Soon after, he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, on
the curacy of Cadbury, in Somersetshire, where he immediately removed,
and entered on a career of active ministerial work. Such were the golden
opinions he gained in Cadbury, that, in 1756, although he had taken no
degree, nor could be said to have studied at either of the universities,
he was ordained priest by Dr Sherlock, the Bishop of London (celebrated
for his Sermons and his "Trial of the Witnesses"), on his father's curacy
of Rainham, Essex. Here he continued diligent in his pastoral
duties--blameless in his conduct, and attentive to his theological
studies. He seemed to have entirely escaped from the suction of the
stage--to have forsworn the Muses, and to have turned the eye of his
ambition away from the peaks of Parnassus to the summit of the Bishops'
Bench.
But for Churchill's poor circumstances, it is likely that he would have
reached this elevation, as surely as did his great contemporary, and the
object of his implacable hatred and abuse, William Warburton. But his
early marriage, and his increasing responsibilities, produced pecuniary
embarrassments, and these must have tended gradually to sour him against
his profession, and to prepare his mind for that rupture with it which
ultimately ensued.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25