personally known to us-and we believe him to be every way qualified for the Episcopal office, and for the discharge of those duties peculiar to it, in the present trying and dangerous times.

All the weighty considerations which concur to enforce our request, are well known to your grace; we therefore forbear to enlarge, lest we should seem to distrust your grace's zeal in a cause of such acknowledged importance to the interests of religion. Suffer us then to rest in humble confidence that your grace will hear and grant our petition, and give us the consolation of receiving, through a clear and uninterrupted channel, an overseer in this part of the household of God.

That God may continue your life and health, make you in his providence an eminent instrument of great and extensive usefulness to mankind in general, a lasting blessing to the Church over which you preside in particular; and that the present and future sons of the Church in America, may have cause to record and perpetuate your name as their friend and spiritual father, and, when your sacred work is ended, that you may find it gloriously rewarded, is and shall be the devout prayer of the clergy of Connecticut, by whose order (in convention assembled,) and in whose behalf, this letter is addressed to your grace, by your grace's most obedient, humble servant,

(Signed,)

ABRAHAM JARVIS,

Minister of the Episcopal Church in Middletown, and Secretary to the Convention.

Testimonial.

Whereas our well beloved in Christ, Samuel Seabury, doctor of divinity, and missionary of Staten-Island, in this province, is about to embark for England, at the earnest request of the Episcopal clergy of Connecticut, and for the purpose of presenting himself a candidate for the sacred office of a bishop; and that when consecrated and admitted to the said office, he may return to Connecticut, and there exercise the spiritual powers, and discharge the duties which are peculiar to the Episcopal character, among the members of the Church of England, by superintending the clergy, ordaining candidates for holy orders, and confirming such of the laity as may choose to be confirmed-We, the subscribers, desirous to testify our hearty concurrence in

this measure, and promote its success; as well as to declare the high opinion we justly entertain of Doctor Seabury's learning, abilities, prudence, and zeal for religion, do hereby certify, that we have been personally and intimately acquainted with the said Doctor Seabury for many years past-that we believe him to be every way qualified for the sacred office of a bishop; the several duties of which office, we are firmly persuaded, he will discharge with honour, dignity, and fidelity, and consequently with advantage to the Church of God.

And we cannot forbear to express our most earnest wish, that Doctor Seabury may succeed in this application, as it will be the means of preserving the Church of England in America from ruin, and of preventing many irregularities which we see approaching, and which, if once introduced, no after care may be able to remove.

Given under our hands, at New-York, this twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.

MY LORD,

JEREMIAH LEAMING, D. D. CHARLES INGLIS, D. D. Rector of Trinity Church, New-York. BENJAMIN MOORE, D. D. Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New-York, and others.

Letter to the Archbishop of York.

New-York, May 24, 1783.

The reverend Doctor Samuel Seabury will have the honour of presenting this letter to your grace. He goes to England at the request of the Episcopal clergy of Connecticut, on business highly interesting and important. They have written on the subject to your grace, and also to the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishop of London. But, as they were pleased to consult us on the occasion, and to submit what they had written to our inspection, requesting our concurrence in their application, their letters are dated at New-York, and signed only by the Rev. Mr. Jarvis, the secretary to their convention, whom they commissioned and sent here for that purpose.

The measure proposed, on this occasion, by our brethren of Connecticut, could not fail to have our hearty concurrence.

For we are decidedly of opinion, that no other means can be devised to preserve the existence of the Episcopal Church in this country. We have therefore joined with Mr. Jarvis in giving Doctor Seabury a testimonial, in which we have briefly, but sincerely, expressed our sense of his merit, and our earnest wishes for the success of his undertaking.

Should he succeed and be consecrated, he means (with the approbation of the society,) to return in the character, and perform the duties of a missionary, at New-London, in Connecticut; and on his arrival in that country, to make application to the governor, in hope of being cheerfully permitted to exercise the spiritual powers of his Episcopal office there; in which, we are persuaded, he will meet with little, if any opposition. For many persons of character in Connecticut, and elsewhere, who are members of the Episcopal Church, have lately declared they have no longer any objection to an American Episcopate, now that the independence of this country, acknowledged by Great-Britain, has removed their apprehensions of the bishops being invested with a share of temporal power by the British government.

We flatter ourselves that any impediments to the consecration of a bishop for America, arising from the peculiar constitution of the Church of England, may be removed by the king's royal permission; and we cannot entertain a doubt of his majesty's readiness to grant it.

In humble confidence that your grace will consider the object of this application as a measure worthy of your zealous patronage, we beg leave to remind your grace, that several legacies have been, at different times, bequeathed for the support of bishops in America, and to express our hopes that some part of those legacies, or of the interest arising from them, may be appropriated to the maintenance of Doctor Seabury, in case he is consecrated, and settles in America. We conceive that the separation of this country from the parent state, can be no reasonable bar to such appropriation, nor invalidate the title of American bishops, who derive their consecration from the Church of England, to the benefit of those legacies. And perhaps, this charitable assistance is now more necessary, than it would have been, had not the empire been dismembered.

We take this opportunity to inform your grace, that we have consulted his excellency Sir Guy Carleton, on the subject of procuring the appointment of a bishop for the

province of Nova-Scotia, on which he has expressed to us his entire approbation, and has written to administration, warmly recommending the measure. We took the liberty, at the same time, of mentioning our worthy brother, the Rev. Dr. Thomas B. Chandler, to his excellency, as a person every way qualified to discharge the duties of the Episcopal office in that province, with dignity and honour. And we hope for your grace's approbation of what we have done in that matter, and for the concurrence of your influence with Sir Guy Carleton's recommendation in promoting the design.

We should have given this information sooner to your grace, but that we waited for Doctor Seabury's departure for England, which we considered as affording the best and most proper conveyance.

If Doctor Chandler and Doctor Seabury should both succeed, as we pray God they may, we trust that, with the blessing of heaven, the Episcopal Church will yet flourish. in this western hemisphere.

With the warmest sentiments of respect and esteem, we have the honour to be,

My lord,

Your grace's most dutiful sons,

And obedient, humble servants,

JEREMIAH LEAMING, D. D. CHARLES INGLIS, D. D. Rector of Trinity Church, New-York. BENJAMIN MOORE, D. D. Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New-York, and others.

His Grace the Archbishop of York.

No. 8. Page 92.

A Letter from the Rev. Abraham Jarvis, in the Name of the Clergy of Connecticut.

REVEREND SIR,

We, the clergy of Connecticut, met at Woodbury in voluntary convention, beg leave to acquaint you, that a small pamphlet, printed in Philadelphia, has been transmitted to us, of which you are said to be the author. This pamphlet proposes a new form of government in the Episcopal

Church, and points at the method of erecting it. As the thirteen states have now risen to independent sovereignty, we agree with you, sir, that the chain which connected this with the mother Church is broken; that the American -Church is now left to stand in its own strength-and that some change in its regulations must in due time take place. But we think it premature and of dangerous consequence, to enter upon so capital a business, till we have resident bishops (if they can be obtained) to assist in the performance of it, and to form a new union in the American Church, under proper superiors, since its union is now broken with such superiors in the British Church. We shall only advert to such things in the pamphlet, as we esteem of dangerous consequence. You say the conduct you mean to recommend, is to include in the proposed frame of government a general approbation of Episcopacy, and a declaration of an intention to procure the succession as soon as conveniently may be; but in the mean time to carry the plan into effect, without waiting for the succession. But why do you include a general approbation of Episcopacy, in your proposed new frame of government? not because you think bishops a constituent part of an Episcopal Church, unless you conceive they derive their office and existence from the king's authority; for though you acknowledge we cannot at present have bishops here, and propose to set up without them, yet you say no constitutional principle of our Church is changed by the revolution, but what was founded on the authority of the king. Your motives for the above general approbation, seem indeed to be purely political. One is, that the general opinion of Episcopalians is in favour of bishops, and therefore, (if we understand your reasoning) it would be impolitic not to flatter them with the hopes of it. Another reason is, that too wide a deviation from the British Church might induce future emigrants from thence, to set up independent churches here. But could you have proposed to set up the ministry, without waiting for the succession, had you believed the Episcopal superiority to be an ordinance of Christ, with the exclusive authority of ordination and government, and that it has ever been so esteemed in the purest ages of the Church? and yet we conceive this to be the sense of Episcopalians in general, and warranted by the constant practice of the Christian Church. Really, sir, we think an Episcopal Church without Episcopacy, if it be not a contradiction in terms, would, however, be a new thing under the sun; and yet the Episcopal Church, by the