^>. ftH^ '^]^- ^ ^ ^ M IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) ^^ ^o /^M A « f/. 1.0 I.I 15.0 ""^^ 1^ Kii |i!||2.2 «f Ij^ ii £? Ufi 12.0 ii& IL25 III 1.4 III 1.6 6" /a ^^>' % >^ >^ y^ ^>> '> > '•^ ^ 7 C Sdences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STXEET WCBSTIR.NY. 14580 (716)«72-4S03 sg eleclion provisicui had been made, to meet at Quebec, on the 9th of June last ; and to issue another, summoning a meeting to be hold upon a diirerent principle, on the 24th of that month. " Von are also aware that the reason for this postponement was not that I had any misgiving in my own mind respecting the pro|)riety or the legality of the step which had been taken, but tiiat we might pr(»ueed to our task without being liable to be called in question upon a point of law on wiiicii dilFerent opinions were held, and that the initiation of our Synodical proceedings migiit rest, in the eyes of all men, upon a well- assured basis. " The construction to which i have referred, of the Act in question, imports the necessity of calling together the members of the Church throughout the Diocese, — that is to say, of calling together at Quebec or some one other place, all the members of the Cliurch scattered here and there, chiefly in poor settlements and with wretchedly imperfect facilities for travelling, from the Magdalen Islands to Stanstcad, — the Church uf England po[)ulation at Quebec, constituting, so lar as is ascertainable, perhaps not more than one-sixth of the whole number. " As it is evident upon the very first aspect of the case, that even a remote approximation to any expressed sense of the Dittcese, could not, by possibility, be arrived at in a meeting so called, I took it for granted that, in common good faith, the meeting could only be regarded as a pro forma pr>)ceedino; to satisfy the real or supposed requirements of the Law; and having conferred and concerted arrangements with gentlemen of ditferent sentiments upon Church questions, who all seemed to regard the matter in the same light, I went down to the meeting with no other preparation than that which enabled us to propose to its consideration the simple llesulutions already adopted in the correspondent case of the Diocese of Huron, which were essential for setting the machinery of the Synod in motion." 7 Unliippily, lji»\Vc'vt3i, llioro woro |>artios aniin;i(u 1 by a Very (litFtM-ont spirit fcDm that which I havo above (Inscribed as proinptin;^ Iho opposition of certain frioiuls of the Church to tlio course originally taknn : — there wcrf parties disposoil to make a very {litferent uso of the posture of alfairs when the new Meeting was to bo held, from that which is indicated in the foregoing ex' ract from my Circular as the obviously fail* anil equitable mode of proceeding Far Irom desiring simply to ea??e the operations of the Church by keeping within the safe letter of the law and, this being dono, to leave still an equal advantage to their brethren of the Diocese' at lar^fe, they concerted arrangements of wliiidi the effect could only be to enbararass, in the first instance the hands of authority ; to gather into the grasp of a few in one place the powers which ought to bo distributed among the Congregations throughout the entire jurisdiction of the See, and to perpetuate, as far as possible, the rule — not of the Bishop aided by men holding Epiif opal principles in an Episcopal Church — but of a party systematically opposed to both. It is painful to describe what cannot be described without censure implied or strong expostulation carried in the descrip- tion : but there are times in which it is the part of duty to speak plainly and to warn any unguarded members of the Church against being drawn, under the aftion of some passing excitement, into unwarantable and dangerous proceedings, as well as to appeal, (if they are not beyond the reach of the appeal,) to all who have had any hand in such proceedings, to recon- sider calmly and conscientiously what they have done, and to commit themselves no farther in a course which cannot be accepted of God," nor in the ultimate rendering of a sound " experience, approved of men." I would ask them, then, these last-mentioned persons — they 8 J avow themselves im-MiiluTS of tho Cliurch of Kiurlaml — tlioy rocogiiizf^ by profession, the aulhorily of their Bishop, what- ever be llio ill (lesf^rt in (heir eyes, of tho Bishop actually set over them in tiie Lord ~ I vvoukl charge it upon thorn most seriously to call up before their own minds, step by step, .nil that had takenplace in tlio Diotes'*, as I have st.iled it, previous- ly to the meeting on St. John the Baptist's Day, and all that took place on fhatihxy, in the matter of Synodicil action, and then to put tlie (jueslion to thoir own breasts, whether, as Christian men, they can under all ll»e circumstances of the case, approve tlie opposition which has been manifested to Church authority and Churcii of England principles ; whether they have, or have not, cause to regret the share which they may themselves have tnken in that opposition, or tl'c coun- tenance which they may have given it, or the manner in which they may have contributed to its fiercer devtdooemcnts, not chargeable directly upon them as their own individual acts. On that day, then, we mot in the first place, according to announcement, in the Calliedral, to worship God together. A sermon was preached by the Revd J. H. Thompson, Divinity Professor of the University of Bishoi)'s College, on the condi' lions of ChrifiVs presence with Church Synods^ which has been since published by request, § and which I heartily wish that all the Churchmen in the Diocese would read. We were invited to partake, and all of us who were clergymen and some members of the laity did partake, in the Holy Communion of Mio Body and Blood of Christ. We made the sacred remem- brance of the death of Mim who gave Himself for us, and who, telling us that " greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his triends," tells us also that as He hath loved us, so ought we to love one another. These w re i § It is for sale by .Ir. Stanler, and Mr. Sinclair, St. John gfrcet, Quebec. Il acts. llio act."?, praposotl and opan at least to all concerned, whicli preceded our assembling in the School-house. Thither vvc went willi no other anticipations, (as I have said,) on my own part, or tliat of my friends, than that we were to attend a pro form I meeting of the Churcli. No measures were taken by me or by them to collect the supporters of good order, or to pro» vide against any specious attack. No necessity was urged up )n the conservatives of the Church for atTording their attend-' ance, and no such necessity appears generally to have been i\M. The proceedings were opened with prayer to God. I spake a few introductory words, dwelling, among other obvious {)oints, upon the confidence felt by the Bishops in the hiity, which had prompted their spontaneous overtures, and upon the hope of our hnppy and harmonious co-operation. Pass, then, to the contemplation of the scene which followed. Tjiink of the manner in which all this was met — ponder it well, and ask whether it carries the stamp of a righteous cause. Think of the carefully prepared arrangements of an opposing party : the opinion after opinion encountered, whether'relat- ing to constructions* of the enabling Act, or more general in llicir character, framed to support an extreme democracy in the Church, and utterly subversive of her fundamental principles : — the proposal of a Committee to bo chosen by ballot, accom- panied, in order to exemplify the ballot principle of unin- ^flucnccd votes, by the distribution, through hands employed for tlio purpose, ol printed lists of Committee-men ; — the assem- blage of persons drawn together, some of whom, wdiether leaders orfollowcrs,hadno pretensions to Anglican Church-membership, and one was a prcaciier in another communion :j- — the uproar which was made, especially when the Clergy claimed the privi- * Consliiicliong nllopotl.cr difrorcnt from those of aulhoi'ities of the verj giPaU'st weight in the I'rovincc t It is piobabic, however, that this poison wus a simjile voUmtcer, and aciuitetl h) lueif curiosil.v in his atlurulautc. 10 iii. .ci '..1 I if lege of voting by orders : — the fierce vio!eiice,lhe loud indecency and coarseness with which they were assailed, — servants of the living God, some of whom had grown grey m that service, all of whom were constant in labour for the good of their people ! — the utterly groundless imputations cast upon men among them of most exemplary life and most devoted zeal, parallel only, both in the temper displayed and the injustice of the charge, to the cry of old, " Away witii such a fellow from the earth ! for it is not fit that he should live," and to the accusation of "bringing Greeks into the temple:* — the tumultuary character of the whole scenej which, if [ had not been taken by surprise, ought to have decided mo to cut the meelinjy short and leave the room :— these are things which, if they had not been followed up by other proceedings designed to force on the same issue which the leaders had in view, I had made up ray mind to pass in silence, — things which it would be happv to bury for ever in oblivion, and to blot out from the annals of the Canadian Church. But it can- not be forgotten, and it must not be shut out of siglit, that the •I- i! * An impression has gone abroad ih*t the scene of St. John the B.iptisl's day, was a (/Marre/ betv sen the C/ergy and Zflj'ii/ of the D/occse. Ii would not be easy to make a statemen' more ut V«riancc with the facts of ihe cane : F(ir Firstly,— It could hardly be callid a quariel at all, unless that bo a fjuarrel Which is nil on one side. % Some of the Clergy became Warm and earnest, but not one forgot himself once, by the use of any coarse, or even reproachful terms. *.— The Lsymen were not the Laiiy of ihe Diocese, but laymen of Quebec. .^.— The liymen were not tin Laity of the Church of England at Quebec, I ot nn assembly constituted as herein above described, and consistin;? in part of well-Hfiecied persons who were overpowered by ihe uproar which surrounded them. i. — The quarre', if such it was, wis not between any of the pastors and their flocks, as an exHrnplt; of which, it may be rememl;sred thai ihfi Clergyman igainst whom the most ungovemed violence was directed, leceived nu the very next day, an affectionate addre-s from his ("onKressation, nccomjiiuiied by a liandsome testimonial, the contribuiuns towards which out-wi'nt the amount required. 5.-— The country Clergy, irsteid of wantin? to qi.arrcl wi h the Lnny, were asserting and defending r the laify, and for (he hund)lcst among them, to Vvhoni (lioy have uiiiiibtered. CONSIDERATIONS :f AbDUESSED TO THE CLERGY AND LAITY 05" THB DIOCESE OF QUEBEC. •* M n CONSIDERATIONS. ERRATA. Page 22, near the bottom, for «* "Whatever influence,** read " Whatever ivjluences .''^ Page 32, in the second note, for ** errors of facts," read. " errors of/ac/," Page 42, sixth line, for " quoted absolutely," read ** quoted abundantly .^^ Page 52, fourth line, for " those" read " these.^' Page 60, near the bottom, for " its own claim " read " its zehole claim." Page 69, below middle of first paragraph of Note B, for " those principles," read '* these principles.'* Hon of the Uospely the mother and the nurse of the Churches in the dependencies of the Empire through- out the world. I shall have occasion before bringing my present observations to a close, to speak of this Society again ; )')-')i ../>a' ;>)• !'j ••• CONSIDERATIONS. > V -W^M^MV^^'kMAA It has been a jusl ground of thankfulness to God, which, in different ways, and at different times, I have taken occasion publicly to acknowledge, that in all the eight North American Dioceses of the Church of England, we have been exempt from the mischief of certain indiscreet proceedings relative to the minu- tiae of ritual observance and of certain exaggerated and unsafe views upon doctrinal points, which have characterized an extreme party in the Church at home. I am not aware of any single instance within the limits just specified, of any such objectionable doings, or of the introduction and advance of any such objectionable principles ; nor has there been a single instance of any apostasy of the Clergy, to the ranks of Rome. And a similar happy verdict may be rendered respecting the character at large, of the Missions supported by the Society for the I^ropaga- tion of the Uo&pely the mother and the nurse of the Churches in the dependencies of the Empire through- out the world. I shall have occasion before bringing my present observations to a close, to speak of this Society again ; I'te. 20 but this appears to be the proper place for introdu- cing some notice of a charijc broui^ht against it in certain quarters, and very closely of afllnity with the character of all the attacks which I am proceeding to examine, that it is a one-sided Society. The term Tractarian has, with a recklessness lamentably com- mon in dealing with religious subjects, been freely applied to it by parties who desire to discredit what is venerable and to magnify some particular cause which they have espoused. Now the best possible test to which we can resort for our individual satisfaction, in seeking to ascertain the real character of any such Inst''Ution, is to take the specimens, (if such opportunity be granted to us.) Avhich have been, and which are before our own eyey, of the instruments which it employs and of the work which they eft'ect. I subjoin therefore a list of Missionaries select- ed from the number of those who have been in the service of this Society, as being men more or less familiarly remembered or now known by the mem- bers of the Church of England resident in Quebec ; and 1 divide them under two heads : Clergymen sent out by S. P. G. the 1. The late Lord Bishop of Quebec CStevrart.) 2. The Bev. Dr. Percy. 3. The Hey. C. H. Stevvart (late Assistant Minister of Tri- nity Chapel, Quebec.) 4. The Rev. F. A. Smith (Assistant Minister at 'Jhree Rivers.) Clergymen ordained by different Bishops here, anil adopted upon their recommendation by the S. P.G. 1. The Rev. E. W. Sewell, • 2. The Kev. D. Kohertson. • 3. TheR. v.W. Bond. 4. TheBev.R. G. Plees. 5. The Hev. Dr. Hellmuth. 6. 'J he Rev. \V. Wickcs. 7. The Rev. II. Roe. 8. The Uev. S. Jones. • These two gentle men were ordained and adopted before my time ; tlie otlier 81X of the iecond list weie introdiictd into the service of the Society, bv myself. 1 % 21 term I Not one of these gentlemen left tlie service of the Socioly on account of any dissatisfaction with its proceedings or objection to its views : but, being men of good pretensions, they were advanced to other em- ployment, as the ofler was made to them, in the Church ; and one of them ( Dr. Helhnuth) has been a strenuous advocate of the Society upon the plat- form on public occasions, in England. So far, then, of the Anglican Church in the Dio- cese, and its connection with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Suffer me to speak one poor word of its present Bishop. It has pleased God, who chooses His own instru- ments, unworthy irt /Afmsf/fcs, and puts the "trea- sure " of His Gospel *' in earthen vessels," (hat I shoidd occupy in the Anglican Church, the Episcopal charge originally of the whole of Canffda and now, by successive subdivisions, of that portion of it which constitutes the reduced Diocese of Quebec. I have jield this charge, (without speaking precisely as to the months,) for twenty three years, being exactly one third of my life. Another third, exactly, was previously passed in the subordinate grades of the Christian Ministry, exercised, with the exception of three years, in Quebec. I have carried my episco- pal ministrations (having volunteered before the erec- tion of Jiupert's Land into a Diocese, to visit that country) from the Red River in the Hudson's Bay Territory, to the Magdalene Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 1 have, in one ecclesiastical capacity or another, **gone in and out before this people" — my own people in Quebec, — for forty-one years. For forty- one years I have watched and prayed and worked for them, — without ceasing, watched and prayed and worked. "I am old and grayheaded. . . and I have jvalked before you from my youth " unto tliis day. 22 ♦' Behold, hern I am : witness against me before the l-iord," With whatever whatever deficiencies in they have been many, — I challense the world to errors of judgment, with practice, — and I know that have been chargeable ; I shew that, over all this extent of space or of time, among *• high and low, rich and poor, one with another/' I have been un- faithful to the true interests of the Reformed Church of England or swerved from the proclamation, accor- ding to the doctrine of that Church, of CnrjsT CRuciFiEn as the only hope of fallen man, and the word of the living God as the only basis of didactic theology. ! appeal to the whole tenor of my public teaching ; and if ever, (which indeed is not much to be anticipated) that smaller portion of it were to see the light, which has been delivered in a written form, it would be seen whether I have failed ta " preach the unsearchable riches of Christ " and to " testify the Gospel of the Grace of God." And in the regu^'^tion of worship or points ol ecclesiastical observance, I have not ventured even upon manifest improvements, but w-ith a wary hand and a consi- derate eye to the object of avoiding hurtful miscon- struction, and have abstained, in different instances, from the correction, however in itself desirable, of practices with which it might have created disturbance to interfere.* I have not been " a reed shaken with the wind :" Whatever influence may have been in the ascendant, whatever opinions accidentally most in fashion, whatever peculiarities most popular for their day, whatever shibboleths may have been bandied about, by men w ho charge the lovers of the Church with exclusivencsSy being, in their own way, without calling in question their zeal and sincerity, • See noto A. y ^.1 pre-eminently exclusive themselves, my principles have never changed. I have trodden in the steps of my two venerated predecessors in the See, and with all the human infirmities attaching to each of us, I have the comfort of feeling that I am, as they were, «< pure from the blood of all men," in the aspect of the case here under consideration. And this con- sciousness I shall carry— thank God, it is not far, — to my grave. It might be thought, perhaps, that, under all the circumstances which I have here described, the hope could have been left to me of being spared from such a task as that of defending my Diocese and my own administration of it, from the charge either of Ro- manizing tendencies or of deficiency of concern for the spiritual well-being of the children of the Church. And in truth, the serious doubt which I have felt whether it was necessary or expedient that any episcopal notice should be taken at all of the unhap- py disturbance which has been among us, has been one cause, (combining with the pressure of my occu- pations, the constant crowding of matter upon me, necessary to be thinned out and distributed in due order, when once I began to make preparation for such notice, and above all, my extreme repugnance to engage in any contentious performance) for my coming rather late into the field. I come, however, with the advantage, as I hope, of raising my voice after the noise of the occasion has, in some measure, been stilled, and agitated spirits have somewhat cooled.* But however wanting may be all excuse here among us, for troubling the peace of the Church in • This, it will be understood, was written before the occurrence of some late unhappy proceedings, »he character of which was, no doubt, exasperated by the attacks unon the Churc'" ^'"■« under "oiisideiiuliyii, (i;8 July, l^b8.) I'': ■mm mm 24 these matters, and however strong we may feel, who govern the Diocese or have a share in conducting its institutions, in our untarnished adherence to the teaching of the Protestant Church of England, and our inviolable loyalty of heart to the Gospel with which that teaching is in accordance, we must not *• lay the flattering unction to our souls," that there- fore we shall be permitted to rest without molesta- tion. Looking at our Church matters, not in their merely local, but in their common and general aspect, we see everywhere at work in the world, different causes which combine, different influences and in- terests which conspire to forbid such a hope as this. A disturbance at the centre will produce undulations, circle after circle, upon a wide expanse, and the effect will be felt to its extrcmest edge. And then there are always persons apt to be found who must, at whatever cost, provide themselves with the stimulus of party- contention and the excitement, the amusement, as it were of partj^-diplomacy : this is a habit of the mind with them, an appetite which they cannot forbear to in- dulge, and which if they do not find, they must create to themselves the means of gratifying. Others there are whojike a litde notoriety, an increase of social pro- minence :je tombe de mon haul is the language which they would have to use, were they to acquiesce in the doings of regular authority and to follow in the orderly walk of the Church : or possibly they want to damage their clergyman against whom they have conceived a piqu'^— possibly to serve a particular object or interest with which they happen to have become identified, and they are thence led to promote separation from the Church or division within her pale. And al! these — since there is ho self-decep- tion more common than thai which under the very colour of a superior spiriliicdityj serves to pamper ;■■ I * who ig its the , and with not here- lesta- their spect, ferent id in- 1 this, itionsi effect jre are latever party- t, as it 3 mind rto in- create there al pro- which in the rderly nt to have icular have omote n her decep- very )ampcr 25 the carnal mind,* — all these find a response no less i\. the old Adam of nature ever ready to chafe against authority, than in the love of worldly habits, and pre- possessions with which all strict observance and all home-felt earnestness in matters of Religion, all depth of reverential feeling in things pertaining to gthe House of God, are found unpleasantly to interfere. With all these varied elements at work, nothing in the world is so easily done as to make mischief in the Chuich : and there are particular times, we well know, in which the slightest spark which falls will cause an explosion. Those who have their own purposes to serve or passions to satisfy in this kind of way, if they are men without much generous scruple, have abundant facilities before them. They may- range themselves under a mask, (besides many other familiar opportunities,) in the willingly opened co- lumns of any publication, opposed to the Church or not very nicely regardful of the truth and good tendency of contributions to its matter, and there they may stab, at will, in the dark. And often they have all the advantage to themselves, because they are dealing against those who cannot be supposed to . enter the same arena. Nothing but the fear of God, and the spirit of Christian charity communicated to the heart, will cure such " fantastic tricks " as these. But there are not a few of a far different stamp, not a few kind, well-affected, sincerely Christian persons, who catch the contagion of an alarm which is thus ; circulated, and either become estranged from the Iproper home upon earth, of their religious affections, or uncomfortably unsettled and discomposed in mind. * See passim.iri the Epistles lo the Corinthians, the texts which bear upon this subject. — Luther ascribes to the author of all evil, the rage which pre- vail in jome quarters al the Reformation foi cryinfj "Spirit! I!?piiitl" and , dtprecia'iiig outward ordinances and standing itrovisions in th« Church of God S for thq help of the bsiiever on the road to heaven. D fi. And p&rhaps they feel it their duty, and a painful duty, to spread this contagion when once they have imbibed it themselves. They are imperfectly grounded in Church punciples — a very extensively prevalent, but nefverlholess a very hurtful deficiency — very extensively prevalent in the most educated as well as the most ignorant classes of society : — they hear things said which make the simplest and soberest maintenance of Church principle to sound like, some dangerous error; which cause the most legitimate exhibition of a conformity at once wise and conscien- tious, to the plain directions of the Church, to suggest associations of some lurkinsj evnister design of tarn- pering with the purity of faith and worship, and opening tke door to the rule of superstition. To these persons it i^, to men of candid, accessible and wefl-disposed minds, who respect the Church and bavc her interests at heart, but are made uneasy, and shaken with some distrustful feelings, by the tumult which is raised against her ministers, that, in all affectionate desire for their benefit and comfort, (it God will so deign to l>less my endeavors,) I specially address myself now. And 1 wish to assume, to the utmost warrantable extent, that this description will apply to the mass of those who may require — let not the expression give offence — to be set right in the points which I undertake to treat. Let us, then, consider what are the aspersions which have been made or the alarms which have been suggested about the Church of this Diocese, . and what ifoundation they have, or whether any foun- r, dation at all. 4| 1. Some examples may be given of the things which have been said or the apprehensions which have been communicated to sensitive minds. Some years a.o;o, (for there is no reason against our going 27 painful i they rfectly nsively ency — aied as : — ihey oberest :q. some Ultimate )nscien- suggest of lam- ip, and on. To 5ible and arch and lasy, and le tumult It, in all mfort, (it specially le, to the ption will 3— let not ^ht in the aspersions tiich have s Diocese, any foun- the things ions which ds. Some our going back a space, for a portion of our examples,) a report was carried into one of our country Missions, from Quebec, that we have a statue of the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral. Since that time a similar report was vented about by a visitor to another country Mission, that, in the v^orship conducted within the same Church, we follow the Romish practice of using lighted candles by day-light.* In both instances the statement was so confidently made, being based upon alleged ocular testimony, that the clergyman upon the spot addressed enquiries to me to enable him to contradict it. Very recently, in Quebec itself, it was said that one of our clergy brandished a cross, or crucifix with his hand, in the pulpit, and the same clergyman was charged with exhibiting popish views in a sermon which contained reference to the duty of fasting, A great ferment was raised, and an effort made (it is happy that it was most signally unsuccess- ful,) to get up an " indignation meeting" of the con- gregation of one of the Chapels in Quebec, because the Chapel Wardens, who had had charge of certain repairs and improven"»ents, had introduced, some time before, into the Church, the menogram repre- senting the name of our Saviour. More than one clergyman was charged with using an unsou»d, dangerous, and imleccnt catechetical work in the pre- paration of youthful candidates for confirmation. And, finally, an impression got abroad that some of our Clergy regarded as a kind of guide and manual in matters of ritual observance, a little book called the Churchman'' s Diary or Almanac, which is put fo^tb by an extreme party in England. Now, with respect to the foundation for these * Similar stories have appeared in print. — One of llie mullitudinone tourist write/s of ihe day, descrihingf in a New York paper wlial he had wit.iessftd in Quebec, stated that our Cathedral was full of Pictures and crosses.. 28 Vi stories or these suspicions, there are evidently some among them which it must be utterly superfluous to contradict or to expose. But all the rest are equally baseless. All equally baseless : and if any man sup- poses, that they are only distorted exaggerations or stories suggested by the observation of leanings among the Clergy open to suspicion, he little knows their true origin, little penetrates the reality of the case. With respect to the sermon on fasting, it so happens, as I know from its author, that the strongest passage which it contains was a quotation from the famous Puritan Divine, Dr. Edioards, With respect to the superstitious mischief supposed to be enveloped in the monogram, the Chapel Wardens, I apprehend, were very guildess of any Romanizing fancies in the matter, and very litde conscious of any harm, or apprehensive of any possible offence, in introducing a device which is one of the common and received decorations, in the Protestant Church of England, of articles which are " for the work of the service in the house of the Lord." A clergyman now in Eng- land, who was known for twenty years in Quebec, and whose name was certainly never associated with the idea of any Popish tendencies, sent me out the other day, a covering for the holy table in All Saints* Chapel, respecting the ornaments of which I had given him no directions ; but full in the fore-front of this covering, as a matter of course, or at least as a common and recognised symbol in our Communion, stands the monogram in question. I am sorry to have to descend to such minutiae, and the persons are perhaps very few, who, upon this point, can need any explanations ; but a noise having been made upon the subject, it is desirable to satisfy the minds of those few. The saying of Lord Bacon has certainly been well exemplified in this instance, (as in how many of &' Bi 29 ;ome us to [ually sup- ns or .nings Lnows if the it so 3ngest m the aspect sloped shend, in the rm, or ducing jceived ngland, vice in n Eng- luebec, id with out the Saints' 1 had front of ast as a nunion, to have ons are eed any upon of those ^ been any of e il a similar kind !) that there is a Superstition in AVOIDING SUPERSTITION. With respect to the ** Help to Catechising," origi- nally prepared by Dr. Beaven, I do not advocate taking anything, except the word of God, absolutely upon trust. But I believe that all Churchmen may feel perfectly safe, and entirely secure against any unscrip- tural teaching, any serious error or dangerous ten- dency, in publications issued either by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in England, or the Sunday School Union of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, both which are in the two countries respectively, closely identified with the Church herself. It is under the auspices of the latter Society, that the " Help to Catechising" is put forth. Although I have much respect for Dr. Beaven, I am not, in any way answerable for the use of this exposi- tion,* which I never saw till my attention was drawn to it by its being called in question here, nor do I in all particulars agree with it, (nor have the clergymen who have used it here, thence pledged themselves to abide by it in all its details.) I do not think, for example, that the text (2 Cor, v. 18,) in which St. Paul speaks of *' the Ministry of reconciliation" is to be understood as having any direct reference to the authority to be exercised in excluding scandalous offenders from Church-privileges, or restoring them when penitent. I regard it simply as in connection with the words ^' loe pray you, in ChrisVs stead, be ye reconciled to God" and as describing, generally, the overtures of free grace and mercy in the Gospel. But this is merely an example of difference of opinion • There is a different exposition put forth many years ago under my own sanctioD, which has been more generally used in the parish. There is also a small publicalion of the S. P. C. K., commonly called " the broken Cate- fihisra," which is imported by the Diocesan Church Society. 30 upon a particular text which may he open to this or tliat interpretation. I tliink, also, that I should have liked to see the notice a little more guarded, which, in one place, is taken in this " Help to Catechising," of the Greek and Roman Churches : yet the exposition of the Catechism may, as a whokf be considered as providing against the effect of any such particular deficiency. And I believe that the book, (in favor of which there is high testimony in England, as well as in the United States,) contains nothing, from end to end, which may not he sustained by the prayer book and the formularies of the Church of England, than which, in some instances, its language, far from giving overcharged views of the doctrines of the Church, is decidedly less strong. As, for example, where the words occur in our English Catechism, " the body and blood of Christ, which arc I'erilij and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's supper," — the word spiritually is siibsiihded, (after the American prayer book,) for the words verili/ and indeed. (Not that there was any other necessity or reason for this alteration than that of guarding minutely against all possible misconception ; for the words vcrili/ and indeed being limited to the case of the faithful, it is manifest that they cannot import any literal, actual reception of the flesh and blood of Christ, or any material change of the sacramental elements.) I believe it would be very easy, indeed, to shew, if some parties who object to Dr. Beaven's ** help" would allow themselves to be brought fairly to the point, that they object quite as strongly to some verif plain statements from which there is no escape, of the Catechism it self. And I will take this opportunity to put in a caveat against a mistake made by many good and zealous persons, which, according to my 'V:' •*.: I 31 convictions, has done extensive harm, the mistake of " going on unto perfection" before '^the foundation" of " the principles," or elementary rudiments " of the doctrine of Christ" has been fully laid, — the mistake of giving "'strong meat" to children in age, and others who are " babes in Christ." A good deal of Sunday School teaching in these days, is conveyed in the iform of high doctrine, and delivered also in a manner which savours rather of preaching than of catechising, I do not notice the charge of indecency brought against Dr. Beaven and the American Church, because it is one which must have been too hastily adopted to admit of the supposition that it »an be persisted in. The accusation of indecency might, with equal grounds, be raised against many passages of the prayer-book, and many parts of the Bible itself, with which all our children are made familiar. With respect to the Churchman's Diary or Almanac,* it is rather remarkable that of the indivi- dual Clergymen upon whom the suspicion of consult- ing it as authority, although not designedly imputed to them, yet inferentially fell, not one had ever seen the book. A packet was sent out to me a few years ago, — I know not by whom, — and I gave a copy without having examined it, to one of the subordinate clergy of the parish, not now in this Diocese, by whom, after he had looked into it, my attention was called to its peculiarities. I subsequently destroyed the rest, reserving one copy as a curiosity. Another copy, it appears, found its way since into the country. It would not be just, however, to let it be supposed that I am aware of any unsoundness of doctriniC or insinuated misdirection as to the objects of worship. * I believe that, ia differeat editious, il carries both names. 3'2 II.' i in this publication, but it appears to be characterised by an overdone ritualism, running into laboured details which it can be neither prudent to adopt nor edifying to recommend. I now come to a different aspect of the case. I pass from all matters merely personal and local, to a more general consideration of questions involved in the unhappy disputes which have been recently rife among us. I call upon members of the Church of England, as their Bishop, to consider v)hat the system and teaching of their Church really is and to take their stand accordingly. The Church of England, then, has an original character independent of the state of any other Church, and she has also a relative character as it respects the Church oi Rome. In the latter, she is energetically a Protestant * Church: in the former she exists precisely as she existed in Britain beiore the usurpations of the Papacy were fastened upon her or its corruptions superinduced,— precisely in all essential points, as she vvould have done, if there never had been any such usurpations or corruptions to protest against. It is impossible to understand the Church of England without keeping these different truths in view ; and she is fun- damentally misunderstood by any man who regards her as a new creation arising out of the reformation.f • I hold it 10 be a mere quibble to say, as some persons have been lound to do, that the term Protestant does not belong to the Church of England, because she never formally assumed it, and because il indicates originally a proceeding connected with the Diet at Spires. t Some errors of facts in Lord Macaulay's history relative to these points, are indicated in a publicalion under the title of The Reformers of the JngUcan Church, by E. C. Harrington, M. A., Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Exeter. The above is not by any means the only instance of his extraordinary inaccuracy in relation to the Church of England, a very curious specimen of which is exposed in certain other strictures upon his history under the title of The character of the Clergy in the latter part of the seventeenth Century , by Churchill Babington, M. A., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambiidj^e. The historian, in the later editions, has mute some chin^es suggested by the foregoing st<-icti.tres, but without acknowledgment or notice of the grounds for making thtm. pund to l)ecause :eecling I points, inglican urch of |rdinary en of he title \entury , The y the ds for 33 In the relitiive character which has been just stated, the Church of England protests against the following errors : ]. — The repudiation of Scripture as the rule of Faith, and the incorporation with Scripture, as pos- sessing the same character, of Apocryphal books. 2. — The merit of works and the doctrine of works of supererogation. 3.— The infallibiHty of the Church. 4. — The doctrine of Purgatory, and that of Indulgences. 5. — The religious homage paid to images, and the superstitions connected with relics. 6. — The worship of the Virgin Mary, with all its concomitant infractions of the Word of God, and the invocation of Saints. 7. —The performance of Divine worship in a tongue not understood by the worshippers. 8. — The dogma of seven Sacraments, including, in the fictitious Sacrament of Penance, tremendous abuses of the power of the keys. 9. — The doctrine of Transubstantiation, involving the errors of Communion under one kind and (in Connection also with the doctrine of Purgatory) of Masses for the dead. 10, — The necessity of conformity to the traditions and ceremonies of Rome. 11. — The Supremacy of the Pope. This numerical list might be increased by subdivi- sion as well as by the statement under different heads, tf some dependent or consequent errors, such as pilgrimages, false miracles &c. — but these are, in brief, the errors of the Church of Rome against >\'hich the Church of England protests. So far then, of her relative character. With re- ference to the other aspect in which she is to be 34 regarded, there are certain tenets or usages strangely confounded in the minds of some men with the above- stated errors, and irffagined to be assimilated to them in character, and to belong to the same category, which the Church of England (in her oiiginal character and in common, to a great extent, with several other reformed Communions) decidedly holds and recom- mends, exactly as she would have done, (according to what has been just above intimated) if no Komish corruptions had ever existed. The confusion of mind which has been just noticed is a religions drficicncij which we ought to be slow to encourage in ourselves or others. It imports a tvant of discrimination respec- ting the real nalvre of Romish errors, a want of clear apprehension respecting the scriptural grounds upon which we repudiate the claims and disavow the teaching of Rome, and, so far at least, a want of clear apprehension respecting the Scripture itself. The principles or the practices of the Church of England which some people call " Popish," are no more Popish because they may be found also in the Church of Rome, than the Apostles' Creed or the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is Popish for the same reason. I have, in the course of these remarks, repeated, in substance^ many things which 1 have had occasion to say in print, at different times before ; and I may here subjoin my own exact words from a letter which 1 put forth a year or two ago : '• \Vc: might, exactly upon the same principles, raise an outcry against the use of bells — against steeples or arched windows in Churches^ — still more, against the revival, in all the branches of Protestantism, of mediaeval architecture in places of worship, — or against a black habit as the dress of Ministers, all of which are derived to Pro- testants through the Church of Rome." Of the tenets and usages, then, which are here in 85 rangely above- o ihem itegory, laracter j1 other recom- xording Komish of niiiul cficicncij urselves respec- of clear ids upon vow the t ot" clear If. The England no more e Church doctrine e reason, sated, in casion to may here lich 1 put ;tly upon the use of idows in in all the chitecture ibit as the 1 to Pro- re here in question, I proceed to specify some examples, — being such as are associated in many minds which, in these points, are imperfectly informed, with ideas of assi- milation to Rome and such as, in instances known among us here, have exposed her Ministers to mis- construction carried to its very extreme. For the present I merely state them : if unforeseen necessity should arise for shewing by means of another address or a series of addresses like the present, that the Church does hold them and that she is right in hold- ing them, 1 shall not, by the help of God, be wanting to my duty in this behalf. 1. The Church of England maintains the high and sacred importance of the two sacraments and their living efficacy, when rightly applied, as direct vehicles of grace and privilege to man. 2. The Church of England maintains, as ?: principle, assumed in various solemn acts and made the basis of legislative proceedings in our whole communion, both within and without the British dominions, the regular standing Commission of the Ministry — the power of providing for the preaching of the word and administration of religious ordinances, and the regu- lation of matters ecclesiastical, not being held to reside loosely in this or that body of believers who may agree upon this or that arrangement for the pur- pose, but to have been originally conveyed to the keeping and charge of an Order of men constituted for that end, and, in the persons of those who occupy the chief grade in that order, (wherever the integrity of the primitive system is preserved,) invested witJi authority to transmit this commission from age to age; 3. The Church of England holds it to be "an appendage of tnis Commission, (^however dormant in practice, and this partly in consequence of past abuses ot ecclesiastical power,) to preserve order 1' i |.,i 36 and purity in the Church of Go(' upon earth, by the authoritative exclusion of scandalous offenders from certain spiritual privileges, and their restoration to the same upon due evidences of their repentance,* 4. The Church of England, in common with other Protestant bodies, maintains and prescribes as a practice which she affirms to be founded upon scrip- tural authority, the duty of fasting, upon set occa- sions, in the literal and proper sense of the word. 5. It is t\iQge7iius of the Church of England^ made conspicuous in many ways, — while she affirms in her 34th Article and elsewhere, the liberty which is left under the Gospel, of adaptation in matters of ritual, to •' the diversity of countries, times, and men's man- ners," and while she avoids an overdone pageantry or an intricate and loaded ceremonial, — yet to clothe the exterici' of her worvship, the whole apparatus of public devotion in all its details, and the whole manner of i 3 performance, with a certain grave, orderly and significant solemnity ; and, where it can be reached, to stamp upon it a certain grandeur of effect. She carefully preserves the associations of sacredness in *« all that is for the work of the service in the house of the Lord ;" and she su/rounds with a peculiar and scrupulous reverence the holy meraorials of the death of our adorable Redeemer. 6. The Church of England takes order for the frequency as well as for the dignity and religious decorum of public prayer, and provides a digested Scries of commemorative observances, through the ecclesiastical year, which bring, in each instance, specially before her members, either some grand feature of the Gospel history, or, according to the spirit of the Apostolic charge, some eminent example '^IBk %< ,v * S«« note B at the esd. i 37 with \r the Igious [ested the fance, :rand the Imple from that ** cloud of witnesses" which is found in the first planters of the faith. All these are examples of characteristic points in the system of the Church of England— plain, prorrii- neat features of that system so impossible to be mis- taken that an attack upon any zeal shewn in the pre- servation of such principles or practices is not an attack upon IVIr A. or Mr. B : it is simply an attack tipoii the Church of England I am very far from maintaining that no minulm of observance can ever become obsolete or susceptible, under altered cir- cumstances and with the tacit sanction of authority, of modification — nor yet that we are forbidden to desire some lesser changes in this or that particular, when the time shall serve and such experiments can be safely tried — nor yet that indulgence may not be due to men who, under the influence of the times, are more or less lax in their Church-views, if only they would shew indulgence, in return, to those who love to keep the rule of their mother. But with reference to the foregoing general points, they are points which wo must, ot necessity, include in what we accept and assert, whenever, in our approaching Synodical proceedings, we formally accept and assert the system and liturgy of that Church. Some of them are matters of faith : others lie in the province of ecclesiastical authority, according to the discretion committed to the Church, being conformable in their spirit and their object, to the Word of God : all of them are to be practically carried out, pro virili and according to the opportunities open to them, by the Prelacy and Clergy of the Church : all of them con- stitute a portion of the particular form and mode of carrying on the work of the Gospel, which that Pre- lacy and Clergy havo in charge ; all of them should be made instrumental in their hands, according to n 38 li ;j: every just view of ministerial responsibility, to the edification of the flock, by the familiar iteration of endeavors to promote an intelligent use and apprecia- tion of such observances,— endeavors which may in some instances, be made unduly prominent, but the total omission of which is the very way to make men mere formalists in their public devotions : all of them are comprehended in the force of the question to which a Clergyman assents, in rendering, when he receives the Order of Priesthood, bis solemn vows before God and man : ** Will you, then, give your faithful diligence always SO to minister the doctrine and sacraments and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded and as this Church and Ri'.alm h'lth rcceined the same, according to the commandments of God : so that you may teach the people committed to your care and charge, with all diligence to keep and observe the same ? " And is it fair, then, is it justifwble, is it of any possible gooj consequence, that a Clergyman who without any ill feeling or breach of charity towards other Christians,* or any want whatever, of prepara- tion to stand against the proselytism of those Chris- tians who profess the Romish faith, conscienliouslt/ endeavors to act up to this solemn vow of his Ordi- nation, should be hunted down by a false and in some instances, an almost ferocious cry of Popery — and that eff'orts should be made, as in very many places has been seen, to impair, if not to destroy his useful- ness, by undermining his influence and blowing an evil breath upon his name ? — 1 repeat it— I will make the utmost allowance even tor the unfair prejudices and groundless alarms of persons who, from sincere, simple attachment to the pure truth of the Gospel • See NoteC. 39 which they are made to believe in danger, and ^yith instances in England of an unhappy apostasy before their eyes, may lend themselves too readily to such a ery — 1 will give credit for right motives to men who do very wrong things (although they ought better to have examined what they are doing) but, whatever may be the dispositions of the party, such a proceed- ing is, in itself, both mischievous and cruel. Is it wise, is it safe, is it edifying to frighten the members of the Anglican Church with utterly imaginary phantoms of superstition in the simplest compliance with the rules of their Communion and to make them afraid — (for I do suspect that even this has occurred,) to use the privilege of unhing in humble prayer before their God, upon such occasions as that of a Litany-Ser- vice twice a week ! * — ^'nch a Litany as that in which the Church has enabled us to " pour out cur hearts before God !" It is very possible, no doubt, to adduce living au- thorities of some note and making some noise in the world, or perhaps in occupation of high places in the Church, who make very light of the obligations here in question and even contribute to disparage certain distinguishing rules and observances of their ov; ii Communion. And the chance of meeting with sp ^. rxamples may be largely increased by the acci- de ' il ascendancy of certain political principles, aftecui>2; the choice of guides and governors in Reli- gion, where that choice depends upon the State, f An Anglican Prelate, — let such a case be supposed, — will be found to speak contemptuously of the Apostolical succession. But he will be compelled • There is n Litany Sei»ice on Wednesdays and Fritlayi in All Saint's rbapel, in the Cathedial Yard at ^u> bee, at half-iiast nine, a. m. (suspended r'-' nccoiinlof the absence oCmany families in the summer months.) j It is within easy mcmoiy that persons have been appointed, in this way, to tb« EpiEcopnl bench, even o( questionable soundness upon v.tal point*. 40 to recognize it practically, and, upon the very ground of the Protestantism of our Communion, in the most marked possible manner, in the exercise of his own functions, if the case should occur of his receiving into the service of the Church of England, on the one hand, a converted Romish Priest, and, on the other a dissenting Minister passing to the ranks of the Church : for the former, upon the principle here in question, will be received toithoxU that re-ordina- lion which is made indispensable in the case of the latter. So again let it be supposed that a Prelate may be quoted in :• ^'^osition to the practice of fasting : * that same Pi le cannot possibly fail to perceive, if his attention is directed to the subject, ♦hat, if ever he officiates in the Communion service upon the first Sunday in Lent, it is this practice of literal fasting, which he indicates, making it the sub- ject of his SOLEMN PRAYER TO GoD, in the Collect appointed for that day. And so of various other examples which might be adduced. Supposing, however, that any Prelate, Clerk or Layman, should conceive it to be an evidence of his own superiority to narrow and antiquated prejudices, that he attaches no importance to the distinctive prin- ciples or regulations of the Church, here under con- sideration, —and even supposing him, argvmenti gratid, to be right in this conception of his own case, — nay, admitting freely (in the case of an ecclesiastic) that he may usefully and profitably follow one special line in his Ministry,— if it be a line reconcileable wiih Church-principles, — which differs from the special line followed by another, and that the Church may * Rccuurte might be had also, in the same direction, to justify some other rather ecceiitric deviations, among which may be numbered the .'lon-recogni- tioii, a* a princijile, of ihe sanctification of fiist day of the week, and the refu- sal to use the form for the Consecration of Churches, &c. &c. t 41 A 4 benefit the more from both, by means of the very difference of their service, — still ought he not to admit a brother who, so far as modern circumstances leave it fairly open to him, dutifully conforms himself to those principles and regulations, — ought he not to admit such an one, to the benefit of the maxims laid down by an Apostle, " One believeth that he may eat all tilings : another, who is weak, eateth herbs : let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and lot not him which eateth not judge him that eateth : for God hath received him :..... .He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not reojard it V* But now let it be asked, however really respectable for their day, however eminent may be some names which can be adduced in fayor of low and latiludinarian views in the Church, however plain and willingly conceded a superiority may attach to them over the claims of him who is penning these humble remarks, let it be asked, so far as human authorities and examples are concerned, whether there are not names immeasurably higher — names which will stftnd when the names of any such living men shall have boen long and totally forgotten, — illustrious impe- rishable names in the Church of England, the names of men of deep thought, of profound learning, of ac- complished scholarship, of masterly eloquence, all sanctified by a holy spirit of love and richly impreg- nated by the word of the living God,— to which an appeal may be made on the other side ? — and these, observe, the names of men who have been specially cHstinguished as invincible champions of Protestan- tism. What were the sentiments of Hooker^ upon the several points which have been above stated 'v — of Hooker whose great work, — (and the words will 42 i^. ih-VS; , i apply to it in the parts which regard our controversy with Kome no less than in others) has been described by a d^st'nguished scholar of the last century as the everlasiiag possession and the impregnable bulwark, of all which the English nation holds most dear "^ Hooker mi,.^ht be qu~>ted absolutely upon all the points in n/iiestion — take him here only upon oncy in contra^!, with certain views upon the subject of fasting. We are told, in his life, that " ho nev -r filled on the Sunday before Ember'ioeek,to give notice thereof to his parishioners, persuading them bof' to fast and then to double their devotions for a learned ^ndpious Clergy, but espe:d;diy for the last ; saying often that the life of a pioui; cler-^yman was visible rhetorky ar. 1 so convincing th. •: 'he most god'^ss men, (though tliey would not deny themselves ihc enjoyment of their present lusts,) did yet secretly wi?!i themselves like those of the strictest lives."* Turn to Bishop Hall. Where is there a writer tc be found more heavenly-mmded, more spiritual, more truly evangelical, more honored by Protestants o. diiTerent denominations, than i?'"hop Hall ? — And Hall was the author of Ao peace with Rome, as well as of many lesser productions in that controversy, a marked vein of Protestantism being, in fact, scf;n to rnn thr mgh all his voluminous works. Y"!: .nong these works we find one whole clas^' in defence of the constitution and usages of theChurcii of * Sr-- Aols J[iir, 2, 3 r •* rpm^vlcil;iy sr. 1 lining tho observance presciilicd l)y liio . Iv.iicu ill ti.is [virtici w helinlC I Invc tn) doubl in my own mind thit U'jker derived n9:ist,uifv> ill nchi'iviiiji; wli it he has loft to poster! y by his h:.bi;. of'' ice3f,in^ UM'hv his b dy mid l)rii:<;ing it irro sabjt;cliou" in Ihe «b.' ^'.Vii • '1 ol'th:; p"'«cri't'''d F.if'ts of ihe Chii eh. Tiie I-uo r ish.-p Stcvvar':. iny honored prpilrpssor in the Soe, who never lab-Mired i;i.d 'V 'iio imput.iiion of Topiiry, n iJ<' ;■. is oidiniiiy pmctici? ;ii- tho:!nh t, Miohlinu: hims'.'ir inviolably loupd to it h^ any suptMsiitioiis O-p'lins'- irciicii!T,sta!i(:o«oconired ti sn'^yest a deviaiioii from it, to jciss every Friday thr'jUjj;!ioirt theyeurin as much rt'iigious saclusion f.s was pidclicabie, and [-t observe the day as a ilijor.Uo I'uot. 43 o. England, and prominently, in this class, a lengthened and learned work of which the title is Episcopacy by divine right asserted, and we read a moving la- mentation over the ornaments and appendages of the sanctuary, when the Puritan mob assaulted his palace, demanding the destruction of the stained windows which decorated his Chapel, and when in the rariher advance of their infuriated zeal, like the enemies of the ancient Israel described in the 74th Psalm, they demolished all the interior work of the Chapci, after which he tells us of *'a hideou.. triumph on the market day before all the country ; whon in a kina of sacrilegious and vioiane procession, all the organ- pipes, vestment?^ both copes and surplices, together with the leaden crrss which had been newly sawn down from over the Green Yard Pulpit, and the ser- vice books, and singing books which could be hud, were carried to the fire in the public market place, — a lewd wretch walking before tho train, in his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service book iu hia hand, im-tating, in an impious scorn, the tune, and !>'irping the words of the Litany formerly used in the Cliuich.'" Look again at Chillingworlh. Chillingworlh is by I'many persons considered par cxcdUiice the champion of Protestantism among Anglican divines, and a passage from his greatest work, relative to the foundation of Christian faith, has been continu- ally quoted by men belonging to ditlerent Protestant bodies, at Bible Society Meetings, or upon other similar occasions. Yet Chillingworth is the author of * The Jipostolical Institution oJ\ Episccpacy demonstrated.'^ Chillingv.'Orth, in the preface to his great work above mentioned, very powerl'ully advo- cates the ccjtiy and elaborate decoration of Churches, supporting his own view of the case by a long quota- tion from Sir Edwin Sandys, another distinguished 'I I 44 ti ' ' I ^ Vh I', I and determined opponent of the Papacy. And Chillingworth has a s&rmon in which, taking up inci- dentally the subject of Church discipline, of which his views are very high, he speaks thus: (I print the whole passage in Italics, because it bears powerfully upon the whole case here in hand :) ** Considering how much the doctrine of our holy mother the Church hath been traduced^ not only by the malice and detraction oj our professed enemies of the Church of Rome, but also by the suspicious ignorance and partiality of her own children, whoy out of a liking for the zeal, or rather fury, of some former Protestant ivriters, have laid this Jar a ground of stating controversies of our religion. That that is to be acknowledged for the doctrine of these reformed Churches which is most opposite and contradic- ting to the Church of Rome. So that as the case goes now, controversies of Religion are turned into private quarrels, and it is not so much the Truth that is sought after, as the salving and curing the reputation oJ particular men. These things, therefore, considered, truly for my part 1 dare not take upon me so much to gratify thi PapititSy as to think myself obliged to maintain many incommodious speeches of some of our Divines in this point, Hoc Ithacus velit, et ir.agno mercentur Atridae, They ivill never be un* furnished of matter to write books to theworld^s end, if this shall be the method of stating controversies. Oh! what an impregnable cause should we have against the Church of Rome, if we ourselves did not help to weaken and betray it, by mixing therewith the interests and conceits of particular men. j> Consider Bishop Taylor, whose glowing elo" quence is the admiration of all English Scholars, a victorious controversialisit in the encounter with Kome, and author of larger and lesser works in that encounter, which will hold their place for ever, among the standard theology of the Protestant Faith 1 4S T — the fervent atlvocate also, and in a manner, the Apostle of the principles of toleration in an age when they were by all parties alike, ill-understood, — the most indulgent of men in his judgment of those who differ from the Church : yet the author, besides a treatise on the Anglican forms of worship, of a long work of accurate research and detailed investigation, under the title of " the Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy^ by Divine Inslituliunf Apostolical tradition and Catholic practice^* — and composer also of many devotional forms, breathing all the ar- dor of Christian piety, in adaptation to the set seasons and periodical observances of the Church. I might accumulate name upon name and testimo- ny upon testimony. I might adduce, among others, the case of Bishop Andmcs who made himself re- markable by converting many of the Romish Clergy and Laity to the Faith of the Anglican Church, and who at the same time was remarkable for his unben- ding attachment to the polity and worship of that Church, and for his exactness in multiplied devotions in a prepared form, for a variety of familiar occasions in life. I might instance Bishop Beveridge, a well known favorite with all men of what is termed an Evangelical cast, yet a strenuous assertor, famong other customs of the Church) of the value of her daily service which, when a parish priest, he effec- tively carried out in his own charge. I might point to the well-known case of non-juring Bishops conspi- cuous for their unflinching attachment to the dis- tinctive principles of the Anglican Communion, yet willing sufferers for the cause of Protestantism, in opposition to the acts of an arbitrary king. I might soon fill a large book with similar examples, and I might have resource to those of celebrated foreign divines, but let the above-cited specimens suffice. M i I Ci M Hi 46 X would only now ask, were -Hooker, Hall, Chilling- worlh, Taylor, Andrews and Beveridge, men of Ro- manizing tendencies, — by anticipation Tractarians or Puseyites ?* I do not say that any of diese men were infaUibley or that, in the sense of implicit acquiescence in what they have said simply because Ihry said if, we are to call any of them our *' Father " or " Master upon EarUi." Whatever weight Uieir opinions may justly claim, my own maxim, and that which 1 lecom- mend to others, with respect to human authorities of this nature, is to be JYitllius addictus jurare in verba magistri. 1 refer to them as great, illustrious Pro- testant champions of the Church of l^ngland — and if hey, being svch, — confessedly and conspicuously such, — held the views which have been exhibited by means of references or extracts here given, as views by which they were distinguished, I ask with what shadow of justice, I demand by what possible right, we can tax men with Popish leanings because they hold the same or perhaps even more subdued although simil?r views upon the same points ? — 1 ask with what title to a just or generous or warrantable pro- ceeding, we can resort to the common and easy ARTIFICE, in order to make them odious, of ringing the changes upon certain words such as semi-popery, Romanizing tendencies, the opus opcralumi^d &.c., which have no particle of just aj 'plication to the case, but which serve the purpose willi abundant readiness, of bringivg suspicion and discredit upon a clergyman because he desires to preserve in their undamaged integrity y the distinctive principles and usages of the Church of England, and which aid the object of introducing into favor^ in siibstilulion for the real * See Note D. •I 47 i'//s/cm of that Church, a system which is stamped with the churacteristics of dissent ? Nobody attacks the Scottish Presbyterians because they venerate the name and cling totlie peculiarities of John Knox : no- body quarrels with tlie Methodists because they are fervently attached to the memory and cultivate some now traditionary practices of John Wesley — but if a minister or member of the Church of I'^ngland, would ulTectionately identify himself in faidi and practice with all which has been handed down to us by our martyr Reformers and their venerable co-adjutors 'u framing the standards of our faith and worship, — such a man is not to be endured for an instant, and a move- ment must be made to put him down. The principles of tolei'ation freely extended, riglit and left, to others boldin^all shapes or shades of opinion, are to be refused, in his exceptional case. And it is not for the most part, an adversary vvlio docs him this dis- honor — for then, pcradventuro, he might have borne it — but it is done by those who ought to be his com- pai.ions and his guides, his own familiar friends whom he could trust, with whom he could take sweet counsel together and walk in the house of God as friends. Well may we ai^apt to the case the pro- phetic words of our Divine Redeemer. " A man's ibes shall be those of his own household." But how easy would it be, in many of these unhap- py cases of difFerence, to turn the tables upon diose who make the attack and to ask them liow, in their own line of proceeding, they can reconcile it to them- selves to repudiate the rules and provisions of their o"ivn prayer-book, and to put the force which they do, in particular instances, upon the plain, strong, un- equivocal language of the forms of the Church, which they use. More, much mor<^ than this— how easy fo I'etort upon the assailants, the charge of H!| !■;■ m P w 48 H ir:, helping forwaril the cause of Rome. Any reverential care in public worship, any strict attention to vene- rable rules, any solicitude wha'tever for that decorous ecclesiastical circctinthe varied ministrations of the C^hurch, which is eminently characteristic of the work of our Keformers, creates an alarm in some quarters, and calls forth from others a torrent of unmeasured abuse or of ungodly ridicule. But there is no one thing more certain in the world than that a mean, cold and denuded aspect of religious ceremonial or n slovenly neglect of externals in the house of God, combining with a mea^fre and inadecjuate, a clouded, uncertain, unsatisfactory estimate of the ritual ordi- nances of Christianity, as well as with a hasty dispa- ragement of settled order and venera))le authority, and a promiscuous recognition of new and multiplying forms of religious profession, have been the direct means of driving many well-disposed men into the arms of Rome, who under different auspices might have been won to spii-itual views of their religion, and preserved in the profession of a pure and scrip- tural faith. The Tractarian movement itself, which ran on to dangerous and unwarrantable lengths and wandered, at last, so far away from the Church of England, was urged to those very lengths, as it was, in the first instance, (and then with wise and good intentions,) set on foct, by the marked and wide- spread deviations, in another direction, both from the letter and the spirit of the Anglican standards, wh ch prevailed in the Church. Extremes beget opposite extremes. I will here illustrate my meaning by a familiar ex- ample in point. The laxity of observance which has crept over our own Church, has produced the painful exhibition to be witnessed in our army and navy, of bodies of men silting in public prayer. That may I'' ! ■ 49 how be said to have grown up into the rule of thd army and navy, where the Church of England is pro* fessed, — at least I never saw any other practice in either.* Take an army of people belonging to the Romish or Greek Church :-— you may see ten or twenty thousand men, during their public religious performances, all down, in humble reverence, upon their knees. An intelligent Protestant will not be shaken in his principles by this spectacle as contrasted with what he will see in the corresponding case within the Church of England. He will understand very well, that the prostrate awe of superstition may exer- cise a power over men which spiritual Religion, adopted nominally by the mass, but actually influenc* ing only the true Israel of God, may fail to shew^ But if he is a truli/ intelligent Protestant, he will t^ 'ore the introduction of that external irreve- 1 _j, in this and other similar points, which takes away the aids to inward reverence, provided by our own Church, and suggests the idea, at once, with all the heightening effect of contrast, to unsettled minds, no less than to the adherents of a superstitious system, that Protestants do not care about their Religion, and are ashamed to bow the knee to their God. Our own people are chilled and impeded in their devotional exercises — kept back in the moulding of the religious man : the careless among them are confirmed in their carelessness : those who are alienated trom us, as votaries, them- selves, of an erroneous faith, are hardened in their alienation : those who may be described as standers- by and spectators in Religion, receive unfavorable impressions, of which, they experience and communi- • I know an instance of one regiment in whicFi th« Colonel succeedrd io MtablishiDg the use of the proper posture in prayer— but this, »^ ftir as my opportunities of infurmation have reached, "was a solitary exeeption, O !i r ! i' 1< If!' II 50 V ' fate abroad the bad effects ; and some, perhaps, ar6 ied to apostatize from their faith. It is, therefore, — (since the train of natural causes and effects is assur- edly not left to be inoperative among the influences which form Religion within the heart,) — the merest mistake in the world, and the most complete mis- apprehension of the manner in which human beings are constituted and are acted upon in Religion, to suppose that a care for externals can be safely neglected, or that it is a dereliction of the preaching of Christ and him crucified, to maintain the value of outward ordinances, and to cultivate a dutiful confor- mity to every prescribed observance. Nothing is more unfounded, nothing can be more shallow than such a charge. St. Paul tells us that he determined not to know anything among the believers, save Jesus Christ anJ him cruciiieji. What did he mean by this 1 He meant, of course, that the great cardinal doctrine of salvation by the death of Christ, should never, in any part of Christian teaching, be lost from sight, should inseparably be interwoven with every endeavor for the spiritual good of the flock, should constitute the grand, the absorbing object of Christian ministrations. But did he mean to be so literally taken as that he would not teach anything, for example, about the operations ot the divine Spirit, or the resurrection from the dead, or other poir ts of Christian belief, save the one here in question 'i Or did he mean that he would never charge upon the believers, the remembrance of their baptism and of the obligations then contracted as well as of the privileges then conveyed '^ — Or did he mean that he would never descend to familiar instruction respecting the details of duty in common life ? — Or did he mean that he would not enjoin it upon the disciples to pay respectful regard to the directions of those who are / * » 51 i . " over them in the Lord V — Or did he mean that it was impossible for him to afford a thought for the decency and order to be observed in public worship, for the establishment of rules vrhich are to distin- guish the sexes in the house of God, for the reverence to be associated with the place where the lioly com- munion was celebrated, as distinguished from the houses which men have to eat and drink in ? Cer- tainly the holy Apostle did not mean all this or any- thing resembling it, — for if he did, he would most prodigiously contradict himself. The lessons of the past are apt to be lost upon the inconsiderate mortals oi any living generation. We might else deem it a marvellous thing tnat the warnings should be forgotten which otand out i in broad and awful characters, upon those memorable pages of the history of our own country which record the demolition of the Church Establishment by a religious faction, in the civil war of the seventeenth century. Delenda est Carthago, was their war-cry ; " Down with it, down with it even to the ground," was the motto inscribed upon their banner. The an- cient episcopacy, the venerable ritual, the solemn and spiritual liturgy, the grave and orderly observances of the Anglican Church were all to be exterminated, root and branch. Then it was that the heavenly- minded, the evangelical Bishop Hall, (among thou- sands of similar examples) lifted that voice of lamen- tation of which some notes are heard in an extract already given, over the dishonor done to the Church which he loved, and in his Letter from the Tower and his Hard Measure, left a picture of her fanatical enemies which as it is touching in itself, so in the agitations of our own time, it is curious and most instructive to contemplate. And were these men the true representatives of a h: ■ i ■ ( , fVi,l;»^, 52 pure and thorough Protestantism, the genuine defen- ders of the cause of scriptural truth against the oppressions and corruptions of the Church of Rome 1 No, my brethren, no^ — those men were among the best of friends., the most serviceable auxiliaries whom the Pope had in the whole country. Rome, always sagacious, always watchful, in her worldly wisdom, to seize and apply the fittest instruments for compas- sing her ends, Home sent out her Jesuit emissaries among the people in the guise of fanatical preachers to join in railing against the system, and usages of the Church of England. The overthrow of that Church, could it be effected, would be indeed the demolition of one of the foremost and most formidable bulwarks of the Reformation — it would indeed be a triumph achieved for the Pope. And do we suppose that in this Diocese at this moment, the Church of Rome is not congratulating herself upon the utterly needless obtrusion before the public here, of divi- sions and of extravagancies unhappily, at this moment ^.ubsist'ng in the Church at home, or upon the attacks made upon certain earnest and zealous sons of the Church of England among ourselves ? I have not the most distant suspicion that we have here among us Jesuits in disguise from whom any ol these attacks actually do proceed. But if we had, this is iust the game which they would play. These attacks proceeding, no doubt, from sincere Protestants, are, nevertheless, in not a few points, the very echo, in wonderful exactness, of those notes with which Eng- land rung in the crusade against the Church under our unhappy Charles, followed by the suppression of the prayer-book by the regicides, — notes which were paught up and blown abroad by the agents of Rome, The opposition proceeding now very generally from fpen who tre meiiabers by profession, if not by occu- 1 ) ■M , 1 ) pation Ministers of the Church— they do not revive the precise cry against things so stamped upon the face of our Church-standards and so incorporated with the familiar working of the Church, as the sur- plice and the organ, the reverent inclination of the head ** at the name of Jesus" — the sign of the cross in baptism, the practice of kneeling in the reception of the other sacrament, the ring used in the solemni- zation of marriage, or the confirmation of our youth by the Bishop affirmed to be an Apostolic rite. But are not the things to which they are specially hostile, things of exactly the same class and character as these, and, in fact, far shot t of them, for the most part, in such objection as they would envelop in the eyes of those who were once called precisians? And if a clergyman is seen to manifest any zeal for the corrtotion of neglects, irregularities and deviations in the things pertaining to the house of God, which marked a drowsy day in the Church — if he does not look with favor upon those happy times when the more convenient slop-basin or pewter vessel displac- ed the ancient font, transferred, to serve as flower- pot, to the garden of the squire, and when tlie cele- bration itself of the rite of baptism was passed from the house ot God to the dwellings of men, — if he does not sigh over the loss in some Churches of high- partitioned pews which snugly ensconced the more stately worshippers, and often shut off the poor from public worship — then Foiniim habet in cornu, — longe juge — this man is a mad Tractarian — he will toss you all, if you let him come near you, over the fences which divide us from Rome. There is perhaps no person living who has had more ample or more varied experience of public prayer and preaching conducted with the rudest appliances, or scarcely with any appliances at all. i'\ il^ •l! I'j w 54 E > I \ than myself. And the roughness, and extreme bare- ness of the accessories of worship are felt sometimes to be aids to devotional feeling. You will hear per- sons who are inclined to deprecate, if not to denounce every approach to pomp of ceremonial or ritual effect, describe with much zest, and in what, according to a hackneyed modern phrase, is called a graphic man- ner, the touching simplicity of a scene where the preacher reminds them, perhaps, of the Baptist in the wilderness. Yet they are then owning the influence, developed in a different manner, of the very principle against which they are disposed to contend. They are recognizing the aid of circumstan- tials, the power of externals, in the acts of devotion and the performances of the Minister of God. Either way, these accidents of our worship, are, of course non-essentials : the grand points of the Gospel Minis- try may be gained, the heart may be lifted fervently in prayer and praise ; the soul may be penetrated with the love of Christ, the word of life may be carried with power to the heart of sinners, within the walls of a very convenient and respectable building, whose architecture is most supremely unecclesiastical, and whose arrangements for the conduct of worship are utterly revolting to a correct and nicely formed taste. But where the bounty of God has placed the means at our command, I am well persuaded and ihink I am sustained in this persuasion, (as I have shewn else- where,) by different passages to be found in the New Testament, that we, as Christian worshippers, may adopt for our own, — with reference to the exterior of our Y/orship, to the order of its distribution and to the solemnity of its effect, the language of the holy Psalmist, (according to the prayer-book translation,) " It is well seen, O God, how thou goesl, how thou, my God and King, goest in the sanctuary." It is, in - k 56 the in the the I ) U tact, upon these principles, if we examine the philo- sophy of the thing, that music, sanctioned by the practice of the Redeemer,* is made an ingredient of devotion. The power of music, by a peculiar and mysterious kind of charm, by the touch of some hid- den spring within us, moves and melts, subdues or elevates the soul of man ; and this natural power, with the heightened effect of artificial culture, is made available in his Religion. A remarkable exemplifi- cation of the principles laid down in some of the foregoing remarks, is found in the following extract from the recent account given hy Dr. Livingstone, of his labors among the African tribes: *' So Ions: as we continue to hold services in the Kotla, the associations^ of the place are unfavorable to solemnity : hence it is always desirable to have a place of worship as soor as possible— anaf it is important too to treat such place with reverence, as an aid to secure that serious attention which religious subjects demand. This will appear more evident when it is recollected that, in the very spot where we bad been engaged in acts of devotion, half an hour after, a dance would be got up." — Missionary Travels^ cap. ix, p. 206. " Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls." I do not know of any occasion within my own experience, which has afforded more room for such a charge as this, than the recent interruptions of our peace in this place. 1 do not mean, any more than the inspired prophet could have meant, that we are to check all advance, to disdain all suggestion of improvement, to resist all indication oi progress. Every principle for which I am here contending, is connected with genuine progress in the Church, The two things go on pari passu together, and, of { if: :% i I ::i] M •Matthew, xxvi, 30. I'', ill ri M this, if we had room for them, many striking and satisfactory proofs might be Stated, in the way of example, as seen throughout the Empire. But there are ideas often propagated and easily accepted among men — nay caught at, in many quarters, with eager- ness, of a necessity for substituting something new which seems to offer itself or to be attainable, in the management of affairs — for breaking up the old routine and brushing aside the inherited prejudices attaching to the received system — they have not yet got ** the real thing " — nothing will effectually be done without this renovation — no life will be infused into the body till new influences are allowed to have their play and the channels of control and authority are changed. All this may be, more or less true : or it may be, more or less, erroneous. Let us, then, with re- ference to our own Church affairs, pass very briefly in review, some principal historical facts of our case, and enquire under what particular auspices and in connection with what set of principles, the work of the Church has been done among us, and how far it has, while thus conducted, earned a title to our con- fidence. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, (already for another reason, noticed) of. which its President, the present Archbishop of Can- terbury, said upon a memorable occasion,* that to withdraw the means from that Society of carrying on its work of evangelization, would be like withdravving the Sun from the natural world, —is a Society which for the last century and a half has been labouring throughout the dependencies of the empire, to plant and extend and cherish* the Church. This Society, * Thfl occasion of the Society's Jubilee, tti 1851. m 67 since the formation of Colonial Sees, has carried on its work in an unswerving recognition of the principles received in the Anglican branch of the Qhurch, and in conce.t, uniformly', with the local ecclcsia'^ticpl authorities. It would take 'ip space which cnr.not he spaied here for the purpose, to trace its labors or those of the sister Society for Promoting Chrisiinn Knowledge, either in a review of the past or in a survey of what it has been recently doing and is doing now, abroad over the world, in which latter aspect it has, among other benefits, provided, through a special department of its labours, for the multipli- cation of the Colonial Sees in all quarters of the globe^ and has furnished a triumphant answer, in the conspi- cuous fruit of this enlargement of the episcopate, to those objectors who imagined that the means of aug- menting the Missionary force of the Church and other machinery of evangelization, would be thence abridged. But not even looking at the adjoining por- tions of British JVorth America, let us remember that, if we can point here to recesses in the forest where the rose of Sharon has been planted by the hands of our labourers : If we can indicate remote and rude places of the Gulf untrodden by any Minister of Re- ligion, till the ground was taken up by our own : If we can shew the work of the Gospel perseveringly carried on, by strained efforts and with meagre re- sources, among feeble flocks scattered over a prodi- gious surface of country, here buried in the woods, there in danger of being absorbed into one with the prior occupants of the country, proud alike in their numbers and ecclesiastical wealth, wha profess the faith of Rome : If we can bless God for a race of Cler- gy, who, whb all the faults attaching to them as men " of like passions" with their brethren of the laity» have been ready, without worldly recompence, to H '* M 58 I I lendure privation,to encounter hardship in the service of Christ, to put their lives in jeopardy in seasons of pes- tilence, and, have been known, in several instances, to fall as victims " upon the service and sacrifice of the faith," — men familiar with prisons, with hospitals, with all the haunts of squalid poverty: — If we can boast of a college, conducted by Professors from English and Scotch Universities, and now constituted a Univer- sity itself, — a College often most ungenerously dis- paraged, often injuriously misrepresented as to its principles,* in its present young and still struggling stage, which was at first set fairly in operation by an indomitable spirit of zeal and self-denial upon the spot, and has been the means of so moulding a great portion of the junior Clergy in the two Lower Canadian Dioceses, as not to be behind the raco of men already described, and can shew many of its alumni ceaselessly devoting themselves to the labours of their Ministry, — never looking back after the hand has been once put to the plough — continually engaged, whether in cities or in the roughestscencs of Missionary labour in the woods, in pastoral work : warning their people from house to house, assiduous in lengthened preparaiion of the youth for Confirmation, in the for- mation of Bible classes, in the establishment of libra- ries for their people and in other eftbrts for the spiritual improvement of their charge : If there has been recently engrafted upon our College a *' junior department" which affords advantages of education, in its different branches, equal, as I believe, to those of any school in North America, and which pre-emi- • The late Hebrew Proressor (Dr. Hellmuth,) has repeatedly told me of his having to fight the battles ot the College (of which he was at one lime a stu- dent) against charges of an unsound tendency in its tenchiiis which, once made, are te echoed round and round, and of his havin«; appealed to the settledj course of instruction and the choice of authors used in that course, as furnishing ampl« refutation of such a charge. 'i\ \e ot les- Js, to fthe Iwith of a and Iiver- dis- its 59 nently excels in familiarizing the minds of boys with the word of God* : — If the Church has been enabled to dispense the bread of life not only to her own desti- tute children in the wilderness but to many who had no claim upon her as their mother ; to dot the back places of the country with decent though humble temples of the living God ; to found permanent insti- tutions for the general work of the Diocese, or the wants temporal and spiritual, of the poorer classts in the city, and all this in the face of disheartening diffi- culties and accumulated obstacles : — If the Church of England has done all this, and more, in the country, — then *' wliat," with the blessing of God, might she not hope to do ' " " which honor bids her do, Were all her children kind and natural ]' and by what earthly agencies, by what human instru- ments has all this, — little, it must be sorrowfully said, compared with what the ruling powers of the empire ought to have given (or to have left) her the means of doing, — by what earthly agencies, by what human instruments has it been done ? — " Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths :" it has all, all been done — and " as the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me of this boasting " — by the hnnds of those who love the Church of their fathers in the stable integrity of her principles and are linked in their religious proceedings, with the cause of ancient authority and order. • The partifis who attack the Church and her institutions in the Diocese, conceive the Bishop, it may be presumed, to be no judge of such matters as these. Whatever my poor judgment may be worth, T '/u judge that the mem« bersofthe Anglican Chuich in Lower Canada tij^'y a special blessing in Bishop's College, and its recently formed appendage ; and to some parents who have opportunity of availing themselves for their children, of those in- adequately appreciated establishments, I would even veniure to apply the well* known line, fortunati nimium tua si bona n6rint. :il; so r. :',;!.; The Society Jor the Propagation of the Gospel, besides the standing maintenance of the Missions, and the allowance for assisting theological students, and a great many occasional grants of a minor class, has t'.vice since my own occupation of the episcopal otfice, given the sum of a thousand pounds sterling to our Colle^ : — has twice, at my own instance, placed five hundred pounds sterling, at my disposal tor the relief of certain pressing exigencies of a personal nature, among the Missionary Clergy; — has expended upwards of two thousand pounds currency in the purchase of glebes and endowments ; it left its allow- ances to us from its ov^n home-funds undiminished, when the Clergy-Reserves fund began to be available in our behalf and even, to no inconsiderable extent, increased them ;* and at this date, — notwithstanding the f>evere necessity for retrenchments in its expendi- ture, on account of the growing demands for its help, throughout the world, — it charges itself with the pay- ment of about three thousand pounds currency annu- ally,! for the benefit of this Diocese of Quebec. The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, a vast number of years ago when we had, a good deal through our own fault, got largely into its debt in our importaiions of the scripture?, the liturgy and ibe va- rious publications upon its catalogue, remitted its OAvn claim. When I first took charge of the Diocese, then comprehending the whole of Canada, of which the v;estern division stood, at the moment, (with reference to our own matters ecclesiastical) in a • The particulars of this increase may be seen by any of my brethren of the Clergy who miy happen to have prese.ved my rircular of he 10th Novr. 1852. •which was published in the original Caiiiuhan Ecclesiastical Gazette, of which the Series was issued at (iueb-c. The same public.ition (Deer. 1851),) wi 1 ha found to afford some padiculars of the increase in tiie number of Clergy, &c,, Itc, ffCMi 1830. t Thisdoea not include .€300 stg.- albwed for assisting divinity Students at the College which is for tiie cwmmo.j benefit of the two Lower Canadian BiOM9«8. Gl trying conjuncture,* that Society placed at my dis' cretion the sum of two thousand pounds sterling for the alleviation of the case. Jt would be too long to tell how many gaps I was thus enabled to stop and how many pressing demands to meet, which, if they had not been met at once, might have passed into permanent failures in the plantation of the Church. The same Society has dispensed through my hands in a series of greater and smaller grants for Church- building and a variety of other objects, the amount of about three thousand pounds, sterling. And thesame Society gave two thousand pounds sterling, in the first instance and one thousand since, (at the solicita- tion of the Principal when collecting in England) to our College, besides four thousand, first and last, to vu;dsthe endowment of the Bishopric of Montreal. This Society is very lightly esteemed by some persons who entertain marked party views in Religion, and by others whose judgment, through accident of circumstances, has been formed from flying rumours and what may not improperly be called religious gossip. It has even been called in question as to its true Protestant character. The whole of these ob- jections will be found, I apprehend, if they are passed through the crucible of fair enquiry, to resolve them- selves into the simple fact that it is strictly and ex- clusively a Church of England Society — not in the sense of restricting its benefits to members of the Church of England, for multitudes of men not within our communion, men of other tongues as well as children of the British Isles> have without disturbance • Under en itain arrangements which appear in a pr'r.ted ofllrial correspon- dence in which the Tieusciry. the i^oloniai Office nnd the Society P. G. weie the parti>9, the then existing stipends weie continued by the (Jovcrnmcnt to ihe Clergy of Upper Canada, vvilhout benetii to any additional clergynnan who might be required, and the cbar»e of the Lower Canada Missionaries being thrown upon the S. P. G.. the aid of this Instiluiion was, for the tinne, witli- drawn from the other section of th« Diocese. 62 :t H ,V i I I of their national or other predilections in Religion, benefited, from the day of its formation, by its supplies — but in the sense of its inviolable connection with Church authority, its refusal to bend with " the pass- ing winds of doctrine" which may prevail at particu- lar seasons, and its help afforded, where it may be necessary, in upholding and explaining the principles of the Church. This may be called one of its de- pnrtmenls. Another department is found in its special armoury against the assaults of ihe host of Home. Nowhere, I believe, can be found a more complete and satisfactory assemblage of the lesser and more familiar works which expose the fallacies and upset the claims of the Papal Church. And with reference to the general character of its publica- tions, it may be sufficient to say that, although no human institution is perfect, and no book but the Bible secure from all possible shade of error, they consist, in no inconsiderable part, of selections from the writ- ings either of our Reformers, some of the earliest in our *' noble army of martyrs" included, — or of our most celebrated divines of a later time. But it has also a copious assortment of small publications pre- pared with certain popularly attractive features which characterize the issues of the press in our own day. I have had many friends* in England who love the good old ways of the Church, and I have had much help from them, according to their ability, on behalf of the Church in Canada. But there was one friend indeed, — a very aged man at the time, and living in a retired and frugal manner, — and him I cannot forbear • The Rev. W. J. D. Waddilove, a near connection of the late Bishop Stewart, ouijht not to be lef' unnnentioned annoni^the benefactors of the Cana* dian Church ; but his exertions have been chiefly made in tue cause of Upper Canada, for which section of the Provi ice he founded the Sltwart Mitsion Fund. Mis. Sirncoe, widow of the first LX. Guyr. of U. 0., has also been liberal in repeated benefactions. !■ 63 from mentioning here, into whose heart it was sent from above, to give me six thousand pounds sterling in a single gift, for the benefit of my Diocese, at my own discretion. This was a sum not to be frittered away in small objects, however many they might be or however good their claim, and it seemed to fall providentially in a crisis when we had newly made the launch at our College, but ran short in our means to man and equip the vessel. Other circumstances, through the divine goodness, singularly conspiring, by which we were enabled to secure fflicient services upon terms of compensation unusually moderate, she proceeded on her voyage. Mr. Harold,* the munifi- cent donor, was a staunch Churchman, and one who did honor to his principles by largely benefiting the bodies and souls of his fellow-men. As a medical man, he practised gratuitously among the poor ; and his executors found that, first and last, he had given about twenty five thousand pounds (I speak from memory) to the Society for the Propofrntion of the Gospel, for its work in different parts of the world. For a long, long tract of time, the two great Socie- ties here in view, were quietly doing their work, in affording to distant lands the ministrations of the Gospel, and sending abroad the holy Scriptures in diff*erent tongues, when no other body of persons in the British Isles, within or without the Church, was engaged in the work at all. Without the stimulus of competition, without the incitements and human encouragements attaching to modern puhlicityt without the help of placards and platform oratory, which we now call in aid, (as we can command it; • Mr. TTarold vfas so {jenuine an observer of the maxim not to let the left hand kn»w what is done by the right, that he was with extreme difficulty persuaded to allow the Divinity Professorship to carry his name ; and when ui\g-pd to give his portrait to be hun? (according to European usage,) in the College Hall, he declared his objection to be insurmountable. '\ \l 61 to our proceedings, without the more prevalent sym- pathy in the cause, the more general awakening upon the subject of Religion, which it has pleased God of late years, to shed down upou the Churches, these ancient institutions, slowly, if you will (^for under such circumstances it could not be otherwise,) and almost silently, yet surely worked on and laid, among other benefits, the foundation of the Colonial Church in the British Empire. And whatever comparative dulness may have attached to all religious enterprises of the day, there are interesting talcs which could be told to shew that it was not a mere formalism in de- votion, or cold and barren profession of the faith in Christ, of which they were instrumental in the propa- gation. Under the auspices, then, and by the agencies which have been here pictured, the work of the Protestant Church of England, in this as in other dependencies of the empire, has been brought up to the point at which it now stands. The Church of this Diocese, is still mainly drawing its nutriment from the bosom of the mother Church at home and carried still in her arms. It is not time yet to turn round and say. We have done with you : Ave can walk alone now, and do not wane to be in leading-strings : or what help we want, we will get from other sources and manage upon a new plan and upon new and more enlightened principles : we will discard all these musty prejudices which hin- der the growth and vigour of the Church. We will \\3i\e 3i irtJohiHon. Alas! but *• what will be seen in the end thereof ?" Where would the Church have been now in the Diocese, if both its support and its administration had not been provided for in connec- tion with that system, the plain, real, honest Church of England system, which some of us would desire to. see superseded by what is new, and perhaps more 65 popularly taking. Where is the hope, the strength, the reliance, under God, of the Protestant Church of England in Canada 7 Look back upon the past and tell. I am not, however, by profession or in principle or in feeling a mere laudator iempcris aclL I bless God for the marvellous improvements of the age and be- lieve them ordained to be gloriously instrumental in advancing the highest interests of the human fami- ly at large. I bless God for the revolution vi^hich has taken place within my own recollection,in the Church — but this is a revolution connected and indeed iden- tified, in many of its most signal benefits, with the recoverify'in practice,of ancient and characteristic prin- ciples of the Anglican system. You, then, who love the reformed Church of England, know, I be- seech you, who are your friends. They are not your friends, although some among them, carried away by ill-examined impressions, may mean you well, — who sound an alarm in this Diocese, about Romanizing tendencies. That shiamachia (for if ever there was a fighting with shadows, a " beating of the air," it is found in this instance) can only do hurt to the cause which is dear to your hearts. The interests of our Anglican Protestantism in this Diocese, I am bold to say it, are much safer in my hands and the hands oi those who support me, than in the hands of men who would bring our fidelity into question. For my own, of course, is brought into question, if I do not seek to put down those who are charged with dispositious to tamper with our Protestant truth. 1 do not wish, — God forbid ! — to extinguish a jealous watchfuln&ss over that truth. I do not blame men who are so tremblingly and sen- sitively alive to the danger of covered advances on I 66 the i>art of Rome, that they start at the imaginary semblance where no reality exists,and are carried be- yond themselves in their excitement. I do not im- pute bad motives to them, simply because they may be prompted by tbese feelings not only to conceive but to propagate a groundless alarm. They may do this — I would to God, though, that we had seen a little more of such a spirit ! — in a spirit of candour, of charity, of Christian forbearance. But I think, in the meantime, — nay I am absolutely sure — that, by that propagation, they are doing mibchief to the cause which they mean to serve. Hard things have been said of tried and faithful Ministers — hard construc- tions have been put upon their doings — sneers and taunts have been bandied about, much ridicule has been employed, and not exclusively on one side* — a weapon which a well-known sceptical writer pro- nounces to be " the test of truth, " and to which he would subject, accordingly, the pretensions of Chris- tianity — but though a playful sally, made in a kindly spirit, is not austerely to be condemned, it would be well to remember, when once religious discord be- gins, those beautiful words of Hooker, " There will come a time when three words uttered with charity and meeknessj shall receive a far more blessed re- ward than three thousand volumes written with dis- dainful sharpness of wit.'* ** Every idle word which men shall speak," whether by tongue or by pen, "they shall give account thereof " in that day. Jt will not look well then, and it will be wise to bear this in memory now, that men — in order to gratify malice, to weaken the force of truths to which they are ♦There is one considerable pamphlet on (he siJo opposflfl to tlie Church, (— I think aboiil thfl fourth in the series nn holh Sides) which I have not «(;en and to which, of course, none of my remark?, whether applicable or not. in tbemselves, ore ir.tended to apply. In fact, I had brought them to a close before ( heaid of its being out. inary dbe- t im- may ceive 1 seen idour, nk, ill at, by cause been istriic- rs and Lile has Je*— a )v pro- licli he • Chris- 1 kindly Qukl be ord be- ire will charity ;sed rc- ^ith dis- 1 which y pen, lay. It to bear gratify hey are lie Church, ! not «»;en or not, in 1 toacloss 67 opposed, to seize, without one thought of its fairness, the readiest engine for their purpose, against their ad- versary, or possibly, "as a madman casteth fire-brands, arrows, and death, and saith. Am I not in sport ?" to indulge in more w'anton amusement, — fly at once to the press, the seeds of the mischief being thus blown throughout the Province and beyond it, and bring disparagement upon the faithful servants of the Most High, weakening their hands in his work and wound- ing their hearts. The cause of the Church of England in this Diocese, has received a check. Rome and others who may have ill-will to her, have had a triumph. The disturbance has been uncalled for: for 1 repeat it — let one instance be proved in which any of my Clergy have outgone either the doctrinal teaching or the ritual directions of their Church. Let one instance be shewn in which they have even availed themselves of certain recent decisions in England under which decorations, and symbols and appurte- nances of worship are pronounced to be lawful^ of which, nevertheless, from the sensation which they might excite, the introduction would not be /'O'/^cJtVjw?. But it has pleased God to humble us ; and we can- not hope that the brand having been thrown in and the fire set running through combustible matter, with gusts of no gentle kind, to fan it in its progress, we can speedily extinguish such a blaze. All that we can do is to hold fast to cur duty in the sight of God, and " through evil report and good report," through rough or through smooth, to labour that we may approve ourselves to Him, and be prepared to stand before the Son of ]\Ian — eaj nestly studying and stri- ving at the same time, '• if it be possible, as much as lieth in us, to live peaceably with all men." To Him we must contide the issue ; and He who can ** bring 68 good out of evil " may perhaps even in this world, though I do not anticipate any such result within the term of my own service, make the damage which we now suffer, not only to leave no hurtful trace, but to redound to the credit and prosperity of the Church. So shall it be seen that Per damna,per casdes, ab ipso Ducit opes animumque ferro. A PPEN DIX. Note A. (Page 22.) A feather, it is familiarly said, may shew which way the wind is blowing, A small circunislonce ma} , tlierefoie, be mentioned to shew whether this Diocese has been administered, by the hands which now hold the helm, in the maintenance of any marked pariy- views. 'J'he question of the vestment to be worn in the pulpit, — whether the guwn or the surplice, has been, like many oilier iriflmg differences in the world, made the foundation, eiiher v\ay, of a parti/ 'badge. Certain adverse remarks were made, some years ago, upon the practice of this Diocese, — (ihey were found afterwards to have proceeded from a most respectable Clergyman and a fiiend of my own, not now belonging to it,) — on account of the use of the goun ; and blame was imputed to myself in the matter. 1 did not wish to spend time or labour upon such a question : but it was thrown upon me to examine the subject and to pronounce upon it. And I came to my conclusion in favor of the gozcn." This conchuion, in the eyes of some maintainers of the surplice^ would Btamp me at once as a low Churchman. They would not want to look further. I forbore, however, according to the advice which my • In Cathedrals, where there is a Chapter, the members of tho Chapter prench in the surplice, strangi-rs in the gown. Archdeacon Harrison's Histori- cal Inquiry into the Rub ic, exhibits in lull, the aulhurilies whicti dear upon this question. Sooie extiacts fiom this woikwee given in the Appendix lo my Charge of 1848. It must be confessed thai when the prayer for the Gburch Militant is read and there is only one clergyman to ofhciaie, the effect is exc«edingly awkward of his c/iangins his dress twice, which be must do if he preaches in the goum. 69 metropolitan had then recently given, from any sort of interference where the use of the surplice had been previously established without creating noise or ngitalioit ; and at a Visitation of tlie whole Clergy held in tlie Parish Church or Montreal, where the surplice was in vogue, I directed the preacher to conform to ihe use of the place. The Congregation have had the good sense, 1 believe, never to allow themselves to be disturbed about ihe question. I might appeal to not a few other examples of a similar kind, in my administration of matters ecclesiastical and to some nearer homo than the above. Note B. (Page 36.] The Laity, so far from having grounds for conceiving alarm at the idea of Ecclesiastical discipline, are parties intimately concerned in the desirableness of its revival, under proper guards and defini- tions, in the Church. Tlie notion of its being something Popish is curious enough, when it is considered what a reproach it has sometimes been made against the Church of England, by dissenters ordisatTected Churchmen, that men are so loosely and promiscuously admitted to religious privileges within her bosom — and that nothing is seen in her practice corresponding to that of ^^ reading out^^ offending members in some other denominations. Presbyterians who emigrate, very frequently bring with them a pastoral certifi- cate to the effect that they are under no Church censure and may be received to participate in all the benefits of their Communion. And to shew in how close a manner those principles are united with the most marked and severely tested developments of Protestan- tism, the following example may be taken from that part of Weiss'a Hisiori/ of the French Protestant Refugees, which refers to the days of their persecution (Herbert's translation, New York Edition, Vol I. l^ook 3, chap. 1.) *' During the years 1G86, 1687, and 1C88, the consistory of the French Church of London, which met at least once a week, was occupied almost entirely in receiving confessions of repentance from those who, afier abjuring their religion to escape death, had eluded the vigilance of their persecutors, and hastened to find on a more liberal soil, the power of resuming the ancient faith. The ministers examined their evidence, listeneil to the recital of their sufferings, and readmitted them to the faith of their brethren. In the session of March 5th, 1686, fifty fugitives, v,atives of Bordeaux , of Saintes, of Balbec, of Havre, of Fecamp, of Montivilliers, of Tonneins, in this manner abjured the Roman Catholic Religion, to which they i P i. il 13 had feigned to be reconciled. The list of April 30th, of the follow- ing year, contains sixty naincy, that of the fu>t Siinihiy in May fifty-four. Duringlhe sin^^le month of May, of the year 16S7, four hundred and ninety seven persons were reconciled to the Cliurch, which they had seemed to ab:nu!i)n." I apprelienil that Dt. Beavi'n's idea of the recnncili'iiion of peni- ttnts, wliatever may have been i he character of thi'ir oiience, by ihe haniis of the iU//j/A//v/, coiresponds, essentially, vvilii what is here described. In England such remains of this discipline as yet exist in any formal shape, are matters very much reserved to the Kcclesiasti- cal Court*. Among ourselves any ])ari!cular rogulalions which may be required upon the suliject, will fall within the province of our Synods. The parts res:per,tively taken by the Clertiy and Laity in the acts of excornmunica'ion and re-admissinn, (lor it appears that the Laily bore a share in them) according to A|)ostolic usage, and that whicli still prevailed in se\eral succeeding ages, ore thus slated by Whitby, one of our l)est and most learned commentators, in his note upon 2^ Cor. ii, G. •'In the piimi ive Chiroh. \vhpn any person was to be excomminiicatetf, the laity were fust consulted about he lact, ihe j^uiliy person p'euiled iniheir jj'cseiice : they jiiils;i-d lo re-admission of them into lavor, and to the conitnunion of the Church ; but then iheir actual adt^ii^sioll \va< peifonned by ijie impusi- tion of Vie hands of the lii-liop and cler.y, the |.ower of the keys, Sjiih l;e bi.ing given to tln;Ui by Christ, sayuig, Thou art I'e'.er, 8iic." Nothing, certainly, can be more opposed to th.e Gospel than to make one human being dependent for the welfare of his soul, upon any arbitrary power or supposed authority which works like a churm residing in another. IS'olhing more opposcil to the sentiment and practice of the primitive Church, than w hat Archi/ishop Ussher, as quoted by Chillingvvorth, (both niiiintainiiig liio legitimate power of the keys) calls " this nc^v pick-lock of sacramental conjessinn obtruded upon men's cons-ciences ts neces.-ary to salvation, i)y the Canons of the late conventicle of 'I'rcnt, in the M Session.'' A IVlinister may help his brother in spirilutd dilliculties and pronounce him in peace with the Church : it isa feature of the Minisl.'rial ofhce : he may preserve the Church from scandal by an atitliorilalive ex- clusion from privileges, and his ministerial acts, rightly and reason, ably exercised according to the received rules of the Church, carry Mi. 71 the snnction of lieavtMi : but if he wouKl interpose the stamling n-^cessity of a recourse to himself as superseding the direct recourse of the sinner to Christ who died for him, this id a fearful usurpation and tliere is none aj^iinst which we oui^lit more decidedly io protest, [Tpon a review of wliat I have siid, in the foregoing " Considcru' tions,^^ on this pirLiuular fju^'joct, I find myself to have le(t open the siipj)osiiion tliat, l)ciiiff Included in certain characteristics of th9 Aiisilican systetn which [ have numhercd from I to (i, it outflit. in the same ininner and ili'gree with the rest, to form matter of familiar instruct'on, &c. But this is an idea which i by no means intended to convey. And with respect to otliera among the six several points, my own practice as we'l as the language of my charges, upon differ- ent occasions to the Clergy, will abundantly shew that I do not regard them as subjects which should engross any such portion of pastoral instruction, especially in the pulpit, as to interfere with, much less to sup[)Iant, the continual and earnest exhibition of the grand practical and doctrinal points of the Gospel. Note C. (Page 3S.) It is vcrv possible and very common to hold the principles of the Church ofl'iioland in all faithful strictness and yet to interchange ihe most perfect good-will nnd to cultivate the most friendly rela- tions with those who differ from us. Cum talis sis^ utindm noster esses has been happily applied by the Hishop of Fredericton, to the case. I believe 1 may claim a mutual feeling of friendship with Presbyterian divines whose predilections in Religion I am no more jilcely to inducMice than they are likely corresporidently to shake my own convictions. " If my olTence be in my pen," says the good Bishop Hall, under the pressure of Puritan persecution, "which hatli, as it could, under- taken the defence of that Apostolical Institution " [the institution of Kpiscopacy] " though tcith all modestij and fair respects to the " Churches differing from us, I cannot depreciate a truth, and such " I know this to be : which is since so cleared by better hands that " 1 will hope the better informed world cannot but sit down con- *' vinccd. Neithu' doubt 1 but that as metals receive the more " Iu*tre with often rubbing, this truth, the more agitation It under- *' goes, shall pppear more glorious. Only may the good Spiiit of " the Almighty speedily dispel all ihosc dusky prejudices from the " minds of men which may hinder them from discerning so clear *' a light." Letter f/*om the Tower. U (I 72 We long for better un lerstoo;! principles of Unity and Church Order, an I for the immense, the unspeakalile advantages which the cause of Cliristianity would thence gain ; but v/henever we see men who are faithfully and efPciently counterworking th« mischief of the Kvil Spirit, wo would iiot forbid them because they are not found wulkins with us , Note D. (Page 46.) In the same way it might be asked whether the eminent Reformer Theitciore Ueza, the great ally and associate of Calvin, or whetlier our own learned Bishop Pearson was a Tractarinn, because they both i^'^npen to maintain the perpetu d virginity of Mary the mother of our Lord, an opinion on account of which 1 find that one of our Clergy here has been !?tigmatized as a favorer of llomanism. Upon this point, however, 1 quite agree with the great hody of commenta- tors, lilngiish and foreign, later or more ancient, Churchmen or dis- senters, vviiose names are of weiglit,* that, alihou<»h it is an open quesiion, (the language of Scripture being susceptible of either the affirmative or the negative interpretation, and the arguments ^/ an inferential nature leaving us still in the region of speculation,) it 's for that very reason unnecessary to touch it and unwise to pronounce upon it, The Church of England, it is needless to say, has abstained from doing so. • See for example, in lie, Calvin. Grotnis, Diddridsre Scott, Mant he, &p. — V/hitby combas certain of the aoiiments in favor of the perpetual virg niiy but at the same tinae, condemns the agiiation of the question, quoting the senti- ment of St, Basil to the same efiect. .• .'.1 ' >■' . f: * 1 ' : ; I'uiii;; ;.': ■ ;r>i- ) |i'.', tlnii" (Un.AK.) ,■; (^ r I-: WEi .:. ,.. 1 ... CHURCH OF ENGLAND I i Y S S S C I i T I N . ;Ft:"'.' I\ I'oply to oii'Hiirie.s which ha\ i; ixiun addi'os.scij tn lhf)ii n]tiii! iirittd's coriiiectcii with th« ivni)roiU^hiaff ulcctioii of <.U'l<'gat,t'!! ic Synod. U\o Association co;iuiiiv.- lii it. ilioy ciiiiiot hotii'i- niipply the ilesiit'd iiiroriiiai.ioii Ihait »>/ liirowiii;; thfj rollo'vitj;r ojruioi!- aiul >^ii',^^c>lioiis into tlit! lonii of a Ciniilni' : — 1. Thu oioction iims-t takf ])\;\fv t'ltlicr at >]i>>ti'r or ;il a spM; ai luuijtiiii; call>'(l liy the Clcrji'yniail. whieli Jiiay in! filhtn- bi'Toic or alit-r Eantm'. 2. At tho Kastcr inoetiiii?. llic Oior;4yin;ui. il proi^ciii. may prij^id". ir ab.-oiit, thl.\:!(.". lliL' i.ii>iai'ss tho c'ifCkiua ol'dologatud belongs to Uiu l^aiiy. and to tii:'iii nl(Miu. ;i. Vol'.'r.s inii't 1)0 of thu full aga <»t' ll ycai'i : uiu.?i hv wiiiiiii lin puis!), mission, or eui'O. or liuloa^' to the oongrtviatioii wIiitc thfy voio; and must, at tiie inijotinj^'. drolaiv* in uriLing. tliai th(\y art! luumbors of tiic LMiiii'd Gliiirch oi' Eii^huul and Ii"'- lauii. ami belong to no othjr religious doaoniiiiutlon. 4. It is not sulUoiout tliat voiur.s' iiamijs aio (Mifoliml jiruvious lo till' eleciio.i ; ihi.' above declaration (s;'o N'o. '.'>.) of iii.'!t;iKT- hliip uitist bo made at tlio m.'ctiu'^-. 5. No poi'e^on can votu Iiy proxy, (i. A OhTjiyman has no vote lor a Lay deicu'itc. 7. Fomali'rt liavo no vole. «. All males within the l)ari^ll. uii.--ion, or cure, ( the congregation, ',viio .shall m ilio th;; reiinisite declaraiitm (^ee Ko. ;>,) may vote for delegates, wliatever leligiuii, d" nomination tboy may have formerly belong>'d to. P. Neither ill! (Jluurman, nor any uiiier pi'rsoii, can Iminiiv j'efnse the vole of any on^i who maices the recjniiMte di.uljiia- tion (.-eoNo. ;i), nor object to the elecl.ion*of any deie^at( who is duly chosv'n by tli! peopl..'. The law does not require that delegat-s ^4lonId '•e coaimani M. ■(■ b' Inn 'Ml to 10. caats. nor llud they :;!ionld live within the tfrn-tiun or eurc. nor belong to ilie congregation : piovided only t'lai lii'v .n-t rncrabeiij of the Church. ■* ;-'('P thp I'onn "" n-(.',i.,.;0'i :i:l . f Order the ca men V of the found Inll Theodi our ow both hf of our 1 Clergy this poi tora, ^r senterg, question afRrmati inferenti that very upon it, from doi • See f( Whitby C( but at the orient of St 14. AsHociatiou to tUc Laity ^^^ ^^^^^^ prtsi «.,„ of at least one year's stamlin^. Uu^r^h.-CAi -(Article 2ad.) to be \minvK .(Article IV.) Icastonoein every «"« 7"''' I^hs. I. &»■) _(Avt. Sth-) lii! ^^"'^nS^s:nadei;ai:cat a "X^S^I^Axoh' the annua) to Btop all W^^^t^jig pleasure. The /«'« t, and to dissolve the Syja«(i^ ' ^^ the time _ot aojou .^^^ „ noticed at P'^""- /,•.•„„ thereof. __-:—— 13 of the second edition tu Ir llii'oe I ally rt;- Jl5;illot.t |!iiu>t he |ll llU'Ct, biinteJ at I'ss oi' the isidciit. (liil'ors in 'd to llu'ir laro tbn two Iwooii tliL'in coinmen(lo of their Address, and ut l)age Kiof the second eililion thereof. For the above among other reasons, the Ass)ciation considi'r it to be very important that the congr(!galions should only elect as delegates, persons who agree to support in tin; Synod the princi- ples advocated in their Atldress to the Laity of the Diocese. * Tlie fdllcnviiii; is tlie form of Oeciivnitiiiii wliich evoiy voter must miiiiu, in writiin{, before lie v(,tes : — I. (ir we) tlio uriilorsigiKHl. clo^aro tliiit I am (i>r xm: nV'') ;i iiKiiil)Pr (or mrin,- in-rs) i\( the I'uiti'il tliiireli of I'jii^liui'l :iuil hijluiid, iiiiil Ipl'Iiiii;;' Id no otlior rcli gums iloiioiiiiiiiitiou. Till! (leclanitioii may be iirejiaroil bcfoioli.aml, .aii'l li.iuilcil in at tin' iniH'tiii'-f . Hovciiil iKMscjiis may "ileclaro"' .)ii tlio same pifC of paiior, ami llioso ivlio an.' iinabluto wrilo must niako tln'ir cross or mark in the iiroseiico of two witnesses wlio nuist siijn as such. t Tlio liallol at I'li'ctious Is used as follows : — luioti voter writes simply the names of the persons he votes lor on a jiiece of paper, which he then piu.i iiil" a box or hat. When all have voted in that way, the pieee.- nf paper are taken out anil exiimineil by tsvo of the voters chosen by tlie meetinif for thai purpose. nnd calltd " seriiliiiecrs."' Those person.! lirst see Ihat the nuiiiberof pieces of jiaper aj;ree with the number of voters present, and after examiniua; the pajiers tliey report to the meeting the names tiiat have reci'ived ipint votes, and who arc theiel'ore elected, bi tlie event of a lie, the Ballot .should be repeated, uulii a majority i.s obtained. blo the Synod ? ho pleases ; ice ; and even xos the annual )urnment, an