98

HISTOEY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XI.

1689.

his own circle. It was popularly remarked, during many years,that an eminent dissenting minister had only to make his sonan attorney or a physician; that the attorney was sure to haveclients, and the physician to have patients. While a waitingwoman was generally considered as a help meet for a chaplainin holy orders of the Established Church, the widows anddaughters of opulent citizens were supposed to belong in apeculiar manner to nonconformist pastors. One of the greatPresbyterian Babbies, therefore, might well doubt whether,in a worldly view, he should be benefited by a comprehension.He might indeed hold a rectory or a vicarage, when he couldget one. But in the meantime he would be destitute: hismeeting house would he closed: his congregation would bedispersed among the parish churches: if a benefice were be-stowed on him, it would probably be a very slender compensa-tion for the income which he had lost. Nor could he hope tohave, as a minister of the Anglican Church, the authority anddignity which he had hitherto enjoyed. He would always, bya large portion of the members of that Church, be regarded asa deserter. He might therefore, on the whole, very naturallywish to be-left where he was. *

* Tom Brown says, in his scurrilous way, of the Presbyterian divinesof that time, that their preaching “brings in money, and money buysland; and land is an amusement they nil desire, in spite of their hypocri-tical cant. If it were not for the quarterly contributions, there wouldbe no longer schism or separation.” He asks how it can bo imagined that,while “they arc maintained like gentlemen by the breach, they will everpreach up healing doctrines?“ — Brown’s Amusements, Serious andComical. Some curious instances of the influence exercised by the chiefdissenting ministers may be found in Hawkins’s Life of Johnson. In theJournal of the retired citizen (Spectator, 317.) Addison has indulged insome exquisite pleasantry on this subject. The Mr. Nisby whose opinionsabout the peace, the Grand Vizier, and laced coffee, are quoted with somuch respect, and who is so well regaled with marrow bones, ox cheek,and a bottle of Brooks and Ilellier, was John Ncsbit, a highly popularpreacher, who about the time of the Revolution, became pastor of adissenting congregation in Hare Court, Aldersgate Street. In Wilson’s