new our hearts in order to this and our readers, we trust, will allow us to suggest, that, for every word of censure on selfdeluded priests, there should be ten of prayer for their personal conversion, in order to their ministerial usefulness.

If, however, it be inquired, how the clerical character is to be maintained where it exists in its purity, or how it may be raised where it is degraded and debased, we reply, that the best course, in either case, is by appealing to the scriptural standard of pastoral excellence and devotedness which is furnished us in the ministerial character of Christ. It was on this conviction that we so cordially welcomed the appearance of the first work which stands at the head of this article. It was impossible not to discover that the writer was a man of a sound understanding, a refined taste, and a contrite heart. Nor could it fail to add greatly to the interest with which the book was perused, to find, from the author's own testimony, that "the doctrine and principles contained in the present volume form the groundwork of those discourses which he had the honour of delivering, from time to time, in the presence of your Majesty."

Happy is that monarch who, acknowledged and loved as the father of his people, can number among his stated attendants and attached chaplains those who, with David, have determined, "I will speak of thy testimonies even before kings, and will not be ashamed." Happy is that people who know, that, amid the changes of political appointment and the dangers of a splendid court, their sovereign has those around his sacred person "who watch for his soul as those that must give an account;" charging him not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God; not to rest contented with an earthly diadem, but to seek in the paths of real religion a crown of righteousness that fadeth not away. We have good reason to know what abundant consolation this circumstance afforded to the praying remnant of God's people, during a late illness of their sovereign: nor can we advert for a moment to such a subject, without calling upon our readers to join their hearts with ours in the prayer furnished us by our common mother, the Church-" That it may please thee to keep and strengthen in the true worshipping of thee, in righteousness and holiness of life, thy servant George, our most gracious king and governor-to rule his heart in thy faith, fear, and love-that he may evermore have affiance in thee, and ever seek thy honour and glory-and, to be his defender and keeper, giving him the victory over all his enemies." The plain and unadulterated Gospel of Christ is as important for princes as for the meanest subject of the realm: and we trust the ruler of

Britain will never cease to have such men around him as Dr. Sumner; and that men, placed in such a situation as that lately filled by our author, may have grace given them to be equally fearless of the reproaches of courtiers, and equally solicitous for the honour of God.

But the work first mentioned in this article has been long enough before the Christian public to receive such universal suffrages in its favour, that we need not add our feeble testimony to its excellence. Glad should we be to see it in the hands of every candidate for holy orders; and we trust that examining chaplains, and divinity lecturers, will not fail to recommend its perusal to those interesting young persons who are entrusted to their care or submitted to their examination.

We forbear to give any extracts from the first of these works (though we had selected some admirable passages for insertion), that we may quote the more copiously from the second. Our readers are already aware, that in 1826 his Majesty was pleased to raise his attached and no less faithful chaplain to the see of Llandaff, with the Deanery of St. Paul's annexed. Truly delightful was the sight witnessed in that noble cathedral of a Sunday afternoon, whenever the Dean was known to be in town and likely to preach. To see the attention and devotion of the worshippers, and to listen to the elegant simplicity and Christian affection with which the preacher discoursed upon the grand and all-important verities of our holy religion, could not fail to recal to the pious mind the best and purest days of our church. The effects produced by such an example were not confined to the metropolis, but were felt through the kingdom. The late Dean had, indeed, with laudable zeal, united with the chapter in beautifying the noble edifice, and re-gilding the cross which surmounts its dome; but our author brought the Cross into the choir and if to some few the preaching of it appeared to be foolishness, we doubt not but that to many more it proved to be the power of God.

But the question often arose, If such be the sermons of the Dean of St. Paul's, what will be the charge of the Bishop of Llandaff? That inquiry was at length answered, by the publication of the second work at the head of this article. The opening of this charge exhibits a fine specimen of brotherly affection for his clergy, combined with a becoming regard to his own authority and responsibilities.

My Reverend Brethren, in addressing you by this title, expressive at once of respect and affection, it is doubtless my first wish to give utterance to the sentiments of my own heart towards a body of men with whom the Providence of God has been pleased to bring me into such close connexion. My desire is, to

adopt the term with reference to that bond of Christian brotherhood, which links us together with one common interest; in pledge of my own willingness to remember your claims upon my regard by virtue of this friendly relation.

Gladly, however, would I believe that, in using these words, I may touch some chord of kindred feeling within your own breasts, and find in your thoughts towards myself, the counterpart of that interest which I entertain for you. The obligations of our relative situations are essentially reciprocal. We owe each other mutual love, mutual confidence, mutual forbearance. As much as lieth in us, we must share each other's burthens, and aim at interchanging such good and friendly offices as are worthy of members of an household of faith which is at unity with itself, For my own part, however insufficient for these things, I am bold to promise that, by God's grace, my desire is to be "the minister of God to you for good."

The relaxation of discipline into which our church has gradually fallen, tends in some degree to weaken those feelings of interest with which the stated seasons of visitation were anciently regarded. If the original purposes of this solemn meeting were more strictly kept in view, if all the parties concerned in its duties were more intent on converting it into a season of ministerial improvement and friendly conference, much that is now merely formal might become instructive, much that is deemed repulsive might be rendered interesting; what is at present tolerated in compliance with custom, or in deference to authority, might be welcomed with delight, and regarded as a privilege. Visitations were designed, not more for the convenience of the Bishop than for that of the Clergy. The Church doubtless expects that he to whom a certain portion of ecclesiastical authority is delegated, for the due administration of her important interests, should avail himself of these occasional meetings to inquire into the actual state of his charge: to provide that all things be done decently and in order; in a spirit of purity as to doctrine, of unity as to external forms, of conscientious and unfeigned zeal as to the general functions of the ministry. But, on the other hand, the Church expects from her clergy, not a mere passive attendance, not a bodily appearance only, at a stated time and place, but intelligent participation in the business of the day, and a readiness to promote its useful objects; she requires them to meet, not as men having no calling or pursuit in common, but as brethren of one large Christian family, conferring with each other, and with their Diocesan, respecting the state of their parishes, and taking sweet counsel together in whatever concerns the fulfilment of their pastoral office.

This, my reverend brethren, is no visionary picture of the advantages which might be derived from these holy meetings. As regards my own part in them, I would wish to meet you, not as દર having dominion over your faith," but as an "helper of your joy;" not as "lording it over God's heritage," but as "being jealous over you with godly jealousy." It is my sincere desire, therefore, that both the following observations, and the more private remarks which will be addressed subsequently to each of the clergy, with reference to the state of his own particular cure, may be received, not as words of reproof or distrust, but of friendly counsel and affectionate admonition. "I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation," if need requires it. Think not, on the one hand, that I come among you for the purpose of placing a check on such wholesome zeal as may tend to win souls to Christ; or, on the other hand, that I am desirous of imposing on you new and heavy burthens, which neither the order of our church, nor the pastoral vows into which you have entered, oblige you to bear. The truth is, as the clergy of another diocese [Oxford] were told nearly a century ago, "It is very little in my power either to increase or lessen your duty. Our blessed Master has fixed it; you have undertaken it: and were I

to release you from ever so great a part of it, I should only bring guilt on myself, without acquitting you at all. The injunctions of the New Testament, infinitely stricter than any of men, would continue to bind you as firmly as ever." Charge, pp. 1-3.

The intelligent and pious reader will not fail to notice a most important sentence in the preceding quotation, which, though short, speaks a great deal as to the designs of the Bishop to spare himself no labour for the good of his clergy, and to give them the benefit, so seldom granted except to some favourite few, of personal intercourse with their diocesan on the state of their respective parishes. After the foregoing introduction, his Lordship proceeds to lay before his clerical auditory the existing state of the Church in our own remarkable times. In doing this the Bishop has shewn both his wisdom and his courage, by the following observations on the "increased and increasing force of public opinion," and its effects and obligations as connected with the clergy.

To the ordinary obligations, religious and civil, which the ministers of our church have always been expected to observe, are superadded, in our own times, the obligations arising from the increased and increasing force of public opinion. We cannot conceal from ourselves, that we live in an age when the observant eye of every class of society is fixed in an especial manner on the conduct of the clergy. The diffusion of knowledge, the facilities afforded to the people at large of forming, as well as of expressing their judgments, the equalization, in a general sense, of intellectual powers which pervades a highly civilized state, are among the many causes now conspiring to bring that class of men of which we are members, before a tribunal always keen and searching, but not, I fear, always candid and charitable in its verdicts. That spell is past, by which the very name of a clergyman, in common acceptation, carried with it associations of a sacred character, and stamped its bearer as a holy man, to whom respect was paid, if not on his own account, for his very order's sake. That spell is past, and little now remains to remind us, however faintly, that it once existed. The present year itself has witnessed the erasure from our statute books of that plea of benefit of clergy, which, though it had long ceased to operate as an exclusive protection for the members of our profession, in whom indeed crime was always least of all excusable, yet recalled to memory that a time has been when reverential regard was paid to the ministers of the church in virtue of their pious office. Scripture tells us, that "the judgment of God slumbereth not." We may assert, in our own days, with equal certainty of assurance, that the judgment of man slumbereth not.

Let me not, however, be misunderstood. Do I complain of those jealous eyes which are ever watching with an Argus-like vigilance to detect in the pastor of the flock the absence of those qualities by which the Chief Shepherd was distinguished? Do I wish to recal those days of almost superstitious reverence for the priesthood, when the dominion of the clergy over the minds of men deserved less to be considered as the legitimate ascendancy of high talent and exemplary piety, than as the offspring of a monopoly of learning in an age of darkness-the despotism of exclusive knowledge over ignorance, and its associate, error? No, my reverend brethren; happily for

....

ourselves, as well as for the world in general, whatever be the character we enjoy, it cannot be acquired by hereditary charter, or put on at pleasure, as belonging to the habit of our profession. Respect must be deserved before it can be won; and as, generally speaking, it will rarely be long withheld where it is fairly due, so will it seldom be long conferred contrary to desert, however high the office, or sacred the functions of him who challenges it. True it is, that "with us it is a very small thing that we should be judged. . . . of man's judgment but he that judgeth us is the Lord." But be it remembered, that he who has furnished us with this liberty of highest appeal, prefaces his declarations with these solemn sentences-sentences which I would earnestly hope are indelibly engraven on the hearts of each one who hears me: "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." And again, "Take heed therefore to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfil it. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, (in obedience to canons and constitutions of the church, devised not for an incentive to good works, but in terror to the evil,) but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." Charge, pp. 3-5.

After some remarks of a local character, his Lordship enters upon a subject of no small difficulty, and yet of vast importance to the spiritual wants of our population, and to the prosperity and extension of our Church.

I cannot dismiss this subject without adverting for a moment to the want of church accommodation which at present prevails to a lamentable extent in some parts of the diocese. This evil, long experienced so sensibly in other parts of the kingdom, seems to have been unfelt in these counties, until the mineral wealth of their mountains began, at a comparatively late period, to employ a large capital in its acquisition. It is impossible to contemplate, without feelings of the deepest compassion, those dense masses of population which since that time have been so rapidly collected on our hills. In the midst of a Christian country they seem, by a concurrence of unfortunate causes, to have been cut off from some of its dearest privileges. Exposed to all the disadvantages of temptation attendant on populous neighbourhoods, they are restrained by few of those checks which impose elsewhere a salutary restraint on the human passions, and are influenced by little of that example which, in the absence of higher motives, is often a good preservative against open vice. If, under these circumstances, instances of gross and flagrant crime are, as I am informed, of extremely rare occurrence, the credit of this morality, so far as it is founded at all on religious principles, can scarcely be imputed to the influence of the doctrine of Christ through the teaching of the Established Church. For, "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" Nor is the shame of this desertion to be hastily imputed to those alone who have a principal interest in this property. That it is incumbent on them to make provision for the better instruction of those numerous families who have been brought together by their means, is as certain as that parents are required to attend to the religious belief of their children, or masters of their servants. But they have a right to expect that facilities should be afforded for this purpose-facilities greater, perhaps, than the constitution of our church, or the laws of the land at present offer. The Church of England has apparently never contemplated a case analogous to the present. It has