Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

as it certainly has become, in the case of American Dissent, the almost universal test of the true possession, then has it become a most corrupting and endangering principle; then has it begun to find sanctity in sanctimoniousness, and to see nothing but the world in that which abstains from the pietistic fashion, that which does not seem to bear the "appearance." Church Religion also insists upon self-examination; but Church Religion is taught to examine itself, as to the question of its acts, as well of its feelings; and of its acts and feelings towards men also; and we cannot conceive of a true Churchman, such a man as Herbert, for instance, finding himself in [any state or condition of wrong towards his fellow-man, and still allowing a supposed possession of feeling, that he was good and pious, to warrant him in going on with this pietistic look and tone, as if he were good. Even if he had that fashion-but he had not and could not have, for the Churchman's habit of Religion is so much that of looking out of himself to the Lord Jesus, that he is in comparatively little danger of falling back to that Religious selfism which lies at the root of all sanctimoniousness.

Far be it from our intention to say, that all this pious seeming, this pietistic "appearance" appertaining to Denominational Religion, is conscious sanctimoniousness. We mean to say, that a certain pietistic assumption and manner is the legitimate product of Sectarian subjectivism, and that it is no proper sign of the degree of sincere goodness, which the subject possesses. One single statement will show how perfectly worthless a judgment, based upon such "appearance," whether among ourselves or others, really is. The records of Religion show, as matter of fact, that an individual may have all these signs of goodness, the pious look, the pious tone, nay, the pious prayer, and, at that very moment, be an impure, and most wicked man. Let us not, then, because a man looks and talks like a pious man, judge either that he is or is not such as he seemsbut let us rather leave all judgment, as to that question, where it belongs. The pietistic "appearance," which is so characteristic of English and American Puritanism, more so, a great deal, than that of the Continent, is valuable, prin

cipally, as revealing, in one of its most striking forms, the metaphysical phenomena of Dissent. We shall never forget the expression of bewildered surprise we once saw upon the face of a foreign Presbyterian, when he first heard of our American way of counting up the number of Christians, according to the criterion of a manifested experience. Here in our land, the System of Dissent has had full play, and, to us, it is only astonishing, that its plain results have not led all the good people in the System to retrace their steps to the Church. What is there now in the System to preserve it from the way it has ever gone in the past? Let the thoughtful Puritan ask himself, "what amount of Religion would I and my children now have, had my ancestors, when they left the Church, left all which, in strict consistency, they should have done, and that is, all the Church had given them—the Bible, the preaching of the Gospel, the custom of assembling for instruction and worship?" This will show the proper legitimacy and issue of the essential element of Sectarianism.

ART. V.-BISHOP PROVOOST AND BISHOP SEABURY.

AN HISTORICAL FRAGMENT.

THE animosity cherished by the first Bishop of New York towards his Episcopal brother of Connecticut, had a marked effect upon the fortunes of the American Church. Springing from political differences, the influence of which, though we fail at this day fully to appreciate their strength, must then have been very great, this unkindness of feeling and wanton disregard of courtesy on the part of Bishop Provoost, tended for a time to an open rupture and schism in the feeble Church then struggling for existence. To trace briefly, and, in the main, from hitherto unpublished documents, the growth and decline of this untoward disagreement; to bring to light from private correspondence the hidden springs of action, and lay bare the secret machinations of one who used his high position. in the Church of God, for party purposes and the gratification of personal spleen and caprice; and to place in strong contrast with this excuseless course the noble forbearance and exemplary endurance of Seabury, first of American Bishops and one of the best of men, is our task. Save in the last feature, it is far from being a pleasant one; but it is the duty of the annalist and historian to lay bare the follies and even the sins of a forgotten age, the better to warn and advise the men of his own and succeeding times.

When, in a little gathering of the half a score of Connecticut Clergymen remnant of a band of worthy confessors, and martyrs too, for loyalty to Church and State,-choice was made of the faithful Seabury for their Bishop, and instructions given him to seek for Consecration either in England or Scotland, as the case might be, Provoost, an ardent Whig, was at his country-seat on the Hudson, sharing none of the discomforts of his loyalist brethren, and, in fact, exercising none of the functions of his ministry. He had left New York and his post at Old Trinity, in consequence of a disagreement with Clergy and people on the absorbing subject of politics. But,

while we find no fault with his patriotism, in which he was doubtless conscientious, as were those too, who were firm to their oaths of allegiance and the vows of their ordination, we must condemn his disregard of his ministerial functions, and his seeming indifference to the fate of the Church of his choice. Other patriot clergymen found plenty to do in the field or in the camp; but the accomplished and erudite assistant-minister of Trinity preferred inglorious ease at his place on the Hudson, and the careful watchfulness, not indeed over souls, but of his goods and grounds at East Camp.

Fourteen years of retirement from the exercise of his ministry, hardly fitted Provoost for the Episcopate; but the reputation of "proscription" for his country proved an incontrovertible argument in his favor, and amidst the rejoicings over the evacuation, and the welcomings of peace, the Whig Episcopalians of New York fixed upon the patriot minister in Dutchess County as Rector of Trinity, and first Bishop of New York.

In the meantime the pains-taking Seabury, repulsed in England, had sought and secured from the remnant of the Church in Scotland, the Consecration to the Episcopate he had been sent to obtain. Passing through difficulties unnumbered, hazarding the loss of the missionary stipend which had long been his laboriously-earned support, and all on account of this alliance with the persecuted Church at the North, the newly made Bishop, after a brief sojourn in London, sailed for his Diocese in the United States. He was received with open arms. The interesting correspondence of the excellent Parker, second Bishop of Massachusetts, still preserved, and well worthy of publication, from its many contributions to our Ecclesiastical history, is full, at this period, of expressions of the deep interest and solicitude felt all over New England, and even in New York and at the South, in the success and safe return of the indefatigable Seabury. And so, when the Clergy of Connecticut met at Middletown in glad Convocation to meet their newly arrived Bishop, there were representatives of other sections of the Church present; and not only the little band of Connecticut Churchmen, but the scattered Episcopalians throughout New England and

New York, seemed full of rejoicing at the completion of the Succession in the American Church.

Amid these jubilant expressions of feeling, one discordant voice was heard. Mr. Granville Sharp, of London, renowned for his philanthropic labors in defence of the rights of enslaved Africans, and a pioneer in that noble work subsequently carried on to distinguished success by Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Buxton, had, in common with other English Churchmen, ardently desired the introduction of the Episcopate into America, in the English Succession. In one of his numerous publications, he had, even during the progress of the war, endeavored to call the attention of the American public to this measure, and immediately upon the cessation of hostilities, he recommenced his exertions to that end, with most commendable zeal. In one point only did his zeal outrun his knowledge. Inheriting certain traditional family antipathies, and possessing also documents belonging to his ancestor, an Archbishop of York, throwing doubt upon the regularity and consequent validity of the Scottish Consecrations, he entered into correspondence with individuals in the Northern States of America, with the avowed intention of preventing, if possible, the general recognition of the Scottish line. Thus he hoped to make a more evident necessity for the introduction of the Episcopate, through consecrations in the English Succession. Among the correspondents of this excellent, but somewhat erratic man, were President Manning, a Baptist Minister, and head of the College of that Denomination in Providence, and the Rev. Mr. Provoost, in New York. It was the old scene at Jerusalem re-enacted. Herod and Pilate, the determined Dissenter and the jealous Churchman,—were made friends, in their common antipathy to one both innocent and unsuspecting. The activity of the Baptist President received the especial thanks of Mr. Sharp, and his published Memoirs give abundant proof of the pains taken by Provoost, as well, to accomplish this malicious end.

Well may honest Fitch Oliver, then a student for Holy Orders, at Providence, and soon after one of the first applicants to Bishop Seabury for Ordination, give vent to his righteous indignation, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Parker, of Boston, follows:

as

« AnteriorContinuar »