no other than a display of dissention and hostility: these are not mere conjectures; the complaints which are frequently made, confirm our just apprehensions.

We, who are Fathers, are to bear with the perverseness of children: a Pastor, who has not reduced his spirit to this submission, will never be useful. His mildness and gentleness, I allow, are often put to severe trials: a gross and ignorant people, do not always consider, what is proper and becoming. Then it is, that we are to oppose a paternal complacency to their rudeness, and to restrain and soften them, by our conciliating address, and engaging demeanor. It would be useless, as St. Paul recommends, more especially, to us, to "be patient towards all men;" if we no where had occasion for the exercise of "a meek spirit." The reason we give way to impatience is, that, as we are exposed, perpetually, to the rustic and importunate manners of our parishioners, we do not consider, that they only make use of their privilege, in their applications to us: injudicious they may be, in not consulting propriety, but still, we cannot plead an excuse for not hearing them their indiscretions may, occasionally, try our temper, but they do not lessen our obligations. Thus, the grosser and more untoward our people are, the more are patience and gentleness, necessary in a Pastor, to restrain them. Notwithstanding all their rudeness, a single word, uttered with mildness, calms them: impatience and warmth do...

not correct their faults; they only expose ours: they do not shelter us from their importunities, but they make us lose their love, and forfeit their confidence.

A Pastor, concerned for the welfare of the souls committed to his charge, will see it to be his bounden duty, to sacrifice his natural impetuosity of temper, in order to attach them to him, and to open for his instructions, a way to their hearts, The first Ministers of the Church, were sent as lambs in the midst of wolves; and the mildness and gentleness of the one, subdued the fierceness and violence of the other. We have succeeded to their mission, as well as to their ministry; we are sent in their place, as lambs among wolves. Had we, like our holy predecessors, to dread their barbarity-were the most cruel torments the only reward we could promise ourselves, for our indefatigable labours, and unremitted zeal, we must either renounce Christ and the ministry, or resolve to attack them, until we had overcome their outrageous passions, and subdued their unruly wills, What! can we, my Brethren, be considered excusable, by losing, on slight provocations, the com. mand of ourselves, inseparable from a right discharge of the Christian ministry? Alas! we act upon a wrong principle-we are accustomed to demand to our person, the respect which is due to our calling: we esteem ourselves as superiors, and not as servants and Ministers.

A second fault attendant upon our ministry is, a spirit of dominion, than which nothing is more opposite to that humility which ought to accompany us, in every ministerial function. The princes of this world, as our Saviour observed to his disciples, exercise with rigour, the authority they have over their subjects: pride, haughtiness, and splendour, constitute their dignity; gentleness, humility, modesty, shall be the distinguishing ornaments of yours; they consider themselves as lords over vassals; you shall be, in your own eyes, as servants and brethren. Can the situation, which, in committing souls to our care, renders us bound to all, and responsible for all, inspire us with pride, and exalt us with haughtiness? What is there to swell the heart in offices, the chief advantage of which is, to impose on us many labours, and to exact a correct, and conscientious, discharge of them?

Notwithstanding, under the pretence of supporting the honours and authority of this ministry, we are inexorable to the most trifling offences, which seem to derogate from it; we exact respect and deference, not so much to ensure reverence for Religion, as consequence to ourselves; the smallest infringement made upon our rights, alienates our affections, and sinks deep into our minds; we make of authority, a yoke which oppresses the souls, whose charge we have undertaken, and not a support, designed for their comfort: we forget that our revenues are entitled to our estimation, only

in proportion as they afford us an opportunity of being serviceable; that they have been entrusted to us only, to facilitate the success of our labours, and not to be an obstacle to them; to attract more reverence for Religion, and not more dignity to our station; to render our virtuous examples more public, and more beneficial, and not our authority more burdensome and intolerable. Mankind are but too much disposed to look with jealous eyes, on the temporal advantages, of which some of the Clergy are possessed; and from the moment that they doubt the existence of virtue and Religion, in our hearts, they doubt the validity of our title to our revenues: the more exact and rigid we are in the improvement of them, the more disputable does our right appear; the more severe we are, the more do our parishioners withstand us; and when, at length, we have recourse to the support of the law, let us contrast our gain of money, with the loss of their affections, and of their confidence. Is this to honour our ministry, or to make it useless.

But it is our duty, you say, to support the rights of the Church. Yes. Let us support them, by the superiority of our virtues: it is not for ourselves that we are Ministers, it is for the people at large; let us devote ourselves to them, without reserve, without interest, without any other view than that of their salvation: let this motive alone lessen our pains, and recompense our labours : let us be weak with the weak; let us weep with them that weep;

let us extend our hand to them that are falling; let us bear with them that resist, and, by our patience, conquer their obstinacy; let us, in one word, "become all things to all men." There is in a worthy Pastor, an engaging modesty, a paternal disinterestedness, which impress more vẹneration, and afford greater security to his rights, than all the eagerness and vigilance which a worldly Minister can exert in the support of them.

We allow, you observe, that a Clergyman, living under the influence of disgusting pride, or ungovernable passion, cannot preserve that pastoral gentleness which is so necessary to attract the love, and ensure the confidence, of his parish; but how shall he correct the disorders which are prevalent in it, if he does not discover a zeal, which may seem almost incompatible with the mildness now recommended?

You cannot countenance irregularities-you are right; but often in shewing a disposition to correct them, we provoke and exasperate the objects of our reproof; some Clergyman speak to their parishioners with the haughtiness of a superior, and not with the tenderness of a father. Charity, indeed, which is the parent of zeal, never faileth; it does not propose the ostentation of authority, but the amendment of the transgressor. If we appear to seek an occasion of indiscriminately censuring our flock, they will look upon us rather as hostile to their persons, than displeased at their