Convocation, tending to the well being of the Church, and seasonable at this juncture. 4to. 1689. Notwithstanding this, the commiffion came to an end without effecting any thing. On the death of bifhop Barlow, Dr. Tenifon was nominated to the fee of Lincoln, and confecrated January 10. 1691-2. By the laft will of Mr. Boyle, who died the fame month, he was appointed one of the trustees of the lecture founded by that great man; and according to Dr. Derham, "it was Dr. Tenifon who encouraged that noble charity in the settlement of it, in the honourable founder's life time; and after his death procured a more certain falary for the lecturers to be paid more conftantly and duly than it was before." This was done by obtaining a yearly ftipend of fifty pounds, to be paid quarterly for ever, charged upon a farm in the parish of Brill, in the county of Bucks.* 1 In 1694, he was removed to the archbishoprick of Canterbury, on which occafion, bifhop Kennet fays, that "he had been exemplary in every ftation of his life, had reftored a neglected large diocese to some discipline and good order ; and had before, in the office of a parochial minister, done as much good as perhaps was poffible for any one man to do.” It was with great importunity, and after the rejecting of better offers, that he was prevailed with to take the bishoprick of Lincoln; and it was with greater reluctancy that he now received their majefties' defire and command for his translation to Canterbury, to which he was nominated December 8, foon after elected by the dean and chapter, and that election confirmed in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, in London, January 16.† In 1700, the archbishop was placed at the head of a commiffion for the purpose of recommending proper persons to fill ecclefiaflical dignities, and to be prefented to crown livings. This commiffion, however, came to nothing. During the reign of king William, the archbishop was always one of the lords juftices, whenever his majefty went abroad; as he alfo was in the interval between the death of queen Anne, and the arrival of George the First, both which monarchs he had the honour of crowning at Westminster. * Complete Hist. of England, vol. iii. p, 676. + Dedication to Physico Theology. After After attaining his feventy-ninth year, this worthy archbishop died in his palace at Lambeth, Dec. 14, 1715, and was privately interred the week after, in the chancel of Lambeth church. His character was thus drawn foon after his death, by one who well knew him. "He was a prelate, who, through the whole course of his life, always practifed that integrity and refolution he firft fet out with, nor was influenced by the changes of the age he lived in, to act contrary to the pure and peaceable spirit of the gospel, of which he was fo bright an ornament. And as he was an exact pattern of that exemplary piety, charity, fled faitnefs, and good conduct, requifite in a gover'nor of the Church, fo perhaps fince the primitive age of Christianity, and the time of the Apoftles, there has been no man whofe learning and abilities have better qualified him to discharge and defend a truft of that high importance." Among his numerous liberal benefactions, we shall only notice the following. To the governors of Queen Anne's bounty for the augmentation of fmall livings, one thousand pounds. To the corporation for the relief of clergymens widows and children, 500l. To Bene't College, Cambridge, a mortgage of lands in Huntingdonshire, of the value of one thousand pounds; alfo the perpetual advowson of the rectories of Stalbridge, in Dorfetfhire, and Duxford St. Peter's in Cambridgeshire. He founded and endowed a charity school at Lambeth, for the education of twelve poor girls, and another charity fchool at Croydon, to which, befides what he had given in his life time, he bequeathed the fum of four hundred pounds. His regard to the apoftolical conftitution of the Church of England, appears from the following circumftance. Having by his will bequeathed to the Society for the Propagation of the Gofpel in Foreign Parts, the fum of five hundred pounds, he afterwards, by a codicil, revoked the fame, affigning the reafon as follows: "Whereas in my laft will I bequeathed to the Society de promovendo Evangelio, the fum of five hundred pounds: now I do hereby revoke that claufe, and every part of it, and do declare the whole to be null and void, as if it had never been. But my prefent will is, that my executors or their adminiftrators, or affigns, do well and truly pay to the faid fociety, within one month, or two at the fartheft, after after the appointment and confecration, by lawful authority, of two Proteftant Bishops, one for the continent, another for the Ifles in North America, the fum of one thousand pounds, to be applied in equal portions, to the fettlement of fuch bishops in the forementioned fees. Until fuch lawful appointment and confecrations are compleated, I am very fenfible (as many of my brethren of that fociety also are) that, as there has not hitherto been, notwithstanding much importunity and many promifes to the contrary; fo there never will or can be any regular church difcipline in those parts, or any confirmations, or due ordinations, or any fetting apart, in ecclefiaftical manner, of any publick places for the more decent worship of God; or any timely preventing or abating of factions and divifions, which have been, and are at prefent, very rife; no ecclefiaftically legal difcipline, or corrections of fcandalous manners, either in the clergy or laity; or fynodical affemblies as may be a proper means to regulate ecclefiaftical proceedings. In the mean time, till fuch appointment and confecration as abovefaid, are completed, my will is, that my executors do not pay the faid thou. fand pounds, or any part or portion of it, or any interest for the whole or any part of it, to the faid fociety; but as they have an opportunity to put out the faid fum, or part of it to intereft upon fure public funds, and to apply fuch intereft to the benefit of fuch Miffionaries, being Englishmen, and of the province of Canterbury, as they fhall find upon good information, to have taken due pains in the refpective places which have been committed by the faid fociety to their care, in the faid foreign Plantations, and have been by unavoidable accidents, fickness, or other infirmities of the body, or old age, difabled from the performance of their duties, in the faid places or precincts, and forced to return to England." U U Vol. XIII. Churchm. Mag. for November 1807. Mifcellanies. ON PATRONAGE. PATRONS (ie, Viren they fix upon wrong objects for pre ATRONS in very high fituations, as minifters of flate, ferments, often do it through weakness; they want firmness to withstand powerful applications; which fometimes operate by flattery, fometimes by moving compaffion, fometimes by pleading old friendship, or urging old obligations; fome. times by the more polite fort of menaces: but when they find a fufficient flock of fortitude to refift applications fo far as to act on principles of prudence, I have fometimes thought, that, befides neglecting their duty and betraying their truft, they mistake even the prudent part: for nothing can animate thofe who are brought up in ease and luxury, to improve or exert themselves, fo much as a certainty that if they do not, they fhall be fuperfeded, and if they do, they fhall retain their fuperiority;-and what good can any minifter derive from being fupported by the infipid, the ignorant, the idle, who moreover think themfelves very little obliged to him, or perhaps are offended, though they accept his preferment, that he does not give them better? efpecially as by throwing away his honors and advantages upon them, he is exciting difguft and contempt, if not indignation and abhorrence, in the minds of men of abilities and integrity. I cannot but think that the most public-fpirited appointments would anfwer the purposes of prudence beft. Those who deferve dis tinctions molt, and in the eyes of fuperior beings, are entitled to them in flrict juftice, are not one thousandth part fo felf fufficient as thofe who deferve them leaft: and therefore the most able would fhow the moft gratitude. It is only men of real merit, of found moral and religious principles, who can be depended on to be steadily and constantly grate. ful: ful: they are humble and modeft; they eftimate highly every benefit conferred upon them; they feel it warmly; it finks deeply into their hearts. And though their influence may feem at firft comparatively fmall; it foon rifes above. that of mere rank or wealth, if properly encouraged; and in cafe of fuch changes and chances as have lately been obfervable in Europe, and as all things human are liable to, it is only from folid merit, and from virtuous application of the mind, that unfhaken fidelity and effectual fupport can reasonably be expected. A minister of ftate feems fometimes to think it his duty to reward fervices by conferring a lucrative office on him who does them. When the fervices have been done to the public, rewarding them thus is thought an inftance of public fpirit; but to me it feems clearly wrong. I do not mean that rewards are wrong; God forbid! but they may be wrongly drawn from a fund which is appropriated to fome other purpose, and that for the public good. Either the office conferred as a reward is useless, and therefore ought to be abolished, or the perfon who has done the fervices is wrongly appointed to it. Did he, indeed, fhew by those services that he was the most proper perfon for that office, all would be well; but the probability is greatly against that: nor will it be pretended, that when offices are conferred as rewards, they are always given to thofe who are best qualified to do the duties of them. An unfit man then prevents one who is fit, from acting in an useful employment. I repeat, that this feems clearly wrong. Suppofe a man has faved the life of his prince, or has gained an important victory; I would have him amply and honorably rewarded, but by the person whom he has benefited, that is, the artificial perfon, the nation; not by perverting property dedicated to fome particular fervice, or bequeathed by fome patriotic founder. The propriety, or even the juflice, of continuing offices, now become ufelefs, in order that the emoluments fet apart for making them ufeful, fhould operate as a reward, is to me inconceivable befides that fuch offices will not so often be conferred to benefit the public, as to attach the benefited perfon to a particular minifter; (which, by the way, they fometimes fail to do); and fo when that minifter is in oppofition, the crown is granting arms against itself; and that without any faving to the public; for if an ufeless or nominal place is worth three thousand pounds a year, the public has as much to contribute, for nothing, or for worfe |