other. I should therefore consider, as a preferable mode of aiding the General Missionary Society, occasional collections, to meet special exigences, or to answer particular appeals. Of this description was the recent call from the state of Ohio for pecuniary aid, for the support of missionaries, which was answered in this state, and particularly in the city of New-York, and in the city where we are now assembled, with a promptness and liberality which prove that, strong and numerous as are the claims upon us from the destitute por tions of our own diocess, we are not insensible to the urgent wants of our brethren in the western states.

The field for missionary labours in this diocess is very extensive. Many portions of the state have been recently settled, where, as well in some older settlements, there are opportunities of establishing our church. The want, however, of clergymen, and especially of the means of supporting them as missionaries, is a great obstacle to its increase, and is a loud call on episcopalians to continue and to increase their contributions for the purpose of extending the ministrations and ordinances of religion to their brethren who are deprived of them.

The thanks of the church are due to the New-York Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society, and the societies auxiliary thereto, for the funds which they have collected and placed at the disposal of the committee for propagating the gospel, to whom the appointment and control of missionaries are confided by the convention. There are auxiliary societies organized in Zion Church, in Christ Church, in Grace Church, and in St. Paul's and St. John's Chapels, in the city of New-York; and those churches which have not these societies organized are not backward in their contributions at the public collections for missionary purposes. There are also similar institutions existing at Geneva, Utica, and some other places in the state; and the collections elsewhere for the purpose prescribed by the canon, are generally made. The missionary society has authorized me to draw on the treasurer for the sum of one thousand dollars, collected by them

and by the auxiliary institutions. In the hope of the increase of contributions, and in compliance with urgent solicitations for the purpose, some new missionary stations have been established; but it did not seem prudent to assign a higher salary to these new missionary stations than one hundred dollars per annum, fifty dollars less than the other missionary salaries. And still there are many urgent applications for missionary aid. One of the last which I have received is from Fredonia, Chautauque county, in the south-west corner of the state. It contains so striking an exhibition of the situation of the new settlements, that I am induced to lay before you an extract from the letter of the gentleman who addressed me on behalf of the vestry :——

"There are but few episcopal famifies here, and, as is generally the case in new settlements, they are poor, and need assistance in the commencement. And although we are thus situated, there appears to be a disposition in the people, and especially among those who, strictly speaking, are attached to no religious society, to connect themselves with the church; and if we were blessed with the labours of a good minister, and had suitable accommodations for the congregation, there is not a doubt, in my mind, that in one year our society would become large and respectable.

"This fertile and healthy section of the state, (Chautauque,) which but a few years since was a wilderness, contains, at this day, a population of 15,000 inhabitants; and, incredible as it may seem, there is not a church, or house of public worship, in the county, except in the town of Portland, where a small building has been erected for the Presbyterian society at that place. With a view to accommodate our society, we have put up a large school-house, which will probably be finished in decent style by the 15th of October, and sufficiently large to contain from two to three handred persons. The property of this house is in the trustees of the school district. To fit this building for the use of the church has called forth individual exertions and considerable ex

pense, which cannot, and ought not, to be a charge on the district. We intend to have a stove and a small bell for the house. These expenses, thus laid out, will exhaust all, and, in truth, more than we are at present able to furnish."

After stating the want of Prayer Books, he observes

"We are also destitute of a minister, and at present unable to support one, If the friends of the church-if the missionary society-if those whose bounty is bestowed on foreign missions, should extend the fostering hand to this destitute part of the diocess, their charities would not be thrown away or misapplied. On the contrary, we believe a little assistance would be the means of enabling us, in a few years, not only to support the church here, but also to contribute to the general fund. Much is done for the spread of the gospel in foreign countries, whilst thousands at home, by reason of their poverty, are destitute of the ministrations and ordinances of the church, And, although no person has a right to control the bounties of others, is it not a Christian duty first to provide for our own household ?"

Many are the new settlements nearly similarly situated, where our church could be established without difficulty, could they be supplied with missionaries. Let me then earnestly press you, my brethren of the clergy and of the laity, to state to the episcopalians of the diocess, as it may be in your power, that many opportunities exist for establishing new congregations, if the means of aiding missionaries were furnished; and to endeavour to call forth their contributions for this highest object of Christian charity, the extension of the blessings of the gospel to the destitute members of our own household.

From my official station, I have so many opportunities of observing the powerful claims of destitute congregations upon the zealous exertions and liberal contributions of their brethren, and their wants so often press upon my feelings, that I cannot cease to lament that so large a portion of the bounty of

episcopalians flows in a chanuel over which their own church has no control, and from which it derives no immediate advantage.

One would think it obvious that it is the duty of episcopalians consistently and zealously to bend all their efforts to the advancement of their own church, and "to avoid all admixture of administrations," and of exertions " in what concerns the faith, the worship," and the ministry of the church. On this subject there is so much of sound wisdom, of correct principle, and of decided and true policy, united with Christian meekness and benevolence, in the observations contained in a recent address of the bishop of the church in Pennsylvania, to the convention of his diocess, that, notwithstanding their length, I am induced to lay them before you. They derive high interest and force, from the peculiar agency which their venerable author has had in our ecclesiastical councils, and from his long experience in the concerns of our church. These are the observations to which I allude:

"There is a subject on which your bishop wishes to record his opinion, matured by the long experience of his ministry, and acted on by him, as he thinks, to the advantage of the church. It is the conduct becoming us towards those of our fellow Christians who are severed from us by diversity of worship or of discipline, and in some instances by material contrariety on points of doctrine.

"The conduct to be recommended, is, to treat every denomination, in their character as a body, with respect; and the individuals composing it with degrees of respect, or of esteem, or of affection, in proportion to the ideas entertained of their respective merits; and, to avoid all intermixture of administrations in what concerns the faith, or the worship, or the discipline of the church.

"On the conduct to be observed towards every denomination, it is not intended to recommend silence concerning any religious truth, from the mistaken delicacy of avoiding offence to op posing error; nor to censure the expos

ing of the error, if it be done in a Chris tian spirit, and in accommodation to time and place. To take offence at this, is to manifest the spirit of persecution, under circumstances which have happily disarmed it of power. But when, instead of argument, or in de signed aid of it, there is resort to misrepresentation and abuse; or, when the supposed consequences of an opinion are changed as the admitted sentiments of the maintainer of it; these are weapons as much at the service of error, as at that of truth; are the oftenest resort ed to by the former; and are calculatedto act on intelligent and ingenuous minds, as reason of distrust of any cause in which they may be employed.

"It is no small aggravation of the evil, that it tends to retard the time, which we trust will at last be brought about by the providence of God; when, in consequence of friendly communications, arising out of the ordinary intercourses and charities of life, there will be such an approximation of religious societies in whatever can be thought essential to communion, as they shall "with one heart and one mouth glorify God." For, to those who have attended to the first workings of what has ended in the divisions and subdivisions among Christian people, it must have been evident, at least in the greater number of instances, that with diversity of sentiment, there might have continued the 66 unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," had it not been for the intrusion of personal injury, or provocation, the effects of passion or of interfering in terests, which have sometimes insensibly induced the persuasion of service done to the cause of God, when, in fact, human views had a dominant share in determining the conduct.

"There has been referred to, in favour of the point sustained, the danger of exciting and increasing unfriendly feeling between differing denominations. It is on this principle-although there are other considerations tending to the same effect-that your bishop has resisted all endeavours for an intermixture of administrations, in what concerns the faith, or the worship, or the discipline of the church. In every

known instance, in which it has proceeded from the usurpation of authority by individuals, it has been productive of conflicting opinion, and of needless controversy. On some occasions, our institutions have been treated with disrespect, and doctrines unknown in them have been taught, within our walls. There have even been advanced claims of rights, to what was granted as temporary indulgence; and thus our property in religious houses has been rendered insecure: all under the notion of liberality and Christian union. It would be painful to have it supposed, that any reference is here had to the many respectable ministers of other denominations, whose characters are in contrariety to the offences stated. Of the intrusion of such men, there is no apprehension entertained at present: and if the door should hereafter be thrown open, the most forward to enter it would be persons of the most moderate pretensions in talent and in acquirement.

"It is confidently believed, that what is now said, would not be offensive to the more respectable and prominent persons, whether clerical or lay, in the concerns of other religious societies; who would probably concur in the declaration, that the contrary assumption, when carried into effect, in opposition to the governing authority in any religious denomination, is the intolerance, which, in former ages, pursued its designs by penal laws; but is now reduced to the necessity of making hollow professions of fraternity: the object being the same, with difference only in the means. By any among ourselves favouring such designs, for what they may conceive to be a righteous end; it should be considered, that, however commendable the being "zealously affected," there is the qualification of 66 a good thing;" and that there can be no goodness in what is contrary to modesty, and tends to unnecessary controversy and division: for, if the attempted intermixture should be accomplished, there must be the severance of those who would "seek the old paths," not without sensibility to the hinderances opposed to the "walking in them.” Thus, there would be an increase of di

vision, growing out of what had been professedly undertaken for the healing of it.

"It is difficult to be on the present subject, without giving occasion to the injurious charge of bigotted attachment to our communion to guard against which, consistently with the acknowledgment of decided preference, it may be expedient to be more particular.

"Our church calls herself Episcopal. She affirms episcopacy to rest on scriptural institution, and to have subsisted from the beginning. On the varying governments of other societies, she pronounces no judgment. The question is, not whether we think correctly, but whether we are to be tolerated in what we think. If this be determined in the affirmative, we must, to be consistent, interdict all other than an episcopalian ministry, within our bounds.*

May I be excused for making a few additional observations on the topic noticed in this part of the address of my venerable father in the episcopacy. The distinction is important between episcopacy, considered as the government of the church, and episcopacy considered as the constitution of the Christian ministry. In the latter sense, episcopacy, strictly speaking, means the ministry, as subsisting in the three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons ; the bishops possessing particularly the power of ordination, of superintendence, and of supremacy in government. In this sense, episcopacy is of scriptural institution," and has subsisted from the beginning." But episcopal govern ment means the particular organization by which the bishops, the clergy, and the laity, exercise, in their appropriate spheres, the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers; including also the officers instituted by the church

for these and other purposes. This organiza

tion, and these officers differ in different countries; the Church of England, for example, in these respects, being constituted in a very different manner from the Episcopal Church in

this country, Episcopal government, in this sense, is of human arrangement, no form of government, as shown by the "judicious Hooker," in his Ecclesiastical Polity, being unalterably prescribed in God's word. But episcopacy, in its strict sense, denoting the three or ders of bishops, priests, and deacons, with their respective functions, is the sanje in all episcopal ohurches. These orders, with their appropriate powers, are unchangeable; resting on "scrip tural institution;" and have accordingly "subsisted from the beginning" as our church declares, "from the Apostles' times," As this is the sentiment of the Episcopal Church; as in common with their presbyterian brethren, episcopalians maintain the necessity of an ex ternal commission, derived by succession from the Head of the church, the "being called of God, as was Aaron," in order to constitute a

"Again; our church is decidedly in favour of a form of prayer, believing it to be sanctioned by divine ordainment under the law; by the attendance of our Saviour and of his apostles, on composed forms in the synagogues and in the temple; and by indications of their being in use in the primitive church. We do not judge harshly of the public prayers of our fellow Christians; but we allege, that among ourselves, the people are not to be dependent on the occasional feelings, or the discretion, or the degree of cultivation of an officiating minister. With such views, it is contrary to what we owe to the edification of the people, were we to give way to the introduction of the latter species of devotion.

"Once more.

That our churchteaches the doctrines of grace, and holds them to be of paramount importance, is obvious to all. Man's utter want of righteousness by nature; his absolute incapacity of merit, whether in the state of nature, or in that of grace; his being under the government of passions impelling to sin, any further than as counteracted by principles derived from grace; the agency of the Holy Spirit in this, going before, that he may have a good will, and working with him in the exercise of it; and finally, the meritorious ground of all benefit, in the propitiatory offering of the Redeemer; are not only affirmed in our institutions, but pervade them. We rejoice, so far as any of our fellow Christians consent with us in acknow

ledging the said essential truths of scrip

ture.

But in some public confessions, we think we find embodied with those truths, dogmas neither revealed in scripture, nor deducible from its contents; and, in some instances, contradicting what our church explicitly

lawful ministry; and as the offices of ordination declare that God, " by his divine providence and Holy Spirit appointed divers orders of ministers in his church," among which are bishops, with their appropriate power of ordination, of conveying the ministerial commission; is there not a further reason than that of consistency for our "interdicting all other but an episcopal ministry with our bounds?" There is a certainty that such a ministry has a lawfu! commission. Can there be certainty as to any other? J.L. H.

teaches. The introducing of such matter, among ourselves, is what we cannot countenance: and introduced it would be, under the intermixture here objected to. Of this we have had instances, where an alien agency has been obtruded: and, if it should be countenanced, the consequences would be in the greatest degree injurious.

"If, after all, there should be a leaning in any mind to the plausible plea of liberality, let there be an appeal to the fact, which will bear a strict investigation, that every proposal to the purpose, when explained, amounts to the surrendering of one, or of another of our institutions, without conformity to then in any instance.

"Brethren-It is fit, that there should be explicitly declared, the motive for the present expression of opinion. It has been confidently acted on by the deliverer of it, in alliance with esteem for worth, in whatever individual or body of men it was discerned to reside. It cannot be expected, that he will continue much longer to sustain any of his opinions, either by argument, or by example. He hopes, that they who may be expected to survive him, entertain similar views of what the exigences, and even the existence of our church require, But, lest an effort to the contrary should hereafter be made by any, he wishes to oppose to it, and to leave behind him, his premonition; and to attach to it whatever weight, if there should be any, may be thought due to his long experience and observation. Under this impression, he has made it a part of his official address, to appear, for the purpose stated, on your journal."

A strict adherence to these principles and views, stated with so much interest, must indeed be considered as "required by the exigences, and even the exist ence of our church." The spirit of them seems to me applicable to all associations for religious purposes where Epis copalians unite with those "severed from them by diversity of worship, discipline, or by contrariety in points of doctrine." We ought indeed to" treat every denomination in their character as a body with respect, and the individuals composing it with degrees of re

spect or esteem, or of affection, in proportion to the ideas entertained of their respective merits." But a due regard both to principle and sound policy, and even Christian harmony, requires, in the judgment of him who addresses you, that we avoid all intermixture with them in efforts for religious purposes; and that for the propagation of the Christian faith, by whatsoever particular mode, we associate only among ourselves, and act exclusively under the guardianship and authority of our own church.

The views founded on this opinion, the propriety of which seems to me so obvious, which originally influenced me with respect to the union of episcopalians with other denominations in Bible societies, have gained strength by subsequent reflection and observation. These societies seem to me erroneous in the principle on which, in order to secure general co-operation, they are founded-the separation of the church from the word of God-of the sacred volume from the ministry, the worship, and the ordinances which it enjoins as of divine institution, and the instruments of the propagation and preservation of gospel truth. As it respects churchmen, the tendency of these societies has appeared to me not less injurious than the principle on which they are founded is erroneous. They inculcate that general liberality which considers the differences among Christians as non-essential; and they thus tend to weaken the zeal of episcopalians in favour of those distinguishing principles of their church which eminently entitle her to the appellation of apostolical and primitive.

The success of institutions which are erroneous in the principle on which they are founded, or in the measures which they adopt, cannot vindicate them; except on the maxim, that "the end justifies the means." Nor is this success to be considered as evidence of the favour of heaven: for then, divine sanction would be obtained for many heretical and schismatical sects, which, at various times, have obtained great popularity, and corrupted and rent the Christian church.

It is a satisfaction to me, that in