1803] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 46 1 



puted righteousness," "The new birth," etc. But I find no practical 

 use made of these terms, nor does he offer anything to explain them, 

 or to tell us what he would be at. 



What sort of respect Dr. Smith had for Episcopal authority and 

 for the " Induction," or, as we in our American church call it, the 

 " Institution " of ministers, may be inferred from his further ac- 

 count of the reverend gentleman just named: 



Mr. Macclanechan spoke much of his popularity; the call he had 

 from the people to be their minister, which he pretends, gives the only 

 right title. The Bishop' s authority he spoke of very disrespectfully, 

 and said it could never bind the people. I replied that ... it was 

 certainly binding on him and me, who were of the clergy.* 



In regard to the ministry Dr. Smith declares that the three 

 orders of bishops, priests and deacons are necessary to the 

 proper cst^ablishment of the church, and shows everywhere his 

 high appreciation of the threefold order.f And if, referring to 

 what had been enacted both by the Church and Parliament of 

 England, he suggested it to the Bishop of London to consider 

 whether anything could be done to bring into our church, without 

 other ordination than what they had, the German Lutheran clergy 

 of Pennsylvania, it must be remembered that he does not express 

 any opinion on the subject himself; but treats it as one which it 

 does not become him "any further to meddle with than just to 

 mention the facts and the great accession it might bring to our 

 church."! He considered possibly that as there was no bishop in 

 America who could have ordained these persons when they en- 

 tered on their work, and was none now, the case fell within an 

 exception recognized by many learned and pious men in the 

 Church of England who were considered sound churchmen, 

 and which, tJioiigJi wider very dijferent circumstances of fact, Dr. 

 White recognized as temporarily dispensing with regular ordination 

 in our own ministers. He knew that the Church of England 

 recognizes the validity of the Moravian, Swedish, and perhaps the 

 Danish orders. Wc havj noted the high respect paid in Phila- 

 delphia to the Lutheran body; Dr. Peters, the rector of Christ 

 Church, saying, in 1764, when preaching from one of its pulpits, 



* See this work. Vol. I., p. 225. f Supra, p. 97. % Vol. I., p. 404. 



