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coDgreg&tlatis ; and In a General Convention of the Bishops , the Clergy , and the representatives of the Laity , witli a negative on each other , for the full , efficient and vigorous exercise of the
legislative , executive and judiciary powers of the Church ; and at the s&me time secure m every department , and in every officer , that responsibility which is essential to a zealous and correct
administration of ecclesiastical affairs . 4 < The principle of our ecclesiastical polity we derive from tfoe Church of England * It is the principle which its ablest ctoampioa , styled , in olden time and in olden phrase , * the judicious Hooker , ' enforces and vindicates—that all orders
of iaen affected by the laws , should have a voice in making them . In the theory of the ecclesiastical constitution of Englatidj the Bishops and the Clergy legislate in the upper and lower house of Convocation ; and the laity in Parlia * - tnent , whose assent , or that of tlxe King ,
is necessary to all acts of the Convocation . Brat though the Convocation is summoned and Tneets at every opening of Parliament , the prerogative of the Kh * g is immediately exercised in dissolving k . Hence Parliament—a lay body , with the exception of the Bishops who sit in the
House of Lords , and whose individual votes are merged in the great mass of the Lay Peers—becomes in its omnipotence the sole legislature of the apostolical and spiritual Church of England . And the plan has been agitated , ef altering , by . authority of Parliament , *! ie
marriage ^ service of the Church , so as to compel the clergy to dispense with those parts which recognize the doctrine of the Trinity , in accommodation to the scruples of a certain class of Dissenters . * Thauks to that good Providence Tvho hath watched over mir Zion , no secular
authority can interfere with , or controul Our high ecclesiastical assembly . The imposing spectacle is seen there , of her Bishops in one house , and her Clergy and Laity by their representatives in another , ( analogous-to the mode of our civil
legislation , ) exercising legislative , and by the Bishops , admonitory authority over the whole Church , and co-ordinately enacting the laws that her exigences may demand . Harmony , union , vigour , zeal , like the li / e-Mood of the human frame , arc thus scrrt from this heart of our uystem , into every part of the spiritual
* The plan has not succeeded ; nor is it likely to succeed . But the fact of its agitation is mentioned , to shew the ideas entertained of the omnipotence of Pavliatuent jn matters ecqleaiastical as well us civil . *
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body—4 hrough all the ftieiiibers ' W fctir church , tvfrich ts destined / ' wb - trooibjy trwst , to exhibit , not only as imder the most -discouraging circumstances sWfcas always done , in its purity , but in the
strength arising from increasing num . bers , the primitive truth and order which the Apostles proclaimed and establishe d and for which they , and a noble army of martyrs , laid down their lives , "—Pp \? id J m
la England , * Church a » d King " are linked together by custom and prejudice , the Church modestly taking the precedence : what will our " ^ Church and King ** clubs &ay of a Bishop of their own professed faith
who writes the following sentences ? " ** In the Aiaaericaa Episcopal Qaurck , the body whigh exercises her legislative power is aofistitoted analogous to the paramount civii body « f the United States — the Con gr&s a . *
'' The government -of the Episcopal Church in America is perhaps even more Republican than that of the Presbyterian denomination . " " Let it not be said , then , that there is ant / inseparable alliance between an Episcopal Government and monarchy " Nate * -pp . 29 , 30 .
We have omitted , for want of room , some notes affixed to the passages which we have quoted : in some of these the right reverend preacher explains the text as not toeing invidious or hostile towards the Church of
England , but in some others he carries further his exposure of " abuses and defects" in our boasted Establish ment 5 particularly in one ( pp . 31 and 32 ) which shews the neglect of our Church with jegard to theological education for the- ministry , la this particular the Episcopal Church in America is eminently praiseworthy .
The worthy Bishop disclaims the vanity of supposing that his opinions will have much influence here ; but he esteems it " a high act of duty and of friendship" to point out to our ecclesiastics the road to refoioi
They , let him he assured , will - > wt accept such friendship , nor thank him for such dutiful service . They deem themselves Secure in their broud lands and their high places . As yet , they hove no dread and little sense , of that power to which the American B ishop trusts for the correction and remedy of the diseases of the Church—Public
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546 Review . — C ® mpur $ s < m &f : t %# &ngluiim& Ameftetm Churches
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1826, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2552/page/38/
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