deeply sensible of the kindness which had been shown to our Church, and the personal civilities we had received"." The new Bishops arrived at New-York on Easter day, 1787; and their arrival on such a festival was hailed as an auspicious omen to their reviving Church. Steps were immediately taken to form a union with the excellent Bishop Seabury and the Clergy of Connecticut, the Bishop having been requested to join with the Bishops of Pennsylvania and New-York, in consecrating the Reverend Edward Bass, who had been elected as their Bishop by the Clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. A General Convention was at the same time called, when the three Bishops formed themselves into an upper House; the lower House consisting of the clerical and lay deputies, who were sent by the different states to act as their representatives. According to the constitution of the American Church, the Bishops, whenever General Conventions are held, form a separate House, with a right to originate and propose acts for the concurrence of the House of Deputies composed of Clergy and Laity: and when any proposed act has passed the House of Deputies, it is transmitted to the House of Bishops, who have a negative thereon. The two Houses, on this occasion, entered on a review of the Liturgy, which, having come down from the remotest antiquity, had been translated and re-arranged by the Church of England at the Reformation. A few alterations were rendered necessary by circumstances, and the result of the labours of the Convention was the American Book of Common Prayer, as it was then established, and as it has ever since been used. Certain Canons also were drawn up, which continue substantially the same to the present day'. Subsequently, in 1790, Dr. Maddison was consecrated in England as Bishop of Virginia: since which time all consecrations have been conducted by the American Bishops. Thus was the Catholic Church established in America, -an emanation from the Catholic and Apostolic Churches of England and Scotland. No sooner was this Church established than the Romanists did in America what they had previously done in England: they set up altar against altar; and founded in schism the Romish sect. As the Romish party in England, at the instigation of foreign emissaries, separated itself from the Catholic Church of England in 1570, thus forming a schismatical sect; so the same party determined to institute a schism in America, as soon as the Catholic Church was there established. Thus in the year 1789 the Roman Pontiff erected the rival Bishopric of Baltimore, and nominated to it Dr. John Carrol, who was consecrated in England in 1790, being thus the founder of the Romish schism in the United States. In 1808 the Pontiff raised the See of Baltimore to be archi-episcopal, and pretended to erect Sees of New-York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Beardstown, in opposition to the previously existing Church of those localities. As the learned Mr. Palmer observes, there are very serious difficulties affecting the regularity, and even the validity, of the ordination of the above named Carrol, and all the Romish clergy of the The Church of England Gazette has lately been publishing the Canons of the Church of America as altered and amended in subsequent Conventions. United States derived from him; in consequence of his ordination having been performed by only one titular Bishop, Dr. Walmsley, who appears to have laboured under a similar irregularity or deficiency himself". Only one observation further shall be made. While the North American Colonies were united to the mother country, numberless missionaries were sent out from England by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts; but no Episcopate was established, and the progress of true religion was unsatisfactory and slow. Since the declaration of independence, an Episcopate has been established, and the progress of the Church, if not rapid, has been decided and sure. If Missionary Societies, acting on primitive principles, instead of assuming a kind of episcopal authority, and sending out clergy to act in subordination, not to their Bishop, but to Committees at home, would enable the English Prelates to send out independent Missionary Bishops to foreign parts, who might create a Church around them, Missionary labours would doubtless be attended with primitive success. The affection evinced by the Churchmen of America to the Church of England and to the Church (Episcopal) of Scotland, and the cordial interest taken by all true British Churchmen in all that relates to the Church of America, is calculated to draw closer the ties which ought to bind the two great nations together. Here, in a point of the nearest, the dearest, and the holiest interest, is a bond of Union. May it be fondly cherished on both sides of the Atlantic. May Church principles in Palmer's Treatise on the Church of Christ, vol. i. p. 305. both nations gradually extend, as they seem to be extending; and, allowances being made on both sides for differences of feeling, sometimes occasioned by the difference of our civil institutions, may our rule be, "in necessariis unitas, in non necessariis Libertas, in utrisque Charitas." Concedant Fratres quantum concedere fas est, BISHOP SKInner. |