beyond the allotted age of man, has been so illustrious an example of every professional duty. At any other time, or on any other subject, I should not have presumed to have addressed your Lordship in language of a personal tendency; but as I am pleading for the purity of a Church which stands unrivalled in doctrine and in discipline, amidst many assailants, I could not look up with greater confidence to a more strenuous or a more appropriate protector. Several of the following reflections have been long made; reasons of a private nature induced me to revise them; and a wish to promote a professional piety in an order of men, invaluable both in Church and State, (from whom I have received much grateful instruction) prompts me to lay them, with all their imperfections on their head, before an indulgent public; beseeching pardon for a presumption which a sense of duty only incites me to commit. I have the honor to be, MY LORD, Your Lordship's dutiful and faithful Servant, JOHN BREWSTER. Greatham, Jan. 1, 1817. The Editor cannot permit a second edition of this treatise to be presented to the public, without attesting the peculiarly clerical and eminent qualities of the excellent prelate to whom it was originally addressed; and adducing so admirable a character as a model for every candidate for holy orders. It has been truly said, "The qualities of this distinguished prelate were such as will ever make his name renowned in the history of the English Church. His learning was various, and extended through all the branches of knowledge connected with his profession. His conduct in the government of three dioceses in succession, during the long, perhaps unexampled, period of fiftyseven years (thirty-six of which he presided over the see of Durham,) was marked by the most exemplary zeal, diligence, kindness, and discretion. In him the clerical delinquent never failed to find a vigilant and resolute assertor of the offended discipline of the Church; while that most useful and meritorious of all characters, the faithful parish priest, was cheered by his favor, and rewarded by his patronage." The manners and temper of Bishop Bar rington were conciliatory and sweet: he was friendly and accessible to all, but particularly open in all his communications with his clergy, and ever willing to assist them by his counsel; and, in innumerable instances, with substantial proofs of his liberality. The duties of a parish priest seemed to be always before his eyes, and he was continually inculcating the importance of those duties which he felt. The high concerns of his bishopric he conducted with dignity, judgment, and affability; for, in the nobleman and prelate, he never forgot the minister of the Gospel. I trust we have those before us, occupying the same rank and dignity, who pursue the same pious and judicious steps and may the Church never be destitute of those whose minds are directed to all that is good and holy in it; filling up their several sta |