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Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplimentaires; L'institut a microfilm* le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a AtA possible de se procurer. Les d, , preside, belong, with rel t ' ' '."1 'f " the intc ■ . ■ . • which and mo( . n/|i: iK " ^:-,-. ,. ; from he * . ? I praj I humb ■ , • ■: ^,-. V i- «-. ,*.j ,. ^. ■;.• bent up . ■ " ' occupy ^ • >- ■■■ .--•■. -/.v- ' ever ca - gurnent pubiicl} ^' question ih ■ * ■'■-'. pecting sincere mising ( the irril Christia . - ■,- ..^ ' tempora ■^ occasior priety, : ' '.T party, a rights, 1 not enj< have sus 1 ■ *■ -^ ,. „. ^ ^ , • not hav( to he th _ • IP .^- ■ / -4 public I and, as 1 "•■' ; »* ' ■ 4ii'-\ . ■. i'- '^.^ ■ ■ ^ '"' "'' • Rbvbrsno Brethrent and Christian Friends^ THE providence of God having called me to E reside, in this Diocese, over tlie Church to wiiich you elong, I am impelled at this juncture to address you with reference to some circumstances which nearly affect the interests of our Establishment, and the discussion of which occasional ly demands the exercise of much charity and moderation, as well as much firmness and prudence from her guardians and her friends. I pray you, then, to take in good part what proceeds, as I humbly hope, from a proper sense of the duties incum- bent upon me in the arduous and responsible post which I occupy ; and being ready to receive in the same spirit what- ever can be urged on the other side to invalidate our ar- guments, I bespeak all indulgence from all quarters while I publicly set forth whatl do conceive to be the true state of the question,and while 1 venture to make some suggestions res- pecting the manner in which it should be treated. It is the sincere desire of my heart before God, without compro- mising the interests which I am bound to maintain, to allay the irritation and violence of feeling which every time Christian must grieve to see produced by a question of temporal provision and support. — Our own defenders may occasionally have been betrayed into some heat or impro- priety, but 1 am not aware that we have ever attacked any party, and altho' the circumstance of our enjoying superior rights, might perhaps have led us to expect that we should not enjoy them unmolested, «ome of the attacks which we have sustained during the last few years are such as we could not have looked for from fellow Christians. — It has appeared to be the object of some persons unknown, to mislead the public mind as to the character and views of our Church, and, as far as they could produce any effect,to create a state of A 2 ^ things which they would fain have it believed to be that which already exists — because if it did exist, it would remove or diminish the necessity of our being supported in the decided character of an establishment. — But the manner and spirit in which these particular attacks have been conducted are reprobated, I fully persuade myself, by the respectable mem- bers of other denominations, and the mischief will be made ultimately to return upon the heads of its authors. At the same time there appears to be a great difference of opinion between ourselves and parties who are worthy of our christian regard, with respect to the justice of some claims which, whatever may be the issue of the pretensions ad- vanced on either side, it is in the mean time impossible for us to forego. My experience of twenty years in this Diocese in different capacities, and with particular and very extensive opportunities of becoming acquainted with its religious condition, — opportunities which according to my ability, I trust that I have not neglected to improve, — assures me that the cause of the Church of England is not now to be abandoned like a wreck, nor are her circumstances and prospects such as to justify on our part any voluntary sur- render of her interests, or to call, in themselves, for any diversion into other channels of the means provided for her as THE Established Religion of the Country. In using this expression I am vei*y far from meaning to say that either the positive advantages of our own Church, or the relative situation of other religious bodies, are or oug^t to be here what they are in England or Ireland. In this Country there are no civil or political distinctions founded upon those which are religious ; nor any contribu- tion drawn for the support of the Church from those who profess a creed different from hers ; and there are privileges not conceded at home, enjoyf*d here by the Branches of other Churches established in Europe, of which I should be the last person upon earth to wish them deprived. — ^In some instances I should be heartily glad that the benefits extended to individuals of these Churches should be greater than they have yet been made. — But ours is, and has been declare! vided fo I do I several appeare made in and arg ply stat( view wl mind,— and tern raised, stood, 1] thing M suppose sions. — mere tc graspini title, no we are t we hope with re privileg ought t( form of gence fc whateve tutions, recognis out that religiow of that Divine troul, re fected n counsels " Kings nursing Jewish well as < that which remove or he decided and spirit Llucted are able niem- 1 be made ffercnce of rthy of our irae claims nsions ad- ible for ue Diocese in extensive religious ability, I ■sures me low to be mces and itary sur- 5, for any ed for her waning to 1 Church, s, are or land. In sti fictions contribu- lose who )riviJeges ,nches of I should ved. — ^In ! benefits e greater has been declared and constituted, and (according to my belief,) pro- vided for, as THE Religion ok thk Statu. I do not propose in this address to discuss at length tlie several points which are under debate, but as it has always appeared to me that some wrong ai^sumptions are apt to be made in treating the question, and ^;onie material facts and arguments very subject to be overlooked, I shall sim- ply state the outline of our whole case according to the view which I entertain of it in the conviction of my own mind, — in which view I recommend that it should calmly and temperately be represented whenever the argument is raised. If it be not known, or if it be indistinctly under- stood, upon what we rest our claims, or whether upon any thing which has a tangible shape, — we shall of course be supposed to be making unfounded and exorbitant preten- sions. — It should be seen that we are not actuated by the mere tenacity inspired by possession ; that we are not grasping at that for which we can neither exhibit a good title, nor prove that we have any need ; — but that, even if we are thought mistaken, we proceed upon grounds, which, we hope, may well excuse our mistake. — It should be shewn with reference to the existence of any established and privileged Religion, that in Christian Countries, the State ought to be Christian^ and, being Christian, must have a form of Religion of its own ; that with whatever indul- gence for those who decline compliance with this form, or whatever extension, in some cases, of support to their insti- tutions, it 1% some one form which the Goveinment must recognise and identify with itself. It should be pointed out that God himself connected together the civil and religious polity of the Jews j that the pious Kings of that people took all the established provisions for Divine Worship under their own protection and con- troul, regulated the mode of religious services, and ef- fected religious reforms : — ^That it was ordained in the counsels of the Almighty, and foretold in his oracles, that " Kings should be the nursing Fathers, and Queens the nursing Mothers" of the Christian Church : — That the Jewish precedent of incorporation with the state, as well as of ecclesiastical subjection to the civil Magistrate, 6 was precisely acted upon when Chrii^tiunity received the protection of the Empire : — ^That whatever changes and abuses grew out of this circumsianeo, the principle was re- cognised at the reformation, and made one of the marked features of the English Constitution : — That, at the time of the Union with Scotland, although provision was made for Community of Commercial and other privileges both at home and abroad, and its own Ecclesiastival privileges were carefully secured to Scotland within the bounds of that Kingdom, a distinction was made, which cannot be without meaning, in the correlative provisions for the security of the Church of the Sister Kingdom, — England j Ireland, Wales and the town of Berwick upon Tweed being speciAed with the addition of the words " and the " TKRRrrORIKS THEREUNTO BELONGING," WHICH EX- PRESSION IN OTHER Statutes has been construed as APPLYING TO THE CoLONiES : — Thataltliough the Pres- byterian Church is established in Scotland, the circumstance of its establishment there, so far from proving that it is entitled to establishment here, affords support to the con- trary/ argument, for that it is there, according to what we conceive to be implied in the very nature of a Religious Establishment, exclusively established, and it will hardly be denied that another establishment here pre-occupies the ground : — That Scotland itself affords a striking example of the fallacy of such an idea as that a Church which is established in one particular Country is thence entitled to establishment in other parts of the same Empire, inasmuch as the Episcopal Church in Scotland, altho' in a legal point of view distinct, is spiritually one with the Church of England established at the Seat of Empire, comprehends regular Clergymen of the latter Church,* and without being large in numbers, consists of six f Dioceses and com- prises many of tlie nobility of the Country, — yet this Epis- copal Church docs not there enjoy and could not by pos- sibility aspu-e to tht character ol an Establishment : — That * The Kpiscopal Cleri;y of Scotland are also employed as Missionaries by tbe Church of England. + Properly eight, but nnder the charge of six Bighojis.— The Church of Kngland itself exi-is in SciMland, considered without reference to what may be called the native Episcopal Chur«b, upon the same footing of simple toleration. the very first Royal Instructions to the Governors in Canada declare^ in express words that " the powers and privileges of an Established Church belong only to the Protestant Church of England :" — ^That, altho' these Instructi(tns are not put in force so far as they would operate directly upon the Church of Rome, it by no means follows tliat they are out of date so far as they declare the footing given to the Church of England, — for the Church of Home, who gains by it, can never complain of the dereliction of those articles which would affect her, but the Church of England, who by the abandonment of other points, would lose promised advantage, (I speak it with all deference and submission,) may hope that the pledge given to her is remembered still:— That the Act of 31. Geo. III., c. 31, following upon these instructions, makes a provision for a Pro- testant Clergy, as distinguished from the Clergy of the Church of Rome, and proceeds to point out the Clergy of the Church of England : — ^That as part of the same plan, adverted to in the debates upon that act, a Protestant See was erected and a Bishop sent out, in 1793, whose Diocese was constituted a portion of the Metrojmlitan Province of Canter- bury, with which its Bishop is connected " in thesame man- ner*' as any Bishop within that Province in England : — That in connection and consistency with all this, the Act provides for the support of the Church " according to the establish- ment of the Church of England'* and gives powers to that effect to the King's Representative, hut furnishes no powers for any oMer Ecclesiastical appropriation : — ^That the King's Coronation Oath binds him to the inviolate maintenance of all " the rights and privileges which do or shall appertain to the Bishops and Clergy of the Realm,* or any of them and to the Churches committed to their charge'*, and conse- quently, (if we are not in error,) of all which is here stated to have been done : — ^That His Majesty's Government has amp- ly confirmed the character of an esta'^jlir^hment to the Chiu'ch of England, by a series of public Acts of permanent efTect, such as the foundation, in all perpetuity of a Cathedral at Que- bec," invested with all honors, dignities, pre-eminences and " distinctions of right belonging to an Episcopal Seat and * Whether ihe term Realm comprchendi the whole Empire or not, the word* ing of the Clause suiely appliei to all which ii a regular appendage of the Province of Canterbury. f ii Cathedrnl (Jlnirch/' the crocticii uf Parisiies, the division ot'the Diuct'se into Archdeaconries, the formation of Cor- (Mirutions of tliu Clergy of that Churchy for the management of the Ueserves : — That, viewed in connection witli all this, it surely ouG^ht not to excite Rurprize, or ing examples of the coalition with her children of various other branches of the family of Christ : — ^That without en- f In the Scotch Universities, by the Act of Union, all Regents, Profassors, &c. &c. must subscribe the National Confession of Faitb and cooform to the Established Worship. icring into any question of tlie comparative mcritfl of difle^ rtMit systems, it must be deliglitful to every reflecting unci well-constituted mind to see tliese diirerences merge in one : — ^Tliut the persons who have thus joined our ranks, are no traitors or hypocriteS) — but men who have acted n n'ise, candid and commendable part which no pretence cuu be made that their subsequent conduct has belied : — Tiiut unity and combination of resource, must plainly, and most (ssentially contribute to the prosperity and vital strength of ltelitv:.' .. . ■■ lam. ^*^: ■^'.l My Christian Friends, ^ And Reverend Brethren, Your affectionate Servant in the Gospel, - ^ C, J. QUEBEC. Quebec, 6th Dec. IS2I7, i 1 \M >¥■'■■ v*; *v