"Very justly do these writers add, in reference to such Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, that they

"have succeeded, not only to the office of the Apostle, but also to their labours and privations.'

"On a review of these labours, the Editors of the same work remark

4

"In performing this almost continual and fatiguing duty, it is no wonder (as this Primitive Bishop announced to his Clergy and People) that he found his constitution much impaired and his voice almost gone. In consequence of the view of the spiritual wants of the Diocese presented by the Bishop to the Convention, they au thorized him to prepare, and transmit to the several Bishops of the United States, an Address 'setting forth the great necessities of the Church within the Diocese of Ohio, and soliciting their aid and assistance in procuring Missionaries to reside therein.'" Appeal, p. 2. "On these touching passages the Editors remark

"If the foregoing extracts be read with half the feelings which they have excited in our minds, our readers (we are persuaded) will consider the Address whence they are taken, as one of the most powerful and eloquent appeals, ever made to the piety and sympathizing charity of the other members of the body of Christ.""

"It was these representations, noticed by Bishop Chase's Son in an American Newspaper, and reported by him to his Father, which kindled hope in their almost despairing minds and led to the determination to visit a country, where their wants in a western wilderness, were thus known and pitied." Appeal, p. 4.

From the sentiments thus expressed, we have no desire to shrink; but what have they to do with the Appeal? They are calculated to mislead every reader of that Pamphlet-and while they overwhelm us with a charge of which we are altogether innocent, namely, with having originated and instigated Bishop Chase's voyage to England-they conceal a fact which the appellants well knew,-that every sentiment which has been expressed upon the American question in the British Critic is in opposition to such an undertaking; that every principle upon which the American Church has been admired and commended, is violated by the present unhappy

measure,

We praised the zeal of Bishop Chase-but it was when his zeal was tempered by discretion-when he was acting under the direction of his Church-when he was proceeding with her concurrence, to plant Christianity in the wilderness-and we had her guarantee for the steadiness of his principles and the sobriety of his conduct. Had he been acting at that time upon his own responsibility, unconnected with his brethren, discountenanced by the greater and the wiser part of them, and avowing his intention to train up a peculiar clergy for

himself, his name would either never have adorned our pages, or we should have classed him with those well-meaning but mistaken men, who have gone forth in such numbers from our own shores, and have forgotten the church and the priesthood in their exaggerated estimate of the rank and importance of a missionary.

When Bishop Chase was doing precisely the contrary to what he is doing now, we hesitated not to pour forth the humble tribute of our applause. At the time when it was delivered, it excited no notice; but as soon as the Bishop has altered his 'course, the simple readers of the Appeal are requested to believe that we are entitled to a place among his warmest panegyrists.

The impracticability then of this Ohio undertaking, the unfairness with which it has claimed the support of the American Church, and the manoeuvre by which it has condescended to press the British Critic into its service, are three formidable answers to its claim; but we are prepared with a fourth, of much higher importance, which we should not have ventured to urge against a candid Appeal to the public, but which, under existing circumstances, it becomes an imperative duty to notice. In spite of the respectable names which grace Bishop Chase's subscription-list, we are compelled to fear that one object of his undertaking is to alter the character of the American Church, and exchange Episcopalian clergymen for Methodist preachers. This is a serious charge. It is one in which the great body of his European supporters are not implicated. If there is, as we believe, a deception practised in the business, they are not in the cláss of the seducers but the seduced. We shall endeavour to substantiate our assertions, and open their eyes.

Bishop Hobart, in the preface to his two volumes of Sermons, states a fact with which we were already acquainted, but which must have appeared as new and surprising to him. as it may do to many of our readers.

"The publication of Sermons, in England, by an American Clergyman, may require explanation.

"It being deemed necessary by his friends, that the author of these Sermons should enjoy a relaxation from the duties and cares of an extensive diocese and parish, and for this purpose should visit Europe, he followed the example, as he presumes, of most Clergymen under such circumstances, and took with him some Sermons; not with any intention of publishing them, but in order to be prepared to exercise the functions of his Ministry in any case, should the state of his health admit, in which this duty might reasonably be expected from him. On his arrival in England, he

found that, in various publications, some of them extensively circulated, the charge is alleged against the great body of the Bishops and clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, of not faithfully inculcating the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel; and the Author is ranked by name among those who are represented as thus neglecting the great essentials of religion, and insisting chiefly on its mere externals.

While he disclaims the justice of the charge, as it respects his brethren, he has felt it his duty, being thus publicly and particularly implicated, to vindicate himself from one of the most serious imputations which can be urged against a Christian Minister. And to this course he was also prompted by an earnest desire, that, as a Bishop of the American Episcopal Church, he should not appear to have departed from the doctrines of the venerable Church of England to whom that Church is indebted, under God, for her first foundation, and for a long continuance of nursing care and protection*.' The most effectual mode of accomplishing these objects, he conceived, would be the publication of Sermons which, in the course of his duty as a Parochial Minister, he preached to the congregations of which he has the charge." Hobart's Sermons, Vol. I. p. iii.

If the Bishop imagines that his declaration or his discourses will silence the calumniators to which he refers, he is not yet sufficiently acquainted with the genius of sectarianism. If he feels any pain from the obloquy with which he is assailed, he may alleviate the smart by recollecting that it is shared with every distinguished member of the Church of England. As many as refuse to preach the doctrines of Wesley or Whitfield, are stigmatized with the same epithets as Bishop Hobart; and as long as the Church of which he is the most efficient and distinguished member, declines encouraging those doctrines, it will be deemed meritorious in this country to divide her children, weaken her union, forsake her institutions, and despise her authority. The Episcopalians in America are always mentioned by our Methodistical writers in the terms which are now applied specifically to Bishop Hobart; and the countenance which they have given to Bishop Chase, has been given on the supposition that he is methodistically inclined.

Whether that supposition be correct or not, (and we have hardly the means of forming an opinion on the subject) it is the corner-stone of Bishop Chase's scheme. And it ought to have been an insuperable obstacle to his success. If he wished to put his orthodoxy beyond dispute, it was in his power so

Preface to the Book of Cominon Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church.”

to do, by establishing a Seminary connected with New York. What does he say on this head?

"In answer to the question- Whence can we obtain funds to carry our designs, so beneficial to the Church, especially that portion of it scattered in the woods of the West, into full effect? Bishop Chase replies in his Letter, to Bishop White

"What has guided me and my dear brethren of Ohio in this matter, I beg leave to state.

"The interesting attitude which the General Theological Institution had assumed in being so harmoniously established in New York, and the pressing and peculiar demands which she had for all the aid of Episcopalians in the Atlantic States, forbade us to apply to them. Generous as they had been to us, we could never think of soliciting their beneficence while their own Institution languisheth.'" Appeal, p. 10.

This relates entirely to pecuniary assistance, and is no reason why the course of studies adopted at New York should not be also adopted in Ohio. Why has not that pledge been given? The only answer we can imagine, is, because it would not have been redemed. Had Bishop Chase engrafted his Institution upon the General Theological Seminary, we should have known what principles he intended to incul cate. The books before us, sufficiently shew what both in theory and in practice that Institution is.

"In this country," observes Mr. Turner in his Essay, for Theological Students, "few men, it is presumed, enter the ministry, through pecuniary considerations. Expectations of this nature cannot be greatly influential, because there are very few situations in which they can ever be realized. But it is not improbable, that in some instances, other worldly considerations may have too much weight. The idea of respectability of character, which is universally connected with the ministerial profession, where the decencies of life and the benefits of Christianity are recognized, may readily induce, a young man to offer himself as a candidate for the Gospel ministry, who has no call to the office. Private inducements may also become the chief motive, in determining the choice. It is not intended to say, that such considerations should never, in any case, have any weight at all; certainly they may sometimes serve to decide the judgment; but they should never become the paramount motive. If this be not, a pure desire to advance the glory of God, by maintaining and promoting the influence of the Gospel on the hearts of men; if it be not, a wish to advance the everlasting interests of those, with whom the pastoral relation shall be formed; if it be not, a real love for the souls of others; it is not to be expected, that such a candidate will be either useful or respectable. Not useful, (I mean to the spiritual interests of his congregation,) because, however accurate may be his knowledge.

of theology as a science, to which criticism and history and phil losophy become tributary, he is ignorant of it as a practical system, operating on the heart, and refining the affections, and sanctifying the motives. In him the uninformed finds no instructor, the inquiring conscience no guide, the lost sheep no pastor. Through the superintendance of Providence, he may be made, in some degree, unexpectedly useful; but such a result is not reasonably to be anticipated. Nor is his respectability any more probable. For, although as God's Ambassador,' the minister of Christ may claim the respect which is due to such a station, yet mankind will never pay to the clergy that deference which the office claims, if their characters be at variance with its obligations. Power may indeed compel the people to shew an appearance of respect, but it is piety, ability to perform the duties of the office, and the actual and careful performance of those duties, which only can elicit the honour of the heart. And in the present day, even that weak defence is, in a great measure, abandoned. The time has been, when the civil authority was glad to shelter herself under the wings of the ecclesiastical, and there congratulate herself in the protection of so powerful a defender. But that time has long since passed by, and arrogant pretension has been consigned to its merited contempt. The clerical character must support itself, by the conduct of those who bear it. The office is honourable, but it depends upon the individual, to make the honour, which it challenges, personal.

"Both usefulness and respectability, therefore, depend very much on the character, which the candidate for the ministry shall hereafter sustain, and, by consequence, on the purity of the motives, which govern his choice, His own happiness is also closely connected with this consideration. If there be no congeniality of mind and heart with the occupations of the life, disgust with those occupations must be the necessary consequence. Indeed I cannot conceive of any situation in life, more uncomfortable, than that of a clergymen, who has no taste for the duties of his profession. He is engaged in a constant series of services, which are irksome, because the heart is uninterested. He professes, in the public congregation, sentiments of devotion, which he never feels. He urges duties which he never practises, and inculcates them by motives, by the force of which he is never influenced. There must be true piety in the minister of the Gospel, and in the choice of the profession, he must be influenced by religious and holy views. The Protestant Episcopal Church most unequivocally recognizes the principle of divine influence on the mind, and brings it home most powerfully to the conscience of the candidate for holy orders. Can any language be used, which is stronger on this point, than that of the ordination service? In the office for the ordering of priests, the address of the candidates is made on the presumption, that it is the Lord who hath placed them in so high a dignity;' and it declares, that they ⚫ cannot have a mind and will thereto of