276 LIFE AND CORRF.SrONDENCE OF THE [l/Sp 



of the clergy, to your General Convention, had we conceived we could 

 have done it with propriety. The ground on which Bishop Provoost 

 ('isputes the validity of the Scotch Episcopal succession can best be ex- 

 plained by himself: I know not what it is. And the ground on which 

 the letters of orders were called for from every clergyman, in a former 

 Convention at Philadelphia — if I have been rightly informed — is order 

 to make a distinction between English and Scotch ordinations, they can 

 best explain who were concerned in it. As I know not precisely how 

 this matter ended, I shall say no more about it. But while this matter 

 stands as it does, and there is a resolve on the minutes of the New York 

 Convention strongly reflecting on Bishop Seabury's Episcopal character 

 — while by your own constitution no representation of clergymen can 

 bj admitted without lay delegates, and no church can be taken into 

 -our union without adopting your whole plan, I leave you to say 

 whether it would be right for me, or for my clergy, to offer ourselves at 

 a Convention where we could be admitted only in courtesy? Should 

 we feel ourselves at home? or, as being on an equal footing with the 

 other ministers? 



The necessity of a union of all the Churches, and the disadvantages 

 of the present disunion, we feel and lament equally with you: and I 

 agree with you, that there may be a strong and efficacious union between 

 Churches where the usages are different. I see not why it may not be 

 so in this case, as soon as you have removed those obstructions which, 

 while they remain, must prevent all possibility of uniting. 



My joining with Bishops White and Provoost in consecrating a luurth 

 Bishop was some time ago proposed to Bishop White, and by him de- 

 clined. His noncompliance has had a bad effect here. It has raised a 

 jealousy of attempting an undue superiority over the Church of Con- 

 necticut, which, as it at present consists of nineteen clergymen, in full 

 orders, and more than twenty thousand people, thev suppose as respect- 

 able as the Church in any State in the Union. 



Before I wrote to Bishop White I took the most deliberate pains to 

 obtain the sentiments of both clergy and laity; and I should not now 

 think myself at liberty to act contrary to their sentiments, even did not 

 my own coincide with theirs. I have, however, the strongest hope that 

 all dififaculties will be removed by your Convention — that the Connect- 

 icut Episcopacy will be explicitly acknowledged, and that Church 

 enabled to join in union with you, without giving up her own inde- 

 pendency. 



A great deal, my dear sir, will depend on the part you now act. The 

 dread of alterations in the liturgy here arises from the observation, tliat 

 every review of the liturgy has set the offices of the Church lower, and 

 departed further from primitive practice and simplicity. The book you 

 published was a remarkable instance of depreciating the offices, and we 

 hope to see it remedied. To enter into particulars after what I have 



