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 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 A CHARGE 
 
 DELIVEKED TO 
 
 THE CLERGY OF THE UNITED DIOCESES OF CORK, 
 CLOYNE, AND ROSS, 
 
 ^T THE PRIMARY VISITATION, 
 
 In October, 1857. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM FITZGERALD, D.D., 
 
 liJSirOP OF CORK, CLOYNE, AND ROSS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. 
 
 1857.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SAVII.I- AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STRKF.T, 
 
 COVKNT GARDEN.
 
 A CHARGE, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 My Reverend Brethren, 
 
 I MUST begin by expressing my regret 
 that circumstances have delayed our meeting to a 
 later part of the year than I would have chosen, if 
 free to make a choice. I am confident, however, 
 that you will readily pardon a delay which has been 
 the result of unavoidable accidents, and accept the 
 assurance that, in all the affairs of the diocese, my 
 sincere wi-sh is to prefer your convenience to my 
 own. 
 
 And, now that we have met at last, it is in a time 
 of gloom and anxiety, when it has pleased God to 
 permit the interests not only of Great Britain as a 
 State — but of the Christian Church, of civilization, 
 and of humanity, to be imperilled by that trea- 
 cherous and terrible blow struck in Eastern India, 
 which has filled all hearts with anguish and alarm. 
 
 Amidst the scene of horrors which has been so 
 suddenly opened to our view, we cannot but derive 
 some comfort from the reflection that the Church, 
 as such, seems wholly clear from the blame of 
 having provoked them by any indiscretion of its 
 ministers — and that by the general confession of 
 those who have given any attention to the subject. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 At the commencement, indeed, when the dreadful 
 news first broke upon us, there were some, who 
 ought to have known better, who were inclined to 
 throw a great share of the blame upon the opera- 
 tions of our missionaries; and these imputations, 
 thrown out in high places, were naturally taken up 
 and repeated by a crowd of more ignorant persons, 
 belonging to a class — unhappily too numerous 
 amongst us — who seem habitually to act and speak 
 upon the principle that the only cause in which 
 earnestness and zeal should be discouraged is the 
 cause of Christ and His Gospel, and that the grand 
 danger which threatens society is the danger of 
 coming really to believe the religion which we 
 all profess. But though the echoes of these hasty 
 censures are still, every now and then, repeating 
 themselves from those who have no voice of 
 their own, and only give back more or less im- 
 perfectly what they have chanced to be supplied 
 with by others, it is gratifying to observe that, 
 even in quarters almost undisguisedly unchristian, 
 the Church is generally acknowledged to be free 
 from any deserved censure in this matter. In 
 efi'ect, as you know, the present outbreak has not 
 taken place amongst that part of the population of 
 British India to which the missionaries had access, 
 but amongst those who were most jealously guarded 
 from their influence ; and so far as the immediate 
 cause, or pretext of the mutiny, was religious at all, 
 it was one in no way directly connected with any- 
 
 U.UC
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 5 
 
 thing that the Church had done, or could do, but 
 with a supposed interference, on the part of the 
 State, with the superstitious laws of Caste that 
 form a part of the Brahminical religion. In reality, 
 however, I am convinced that the present work of 
 massacre and outrage in Hindostan is no wild at- 
 tempt, however misguided, at resistance to perse- 
 cution, but is itself a persecution — as true, and 
 surely as barbarous a persecution as any the Chris- 
 tian Church has ever undergone — and that the 
 object aimed at is the extermination of the Chris- 
 tian Church and all European civilization from the 
 whole peninsula. The Brahmins — from whom the 
 soldiery of Bengal are for the most part drawn, and 
 who have thus had nearly the whole armed force of 
 the Presidency in their hands — the Brahmins and 
 the Mahometans have come to feel that the religious 
 fables and prejudices upon which their institutions, 
 and consequently their power are built, cannot abide 
 the presence of that light which Christianity and 
 civilization bring with them, and necessarily must 
 bring with them, wherever they penetrate. That 
 feeling was perfectly just and reasonable. The 
 Brahminical and Mahometan institutions are 
 founded upon fables and prejudices that can only 
 subsist in an imperfect state of knowledge and 
 civilization, and can no more bear the presence of 
 true science and religion than 
 
 Night and all her sickly dews, 
 
 Her forms obscene, and birds of boding cry —
 
 6 DUTIES OF THE PAKOCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 can abide the presence of the da^vn. And it was 
 not unnatural, therefore, that men whose power 
 and privileges were staked upon the maintenance 
 of such fables and such prejudices should, when 
 they thought they had the power, endeavour, as all 
 the forms of Paganism have always endeavoured, 
 to crush by violence the light that detected their 
 impostures. So far, therefore, and only so far, as 
 the labours of our missionaries had contributed to 
 imperil the fabric of Hindoo and Mahometan super- 
 stition, by spreading the knowledge that was in- 
 consistent with them, so far I must allow that they 
 have done something to draw down upon our 
 felloAv-countrymen in the East the savage persecu- 
 tion now raging against them. But this is a 
 provocation which Truth must always give to 
 Error, wherever and however the two forces come 
 into contact with each other: and one which we 
 cannot withdraw, without withdrawing ourselves 
 from India altoo-ether, and leavino; it in all the 
 ignorance and folly in which we found it. 
 
 The time is gone by when men could dream of 
 securing our empire in India by a jealous exclu- 
 sion of European influences, by the open patronage 
 and support of everything most loathsome and 
 abominable in the idolatry of that country, and 
 by practically renouncing our Christianity and 
 even our civilization while dwelling among bar- 
 barians and unbelievers. Such a state of things 
 was never otherwise than disgraceful and un- 
 righteous. But now it is no longer even possible.
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 7 
 
 We can never regain our mastery in India without 
 making ourselves respected there; and respected 
 we can never be while we appear ashamed of 
 everything most truly noble in ourselves, and 
 affect a compliance with practices and institutions 
 which every rational mind must regard as absurd, 
 and every moral mind as degrading, cruel, and 
 impure. 
 
 I do not mean that we should become per- 
 secutors in our turn; but I do mean, that if 
 God should permit us to crush the present insur- 
 rection, prudence as well as duty will require that 
 we should secure a full toleration for ourselves, 
 our religion, and our institutions, and put away 
 entirely the miserable and wicked dream that we 
 can be justified in seeking to hold — on the pre- 
 carious tenure of weak compliancy — some com- 
 mercial and military advantages in Hindostan, by 
 systematically withholding from the subjects com- 
 mitted to our care by Providence all the best gifts 
 which that same Providence has enabled us to 
 bestow. I do hope that it will be found in the 
 issue that He who brings good out of evil in the 
 counsels of His unerring wisdom will so order 
 matters, that even these horrid calamities, that 
 have caused the ears of all that heard the report 
 of them to tingle, will be found to have accom- 
 plished a beneficial end — that, cemented even by 
 the innocent blood that has been so ruthlessly 
 shed, a nobler and more enduring edifice of British 
 empire will yet arise in India, and long remain
 
 8 DUTIES OF THE TAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 a monument, not only of our power and wealth, 
 but of our wisdom, our justice, and our goodness. 
 
 The former structure, which has sunk and been 
 engulphed in this fearful earthquake, was, whether 
 we regard its frame or its foundation, connected 
 with many recollections which one would willingly 
 forget. Let us trust that on its ruins will rise 
 another and a better building, which Britons may 
 never be ashamed to contemplate, and which hostile 
 violence may never overthrow. Let us pray, above 
 all things, that this temporary check to the pro- 
 gress of God's truth may be speedily removed, 
 and that His Word may have free course and be 
 glorified in those dark places of the earth which 
 are full of wickedness and cruel habitations. 
 
 Fond, impious man, think 'st thou yon sanguine cloud 
 Rais'd by thy breath has quench'd the orb of day ? 
 
 To-morrow He repairs his golden flood. 
 
 And warms the nations with a brighter ray. 
 
 For myself, I confess that, when I speak thus 
 confidently of the final triumph of Truth over all 
 the forms of error and debasement, my confidence 
 is chiefly founded upon the conviction that the 
 cause of civilization is indissolubly connected with 
 that cause of Christ and his Gospel for the success 
 of which we have the promise of Him who is the 
 faithful and true witness, the Yea and the Amen 
 for evermore. 
 
 If we looked only to experience, however, it may 
 be plain that Truth has a tendency to triumph (as
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 9 
 
 the j)lanets have a tendency to fly off" at a tangent), 
 experience also shows us so many and such un- 
 looked-for checks upon this native tendency of 
 Truth, that, in a melancholy hour, one is often 
 tempted to conjecture that the final triumph of 
 Truth may be indefinitely delayed. At such 
 times it needs somethino; shorter and more certain 
 than the intricate disquisitions of philosophy to set 
 us cheerfully at work in behalf of what may seem 
 a failing cause, and enable us to persevere Avith 
 hopefulness in a labour that appears for the pre- 
 sent in vain. At such times especially it is conso- 
 latory to remember that, as part of Christ's Church, 
 we belong to a Society which, however States and 
 Empires may flourish or may fade, can never be 
 destroyed, and is sure of ultimate success. " No 
 weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, 
 and every tongue that shall rise against thee in 
 judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the herit- 
 age of the servants of the Lord, and their right- 
 eousness is of Me, saith the Lord." 
 
 I have regard not merely to such impediments 
 as are caused by brute violence and persecution to 
 the progress of Truth, when I speak of the necessity 
 of cultivating in ourselves a calm reliance upon the 
 promise of God as our best reliance under doubtful 
 circumstances, but also to other hindrances which, 
 from time to time, would dishearten the servant of 
 Christ, if he guided himself only by the measures 
 of outward success. There are every now and then 
 
 B 3
 
 lO DUTIES OF THE PAEOCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 apparent flows, as it were, in the tide of human 
 society which might raise unreasonable hopes, and 
 ebbs that might inspire unreasonable fears, if our 
 eyes were fixed only upon such appearances. But 
 He that believeth shall neither make haste nor be 
 ashamed. 
 
 In constant faith upon the promise of God, who 
 will never desert His Church, nor fail to assist with 
 His Spirit the means which He has Himself ordained, 
 let us labour on sedulously and perseveringly in the 
 path of duty, whether the surrounding scene be 
 bright or gloomy. Let us keep our eye fixed upon 
 the Oracle of God, and not draw auguries from the 
 strange and changeable appearances that may burst 
 out like portents from the troubled sky of politics. 
 Whether we shall see the fruit of our labour here 
 or not is not our concern, but that of the Great 
 Master of the vineyard. He may give, or He may 
 deny that reward to our faithful services; but 
 there is a reward that we cannot miss but by our 
 own fault ; and in God's o"\vn due season we shall 
 assuredly reap, if we faint not. 
 
 Let me occupy, then, the remainder of our time 
 in some brief remarks on some of the ways in 
 which, without any irregular or extraordinary 
 efforts, the existing means which our Church and 
 Constitution have provided may be most effectually 
 used for the great end of the salvation of souls. 
 
 In the first place, let me impress upon you the pri- 
 mary duty of a constant residence upon your cures.
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. II 
 
 This lies at the foundation of our ecclesiastical sys- 
 tem. Our clergy are not a moveable set of mission- 
 aries, sent to make, from time to time, visits for 
 preaching and praying among the people of a district, 
 but fixed pastors, dwelling among their own peo- 
 ple, and making themselves ensamples to the flock. 
 It is not enough that you should reside in a place 
 where you can easily have access when you please 
 to your people^ but you should be in the spot where 
 your people can, when they wish, have access to you^ 
 can send for you on emergencies, may see and 
 know you, not merely in your pulpit ministrations 
 and official visits, but in the intercourse of daily 
 life as their friend and counsellor. And even in 
 those cases where the mass of the population may 
 appear so alienated from the Protestant faith as to 
 leave little apparent hope of your direct usefulness 
 as their spiritual guide, that circumstance will 
 afford no excuse for absenting yourselves from your 
 parish. It is your duty to be on the spot. You 
 can never know, except you are there and on the 
 watch, when a favourable opportunity of doing 
 something for your Master may arise ; and if any of 
 His sheep are lost through your neglect, you know 
 how terrible, to them and to you, will be the conse- 
 quences. 
 
 Besides, regarded only in a temporal point of 
 view, it is plainly the design of our constitution 
 that the endowments of the Church should furnish 
 to each parish at least one resident gentleman, who.
 
 12 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 according to his means, should keep some decent 
 hospitality, maintain the example of a sober and 
 well-ordered household, afford some support and 
 direction to the poor, and be a centre of intelligence 
 and civilization in his own neighbourhood. The 
 revenues, small or great, of each parish were de- 
 signed to be spent in that parish. The benefits, 
 small or great, which the residence of a pious and 
 intelligent clergyman can confer were designed for 
 that locality and not for others ; and it is a plain 
 defeatino^ of the intention of the Church when this 
 duty, which the law of the Churcb regards as essen- 
 tial^ is wholly evaded or imperfectly complied with. 
 Every man who takes a living or a curacy — and 
 no man is compelled to take either — takes it subject 
 to this obligation, and, if he cannot overcome his 
 repugnance to fulfil that obligation, that should be 
 a reason for not undertaking it at all. " Every 
 clergyman," says Bishop Sherlock^, "who is insti- 
 tuted to a parish cure does voluntarily undertake 
 the office, and binds himself to perform it. The 
 want of a convenient habitation may be a reason to 
 refuse the living ; but the inconvenience which they 
 willingly submitted to when they took the living, 
 can never be pleaded afterwards as a just excuse 
 for neglect of the duty which they willingly under- 
 took at the same time." I do trust that before 
 long the law will provide such efi'ectual means for 
 the building of glebe-houses as to cut off all excuse 
 for the continuance of this scandal in our Church.
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAKOCHIAL CLERGY. 13 
 
 In the next place, I would remind you of the 
 importance of celebrating frequently, and regularly, 
 and solemnly, the public services of religion, and 
 that whether your flock be large or small, rich or 
 poor. A few poor people are just as much entitled 
 to frequent opportunities of all the means of grace, 
 and to the punctual and solemn performance of 
 them, as the most brilliant con o;re oration that was 
 ever gathered in the most stately place of worship 
 upon earth ; and if they perceive any slovenliness or 
 negligence in your manner of ministering to them, 
 they will not fail to be tempted to regard you as 
 an acceptor of persons, that looks not at the value 
 of souls, but at the gold ring and the goodly apparel. 
 
 And in speaking of the frequency and solemnity 
 of the public services, I would notice particularly 
 the administration of the two Sacraments. I reo:ret 
 to hear that in too many cases a practice has pre- 
 vailed in these dioceses of baptizing children at 
 home, in cases where there is no valid reason for it 
 recognised by the law of the Church. Such a 
 practice is not only at variance with the plainest 
 language of those Rules which we have all promised 
 to obey, but attended with other great and serious 
 evils. The rite of Baptism was intended to be a 
 public monument and protest of our Christian 
 faith, not a thing done in a corner. It is not a 
 mere household ceremony, but the engrafting of a 
 new member into the Church of God, the uniting 
 him with the congregation of Christ's family : and
 
 14 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 surely with such a rite, no circumstance should 
 be omitted that can help to make the significance 
 of the Sacrament more apparent. The careless and 
 private ministration of it has a plain tendency to 
 change it into a mere superstitious usage, demanded 
 and witnessed with a vague impression that it 
 should be done, but without any distinct notion of 
 what it means, and for what it was appointed. 
 You will do well, therefore, to impress upon your 
 people that in the Sacrament of Baptism, as in 
 the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we meet to- 
 gether not as a family, but as a Church, and 
 therefore in the place appointed for the assemblies 
 of the Church, not in the midst of worldly associa- 
 tions, and perhaps the confusion of mirth or 
 business. 
 
 In the case of the other sacrament, no one thinks 
 of a similar careless administration of it in private, 
 but I fear that in some cases the smallness of the 
 number of the communicants is made a reason 
 for celebrating it more seldom than if there 
 were a greater multitude. It seems plain to me, 
 however, that if that sacrament be a means of 
 grace at all, four or five communicants have just 
 as good a right to its frequent participation as four 
 or five hundred ; and that to act as if they had not 
 is to run the risk of producing mischievously false 
 impressions, and at least raising the suspicion that 
 you neglect them because they are few and incon- 
 siderable.
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 15 
 
 I own it is natural that a man of shining talents 
 and 2:reat enero-ies should feel disheartened when 
 he finds his lot cast in a remote place and among 
 few and ignorant people ; and it is natural, also, 
 that an indolent man should encourage himself to 
 do nothing, by the reflection that, after all, there is 
 very little to be done. 
 
 These things, I say, are natural^ but the Spirit 
 of Grace was given to us to correct the failings of 
 nature, and enable us to do our full duty in that 
 state of life, whatsoever it is, to which it has pleased 
 God to call us. And if we would more seriously 
 reflect upon the model of pastoral care that was 
 set before us at ou.r Ordination, we should perceive 
 that, even in the pastoral care of a very few per- 
 sons, there is more scope for the exercise of our 
 talents and our energies than is commonly sup- 
 posed. If it be indeed our anxiety " to bring all 
 committed to our charge unto that agreement in 
 faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness 
 and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no 
 place left among them either for error in religion 
 or for viciousness in life," we shall find that this 
 is no easy task with few or with many. 
 
 A clergyman Avho has a very numerous flock often 
 finds it physically impossible to bestow sufficient 
 time and attention upon the more ignorant and 
 stupid of them, to bring them forward to any con- 
 siderable proficiency of cultivation: but he who 
 complains of the fewness of his parishioners cannot
 
 l6 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 allege that excuse. And if, where we have but few, 
 where our interest is narrowed and confined to a 
 very small number of individuals — every one of 
 whom we can know familiarly — we would do our 
 very best with that few — if, for example, we would 
 endeavour to enable them all, adults as well as 
 children, to read their Bibles with ease and intelli- 
 gence, and make the study of the Holy Scriptures 
 really interesting and instructive to them, by not 
 merely practical remarks, but by explaining the 
 sequence of the text, by pointing out the true 
 meaning of obscure expressions and words apt 
 to be misunderstood, and by adding so much of 
 illustration and collateral knowledge of manners 
 and customs, and history and geography, as we 
 can get them to take in — if we would labour thus 
 in private, and also in our sermons take pains to 
 make hard things plain and easy, and engage not 
 only the feelings but the understandings of our 
 hearers — and if we would talk to our people about 
 our sermons, and discover by judicious questions 
 how far they could follow us, and where and why 
 they went astray, and thus guard against mistakes, 
 and acquire the power of addressing them in words 
 within the reach of their comprehension — we should 
 find that even a very small flock would afford 
 large scope for most interesting as well as most 
 profitable labour — profitable, I mean, not only to 
 them, but also to ourselves. It is quite true that 
 much of the preparatory education which is neces-
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAKOCHIAL CLERGY. 17 
 
 sary for making our hearers capable of being 
 benefited by our discourses ought to have been 
 bestowed upon them in their youth by the labour 
 of the schoolmaster. But if you find yourself in 
 circumstances in which you have the leisure and 
 means of giving it to them now, and if it be neces- 
 sary for enabling them to take in the instruction 
 which you are primarily commissioned to deliver — 
 if your discourses are as unavailing as if spoken in 
 an unknown tongue without this, and if with it they 
 will be intelligible and instructive — if you can give 
 this necessary help, and if no one else will^ need I 
 say more to shew that you are bound not to despise 
 the work because at first sight it may look beneath 
 your dignity or really be repulsive to your tastes 
 and habits. Certainly, if our boast be that we 
 put the Bible, the whole Bible, into the hands of 
 our people, we are guilty of a gross inconsistency, 
 if at the same time we practically lead them to 
 think that they need attend to, or strive to under- 
 stand, no more than a few plain and obvious texts 
 about some of the leading doctrines of religion. 
 
 Too often what is called the education of the 
 j)oorer classes is merely this — they are taught very 
 imperfectly to read, with hardly any intelligible 
 explanation of the meaning of the words. Then, 
 as they leave school, they are given a little Bible, 
 printed so closely, and in so small a letter, that even 
 a good reader would find the perusal of it irksome. 
 They are exhorted to study it diligently, and so their
 
 J 8 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 education ends. Now, surely it is worse than idle 
 to teach children to read, if you do not seriously 
 intend that when they are grown up they shall 
 continue to read. And if you do intend that, are 
 you not bound to go on, and give them something 
 useful and interesting to read. You have created 
 a capacity in their minds. You have made them 
 intellectual beings. You are, as it were, the pa- 
 rents of their understandings: and you are bound 
 to take means that the capacity which you have 
 given them shall be neither starved by want 
 of food, nor poisoned by unwholesome diet. If 
 you leave them to seek for intellectual nourishment 
 only in the vile trash which too often circulates 
 under the name of cheap literature, you will find 
 too late that you have created a gigantic but brutal 
 and ferocious power which will in the end destroy 
 both you and itself. 
 
 In large parishes, however, as I have said, it is 
 often physically impossible that the minister should 
 himself undertake the whole labour of even the 
 strictly religious instruction of the people. He 
 must, for example, in a large Sunday-school dele- 
 gate some part of his office of instruction to others, 
 and engage the assistance of lay-teachers in at least 
 some of his classes. But even then he will almost 
 always be able, if he pleases, to retain in his o"svn 
 power not only the inspection and direction of those 
 whom he employs, but also the immediate in- 
 struction of them. He will be able generally to
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 1 9 
 
 arrano-e some fixed time for meetino; the teachers, 
 and, in a way that will not offend or disgust them, 
 preparing and qualifying them for the duty which 
 they have to perform. A pious disposition and a 
 taste for teaching others are doubtless most valuable 
 gifts, but it is not these only that can qualify a 
 teacher; and, if really sound instruction is to be 
 delivered in our Sunday and weekly schools, we 
 must take some reasonable pains to ascertain that 
 the persons by whom our children are there guided 
 have really sufficient knowledge of the Scriptures, 
 and of the formularies of our Church to dischargfe 
 efficiently the solemn task they have undertaken. 
 I would advise, therefore, that, wherever it is pos- 
 sible (and I cannot easily imagine a case in which 
 it is not possible), you would form a class for the 
 Sunday-school teachers, and meet them, from time 
 to time, more or less frequently, as their and your 
 occupations Avill allow. It will be necessary of 
 course in such a class not to treat them as children^ 
 and to avoid with great delicacy whatever mio;ht 
 hurt the feelings or check the zeal of those who are 
 voluntarily coming forward to assist you in the im- 
 portant work of training up the young disciple. But 
 still you must remember that you are responsible 
 for the teaching which you sanction by your coun- 
 tenance, as well as for that which you deliver your- 
 self; and you will — if with diligence and a loving 
 spirit you set' about it — make your people feel in 
 time that the office of a Christian teacher in all its
 
 ao DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 forms is a privilege and honour not liglitly to be 
 undertaken, or capable of being efficiently dis- 
 charged without some diligent preparation and 
 sedulous care. 
 
 The mention of catechetical instruction for the 
 young naturally leads me to say something of the 
 rite of Confirmation, for Avhich it is intended to 
 prepare ; and which so happily affords you an op- 
 portunity of giving a direct and personal practical 
 application of your lessons to each child whom you 
 have under your care. I need not in addressing 
 you, my brethren, enlarge upon the nature, or the 
 importance of that rite, by the institution of which 
 the Church has solemnly put upon each of its mem- 
 bers, as they come to years of discretion, the neces- 
 sity of considering that it rests with each of them 
 to determine whether or not they will accept for 
 themselves the stipulations of the Christian cove- 
 nant which were provisionally made for them at 
 their baptism. But there is one point that I may 
 be pardoned for pressing upon your attention, and 
 through you upon theirs. It is this : that as well 
 the reason of the case as the strict law of the 
 Church makes it the plain duty of every one that 
 is confirmed to receive, according as opportunity 
 shall offer, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
 The participation of that Sacrament is not a pri- 
 vilege which some Christians may aspire to, and 
 others do without, but the bounden duty of all 
 who are capable of receiving it with faith, and
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 21 
 
 it is a manifest and audacious mockery of God 
 for any one to come forward at Confirmation and 
 declare his acceptance of the Gospel covenant 
 on condition of keeping God's will and command- 
 ment, and walking in the same all the days of his 
 life, without a steady purpose and resolution to 
 obey, among the rest, that particular injunction of 
 Christ, in which He has required His disciples to 
 " Do this in remembrance of Him." In order, 
 therefore, to mark more unequivocally the pressing 
 necessity of this duty, I intend in all future years' 
 that God may spare my life and strength to accom- 
 pany the rite of Confirmation with the administra- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper, then and there, and thus 
 tender to all who have come forward to profess 
 themselves members of Christ and children of God 
 an immediate opportunity of proving the sincerity 
 of their love. 
 
 To this combination of a communion with the 
 rite of Confirmation I have never heard any valid 
 objection. It has been said, indeed, that the young 
 persons cannot, in the excitement and hurry of a 
 crowded Confirmation, be expected to be in a fa- 
 vourable state of mind for the reception of the Holy 
 Communion, and that therefore it would be better 
 to defer that to a quieter, though more distant 
 
 ^ This, I may observe, is uo new or untried plan, but one 
 long since adopted, with the happiest results, by the Archbishop 
 of Dublin in his own diocese : and the working of which I have 
 had opportunities of observing for the last twenty years.
 
 22 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 
 
 occasion. But such objectors forget that there is 
 no necessity at all for any hurry, or crowd, or ex- 
 citement on these occasions ; that, at least in this 
 country, the number of our Protestant population 
 is not so overwhelmingly great as to make it im- 
 possible — by making the occasions sufficiently fre- 
 quent, and the stations sufficiently near and many 
 — to avoid any troublesome throng, and consequent 
 tediousness in the services; and that, if the appli- 
 cants are not in a fit state of mind to receive the 
 Lord's Supper, they cannot be in a fit state of mind 
 to receive Confirmation either. 
 
 Unhappily, there is too commonly on such occa- 
 sions an undue bustle and excitement; but this 
 arises partly from an injudicious and unnecessary 
 crowdmg together of too many young persons to 
 one spot, and partly from the want of men's 
 minds being sufficiently impressed with the so- 
 lemnity of the service in which they are taking 
 part. The first of these evils I hope to remove 
 by administering the rite often enough, and in 
 a sufficient variety of places to cut off all excuse 
 for throng or bustle ; and, in order to facilitate that, 
 I shall expect that in the customary returns by the 
 Rural Dean before Visitations, the number of young 
 persons likely to come forward in «ach parish at the 
 next Confirmation shall be noticed, along with that 
 of the whole Protestant population. The other I 
 must principally trust to your diligent exertions to 
 remove also, by setting before your people the true
 
 DUTIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. 23 
 
 nature of the rite, and the awful solemnity of a 
 transaction in which that baptismal covenant upon 
 which our salvation depends is publicly ratified in 
 the presence of God and His Church. And I can- 
 not but hope also that the addition of another 
 solemn service, which has never to the same degree 
 lost its reverence in the eyes of men, will still 
 further aid in checking all profane indifference. 
 If indeed Confirmation were a mere opus operatum, 
 like investiture with a blue riband, or the con- 
 ferring of a degree, or the enrolling of a citizen in 
 a mere secular guild or corporation, there would be 
 nothing more necessary than outward decency in 
 its performance; but when one regards it as the 
 serious declaration of our personal adherence to 
 the terms on which a vital union with Christ our 
 Lord depends, as the solemn prayer of the whole 
 Church, through its chief minister, for the strength- 
 ening presence and support of the Holy Spirit to 
 assist those young soldiers of the Cross who are 
 going out to do battle in the world under His ban- 
 ner against all the powers of evil, and whose ever- 
 lasting happiness or misery depends upon the issue 
 of the conflict, he will readily perceive that it is a 
 rite which cannot be properly performed or under- 
 gone with any other sentiments than those of deep 
 and sincere devotion, of solemn awe, and serious 
 recollection. 
 
 THE END.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SWILL AND EDWARDS, PKINTERS, CIIANDOS STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN.

 
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