lying down, loving to slumber. Yea; they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one from his quarter. Come ye, (say they,) we will fetch wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and

much more abundant."

to-morrow shall be

(Isaiah, Chap. lvi.

as this day, and Ver. 10, 11, 12.) Nothing can be more monstrous than the practice of holding pluralities: many parsons have livings from which they derive immense profits, that they never have seen; they undertake the cure of souls by proxy, and are named shepherds of a flock, whom they leave unprotected for the wolf Satan to devour. They eat the bread of idleness, and drink the cup of iniquity; they do not, like their Divine Master, go about doing good; they rest in evil, receive the produce of the land, and fatten on the fruits of other men's labours; their spiritual exertions are as a lighted candle, put under a bushel, unknown, unseen, and of no benefit to

point out the way of truth" to those that have erred, and are out of the way. The prevailing immorality amongst the clergy of all sects and denominations, is so gross-so glaring, that “he who runs may read." Solitary instances of back-sliding parsons are not now quoted with sorrow; they thicken, they swarm like locusts in the field; they are a pestilence visibly destroying by day, and a meteor consuming by night. When the Revolution of 1688 was brought round, a deluge of parsons at once burst in upon the Established Church, men of talent, but not of integrity. The way to a church benefice then was by a total neglect of religious duties, and a slavish attention to politics. It is impossible to read the lives of such men as Swift without disgust, when they reflect that he was a minister of God, yet neglecting the sacred duties of his high calling, became the slave of ambition, avarice, and pride; striving by every means, but the way of truth, to obtain a mitre; not that he might, when he got it, have it in his power to do more good a that he might, by his example and influence, spread the light of the Gospel over a darkened generation, and prove an illuminator of mankind. No; he, like many others, aimed at the possession of a mitre to uplift his political reputation; to advance his worldly purposes, and aid his power. His time was occupied in state con

troversies and writing satires to abuse and vilify, not to instruct and improve human nature; and, whoever peruses the life of Dean Swift, and bears in mind that he was a clergyman, will find in every part of it the exact picture of what a Minister of the Gospel ought not to be.

Bishop Warburton, author of the Divine Legation of Moses, acted as though his legation were to tyrannize and oppress, not to comfort and support the weak-hearted. A more intolerant Protestant bigot never existed than this great pillar of the church at the Reformation.

We have a few observations to make before we proceed to lay in detail before our Readers a particular account of those men eminent for crimes that have brought their order into disrepute, like true sons of their father, the Devil, whose work they do. The influence of the clergy, and any good effect they can produce, materially, if no wholly, depends on the respect in which they are held by those within their several churches, and in the general estimation of them, public opinion-where pluralities and non-residencies are permitted, how can any body of men respect those who they never have seen, and who they never hear of, except through the medium of a tithe proctor, or on account of trials at the bar of the King's Bench of Old Bailey.

The Church of England is far from spotless: in many instances its purity is sullied by filth and abominations, that make the Christian's heart burn within him. All admit that there are grave abuses in the English church, and we mean to prove from whence these abuses spring. It is lamentably true, that the distribution of her revenues are very unequal. The manner of collecting tithes, revolting to the feelings, and severe upon the cultivator of the soil, are amongst the minor causes that help to bring the Church into disrepute. But the want of that charity which hopes all things, and less of the disposition of Calvin, who caused Servetus to be burned to death for a mere difference of opinion, is the chief reason of the ascendancy of sectarianism.

The Gospel is the same to-day as yesterday, and will for ever remain unchanged; but alas! for the expounders of the holy doctrines, they are rapidly growing from bad to worse: who can wonder at the

refusal manifested by many to receive the doctrine delivered by men notorious for setting them at nought. It is monstrous to hear a person harangue against fornication, who has just come reeking from an adulterous bed; against covetousness, when he is hoarding up the exactions of the poor, that he receives with greediness, and for which he makes no return. We neither want additional new churches, nor new-fangled doctrines; we want men to stand before the people and inculcate the spirit of the Holy Scriptures," not only with their lips but in their lives;" men who are not ashamed to practice what they preach, and be in reality what they would wish us to believe. The garden of Truth is defiled; it is time that it was weeded; the walls are nearly broken down, and the gardener leans on his spade, heedless of the ruin occasioned by his idleness and neglect. The inferior ministers are nearly one and all selfish and corrupt; fleecing their flocks, and not feeding them; the superior Clergy, with a few exceptions, are all political demagogues; dissipation of the most extravagant kind has spread through all branches of the church we mean not only the holy church as established by law, but every sect who occupy places of public worship in these kingdoms amongst Dissenters the vice of hypocrisy prevails so as to create disgust, and will assist in working his own ruin, but amongst beneficed divines, that poisoned garment is seldom put on; they even scorn to disguise their infamous conduct, and in the face of day commit sins of every denomination. Pure and undefiled religion is an object of our admiration, and to save religion by an exposure of those who try to ruin it by their unhallowed ways, is the chief object of this work.

We address ourselves in the outset to a Society ostensibly founded for the Suppression of Vice- amongst them men greater in rank, fortune, and frailty, than in any other society, with whose existence we are acquainted. They have injured the cause of religion, by cruel and unjust persecutions of better men than themselves, and with the spirit of demons have tortured, to serve base and malignant purposes, the mild doctrines of Christianity. Many of the members belonging to this selfelected junta of oppressors we shall be under the necessity of exposing amongst the monsters who disgrace the name of men; they have brought the evil upon their own heads, and they have the remedy in

their own power by a reformation of their own lives, before they presume to sit in judgment upon the lives of other men. The greatest enemies to the church are cherished in its bosom.

The method we shall pursue, will be to give such accounts as may arise in the course of publication, and intersperse the work with Anecdotes of characters that have been notorious in past ages. Neither my Lord Bristol nor the Lord Bishop of Clogher, shall be made preeminent, except their vices entitle them to a first place in the long living annals of infamy-every one dead---or living shall have ample justice done to their characters, we will

with such comments, animadversions, and candid observations, as may appear to us necessary for the purpose of creating in the bosom of our readers an abhorrence of vice and a love for virtue. We trust that much good may accrue to the Church and its Reverend Pastors, who are not entirely lost, from this exposure of their sunk and degraded brethren, and that many of them, by witnessing the public disgrace attendant on the practice of private lusts and other shameful obscenities, may be able to put their hands on their hearts and say "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not walk after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." 2d Corinthians.

We have now done with our prefacial observations; and hope no one will attempt to misconstrue our good intentions. The only question, as to why we publish these enormities, is a plain and simple one; are there, or are there not, infamous abuses amongst the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ? It is admitted on all sides that there are---then, who are the real enemies of religion? They who point out the evil and endeavour by animadversion to effect a remedy, or they who preserve silence and allow full scope to its operation?

We now proceed to delineate those notorious characters, who, by lives of infamy, have damned themselves to everlasting fame, and we will pursue our course with vigour, animated with zeal in a good cause, heedless of personal inconvenience, and unbiassed by interested motives.

WM. BENBOW.

THE REV. JOHN FENWICK, B. A.

And formerly Vicar of Byall, in the County of Northumberland, who absconded for the Crime of Sodomy, in the year 1797, and now resides at Naples.

"There shall not be a Whore of the Daughters of Israel, nor a Sodomite of the Sons of Israel."-Deuteronomy, ch. 23, v. 17.

THOSE who can peruse the life of this man, without evincing symptoms of horror, deserve to be as despicable as he is.

John Fenwick was the second son of Walter Fenwick, Esquire, of Byall, a gentleman, whose fortune exceeded 4000l. per annum. At an early age he was placed in the grammar-school at Haughton, under the care of the Rev. Doctor Bates, a gentleman, whose classical qualifications were universally acknowledged to be of the first rate. With this worthy divine young Fenwick remained till he reached his thirteenth year, and was considered qualified to enter College. There had been many complaints made of his private conduct to the Master, and several of his school-fellows absolutely refused to admit him into their parties of pleasure. Mr. Bates, unwilling to offend, or give pain to his patron, the boy's father, endeavoured to correct his vices by admonition and correction, in which he partially succeeded. When young Fenwick left Haughton, he was the first scholar in the school; his parts were brilliant; his attention great; and he never sat down to a task he did not perform with ease and ability, far beyond what might have been expected from his years.

Fortunately his speedy removal from Haughton prevented a disclosure, which would have barred his entrance into the University; but the evil day was only retarded; it had to come in a more gloomy shape. He remained seven years at College, and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in Wadham school. Few excelled him in literary attainments, and he gained three prizes, the only ones he ever contended for; the last, was a Greek poem, on the subject of" Aratus and the Achaean League," which gained him the applause of all who were unacquainted with his vices.

He was a skilful musician, and his apartments were frequented