to regret so glorious a loss? would not the infirmities which might result from our labors and our fidelity to our duties, be far more consoling to us, and far more reputable, than a long life of inutility and sloth? And were the worst to happen, ought we to reckon our days on earth as untimely abridged, when we have exchanged them for days of happiness and immortality?

TWENTIETH DISCOURSE.

A REPLY TO THE COMPLAINTS OF THE PROCTOR* AGAINST CERTAIN CLERI

CAL ABUSES.

In the large diocess, which Providence has committed to our vigilance and care, it is almost impossible that certain abuses should not appear from time to time, among the ministers of religion, however zealous and edifying the great body of the clergy. The early christian churches, in every respect so fervent and so pure, and in which the number of the faithful might be estimated by that of the martyrs, were not exempt from abuses and scandals. In the

*See the note to the first of these Synodal Discourses, p. 140.

midst of the Apostolic men who governed the people that had been newly subjected to Jesus Christ, satan raised up false Apostles who perverted that glorious name into a cloak for their disorders, and who changed the grace of piety, of faith and of the priesthood, into luxury and sordid gain. But if those early pastors, though endowed with the power of miracles and filled with the precious gifts of the Holy Ghost, which were visibly poured upon them, could not, with all their vigilance and zeal, prevent those ravening wolves from stealing in among the flock, how can we, their unworthy successors expect, with our sloth, the weakness of our piety and faith, and the mediocrity of our talents and wisdom, to exclude them from the fold? Such is the destiny of the church upon earth, that scandals and cockle will always spring up in that divine field: but if her Angels, that is to say her chief pastors, are not commanded to extirpate them before the harvest, at least they are commanded to prevent them from choking up the good seed.

For this purpose it is, that the exercise of our authority is demanded in the present instance. The first complaint which has been addressed to us, regards the indifference of many

of the clergy of particular districts, to those ecclesiastical conferences which have been so wisely established, and hitherto so universally upheld in this diocess. Am I to have the grief, my brethren, of beholding a usage so honourable to my clergy neglected and extinguished under my episcopacy, a usage too which I received as a precious deposite from the hands of my predecessors? Ought you not to be ashamed yourselves, to suffer a regulation, which did so much honor to those who are gone before you, to sink into disuse during your ministry? and ought you not to share in the confusion and sorrow which I feel at its decay?

Is it advisable, my brethren, to maintain this sacred institution, by enacting severe penalties against those who neglect it? but would not penalties seem misplaced when their object was to prevent the extinction of a usage which would redound so much to your credit, and of which you yourselves should desire the continuance? and in effect, what penalty could I pronounce in this place, more humiliating and disgraceful to you, than to put an end to those assemblies and forbid the venerable presbytery of this diocess to meet in conference, as being unworthy and incapable of conferring together

on the duties and the functions of their sacred ministry? And, my brethren, what is there in the church, more dignified and venerable than the assembly of her pastors? Those of the first rank meet to defend her against the enemies from without, who attack the immutability of her faith, and endeavour to dissever that unity of doctrine which has been received from the Apostles and perpetuated in every church; and those of the second order, to preserve within each diocess, under the guidance of the Bishop, that innocence of morals, that union of hearts, that charity, benevolence and piety that will render christians worthy of their holy pro fession, and make the sanctity of their lives correspond with the purity of their faith. And I repeat it, therefore, my brethren, would it not be a heavy penalty, a species of ignominy for you, were we to forbid those public meetings of the clergy in this diocess; were we to judge you unworthy of conferring together on the rules and duties of your sacred calling, and thus to degrade you from an honourable right which constitutes the glory and the consolation of the priestly office?

Behold then, my brethren, the only penalty which we pronounce here in full synod, against