with the nature of his duty? It is not the number that is wanted: those that are indispensable are reduced to a few; the previous requisites are, a love of study; a desire of becoming useful to our parish; a conviction of the necessity of deriving from prayer that knowledge which study does not afford of being impressed with a desire of salvation, and of applying all the means of advancing in evangelical wisdom, to inspire our flocks with a love of their duty, in order that they may, the more easily, be induced to practise it; in a word, it is a sincere desire to fulfil our ministry: but you might place the Pastors, of whom I am speaking, in the midst of all the books that have been written since the promulgation of the Gospel, and they would discover an aversion, rather than an anxiety, for the perusal of them.

But all men, you contend, are not born with certain talents, nor with a genius for learning. It is for this very reason, that you, who hold such language to us, ought to redouble your application, to the end that closer study and greater diligence, may supply the defects, and confer the excellences, which nature may have withheld. Besides, are such singular talents requisite to make yourselves thoroughly acquainted with the genius of that dispensation in which you have undertaken to instruct mankind? In a word, make amends by an holy life and active ministry, for the want of those talents by which others may be distinguished; your examples will compensate for what may be deficient in the ele

gance of your compositions, and the extent of your learning was the servant who had received only one talent excused for the want of a right application of it? I repeat it, my brethren, are such transcendent qualities essential, in the opinion of the world, to the instructing of a simple people, and building them up in our most holy faith? We have only to love them, and feel an interest in their salvation; we have only to manifest for them the heart of a father, and a Pastor, concerned for their wants, and much more for their sins; we have only to offer up our frequent and fervent petitions, that the kingdom of God may extend its limits, and accomplish its purposes; and that the blood of Jesus Christ may not be shed in vain for the souls committed to our care. The Pastor possessed of these dispositions, is both learned and enlightened; and happy are the people, in having for their guide, a teacher so meek, so humble, so little qualified in appearance, but so filled with the Spirit of God! May it be the distinguishing character of the Church, to be blessed with such Ministers!

But, unhappily, among those Clergymen, who to justify their indolence, and excuse their ignorance, allege either the want of books, or their inherent indisposition to learning, as we find in their life neither application nor study, neither do we perceive a love of prayer, or any of those pastoral virtues, often more useful to the Church, more edifying than learning itself, which, not infrequently,

puffeth up: ignorance, idleness, dissipation, and neglect of duty, generally go together. I am, indeed, unwilling to speak it, but do you speak for me, you who see it every day; what life do those Pastors, without any study, ignorant, idle, and dissipated in the midst of their parishes, generally lead? A life as low, as grovelling, and scarce less innocent, than that of the people over whom they preside little anxious to make the field of the Gospel productive, which they suffer to lie uncultivated; the solicitude to improve their benefices, and to increase their incomes, constitutes their chief employment. When their indolence has not this resource, no book, no study engaging them at home, their habitation becomes insupportable. What a life for a Clergyman, who, in his parish, represents his master, as a dispenser of his holy Sacraments, and of his evangelical Graces?

Such is the inevitable consequence of the indulgence of idleness, and the neglect of study, in a Clergyman. Hence those* conferences, so wisely appointed by our predecessors, in this extensive diocese, so religiously observed throughout the kingdom; those holy assemblies, so calculated to maintain a sacerdotal union among the Ministers; a sacred harmony, in order to animate us, individually, to the uniform observance of the duties of the ministry of the Church, and a support, in order to

* Alluding to the retreat mentioned in Charge V.

clear up, or remove the doubts, and obviate the difficulties of it: these conferences, which, at first, frequented with so much zeal, we have the mortification, at the termination of our episcopacy, to see deserted, and almost wholly done away in many deaneries, throughout this diocese. Whence can arise this desertion, so little edifying on your part, and so afflicting on ours? We need not hesitate to attribute it to its real cause: ignorance, indolence, and the neglect of study, are the principal reasons of this general absence; not capable, for the most part, of supporting, by their knowledge, these pious societies, and still less anxious to profit by the information of their brethren, they are ashamed to expose themselves: such men make a schism in the diocese, where the Almighty hath hitherto in his mercy, established peace, and preserved union and bring upon themselves the curse denounced against those who "separate themselves, being "sensual, having not the Spirit."

;

I implore you, then, my reverend brethren, to obviate an evil, which represents you to yourselves, and to each other, in so unfavorable a light: restore to this great diocese, the high character which it has always sustained, by the universal observance of this salutary discipline: my course is already far advanced; suffer it not to end with the mortification of seeing a practice, productive of such substantial good, fall into entire disuse: spare my old age this sorrow; rather renew it with a fresh vigor, by renovating your zeal for your duty, more

especially for the conferences, which are so wisely prescribed: "Fulfil ye my joy :" the love of study, will be renovated with them. Second, then, the wishes of a Pastor, who hath always loved you, who hath never exercised, but with regret, his authority over his Brethren, and who may, therefore, reasonably hope, that without having recourse to severity, his remonstrances will, of themselves, find the way to your hearts.

END OF THE CHARGES.