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member and a friend. Some really good men, for want of sufficient attention to such points, added perhaps to negligence in impressing the minds of their flock with just ideas of the claims of the Established Church upon the esteem and affection of its members, have inadvertently paved the way for future secessions. It is an unhappy circumstance that many even of our clergy are not properly acquainted with the nature and extent of what may be called the mere ritual merits of the church. To supply this defect the author has sometimes wished that among the other munificent endowments of our universities, there were appointed in each à Ritual Professor, whose duty it should be to give lectures in every thing connected with the external character of the Church of England; to explain, for instance, the origin and intention of her various offices and ceremonies, and to present such general views to the theological student as may render his obedience to her forms and rubrics, and what may be called her bye-laws, a reasonable and enlightened service. Such an appointment, if well conducted, might powerfully, though silently, tend to reduce to a voluntary uniformity, some of those partial, but not always unimportant, irregularities which are apt to prevail in parishes where the officiating minister has not

paid due attention to the ritual duties of his profession; which, though not duties of the highest class, are duties still.

But while a clergyman thus maintains a conscientious regularity and conformity as regards the observances of his church, he is not less bound to cherish a candid and liberal spirit towards those who differ from him in opinion, especially where he has reason to believe there exists an unfeigned love to God, with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and true piety in the heart and life. At the same time he must not be surprised if, in the faithful discharge of his duties, he finds enemies on both sides. Those who cannot forgive his church-principles for the sake of his piety and excellence of character, will perhaps view him as a mere bigot, and attribute his attachment to existing institutions, if not to positively corrupt motives, at least to the prepossessions of education or the contractile effects of what may be called the sphincter of professional prejudice. On the other hand, those professed churchmen whose affection for our Establishment is more of a political than a religious kind, who would readily tolerate indolence but are suspicious of zeal, and who would prefer a Dissenter that suffered men to live and die peaceably in their sins to the most orthodox clergyman who should

exert himself to bring them to a really devout and holy life; falsely-called churchmen of this kind would naturally be offended at the earnest piety and faithful remonstrances of a conscientious pastor, and might even labour to render his very excellences odious in the sight of the world. Such things are however but trifles: they have been the lot of many good men in every age; and a clergyman may be well content to be misunderstood or misrepresented who is conscious to himself that the reproach under which he labours is not for any thing really inconsistent with the spirit of his sacred profession, or with the doctrines and discipline of his church.

viii. By a conscientious discharge of incidental

duties.

A truly conscientious discharge of incidental duties on the part of the clergy has a powerful tendency to promote the cause of religion, and to reflect conspicuous lustre upon the church. Such duties cannot of course be enumerated by anticipation; they can be detailed only as they arise, and must usually be provided for at the time by the prompt casuistry of a tender and enlightened conscience. Signing papers, filling up offices, advising persons in cases of difficulty, presenting titles for orders,

and bestowing testimonials, are among these incidental cases. The last particular is peculiarly important, and has been already mentioned in a former part of this Essay, where the just remonstrances of the Bishops of Durham and Lincoln [now Winchester] on the subject have been cited. The necessity of clerical residence might also be again specified, as it is closely connected with the right discharge of a variety of incidental duties. A resident minister is at hand to advise, to comfort, and to assist his flock: he is able to go through more exertion with less fatigue than if stationed at a distance; he can render his family an example and incitement to his parish; he can be "instant in season and out of season;" he can superintend the religious and charitable institutions of the place, and by a course of zealous and self-denying exertion can make his people feel, in innumerable ways, that the religion which he professes is truly a substantial blessing to mankind. A clergyman has only to trace his life throughout a single week-in his study, his family, his church, his parish, and his intercourse with the world at large-in order to feel how much depends upon a conscientious discharge of the numerous incidental duties which hourly devolve upon him.

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ix. By unanimity among themselves.

Here, alas! the author fears he may be considered as having arrived at the fabled land of Utopia; for though no person can doubt the benefits which would result from union among the clergy, yet who is sanguine enough to hope for such a blessed state of things in the present era of the Christian church? Indeed, a mere nominal coalition of adverse parties, it must be confessed, would be of little or no service. It is a real unaffected union as members of the same church, disciples of the same Master, and partakers of the same Spirit and the same hope, that we so greatly need.

A spirit of disunion is in perfect contrast with the spirit of Christianity, and with the injunctions of its Divine Author. It was the earnest prayer of our blessed Saviour shortly before his sufferings, that all who should believe on him to the end of time, might be one: "As thou, Father," said he, " art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." And as it was his prayer, it was also one great end of his cross and passion; for Caiaphas in this respect prophesied truly, that "Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in

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