english church service.—banns of marriage.—inconvenience of having the sermon a regular part.—sermons an article of trade.—popular preachers.—private chapels.
the ceremonies of the english church service are soon described. imagine a church with one altar covered with crimson velvet, the creed and the decalogue over it in golden letters, over these the hebrew name of god, or the i.h.s. at the pleasure of the painter, and half a dozen winged heads about it, clumsily painted, or more clumsily carved: the nakedness of the other walls concealed by a gallery; an organ over the door, and below it, immediately fronting the priest, a clock. here 201also in some conspicuous place is a tablet to record in what year the church was repaired or beautified, and to perpetuate the names of the church-wardens at that time in letters of gold. another tablet enumerates, but in faded lettering, and less conspicuous situation, all the benefactors to the parish; that is, all who have left alms to the poor, or fees to the minister for an anniversary sermon. the gallery and the area of the church are divided into pews, as they are called, by handsome mahogany partitions, within which the rich sit on cushioned seats, and kneel on hassocks, while the poor stand in the aisle, and kneel upon the stones. these pews are usually freehold, attached to houses in the parish. in towns a rent is exacted for them; and in private chapels, of which i shall speak hereafter, the whole income is derived from them, as in a theatre. the reading-desk of the priest is under the pulpit, and under it that of the clerk; there are no other assistants except the sexton and his wife, 202who open the pews, and expect a fee for accommodating a stranger with a seat. the priest wears a surplice; the clerk is no otherwise distinguished from the laity than as he has a stronger voice than usual, reads worse than other people, that is, more like a boy at a village school, and more frequently speaks through the nose. the catholic church has no corresponding office; he is to the congregation what the leader of the band is to an orchestra.
some part of the service is repeated by the clerk and the people after the priest; with others, as the psalms, and all the hymns, they proceed alternately verse by verse; the priest reads the scripture lessons and many of the prayers alone; he also reads the litany, and the clerk and congregation make the petition at the end of every clause. there is nothing in the liturgy to which a catholic must necessarily object, except the absolution; and with respect to that, his objection would be to the sense in which it is taken, 203not to that which it was intended to convey. after the first lesson the organist relieves the priest by playing a tune, good or bad according to his own fancy. this is an interlude of modern interpolation, which would have shocked the protestants in those days when their priests were more zealous and longer-winded. at the end of what is properly called the morning service, though on the sunday it is but the first part of three, a portion of the psalms in vile verse, is given out by the clerk, and sung by the whole congregation: the organ seems to have been introduced in all opulent churches to hide the hideous discord of so many untuned and unmusical voices, and overpower it by a louder strain. a second part follows, which is usually performed beside the altar, but this is at the option of the officiating priest; in this the congregation and their leader have little more to do than to cry amen, except that they repeat the nicene creed; this part also is terminated by psalm-singing, 204during which the priest exchanges his white vestment for a black one, and ascends the pulpit. he begins with a short prayer, of which the form is left to himself; then proceeds to the sermon. in old times the sermon was a serious thing, both for the preacher and the hearers; the more, the better, was the maxim in the days of fanaticism, and when the sands of one hour were run out the people heard with pleasure the invitation of the preacher to take another glass with him. but times are changed; the hour-glass has disappeared, the patience of a congregation is now understood to last twenty minutes, and in this instance short measure is preferred. immediately after the valediction the organ strikes up a loud peal, with much propriety, as it drowns the greetings and salutations which pass from one person to another. the litany and the whole of the second part are omitted in the evening service.
thus you perceive, that having apostatized and given up the essentials of religion, 205the schismatics have deprived divine service of its specific meaning and motive. it is no longer a sacrifice for the people. the congregation assemble to say prayers which might as well be said in their oratories, and to hear sermons which might more conveniently be read at home. nothing is done which might not be done with the same propriety in a chamber as in a church, and by a layman as by a priest.
a curious legal form is observed in the midst of the service; the priest reads a list of all the persons in the parish who are about to be married. this is done three successive sundays, that if any person should be acquainted with any existing impediment to the marriage, he may declare it in time. the better classes avoid this publicity by obtaining a license at easy expense. those of high rank choose to be married at their own houses, a license for which can be obtained from only the primate. in scotland, where the schismatics 206succeeded in abolishing all the decencies as well as the ornaments of religion, this is the universal practice; the sacrament of marriage may be celebrated in any place, and by any person, in that country, and the whole funeral ceremony there consists in digging a hole, and putting the body into it!
of the service of this heretical church, such as it is, the sermon seems to be regarded as the most important part; children are required to remember the text, and it is as regular a thing for the english to praise the discourse when they are going out of church, as it is to talk of their health immediately before, and of the weather immediately afterwards. the founders of the schism did not foresee the inconvenience of always attaching this appendage to prayers and forms which the fathers of the church indited and enacted under the grace of the holy spirit, and which even they had grace enough to leave uncorrupted, though not unmutilated. to 207go through these forms and offer up these petitions requires in the priest nothing more than the commonest learning; it is, indeed, one of the manifold excellencies of the true church, that the service can neither be made better nor worse by him who performs it. but here, where a main part consists of composition merely human, which is designed to edify and instruct the people, more knowledge and more talents are necessary than it is reasonable to expect in every priest, or indeed possible to find. you may suppose that this inconvenience is easily remedied, that only those persons would be licensed to preach whom the bishop had approved as well qualified, and that all others would be enjoined to read the discourses of those schismatical doctors whom their schismatical church had sanctioned. something like this was at first intended, and a book of homilies set forth by authority. happily these have become obsolete. i say happily, because, having been composed in the first years of the 208schism, they abound with calumnies against the faith. the people now expect original composition from their priests, let their ability be what it may; it would be regarded as a confession of incapacity to take a book into the pulpit; and you may well suppose, if we in spain have more preachers than are good, what it must be in a country where every priest is one.
the sermon is read, not recited, nor delivered extemporaneously; which is one main difference between the regular english clergy and the sectarians. it has become a branch of trade to supply the priests with discourses, and sermons may be bespoken upon any subject, at prices proportioned to the degree of merit required, which is according to the rank of the congregation to whom they are to be addressed. one clergyman of cambridge has assisted his weaker brethren, by publishing outlines which they may fill up, and which he calls skeletons of sermons; another of higher 209rank, to accommodate them still further, prints discourses at full, in the written alphabet, so as to appear like manuscript to such of the congregation as may chance to see them. the manuscripts of a deceased clergyman are often advertised for sale, and it is usually added to the notice, that they are warranted original; that is, that no other copies have been sold, which might betray the secret. these shifts, however, are not resorted to by the more respectable clergy; it is not uncommon for these to enter into a commercial treaty with their friends of the profession, and exchange their compositions. but even with this reinforcement, the regular stock is usually but scanty; and if the memory of the parishioners be good enough to last two years, or perhaps half the time, they recognise their old acquaintance at their regular return.
if, however, this custom be burthensome to one part of the clergy, they who have enough talents to support more vanity 210fail not to profit by it, and london is never without a certain number of popular preachers. i am not now speaking of those who are popular among the sectarians, or because they introduce sectarian doctrines into the church; but of that specific character among the regular english clergy, which is here denominated a popular preacher. you may well imagine, that, as the tree is known by its fruits, i have not a luis de granada, nor an antonio vieyra, to describe. thread-bare garments of religious poverty, eyes weakened by incessant tears of contrition, or of pious love, and cheeks withered by fasting and penitence, would have few charms for that part of the congregation for whom the popular preacher of london curls his forelock, studies gestures at his looking-glass, takes lessons from some stage-player in his chamber, and displays his white hand and white handkerchief in the pulpit. the discourse is in character with the orator; nothing to rouse a slumbering conscience, 211nothing to alarm the soul at a sense of its danger, no difficulties expounded to confirm the wavering, no mighty truths enforced to rejoice the faithful,—to look for theology here would be[15] seeking pears from the elm;—only a little smooth morality, such as turk, jew, or infidel, may listen to without offence, sparkling with metaphors and similes, and rounded off with a text of scripture, a scrap of poetry, or, better than either, a quotation from ossian.—to have a clergy exempt from the frailties of human nature is impossible; but the true church has effectually secured hers from the vanities of the world: we may sometimes have to grieve, because the wolf has put on the shepherd’s cloak, but never can have need to blush at seeing the monkey in it.
15. pedir peras al olmo.
these gentlemen have two ends in view, the main one is to make a fortune by marriage,—one of the evils this of a married 212clergy. it was formerly a doubt whether the red coat or the black one, the soldier or the priest, had the best chance with the ladies; if on the one side there was valour, there was learning on the other; but since volunteering has made scarlet so common, black carries the day;—cedunt arma tog?. the customs of england do not exclude the clergyman from any species of amusement; the popular preacher is to be seen at the theatre, and at the horse-race, bearing his part at the concert and the ball, making his court to old ladies at the card-table, and to young ones at the harpsichord: and in this way, if he does but steer clear of any flagrant crime or irregularity, (which is not always the case; for this order, in the heretical hierarchy, has had more than one lucifer,) he generally succeeds in finding some widow, or waning spinster, with weightier charms than youth and beauty.
his other object is to obtain what is called a lectureship, in some wealthy parish; 213that is, to preach an evening sermon on sundays, at a later hour than the regular service, for which the parishioners pay by subscription. as this is an addition to the established service, at the choice of the people, and supported by them at a voluntary expense, the appointment is in their hands as a thing distinct from the cure; it is decided by votes, and the election usually produces a contest, which is carried on with the same ardour, and leaves behind it the same sort of dissension among friends and neighbours, as a contested election for parliament. but the height of the popular preacher’s ambition is to obtain a chapel of his own, in which he rents out pews and single seats by the year; and here he does not trust wholly to his own oratorical accomplishments; he will have a finer-tuned organ than his neighbour, singers better trained, double doors, and stoves of the newest construction, to keep it comfortably warm. i met one of these chapel-proprietors in company; self-complacency, 214good humour, and habitual assentation to every body he met with, had wrinkled his face into a perpetual smile. he said he had lately been expending all his ready money in religious purposes; this he afterwards explained as meaning that he had been fitting up his chapel; “and i shall think myself very badly off,” he added, “if it does not bring me in fifty per cent.”
