CHAPTER XVIII.

A. D. 1817. Et. 42.

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Second Charge to the Clergy, The Corruptions of the Church of Rome'-Death of Dr. Bowden-Character-Death of Bishop Dehon-Character-State of the College-Letter from Rufus King-Anonymous Note-Letter to Rev. Dr. Romeyn-Letters from and to Dr. Smith; to Dr. Berrian-Painful Letters from an old friend-Letter from Dr. Strachan, Norris, &c.-Theological Seminary-Endowment-Address before the Young Men's Missionary Society-Interest in Sunday SchoolsAddress.

AT the opening of the Convention this year, (1817) Bishop Hobart delivered a second 'Charge' to his clergy, bearing the title, when printed, of 'The Corruptions of the Church of Rome contrasted with certain Protestant Errors.' This production is, unquestionably, among the finest displays of hortatory eloquence we find among his writings, nor only so: it bears, also, the marks of that sagacity which distinguished his mind in looking into the future; and which bodied forthcoming evils in the spirit, not of fear, but of wise precaution. But it bears, also, his stamp in another point-the well-balanced mind, that was not to be forced from its centre by the out-cries of the multitude. The cry of Popery' and 'Romanism,' on the one hand, could not drive him into countenancing fanaticism; nor could his fear of fanaticism, on the other, blind him to the gross corruptions and rising influence of the Church of Rome. To the Protestant Episcopal Church the path of safety was one-strict adherence to its own standards of faith and formularies of devotion, with an evangelical exhibition of both. That such was its true course, many might have seen, but not all were

able to maintain. There is nothing harder to resist than the contagion of sympathy, and it is, perhaps, the nicest criterion of real strength of character. He who receives impressions may be talented, but is not great; that title belongs to him only (setting aside the moral question) who gices the impression. Such throughout his course, was Bishop Hobart, he took not the colour of the times, but on the contrary, men who came near him grew like him.

The charge opens with the duty of ministers of the Church to question these spirits of the age, 'to try the spirits, whether they be of God.'

'But it is a duty,' he adds, far from being inviting. Much more pleasant is it to swim with than to stem the current; to be carried along by the popular gale, than, with incessant and wearying exertion, to struggle against it; to be hailed by the applause of hosts in whose ranks, or as whose leaders, men bear to a triumph the opinions or the measures of the day, than to meet their odium by refusing to enlist with them, or, by opposition, somewhat to perplex their progress, if not to diminish their success. And therefore, in general, the method of insuring a prosperous issue to any plan, and a universal reception to any opinions, is to make them popular; for thus are enlisted in their cause all that is weak and all that is selfish in our nature.'

'But I forget,' he adds, that I am addressing those, who, when at the altar of their LORD and Master they were invested with the office of ministering in sacred things, pledged themselves over the symbols of his body and blood, to make the unity and purity of his Church, established for the salvation of men, the object of their supreme and constant exertions; on that altar sacrificed all those human regards that would seduce or deter them from the faithful discharge of their duty; who are supported by the confidence that the Master, whose truth and Church they are defending, will never forsake them. Now comforting them with those hopes which the world can neither give nor take away, and hereafter, swallowing up the remembrance of past afflictions in the rewards of immortality. These, my clerical brethren, are the consolations that fortify, with more than human strength, the spirit of the Christian minister against severer trials than

any to

which, in the present day, he is called. Under their influence the rack lost its terrors, and the stake the torture of its flames.'

The preceding extract was too powerful and just to be curtailed; it may be taken as a fair sample of that native, copious, and overflowing eloquence which never failed him in cases of emergency, and oftentimes carried away the hearers, as by a flood. But it is argumentative, as well as hortatory. After tracing the errors of Romanism to their source, and those of Protestantism to the natural tendency of the human mind to rush into extremes, he thus argues-If the Bible cease not to be the charter of salvation, by being traced through the Roman Church to the age of inspiration, how

Does Episcopacy lose its claims to a divine origin because, on its simple and apostolic foundation has been reared the gorgeous and unhallowed structure of the Papal hierarchy? If one extreme approves its opposite, if the abuse of an institution renders necessary the rejection of it; if usurped prerogative justifies resistance to legitimate power, what is there in religion-what is there in civil polity-what is there in the departments of science -what is there in social life, that would remain sacred? Let not, then, brethren, your attachment to the primitive institutions of your Church be in any degree shaken by the aspersion that they symbolize with papal superstitions. Be not intimidated from avowing and defending the scripture and primitive claims of Episcopacy, by the reproach, that you are verging to the Church of Rome. The reproach discovers little acquaintance with genuine Episcopacy, and little knowledge of papal claims. The Episcopacy, which it is the privilege of our Church to enjoy, was the glory of martyrs and confessors, centuries before papal domination established itself on the depression of Episcopal prerogatives".'

Amid these warring extremes, he thus gives the eulogium of the Church:

Temperate, judicious, firm, unawed by papal threats, unmoved

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by the unjust reproaches of her Protestant kindred, she takes her stand where apostles and martyrs stood; and in her apostolic Episcopacy, cleared of Papal usurpation, stands forth to the wandering members of the Christian family as a city set on a hill,” where they may find repose from the tumults of schism, and communion with their Redeemer in those ministrations and ordinances which he has established as the channels of his grace and the pledges of his love b.'

The charge closes with that solemn monition which was never far from his thoughts, and often upon his tongue, but now brought more especially home to him by the events to which he alludes, the death of the Rev. Dr. Bowden, and of the Right Rev. Bishop Dehon.

'The day of account must come. We are, indeed, admonished,' he adds, 'how near the close of his stewardship may be to each one of us in the recent removal from our ranks of a venerable father, whose Christian temper and guileless example secured our affection, and to whose lessons, as a master in Israel, explaining, enforcing, and vindicating the apostolic principles of our Church, we are all greatly indebted, for the confirmation of our attachment to them, and for the increase of our zeal in their support. And, how forcibly, my brethren, is he who addresses you reminded of the uncertainty of the event that may close his stewardship, when this day's solemnity brings to his recollection one of the same age with himself, and of the same grade in the ministry, with whom, harmonizing in principle as in affection, but as yesterday, in this place, he "took counsel," as to the affairs of our Zion, but whom, from a course of distinguished usefulness, it hath pleased the LORD of the vineyard to call to his rest.'

The events here alluded to require a few words of explanation.

The first mentioned refers to a death deeply felt by Bishop Hobart, in common with all friends of the Church, that of the Rev. John Bowden, D. D., a name that will not soon be forgotten in the Diocese to which he be

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longed, and the communion which he adorned and defended. At the time of his death he was the sole remnant and representative of the Church, in this Diocese, before the Revolution, and, exhibited in his manners, whether as the son of a British officer, or as trained up under a royal government, (so, at least, it always seemed to the writer,) somewhat of that higher tone of courtesy, which, without disparagement to our own republican times, certainly was more marked in those which preceded them. But he had less doubtful claims to our respect and reverence; he was a Christian, humble and sincere; he was a Churchman, too, such as all then were not, 'one of the old school, like Hooker, and Taylor, and Hammond, men distinguished by the union, in their writings, of evangelical truth with apostolic order, and, in their lives, of fervent piety with deep humility.' Such, at least, was the language of affectionate praise with which Bishop Hobart mourned over his friend called to his rest in the summer of this year. As being from the Bishop's pen, and a tribute justly due to the ablest of his coadjutors, the following further extract is given from the obituary notice here alluded to.

'Simplicity and dignity were those traits of his character which distinguished and adorned all his deportment and actions, and rendered impressive and interesting all his conduct as a Christian and a man. Unaffected in his piety, sincere and disinterested in his friendships, amiable and benevolent in social intercourse, he was beloved and revered wherever he was known. A fund of useful and entertaining information rendered his conversation a source of pleasure and instruction. In his writings, Dr. Bowden has left a valuable legacy to the Church; and to them, we trust, her sons will often have recourse for information as to her principles, and for the means of defending them.'

The death last mentioned is that of the Right Rev.