existing parish which exceeds the due measure of population, and every hamlet in which a church is requisite. We should then stand pledged to supply the wants of our whole people. If men neglected them, they would do it with their eyes open, and every Christian (instead of feeling something of surprise at the number of churches erected, and the frequent calls for aid), being continually reminded of those which were
who may sometimes occupy the free seats, especially if the church becomes peculiarly attractive by the popularity of a preacher or other causes. The last of these benefits is equally secured by the ancient rule, which provides that the churchwardens shall allot to all parishioners, without payment, their own proper places; nor is there any good reason why the free space of our new churches should not be thus allotted;—the allotment, of course, being conditional, and liable to be reversed for sufficient causes. The other supposed advantages are plainly alien to the principles of the Church and of the Gospel; for what is the Gospel, but great gifts without money and without price,—and what the first rule of the Church but this: "freely ye have received, freely give?" And of all spirits, a haughty independence is surely that which least becomes a sinner in drawing near to the Majesty of Heaven and Earth. Lastly, if it be said that the poor are not willing to occupy free seats, we may ask whether their objection is not rather to certain obnoxious distinctions connected with them than to their being free. Meanwhile shall we, without proved necessity, introduce a new principle subversive of those on which the Church has acted from the beginning—a principle which would rest the claim of men to be present at the prayers and mysteries of the Church, not upon their high privilege as Christians, but upon their rights as pew-renters; and would make the peculiar blessings of the faithful, the men in Christ [see them set forth in Bingham's Antiquities, book i. chap. v.] a matter of bargain and sale.
