been reduced very low but, thank God, the fever yielded to medicine; and I have now nothing remaining of my disorder, but the danguor, and a sort of irritable state of the lungs, which chiefly troubles me by preventing me from sleeping. In other respects I am amazingly recovered, and relish my food better than I have done for months past. I am, however, advancing in years; and this attack will probably have some effect upon my plans, so far as to make me backward to undertake all that labour, which I had some thoughts of. But wherever, or how long, or in what ever way, I may be employed, I never felt so deeply convinced in my life, that being employed, as a minister, is the only thing worth living for. The vanity of all worldly possessions, distinctions, connections, and enjoyments, never so forcibly impressed my mind, as on this occasion. The folly of shrinking from that hardship o or suffering, which the frown or scorn of men can inflict on us, for faithfulness, appeared extreme; when I felt how easily God could inflict far sharper sufferings, if he saw good. The reality and importance of eternal things shone on the scenes around me; so that the crowds of noble and affluent sinners, following the steps of the rich man in the Gospel, appeared the most miserable of wretches. Transient pain taught me emphatically the value of deliverance from eternal misery; and endeared the love of the Deliverer, who voluntarily endured such pain and agony for us vile sinners. The evil of sin, the happiness of the poorest true Christian, and the little consequence of the smoothness or ruggedness of the path, provided we come to heaven at last; these things, and others connected with them, have not, for many years at least, so impressed my mind. The Friday evening before I was taken ill, I preached on the text, Follow holiness,

without which no man shall see the Lord.' But I did not properly dwell on the Lord's method of making us partakers of his holiness: so he has since preached to me on the subject. And, as I now think little of the distress and pain attending the remedies used for my body (the pain is all past), because I hope I shall have the subsequent benefit of better health; how little should I think of the sharpest sufferings I can here go through, if the health of my soul be forwarded, and, at length, perfected, by means of them: or rather how ought

I to bless and thank God for them all! Pray for me, that, I may not lose these impressions; but, if spared, may live, and preach, and pray, and write, in a manner, somewhat less unsuitable to the vastly important services I am engaged in for who can be sufficient for these things? I rejoiced, and blessed God, when I recollected that he had put you into this high office of the ministry. O may he preserve you from the snares, and smiles, and frowns of the world; from the fascinations and delusions, from the lukewarmness, and evangelical formality, and attachment to secular interests, which are sanctioned too much in the church! May you be a wiser, holier, more faithful, and more useful minister, than ever I have been! 0 keep the concluding scene in view every step of the way; and judge of every thing by it. The evils I have protested against in health appeared to me far, far more pernicious, as I lay gasping for breath, than before and I seem to rejoice in the hope of entering further protests against them. But I must stop my pen, or I shall hurt myself. You will excuse the overflowings of my heart at this time; it never was more full of love for you . . . . My love and blessing to my daughter. God bless and prosper you, in the best sense! Your truly affectionate father,

pp. 319-353.

"Thomas Scott."

(To be continued.)

A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Gloucester, at the Third Visitation of that Diocese in the Year 1822. By [the Right Rev.] HENRY RYDER, D.D. [Lord] Bishop of Gloucester. Gloucester. 1822. pp. 40. IT is, we believe, very generally lamented, by all our bishops, clergy, and laity, who have the welfare of religion deeply at heart, that our visitations, both episcopal and archidiaconal, have degenerated too often into little more than a periodical ceremony, for the transaction of certain affairs more secular than religious or spiritual, and producing scarcely any benefit beyond the orderly discharge of the current business of the diocese.

Independently of other benefits, which always might, and to a certain extent, we would hope, usually do, accrue from these annual and triennial conventions, not the least important is, that the bishop has hereby an opportunity of becoming acquainted with his clergy, and his clergy with each other, and that all may by mutual conference be incited" to love and to good works." The preacher appointed to address his assembled brethren, by a wise, faithful, and scriptural discharge of his office, may greatly improve the occasion, and interpose a salutary interval for serious pas toral reflection, between the busi ness and bustle of the morning, and the friendly conviviality, rarely we believe, if ever, carried to excess, of the afternoon. But the official charge of the bishop is the most powerful and extensive instrument of utility on these occasions: it is listened to with anxious curiosity and attention: its dicta are usually received with great reverence and affection, and tend in no scanty degree to form the principles and habits of the subordinate clergy throughout the diocese. In proportion, therefore, as the episcopal charge is scriptural, affectionate, and judiciously adapted to the circumstances of the meeting; or, on the other hand, hard, secular, imperious, unsound in doctrine, or bigoted in spirit, will be the benefit or injury to the clergy, and through them to their parishes and to society at large.

The high importance of a wise and faithful discharge of their visitation duties by bishops, has been frequently urged by our chief ecclesiastical writers. The venerable Hooker is most urgent on this subject. Thus he remarks:

"Touching bishops' visitations, the first institution of them was profitable, to the end that the state and condition of churches being known, there might be for evils growing remedies provided in due time. The observation of church

laws, the correction of faults in the service of God, and the manners of men, these are the things that visitors should seek. When these things are inquired of formally, and but for custom's sake, fees and pensions being the only thing which is sought, and little else done by visitations, we are not to marvel if the baseness of the end doth make the action itself loathsome.

"A bishop in whom there did plainly appear the marks and tokens of a fatherly affection towards them that are under his charge, what good might be do! Ten thousand ways more than any man knows how to set down! But the souls of men are not loved. That which Christ shed his blood for is not esteemed precious. This is the very root, the fountain, of all negligence in church government.......

"Men whom it standeth upon to uphold a reverend estimation of themselves in the minds of others, without which the very best things they do are hardly able to escape disgrace, must, before it be overlate, remember how much easier it is to retain credit once gotten, than to recover it being lost. The executors of bishops are sued if their mansion-house be suffered to go to decay; but whom shall their successors sue for the dilapidations which they make of that credit, the unrepaired diminutions whereof will in time bring to pass, that they which would most do good in that calling shall not be able, by reason of prejudice generally settled in the minds of all sorts against them?......

"Devotion, and the feeling sense of religion, are not usual in the noblest, wisest, and chiefest personages of state, by reason their wits are so much employed another way, and their minds so seldom conversant in heavenly things. If, therefore, wherein themselves are defective, they see that bishops do blessedly excel, it frameth secretly their hearts to a stooping kind of disposition, clean opposite to con

tempt. The very countenance of Moses was glorious after that God had conferred with him; and where bishops are, the powers and faculties of whose souls God hath possessed, those very actions, the kind whereof is common unto them with other men, have notwithstanding in them a more high and heavenly form, which draweth correspondent estimation unto it, by virtue of that celestial impression which deep meditation of holy things, and, as it were, conversation with God, doth leave in their minds. So that bishops which will be esteemed of as they ought, must frame themselves to that very pattern from whence those Asian Bishops, unto whom St. John writeth, were denominated, even so far forth as our frailty will permit; shine they must, as angels of God in the midst of perverse men. They are not to look that the world should always carry the affection of Constantine, to bury that which derogates from them, and to cover their imbecilities."-Hooker's Eccles. Pol. Book.

We have frequently lamented to observe the undue proportion of secular topics often introduced into our archidiaconal and episcopal charges. It is, indeed, very rarely that we meet with a Charge so peculiarly exceptionable in this respect as the primary one of the present bishop of Peterborough, on which we were lately constrained to animadvert, as not containing one single sentence strictly religious, not a syllable perhaps which a Socinian, or even a Deist, might not have uttered with a safe conscience; the whole being a mere technical document, without a prayer, or benediction, or allusion to any Christian doctrine, or any thing, in short, to indicate that the writer had ever read the charge of Him who said, "Feed my sheep, feed my lambs." We hope and believe that a Charge so completely forensic is quite unique; but many Charges, even some of distinguished merit

It is

in other respects, are exceptionable in their degree, in the general secularity of their contents. proper, we are aware, for a bishop to inform and counsel his clergy on many points not strictly "spiritual.” Acts of parliament, and canonical regulations, and many secondary duties and observances may require to be touched upon; but might not the details on such points often be passed lightly over in the Charge, and reserved as subjects of useful remark, or for a regular address, after the fraternal repast, at which the bishop usually presides, when the business of the day is concluded? Many useful suggestions are, we believe, often thrown out on such occasions; and we could mention instances of District Committees, National Schools, and other valuable institutions, which have owed their origin to a well-timed "after-dinner speech." By thus retrenching secular topics, the Charge might have ampler verge for what should be its main object, to stir up the clergy to a more zealous discharge of their peculiar duties, as ministers of Christ, ambassadors for God, men whose office it is, in the impressive language of the Ordination Service, "to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach and to premonish; to feed and provide for the Lord's family; to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever." Thewhole Ordination Service is couched in this simple yet elevated strain; and it would materially benefit the cause of religion and the interests of the Established Church, if all our official charges were constructed in a kindred spirit. Interwoven with this rich web, might be appropriately introduced all necessary or proper subjects of detail; and schools and charitable institutions, in particular, might be recommended as among the most powerful

means for assisting a clergyman's labours. One topic, which frequently occupies a large space in visitation charges, might be usually passed over without detriment; we mean, whatever concerns the temporal rights and privileges of the clergy. Few persons need to be told of their rights, but all require to be reminded of their duties. We could probably, by looking over the volumes of an extensive ecclesiastical library, find some scores of Charges on the subject of tithes but what benefit is gained, generally speaking, by the discussion of this topic in a "concio ad clerum?" Those who require to be convinced are not present to hear; the farmers are at market or at the plough; nor are the bishop's arguments, as retailed to them on the succeeding Sunday by their honest friend and representative, the churchwarden, in the church-yard, before and after service, by any means likely to satisfy their obtuse intellects respecting the beauty and excellency of this mode of providing for the clergy. Would it not be better generally to choose such subjects of admonition, as by their powerful tendency to increase piety, zeal, disinterestedness, affection, and soundness of doctrine and holiness of life in those who minister in holy things, would go infinitely farther towards reconciling their rustic parishioners to tithes, or their town parishioners to customary dues, than the most elaborate vindication of the abstract right of the clergy to demand, or the duty of the laity to pay, these statutable offerings? We are not reasoning against the propriety and imperative necessity of enforcing such points before the public: all that we suggest is, that such discussions usually appear with the worst grace, and the least effect, in visitation charges.

The excellent Charge before us is not of this character. The Right Reverend author zealously and affectionately presses on his clergy their religious obligations: as for

their prerogatives and secular privileges, he leaves them, as far as: this Charge is concerned, to be discovered and descanted upon elsewhere. It is strictly, as it ought to be, a discourse to the clergy, and not, through them, at the laity. The author, in his first Charge, had dwelt chiefly upon the general duties of the clerical profession, the performance of the service, and the tenour and spirit of the sermon ; in his second, he had entered into the offices which commence, continue, and close a minister's pastoral communications with each member of his flock; in this, his third Charge, he explains and urges that most powerful, though indirect, instrument of ministerial instruction-teaching by personal example. His lordship considers his three charges as a connected exposition of St. Paul's apostolic address to Timothy, "Take heed to thyself and to thy [the] doc

*Bishop Horsley, in his Second Charge to his clergy of the diocese of Rochester, strongly objects to the "typographical error" of thy for the. The old editions of Barker's excellent press in 1611, 1612, 1617, all read the; the first of these is the editio princeps of the English Bible now in use, and the second was the first quarto impression. In subsequent editions, by different editors, thy seems by mistake to have been far the more common reading, till Baskett's edition of 1756; from which period, Bishop Horsley says, that he found the text correctly given in all

the Oxford editions which he had ex

amined except one, and in Eyre and Strahan's editions. We believe the is now the usual reading of all the autho rized presses. The Greek is with the article, not the pronoun. The Bishop of Gloucester uses the pronoun; but his lordship, we are persuaded, will fully concur in the sentiments of Dr. Hors

ley, if not in his assumption of the Apostle's intention, in the following excellent passage on the subject: ""Take heed unto the (not thy) doctrine;' as if the Apostle studiously avoided a form of expression which might seem to imply that even St. Timothy had any doctrine to deliver of his own.