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renewed for a short period in the year 1700, consisting of the two Archbishops and three other Prelates, who acted as a council of patronage to the King, and "recommended to all bishoprics, deaneries, and other vacant preferments,"* might be imitated at the present day? And would not the upright and pious ministration of crown patronage, by whatever lawful means promoted, raise the standard of faithfulness in the exercise of patronage generally through the country? Would not the simple fact also of a revived CoNVOCATION prove at the same time a stimulus both to the piety and learning of its present members, and the occasion of an increased demand in future for members of that stamp; and so constrain patrons, especially of the higher appointments, to act uprightly?

"But,-extrinsic regulations! What can they avail ?"-Not much, it may be conceded, in any direct mode of operation; but indirectly at least, extrinsic regulations may be shown to be capable of materially restraining, or counteracting perversions of church patronage. Our Church, for instance, seems to have wisely designed, that candidates for Holy Orders should pass through several sifting processes ;-a point which well de

* Burnet's own Life and Times, vol. ii. p. 716, folio 1734.

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serves to be noticed by those, who cry out against her as allowing nothing popular in appointments to the ministry. There are college education, college testimonials, the si quis,-(a paper read on successive Sundays in the congregation of the parish, where the candidate has been resident, calling upon them to testify against him, if his character be disresputable,)-and the examinations by the Bishop and the Bishop's chaplain. The obvious design of all this is, that notoriously refuse characters being separated off, patrons, when unfaithful to their sacred trust, may have little to select from, but solid grain. Now might not each of these sieves be easily rendered less transmissive of chaff? The present Bishops are understood to be in general strict in their examinations; but might not a still higher standard of religious knowledge and character

* This is the misapprehension of many Dissenters. The reason why each of our congregations does not immediately choose its own particular minister, is apparent from the Dissenters' own showing. For they admit and rebuke heinous evils, actually found to arise from the people's choosing their own pastors. While their congregations themselves are called independent, and as to the choice of their ministers, in some sense are so, their ministers are confessed in effect by themselves to be often, in the most grievous manner DEPENDENT upon an aristocracy, and sometimes upon a democracy of their people.--See some cogent matter-of-fact Letters on the Voluntary System, in four parts, by a Churchman, passim. [Rivington.]

be promoted and looked for in candidates? And has not Professor Pusey pointed out with great force, how feasibly preparatory theological studies for the benefit of candidates for holy orders, and how materially theological learning in general, might be improved by rearing afresh and restoring to primitive purposes, instead of altogether sinecuring, (so to speak,) and then of course equalizing, or, in plain language, transferring away, to other religious uses, all our cathedral institutions? Might not our divinity thus become once more massy and ponderous, to the heart's content, of its eloquent and candid eulogist in the Church of Scotland, Dr. Chalmers, and be at the same time every where at work; till, with the help of GOD, it should crush by its weight and expansion the infidelity and false doctrines of our time?

Now the legislature, I take it for granted, cannot without invading spiritual rights, deal with more than one half of these momentous questions. Its office is restricted to the guardianship of the Royal Prerogative, and of that peculiar trust-property which is vested in all lay patrons. The other half of the subject, which is purely ecclesiastical, seems indispensably to require an expression of the sense of the Church as such, which can be adequately obtained and declared by the

CONVOCATION alone. No other assembly of the clergy, no self-constituted ecclesiastical body, no ecclesiastical commission, however highly empowered, can in the nature of things authoritatively propound, much less can any mere individuals, however distinguished, properly represent,the sentiments of the whole Church. The CONVOCATIONS Could do so, both authoritatively and advantageously. The petitions or addresses of Convocation to the Sovereign and the Houses of Parliament, respecting patronage, would surely have peculiar weight, especially when containing self-denying requests from the Clergy, that they may not receive appointments on merely temporal or family considerations. The acts also of Convocation, calculated to elevate the pre-requisite qualifications for admission to Holy Orders, would be always influential, and if duly confirmed, would have the force of law on all ministers of the Church, and all candidates for her sacred offices.

CHAPTER IV.

The Church's own Consultations a principal means of remedying her defects in Discipline.

As to defects, we may first mention that, which we ourselves, in one of our religious solemnities, with sorrow acknowledge. The Church, and virtually the nation, have lamented in the Commination Service from year to year, our want of adequate discipline; but have done nothing effectual to remedy the evil.

In the Reformation of ecclesiastial laws, a remedy was prepared by Cranmer, and his associates, towards the close of the reign of Edward VI., which, had the King lived to be of age, would have been doubtless adopted by act of parliament, and in the hope of which Diocesan and Provincial Synods had first been suspended in the time of Henry VIII. It is there provided, that each rural Dean should "watch

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