6i-icknel''

B7

WORD TO HIS PARISHIONERS

ON THEIR

DUTY TO THE

CHy

PRESENT CRISIS.

Rev, W. simcox BRICKNELL, M.A.
OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, AND INCUMBENT OF GROVE BERKS.

" Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard ... to the
Poor the Gospel is preached."

LONDON :
J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY.
TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS.
o 1837^
Price t^ or ^^ per \00.

By the same Author.
THE GRIEVANCE OF CHURCH-RATES:
A LETTER TO PHILIP PUSEY, ESQ., M.P.
In which the arguments of the abolitionists are examined,
their misrepresentations exposed, and their conduct towards
the Establishment compared with that of honest and con
scientious Dissenters.
London : Hatchard and Son, 187, Piccadilly,
Price One Shilling.

A WORD, &c.

My Dear Friends,
It is the glory ofthe Church of England that she
furnishes religious instruction for those who either
cannot or will not procure that instruction for
themselves : and she is enabled to accomplish
this most important object because she is an
endoxmd and an established Church ; that is,
because her ministers are not left to depend for
their subsistence upon those whom they are
appointed to teach, — many of whom are unable to
support theraselves, — and because the expenses
necessary for the due performance of divine
worship are provided for by the law ofthe land.
For the maintenance of her clergy, property has
been bequeathed to her at different periods, which
belongs as much to the Church of England as
any possessions which you may have inherited
from your fathers belong to you ; while the ex
penses required for the celebration of divine
service are defrayed from a fund raised by legal
assessment. In one word, then. Tithes and
Church-rates are, humanly speaking, the means
by which the Church of England is enabled,
under the blessing of the Almighty, to "preach
the gospel to the poor:'' B 2

In this way the Church has been supported
from time immemorial. True Christians of all
denominations have prayed for her prosperity,
and thanked God for her success. They have
regarded her possessions without envy, and paid
with a willing mind the contributions levied upon
them for her support. Of late, however, a very
diiferent line of conduct has been adopted by too
many of those who call theraselves Dissenters,
but whose bitter words and disgraceful proceed
ings plainly show that they are destitute of the
christian principles of their forefathers, and
strangers to the spirit of the gospel. They as
sert that the Churcb of England is " a nuisance;"
that its " destruction is devoutly to be desired ;"
that it "destroys more souls than it saves;" that
it is to be compared to the upas, a tree of so
poisonous a nature that whoever sits down under
its shade is sure to perish. By every means
within their reach, these men are seeking to
overthrow the established religion ofthe country.
It is their avowed purpose and design. What
then is the course which you are called upon to
take under circumstances such as these ? Plainly,
my friends, it is not your duty to sit still, and
leave your Church to the mercy of her enemies.
Plainly, it is not your duty to fold your arms
before you, and endeavour to excuse your want
of activity and zeal by saying that " God will
take care of his Church." True it is that with
out his protection all your endeavours to defend
her will be of no avail ; true it is that "unless

the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost
that build it; that unless he keep the city, the
watchman wakelh but in vain ;" but does it there
fore follow that we are neither to watch nor to
build? Is the husbandman to leave his fields
unsown because God alone can give the increase?
Does not the Bible tell us that we rnust ask if we
would receive, that we must seek if we would
find ? While, therefore, we believe and confess
that God, and God alone, is able to deliver bis
Church from the dangers which threaten to over
whelm her, let us remember that it is our bounden
duty to do all that lieth in us to counteract the
designs of those who "have evil will at Zion."
We raust do it indeed in faith, we must do it in
full dependence upon the word and promises of
God, not in our own strength or wisdom, but we
raust do it manfully, we raust do it sincerely, if
we would not betray our privileges as church
men or belie our christian profession. Let me
then briefly call your attention to a few of the
means which, with the divine blessing, you may
hope to employ successfully in defence of your
Church at the present raoment.
The first and most important duty required of
you is Pr A Y ER : you must pray /or your Church.
By so doing you will draw down blessings not
only upon her, but upon your country, your
farailies, and yourselves. " Pray for the peace
of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee."
Nothino- can withstand the prayer of faith ; it will
quench all the fiery darts of your enemies— it

will restrain their wrath, and overrule their
malicious designs to the glory of God.
You raust pray for the Ministers of your
Church, for those especially who are called to
fill her highest and most exalted oifices ; you
must pray "that both by their life and doctrine
they may set forth the glory of God and set for
ward the salvation of all raen." " Brethren,
pray for us," was the earnest exhortation of an
inspired apostle. "And for me," says the same
apostle, " that utterance raay be given rae, that
I raay open my mouth boldly to raake known the
mystery ofthe gospel."
You raust "^Y^y for your enemies. They who
seek the destruction of your Church are the
greatest enemies you can have. They would
leave you destitute of the raeans of grace, and
ignorant ofthe way of salvation. Pray that God
will not lay this sin to their charge. Pray that
they raay be raade more hurable, raore charitable.
Pray that they may be led to judge themselves
more, and their neighbours less. Pray that God
will forgive thera all their unkind and unchristian
feelings, all the hard and bitter speeches which
your own ears have heard, and which are, alas !
too comraon araong us. Do you pray " though
they curse ;" " not rendering railing for railing,
but contrariwise blessing;" " for in so doing you
shall heap coals of fire ou their heads."
Another duty which you owe to your Church
is to endeavour, by God's assistance, to walk
worthy ofthe vocation ivheretvith you are called.

Let it be seen that the holy doctrines which she
teaches influence your hearts and regulate your
lives. Let it be seen by the increased regularity
of your attendance upon her ordinances, that you
do indeed value those raeans of grace which she
is the honoured instrument of placing within your
reach. At the same time, let me warn you raost
soleranly against trusting in the outward forms
or ceremonies of rehgion. Beware lest you de-
ludeyourselves with the notion thatyour salvation
is secure because you are raembers of a scriptural
Church, a Church raised "upon the foundation
ofthe apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ him
self being the chief corner-stone." Remember
that you raust yourselves be built up as lively
stones in the spiritual temple not made with
hands ; you must be " builded together in Christ
Jesus for an habitation of God through the
Spirit," or you have neither part nor lot in that
salvation which is revealed to you in the gospel,
and proclaimed among you frora day to day
through the public services ofthe Church. " Ex
amine yourselves, therefore, ray brethren, whether
ye be in the faith, prove your own selves."
There is yet another and raost iraportant duty
which you are called upon to discharge at the
present moment. The eneraies of your Church
are making the raost active and persevering ex
ertions to deprive her of that support which a
christian government is bound to afford for the
maintenance of true religion, I have already
told you that pious Dissenters of former days

paid the contributions required of them by the
State for this purpose, not only without a mur
raur, but with a willing mind. The political
Dissenters of the present day are determined,
however, that they will not be imposed upon any
more in such a manner. They have discovered
that Church-rates are a grievance which is no
longer to be endured ; a tax, not upon their
pockets — this would be too absurd — but upon
their consciences. It is well that they who say
such things have declared plainly what their real
object is; otherwise, we should have been quite
at a loss to understand why their consciences
should be so rauch more tender than those of
their forefathers. The truth is, and they do not
attempt to deny it, that they seek the abolition
of Church-rates, because they believe that by
this means they shall be better able to effect the
overthrow of the Church as a national establish
raent. This, I say, is their openly avowed design,
and they are now labouring to accomplish it with
all their raight. To satisfy their demands, a
raeasure is about to be introduced into Par
liament, which, should it ever pass into a law,
will inflict upon the Church of England the
heaviest blow that can be aimed against her.
Tin's both ber friends and her enemies confess.
Its eff'ect will be to dissolve the union which now
exists between the Church and the State, and
thus to destroy that glorious Constitution which
lias been for so many ages the envy and admi
ration ofthe world. Nor is this the only mischief

9
which it is calculated to produce. The Church,
instead of being what it now is, the established
religion of the country, will be brought down to
the level of a mere sect; it will be plundered of
those resources vvhich even now are far from
sufficient to supply the spiritual necessities of a
daily increasing population. The religious in
struction ofthe people will be thrown upon what
is called the Voluntary Principle — the principle
of Dissent: that is, they who desire to be in
structed, and can afford to pay for it, may,
perhaps, have the occasional services of a teacher,
who, as he will be dependent upon them for his
subsistence, will naturally be tempted to preach
such docti'ines as may suit their taste or please
their fancy; should he speak too plainly for them,
or in other words become too "legal," or should
they grow wiser and more enligiitened than lie,
they have only to withdraw their contributions,
and thus "starve him out." On the other hand,
they who have no desire for religious instruction
will, of course, give tiiemselves no trouble to
procure it ; they will not go lo the rainister, and
the voluntary minister cannot go to them ; these,
therefore, with all who arc too poor to support
a teacJier, raust of necessity reraain untaught.
So that, upon the voluntary principle, the persons
who stand in greatest need of religious instruc
tion are the very persons least likely to obtain it,
the persons who will not ur cannot provide it for
themselves. Destroy the Establishment, and the
poor and the ignorant will be left in utter desli-

10
tution. What has the Voluntary Principle done
to supply the spiritual wants ofthe population in
the villages round about you? What has it done
in your own but leave a record of its weakness —
a chapel without a minister, a flock without a
shepherd, "a church" without ordinances? —
" How shall they hear without a preacher, and
how shall they preach except they be sent ?"
This is the state of things to which a large
portion of our population would speedily be re
duced should the proposed Bill for the abolition
of Church-rates becorae the law of the land.
And yet the authors of this measure would fain
persuade you that it is calculated to strengthen
the Church and to satisfy her friends. It is your
duty to undeceive tliem upon this point. Ask
the true Churchman, ask the pious and con
scientious Dissenter, ask the agitating political
Dissenter, ask the Papist, or the Socinian, or the
Infidel, or the Deist,-- all with one voice will tell
you, "No! it will weaken the Church ; it will
destroy its existence as a National Establish
ment." If this were not the case, would the
Churchman and the honest Dissenter oppose the
Bill; would the rest support it as they do? My
friends, it is your boundeti duty to petition Par
liament against tliis measure witiiout delay.
It is your duty to add your prayers to those of
thousands and tens of thousands of your fellow
countrymen that the legislature will enact uo law
grounded upon a scheme so unjust in principle
and so ruinous in its effects — a scheme which

11
you cannot regard without alarra, from the very
circumstance that it affords such unqualified de
light to the avowed enemies of your Church.
My friends, you are all raost deeply interested
in this important question. You whora it has
pleased God to place in circumstances of com
parative affluence, upon you assuredly devolves
the duty of supporting an Establishment which
provides freely for the spiritual necessities of
your poorer brethren ; an Establishment which,
to say nothing of your eternal interests, is calcu
lated to secure your temporal happiness and
prosperity, for its object is to proraote that god
liness to which belongs "the promise of the life
that now is," as well as " of that which is to
come." Does it tend to your advantage in this
world to check the growth of misery and of
crirae? Does it tend to your comfort in this
world to have around you those on whose honesty
and sobriety you can depend ? Then surely the
Church of England has no small claim upon your
regard, for she teaches from their earliest years
those who would otherwise be left in ignorance
and sin, " to be true and just in all their dealings,
to learn and labour truly to get their own living,
and to do their duty in that state of life unto
which it shall please God to call them." These
are blessings for which both Churchmen and
Dissenters are alike indebted to the Establish
ment. With what reason, then, can either the
one or tiie other complain of being called upon
to support sucb an institution ?

12
Are you taxed to feed the hungry and to clothe
the naked ? Are you taxed to provide the " meat
which perisheth" for those who are unable by
honest industry to maintain themselves? And
will you say that it is a greater burden on your
consciences to feed them with the bread of life
and the water of life, or to clothe them with the
garments of salvation ? *
Are you ta.xed to keep in order " the high
ways and hedges," that you may trood with
ease and safety from one place to another?
And is it a greater burden on your consciences
to aid in "taking up the stumbling block" frora
before the feet of those who are anxious to
ha,sten forward on their prilgrimage to Zion, that
the " wayfaring man though a fool may not err,"
— that multitudes who might otherwise be turned
aside into the " broad road that leadeth to de-
* What would be the te-mporal condition of the poor in
this country, if the supply ot tlieir bodily wants were left to
what is generally understood by the Yoluiitary Prbiriple i
Are there not many who would give nothing for this purpose,
were they not constrained by the Poor-rate? C'-an a cliristian
government allow the spiritticd necessities of its subjects to be
less certainly provided lor? Is it not notorious that there are
thousands who care nothing either for the Churcl) or for Dis
sent, men of no religion at all, who, but for the coliipulsion of
the Clmrch-.ate, would never puy oue Italhing towards the
maintenance ot Christianity in the land ? Are tha\j, too, to be
relieved from lliis " obnoxious impost ?" or will the political
Dissenter devise a scheme by uhich he may be exempt, while
they are still obliged to contribute ? Is it not a scandal to any
professor ol religion to put himseU upon a level with persons
sueh as these, and to make iheir cause bis owu?

13
struction" may be brought to walk in " ways of
pleasantness and paths of peace?"
Are you taxed to support the arraies of your
country ? Are you taxed for the raaintenance
of wars which in some instances, perhaps, you
consider neither politic nor just ? Do you pay
such taxes, because you know it to be your
duty; because as Christians you are taught to
" render unto Csesar the things that are
Caesar's ? and will you withhold frora "¦ God the
things that are God's?" Is it a greater burden
upon your consciences, to maintain those moral
bulwarks which have withstood for ages the
fierce assaults of infidelity and superstition ;
those fortresses from which the champions of
the religion of your forefathers,— men, who
" loved not their lives unto the death," — have
issued forth to fight the battles of the Lord, to
wage a glorious and triumphant warfare against
the powers of darkness ?
Is it a grievance to pay for purposes such as
these the rate required at your hands by the
government of your country — a rate subject to
ivhich all ihe property you possess has been
bought and soldfro?n generation lo generation?
But if there be one class raore interested than
another in the raaintenance of a national establish
ment, it is the Poor The Church of England
has been called " The Poor Man's Church,"
and well does she deserve the name. Within her
walls he lifts his head with conscious satisfac
tion, for he feels that he is in the presence of

14
one who is " no respecter of persons," Within
her walls he is taught to reverence in spirit and
in truth the Lord God of his fathers. Within her
walls he seeks those hidden treasures which
" neither rust nor moth can corrupt" — of which
no power on earth can deprive hira ; and finds
that, without the goods of this world, he raay yet
be rich in faith, an heir of God, a joint heir with
Christ." Within her walls he gains that heavenly
wisdom, which, destitute as he raay be of human
learning, is able through faith to make him wise
unto salvation. Within her walls he is led to
copy the example of his Saviour, to follow Him
who was "meek and lowly in heart, that he may
find rest unto his soul," and learn in whatsoever
state he is therewith to be content.
Yes, my friends, from his cradle to his grave,
tlie CJiurch of England is the poor mans
Church. When first she took him in her arms, —
ere yet he knew the ills of life or felt its sorrows,
— she saw the perils of the sea on which he was
embarked, and prayed that he might pass its
waves " steadfast in faith, and joyful through
hope, and rooted in charity." She teaches hira
in after years, amid " the sundry and raanifold
changes of the world," to look forward beyond
this vale of woe, and " surely there to fix his
heart where true joys are to be found." And
when he ceases from his earthly toil, and rests
from all his labour, she bears hira to his father's
grave, and there " comraits his bodv^ the
ground" in faith and hope, and offers up " hearty

15
thanks" that God has looked upon his low estate,
and called him to a better world, from " sins
and raisery."
How truly then has it been said, — not by a
Churchraan, but by an honest and conscientious
Dissenter — that " it is irapossible to conceive
of any raeasure raore pregnant with raischief to
the poor, than would be the abolition of the
Church-rate ; for it would deprive him of that
legal rigfit to accommodation for religious wor
ship, which he now enjoys at the expense ofthe
State. His interests and the interest of the
Church are so closely united by the wisdora of
our ancestors, that it is irapossible to separate
them. As the feeble ivy therefore entwines its
tendrils round the majestic oak, so should the
poor raan cleave to the established institutions of
his country .... If you love your country,
and are thankful forthe raany benefits which you
enjoy, and wish to hand thera unimpaired to your
children's children, you will come forward and
support the Church-rate. The man who can aid
this good cause in the slightest degree, and yet
is deterred from doing so by mean calculations of
interest, timidity, or supineness, shamefully neg
lects his duty to posterity, and raost righteously
deserves all those evils of which the overthrow
of the religion of the country would be but the
forerunner."* * Speech of Mr. King, « Dissenter, at Chelmsford, in sup
port of a Church-rate.

IG
Men and brethren ! I have sought to convince
your understandings ; beyond this I have no
desire to influence your conduct if I could. I
trust that neither hope nor fear, nor gain nor
loss, will actuate any one among you to do other
wise than his conscience bids him. It may suit
the purposes o^ some, knowingly and wiltfully to
misrepresent the difference which a parish mi
nister is bound to raake — not between the
Churchman and the Dissenter — but between
open vice and apparent virtue, — between the
man who attends his church and the raan who
worships nowhere ; — it raay suit the purposes of
some to brand distinctions such as these as
worse than Roman persecution ;* — to such dis
tinctions I shall still adhere, I make no other, as
yourselves well know.
Men and brethren ! rich and poor. Churchmen
and Dissenters ! I have endeavoured to lay be
fore you the duty which at fhis present crisis you
owe to the Church, and to your country, to your
children and yourselves. May God enable you
to discharge that duty in " singleness of heart,
not with eye-service as men pleasers ; to the Lord
and not unto men,"
To tlie Paristiioners of Grove. Berks,
from tlieir affectionate friend and minister,
W. Simcox Bricknell,
Marcli, 1837.

* I hope this hint will have its desired effect in a certain
quarter, and that further exposure will be rendered unnecessary
by the discontinuance of such unprovoked and uncharitable
misrepresentations.

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