214 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/^S 



though not at all v/ith truth — that it carried away in its schism, 

 that high portion of its orders which the Wesleys and Coke had 

 never been able to detach. He explains his purposes and hopes 

 when he says, in the sermon of 1785 already quoted: 



Were our blessed Saviour now upon earth, he would n'ot narrow the 

 terms of communion, by such ways as these ; and it is our duty, as it 

 hath been our great endeavor in all the alterations proposed, to make 

 the consciences of those easy who believe in the true principles of Chris- 

 tianity in general, and who, could they be made easy in certain points 

 no way essential to Christianity itself, would rather become worshippers 

 as well as laborers, in that part of Christ's vineyard, in which we pro- 

 fess to worship and to labor, than in any other. 



Dr. Smith had already declared " that ever since the Reforma- 

 tion it had been a received doctrine of the Church," of which he 

 was a member, " that there be these three orders of ministers in 

 Christ's Church — Bishops, Priests and Deacons — and that an 

 Episcopal Ordination and Commission are necessary to the valid 

 administration of the Sacraments and the due exercise of minis- 

 terial functions in the said Church." * This, we may infer, he 

 would have regarded as among "the true principles of Christianity 

 in general," and not in any way or ever to be surrendered. These 

 are different ideas from those of the apostate " Reformed Episcopal 

 Church," and indeed from what we ;/^ta call " low churchmen;" 

 men still in the Church. Such, I say, were. Dr. Smith's ideas and 

 purposes. A clear and deep conception of what the Church was, 

 lay, no doubt, at the base of all his plans and all his work. But ar- 

 tificial, complicated and metaphysical formularies, articles or rites, 

 however venerable or however wonderful, he looked upon as essen- 

 tially of human elaboration and structure, and the more perfectly 

 they were worked out in theological operation and detail, the more 

 plainly did he see man's work and man's character stamped upon 

 them. His mind, in its natural structure, rejoiced in "that elder, 

 wider and wiser view which contemplates Revelation only, as the 

 fullness of and assurance of a grace previously developed in natural 

 religion — a view which shuts not out, but rather gathers in the 

 glory of the open universe;" though, of course, he considered too, 

 that without the Church's interpretation, the refining beauty of 



* See sttpra, page 97. 



