The National Register.
London, England, 1811-05-05 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.
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ebe pulpit.

No. XLII.

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While they kept in view that wise and liberal part of the system of this
Church of En,:land which excludes a, well the claiming; as the acknowledg.
in:: of snneh spiritual subjection as may be inconsistent with the civil entire;
of her children, it was neverthe'ess their earnest desire and resolution to
retain the venerable form of Episcopal Government, handed down to them.
a: tl:ey conceived, from tho time of the Apostles; and endeared to thtr*
by the remembrance of the holy Bishops of the primitive Church, of the
blessed Martyrs who reformed tne doctrine and worship of the ('Lurch of
Eughtiql, and of the many great and pious prelates who have adorned
that Church in every succeeding' ag.e.--Correspeintlence of the Clerical and
Lay Deputies of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; October b,

THE BISHOP OF NORWICH,

AND

HIS 'LAI E SERMON AT THE PHILANTHROPIC CHAPEL.

1-bEamtenY itself is of great antiquity. Episcopacy however
is yet more so—hierarchy presupposing episcopacy—and has bee 4
accordingly reverenced. Whether Bishops are indeed of Om-
nipotent appointment, or, as the schoolmen term it, whether
Bishops be jure divino, is one of those questions which, it is
not now proposed to meet ; but which must still be left for
scholastic theologians to discuss, and, if they can, to decide.—
Doubtless Bishops have, notwithstanding, their distinct duties.
ON Est tees has been admonished, it appears, by a clergyman of
the establishment, that his " attempt to prove that Bishops have
more important .duties than preaching * is absurd.and unscrip-
tural." Language like this might be naturally enough expected
from him who afterwards stigmatises the kneeling " before a
Right Reverend Father in God,'" for the purposes of ordination
into the Church, as " a farce" ;—it was certa7nly consistent oa
the part of this writer, one must own, when he intended to
represent the episcopal ordination as " a farce," first to set about
denying the assertion 44 that. Bishops have more important du-
ties than preaching." Bishops have duties more important than
preaching to perform. They are set on her hill as the lights of
the church. What thinks the present prelate of these things ?-
66 I shall study," said the Bishop of Norwich, addressing himself,
at his primary visitation, to the clergy of that diocese, " to con-
ciliate their affection and esteem, not however by any mean un-
mAnly compliance with the prejudice, the passions, or the selfiA
views of individuals, and still less by granting any indulgence to
idie3ess, or the least willful neglect of that solemn obligatioa
which we all of us entered into when we were ordained ; but ty
giving every one, who may have occasion to come to me, a pa,
tient hearing, and a kind reception, and the few who can want
it, the best advice which it is in my power to suggest." Evi-
dently, therefore, some more essentially responsible duties than
those of the pulpit inseparably appertain to the episcopal clue

rac ter.
i-lE.NRY BATHURST, L. L. D. the Lord Bishop of No:-
wich, and Vicar of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, is stated to
have been born about the year 1718. Hi= Lordship, being et.-
sigurd for the Church, was sent first to Winchester, wheLce he

• This rent-Ark ref-era to the account of Bishop Portcus,
given in the fir •t volume of h. Pulpit,' at page 4.—" Many
pious persons,' observed ONE.SIMUS, " scums to mistake the
functions pecy4 r to the episcopal character. Blending the
preacher with Ow prelate, and not separating the two, these men
censure Bishops for not doing what it is by no means their duty
to perfirm. Preaching, it should be known, is mvrely incidental
to episcopacy; since the mitre enjoys duties distinct from, but
equally important with those of, the pulpit. Strictly the bishop
of souls, the Christi:it, Bishop, it he fulfills his part, is perfect'y
employed in superintenni:ig the spirituaiities of the Gisurch
tO
which he below:, and watching tile conduct of those pastors t"
whom the
.peuple look up for the:r religious instruction." t''o
' far the writer of lhe Pulpit : we shall presknt'y sec what arc
the svnume.its of the Bishop of Norwhli on this head.

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