CHARG E. 1803. Reverend Brethren, SINCE we last met in this place, we have enjoyed eighteen months of tranquillity and peace; and although we ought to be thankful to Providence even for that brief respite from the miseries and desolations of war, yet the free and unrestrained intercourse which it has of course produced between this island and foreign countries, has, I fear, in one respect been attended with consequences which we may have much reason to lament. What the state of society, of religion, and of morals is, in some parts of Europe, is no secret to any one; and it can hardly be supposed that such multitudes multitudes of our countrymen, especially of our young countrymen, as have for nearly the last two years resorted to the continent, can have entirely escaped the contagion of principles and manners, highly repugnant to the decency and sobriety of our national character, to those virtuous sentiments which have been early impressed upon our minds, and to those important duties, private, domestic, and public, which we have hitherto been accustomed to regard with reverence. Add to this, that many foreign publications of the most pernicious tendency have, during this interval of repose, found their way into this kingdom; and from one of them more particularly (which is a regular code and system of infidelity, much admired and applauded abroad) a short abstract has been made here, in order to bring it within the reach both of the pockets and the understanding of the middle and lower classes of the community, and to diffuse the miseries of impiety and irreligion as widely as possible through every part of this kingdom *. Under *The tract here alluded to (which I produced to the Clergy at my visitation, but which I do not think Under these circumstances, WE, my brethren, who are the appointed guardians of the morals and the religion of this country, are powerfully called upon to guard our people with the utmost care, not only against those irregularities which may be considered as the natural growth of our own climate, but against those exotic vices and systems of impiety, which there is too much reason to believe have been of late imported among us. For this purpose we must not content ourselves with the discharge of our ordinary occupations, and our stated functions, but must enter with zeal and with ardour into all the various private duties of the pastoral care. More particularly, we must be careful to explain to our people, clearly and forcibly, the principal evidences on which the truth of our religion rests, the great fundamental doctrines of the christian faith, and all the various important precepts which it requires us to believe. All these we must press upon them with devout and solemn earnestness, and exert all it expedient to name here) has passed through several editions; and it is remarkable that the larger work from which it was extracted, constituted the whole library of one of the rebels lately executed in Ireland. all the powers and all the talents we are possessed of, in endeavouring to fortify their minds by every virtuous and every religious principle, against the many new temptations, both to apostasy from their faith, and to dissoluteness of manners, which may now possibly assail them. For all these meritorious services the public will principally look up to that most valuable and respectable body of men, the parochial Clergy of the church of England. And there can be no doubt but that their efforts to preserve the faith and the morals of their parishioners, if steadily persevered in, will, with the blessing of God, be finally successful. For it is inconceivable how much may be done in this way, how much vice and misery may be prevented, how much virtue and happiness may be produced, by a truly laborious, conscientious, exemplary clergyman, residing constantly on his benefice, whose great business and delight it is to advance the welfare and save the souls of his parishioners; who, like his blessed Master, goes about doing good, watching over his people with paternal tenderness and anxiety, conversing with them familiarly and affectionately, |