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HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SUSSEX (fourth time).
Right Hon. the EARL GOWER.

Right Rev. CHRISTOPHER BETHELL, D.D. Lord Bishop of Gloucester.

Right Hon. Sir WILLIAM ALEXANDER, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
Right Hon. WILLIAM VENABLES, Lord Mayor.

Very Rev. THOMAS JACKSON CALVERT, D.D. Warden of Manchester.

Rev. J. B. SUMNER, M.A. Prebendary of Durham.

Reverend ROBERT NORGRAVE PEMBERTON, M.A. Rector of Church Stretton, Salop.

JOHN BELL, Esq. F.R.S. King's Counsel.

WILLIAM JOHN BANKES, Esq. M.P. F.R.S.

EDWARD BERKELEY PORTMAN, Esq. M.P.

EDWARD BOOTLE WILBRAHAM, Esq. M.P.

CHARLES MANSFIELD CLARKE, Esq. F.R.S.

JAMES FISHER, Esq.

WILLIAM FULLER, Esq.

HENRY SEYMOUR, Esq.

STEWARDS

For the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy,

THIS

DISCOURSE,

PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THEIR

FAITHFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE PREACHER.

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

THERE are many, and many excellent, institutions of piety, of instruction, of usefulness, or of benevolence, whose annual solemnities give a grace and glory to the city in which we dwell. But there are few charities whose origin is more ancient, whose friends have been more illustrious and steady, and whose just claims upon the wise and good in every rank of society would appear to be capable of more satisfactory proof, than those Ecclesiastical charities for which I have this day been appointed to plead. We are assembled within the majestic mightiness of these sacred walls to consider the propriety of mitigating the wants of the holy widow in her woe, and

giving the bread of this life and the next to the fatherless children of the departed ministers of the established Church of this kingdom. This is the simple object of those institutions of whose merits I stand before you as the advocate: and I am not ashamed of my labour of love. For whether we look to the exalted duties, or the essential qualifications, or the frequent and unavoidable poverty and distresses of the Clergy, I think there is no class of our fellow-citizens and fellow-Christians to whose bereaved families the principle of Solomon in the text could be more safely and forcibly applied. There are none to whom good may be said to be more justly due, and none, therefore, from whom good can be less justly withheld.

First of all then let us direct our attention to a review of those obligations which are entailed upon every Clergyman by the very nature of his holy office; and let us gather our catalogue of his duties from that exhortation in our Liturgy, which is with such propriety prefixed to the irrevocable utterance of our ordination vows. The candidates for the ministry of the established Church are there most solemnly required to consider well that the end of their ministry is "to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord," and that, in the fulfilment of this high and holy dignity, they are "to teach and premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family." They They are exhorted, according to their bounden duty, to seek for

Christ's sheep that are scattered abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of an ungodly world, that they Nor is this to be

They are "never

may be saved through Christ for ever." a mere transitory or occasional service. to cease their labour, diligence and care, until they have done all that lieth in them, to bring all that are committed to their charge into that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and that ripeness and perfectness of obedience to Christ, that there be no place left among them either for error of doctrine, or for viciousness of life." But 'seeing that we cannot by any other means compass the doing of so mighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures," the Gospel Minister is further required to be most" diligent in reading and hearing the Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the Furthermore, because the best efforts of an entire life are not more than sufficient for the proper fulfilment of these exalted duties, we are finally told, that "for this self-same cause we ought to forsake and set aside (as much as we may) all worldly cares and studies, and apply ourselves wholly to this one thing, and draw all our cares and studies towards the ways and works of our most heavenly calling."

same.

We have now enumerated a few of the obligations which rest upon the Clergy, and it is clear that, if those obliga