242 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE 117^4 



orders of clergy and laity duly represented (agreeably to the Fourth 

 Constitution aforesaid) shall have the general cognizance of all affairs, 

 necessary to the discipline and good government of this Church, in- 

 cluding particularly the following matters, viz. : The power and author- 

 ity necessary for receiving, or excluding from Church privileges, scan- 

 dalous members, whether lay or clerical, and all jurisdiction with regard 

 to offenders ; the power of suspending or dismissing clergymen from the 

 exercise of their ministry in this Church ; the framing, approving of, 

 or confirming all canons, or laws, for Church government; and such alter- 

 ations, or reforms, in the Church service, liturgy, or points of doctrine, 

 as may be afterwards found necessary or expedient, by our Church in 

 this State, or of the United States in General Convention. And in all 

 matters that shall come before the Convention, the clergy and laity shall 

 deliberate in one body; but if any vote shall be found necessary, or be 

 called for by any two members, they shall vote separately ; that is to 

 say, the clergy in their different orders, according to their own rules, 

 shall have one vote ; and the laity, according to their rules, shall have 

 another vote ; and the concurrence of both shall be necessary to give 

 validity to any measure. 



II. Future Conventions shall frame and establish rules, or canons, 

 for receiving complaints; and shall annually appoint a committee, con- 

 sisting of an equal number of clergy and laity (including the bishop, 

 when there shall be one duly consecrated, among the number of the 

 clergy), which committee shall have standing authority, government, 

 and jurisdiction, agreeably to such rules as may be given them for that 

 purpose, in all matters respecting the discipline and government of the 

 Church, that may arise or be necessary to be proceeded upon, during 

 the recess or adjournment of General Conventions : all which rules shall 

 be framed, and jurisdiction exercised in conformity to the Constitution 

 and Laws of this State for the time being.* 



The reader will have already noted how broad and comprehen- 

 sive was the cast of Dr. Smith's churchmanship. We have seen 

 in our first volume f that he was inclined to bring into the Church 

 — if the Bishop of London approved of the idea — the whole of the 

 Lutheran clergy in Pennsylvania. He was equally desirous, and 



* In the copy of these additional constitutions in the collection of early journals in 

 the possession of the present Bishop of Iowa— Dr. Perry— which, though evidently in- 

 serted after the rest of the pamphlet was printed, is continuously paged with the pre- 

 ceding sheets, the words " or general " in the heading, and "the following matters, 

 viz.," in paragraph I. are omitted ; the parenthetical clause " (of all orders) "' is added 

 to the assertion of "the power of suspending or dismissing clergymen; " and the words 

 "or rule" :ippended at the close of the paragrajih. There are several variations in 

 typography, which, as they do not at all affect the sense, it is hardly important to notice. 



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