him over the people of Ireland, 
 and in how formidable a manner, at the pre- 
 sent perilous and awful crisis, that power may 
 be exerted. 
 
 " But besides this, it appears from the 
 history of this kingdom, that in fact Roman 
 Catholics and Protestants have never yet 
 agreed together in administering the powers 
 of government ; and that England never en- 
 joyed peace and security, till the ascendancy 
 of one party was established by the downfall 
 of the other. Where the power of the Ca- 
 tholics and Protestants was nearly equal, it 
 was a constant struggle for superiority. The 
 Corporation and Test Acts put a final period 
 to that struggle. Since those acts passed, 
 the Church of England has enjoyed perfect 
 security and tranquillity. Let us not, then , 
 part with these bulwarks of our Constitution 
 civil and ecclesiastical, which we must do, 
 if we grant to the Catholics of Ireland (and 
 of course to those of England) all that they 
 
BI&HOP PORTEUS. 15v3 
 
 demand. Let us preserve with care that ad- 
 mirable Constitution, which our Ancestors 
 have bequeathed to us ; namely, the Estab- 
 lished Church under the protection of the 
 State, with a toleration to all other religious 
 sects and denominations whatever, but at the 
 same time an exclusion of them by proper 
 tests from all places of trust, authority and 
 power. This is the only system, that can 
 give stability and peace to any kingdom, 
 where there are different sorts of religion. 
 It has given stability and peace to this king- 
 dom. It has been found by experience, which 
 is better than a thousand theories, to be the 
 soundest policy. It has left us quiet for 
 above an hundred years; and it would be the 
 highest imprudence to throw away this our 
 best safeguard, for visionary projects of in- 
 novation and improvement in our Civil and 
 Ecclesiastical Establishment." 
 
 Such were the grounds, which determin- 
 ed the Bishop's vote on the important ques- 
 tion of Catholic Emancipation. It was evi- 
 dently in him not the result of bigofry; 
 not the ebullition of a narrow and contract- 
 ed spirit. He had taken a wide, dispassion- 
 ate, deliberate view of the whole subject; 
 
154 LIFE OF 
 
 and in resisting the Petition, he acted on the 
 conscientious persuasion of his own mind, 
 that to grant it in any shape would be in- 
 compatible with the peace and security of 
 the Empire. 
 
 It is well known that an excellent and ven- 
 erable Society has been long established un- 
 der the title of " The Society for promoting 
 Christian Knowledge" which, with a zeal 
 and ardour proportioned to its name and pur- 
 pose, has been indefatigably employed in 
 disseminating moral and religious truth 
 amongst the people of this country; and by 
 the labours of its Missionaries abroad, dif- 
 fusing the doctrines of the Gospel among 
 Pagan nations. A Society actuated by such 
 views, and conducted, as it always has been, 
 on the best and soundest principles, claimed 
 in a pre-eminent degree the regard and sup- 
 port of the Established Church ; and par- 
 ticularly of those members of it, who, from 
 the'r exalted stations, were most able to ad- 
 vance its interests and uphold its reputation. 
 Amongst these, I will take upon myself to 
 affirm, the Society had not a more zealous, 
 cordial and determined friend than the late 
 Bishop of London. He was attached to it 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 155 
 
 from every motive of private opinion and 
 of public duty. The main objects, which it 
 had in view, were those nearest to his heart ; 
 and to promote them all by practicable means 
 had been the chief employment of his 
 thoughts, and the anxious endeavour of his 
 whole life. At the same time, the high and 
 just estimation in which he held this venera- 
 ble Establishment, did not preclude him 
 from supporting other institutions founded 
 for the same great end, the diffusion of Chris- 
 tian knowledge : and accordingly, about the 
 period to which I have brought these me- 
 moirs, he accepted the office of Vice- Presi- 
 dent of the British and Foreign Bible Soci- 
 ety. The plan of this Society embraced a 
 most extensive range of action : and in or- 
 der to raise an adequate fund, it was thought 
 necessary, not to confine it merely to mem- 
 bers of the Established Church, but to take 
 in without exception all denominations of 
 Christians. But then, on the other hand, 
 it was laid down as a primary and funda- 
 mental rule, from which there was in no in- 
 stance to be the slightest deviation, th-it its 
 sole and exclusive object should be the cir- 
 culation of the Scriptures, and the Scrip- 
 tures only without note or comment > 
 
156 LIEE OF 
 
 A limitation thus absolute and unequivo- 
 cal, removed from the Bishop's mind all 
 doubt and hesitation. He saw instantly that 
 a design of such magnitude, which aimed at 
 nothing less, than the dispersion of the Bi- 
 ble over every accessible part of the world, 
 could only be accomplished by the associa- 
 tion of men of all religious persuasions. He 
 looked forward to great results from such 
 a combination of effort. He entertained the 
 hope, that it might operate as a bond of union 
 between contending parties : and that by 
 bringing them together in one point of vast 
 moment, about which there could hardly be 
 a diversity of opinion, it might gradually al- 
 lay that bitterness of dispute, and put an end 
 to those unhappy divisions, which have so 
 long tarnished the credit of the Christian 
 world. Whilst therefore he remained firm- 
 ly attached to the original Society, whose 
 exertions, as far as its limited spere allowed, 
 no one ever held in higher estimation, he 
 gave at the same time the sanction of his 
 name without scruple to the new one ; r.id 
 the more he considered its object, and the 
 longer experience he had of the spirit and 
 principles on which it was conducted, the 
 
BISHOP FGRTEUS. 157 
 
 more deeply he was convinced, that it meri- 
 ted all the support which the Church of Eng- 
 land could give it. " It is now," he observes, 
 in a passage which strongly marks his senti- 
 ments, " it is now well known and firmly es- 
 tablished, and has completely triumphed over 
 all the attempts made to destroy it. None 
 of those secret dark designs, none of those 
 plots and conspiracies to subvert the Estab- 
 lishment and devour both the shepherds 
 and their flocks, which were so confidently 
 predicted by a certain set of men as the in- 
 evitable effect of this Society, have yet been 
 discovered in it. It is, in fact, much better 
 employed. It goes on quietly and steadily 
 in the prosecution of its great object, and 
 pays no sort of regard to the sneers and ca- 
 vils of its intemperate opponents." In ano- 
 ther passage, written at a still later date, he 
 says, " that he cannot but add injustice to 
 this Society, which has been so much op- 
 posed, misrepresented and traduced, that 
 all the important works in which it has been 
 engaged, have been carried on with the ut- 
 most harmony and unanimity; without any 
 difference of opinion; without the slightest 
 symptom of any hostile or treacherous de- 
 
158 LIFE O'F 
 
 sign against the Church ; and without any 
 other idea upon their minds, but that of ex- 
 tending, as widely as possible, the knowledge 
 of the Christian Scriptures. The Bishops 
 of Durham and Salisbury attended several 
 of their meetings, and were delighted with 
 the decorum, calmness and good temper 
 with which their proceedings were conduc- 
 ted. In short, all the apprehensions, to which 
 this society has given rise, are now found 
 to be but vain terrors ; and all the prophe- 
 cies of the mischief and evil, that would re- 
 sult from it, are falsified by facts. It is 
 rising uniformly in reputation and credit; 
 gaining new accessions of strength and re- 
 venue; and attaching to itself more and 
 more the approbation and support of every 
 real friend to the Church and to Religion." 
 It does not fall within the plan and scope 
 of these Memoirs to take a part in the con- 
 troversy now subsisting between the advo- 
 cates of the two Societies. I cannot how- 
 ever avoid expressing my regret r that such a 
 controversy should ever have taken place : 
 but, as it has taken place, it does^ I confess, 
 appear to me, that no one argument has yet 
 been advanced against the Foreign and Bri- 
 
BISHOP TOETEUS. 159 
 
 tish Bible Society, which can at all be consi- 
 dered as proof, that it has any secret views 
 injurious to the interests of the Established 
 Church, or that it has in the slightest degree 
 deviated from the original exclusive purpose, 
 to which, in the face of the world, it stands 
 most solemnly pledged. The charge hither- 
 to rests upon suspicion and surmise : and 
 there must be some better and stronger evi- 
 dence, before I can bring myself to condemn 
 an Institution, of which the Bishop, in con- 
 junction with many other excellent and dis- 
 tinguished men, entertained so high an opin- 
 ion, and the avowed design of which is so 
 strictly in unison with the labours and the 
 spirit of the Christian Ministry. 
 
 I have before mentioned the active and 
 lous part which the Bishop took, in what- 
 ever could mitigate the hardships or improve 
 the condition of the Negro Slaves in our 
 West-India Colonies. After all, however, 
 the object to which he had long most anx- 
 iously looked, and which alone could com- 
 pletely satisfy him on this subject, was the 
 absolute and total abolition of the trade it- 
 self; and this, to his infinite gratification 
 
160 
 
 OF 
 
 and delight, was at last effected in 1807, by 
 considerable majorities in favour of that 
 measure in both Houses of Parliament. His 
 sentiments and feelings on this occasion he 
 has left upon record ; and I should do great 
 injustice to his memory, if I neglected the 
 present occasion of laying- them before the 
 public. 
 
 " The Act," he says, " which has just pas- 
 sed, has at length put a period in this coun- 
 try to the most inhuman and execrable traf- 
 fic that ever disgraced the Christian world ; 
 and it will reflect immortal honour on the 
 British Parliament and the British Nation. 
 For myself I am inexpressibly thankful to 
 a kind Providence, for permitting me to see 
 this great work, after such a glorious struggle, 
 brought to a conclusion. It has been for up- 
 wards of four and twenty years the constant 
 object of my thoughts; and it will be a 
 source of the purest and most genuine satis- 
 faction to me during the remainder of my 
 life, and above all, at the final close of it, 
 that I have had some share in promoting, to 
 the utmost of my power, the success of so 
 important and so righteous a measure. It 
 ought to be remembered, however, injustice 
 

 BISHOP PORTET7S. 1 
 
 to a most worthy man, no less remarkable 
 for his modesty and humility, than for his 
 learning and piety, I mean Mr. Granville 
 Sharp, that the first publication which drew 
 the attention of this country to the horrors 
 of the African trade, came from his pen; 
 and that at his own expense, and by his 
 own personal exertions, he liberated several 
 Negroes from a state of slavery, who were 
 brought over by their masters to England, 
 with an intention of carrying them back 
 again to the West Indies* 
 
 " Upon the whole, long and severe as this 
 conflict has been, the labour of it is amply 
 repaid by the immense magnitude of the 
 benefit obtained by it. It is nothing less 
 than a total change in the condition of one 
 quarter of the habitable globe, containing 
 many millions of inhabitants ; a change from 
 the lowest abyss of human misery, to ease, 
 to freedom, and to happiness. What a glo- 
 rious work for this country to have accom- 
 plished! and what a contrast is there between 
 the conduct of the common Enemy of man- 
 kind, and that of the English Government 
 the former desolating, enslaving, and de- 
 ging with blood the Continent of Europe 
 b 2 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 the latter giving liberty, not merely polL 
 tical liberty, but real, substantial, personal li- 
 berty to the Continent of Africa!* 
 
 " It was said by Mr. Pitt, that the Slave 
 Trade was the greatest practical evil that ever 
 afflicted the human race: and, if this be true, 
 the annihilation of that trade is the greatest, 
 practical good that can be conferred on man ; 
 and so I firmly believe that it will prove to 
 be. There never was, I am persuaded, from 
 the beginning of the world to this hour, a 
 sinele instance, in which so great a quantity 
 of e'vil was ever exterminated from the earth, 
 and so great a quantity of good produced > 
 us by this one act of the British Legislature. 
 It will call clown upon us the blessing of 
 millions, not only now in existence, but of 
 millions yet unborn : and, what is still more 
 
 * How perfectly applicable to this country, with a few 
 alight alterations, is that eloquent eulogy of the Greeks 
 upon the Roman people. The former exclaimed with 
 ecstacy " Esse aliquam in terris gentem, quaj sua im- 
 pensa, suo labore ac periculo. bella gerit pro libertate 
 aliorum ; nee hoc iinitimis, aut propinquae vicinitatis ho- 
 inimbus, aut terris continent! junctis prsestet : maria tra- 
 jiciat ne quod toto orbe terrarum injustum imperium sit, 
 et ubique Jus, Fas, Lex potentissima sint." Liv. I. 
 xxxiil c. 33. 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 16^ 
 
 important, it will draw down upon our arms 
 the blessing of Heaven ; and be the means of 
 securing to us the favour of that Being, 
 whose hand outstretched in our defence can 
 alone carry us safely through the dangers 
 that surround us! 
 
 " Of the conduct of Mr. Wilber force in 
 the prosecution of this great cause, I cannot 
 express my admiration in adequate terms. 
 The applause he received was such, as was 
 scarcely ever before given to any man sitting 
 in his place in either House of Parliament : 
 but had it been even greater than it was, he 
 would have deserved it all, for the unceasing 
 efforts, the firm, unshaken, intrepid perseve- 
 rance, with which he maintained, and finally 
 brought to a successful issue, the most glo- 
 rious battle, that ever was fought by any hu- 
 man being." 
 
 In this just panegyric of the illustrious 
 Champion of the Abolition, all men must 
 unite : but still let it not be forgotten, that the 
 Bishop was one of its earliest promoters and 
 most strenuous advocates. Next to the 
 great and paramount concerns of religion, it 
 was the object of all others nearest to his 
 heart. He never spoke of it but with thr 
 
104 
 
 LIVE 09 
 
 utmost animation and enthusiasm. He spa- 
 rcd no pains, no fatigue of body or mind, 
 to further its accomplishment. He not on- 
 ly expressed his sentiments, on every occa- 
 sion that presented itself, publicly and strong- 
 ly in Parliament; but he was indefatigable, 
 in urging all, over whom he had any influence 
 to conspire and to co-operate in what he con- 
 sidered the general cause of civilized man. 
 against a most intolerable system of cruelty 
 and oppression. In short, the best years of 
 his life, and all his talents and powers, were 
 applied and devoted to it ; and, I believe, 
 the happiest day, beyond comparison, that 
 he ever experienced, was the day of its final 
 triumph. 
 
 But, though he contended with so much 
 "zeal and earnestness for the abolition of the 
 Slave Trade, he resisted, in common witli 
 many other supporters of that measure, an 
 injudicious though benevolent attempt which 
 was after wards made to emancipate the Slaves 
 in our West-India Colonies. All that was 
 safely attainable, had been attained; and to 
 have aimed at more would have been impru- 
 dent and dangerous. At the same time he 
 thought, that, without proceeding to the 
 
BISHOP 
 
 length of emancipation, much might be 
 done towards ameliorating the condition of 
 the Slaves, by improving them in civiliza- 
 tion ; by habituating them gradually to mild- 
 er treatment ; and above all, by impressing 
 deeply upon their rninds the precepts and the 
 doctrines of the Gospel. In the attainment 
 of these objects, he had long been actively 
 and anxiously engaged ; *as the ecclesiastical 
 superintendant of the Colonies, he had at va- 
 rious times and in the most earnest manner 
 pressed the religious instruction of the Ne- 
 groes on the Governors and Proprietors of 
 the different Islands ; and one of the last acts 
 of his life was to address to them a public 
 letter, written, considering his advanced age, 
 with uncommon spirit and energy, in which 
 he urged the expediency of establishing 
 parochial schools on the admirable system 
 of Dr. Bell, for the education particularly 
 of the Children of the Slaves in the prin- 
 ciples of Christian knowledge. How far 
 they may be induced to follow up this sug- 
 gestion, experience will decide. Duty and 
 policy unite in recommending it to their ob- 
 servance ; and I am induced at least to hope 
 that, in conjunction with other powerful 
 
I6t> LIFE OF 
 
 motives, the respect, which they cannot but 
 feel for the advice and opinion of the late 
 Bishop of London, on a subject to which he 
 had devoted so much consideration, will fi- 
 nally have its due weight upon their minds, 
 
 On the 12th of June 1807, the Bishop 
 had the satisfaction of being present at the 
 consecration of a new Chapel, erected at his 
 own expense, in the parish of Sundridge. 
 During his residence there in the autumn 
 months, he had been often struck with the 
 situation and circumstances of a small ham- 
 let, called Ide-Hill, about two miles from 
 that village. It stands on the summit of the 
 hilly tract, which rises gradually from the 
 church, and commands one of the finest pros- 
 pects that can be imagined. The whole vale 
 of Tunbridge lies beneath ; and on each side 
 the eye ranges over a most luxuriant land- 
 scape, exhibiting the wild profusion of na- 
 ture heightened by all the charms of a rich 
 and varied cultivation. To this scene, the 
 hamlet itself, consisting of a few cottages 
 erected without order on a little green, forms 
 a highly picturesque and interesting fore- 
 ground : and it seemed to the Bishop, when 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 167 
 
 he saw it first, completely to realize the idea 
 of rural happiness, innocence and peace* 
 But upon inquiry he soon found, that, even 
 in this sequestered place, amidst so much na- 
 tural beauty, there was a more than common 
 share of moral deformity ; that the poor in- 
 habitants were in a state of the most deplo- 
 rable ignorance of the great truths of Reve- 
 lation ; and that with habits of sordid and 
 disgusting beggary they were actually " liv- 
 ing without God in the world." A com- 
 bination of circumstances so peculiar dwelt 
 strongly upon his mind; and as much of 
 the evil seemed to originate in the distance 
 of the hamlet from the parish church, and 
 the difficulty of attending divine worship, 
 especially during the winter, he undertook 
 at his own sole cost to erect and to endow 
 a Chapel of Ease, where the duties of re- 
 ligion might be regularly performed, and at 
 the same time to build a house for a resi- 
 dent minister. All this, at a very large ex- 
 pense, he lived to accomplish ; and thus, by 
 an act of benevolence, of which there are 
 few examples, conferred the greatest of all 
 human benefits. What his own feelings 
 must have been on the day of the consecra- 
 tion, the following extract will best describe, 
 
I6& LIFE Ofc 
 
 " On the morning of the 12th," he says> 
 " the principal Gentry of the neighbourhood, 
 assembled at my house, to attend the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury to the Chapel. The 
 day was fine. The sun shone gloriously on 
 the extensive vale below, and brought out 
 all the beauties of that enchanting prospect. 
 Great crowds were assembled on the hill, 
 and presented a most cheerful and animated 
 scene. It was, I confess, a most joyful and 
 gratifying day to me ; and I thank God most 
 devoutly that He inspired me with the reso- 
 lution to undertake the work, and prolonged 
 my life to see it finished. It will, I trust, 
 under His gracious superintendance, contri- 
 bute materially to the present comfort and 
 future happiness of some hundreds of poor 
 ignorant people, who, from their remote, and 
 almost inaccessible situation, and their dis- 
 tance from the parish church, were too of- 
 ten destitute of that relief, which their ex- 
 treme indigence required in this life, and of 
 that religions instruction, which was neces- 
 sary to their salvation in the next. The 
 clergyman, who will now be fixed among 
 them, and who is bound to reside constant- 
 ly in the parsonage house, will, it is hoped, 
 
BISHOP PORTEHS. 169 
 
 by his doctrines, his exhortations, and his 
 example, be the means of remedying these 
 evils, and will, both in their temporal and their 
 spiritual concerns, be their guide, protector, 
 benefactor and friend." 
 
 It is in my power to say, and I say it with 
 genuine satisfaction, that the excellent Minis- 
 ter, who, by the Bishop's own appointment, 
 fills the situation, discharges faithfully and 
 ably all its various duties, and has amply re- 
 alized his Patron's expectations. Large con- 
 gregations attend the chapel morning and 
 afternoon ; the children of the poor are in- 
 structed ; and instead of all that idleness, mi- 
 sery and vice, by which the place was for- 
 merly distinguished, there is now the appear- 
 ance of decency and comfort and industry 
 and religion. 
 
 The Summer of this year the Bishop spent 
 at Clifton, near Bristol, for the benefit of his 
 health, which was then, and had been for 
 some months before, in a very precarious 
 and declining state. During his stay there, 
 he was induced by the peculiar fineness of 
 the season, to make several very pleasant ex- 
 cursions to the various places and scenes 
 p 
 
170 LIFE OF 
 
 most worthy of observation, in that highly 
 beautiful and romantic country; and amongst 
 other interesting visits which he paid, one of 
 the most gratifying was to his" friend Mrs. 
 Hannah More, who resided in the neighbour- 
 hood, at a place called Barley Wood. Of 
 the talents and virtues of this amiable and ex- 
 cellent Lady, he had not only long entertain- 
 ed, as is well known, the highest opinion, but 
 had taken pains toicxpress it in the strong- 
 est terms ; and indeed her writings have been 
 so decidedly and extensively useful; their 
 value has been so highly estimated by the 
 public ; her time and thoughts have been so 
 steadily and laboriously devoted to the cause 
 of religion and the best interests of society; 
 and she has done, particularly, such infinite 
 good by her incomparable schools for the ed- 
 ucation of the poor, to whose comprehen- 
 sion she has most honourably to herself 
 brought down the ample stores of her own 
 highly cultivated and superior understanding; 
 that it is hardly possible to speak of her in 
 terms of adequate respect, gratitude, and ad- 
 miration. 
 
 The Bishop derived undoubtedly consid- 
 erable benefit from the clear, salubrious air 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 171 
 
 of Clifton; but still, though in some degree 
 recruited, his constitution was evidently 
 much enfeebled and broken. In the mean 
 time his mind retained its wonted vigour; 
 and on his return to Fulham he resumed with 
 undiminished assiduity all the duties of his 
 high station. 
 
 Soon after his arrival, about the end of 
 October, he was surprised by the unexpec- 
 ted visit of a Prussian Clergyman, the Rev. 
 Mr. Usko, who had been for upwards of 
 twenty years Chaplain to the German Facto- 
 ry at Smyrna, and for the last eight to the 
 English Factory in the same place. This 
 gentleman had been introduced to him be- 
 fore, when on a former visit to England ; and 
 both then and on this last occasion, he con- 
 sidered him as a man of high character, and 
 of astonishing attainments in the Eastern and 
 European languages. A passage, written at 
 the time I am now speaking of, very strong 
 ly marks his anxious wish to fix Mr. Usko 
 in this country, in a station of all others best 
 adapted to his talents. 
 
 " As such a man," he says, " may throw 
 much new light on those treasures of Ori- 
 ental MSS. \fhich are now shut up in ouv 
 
>72 LIFE Of 
 
 libraries, public and private, and especially 
 in the British Museum, I have strongly re- 
 commended him to the Trustees of that na- 
 tional Establishment; and I shall do every 
 thing in my power to place him in a situa- 
 tion, where he may have the best opportuni- 
 ty of displaying his prodigious stores of Ori- 
 ental learning to his own honour and advan- 
 tage, as well as to the benefit of the literary 
 world. " 
 
 Unfortunately no vacancy occurred, so as 
 to enable the Bishop to carry into execution 
 this judicious intention: but as he felt the 
 utmost solicitude to manifest in some way or 
 other his respect for a clergy man, from whom 
 he expected such essential benefit to the 
 cause of Christianity; and as, not long af- 
 ter the valuable living of Orsett, in the coun- 
 ty of Essex, fell to his disposal, he eagerly 
 seized an opportunity, which might not, and 
 in fact did not, again occur, and immediate- 
 ly presented him to that benefice. It has 
 been thought, I well know, that he acted in 
 this instance with too little consideration ; 
 but I also know, that he did it in the warmth 
 of his heart, and with the best and purest de- 
 sign of rendering a most imjfbrtant service 
 
BISHOP PORTEU9. 173 
 
 to the Church of England. I trust it will 
 soon appear, that the hope he so fondly che- 
 rished, has not been forgotten. Mr. Usko 
 stands solemnly pledged in honour and in 
 duty to fulfil the engagement which he made 
 with his deceased and venerable Patron. 
 The public look with no small anxiety to 
 some production illustrative of the Chris- 
 tian Scriptures, and worthy of his own supe- 
 rior erudition; and he cannot, I should think, 
 satisfy his own mind, certainly he will not 
 satisfy the expectation which has been exci- 
 ted, unless he give this substantial and une- 
 quivocal proof of his gratitude and sincerity. 
 
 On the 8th of May 1808, the Bishop en- 
 tered into his 78th year ; and it is remarka- 
 ble, that on the same day he preached his last 
 sermon in St. George's Church. It was a 
 discourse on the following text from the 
 Revelation of St. John: " Blessed is he 
 that readeth, and they that hear the words 
 of this prophecy, and keep those things 
 which are written therein : for the time is at 
 hand. ' ' During the four months that he had 
 spent at Clifton, he had employed himself in 
 reading the Apocalypse with great atten- 
 p 2 
 
1/4 
 
 LJKE OF 
 
 tion ; and from the impression made upon 
 his own mind, by the grand, comprehensive 
 views of that sublime and interesting Book, 
 he was anxious to stimulate others to ac- 
 quaint themselves with its contents, which, 
 though undoubtedly of a high mysterious 
 nature, might, he conceived, by a reasona- 
 ble degree of application, steady persever- 
 ance, and the assistance of able and judicious 
 expositors, be very well comprehended, at 
 least in its most material and useful parts, by 
 persons of little learning and moderate un- 
 derstandings. 
 
 This, in general, was the object which he 
 had in view ; but in the course of the ser- 
 mon he adverted particularly to that part of 
 St. John's Revelation, which predicts the 
 rise, continuance, and fall of the Popish and 
 Mahometan corruptions. These, the best 
 commentators agree in opinion, were to com- 
 mence in the sixth century, and at the expi- 
 ration of 1260 years, calculated from that 
 period, were finally to cease. There remain- 
 ed, then, as the Bishop justly observed, ac- 
 'cording to the common!) received interpre- 
 tation, but a short term of about fifty or' 
 sixty years before the prophecy would e 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 1 ?.> 
 
 fulfilled; when Antichrist would be extirpa- 
 ted from the earth, and the Millennium, or 
 the reign of Christ, would commence. This 
 was accurately, in substance, what he deli- 
 vered in the very interesting discourse to 
 which I allude : but from the low tone of 
 voice in which he had preached it on the 
 Ash Wednesday preceding at the Chapel 
 Royal, some, who heard him indistinctly, un- 
 derstood him to say, that the Day of Judg- 
 ment would take place in sixty years ! 
 
 It was in consequence of this strange mis- 
 apprehension, that he repeated the same ser- 
 mon at St. George's Church, when with a 
 strength and firmness of tone, which reached 
 every part of that large congregation, he 
 stated explicitly and distinctly, that he nei- 
 ther pretended to prophecy nor to interpret 
 prophecy ; but that the sentiments, which 
 he then expressed, were sanctioned by the 
 known recorded opinion of some of the ab- 
 lest and most distinguished Divines. 
 
 I believe that no sermon ever attracted 
 more attention than this. The veneration 
 universally felt for his exalted character; 
 the general idea, which prevailed, that this 
 was the last occasion of his public preach 
 
1 70 LIFE OF 
 
 ing; the interest, which his feeble and ema- 
 ciated form so powerfully excited; the en- 
 cr gy> with which, notwithstanding his infir- 
 mities, he delivered many of those sublime 
 passages, which are interspersed through the 
 Revelations; the animated picture, which 
 he drew of the unprecedented and porten- 
 tous aspect of the times; and the hope, 
 which seemed to fill and elevate his soul, that 
 this Country might possibly be the chosen 
 instrument in the hand of God to diffuse the 
 light of the Gospel throughout the world, and 
 ultimately to accomplish the great schemes of 
 Providence ; all these circumstances conspir- 
 ed to render this discourse uncommonly affect- 
 ing. It was heard with a profound stillness, 
 of which I scarcely ever observed a similar 
 instance ; and it made, 1 trust, a deep and 
 lasting impression on the minds of the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 Not many days after on the 20th of the 
 same month, he pronounced in his official 
 capacity, sentence of deprivation on the RCA*. 
 Francis Stone ; a clergyman of his diocese, 
 who, at the prosecution of tjie King's Ad- 
 vocate, under the direction of Government, 
 had been clearly convicted, in the Consisto- 
 ry Court of London, of having preached and 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 177 
 
 after wards published a most profane and blas- 
 phemous sermon, in which, with a coarsness 
 and vulgarity of language altogether unpa- 
 ralleled in modern theological controversy ,he 
 denied the grand, essential doctrine of our 
 Church, the Divinity of Jesus Christ. The 
 following passage, in reference to this subject 
 marks in a strong point of view the Bishop's 
 sentiments, and is highly honourable to his 
 feelings. 
 
 11 It was very painful to me," he says, "to 
 feel myself under the necessity of proceed- 
 ing to such extremities. It was the first in- 
 stance of the kind that had occurred to me, 
 since I sat upon the Bench ; and it was total- 
 ly repugnant to my wishes to punish any man 
 for mere difference of opinion in matters of 
 religion. But this was far from being the 
 whole of the offence on the present occasion; 
 for, besides the very obnoxious principles ad- 
 vanced in the sermon, it reviles, and treats 
 with the utmost indignity, contempt, and rid- 
 icule not only all the Articles of the Church 
 of England, but the essential, fundamental 
 doctrines of the Gospel : and when it is con- 
 sidered further, that the author had himself 
 subscribed to the very doctrines which Ue SQ 
 
178 LIFE OF 
 
 strongly reprobated and inveighed against, 
 and that by means of that subscription he 
 held a Living in the Diocese of London, no 
 one surely can think it right, that such a man 
 under such circumstances should be permit- 
 ted any longer to retain a valuable benefice in 
 that very Church which he had in such gross 
 opprobrious terms vilified and insulted." 
 
 Notwithstanding the Bishop's increasing 
 debility, which rendered him very unequal 
 to any great exertion, he yet determined to 
 make a last effort in the course of the sum- 
 mer to carry through Parliament a Bill, which 
 he had long had much at heart, for encoura- 
 ging the residence of Stipendiary Curates. 
 I have already mentionedthe disappointment, 
 which he experienced, in the rejection of 
 this measure upon a former occasion ; and, 
 though he was well aware that a' trong op- 
 position would again be made to it, yet he 
 would not have satisfied his own mind, if he 
 had abandoned a question, as it seemed to 
 him, of the very last importance, whilst there 
 remained a hope of success. The objects, 
 which he had in view, were briefly these : in 
 the first place, to provide, that wherever the 
 incumbent of any benefice did not reside 
 
BISHOP PORTKL3. 179 
 
 himself, there should be a resident curate; 
 in the second, where the annual value of 
 the benefice exceeded 4007. to empower the 
 Bishop to assign to the curate one-fifth of 
 that yearly income, by which means his sti- 
 pend would increase proportionably to the 
 value of the living. A Bill of this descrip- 
 tion he thought absolutely essential to the 
 welfare of the Church, and sanctioned by 
 every principle of justice and expediency; 
 and in these sentiments he had the entire 
 concurrence of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, Mr. Perceval, who had some time 
 before published a most able pamphlet on 
 the subject, and by whose energy and elo- 
 quence it was carried triumphantly through 
 the House of Commons. It was not there- 
 fore without a sanguine expectation of suc- 
 cess, that he introduced the Bill into the 
 House of Lords. At its second reading, 
 though little equal to such an' effort, he deli- 
 vered his sentiments fully and clearly on the 
 whole measure, and gave, as he conceived, 
 satisfactory and conclusive answers to the ob- 
 jections which had been urged against it. 
 But it very soon appeared, that the opposi- 
 tion formerly made had in no respect subsi- 
 
180 LIFE OF 
 
 ded, and that even on the Bench there was a 
 great difference of opinion. Indeed one right 
 reverend Prelate did not scruple to declare, 
 that in his judgment it was a measure preg- 
 nant with mischief; and that it would pro- 
 duce nothing but jealousy and discord in the 
 Church, through every part of the kingdom. 
 This unambiguous and peremptory language, 
 added to the unfavourable view taken of the 
 subject by the Lord Chancellor, decided the 
 House: and the consequence was, that on 
 the third reading, to the Bishop's infinite 
 mortification and regret, the Bill was reject- 
 ed. 
 
 The following note, subjoined to his 
 Speech on this occasion, which he afterwards 
 printed, is a strong proof of the liberality and 
 candour of his mind, and places in a strik- 
 ing point of view the objects which he pro- 
 posed to himself, and the motives upon which 
 he acted ; objects and motives, which those, 
 who dissented from him, will at least do 
 him the justice to say were most honoura- 
 ble to his character. 
 
 " It was matter," he observes, " of ex- 
 treme concern to me, that in the discussion 
 of this Bill I found myself under the neces- 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. i ft ! 
 
 sity of differing from many noble Lords and 
 learned Prelates (some of them in the high- 
 est stations, and of the most distinguished 
 character) for whom I entertain the greatest 
 respect and esteem. But I beg to have it un- 
 derstood, that if any strong expressions es- 
 caped me in the warmth of debate, I did not 
 mean to cast the slightest reflection on those 
 who opposed the Bill, and who, I well know, 
 opposed it upon principle, and from a con- 
 scientious conviction that it would not an- 
 swer the end proposed. I give them the 
 fullest credit for the purity of their motives, 
 and the rectitude of their intentions ; and all 
 I have to ask in return, is, the same candid 
 interpretation of the part which I have taken 
 and of the motives by which I have been ac- 
 tuated. 
 
 " I can with perfect truth declare, that I 
 had not any other objects in view, than those 
 which I openly avowed and professed in the 
 outset of the debate ; namely, the general 
 interests of Religion, the credit of the Church 
 of England, the spiritual welfare of the peo- 
 ple, and the relief of a large, laborious, de- 
 serving, indigent and suffering class of the in- 
 ferior Clergy : all which important ends I 
 
182 LIFE OF 
 
 did, and do still most sincerely think, this 
 Bill was well calculated to obtain. I had not, 
 and could not possibly have any other ob- 
 jects in view than these. Indeed no consi- 
 derations of less moment could have had 
 weight enough to draw me from my retreat, 
 or to set in motion those springs of active ex- 
 ertion, which age and indisposition had so 
 much weakened and impaired ; for I can but 
 too closely apply to myself, with a small va- 
 riation, those affecting words of old Evander; 
 
 Mihi tarda gelu, saeclisque effoeta seuectus 
 
 Invidet eloquium, serseque ad fortia vires." 
 
 The last public act, if I may so term it, of 
 the Bishop's life, was worthy of all that he 
 had done before, and I give it in his own 
 words. 
 
 " I had for some time past,'* he says 3 
 " observed in several of the papers an ac- 
 count of a meeting, chiefly of military gen- 
 tlemen, at an Hotel at the West -cud of the 
 Town, which was regularly announced, 
 as held every other Sunday during the win- 
 ter season. This appeared to me, and to 
 every friend to religion, a needless and wan- 
 ton profanation of the Christian Sabbath, 
 
BISHOP POR-fEUS. 183 
 
 which by the laws both of God and man was 
 set apart for very different purposes ; and the 
 Bishops and Clergy were severely censured 
 for permitting such a glaring abuse of that 
 sacred day to pass without notice or reproof. 
 I determined that it should not ; and there- 
 fore thought it best to go at once to the foun- 
 tain-head, to the person of the highest and 
 principal influence in the meeting, The Prince 
 of Wales. I accordingly requested the hon- 
 our of an audience, and a personal conference 
 with him on this subject. He very gracious- 
 ly granted it; and I had a conversation with 
 him of more than half an hour. He enter- 
 ed immediately into my views, and confessed 
 that he saw no reasons for holding the meet - 
 ing on Sundays, more than on any other 
 day of the week ; and he voluntarily propo- 
 sed that the day should be changed from 
 Sunday to Saturday, for which he said that 
 he should give immediate orders. 
 
 " Thus auspiciously ended this interview; 
 and during the whole time, I was charmed 
 with his fine, open, manly countenance, the 
 peculiar mildness and gentleness of his man- 
 ner, the elegance of his language, and the 
 clearness and precision, with which he gave 
 
LIFE 0V 
 
 me the history of the whole meeting." 
 v< Surely," adds the Bishop, in language, the 
 truth of which will be universally acknow- 
 ledged, " it is in the power of such a man, in 
 a station of such eminence, aud formed as 
 lie is to be the delight not only of this coun- 
 try, but of all Europe, so to win the public 
 affection, as '-to bow the hearts' of all the 
 people of England, ' as it were the heart of 
 one man!' " 
 
 Within a very few days after this interes- 
 ting occurrence at Carlton House, a visible 
 and alarming alteration took place in the 
 Bishop's already shattered and exhausted 
 frame ; and it became evident to those most 
 constantly with him that nature could not 
 much longer sustain the shock. He was 
 himself indeed strongly impressed with the 
 conviction, that his end was fast approaching 
 and he contemplated the event with all that 
 calm, composed resignation, which nothing 
 can inspire but a deep sense of piety, and a 
 devout, religious submission to the will of 
 God. On Thursday the 10th of May, I 
 saw him for the last time ; and never can I 
 forget the affecting solemnity of voice and 
 look, and manner, in which he begged my 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. ^ 
 
 most earnest prayers for his early and easy 
 release. He said little more to me, /or his 
 mind seemed wholly absorbed in the near 
 prospect of an eternal world. The follow- 
 ing day he was at his own desire removed to 
 Fulham ; and for a short time the change of 
 air and scene appeared to cheer and exhilirate 
 him. As he sat the next morning in his li- 
 brary, near the window, the brightness of a 
 fine spring day called up a transient glow in- 
 to his countenance ; and he several times ex- 
 claimed, O, that glorious Sun ! Afterwards, 
 whilst sitting at dinner, he was seized with 
 some slight convulsions, which were happily 
 however of short duration; and he then fell, 
 as it seemed, into a gentle sleep. It was the 
 sleep of death. From that time he never 
 spoke, and scarcely could be said to move. 
 Without a pang or a sigh, by a transition 
 so easy, as only to be known by a pressure of 
 his hand upon the knee of his servant, who 
 was sitting near him, the spirit of this great 
 and good man fled from its earthly mansion 
 to the realms of Peace ! 
 
 How truly were his own prayers accom- 
 plished, thus beautifully expressed many 
 years before in his Poem upon Death : 
 
186 LIFE OF 
 
 " At Thy good time 
 
 Let djath approach ; I reck not : let him come 
 In genuiue form, not with thy vengeance armed, 
 Too much for man to bear. O ! rather lend 
 Thy kindly aid to mitigate his stroke. 
 Then shed thy comforts o'er me; then put on 
 The gentlest of thy looks ; then deign to cheer 
 My fainting heart with the consoling hope 
 Of Mercy, Mercy, at thy hands ! And Thou, 
 'Whom soft-eyed Pity once let down from Heaven 
 To bleed for Man, to teach him how to live, 
 And, O, still harder lesson ! how to die ; 
 Disdain not thou to smooth the restless bed 
 Of sickness and of pain. Forgive the tear 
 That feeble Nature drops ; calm all her fears ; 
 Fix her firm trust on thy triumphant Cross, 
 Wake all her hopes, and animate her Faith ; 
 Till my rapt Soul, anticipating Heaven, 
 Bursts from the thraldom of incumb'ring clay, 
 And, on the wing of ecstacy upborne, 
 Springs into Liberty and Light and Life." 
 
 In obedience to express directions, which 
 lie left in writing, he was removed to Sun- 
 dridge, and there interred in a vault, in the 
 church-yard, which he had some time before 
 caused to be erected. The Inscription on 
 the tomb simply records, in compliance with 
 his own wish, the dates of his birth and death; 
 the former, on the 8th of May 1731; the 
 latter, on the 13th of May 1809. 
 
BISHOP FORTEUS. 137 
 
 The Executors to the Bishop's Will were 
 his old and much valued friends, the Bishops 
 of Durham and Lincoln, and his nephew, 
 Mr. Thomas Porteus: and, in addition to 
 various kind remembrances to different parts 
 of his family, the following are the principal 
 Bequests : 
 
 TO the Rector of St. James's Westminster, to be dis- 
 tributed by him at his discretion amongst the deserving 
 Poor of that Parish, within three months after his de- 
 cease, 100/. 
 
 To the Vicar of Fulham, in Middlesex, to be distri- 
 buted by him in the same manner, and within the same 
 time, 100Z. 
 
 To the Rector of Hunton, in Kent, to be distributed 
 by him in the same manner, and within the same time. 
 50/. 
 
 To the Rector of Sundridge, in Kent, to be distribu- 
 ted by him in the same manner, and within the same 
 time, 50Z. 
 
 To each of his Executors, 100/. 
 To his dear and pleasant friend Mrs. Kennicott*, 
 500/. Stock, in the 3 per Cents. 
 
 * The regard, which the Bishop entertained for this 
 amiable and excellent Lady, is well known. For many 
 years she paid him an annual visit ; and he Avas always 
 charmed by that power of cheerful, animated, impror- 
 
138 LIFE OF 
 
 To his excellent friend Mrs. Hannah More, of Bai- 
 ley Wood, in the county of Somerset, 200/. Stock in the 
 3 per Cents. 
 
 He also bequeaths, after Mrs. Porteus's 
 death (to whom he leaves, as it was his anx- 
 ious wish to do, and as indeed by her exem- 
 plary piety, her amiable manners, and her af- 
 fectionate unceasing attention to him, she 
 well deserved*, a most comfortable and li- 
 beral provision,) the undermentioned sums 
 to the following public Charities : 
 
 ing conversation, by which she is so much distinguished. 
 He had also the highest opinion of her good sense and 
 judgment and talents ; and these qualities, combined, as 
 they eminently are, Avith the greatest humility, and ail 
 unremitted attention to every act of religious duty, pub- 
 lic and private, could not fail of rendering her a most 
 welcome and " pleasant" visitor at Fulham. 
 
 * How deeply tlie Bishop himself felt the truth of 
 this observation, may be collected from the following pas- 
 sage, written some years before his death : " To Mrs. 
 Porteus's kind attention and attachment to me, I owe," 
 he says, " much of the comfort and happiness of my life ; 
 and it is my earnest wish and intention to make a provi- 
 sion for her after my decease in some degree proportion- 
 ed to her merits, and to the situation she has held in 
 life." 
 
BISHOP FORTEVS. 189 
 
 To the Treasurer of a Society in London called or 
 ie scribed by the name of The Society of Stewards and 
 Subscribers for maintaining and educating poor Orphans 
 of Clergymen, till of age to be put apprentice., for the gen- 
 eral uses of that excellent Society 2,000/. Stock, 3 per 
 Cent?. 
 
 To the Treasurer of the Corporation of the Sons of 
 the Clergy, for the benefit of the Maiden Daughters of 
 Clergymen of the Church of England, 2,000/. Stock, 3 
 per Cents. 
 
 To the Treasurer of the Society for ike Conversion 
 and religious Instruction and Education of the Negro 
 Slaves in the British West-India Islands., for the general 
 uses of that Society, 1,0004. Stock, 3 per Cents. 
 
 To the Treasurer of St. George's Hospital, near Hyde 
 Park Corner, for the general uses of that Charity 1,OOOJ. 
 Stock, 3 per Cents. 
 
 To the Treasurer of the Middlesex Hospital, for the 
 general uses of that Charity, 1,000& Stock, 3 per Cent-. 
 
 To the Treasurer of the London Hospital, for the gen- 
 eral uses of that Charity, 1,OOOZ. Stock, 3 per Cents. 
 
 To the Vicar of Fulham for the time being, to be di- 
 vided equally every year amongst the twelve poor Wo- 
 men in the Alms-houses in that parish, the Interest of 
 400Z. Stock, 3 per Cents. 
 
 He also left to his Successors, the Bishops 
 of London, the pictures of his Predecessors 
 
190 LIFE OF 
 
 in that See, together with his own portrait 
 by Hoppner ; his excellent and extensive 
 collection of books: and, with the excep- 
 tion of three hundred pounds, applied to ano- 
 ther purpose, the value, whatever it might 
 amount to, of the copyright of his printed 
 works, as the commencement of a fund for 
 the erection of a new wing for an episcopal 
 library, to correspond with what is now the 
 episcopal chapel at Fulham Palace. 
 
 The Bishop was in person under the mid- 
 dle size, of a thin and slender frame, and na- 
 turally of a tender constitution. In his youth 
 he must have been extremely handsome ; his 
 features were of a superior cast; and, even 
 when advanced in years, he still retained a 
 remarkable clearness of complexion. These 
 however were not the circumstances, which 
 formed the prominent character of his coun- 
 tenance. There was a mildness, a gentle- 
 ness, an air of genuine philanthropy about 
 it, with which even indiiferent persons were 
 always struck ; and yet, when lighted up by 
 the occasion, it displayed the utmost vivaci- 
 ty and animation. His smile had something 
 in it uncommonly captivating ; and, though 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. '191 
 
 he never lost sight of that dignity, which 
 became his station, it was yet a dignity to- 
 tally unmixed with pride. He had the en- 
 viable talent of dissipating at once that feel- 
 ing of reserve and apprehension, which, in 
 the presence of a superior, is so often a bar 
 to the freedom and comfort of social inter- 
 course, and by the graciousness of his manner 
 placing those around him perfectly at ease. 
 He delighted in cheerful, lively conversation, 
 and no one ever more promoted it, or per- 
 haps more excelled in it. There was a spi- 
 rit and playfulness in his language, which 
 .gave an interest even to the most ordinary 
 topics; and on subjects of graver import, 
 he always appeared to great advantage. His 
 remarks were conspicuous for correct taste, 
 accurate information, and a sound and well 
 regulated judgment ; and he expressed him- 
 self with so much facility and perspicuity, 
 so much natural energy and eloquence, as 
 never failed to excite attention, and render his 
 society equally instructive and entertaining. 
 In estimating his intellectual abilities, I 
 do not think, that profound erudition can be 
 ascribed to him. He had not the inclina- 
 tion, if he had the faculty, to fix and con- 
 
192 LIIE OF 
 
 centrate his thoughts on any one particular 
 science. His imagination was too active 
 and ardent for such exclusive application. 
 Perhaps, if he had followed the natural bent 
 of his genius, Poetiy would have been his 
 favourite pursuit. He saw every thing with 
 a poet's eye; he loved to dwell and expa- 
 tiate on the wild scenes of nature ; his fancy 
 was easily fired, and his affections moved ; 
 and he had all that enthusiasm of feeling, 
 which delights in warm and glowing des- 
 cription. As however he had other views 
 in life, he very wisely checked this early 
 impulse, and applied himself to graver studies. 
 In classical literature, he held unquestiona- 
 bly no mean rank ; for, without that critical 
 exactness which constitutes the profound 
 scholar, he had read with attention the best 
 writers of antiquity, both Greek and Latin; 
 entered with taste and discernment into their 
 various beauties; and, as his memory was 
 strong and retentive, could recall without 
 difficulty, whatever in them was most wor- 
 thy of being remembered. In his admira- 
 ble tract, for instance, on the Beneficial Ef- 
 fects of Christianity, there is an appeal to 
 ancient authorities in confirmation of his 
 
KfSHOP 1'ORTEL.N 193 
 
 argument, which marks an intimate acquain- 
 tance with Pagan history, and the books of 
 principal credit, from which any accurate 
 account could be collected of the manners, 
 habits and circumstances of Pagan nations. 
 It is evident from that treatise, that he was 
 completely master of his subject; that he had 
 within his grasp whatever could illustrate 
 and enforce it ; and that by a full and ample 
 statement of well authenticated facts he has 
 unanswerably proved his position. 
 
 In regard to Theological attainment, there 
 have undoubtedly been, and there are un- 
 doubtedly now in the world, men of wider 
 research, more critical precision, and more 
 copious and extensive learning. But still, 
 generally speaking, he must be considered 
 even in these respects to have ranked high 
 in his profession. His knowledge of He- 
 brew literature, though he never made any 
 display of it , was by no means inconsidera - 
 ble. He was well versed in Ecclesiastical 
 history. The evidences of religion, natural 
 and revealed, were in their whole extent fa- 
 miliar to him. He had made himself thor- 
 oughly acquainted with the different systems 
 
194 LIFE OF 
 
 of Theology, which divide the Christian 
 world; and few undoubtedly had ever stu- 
 died Scripture itself with greater care and 
 more profound attention. He was, in short, 
 in every view of the subject, a sound, well 
 informed, and able divine; and it is, in my 
 judgment, a circumstance highly honourable 
 to his character, that he had read Divinity 
 without imbibing any of that narrow, con- 
 tracted spirit, which is known sometimes to 
 attach to it. He was indeed on principle, 
 and from a deep persuasion of its supe- 
 rior excellence, unalterably attached to the 
 Church of England. He considered its doc- 
 trines, as exhibited in its Homolies, its Ar- 
 ticles, and its Liturgy, to be essentially and 
 fundamentally scriptural. The Galvinistic 
 Interpretation of them he would never admit 
 to be the true one; and in this opinion he 
 'A as uniform and consistent. He conceived 
 them to speak the language of Scripture, 
 which, in his view of it, was decidedly ad- 
 verse to the sentiments of Calvin. Upon 
 this point, I wish distinctly to be understood, 
 as asserting on my own positive knowledge, 
 that in no one article of faith, as far as they 
 differ from our Church, did he sanction the 
 
FORTEUS. -> 
 
 tenets of that school. On the contrary, I 
 have heard him repeatedly and in the most 
 unqualified terms express his astonishment, 
 that any sober-minded man, sitting down 
 without prejudice to the study of the Sacred 
 Writings, should so explain and understand 
 them*. 
 
 He was not less attached to the Church of 
 England in its Discipline, which he thought 
 formed altogether on the Apostolical model; 
 and no one was ever more strenuous in resis- 
 ting any departure from it on the part of its 
 established Ministers. Amongst other nu- 
 merous proofs I might adduce, I shall intro- 
 duce in this place the following letter, which 
 he wrote to a Gentleman, who had applied 
 to him in behalf of Dr. Draper, an episco- 
 
 * The irorld has lately been favoured by an admirable 
 treatise on this subject from the pen of the excellent 
 and learned Prelate, "who now presides over the Diocese 
 of Lincoln. It contains a most profound, laborious, con- 
 elusive investigation of an intricate and long-agitated 
 question, and must get it, I think, at rest for ever. It is 
 in fact, what it claims to be, " A Refutation of Calvin 
 ism ;' 5 a system of religion, as a Writer of great emi- 
 nence has most justly defined it, " consisting of human 
 creatures without liberty doctrines without sense faith 
 without reason and a God without mercy," 
 
190 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 pally ordained clergyman, whom he had ex- 
 pressly prohibited, on account of some very 
 irregular proceedings, from officiating in 
 any church in his diocese. 
 
 " As I understood that Dr. Draper was 
 what you represent him to be, a man of pie- 
 ty and a good preacher, it gave me, I assure 
 you, no small pain to feel myself under the 
 necessity of excluding him from the pulpits 
 of my diocese : but his own conductrender- 
 ed it in me an indispensable duty. Instead 
 of confining himself, which as a Minister of 
 the Church of England he ought to have 
 done, to the celebration of divine service in 
 places of worship licensed or consecrated by 
 hisDiocesan, and authorised by law,he chose 
 to become the president of a College, and 
 Preacher in a Chapel, founded by Lady 
 Huntingdon, for the purpose of training up 
 lay-preachers for conventicles, licensed as 
 Dissenting Meeting-houses. Lady Hun- 
 tingdon, though a pious woman, was unques- 
 tionably not a member of the Church of Eng- 
 land, but what is strictly and properly so cal- 
 led, a Methodist ; professing the doctrines of 
 one of the first founders of Methodism, 
 George Whitfielcl, and educating young men 
 
BISHOP PORTKUS. 
 
 197 
 
 to preach those doctrines without episcopal 
 ordination. There could not therefore be a 
 more injudicious and offensive measure, or 
 more hostile to the Church of England, than 
 to become the President of such a College, 
 and the Preacher in such a Chapel, found- 
 ed for such purposes. 
 
 "What Dr. Draper has done, is moreover 
 directly repugnant to the Canons of the 
 Church of England, which prohibit every 
 minister of that church from preaching in 
 any chapel that is not sanctioned and allow- 
 ed by the ecclesiastical laws of the realm, 
 under very severe penalties; and were I to 
 proceed to extremities, those penalties must 
 be inflicted. But I have taken a milder 
 course. I have only excluded from the pa- 
 rochial churches of my diocese a Clergy- 
 man, who has separated himself for a consi- 
 derable part of the year from the Establish- 
 ed Church, and set up a church of his own, 
 neither licensed nor consecrated by his Dio- 
 cesan. I neither blame Dr. Draper nor any 
 other man for following the dictates of his 
 own conscience in matters of religion. I 
 would have every man permitted to worship 
 God without interruption or molestation in 
 H 2 
 
196 
 
 LIFE 
 
 the manner he most approves. But then k-t 
 him be consistent. Let him not halt between 
 two opinions. Let him not vibrate between 
 two modes of worship. Let him not be a 
 Methodist in the morning, and a Church-of- 
 England Man in the afternoon. I never can 
 consent that any clergyman in my diocese 
 should so divide himself between Sectarism 
 and the Establishment between the Church 
 of England and the Church of Lady Hun- 
 tingdon. Let him take his part, and adhere 
 to it steadily and uniformly throughout. 
 
 " In this, I hope, there is nothing like in> 
 tolerance. It is nothing more than what 
 common decency and common sense require. 
 There cannot be a more determined enemy 
 to persecution of every kind, and a more de- 
 rided friend to toleration than myself. Eve- 
 ry one that has known me and my sentiments 
 und habits, from my earliest youth, knows 
 this to be the case ; and, I trust, my wri- 
 tings contain unequivocal proofs of it. In- 
 deed, I believe, I am generally thought to 
 carry my lenity towards those, who have the 
 misfortune to differ from the Church of 
 England, a little too far. I have certainly al- 
 ways treated them with gentleness and emir- 
 
HI SHOP PORTF.US. 199 
 
 . considering them, as they certainly are, 
 fellow Christians, fellow Protestants and fel- 
 low members of that Holy Catholic Church, 
 that universal Church of Christ ', which we 
 repeatedly pray for in our admirable and cha- 
 ritable Liturgy. 
 
 " Yet notwithstanding this, whenever the 
 occasion requires it, I will vigorously resist 
 the invasion of unauthorised preachers up- 
 on our parish churches. I will not shrink 
 from the duties of my station, but will main- 
 tain the discipline and good order of that 
 Ecclesiastical Constitution, of which I am 
 bound to be a vigilant and faithful guardian, 
 and to exercise that authority, with which 
 the laws of the land and the Canons of the 
 Church have invested me for that purpose. 
 
 " With respect to the pamphlets you 
 mention, which have been written against 
 me on the case of Dr. Draper, I have read 
 none of them, nor ever shall. I am not to 
 be frightened from doing what I conceive to 
 be my duty, by such contemptible assailants 
 as these. Every man in such a public and 
 ostensible station as mine, must be prepared 
 for attacks of that sort, and must have firm- 
 ness and fortitude enough to despise them, 
 
200 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 Otherwise, he is unfit to fill the situation 
 which he occupies." 
 
 After reading this letter, it will be utterly 
 impossible for any candid man to suppose 
 for a moment, that the Bishop was not a stren- 
 uous supporter of the established discipline 
 of the Church of England. But, at the 
 same time, as this letter proves, he had a 
 mind too liberal, too noble and enlarged, not 
 to treat, as he says, " with gentleness and 
 courtesy" those who differed from him in 
 religious opinions. Provided they held the 
 fundamentals of Christianity, he considered 
 them " as fellow Christians, fellow Protes- 
 tants, and fellow members of the universal 
 church;" and he could never tolerate the 
 thought, that on account of a mere diversity 
 in outward forms, they should be avoided as 
 foes to religion, excluded from tfye covenant 
 of mercy, and thrust with acrimony and 
 scorn beyond the pale of salvation. Such 
 language and conduct he held to be at open 
 variance with the text and spirit of Scrip- 
 ture : and he therefore uniformly manifested 
 in his own practice the utmost liberality and 
 candour to every denomination of Christians. 
 He would have been glad to have brought 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 201 
 
 them over to his own way of thinking; but 
 he did not break off all intercourse with them, 
 merely because they chose to think for them- 
 selves. On the contrary, he gave them cre- 
 dit for sincerity ; he was anxious to shew 
 them any kindness in his power; and, in- 
 stead of widening the breach by contending 
 about points in which they varied from each 
 other, he laboured with them in promoting 
 those great essential truths, and that unalte- 
 rable moral Law, in which they all agreed. 
 I know indeed, and he knew it himself, 
 that he was thought by some to entertain lax 
 opinions upon this subject, and that he fell 
 under the common, sweeping imputation of 
 Methodism. But he was not to be deterred 
 from pursuing the calm determination of his 
 own mind by any calumny whatever; and 
 much less by the stigma of a name a name, 
 devised by the enemies of religion for the 
 worst purposes, and which, as generally used, 
 attaches indiscriminately to the ignorant, ra- 
 ving fanatic, and the sound, learned, pious, 
 and even orthodox divine. He was, in fact, 
 neither a Methodist, nor an encourager of 
 Methodism: but he was the advocate of re- 
 ligious liberty, the friend of moderation 
 
202 LIFE OF 
 
 and concord. He deprecated, as the great- 
 est injury to Christianity, all violence and 
 animosity ; and it was the fervent wish of his 
 heart, that, if men cannot be brought to 
 think together, they would at least endeavour 
 to live together in amity and in peace. 
 
 In Parliament, the Bishop never spoke 
 except on points strictly ecclesiastical, con- 
 nected either with the discipline and good 
 order of the Church, or the general welfare 
 of religion. But when he did deliver his 
 sentiments, he expressed himself with ease, 
 propriety and firmness, and was always heard 
 with attention. His political opinions were 
 those of Mr. Pitt; and he entertained them, 
 not blindly and submissively on a mere par- 
 ty principle, but from a conscientious delibe- 
 rate conviction, that they were intrinsically 
 right. What his sentiments were of that 
 truly great and ever to be lamented man will 
 be seen in the following passage : 
 
 11 The death," he says, " of this illustrious 
 Statesman, has, with very few exceptions, 
 caused inexpressible concern throughout 
 the kingdom. He was unquestionably one 
 of the most extraordinary men that, this 01 
 
BISHOP PORTKL^. 203 
 
 any other country ever produced. For near 
 twenty years, he directed the affairs of the 
 British Empire with unbounded confidence 
 from his Sovereign and the people, with un- 
 rivalled eloquence and ability, and with un- 
 spotted, unimpeached integrity; and we may 
 justly apply to him Mark Antony's splendid 
 encomium upon Caesar; 
 
 He was the foremost man of all the world. 
 
 " For a long period he maintained a noble 
 struggle for our liberty and independence, 
 against the gigantic power of France ; pre- 
 served us, under Providence, from the anar- 
 chy and desolation, which overwhelmed a 
 large portion of the rest of Europe, and died 
 at last a martyr to his unwearied labours in 
 the service of his country. 
 
 " It is a singular circumstance," adds the 
 Bishop, " and a most unfortunate one for 
 this kingdom, that two such men as Lord 
 Nelson and Mr. Pitt (each in his respective 
 station without a parallel in the history of 
 the world) should be prematurely taken away 
 from us, within a few months of each other; 
 in the very meridian of their course ; at the 
 same period of life ; in the full possession 
 
20 -I LIFE OF 
 
 of all their faculties and powers ; and at a 
 time too, when we stood most in need of 
 the mighty mind of the one, and the invin- 
 cible arm of the other! 4 How unsearcha- 
 ble are God's judgments, and his ways past 
 finding out ! ' : 
 
 As a Preacher, the Bishop's reputation 
 has ever stood deservedly high in the pub- 
 lic estimation. Few men indeed were ever 
 so remarkably endowed with all the quali- 
 ties, which give pre-eminence in the pulpit. 
 His voice, without unusual loudness or 
 strength, was yet uncommonly clear; and it 
 was combined with such a liquid, distinct 
 enunciation, as rendered him completely au- 
 dible even in the largest churches and to the 
 most crowded congregations. It also pos- 
 sessed great sweetness and flexibility ; and 
 he had the talent of modulating it so correct- 
 ly as always to please and satisfy the ear, 
 and yet so easily and naturally, as never, even 
 in the slightest degree, to incur the charge 
 of affectation. His delivery was very im- 
 pressive. It was chaste, earnest, spirited, 
 devout. He had no studied action, no ve- 
 hement and forced emotion. He spoke evi- 
 dently as he felt. His whole soul was in b"";: 
 
BJSJJOP PORTLVr- -^ 
 
 subject. He seemed to forget himself in 
 the deep interest, which he took in the edifi- 
 cation of his hearers ; and this circumstance 
 gave, as it manifestly would, such a power and 
 charm to his preaching, as never failed to ex- 
 tort attention even from the coldest and the 
 most insensible. His style was admirably 
 adapted to the pulpit. It was plain, without 
 being too familiar ; classical, without being 
 pedantic. His great aim was, to express 
 himself so clearly, that the meanest and the 
 least informed might always comprehend 
 him* ; and yet with such correctness and 
 
 1 The fact contained in the following extract of a let- 
 ter to me, from a very sensible and judicious man, is a 
 most striking proof of the clearness and perspicuity of 
 the Bishop's writing, and of its being calculated in an 
 eminent degree for general usefulness : 
 
 " Sir Alexander Johnston, who holds, 
 
 as you know, a high situation in the Island of Ceylon, 
 told me, that, having heard of the discussions which were 
 carrying on in Europe, respecting the introduction of 
 Christianity into the East, it occurred to him, that great 
 mistakes were made from a want of knowledge of the 
 minds of the people, and the most probable means of in- 
 fluencing them ; and that with a view to obtain this 
 knowledge he had assembled the leading people m the 
 Island, who were acquainted with the English language, 
 and put into their hands several treatises containing the 
 s 
 
206 LIFE OF 
 
 purity, as to be heard with satisfaction by 
 men of taste and education. How perfectly 
 he succeeded, his discourses prove. They 
 are distinguished throughout by the most 
 elegant simplicity : at the same time, when 
 the occasion calls for it, they are strong, 
 
 doctrines and proofs of Religion; requesting that they 
 would read them, and tell him which of them carried 
 most conviction to their minds, and which they thought 
 most likely to make an impression upon the rest of their 
 countrymen. I should tell you, that the persons he con- 
 sulted \\ ere previously nominal Christians, being descen- 
 dants of those who had embraced the Catholic Religion 
 under the Portuguese, or Calvinism under the Dutch. 
 They all gave a decided preference to the Bishop of 
 London's Epitome of the Christian Evidences; saying, 
 that they had never understood their religion before, 
 and that they were convinced it was the best adapted 
 to influence the Cingalese. Upon this he ordered it to 
 be translated by the two Interpreters of the Court of 
 Justice, who are men of rank in the Island : and he says 
 it was generally circulated. 
 
 " I thought you would be pleased to hear this fact, as 
 an honourable testimony to the merit of the Bishop's 
 Work, proceeding from the criticism of nature. It strikes 
 me too, that it may be of public use, as a guide to the 
 best mode of instructing the people of the East, At 
 least it shews, that they are open to instruction, convey- 
 ed in a sober, rational form, and that the office need not 
 be left, as some think, to wild enthusiasts." 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 207 
 
 nervous, eloquent, sublime. His sentiments 
 and language rise with his subject ; and, 
 heightened as they were by his peculiar elo- 
 cution, they made a deep and most powerful 
 impression. But it was neither style nor 
 manner, nor utterance, which alone gave such 
 efficacy to his preaching. His sermons are 
 conspicuous for sound judgment, solid ar- 
 gument, great knowledge of the human 
 heart, accurate observation of the world, an 
 unshrinking reprobation of vice, the most 
 persuasive exhortations to piety, and an un- 
 qualified avowal of all the essential, funda- 
 mental truths and doctrines of the Gospel. 
 It has been said indeed, that there are in his 
 discourses no deep views of religion; and 
 unquestionably they contain no elaborate dis- 
 cussions on controverted points of theology: 
 no visionary flights of fancy into things not 
 revealed; no minute details of religious 
 struggles, impulses, and feelings. But, for 
 the grand object of practical and vital amend- 
 ment; for all that can seize, excite, and in- 
 terest the best feelings of the soul; for that 
 energetic appeal to the heart and conscience, 
 which can arrest the sinner in a course of 
 guilt, strike him with compunction, urge 
 
208 LIFE Of 
 
 him to repentance, save him from perdition-; 
 for that earnestness of parental counsel, 
 which can fix the wavering and confirm the 
 virtuous ; for that power of spiritual conso- 
 lation, which can soothe the afflicted, bind 
 up the broken-hearted, cheer the suffering, 
 comfort the desponding; for that gentle, 
 meek, conciliating spirit, which can soften 
 the asperity of religious dispute, and unite 
 men of various and discordant senti- 
 ments in the bond of peace, amity and af- 
 fection; for all these purposes, I know no 
 discourses superior ; and there are not wan- 
 ting instances on record, in which they are 
 known to have been powerfully and signal- 
 ly efficacious. One, in particular, occurred 
 at Bath, where a gentlemen at that place, 
 whose name was Boissier, and who had un- 
 happily imbibed all the mischievous tenets 
 of the French Philosophy, and was in fact 
 an avowed infidel, was so impressed and 
 struck by a sermon, which the Bishop preach- 
 ed on these words, " Truly this was the 
 Son of God," that he was actually conver- 
 ted by it. He was induced to renounce his 
 .former principles. He was persuaded to 
 look into Revelation ; to examine and con- 
 
EISHOP PORTED. 200 
 
 sider its evidences ; and the result was, that 
 he not only became a sincere and firm believ- 
 er in the doctrines of the Gospel, but un- 
 dertook a translation of a very ingenious and 
 excellent work, M. Bonnet's Inquiries in- 
 to Christianity, with the hope as he expres- 
 ses himself, "of imparting those advantages 
 to others, which I derived myself from the 
 weighty arguments and persuasive eloquence 
 of that respectable Prelate, who first traced 
 out to me the road to Truth." 
 
 But the Bishop was not only himself pre- 
 eminent in the pulpit, but he was anxious to 
 promote those in the church, who appeared 
 to him to be the best qualified by their lear, 
 ning, their talents, and their eloquence, to 
 uphold the cause of religion. It must ever, 
 for example, be mentioned to his honour, 
 that he conferred the valuable living of St. 
 James's Westminster, on its present highly- 
 respected Rector, the Dean of Canterbury, 
 At the time the benefice became vacant, Dr. 
 Andre wes was no otherwise known to him, 
 than by his general character, and his ac- 
 knowledged excellence as a preacher. But 
 " for these reasons," says the Bishop, " he 
 appeared to me by far the fittest person I 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 could place in that very important situation ; 
 the most important perhaps of any parochial 
 situation in this kingdom. His conduct since 
 has fully answered my most sanguine ex- 
 pectations. His church is crowded with 
 persons of every rank and condition ; and 
 he is doing infinite service in that large and 
 populous parish, not only by his preaching, 
 but by his exemplary unremitted attention to 
 all the duties of his profession, private and 
 public. 
 
 It was not however only by patronising 
 men of reputation, and placing them in situa- 
 tions of usefulness and responsibility, that 
 he endeavoured to advance the credit of the 
 church. He was also anxious to lay a foun- 
 dation for its future benefit: and this he 
 thought might be most effectually done in 
 the manner thus stated by himself : 
 
 " It has often," he says, " been matter of 
 deep regret to me, that, in the excellent sys- 
 tem of education established in our two 
 Universities, sufficient regard has not been 
 paid to the instruction of young men intend- 
 ed for the church, in those studies and at- 
 tainments, which are peculiarly fitted to quali- 
 fy them for discharging with respectability 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS, 21 1 
 
 and success the various important functions 
 of their sacred office. More particularly I 
 have lamented that there is no part of acade- 
 mical education that has any tendency to pro- 
 duce, what is certainly one of the most use- 
 ful, and most essential branches of our pro- 
 fession, good preaching and good reading. 
 There is no instruction given in it, no re- 
 wards or honours assigned to it, no attention 
 paid to it. Yet this is confessedly the great 
 instrument by which we are ' to persuade 
 men ;' by which we are to make an impres- 
 sion on their hearts and consciences, reclaim 
 them from sin, establish them in virtue, and 
 ' work out their salvation.' 
 
 " I therefore determined to try, whether by 
 any means I could excite in the younger part 
 of the University of Cambridge a spirit of 
 ambition to excel in those most important 
 and necessary qualifications of a parochial 
 clergyman: and, after much deliberation, 
 nothing seemed to me more likely to attain 
 this purpose, than the institution of Prizes 
 for good Elocution and good Composition 
 on religious subjects. If public honours 
 were once assigned to those, who distin- 
 guished themselves in these things, as well 
 
213 LIFE OF 
 
 as to eminent classical scholars and mathc 
 maticans, I felt persuaded, that the most ben- 
 eficial effects would result from such an in- 
 stitution ; and I therefore resolved to form 
 one for that purpose at Christ's College, 
 where I was educated, if that Society should 
 be inclined to accept it. On my proposing 
 it to Dr. Barker, then Master, he and the 
 College very obligingly acceded to the propo- 
 sal ; and accordingly, very soon after, I trans- 
 ferred the sum of 1,400/. 4 per Cents for the 
 establishment of three Prizes, to be appropri- 
 ated to the following purposes : 
 
 " 1st. A Gold Medal of 15/. value, for the best Dis- 
 sertation in Latin by an Undergraduate of any standing, 
 on any of the chief evidences, or fundamental doctrines 
 of the Christian Revelation. 
 
 " 2dly. A Gold Medal of the same value, for the best 
 practicle Dissertation in English on any moral precept in 
 the New Testament ; regard being had, in deciding on 
 its merits, both to the excellence of the composition, and 
 the graceful and impressive manner of delivering it, 
 when read in Chapel*. 
 
 * By a subsequent Indenture, dated Jan. 4th, 1809, 
 the Bishop determined that, th two Prize Medals for 
 .Essays or Dissertations should not be confined to Un- 
 dergraduates, but should be opr-'n to all the Graduates, as 
 well as Undergraduates of Christ's College. 
 
BISHOP PORTEVS. 213 
 
 . A Gold Medal of 10/. value, to the best reader 
 oi the Lessons in Chapel." 
 
 In this manner did the Bishop, with a 
 truly liberal spirit, prove himself the real 
 friend of the Church, by encouraging, as far 
 as in him lay, a more able and effectual per- 
 formance of its sacred offices. Indeed I 
 can hardly speak of his generosity upon all 
 occasions, in which it could be exerted, with- 
 out risking the charge of exaggeration. Yet 
 I know it to be true, and I have before sta- 
 ted the same fact, that no one ever practised 
 the virtue of beneficence in a more exalted 
 degree. Providence had blessed him with 
 ample means, and he employed them freely 
 and largely in removing to the utmost of his 
 power the wants of the necessitous. The 
 tale of distress never came to him unheeded. 
 His heart and his hands were ever open ; and 
 many were his acts of charity, which were 
 known only to himself and those whom he 
 relieved. In him the poor had a kind, a con- 
 stant, an unfailing friend : not that he wish- 
 ed to encourage a system of begging, much 
 less that sordid, lazy wretchedness, which 
 sometimes is allied to poverty. On the con- 
 trary, he endeavoured to select the virtuous 
 
214 LIFE OF 
 
 and industrious ; and, whilst he never refu- 
 sed to give something to those, who seemed 
 to be in need, he always gave more readily 
 and liberally to those, who really wanted, and 
 who, he knew, deserved it. His principle 
 was, in short, in all cases, if possible, to dis- 
 criminate ; but not to shrink from an act of 
 charity through a general suspicion of arti- 
 fice and deception. The very habit of gi- 
 ving was in his apprehension more than an 
 equivalent for accidental imposition. To 
 almost all our public Charities, he more or 
 less contributed, and often, where it was ne- 
 cessary, to a large amount. Wherever in- 
 deed positive good could be done , or posi- 
 tive evil be removed, his aid was never want- 
 ing. He was " glad to distribute, willing 
 
 to communicate." 
 
 To those of his Clergy, in particular, 
 whose situation and circumstances required 
 assistance, his kindness was unceasing; and 
 it was always rendered doubly acceptable by 
 the unostentatious manner in which it was 
 bestowed. There are many living at this 
 moment, who can bear ample testimony to 
 the truth of this declaration ; and who must 
 often heave a sigh of regret at the loss of so 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 warm a friend, and so generous a benefactor. 
 But, though he himself can now no longer 
 dispense it, his liberality will still be felt in 
 that splendid, and almost unexampled dona- 
 tion of no less a sum than 6, TOO/, in the 3 
 per Cents. Consolidated Annuities, which, 
 during his life, he transferred into the hands 
 of the four Archdeacons for the time being 
 of the Diocese of London ; and the Inter- 
 est of which he directed to be annually dis- 
 tributed at their discretion, in sums not ex- 
 ceeding twenty pounds, to a certain number 
 of the poorer Clergy in that See, who may 
 be thought to stand most in need of relief. 
 This was indeed a noble act of munificence ; 
 and it will for ages yet to come render his 
 name illustrious, and endear his memory to 
 the Church of England. 
 
 It was not however merely by pecuniary 
 aid, that he displayed the spirit of real Chris- 
 tian benevolence. In the distress of his 
 friends he ever deeply sympathized, losing 
 no opportunity of encouraging, of soothing, 
 of consoling them. To those who reques- 
 ted his advice, he cheerfully and freely gave 
 it ; and out of many instances I select the 
 following ; not only because the subjects to 
 
216 LIFE OF 
 
 which he adverts are in themselves of all 
 others the most interesting, but as it marks 
 in a very striking point of view the readiness 
 with which he endeavoured to impart in- 
 struction and counsel even to a person of 
 'whose name and condition he had no know- 
 ledge, but who, it seems, had consulted him 
 on various religious difficulties, to which the 
 perusal of Mr.- Wilberforce's " Practical 
 Fiew" had given rise. The importance and 
 excellence of the letter will compensate for 
 its length. 
 
 " Although I sincerely wish that you had 
 applied to a more able adviser in matters of 
 so much importance, yet as, I trust, I can af- 
 ford you some consolation, and to a great 
 degree, if not entirely remove the fears and 
 apprehensions, which press so heavily upon 
 your mind, I think it an act of common hu- 
 manity to give you the best opinion I am 
 able to form on the subject, from a very at- 
 tentive perusal of Mr. Wilberforce's book, 
 and a very diligent examination of the Sa- 
 cred Writings. 
 
 " And, first, there can be no doubt that 
 the love of God and of Christ is a most in- 
 dispensable duty ; and when we consider the 
 
BISHOP 
 
 very forcible words made use of with respect 
 to the former, l Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, 
 with all thy mind, and with all thy strength;' 
 and when we reflect, that with regard to 
 the latter it is said * If any man love not 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, 
 Maran-atha,' that is, as Doddridge explains 
 it, < he will lie under the heaviest curse that 
 an Apostle can pronounce, or God inflict,' 
 it is evident that a very high degree of love. 
 of reverence, of attachment, and of grati- 
 tude to our Maker and our Redeemer, is ex- 
 pected from us ; and that this command is 
 utterly inconsistent with a cold, lifeless, lan- 
 guid indifference towards them. It is also 
 true, that it is our duty by frequent medita- 
 tions on the perfections and the goodness of 
 God, by pious contemplation, by frequent 
 and fervent prayer, and by imploring the as- 
 sistance of the Holy Spirit, to animate and 
 enliven and invigorate these holy affections 
 in our souls, and to raise them to as great a 
 degree of warmth and ardour as we can. 
 Yet still the degree of that ardour must ve- 
 ry much depend on the different tempers, 
 constitutions, dispositions, and habits of dif 
 
218 LIFE OF 
 
 ferent men ; and therefore cannot be expec- 
 ted to be the same in all. Mr. Wilberforce 
 himself allows this to be the case. He says 
 expressly, that a difference in natural dispo- 
 sition, in the circumstances of the past life, 
 and in numberless other particulars, may oc- 
 casion a great difference in the predominant 
 tempers of different Christians ; but that, in 
 a greater or less degree, a cordial complacen- 
 cy in the sovereignty, an exalted sense of 
 the perfections, a grateful impression of the 
 goodness, and a humble hope of the favour 
 of the Divine Being, are common to all. 
 
 " Now of all these sentiments and affec- 
 tions, in a certain degree, you seem to be pos- 
 sessed. He says also, that the only infallible 
 criterion of a sincere love of God, is an ac- 
 tive discharge of the several duties of life, 
 and a conscientious obedience to the laws of 
 the Gospel; and this proof you humbly 
 trust you can give. In fine, he asserts, that 
 in this, and all other Christian duties, it is 
 the willing mind, the sincere wish and endea- 
 vour to do our best, which is principally re- 
 quired. Where that is found, every man 
 will be judged ' according to what he hath, 
 and not according to what he loath not.' 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 219 
 
 " If we look into the Scriptures them- 
 selves, we shall find that the definition which 
 they give of the love of God, contains no- 
 thing that need alarm a really serious and 
 pious mind. They make it to consist solely 
 in obeying God's commands. * This is the 
 love of God,' says St. John, ' that we keep 
 his commandments :' and again c He that 
 hath my commandments and keepeth them,' 
 says our Saviour, * he it is that loveth me ;' 
 ' Ye are my friends,' he says, * if ye do 
 whatsoever I command you ;' and again, in 
 still stronger terms we are told, that* Who- 
 so keepeth God's word, in him verily is the 
 love of God perfected? If, then, you can 
 give this proof of your love ; and if more- 
 over you have, as you say, the highest reve- 
 rence and admiration of his infinite perfec- 
 tions ; are deeply impressed with a sense of 
 his goodness ; and if, finally, you prefer his 
 favour and approbation to all earthly advanta- 
 ges ; though you may not feel so much ar- 
 dour of affection as you earnestly wish and 
 strive for, yon have yet no reason to appre- 
 hend the Divine displeasure for falling short 
 of that measure of excellence, which you 
 sincerely aim at, but feel yourself unable to 
 attain. 
 
220 iFE Oi 
 
 " Your next source of uneasiness is the 
 occasional languor and coldness and wander- 
 ings of your prayers, especially at church, 
 and the want of that rapturous delight and 
 joy, which some persons experience in the 
 exercise of devotion. To this I answer, 
 that attention and earnestness, and a certain 
 degree of fervour in our devotion, are doubt- 
 less qualifications necessary to render them 
 acceptable to our Heavenly Father ; for we 
 are told, that it is only ' the effectual, fervent 
 prayer of a righteous man that availeth 
 much ;' and God reproves those who * draw 
 near to him with their lips, while their hearts 
 are far from him.' But the degree of this 
 fervour, as well as of the joy that springs 
 from devotion, will (like that of the love of 
 God) depend much on the natural tem- 
 per, disposition, constitution, and other 
 circumstances, and will of course be very 
 different in different men. To wanderings 
 and distraction and occasional languor in 
 their prayers, the best of men are, I 
 fear, sometimes subject ; and they must 
 always be resisted to the utmost of our 
 power. There can be no doubt, that, if you 
 strive against them in earnest, you wil! 5 by 
 
BISHOP FORVKUS. 221 
 
 degrees, with God's grace, entirely .or in a 
 great measure subdue them, and will also ac- 
 quire more pleasure in the exercise of devo- 
 tion. In the mean time, as you say, it alrea- 
 dy affords you satisfaction and comfort, and 
 spreads over your mind a calm complacen- 
 cy and religious composure, you may hum- 
 bly hope, that your imperfections will be 
 pardoned, and your sincere endeavours ac- 
 cepted at the Throne of Grace. 
 
 " The next misfortune you complain of 
 is, that you do not possess that high degree 
 of heavenly-mindedness, that lively concep- 
 tion of the joys of heaven, and that anima- 
 ted and rapturous delight in the contempla- 
 tion of them, with which some persons, 
 and especially Mr. Wilberforce, seem to be 
 blessed. To this I say, that although these 
 delightful feelings are most ardently to be 
 desired, and aimed at, yet if with your ut- 
 most endeavours and prayers you cannot at- 
 tain to them, you must submit with hum- 
 ble resignation to the will of God, and not 
 be dejected or discouraged, or think it any 
 mark of God's displeasure, that he does not 
 vouchsafe them to you. They are undoubt- 
 edly the most valuable blessings, that his 
 T 2 
 
LIFE OP 
 
 mercy can bestow upon us ; and happy, 
 thrice happy, are they to whom they are gi- 
 ven, hut, like many other blessings, they 
 fall to the lot of few. Great numbers of 
 sincere Christians feel, that with their utmost 
 efforts they cannot raise their minds to them ; 
 and it is then a misfortune in which they must 
 patiently acquiesce. Besides, Infinite Wis- 
 dom may see good reasons for not indulging 
 you with these heavenly sensations. The 
 denial of them may be intended as a trial of 
 your patience, your humility, your meek- 
 ness, your submission ; and if it produce this 
 effect, it will have answered a good end ; and, 
 though you may lament the want of these 
 comforts, you have no reason to fear that an 
 involuntary want will be imputed to you as 
 a fault. 
 
 " With respect to the love of fame, or 
 wordly estimation, there is very little said up- 
 on it in Scripture, less perhaps than on any 
 motive of human conduct. But it may be 
 said generally, that this passion, like every 
 other belonging to our frame, when it be- 
 comes the predominant and ruling passion, 
 becomes unlawful and sinful : but when 
 kept within proper bounds, and directed to 
 
BISHOP PORTKl^. 
 
 tvorthy objects, it is then certainly allowable. 
 It is in short to be governed and regulated, 
 not to be exterminated. Mr. Wilberforce 
 himself says, that it is then only a corrupt 
 principle of action, when it is tinctured with a 
 disposition to estimate too highly and to love 
 too ardently the good opinion of man ; when 
 it prompts us to pride ourselves on our na- 
 tural or acquired endowments ; to assume 
 to ourselves the merit and credit of our good 
 qualities, instead of ascribing all the honour 
 and glory, where they are due. It is only, 
 in short, an inordinate, and a too earnest pur- 
 suit of wordly distinction, that is forbidden* 
 We are not called upon absolutely to re- 
 nounce it ; but when it is voluntarily bestow- 
 ed upon us for actions intrinsically good, we 
 may then accept it with thankfulness, as one 
 of the rewards annexed to virtue. Under 
 these restrictions, therefore, you may have a 
 due regard to the favour and approbation of 
 good men. As to mentioning or preserving 
 the memory of any services you have ren- 
 dered to mankind, or to religion ; if this be 
 done solely and entirely for the purposes you 
 specify, of obviating calumny, of exciting 
 others to follow your example, and increa- 
 
224 LIFE OF 
 
 sing your power of doing good, there seems 
 nothing in it to blame. But if it be mere- 
 ly to gain applause, it is certainly contrary 
 to the true spirit of the Gospel, which for- 
 bids all ostentation, both in the distribution 
 of alms, and in the exercise of every other 
 Christian virtue. 
 
 " In regard to the last point you touch 
 upon the liberality of the rich towards the 
 poor it ought undoubtedly to be propor- 
 tioned to their wealth ; and they should ra- 
 ther exceed than fall short of the strict line 
 of duty. They should give with a willing 
 heart and a liberal hand. ' Charge them', 
 says the Apostle, * that are rich in this world 
 that they do good ; that they be rich in good 
 works; ready to distribute, willing to com- 
 municate ; laying up in store for themselves 
 a good foundation against the time to come, 
 that they may attain eternal life. But it is 
 not said here or any where else, that I can 
 recollect, that the rich are to deny themselves 
 necessaries. The young man in the Gospel 
 indeed is commanded, * if he would be per- 
 eet) to sell all that he had and give to the 
 poor;' and the first Disciples had 4 all things 
 in common.' But no one, I believe thinks, 
 
BISHOP roRTEUS, 225 
 
 that we are now obliged, or called upon by 
 our duty, or by any principle of Christiani- 
 ty, to do either of these things. Neither, I 
 apprehend, are we now required to part with 
 necessaries, in order to relieve the poor. If 
 we do, it is without question highly com- 
 mendable; but it is no where required as a 
 duty. It is out of their abundance, that is, 
 their superfluities, that St. Paul directs the 
 rich Corinthians to contribute to the support 
 of their poorer brethren ; but he does not 
 command them to give their all. The poor 
 widow indeed, who threw her mite into the 
 treasury, gave all her living ; and therefore 
 gave more, and would have a greater reward 
 than the rich, who gave from their abun- 
 dance. Still, however, what they gave was* 
 of some value, and was not rejected ; and 
 they are not to be discouraged from going 
 even so far. But the further they go, and 
 the greater sacrifices they make for the bene- 
 fit of the poor, the greater will be their re- 
 compense : For i he that soweth sparingly 
 shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth 
 plenteously shall reap also plenteously . ' At 
 all events, they ought most certainly not to 
 consume on their pleasures, their amuse- 
 
226 LIFE OF 
 
 ments, their vanities and their pride, even 
 the overflowings of their fortune. They 
 should not indulge in needless splendour, 
 magnificence and elegance of living, nor be 
 anxious to raise great families, or to leave 
 immoderate fortunes behind them. What- 
 ever can be fairly spared from the necessary 
 and unavoidable expenses of their situation 
 in life, and from that reasonable and decent 
 provision, which they are bound to make 
 for their families and dependents after their 
 death, they ought undoubtedly to appropri- 
 ate to the relief of the poor, the support of 
 religion, and the benefit of mankind. If they 
 go beyond this if they part even with ne- 
 cessaries to feed the poor they deserve 
 great praise : they draw nearer to that per- 
 fection, which was recommended to the 
 young man in the Gospel, and great will be 
 their treasure in Heaven. But I do not find 
 that this is enjoined in Scripture, any more 
 than selling all we have to give to the poor. 
 
 " Upon the whole, I see nothing in your 
 case, that need give you any serious uneasi- 
 ness or alarm. Although we should all aim 
 at the very highest point of perfection in the 
 Christian temper and character, yet too ma~ 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 227 
 
 My of us, God knows, must expect to fall 
 short of it, some in a greater, some in a less 
 degree ; and there must be many grievous 
 errors and defects even in our very best ser- 
 vices ; yet these, we hope will be forgiven, 
 and our imperfect efforts accepted through 
 the merits of our Redeemer. In our Fa- 
 ther's house, we are told, are many mansions, 
 and different gradations of happiness. Some 
 will be rewarded with more and some with 
 less, according to the different progress they 
 have made in Christian excellence ; but no 
 humble, serious, conscientious Christian, who 
 sincerely wishes and strives, as far as he is 
 able, to devote his heart and life principally 
 to God ; who is supremely and habitually 
 governed by a desire to know, and a dispo- 
 sition to do his will : and endeavours under 
 the influence of these motives, to live as 
 much as possible to his glory : who, though 
 he cannot arrive at the perfection he aims at, 
 in his sentiments and feelings, affections and 
 actions, yet uses his utmost efforts to come 
 as near it as he can ; and in the meanwhile 
 sees and deplores and labours to correct his 
 failings,- no such pious Christian as this 
 will,. I humbly conceive, be excluded from 
 
22S LIFE OF 
 
 the kingdom of Heaven, and from some share 
 whatever that may be, of future recom- 
 pense." 
 
 In this admirable answer to a perfectly un- 
 known and anonymous correspondent, ex- 
 clusively of the kindness of the motive, 
 which could alone induce him to write it, 
 there is such a total absence of the wildness 
 of enthusiasm ; the advice is so judicious, 
 so truly sound and scriptural ; and it offers 
 so much substantial consolation under the 
 doubts and fears to which a religious mind 
 is sometimes subject, that I could not hesi- 
 tate in giving it a place in these memoirs. 
 It will, I am persuaded, be read with univer- 
 sal interest, as the advice of a man eminent- 
 ly qualified to give it on subjects of the ut- 
 most moment ; and I am not without the 
 hope, that it may be the means, with God's 
 blessing, of recalling many from error ; of 
 fixing them in right principles ; and of res- 
 cuing them from a state, of all others the 
 most comfortless and wretched, a state of 
 uncertainty and apprehension, as to what is 
 really and strictly a Christian's duty. 
 
 It will doubtless excite surprise, that 
 amidst the numerous and perpetual employ- 
 
BISHOP PORTEUS. 
 
 ments of so large a diocese, the Bishop 
 should have found leisure for letters such as 
 this ; and, more particularly, for entering 
 with such minuteness of detail into the feel- 
 ings and situation of a person, with whom 
 he had not the slightest acquaintance. But 
 10 those who knew him well, it is in no re- 
 spect astonishing. His mind, naturally ac- 
 live and vigorous, required employment ; 
 :md long habit had made it easy and fami- 
 liar to him. He was besides a rigid econo- 
 mist of time. Unless illness prevented him 
 lie rose constantly at six in the morning, and 
 every part of the day had its proper, its al- 
 lotted occupation. It was by this regular, 
 methodical arrangement, from which he ne- 
 ver deviated, that he was enabled to dispatch 
 Iiis public, official business with the utmost 
 accuracy and precision, and yet to perform 
 other duties not less imperative, in his judg- 
 ment, than those, which strictly attached to 
 his episcopal station. He could never satis- 
 fy himself with the mere formal discharge 
 of certain stated functions. In every way 
 that good could be done, he spared no pain? 
 to do it. He thought his hours we 1 1 employ 
 id, his labour well repaid, if, by any cxr-r 
 u 
 
230 X1FE PF 
 
 tion of his own, he could benefit a fellow- 
 creature : if he could assuage the anguish of 
 distress, lighten the pressure of calamity, 
 calm the disquietude of a troubled mind, in- 
 spire the timid with hope, or lead the wan- 
 derer into the way of truth. For all these 
 acts of love, of sympathy, of kindness, he 
 never wanted time. Whatever else might 
 require his attention, he still found opportu- 
 nity for these. He considered them, as in 
 fact they are, an important and indispensa- 
 ble part of Christian duty, and admitted no 
 plea of business, no private gratification, no 
 personal fatigue, to be an excuse for the neg- 
 lect of them. 
 
 But it was not only in the grand feature of 
 benevolence, that the Bishop displayed the 
 power of religion over the heart and con- 
 duct. It was in him a governing and a ruling 
 principle. It was the main spring, which 
 constantly and uniformly regulated his 
 thoughts and actions. He had indeed, and 
 who has not his foibles and infirmities. They 
 were however few, and venial, and almost 
 unavoidable. For instance, amidst the toil 
 ;md hurry of a laborious station, and from 
 threat anxiety in what he was engaged in, he 
 
BISHOP PORTEUi!, 231 
 
 sometimes betrayed, in the latter part of his 
 life, a slight impatience of manner. But he 
 instantly checked it, and no one more la- 
 mented it than himself. His disposition in- 
 deed, with the exception of such occasional 
 transient interruptions, arising from the cau- 
 ses I have mentioned, was one of the mild- 
 est and the sweetest that can be imagined. 
 It was the index of a heart warmed with all 
 the charities and sympathies of our nature, 
 and under the constant influence of a meek, 
 a benevolent, and a kind religion. In all the 
 offices of devotion, private and public, he 
 was unfailing and exemplary. Firm in his 
 belief of Christianity, every thing connec- 
 ted with it engaged his attention. It was his 
 great end and aim to defend, to cherish, to 
 promote it. The predominant object of all 
 his wishes and desires, was, " in every thing 
 lie did, to do it to the glory of God." Yet, 
 amidst a conduct so holy and so pure, he 
 had no melancholy, no austerity, no gloom. 
 In him were never seen the sanctified look, 
 the depressed brow, the sullen spirit, the 
 dismal and desponding countenance. Piety, 
 as he felt and understood it, was best exem- 
 plified by cheerfulness. He saw no incom'- 
 
LItK OF 
 
 patibility in the innocent pleasures of life 
 with the most unfeigned devotion. He wish- 
 ed to render Religion as amiable, as she is 
 venerable ; to place her before the eyes of 
 men in her most alluring and attracting form 
 bright, serene, unclouded and benign ; in 
 a word, to represent her, not as the enemy 
 and the bane of happiness, but as the guide, 
 the companion, the solace, the delight of 
 man. His own character was framed on 
 this principle. He was cheerful without le- 
 vity, serious and devout without morose - 
 ness. He lived, in short, as he taught others 
 to live : and this it was which, far beyond 
 any other cause, gave such power, such 
 weight, such efficacy to his preaching. " An 
 orator," said the great Roman Philosopher, 
 " if he would persuade, must be a good 
 man;" and still more must the Christian 
 Preacher be himself the Christian. Other- 
 wise, though he should even speak as an An- 
 gel of Light, he will speak in vain : his elo- 
 quence will be fruitless, and his advice will 
 be forgotten* 
 
 Upon the whole, the Bishop was, and so 
 at least Posterity will consider him, a light 
 '5n his generation an ornament to the times 
 
BISHOP I'oim i s. 
 
 in v/hichhe lived. Firm and iixccl in his 
 own principles ; candid and liberal in his sen 
 timents of others ; unalterable in his attach- 
 ments ; unbounded in his acts of charity ; 
 meek and humble in his disposition ; aftable 
 and courteous in his manner and deportment, 
 ardent in his piety ; devoted to his God ; 
 surely, such a man well maintained the Chris- 
 tian character. That all men indeed should 
 think of him as I do, is hardly to be expec- 
 ted. When the heart overflows with grati- 
 tude, such, I trust, as I shall ever feel, for 
 a long course of uninterrupted kindness, 
 friendship and protection, it is perhaps im- 
 possible to divest the mind altogether of 
 partiality. I am not however aware, that 
 I have overstated any single fact, or ascribed 
 to him a single quality, which he did not 
 possess. All therefore I can say, is, and 
 they are his own words, as applied to Arch- 
 bishop Seeker, that " if he really so lived 
 and acted, that the most faithful delineation 
 of his conduct must necessarily have the air 
 of panegyric, the fault is not in the copy, 
 but in the original.'' 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY