of what we read upon every subject in the sacred volume, the following things should be duly considered: viz. Who speaks; to whom he speaks; what he says; why he says it; when; and where he said so.

ANALYSIS OF THE GRAND DOCTRINAL TOPICS CONTAINED IN THE BIBLE.

1. The knowledge of God. 2. Of man. 3. Of sin. 4. Of the Saviour. 5. Of his salvation. 6. Of the principle and means of enjoying it. 7. Of its blissful effects and consequences.

These are the grand doctrinal topics which the scriptures were specially designed to teach, in the knowledge, belief, and practical influence of which, consists our present salvation.

ANALYSIS OF THE GREAT SALVATION.

I. Of its concurring causes.-1. The prime moving or designing cause the love of God. 2. The procuring cause-the blood of Christ. 3. The efficient cause-the Holy Spirit. 4. The instru mental cause--the gospel and law of Christ, or the word of truth. II. Of the principle and means of enjoyment.

1. OF THE PRINCIPLE.

The sole principle of enjoyment is belief or faith.

2. OF THE MEANS.

1. The prime instituted means of enjoyment is baptism. 2. Prayer. 3. Church fellowship in the social ordinances. 4. The Lord's day. 5. The Lord's Supper. 6. The prayers. 7. The praises. 8. The teaching of the word. 9. The contribution for charitable purposes. 10. Religious conversation. 11. Studious perusal and meditation of the holy scriptures. 12. All manner of good works-called works of faith and labours of love, &c., all of which are but means of enjoyment-not of procurement. "For eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

III. Of the present and proper effects of this salvation.—These are justification, adoption, sanctification, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance in it to the end of our race.

IV. Of its ultimate effects.—These are a glorious resurrection, and a blissful immortality.

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

BY THE REV. R. C. SHIMEALL,

RECTOR OF ST. JUDE'S EPISCOPALIAN FREE CHURCH, N. Y.

NUMERICALLY, the Episcopalians of this country, prior to the revolution, may be fitly compared to "an handful of corn in the earth. upon the top of the mountains." They were principally confined to the older colonial settlements of Maryland and Virginia, and in those of the south. To the north and east of Maryland, at the commencement of the revolution, the church had in her employment only about 'eighty parochial clergymen; all of whom, except those “resident in the towns of Boston and Newport, and the cities of New York and Philadelphia," derived their support from the society in England, instituted for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts. In the entire province of Pennsylvania, the missionaries of this society never exceeded six in number.

Under the reign of James I., what the Puritans, through the instigation of Archbishop Bancroft failed to accomplish, in their attempt to migrate to the New World, they finally effected by obtaining a charter from the crown of England. The first emigrants consisted of a company of the Brownists, who, having retired to Holland, under the pastoral care of Mr. Robinson, resolved, A. D. 1620, to transport and nourish their religious sentiments in America. They settled at Plymouth.

The rigour and cruelty exercised by Bancroft and the high commissioners toward the separatists, has, not without reason, been considered by historians, as conducive to the troubles which ensued in the following reign, under Charles I. Laud, if he possessed not the ambition and the cruelty, yet he certainly inherited the spirit, and adopted the policy, of the above named zealous but misguided prelate. As an illustration of this fact, our limits will only allow us to record that, during the period of his administration of twelve years, no less than four thousand Puritans, whose principal object was-liberty to serve God in the way their consciences approved-migrated from

their native country, and, with those who had preceded them, from Holland, laid the foundation of a new nation in North America. Their places of settlement were, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven. Their chief leaders were non-conformist or Puritan ministers, who, "being hunted from one diocese to another, at last chose this wilderness for their retreat." Mr. Neale, their historian, speaks of a list of seventy-seven divines, "who became pastors of sundry little churches and congregations in America, before the year 1640, all of whom were in orders in the Church of England, men of strict sobriety and virtue; plain, serious, affectionate preachers, exactly conformable in sentiment to the doctrinal articles of the Church of England."

It is superfluous to add that, in the settlement of their ecclesiastical state in this western hemisphere, they adopted the Congregational form of ministry and government. And, as a consequence, and under the promptings of such fears, as the recollection of the past very naturally awakened, they looked with a jealous eye on the movements of that religious body, holding views in common with the Episcopal establishment of their "mother land." Of an "existing jealousy in the colonies, of the parent power," there can be no doubt. It formed the germ of the revolution. Hence their apprehension that the Episcopal Church might, at some future day, be an engine aiding in the introduction of a new system of colonial government.

It is also proper to remark, in this place, that other parts of Europe also contributed to the tide of emigration which was now populating the New World, of which, however, the German States were the principal. In 1623, a colony of the Dutch settled in this state, (New York,) then called "New Netherlands," and selected the southern extremity of Manhattan Island as their principal mart, to which they gave the name of New Amsterdam, now known as the city of New York. These, though "busily engaged in the pursuit of worldly gain, were by no means regardless of religion." Their first church was organized in this city (New York), A. D., 1639. Being planned under the immediate patronage of the Dutch West India Company, they very naturally solicited the aid of that body in procuring ministers for their churches. The ministers they supplied were ordained and sent forth by the Classis of Amsterdam, (Presbyterian,) with the approbation of the Synod of North Holland, to which that classis belongs. Through the medium of the same classis, the German Reformed. Churches of Pennsylvania also procured their ministry from Germany; to which ecclesiastical body, both, accordingly, for the time being, were dependant and subordinate.

From 1639 to 1664, the period during which the colony was under the government of the West India Company, the Dutch Church in the New Netherlands was the established church. But in 1664, the colony surrendered to the forces of the British army, and came under the government of the Duke of York. To the Dutch inhabitants, however, though they lost their church establishment, yet at the time of the surrender, and afterwards in the treaty of peace, concluded in 1676, it was expressly stipulated, that the "rights of conscience with regard to worship and discipline," should be secured to them.

At the last mentioned period, the Dutch constituted the mass of the population in the state. In the colony, there were but few Episcopalians. These chiefly resided in the city of New York, and in the country immediately adjacent. They consisted, for the most part, of the officers of government and their dependants, and a portion of the military force. Indeed, the same was true of them elsewhere. Even in Maryland and Virginia, subsequently to the period of which we now speak, in all the more newly settled counties, the people for the most part were of other communions. Moreover, the Dutch were as well pre-eminent in wealth, as predominant in numbers, and embraced within the pale of their church, some of the most distinguished men in the colony, among whom was Governor Stuyvesant—a name as illustrious in our history, as it is rendered familiar to our ear, by those of his distinguished descendants of our city who still bear it.

Such was the situation of the Dutch Church, from 1664 to 1693. During the interval from 1639 to the year last mentioned, a number of churches were organized, besides those in New Amsterdam, Flatbush, New Utrecht, Flatlands, Esopus, and Albany; the ministers of the oldest and most conspicuous of which, viz. New Amsterdam, Esopus, and Albany, claimed and enjoyed a kind of episcopal dignity, having all the churches round them under their care, especially those which were not furnished with pastors; a prerogative exercised by them, not, as we may suppose, out of any leaning towards Diocesan Episcopacy, but that, under the circumstances, such supervision was deemed by them, not only expedient, but necessary.

Thus much, in reference to the church affairs of the emigrant Hollanders, is deemed essential to a proper understanding of the position of the Episcopal Church in this early period of the colony. The year 1693 marks the first step of her advance to ecclesiastical distinction. Under the auspices of "Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, who had been appointed governor the year before, a man of great ardour and boldness, and warmly attached to the Episcopal Church," a foundation was laid for a church establishment in her favour, which had been

lost to the Dutch since the surrender of the colony in 1664. To this measure the House of Assembly was at first decidedly hostile; and nought but the untiring vigilance of the governor secured the passage of an act in its favour. In Maryland and Virginia also, where, as we have said, the Episcopal Church was much more numerous, it had legal establishments for its support.

The advantages thence arising to the Episcopal Church, however, were not so great as might be supposed. Separated from the mother church by the Atlantic, with an unavoidably inefficient episcopal supervision; the difficulties of obtaining regular and proper supplies of ministers for the churches; the consequent absence of wholesome discipline, and the constant jealousies of the proprietary government, particularly that of Maryland, of an encroachment of its ecclesiastical prerogatives by the Bishop of London; all tended in no small degree to cripple her otherwise inherent energies. In a word, she was virtually without an episcopal head, as the source of a regular supply of all the orders of the ministry, as recognised by her ecclesiastical system. That system, as is well known, involves the principle, that a succession from the apostles in the order of bishops, as an order distinct from, and superior to, presbyters, is a requisite without which a valid Christian ministry cannot be preserved.

•At this stage of our advance, it becomes necessary to advert to the existence of another religious body, a knowledge of the circumstances of whose early origin and career in the colonies, as claiming an affinity, at least, to the order of ministry and polity of the Episcopal Church, is requisite to a proper view of the position of that church at the period to which we have just alluded. This body was the society of Methodists. Originating first in England, the seeds of Methodism were transplanted to the American colonies by their joint founders, the two Wesleys, John and Charles, who came to this country in the capacity of missionaries, in company with Gen. Oglethorpe, and arrived in Georgia, A. D. 1736. John took the charge of Savannah, and Charles of Frederica. Within a year and a half, however, they returned to England.

These clergymen were both regularly ordained presbyters of the English Episcopal Church. In the exercise of their functions, however, whether at home or abroad, their ministrations were adapted to what they considered a state of general declension of the life and power of religion in the established church. Their course, conse

* The Bishop of London was considered as the diocesan of the Episcopal Churches in America.