These strictures are not meant to be confined to the highest dignities. The disposal of all benefices should be founded on the same conscientious, independent principles; it should have no other end in view than the eternal salvation of the souls committed to the care of the Ministers, the prosperity of the Church, and the advancement of the Kingdom of God. If the dispensers of preferment disdained to listen to any plea but that of merit in the candidates, in the exercise of their sacred privileges, men would not enter into the Church because their interest could raise them to benefices and dignities; the application of the reproach of Isaiah to the watchmen and shepherds of Israel would not be extended to us by the enemies of our Establishment. No pastors would be appointed, but those, who do not shun to declare all the counsel of God; who take heed unto themselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers, to feed the Church of God which he has purchased with his own blood.

As the oracles of God are, in a more especial manner, committed to the Bishops, they should be more generally the dispensers of ecclesiastical preferment. Private patronage is one of the causes of the extension of schism; it is an abuse, which calls for redress. Among the Sectaries, a Minister is not raised to a station of eminence by casual connexions with the great, or because he has distinguished himself for his civil or political exertions in favor of a patron; but because he has by his zealous efforts extended the celebrity, and increased the numbers, of his sect. The spiritual care of their flocks is never exposed to sale. -Private patrons do not consider to what an awful responsibility they subject themselves; they are not aware that they are accountable to the great Shepherd of our souls for the neglect of the Christian flocks, over whom it is their duty to appoint attentive and faithful pastors.' Patronage in the hands of the laity affords a

"If those, who have the disposition of benefices, to which the care of souls is annexed, did consider this as a trust lodged with them, for which they must answer to God, and that they shall be in a great measure accountable for the souls, that may be lost through the bad choice that they may make; if, I say, they had this more in their thoughts, than so many scores of pounds, as the living amounts to; and thought themselves really bound, as without doubt they are, to seek out good and worthy men, well qualified and duly prepared, according to the nature of that benefice, which they are to give; then we might hope to see men make it their chief study to qualify themselves aright; to order their lives and frame their minds, as they ought to do; and to carry on their studies with all application and diligence; but as long as the short methods of application, friendship, or interest, are more effectual than the long and hard way of labor and study, human nature will always carry men to go the surest, the easiest, and the quickest way to work." Bishop Burnett's Pastoral Care, chap. 7.

melancholy proof that, in this state of imperfection, even the most generous passions of men often introduce causes of corruption in the formation of the most beneficial systems of polity. The secular traffic, which sometimes perverts the institutions of the Church, offers a serious ground of complaint, and a proper object of reform. This private patronage ought to be placed in the hands of the Bishops, who are the best qualified to investigate and to reward the merits of the clergy, and who are the most interested in the prosperity of the Church, and the honor of our holy Religion. But as private property should not be violated, a sum of money should be raised and a fund appropriated for the purchase of livings, the presentation of which should be vested in the natural guardians of the Church. Perhaps a certain proportion might be taken from the produce of the yearly tenths, increased in a ratio, which has been already suggested, and employed in the gradual completion of a plan, which would be more beneficial to the fundamental interests of the country than the most successful political or financial operation.

These Observations arise from the most disinterested motives of removing every obstacle to the general adoption of the system of the Church of Christ, as it is established in this realm. Holding the most sincere conviction that its internal doctrines are the genuine doctrines of the Saviour of the world, and that its external forms are derived from those, which were prescribed and sanctioned by the Apostles, I would sacrifice every selfish consideration, the hope of the most splendid advancement, to the desire of suggesting one hint, that might tend to promote the honor and dignity of that Church, and vindicate its claim to the perfection of beauty, and the joy of the whole earth.-Its enemies call it presumption to appropriate these titles to an establishment, which is confined to a corner of the world, to England and some of its dependencies. The same objection has been made by Infidelity to the claim of Judea to contain the people of God. But, as once Jehovah did set his King upon his holy hill of Sion, the present appearance of the world gives us ground for the hope that, in this time of general defection from the Faith, the Church of England will be the source, from which the Earth shall be filled with the

1 Many illustrious instances may, no doubt, be adduced of private patrons, who have been guided by the purest regard to the honor of Religion in the disposal of their patronage. But few of them, it is hoped, would hesitate to accept an equivalent for that property, in order to promote the general interest of the Church.

knowledge of the Lord,-In defence of such a cause, who would not take pleasure in reproaches, in persecutions, for the sake of Christ?

It is this belief in the excellence, and this zeal in the service, of the Church, that affords one of the most powerful motives to the love of our Country. This motive is beautifully illustrated by the Psalmist in this striking apostrophe to his Jerusalem: BECAUSE OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD OUR GOD, I WILL SEEK TO DO THER GOOD!

My

T. O. 4.

V.

THE

RETURN TO NATURE;

OR,

A DEFENCE

OF THE

VEGETABLE REGIMEN;

WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF AN EXPERIMENT MADE DURING THE LAST THREE OR FOUR YEARS IN THE AUTHOR'S FAMILY.

Man, only man, Creation's Lord confess'd,
Amidst his happy realm remains unbless'd;

On the bright earth, his flow'r-embroider'd throne,

Th' imperial mourner reigns and weeps alone.

SPENCER'S YEAR OF SORROW.

BY JOHN FRANK NEWTON, Esq.

{

LONDON:

VOL. XIX.

Pam.

NO. XXXVIII. 2 I

TO

WILLIAM LAMBE, M.D.

FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

MY DEAR SIR,

MUCH has been said, and justly too, in ridicule of dedications and prefaces; but never was a book more properly inscribed by one man to another, than this little volume on vegetable diet to you, by a person who owes to your important discovery so great an advantage as the enjoyment of health. Convinced as I now am, not only by my exemption from attacks of the complaint under which I labored, but by the improvement of my spirits and comfortable sensations, that a vegetable regimen and the use of distilled water have conquered a chronic illness with which I had been from childhood afflicted, allow me to lay on your table this feeble attempt to render more generally known a medical discovery, which, I am confident, will place your name at some future, and perhaps no distant period, at the head of your profession.

I remain always,

MY DEAR SIR,

Most sincerely your's,

JOHN FRANK NEWTON.

Chester-Street, 24th April, 1811.