EXTRACTS FROM THE BISHOP

cessary to salvation,' meaning, no

CONFIRMATION.

(Continued from p. 589.)

"4. But under the head of your religious obligations, I must not, especially on. such an occasion, overlook the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to which you are henceforth to be admitted. I need not, indeed, explain to those, who have been competently instructed in the Church Catechism, the nature of that solemn ordinance; the ends for which it was instituted, or the blessings which it dispenses. You know it to be for a perpetual remembrance of the death of Christ, whereby we obtain redemption, and that in the worthy participation of it the spiritual principle within us receives fresh supplies of strength, It combines, in fact, all that is sub. lime, and tender, and humble, and holy in the character of religious adoration; self-examination, the confession of sin, pious resclves, thank. fulness for our Saviour's love to us, the complete surrender of ourselves, of our souls and bodies,' to his service, and an acknowledgement of our faith in his blood, all of them co-existing in our minds and hearts with brotherly love and charity.

"It is, however, a subject of deep regret, that so many are found to excuse themselves from the Table of their Redeemer. Some are unfit to appear there, as perhaps they themselves allege; and while they lay great stress upon the sin of receiving the Sacrament unworthily, forget that they are guilty of the greater sin of not renouncing the course of life, in which alone their unworthiness consists; while others seem to consider this Sacrament, as something which is left to their option, whether they will receive it or reject it: and yet our Church has pronounced, that both the Sacraments are generally ue

Both, indeed, are intimately connected with the great object of the Gospel Dispensation, the remission of sins it was for this end, that St. Peter called upon the peo. ple to be baptized; (Acts ii. 38.) and our Saviour, when at the Intitution of the other Sacrament, He gave the Cup to his Disciples, declared it to be His blood of the New Testament, shed for many, for the remission of sins:" (Matt. xxvi. 28.) and it is hardly possible to understand otherwise than in relation to the same Sacrament, though not then instituted, that most awful saying of our Saviour, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.' (John vi. 53.) It must not, indeed, be taken to mean the mere act of eating and drinking the sacred elements, but the spiritual use and application of it; in which, however, the act is sup posed. But independently of these considerations, it may be enough for you to know, that this Sacrament was ordained by Christ Himself, as a standing memorial of the One Great Sacrifice for sin; it can. not, therefore, be innocent, or even a matter of little moment, that any man shall deliberately refuse to bear testimony to the merits and the effi. cacy of that Sacrifice, in the manner prescribed; it is, in truth, however it may be meant, little less than a denial of the Lord, that bought him. (2 Pet. ii. 1.)

"5. But among the topics of advice respecting your conduct in life, I must not be altogether silent on the subject of your Worldly Occupations. Religion, strictly so called, cannot engage all your thoughts; and the world has claims upon you in your several stations and callings: and yet even in your secular duties Religion will enter, if they be discharged in a Christian spirit, and in due subordination to the law

of God; with diligence and fidelity and integrity, and without suffering them to encroach upon religious principle, or to interfere with those obligations, which have a distinct and immediate reference to the Almighty. This, however, is the great error, into which persons of industry and enterprise are liable to fall: they attach too much importance to their secular pursuits; because these are useful to the world, and probably much more, because they are profitable and lucrative, they would make attention to business a plea for the neglect of every thing else; they seem to ascribe to it a merit, which supersedes religious obligations, as if Religion were not enjoined on all men alike; as if it were required, only from persons, who have abundant leisure, and who cannot otherwise occupy their time. Absurd as are all such pretences, they operate to a great extent: what is more common than the neglect of private and of Family prayer, and even the desecration of the day of holy rest, upon the plea of the urgent demands on time? There cannot, however, be a plainer confession, that of such men the world is really the idol, to which they pay the homage due to God alone; nor do they consider, that wealth, or reputation, or even secular usefulness will avail them nothing to the pardon of sin, or that they cannot thus acquire the habits, and sentiments, and desires, which alone will prepare them for Eternity.

It must not, however, be dissembled, that with a portion of our Christian population the disposition to excess in laborious employments is by no means prevalent: against bodily and manual labour, there is even a prejudice: it is thought disreputable, and to be resorted to only in the case of actual necessity. Here, then, is an error of an opposite character; and though it operates very differently from the former, its effects are not less injuri

ous. Idleness is incompatible with Religion, as being the parent of vice and folly and those pursuits are not favourable to it, which require but little active exertion: they produce a general listlessness and indifference, which relax the mind, and render it as unfit for the practice of Religion, as for every thing else, which demands resolution and firmness. It is true, that all cannot choose their occupations, and that all the offices of human life must be filled but I would abate, if possible, the prejudice against manual employment: it is allied more nearly than some suspect, both to virtue and happiness: health and cheerfuluess follow in its train; its habits are generally frugal and simple; the vigour of the body gives a tone to the mind; and its intervals of rest are periods of real enjoyment, Such a state is not ill adapted to the service of God: it is connected with humility and thankfulness for the measure of good vouchsafed, and with that teachable disposition, which is the proper soil to receive the seed of the Gospel.

6. But let me not forget, that many of you are removed, by the gifts of Providence, from the uecessity of actual toil; and even they, who will be most engaged, will have short intervals of time at their own disposal: in offering you advice, therefore, for the conduct of life, something should be said upon the proper use of Leisure. With respect, then, to those of you who may have much, I would earnestly recommend to you to consider it as a trust, for which you must account. It is a plea in frequent use, and sometimes it is truly urged, that men have not spare time to do much good to others, or to advance their own improvement, so far as they really wish; but where this plea cannot justly be used, there is a proportionate responsibility; and certainly they who are exempted from the neces

sity of close occupation, should consider that their privilege is rather in the choice of their employment, while others have their particular course of duty marked out for them, and absolutely enjoined. Our time, in fact, is our life; and it is not to be spent unprofitably, unless it can be supposed to be venial to live in vain. Consider, then, you, whom Providence has favoured, (I speak to persons of either sex) what opportunities are open to you for the exercise of benevolence; nor is this to be considered, as confining itself to almsgiving, but as exerted in a general solicitude about the miseries of mankind, in patient thought how they may most effectually be mitigated, and in ascertaining and establishing the merits of those, who have fallen into distress. Half the suffering in the world would be relieved, if the deserving could be distinguished from the worthless, and wretchedness could assert its claims, free from the suspicion of impos

ture.

"There is one use, however, of Leisure, whether it be much or little, on which I should earnestly insist: I allude to your advancement in Christian Knowledge: there cannot be a greater error, common as it is, than to suppose that religious studies may be allowed to terminate with the discipline of the school, or are dispensed with after Confirmation, or, at the utmost, need be prosecuted no further, than by listening to instruction from the Pulpit. With respect to the religious knowledge conveyed to us before the usual period of Confirmation, it is necessarily very limited; and with regard to the instruction delivered from the Pulpit, the improvement to be derived from it is much retarded by that scantiness of religious information, which unhappily prevails in most Christian assemblies. Where a multitude are to be addressed, consisting of persons of very different at

tainments, and all of them to be in some measure benefited and improved, a competent acquaintance with Scriptural subjects is requisite, even in the least informed.

"My counsel, then, to all of you is, that you cultivate religious knowledge, according to your opportunties, especially in the study of the Holy Scriptures, assisted by the valuable and various helps, which the Divines of our Church have provided there is not, in fact, any doctrine or any duty taught by our Religion, which they have not powerfully enforced, or any difficulty, except it be such as eludes our finite understandings, which they have not satisfactorily explained. I feel it, therefore, to be a be a cause of thankfulness, that the Tracts and large Treatises of the SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, have of late years been abundantly supplied to every part of the Diocese. The means of improvement are thus within the reach of all, who really desire it, and whose wants shall be made known, as they easily may be, to any one of the members of the respective Committees. It is moreover the praise of that Ancient So. ciety, as tending to enlarge the wide sphere of its usefulness, that it now adopts and disseminates Books of general information, adapted however, with the Divine blessing, to promote the glory of God. The age, indeed, in which we live, is remarkable for a prevailing disposition among almost all classes of people, to devote some part of their time to reading: it were, however, an error to suppose, that there is a proportionate advancement in Scriptural, or even in other knowledge; much of the time spent in this way is utterly lost, as to any valuable purpose: it serves only to amuse, while probably it perverts, the minds of those, who can find no rational employment. Still it is not my meaning that Scriptural reading, or what is closely con

circumstance, coupled with the unsettled state of the kingdom, the tumultuary spirit of the naturalized Danes, and the constant wars with Northumbria and its allies, may prepare us for the rapid decline of the English nation, and explain the canses of that blank in the Ecclesiastical History which brings all that can be known of the Church of England in the tenth century within the compass of a few pages.

The first event to be noticed, is the consecration of seven Bishops in one day by Pleigmund, Archbi shop of Canterbury. The date of the transaction is not accurately -fixed, but it must have happened in or about the year 906, within five or six years of the death of king Alfred. The Romish writers assert, that this large addition to the English Episcopate was procured by the remonstrances of Pope Formosus, who laid the kingdom under an interdict, on account of the decay into which religion had fallen. This statement is borne out by documents and registers, but they are not quite free from suspicion. They pay no regard to the contemporary reigns of popes and kings, and they make pope Formosus indite a long epistle several years after his death. All therefore that can be relied upon as true, is, that the sees were left vacant for an undue length of time; and that the bishopricks ultimately filled up, in the manner above men tioned, were Winchester, Sherburn, Dorchester, Selsey, Wilts, Crediton, and St. Petroch's. The three last were new sees; and St. Petroch's, which was first placed at Bodmin in Cornwall, was transferred soon after to St. German's, and united subsequently to Crediton.

The chief, if not the only events of any importance, and certainly which happened in the reigns of Athelstan, Edmund, Edred, Edwy, and Edgar, are those which relate to the re-introduction of the Benedictine Monasteries, by Dunstan and his distinguished co-adjutors. In

default of all other materials, these events are justly allowed to charac. terize the age in which they oc curred; and the gross partiality and injustice with which they have been described by our more popular historians, render it desirable to take a short view of the whole.

Dunstan has been generally represented, and is generally consi dered as an arch-hypocrite and dissembler; pretending to false miracles; intent upon nothing but his own aggrandisement; persecuting and torturing the most innocent of human creatures, for no greater crime than their opposition to monks and monkery; and practising an unnatural and affected austerity for the sake of popularity and power. And these misrepresentations, which originated in an honest prejudice against the corruptions of popery, have been adopted, heightened, and adorned by the enemies of Christianity, who rejoice at the opportunity of decrying and ridiculing all religion, as the product of ignorance and fraud.

The simple fact is, that Dunstan, Odo, Oswald, Turketul, and others, who took the lead in the restoration of monkery, were sincere in the promotion of religion, although the darkness by which they were surrounded prevented them from seeing their way. Like most reformers, they were not satisfied with correcting real abuses, but undertook to produce an imaginary and unattain able perfection. They found the Church in a state of dilapidation, if not of ruin; but they could not devise any better expedient for its restoration, than the increase of monasteries, and the celibacy of the clergy.

That the state of the Church was thus deplorable, before the appearance of St. Dunstan, may be inferred without any risk of error, from the total silence of his adversaries. If it be said, that the writers of his life were partial, and have exaggerated his merits, it may be