How will the remem

truth, that Christ died for the sins of men. brance of this fact, if it have its due influence, animate man to the rigid performance of his duties? Christ died to satisfy the demands of justice; who then but will be just? He died to atone for guilt; who then but would be innocent? He died to soften the miseries of man; who then, in pity to a race he died to save, in imitation of his conduct, in remembrance of his sufferings, will not climb the steep hill, or tread the rude valley, to search the haunts of misery? Who that lays claim to feeling, can resist the simple eloquence of the apostle: he gave himself a propitiation for our sins: beloved, if he so loved you, ye ought also to love one another." The orator next taught his people, that this connexion also made virtue practicable; by giving men a motive to it, without which they make no · persevering attempts to be virtuous; and promising them assistance in it, without which they would attempt it in vain. Upon the nature and certainty of this assistance he spoke with energy. "Natural religion," he said, "might have taught us that God, the great eye of the universe, ever watches its motions, and secures its safety. But it remained for the religion of Christ to teach us that one Person of the ineffable God-head is constantly employed to implant holy principles, and cultivate holy conduct, in the heart of its disciples: not by might (the might of man), nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. We speak not to cherish the fancies of the enthusiast, who talks of immediate communion, or direct revelation from God. Of such in tercourse our religion dreams not. But to those who feel their -strength to be weakness, their best resolutions the flower which fades, their strenuous efforts to be capricious and ineffectual: to them we say, their sufficiency is of God; to them we say, that the inviolable truth of the High and Holy One is pledged to assist them; I will give my Spirit to those who ask it. Let them remember, that the last declaration from the lips of Christ, with which a disciple, as it were, seals up the narration of his Gospel; stopping there as though nothing were worthy to follow it; encourages the hope of the christian; Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

"Such" continued the preacher, "being the importance of this union of faith with works, it is the wildest of all attempts to sever them from each other. The hand which would disorder this harmony, is lifted against God and nature. Faith without works, is an expression our religion does not assist us to interpret. For us it has no meaning. God has linked them together, and the powers of earth and hell confederate, shall not separate them. Let us not endeavour to do it. Be it our object to convince the unbeliever that the faith of the christian is the best principle, because it makes the best

men.

"But let me not be mistaken. Whilst I enforce the necessity of their uniting faith with practice, I would guard against confounding them; for, whilst they are inseparable, they are distinct. A good life is the fruit of a good faith: but let not the fruit be applied to the purpose for which the tree is destined. Faith in the merits of his Redeemer, justifies man in the sight of God; works attest his jus

K

tification; faith wins him heaven; works bespeak him fitted for it.” From such a view of faith, this veteran in christianity seemed to catch new vigour in speaking of it. "In teaching you," he said, "to desire and to embrace this principle as the sum and essence of religion, I am not palming upon you any cunningly devised fable: the thousands who in every age have not bowed the knee to Baal,” have uniformly maintained faith to be the only instrument of salva tlon. The popes, for some centuries, had been squaring the religion of God to the measure of their own views. Not content with their encroachment upon human authority, they dared to wrest from God the sceptre of his grace. They taught, that if the merits of Christ and the Spirit of God might begin the work of salvation, still man must complete it; and they erected him to be, in some degree, his own Redeemer. Your ancestors saw this, and they resolved to stand in the breach and stay the plague. They fought the battles of the reformation, and the shouts of their victory were heard, worthy is the Lamb who was slain! Nor were their principles those only of the days in which they lived. They had consulted the oracles of God, and they found this to be the good old way of religion. They saw it printed, and even worn with the foot-steps of saints, of prophets, and of patriarchs. When the great apostle of the Gentiles calls up the shades of the mighty dead, to record the holy actions by which the service of God has been signalized; he dares not recount their deeds, except in union with the principle from which they sprung. He points to these illustrious men looking through the darkness of ages, their eye fixed and intent upon that Saviour who was to come. By faith, says he, Abraham offered up Isaac; by faith Joseph worshipped; by faith Moses preferred the suffering with the people of God to those pleasures of sin which are but for a moment. Refuse not to add your names to a catalogue of whom it is declared the world was not worthy; cultivate the same principles, pursue the same practice, and enter into the same glory.

Whence rose his ire? did ere the Thou fav'rite child of heav'n's exalted

Fix'd dumb with horror at this dread

ful blow,

I stand, a speechless monument of

woe!

Yet, mighty God! be all my pow'rs resign'd!

And thine each nobler hope that warms the mind.

Then tho' no more to crown the peasant's toil,

The bleeding olive stream with sacred oil;

Tho' figs no more their leafy tendrils join,

Tho' scorching lightning blast the budding vine;

Tho' the rough steed lies panting on the plain,

Nor wave th' autumnal fields with golden grain:

MY LORD,

Yet shall my soul thy wond'rous grace proclaim,

Yet this fond heart shall triumph in thy name,

When o'er the earth thou wav'st
th'avenging rod,

When nature trembles at an angry
God:

When the bold breast with terror not
its own,

Shakes at thy voice, and withers at thy frown;

Then by no storms dismay'd, no fears deprest;

In thee my soul shall find perpetual

rest;

O'er me secure thy hovering wings shall spread,

And sleep's mild opiate bless my peaceful bed.

American Episcopate.

[NO. II.]

LETTER TO The ArchBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

NEW-YORK, May 24, 1783.

THE Reverend Doctor Samuel Seabury will have the honor of presenting this letter to your grace. At the request of the episcopal clergy of Connecticut, he goes to England on business highly interesting and important, namely, to be consecrated by your grace, and admitted to the sacred office of a bishop; after which, he purposes to return to Connecticut, and there exercise the spiritual powers which belong to the episcopal character.

Although the letter which Doctor Seabury carries from the clergy of Connecticut to your grace, and the testimonial with which he is furnished, set forth his design, and point out the necessity of carrying it into execution; yet we conceived it to be our duty, in a matter of such moment, to give every support in our power to Doctor Seabury, by writing to your grace, (as we have also done to his lordship of London, and his grace of York) and laying our sentiments on the subject before you; especially as the clergy of Connecticut chose to consult us on the occasion, and submit their letter to our inspection, that we might act in concert with them; and this is the reason why their letter to your grace is dated at New-York, and is only signed by the Reverend Mr. Jarvis, the secretary to their convention, whom they commissioned and sent here for the purpose.

The separation of these colonies from the parent state leaves the church of Engand here in a most deplorable situation. For as the event was unexpected, no provision was made to guard against its consequences. Whilst the colonies were dependent on England, they were thence supplied with clergymen. The supply indeed was scanty, and inadequate to the wants of the colonists; yet the

church was preserved in existence, and through the blessing of Providence increased in many places. To remove the hardships under which the church labored, particularly in the affair of ordination, and to procure a more ample supply of clergymen, which would greatly promote the growth of the church, the clergy of several provinces repeatedly applied, that one or more bishops might be appointed to reside in America. Their applications, though approved and warmly supported by many illustrious dignitaries of our church, and others; yet, either through inattention in government or mistaken maxims of policy, were disregarded. Hereby the church in America is now utterly helpless, and unable to preserve itself. As the colonies are become independent, no ordination in the usual way, can, as we presume, be procured from England. A few years must carry off such of the present clergy as can remain in the United States, and with them the church of which they are members will be extinct.

This melancholy event is inevitable, if some remedy is not applied; and the only expedient that could be devised to prevent it is the one now proposed. Should Doctor Seabury succeed, and be consecrated, he means to return in the character and perform the duties of a missionary, at New-London, in Connecticut. This, we apprehend, will secure to him, at least, a safe reception there, and prepare the way gradually for exercising the spiritual powers of a bishop, by superintending the clergy, ordaining candidates for holy orders, and administering confirmation to such of the laity as shall choose to be confirmed. To which, we are persuaded, the minds of people will be reconciled, by the time his episcopal character is generally known. For, consistently with our original plan for an American Episcopate, he will have no temporal power or authority whatever. If a bishop is once established in Connecticut, we are confident that bishops will soon be admitted into the other colonies; so that the fate of all the churches in the united colonies is virtually involved in the success of this application.

Such, my lord, is our state, and such are our views. It remains now with your grace to afford that relief to the church of God here, which it stands so much in need of, and save it from utterly perishing in the United States of America, by consecrating Dr. Seabury, and thereby conveying to us a valid and regular episcopate. We have the fullest persuasion of your grace's zeal in whatever concerns the cause of religion, as well as reliance on your firmness to support that cause against groundless objections, or intervening difficulties. We consider the political impediments, which formerly obstructed the appointment of bishops in America, as now entirely removed they no longer exist. England can have no apprehensions from the disgust that may be given to dissenters by this measure. Whatever risk shall attend it can only be incurred by Dr. Seabury, and the other members of the church here; and however hazardous the attempt, they are willing to embark in it, rather than by their lukewarmness to become accessary to the ruin of the church of God. Indeed it is but justice to mention, that many eminent dissenters in Connecticut and other provinces, have lately declared that they have no objections to bishops here, now when the independency of Amer