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J.

DEAR I well remember the part of the country which you describe to me, and perhaps the particular manufactory which you mention. I am much obliged to Mr.

for the kind sentiments he was so good as to express towards me. I also hear with much pleasure of his intention to establish a Sunday School for all the children in his employ. Could my opinion have any weight, I should certainly give it in favour of taking the children at least once a day to the church. I am sorry to understand that the state of things at the parish church is not such as to make it attractive. I could most earnestly wish, that in all our churches, both the conduct of the service and the preaching might be animating and inviting. At the same time we may require too much in that way; and the want of it may not be a sufficient reason for absenting ourselves. I take it to be a great and prevalent fault of the present day, that the people are ever in quest of excitement instead of edification-or mistake the former instead of the latter. Hence, among other reasons, their unsteadiness, and their roving continually after some new man, or some new thing.

I desire to see children trained to the Church of England, because, without thinking her perfect, even in theory, and much less as practically administered, I feel persuaded that her system and scheme of instruction have more in them that is solid, that is likely to wear well, to last, and to go down from parent to child, than is to be found elsewhere amongst us. I should most earnestly wish that these five hundred children, or as they may become in

the course of years, fifty times five hundred, should be trained in the familiar use of the Liturgy of the Church of England. Yes; and in regular attendance upon her ordinances; as well as in doctrines generally conformable to her's. I should wish it for their own sake individually it may be of use to them to have such" forms of sound words " stored in their memories, beyond what can be calculated. • When I went to church,' said an elderly man to me, who had led a profane life, and had not been there for many years, 'When I went to church,

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and heard them there words and prayers that I had been used to, when I went thither with my father and mother, it cut me to the heart:' and I hope it led to his conversion. I wish it not only for these children's sake, but for that of all who may spring from them. I wish it for my country's sake, whose civil and religious institutions are SO combined that they must stand or fall together. I wish it for my church's sake; which Mr. will admit, when her doctrines are truly preached, and her services duly conducted, is an invaluable institution. And it is a most painful thing to her pious ministers to see the affections of the population so withdrawn-shall I say so stolen away from them, as they now are; and as these children's will be for life, in whatever favoured parishes their lot may be hereafter cast-on the plan that is proposed. The state of A

church may not always be what it is now said to be. How painful will it be to a future pious minister to see the hearts of the people all drawn another way, because his predecessor (who is unknown to me even by name) was not approved. Let Mr. reflect,

that he will be making all these people, and their children, and children's children, dissenters, not from the church of A- but from the

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church of ENGLAND: from the latter national institution, for what is, at most, the fault exclusively of the

little branch of it established in that village.

I remain, &c.

J.

LETTER AND PETITION OF THE REV. J. I. HOLMES.

Baring Crescent, Exeter, Dec. 12, 1826. SIR,-I send you herewith a Petition, which Sir Thomas Acland, our county member, did me the honor to present to the House of Commons, on Thursday last. Some of the public papers have represented the sole object of the Petition to be the abolition of nonresidence and pluralities. You will perceive, however, that this was not the object, and that the restoration of the Curates to their former rights and joint privileges forms the grand subject of the prayer. The Petition was ordered to be printed and to lie on the table. I am not at present aware of the nature of this order; but as I have been unwillingly forced into this contest by a long course of ill treatment, from which I could not escape; as the state of the unbeneficed clergy is now most unprotected and miserable; and as a firm stand against arbitrary and unjust principles, may, under the blessing of the Most High, enable the Word of the Lord to have free course and be glorified throughout all the congregations of the land, I feel myself peculiarly called forwards to pursue the great objects I have in view; and I trust that the Lord will enable me to pursue those objects in a Christian spirit, until we meet with ultimate success.

I have entered into this great contest, I may say with regard to this Petition, without the knowledge of a single friend; but I trust the Lord and justice are on my side. I am now about to adopt those measures, which will bring the subject in all its bearings before Parliament and the public, immediately after the adjournment. As

I cannot expect the honorable mem. ber who presented the Petition, to pursue it any farther, I hope through the medium of the public press to find some Member of the House of Commons, who will kindly undertake our cause, and pursue it with steadfastness and zeal.

May I earnestly intreat that you will strengthen my hands by circulating the Petition in the Christian Guardian, and that you and your readers will offer up your prayers at the throne of grace, that the great contest in which I have engaged may be carried on by me with Christian weapons, and with a Christian spirit, that I may ever pay that respect and deference which are due from inferior ministers to the exalted stations of our Diocesans, and do nothing which shall injure any one's character or feelings, further than may be absolutely necessary for the ends of public justice.

I shall feel obliged to your correspondents for any communications which may further the great object I have in view.*

I am, Sir, with great respect, your constant reader,

J. I. HOLMES.

To the Honorable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. The humble Petition of James Ivory Holmes of Heavitree, near Exeter, in the county of Devon, clerk, SHEWETH, That the Curates of the Church of England have been set apart and consecrated to the sacred office by the highest ecclesiastical authorities of the Church; and have been wisely pro

*If these communications should be private, I must request that they may be post paid, and addressed as above.

hibited from engaging in secular employments, whereby they may maintain themselves and their families by the laws of the land; and your Petitioner therefore, humbly conceives that they are intitled to the parental protection of those authorities by whom they have been ordained; and that they possess the strongest claims upon the Legislature to provide by legal enactments, that they shall not be deprived unjustly of their ecclesiastical office, or the maintenance they may obtain by the due discharge of their spiritual functions.

That the Church of England recognizes only three ecclesiastical Orders-Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, and empowers all Clergy of the same order, whether beneficed or unbeneficed, to discharge the same ecclesiastical functions; and hence considers that they should all possess the same ecclesiastical privileges.

That by the Ordination Service every Clergyman is required to preach those doctrines which he believes essential to salvation; and which may be proved by scripture; and that under the original constitution of the Church as maintained by an Act of Parliament passed in the thirteenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, chapter twelfth, no Clergyman could be ejected from his spiritual charge upon doctrinal grounds by his Diocesan, excepting after open and public conviction of maintaining or affirming "any doctrine directly contrary or repugnant to any of the said Articles" of the church.

Your Petitioner further sheweth,→→ That by an Act of Parliament passed in the thirty sixth year of his late Majesty King George the third, chapter eighty third, the unbeneficed clergy have been deprived of their ancient rights and privileges, and placed under the arbitrary control of their respective Diocesans; who may now dismiss them from their curacies upon secret charges, and upon secret evidence: and thus unjustly deprive them of their ecclesiastical character and livelihood, and expose them through mental and bodily suffering, to the loss of health and even of life itself.

That your Petitioner has reason to believe that some curates have been unjustly dismissed under these arbitrary powers; and that the infringement, through neglect or ignorance, of some unimportant regulations of the diocesan, the violation of which by a beneficed clergyman would not be accounted cri

minal, has been assumed as affording justifiable pretexts for severely harassing and persecuting others; and he is ready to lay before a committee of your Honourable House facts, which he conceives will fully support both these allegations.

Your Petitioner humbly and respectfully submits that laws which place the livelihood, the character, and the health and happiness of individuals at the arbitrary disposal of others, however exalted in rank, are unjust in principle, and foreign to the general character of the British Constitution; and that as regards the clergy, who have devoted themselves to the service of the Church, upon the faith of Parliament, in expectation that the diocesans would be their protectors and "fathers in God," are a violation of the national faith.

Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays, That such laws may be rescinded; and that the unbeneficed clergy may be restored to the same privileges enjoyed by the beneficedclergy under the aforesaid statute of Queen Elizabeth; and that the diocesan may have no other power of preventing the dissemination of doctrines, which he suspects to be erroneous, than that secure and Christian remedy placed in his hands by the Thirty-Fifth Article, which empowers him to confine any clergyman to the reading of the homilies in his public ministrations.

Your Petitioner further respectfully represents to your Honourable House, that the unbeneficed clergy can never be secured against the injustice and vexations to which they are exposed by the various powers of licensing, &c. necessarily placed in the hands of the diocesan and he therefore earnestly prays that your Honourable House will speedily take into consideration the whole state of the Church; and, having due regard to the equitable and just rights of patrons, and to the vested interests of present incumbents, will adopt those measures which to your Honourable House may appear most judicious, for abolishing the prevailing system of unnecessary non-residence and pluralities; which your Petitioner respectfully submits is as injurious in practice as it is contrary to the principles of justice and the declarations of scripture.

And your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c.
JAMES IVORY HOLMES.
Heavitree, near Exeter,
Nov. 6, 1826,

REVIEW OF BOOKS.

A Charge delivered at the Primary Visitation of the Diocese of Gloucester, by Christopher, Bishop of Gloucester. Mawman. 1825.

A Charge delivered to the Clergy
of the Diocese of Chester, at the
Primary Visitation in 1825, by
Charles James Blomfield, D. D.
Bishop of Chester. Walker.

A Charge delivered to the Clergy of
the Archdeaconry of Ely, at a
Visitation held in Cambridge.
With an Appendix.
By the Rev.

J. H. Browne, A. M. Hatchards.
1826.

A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Saviour, Southwark, at the Visitation of the Hon. and Rev. T. De Grey, M. A. Archdeacon of Surrey. By the Rev. W. Burrows, M. A. Seeleys.

1826.

A Sermon preached at the consecration of the Right Reverend John Brinkley, D.D. Lord Bishop of Cloyne; in the Castle Chapel, Dublin, on Sunday, October 8, By Richard MacDonnell, D. D. Fellow of Trinity College, Milliken. 1826.

A Sermon preached in the Cathedral

Church of St. John, in Calcutta, on occasion of the Death of the Right Reverend Reginald, Lord Bishop of Calcutta. By the Rev. Daniel Corrie, LL.B. Archdeacon of Calcutta. Seeleys. Pp. 35. A Funeral Sermon preached in St. John's Church, Trichinopily, April 9, 1826, on the Decease of the Right Reverend Reginald, Lord Bishop of Calcutta. By the Rev. Thomas Robinson, M. A. Domestic Chaplain to his Lordship. Rivingtons. Pp. 52.

In resuming our labours in the review department, at the commencement of another year, we are induced to advert to the pubJAN, 1827.

lications at the head of this article, both on account of their intrinsic value and importance, and as affording somewhat of a criterion of the feeling in various quarters. They present state of moral and religious consist, as our readers will observe,

of Episcopal and Archidiaconal Charges, and of Consecration, Visitation, and Funeral Sermons ; some of very recent date, and others which have lain longer on our table than we could have wished.

The Charges of the Bishops of Gloucester and Chester possess several features in common; they were both delivered at their first visitations their first official intercourse with their clergy; they are both Charges of new-made bishops, one of whom, at least,

has been advanced to the bench sooner possibly than he expected, though every one must highly approve of his elevation. They are

therefore to be considered as the Charges of persons who, finding themselves in a new situation, are honestly desirous of discharging their respective duties, but who are as yet very imperfectly acquainted with the serious obstacles and the perplexing circumstances with which that discharge must be accompanied. Our readers will comprehend our views in these respects more clearly as we proceed.

Each of these Charges powerfully enforces upon the clergy most important points as to their cha

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racter, their conduct, and their ministrations while expressing a charitable hope concerning their clergy in general, these worthy diocesans press home upon individuals the solemn vows and obligations contracted at their ordination. Thus the Bishop of Gloucester speaks :

The peculiar business, the weight and the responsibility of the office which you

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bear in the Church of Christ, are subjects with which you must be thoroughly familiar, from the nature of the engagements which you have contracted, and the duties which you are constantly performing and your attention has been often drawn to them, both generally and in detail, from the chair of your bishops. When you received your ordination as priests, you were solemnly reminded

into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge, you were then called ;-that is to say, to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord." You know the pregnant meaning of these names-the authority which they denote, the duties which they involve, the feelings and frame of mind which they suppose, and the afteraccount which they imply. I will not, therefore, enlarge upon those motives to faithfulness in the discharge of your duties, which are suggested by titles, significant of toil and vigilance and honorable distinction; because I feel that any remarks of mine would only weaken the force of what you have learned from other quarters--the Ordination Services particularly, and the Scriptures themselves.

When we are told by our blessed Saviour, that we are the light of the world, and that a city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid, these figurative expressions not only teach us the duty of making our light shine before men, of being examples of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity; but remind us of the publicity of our character, and of what we owe to ourselves, our church, and the altar at which we minister, as men placed in a commanding situation, and exposed to the eyes and observation of the world.-Pp. 10, 11.

We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake, is a text eminently descriptive of ministerial zeal, humility, and faithfulness, which you should bind as a frontlet between your eyes, and write upon the table of your hearts. You must show, as the apostle charges Timothy, in doctrine uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be denied. But this office and ministry imply, moreover, a life devoted to the service of your fellow creatures. You are to promote their moral improvement and spiritual welfare, by every expedient which wisdom and piety suggest and sanction," drawing all your cares and studies this way: being ready with all

faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word: using both public and private monitions and exhortations, as well to the sick as to the whole, within your cures : maintaining and setting forward quietness, peace, and love, among all Christian people, and making yourselves wholesome examples and patterns to the flock of Christ." A minister of the Church, who is the servant of his brethren for Jesus' sake, can never want seasonable and useful employment: his time will never hang heavily upon his hands: he need not resort to frivolous amusements, or toilsome and unprofitable pursuits, to escape from himself, or to fill up the leisure hours of a life which soon passeth away. Besides the exercise of duties strictly professional, (which in large and populous parishes will absorb almost his whole time and attention) studies suited to the servant and minister of the Church-composition, reflection, and the duties of closet religion-will furnish him with sufficient occupation; and he will find in a change of pursuits, added to the just demands of social and domestic intercourse, a plentiful source of mental relaxation and amusement.Pp. 12, 13.

In strict conformity the Bishop of Chester observes :

Of one thing, my brethren, I should think we must all be persuaded: that these are not times, in which either you or I can afford to lose an opportunity of serving the cause of religion and the Church. What has at all times been the duty of the clergy, is now indispensable to their very existence, as ministers of an establishment. Many and powerful are the arguments, by which we may prove our right to the attention and respect of individual Christians, and our claims upon the support and protection of the state. But they will fail to produce conviction in the minds of the greater part of mankind, if unaccompanied by the more conclusive proof of usefulness. In spite of all the reasons which are to be urged in behalf of our excellent church-the purity of her doctrines; the wisdom of her discipline; her legitimate authority; the unbroken succession and right ordination of her ministry ; the excellence of her constitutions and formularies :-yet if there be a failure in activity and zeal on the part of the clergy, the establishment must sink beneath them. But it will never cease to

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