CHURCH DISCIPLINE AND NATIONAL EDUCATION.

A

CHARGE

DELIVERED TO THE

CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE

OF

LLANDAFF,

IN SEPTEMBER, MDCCCXXXIX,

BY

EDWARD, LORD BISHOP OF LLANDAFF.

PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE CLERGY.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD,

AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.

1839.

A CHARGE,

&c.

REVEREND BRETHREN,

ALMOST every triennial address which I have hitherto delivered has begun with remarking upon the dangers and troubles in which the National Church was involved, and which often threatened either its entire overthrow as an Establishment incorporated with the State, or the loss of some of its dearest and most useful privileges. It is, however, with some satisfaction that I call to mind the tone of hope and even of confidence I have ventured constantly to maintain in the midst of these formidable convulsions. Founded on a rock as the visible Church of Christ we know to be, and secure of Divine protection against all the malice and all the subtlety of the adversary, I do not for a moment doubt, that while the branch of it here established continues true to its

profession, and presents a firm and united front in the warfare which the world will always wage against it, we shall ensure to ourselves a due share of that protection, and shall come out of the fiery trial purified and invigorated, and better qualified by the lessons of adversity to counteract those insidious causes of decay, which a season of long security almost always engenders within the bosom of the Church itself.

That those remedial measures which even three years ago seemed ripe for execution have not yet been matured, is a fact which I could not then have anticipated; but which, however to be lamented as protracting a state of uneasiness and anxiety, has still a ground of consolation, when we reflect how much we have gained by the subsidence of angry and restless feelings in the upper classes, and by a manifest return to that sober estimate of the value of a Church Establishment, which has generally distinguished this country (except during one stormy interval) from the period of the Reformation to the present day. Under the influence of this moderation and good sense, characteristic of our nation, one may indulge the hope, that each year of delay will tend to improve the legislative measures relating to the Church which have been long promised.

The Act indeed which passed in the first session of the present reign, for abridging Pluralities and

restricting Non-residence, besides a consolidation of the former laws on these subjects, has given many new facilities, and has removed many of those technical obstacles which before existed to the correction of this class of abuses. I cannot, however, but regret the rigour with which pluralities have been prohibited, as if the thing were an evil in itself, and not (as it really is) one which is either a good or an evil according to the circumstances of each particular case. If all benefices were adequately endowed, or if their endowment bore a due relation to the respective duties, and to the labour and the qualifications requisite for their performance, it might be said with truth that each minister ought to be content with his own portion, and that to appropriate to one what was designed for many is unfair and injurious. In the popular declamations upon this subject with which we have been all made familiar, this seems to be assumed as an unquestionable fact. The truth however is, that the most laborious duties, those which require the greatest talent and experience, and which impose the most anxious and unremitting care and responsibility, are in general the worst paid; and that the cause of the Church would often be greatly benefited by a transfer of income from rich benefices with easy duty, to those arduous stations which call for the services of the most zealous and able ministers. As this alienation of the funds of one benefice to supply the wants of another cannot literally be effected, the best expedient for correct