irreverence of the english towards the virgin mary and the saints.—want of ceremonies in their church.—festival dainties.—traces of catholicism in their language and oaths.—disbelief of purgatory.—fatal consequences of this error.—supposed advantages of the schism examined.—clergy not so numerous as formerly.
the religion of the english approaches more nearly than i had supposed, in its doctrines, to the true faith; so nearly indeed, in some instances, that it would puzzle these heretics to explain the difference, or to account for it where it exists. with respect to the holiest sacrament, they admit that the body and blood of 216christ is verily and indeed taken, and yet they deny the real presence. they give absolution regularly in their church service, upon a public and general confession, which is equivalent to no confession at all. they accredit the miracles of the first two or three centuries, and no others; as if miracles were not just as well authenticated, and just as necessary, in succeeding ages, or, as if it were possible to say. thus far shalt thou believe, and no further. they profess to believe in the communion of saints, though in fact they believe not in the saints; and they say that the holy catholic church subsisted in the waldenses and albigenses, for to these miserable wretches they trace the origin of the great schism. it is as extraordinary as it is lamentable, to see how they have reduced every thing to a mere caput mortuum.
one of the things which most indicates their blindness, is their total want of all reverence for mary, the most pure. believing 217her to be indeed the immaculate mother of god, they honour her with no festivals, no service, not a single prayer; nor have they the slightest feeling of adoration or love for a being so infinitely lovely and adorable. the most obscure saint in the calendar has more respect in spain, than is shown here to the most holy virgin! st joseph is never mentioned, nor thought of; they scarcely seem to know that such a person ever existed. the apostles are just so far noticed that no business is transacted at the public offices upon their festivals, and this is all; no procession is made, nobody goes to church; in fact, nobody remembers that the day is a festival, except the clerks, who find it a holyday; for these words are not synonymous in england. holyday means nothing more here than a day of cessation from business, and a school-boy’s vacation. the very meaning of the word is forgotten.
nothing can be conceived more cold 218and unimpassioned and uninteresting than all the forms of this false church. no vestments except the surplice and the cassock, the one all white, the other all black, to which the bishops add nothing but lawn sleeves. only a single altar, and that almost naked, without one taper, and without the great and adorable mystery. rarely a picture, no images, the few which the persecutors left in the niches of the old cathedrals are mutilated; no lamps, no crucifix, not even a cross to be seen. if it were not for the creed and the ten commandments which are usually written over the altar, one of these heretical places of worship might as soon be taken for a mosque as for a church. the service is equally bald; no genuflections, no crossings, no incense, no elevation; and their music, when they have any, is so monstrous, that it seems as if the father of heresy had perverted their ears as well as their hearts.
219the church festivals, however, are not entirely unobserved; though the english will not pray, they will eat; and, accordingly, they have particular dainties for all the great holydays. on shrove tuesday they eat what they call pancakes, which are a sort of wafer fried or made smaller and thicker with currants or apples, in which case they are called fritters. for mid lent sunday they have huge plum-cakes, crusted with sugar like snow; for good friday, hot bunns marked with a cross for breakfast; the only relic of religion remaining among all their customs. these bunns will keep for ever without becoming mouldy, by virtue of the holy sign impressed upon them. i have also been credibly informed, that in the province of herefordshire a pious woman annually makes two upon this day, the crumbs of which are a sovereign remedy for diarrh?a. people come far and near for this precious medicine, which has never been known to fail; yet even miracles produce no effect. 220on the feast of st michael the archangel, every body must eat goose for dinner; and on the nativity, turkey, with what they call christmas pies. they have the cakes again on the festival of the kings.
some traces of catholicism may occasionally be observed in their language. their words christmas and candlemas show that there was once a time when they were in the right way. the five wounds are corrupted into a passionate exclamation, of which, they who use it know not the awful meaning. there is another instance so shocking as well as ridiculous that i almost tremble to write it. the word for swine in this language differs little in its pronunciation from the word pix; it is well known how infamous these people have at all times been for the practice of swearing: they have retained an oath by this sacred vessel, and yet so completely forgotten even the meaning of the word, that they say, please the pigs, instead of the pix. they also still preserve 221in their oaths the names of some pagan divinities whom their fathers worshipped, and of whom perhaps no other traces remain. the deuce is one, the lord-harry another: there is also the living jingo, gor, and goles. the pagan goths had no such idols; so probably these were adored by the celtic inhabitants of the island.
with us every thing is calculated to remind us of religion. we cannot go abroad without seeing some representation of purgatory, some cross which marks a station, an image of mary the most pure, or a crucifix,—without meeting priest, or monk, or friar, a brotherhood busy in their work of charity, or the most holy sacrament under its canopy borne to redeem and sanctify the dying sinner. in your chamber the bells of the church or convent reach your ear, or the voice of one begging alms for the souls, or the chaunt of the priests in procession. your babe’s first plaything is his nurse’s rosary. 222the festivals of the church cannot pass unnoticed, because they regulate the economy of your table; and they cannot be neglected without reproof from the confessor, who is as a father to every individual in the family. there is nothing of all this in england. the clergy here are as little distinguished from the laity in their dress as in their lives; they are confined to black, indeed, but with no distinction of make, and black is a fashionable colour; the only difference is, that they wear no tail, though their heads are ornamented with as much care as if they had never been exhorted to renounce the vanities of the world. here are no vespers to unite a whole kingdom at one time in one feeling of devotion; if the bells are heard, it is because bell-ringing is the popular music. as for purgatory, it is well known that all the heretics reject it: by some inconceivable absurdity they believe that sin may deserve eternal punishment, and yet cannot deserve any thing short thereof,—as if there 223were no degrees of criminality. in like manner they deny all degrees of merit, confining the benefit of every man’s good works to himself; confounding thus all distinctions of piety; or, to speak more truly, denying that there is any merit in good works; that is, that good works can be good; and thus they take away all motive for goodness.
oh how fatal is this error to the living and to the dead! an englishman has as little to do with religion in his death as in his life. no tapers are lighted, no altar prepared, no sacrifice performed, no confession made, no absolution given, no unction administered; the priest rarely attends; it is sufficient to have the doctor and the nurse by the sick bed; so the body be attended, the soul may shift for itself. every thing ends with the funeral; they think prayers for the dead of no avail: and in this, alas! they are unwittingly right, for it is to be feared their dead are in the place from whence there is no redemption.
224all the ties which connect us with the world of spirits are cut off by this tremendous heresy. if prayers for the dead were of no further avail than as the consolation of the living, their advantage would even then he incalculable; for, what consolation can be equal to the belief that we are by our own earnest expressions of piety alleviating the sufferings of our departed friends, and accelerating the commencement of their eternal happiness! such a belief rouses us from the languor of sorrow to the performance of this active duty, the performance of which brings with it its own reward: we know that they for whom we mourn and intercede are sensible of these proofs of love, and that from every separate prayer thus directed they derive more real and inestimable benefit, than any services, however essential, could possibly impart to the living. and what a motive is this for us to train up our children in the ways of righteousness, that they in their turn may intercede 225for us when we stand most in need of intercession! alas! the accursed luther and his accomplices seem to have barred up every avenue to heaven.
they, however, boast of the advantages obtained by the schism, which they think proper to call the reformation. the three points on which they especially congratulate themselves are, the privilege of having the scriptures in their own tongue; of the cup for the congregation, and of the marriage of the clergy. as for the first, it is altogether imaginary: the church does not prohibit its members from translating the bible, it only enjoins that they translate from the approved version of the vulgate, lest any errors should creep in from ignorance of the sacred language, or misconception, or misrepresentation; and the wisdom of this injunction has been sufficiently evinced. the privilege of the cup might be thought of little importance to a people who think so lightly of the eucharist; but as they have preserved so 226few sacraments, they are right to make the most of what they have. the marriage of the clergy has the effect of introducing poverty among them, and rendering it, instead of a voluntary virtue, the punishment of an heretical custom. most of the inferior clergy are miserably poor: nothing, indeed, can be conceived more deplorable than the situation of those among them who have large families. they are debarred by their profession from adding to their scanty stipends by any kind of labour; and the people, knowing nothing of religious poverty, regard poverty at all times more as a crime than a misfortune, and would despise an apostle if he came to them in rags.
during the last generation, it was the ambition of those persons in the lower ranks of society who were just above the peasantry, to make one of their sons a clergyman, if they fancied he had a talent for learning. but times have changed, and the situation of a clergyman who has 227no family interest is too unpromising to be any longer an object of envy. they who would have adventured in the church formerly, now become commercial adventurers: in consequence, commerce is now far more overstocked with adventurers than ever the church has been, and men are starving as clerks instead of as curates. i have heard that the master of one of the free grammar-schools, who, twenty years ago, used to be seeking what they call curacies for his scholars, and had always many more expectants than he could supply with churches, has now applications for five curates, and cannot find one to accept the situation. on the contrary, a person in this great city advertised lately for a clerk; the salary was by no means large, nor was the situation in other respects particularly desirable, yet he had no fewer than ninety applicants.
