འ Henry Adlidge William Mountague John Mullis Samuel Thomas.” This petition was found among Mr. Romaine's papers, but the request contained in it was not complied with. Nor was he lefs attentive to the temporal than to the spiritual concerns of his fituation. He found the parfonage houfe wholly unfit for the refidence of a paftor, it having been turned into warehouses, and being wholly out of repair. He took down the old premises, and built a handfome rectory-house close to the church, for himself and his pofterity. The church alfo, when he took poffeffion of the living, was furrounded with a dead wall, and the avenues leading to it very narrow. His parishioners, with whom he lived from the first in peace and harmony, were prevailed upon to repair the church, and to erect a gallery at the weft end of it for the accommodation of his numerous hearers, to pull down the high wall that inclosed it, fo as to give it light and air, and to make all the avenues to it wide and commodious; by which means it is be come one of the best places of worship in London. Mr. Romaine, who never asked any favour for himfelf, but always acknowledged the fmaileft, folicited his friends that attended the church to prefent the united parishes with a token of their gratitude. This request was cheerfully complied with, and the fum collected towards defraying the expences of erecting the gallery, and other improvements, amounted to five hundred pounds, which the parishes have handfomely acknowledged by an infcription over the weft door *. Whilft he promoted the improvement of the Lord's house, he laboured much to obtain decent behaviour in those who came there to worship. He too juftly complained of that which with all his influence he was fcarce able to remedy, the difgufting. and irreverent custom of coming into church during. the time of fervice-as if confeffion of fin the praifes of God in his own pfalms-the reading of his *This Church was repaired and beautified Anno Dom: 1774 at the expence of the united Parishes, and the generous contribution of the congregation. The Rev. William Romaine, M. A. Rector of St. Ann's Blackfriars of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe Charles Griffiths Thomas Cook Church-wardens Love as Brethren John Holton will in his own word—and prayers founded upon the fcriptures, and extracted from them, were a mere nothing: or as if we were to affemble ourselves together for no other purpose than just to hear a fermon. Whatever excufes may be made for fuch conduct upon a week day, none can be made for it upon the Lord's day, the great business of which is his public worship, and of course our gathering together in places where he has chofen to put his name. If our place of refidence is at a diftance from our place of worship, we fhould act in this cafe as we do in every other, and confider that the further we have to go, the fooner we should fet out. If we are to go to market, or on a journey, or on any worldly business or pleasure, we can rife, we can dress, we can set out in time, and think an apology neceffary if we are not punctual: but, as to church, it seems a matter of perfect indifference, when we go, or whether we go there at all. But why are we more diligent in things which are temporal, than in those which are eternal? Why do we prefume to infult the Creator, in a way in which we would not infult a fellow-creature? How can we expect a bleffing from one part of the fervice, when we have despised and neglected the other? Or indeed how can we expect a bleffing from any part, unless we have seriously and devoutly attended the whole ? There is also another custom too prevalent in and about places of public worship, which was peculiarly offenfive to Mr. Romaine, and which was often reproved by him in more ways than one. The cuftom alluded to is that of people's converfing together either in the church, or churchyard, in a veftry, or in a board-room, as foon as the fervice is over. He not only spoke against fuch converfations from the pulpit, but frequently interrupted them, when he came out, by tapping the fhoulders of those who were engaged in them; and once, if not oftener, by knocking their heads together, when he found them particularly clofe, and whispering in their ears, that they had forgot the "parable of the fower." He himself studiously avoided every thing of the kind, being always in church fome time before fervice began, and retiring from it to his own houfe as foon as the fervice was over, without ever fpeaking a word, except to his curate, his clerk, or parish officers, upon neceffary business in the veftry. A woman, it is faid, once faluted him, as he came down the pulpit ftairs, by telling him, that " he had been greater that night than ever." And he answered her by faying, that "the devil had told him fo before he left the pulpit." If Mr. Romaine uttered thefe words, he took them out of the mouth of the celebrated John Bunyan, who is fuppofed to have been their original author, and to have uttered them upon a fimilar occafion. The zeal of the good woman, which provoked this faying, feems to have been fomewhat like that of another in the company of our Lord, who cried out to him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast fucked. And the anfwer answer of the fervants might have been given in the fpirit of their Mafter, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it*. Thefe certainly are the great ends for which we affemble together, and were they kept always in view, they would regulate our behaviour in the use of the means which lead to them. Mr. Romaine was a great benefactor to his parishes in another refpect, and that is, as a promoter of charity. There was feldom any occasion of diftress on which he did not call upon his hearers to contribute to the relief of the fufferers; and the fum raised was generally proportionate to the motive urged, viz. the love of Christ constraining himself and thofe that heard him. The annual collections for the fchools in the ward, and the poor of the rish, made in the church, at the weekly facraments, which he inftituted, and after the charity fermons, which he preached, amounted on an average to three hundred pounds a year. On his firft coming to the living the pew-openers employed in the church were two in number; when he died, they were increased to pa * We cannot but admire the meeknefs and gentleness of Christ, as they were entirely free from that roughness and feverity which often cleave to the expreffions of the best chriftians, He does not treat this woman as though she was a mes fenger of Satan, fent either to flatter orto buffet him, but advises her to get more from his company than a mere tranfient impreffion, which might be foon effaced without producing its effects in her religious conduct. |