450 LIFE AiVn CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1803 



CHAPTER LXII. 



Causes of Dr. Smith not being consecrated Bishop of Maryland — Conclusion. 



We have said, in earlier parts of this volume, that in August, 

 1783, Dr. Smith was elected by the Ecclesiastical Convention of 

 Maryland — a body composed of the whole clergy of the State — to 

 be Bishop of their diocese. The body recommended him as "a 

 fit person and every way qualified to be invested with the sacred 

 office of a bishop;" the convention declaring itself "perfectly sat- 

 isfied that he will duly execute this office ... to the edifying of the 

 church and the glory of God." We have also stated that in 1786 

 the wardens and vestry of the parish in which he ministered for years 

 added to this, their emphatic testimony to the correctness of his 

 life and conversation.* With all this we know, however, that Dr. 

 Smith was never consecrated to the Episcopal order. I am not 

 able to say with certainty why this happened. While I think it 

 certain that Dr. Smith would have made an imposing figure had 

 his robe been sleeved with lawn; and indeed would have been in 

 many ways an efficient bishop, there were certain reasons which I 

 can conceive of as having been sufficient to cause some opposi- 

 tion to his consecration. 



We know what transcendent qualifications are required by the 

 apostle of him who is to be ordained to this most sacred office. 

 With other qualifications he must be blameless, vigilant, sober, 

 not given to wine, patient, apt to teach, not only of good behavior, 

 but having a good report of them which are without. The apostle 

 plainly intimates, I think, that a man may be of good behavior ; 

 but, from the misrepresentations, including even those that are 

 slanderous, or from simple misapprehensions of others, may not 

 have a good report of them that are without. Such a man, how- 

 ever innocent — indeed, however holy — and though the report of 

 them that are without may be the result of wicked falsehoods and 



* See these two documents supra, pp. 100, 240. 



