gine a greater blemish in his spiritual character, one more irreconcileable with "simplicity and godly since"rity," more fully exposing him to the censure of being "double-tongued, "a more completely incompatible with the qualities requisite to constitute a sound casuist, than a belief and avowal of sentiments and opinions inconsistent with those which he has most solemnly and repeatedly subscribed, and by virtue of which subscription, he first obtained and still holds all his preferments.

If it be the duty of Prelates in general to administer all seasonable counsel, admonition, and even reproof, to the greatest personages on earth, it must more peculiarly belong to a Metropolitan to observe, counsel, admonish, comfort, and if need were, reprove the Bishops of the inferior Sees. The Apostle of the Gentiles admonished one of the first Bishops of the Christian Church to “hold "fast the form of sound words," to "take heed unto "himself and unto his doctrine, to continue in them." He also particularly exhorted him to make proper provision for the perpetuation of the true doctrines of Christ by a succession of "faithful men who should be "able to teach others also." Another Bishop of one of the first Christian Churches was directed by the same Apostle to pay particular attention to the qualifications of those who might receive ordination at his hands, and especially to their profession and propagation of "sound "doctrine." The writings of this Apostle also contain an exhortation to all the members of a primitive church to admonish their Bishop to "take heed to the ministry "which he had received in the Lord, to fulfil" all its

a 1 Tim. iii. 8.

c 1 Tim. iv. 16.

b 2 Tim. i. 13.

e Tit. i. 5-9.

d 2 Tim. ii. 2.
f Col. iv. 17.

sacred and important duties. But if Bishops are to receive admonition from Christians "over whom" they

have the rule, "a much more should they be ready to receive it from their ecclesiastical superiors, from those Most Reverend Fathers whom the constitution of the Church obliges them to regard as "over them in the "Lord." With particular reference to the Church of England, the late Sir William Blackstone, observes; "An Archbishop is the chief of the clergy in a whole "province; and has the inspection of the Bishops of that "province as well as of the inferior clergy." And what can present stronger claims to all the vigilance of archiepiscopal inspection, what can be more deserving of your Grace's examination, and approbation or censure, as the case shall be found to require, than the agreement or dissonance of the principles maintained and propagated by your suffragan Bishops with those of the public creeds and formularies of the church?

There is a custom in the established Church of Ireland, which if seriously and conscientiously followed seems calculated to produce great advantages. "The Archbishops visit the dioceses of their respective provinces every third year. The Archbishop at the time is invested "with all the canonical powers of the visiting Bishop. "The Chancellors and Archdeacons, as such, never "visit. But the Bishops visit every year; and in the third year they visit previously to the Archbishop's "visitation, in order to prepare matters for his Grace's "ease and satisfaction. He continues as long as he "chooses at every Bishop's house."d

a Heb. xiii. 7, 17.

b 1 Thess. v. 12.

c Comment. vol. i. b. i. c. 11. p. 380.
d Gisborne's Duties of Men, vol. ii. p. 119.

In such a triennial visitation a Metropolitan must gain a large acquaintance with the state of the Clergy in the various dioceses: but especially from the communications which may naturally be supposed to pass between him and the respective Bishops, during his continuance at their houses, he can scarcely fail of acquiring a knowledge of their real principles, and forming an estimate of the excellences and defects of their episcopal characters. The occurrences and intercourses of such a visitation will lead to admonition, counsel, comfort, or reproof, according to the various exigences of the respective cases.

It is said, "that Laud visited the province of Canter"bury, which is the last English archiepiscopal visita❝tion." Whether any violent proceedings of that arbitrary and intolerant Prelate brought the practice of visitation into disrepute, and caused it to be abandoned by his successors, I know not, but take it for granted they have had some weighty reasons for discontinuing

it.

But the duties of archiepiscopal vigilance, examination, and approbation, or censure, must ever retain their obligation unimpaired by all the variations of time and circumstances. And it is gratifying to reflect, that whatever superintendence or controul may be exercised by your Grace, there can be no ground for the least apprehension of any thing like ecclesiastical tyranny or religious persecution. Every candid mind must approve and unite in the liberal and manly sentiments avowed by your Grace in the House of Lords, in the debate on a bill lately introduced by Lord Sidmouth which tended to restrict and diminish the privileges of the Dissenters.

a Gisborne's Duties of Men, vol, ii. p. 119.

We must all deprecate legislative interference with the right of private judgment in matters of religion.

But though no man can justly be compelled to join any Christian Church, or to profess a belief in any particular system of theology, yet every one who becomes a member of any Christian Church, and professes his cordial belief of the doctrines contained in the creeds and confessions of that Church, must be considered as having voluntarily merged his private judgment in the judgment of the Church. This observation is peculiarly applicable to every Clergyman, and gains additional force in proportion to the superiority of his station.

It is justly remarked by the late Archdeacon Paley, that the single end we ought to propose by Church es"tablishments is the preservation and propagation of "religious knowledge. Every other idea, and every "other end, that have been mixed with this, as the "making of the Church an engine or even an ally of the "State; converting it into the means of strengthening ❝or of diffusing influence ; or regarding it as a support "of regal in opposition to popular forms of government, ❝have served only to debase the institution, and to in❝troduce into it numerous corruptions and abuses."a

If the only legitimate end of ecclesiastical establishments be the preservation and propagation of religious truth, and this every real Christian, friendly to such establishments, will readily admit; it follows, that the system of religious truth intended to be taught must be clearly stated and defined. Hence it has been forcibly and conclusively argued by Mr. Gisborne, that " Arti"cles of religion seem a necessary part of every ecclesi

a Mor. and Pol. Philos. vol. ii. p. 305, 6th edit.

"astical establishment; as forming the only criterion by which those teachers who hold the doctrines of the esta"blishment can be distinguished from those who do not. "The unlawfulness of requiring any subscription what"ever, though not unfrequently asserted, can never be evinced. For if it be lawful to require of a person who applies for an office in the state, or an employment in private life, some proof of his possessing the quali❝fications necessary for discharging the duties of the “post, and an engagement that he will discharge them "faithfully while he continues to hold it: why is a simi"lar proceeding in the case of ecclesiastical officers necesssarily unlawful? And when an office is instituted "for the purpose of inculcating certain doctrines, is it "not lawful and reasonable to require of those who volun❝tarily apply for admission into the office, an explicit "declaration whether they believe the doctrines? For

that belief is a qualification indispensably requisite to their fulfilling with integrity and effect the functions, "with the discharge of which they desire to be in"trusted."a

It is evident that the Clergy of the Church of England have been appointed for the purpose of inculcating the doctrines contained in the formularies of the Church, the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies. To pretend, as some have done, that these formularies contain no pre- ́ cise system of doctrines, but are equally adapted to the subscription of the Arian and the Athanasian, of the Arminian and the Calvinist, is one of the grossest libels on the Church in the power of ingenuity or malice to fabricate. To represent the Articles as articles of peace, and to maintain that subscription does not necessarily

a Duties of Men, vol. ii. p. 2.