34 INTRODUCTION. 



had disseminated the principles of civil liberty. Experience has shown that this 

 was a capital error, and that independence has been even more beneficial to the 

 necessary diffusion of religious instruction throughout the continent, than to the 

 political progress of society. We need only refer to the condition of the 

 church in the city of New- York previous to the revolution, to show how incom- 

 petent a colonial religious establishment would have been to educate and send 

 abroad the clergy and missionaries required among a growing people. The 

 apprehensions to which we have referred were by no means general among the 

 episcopalians, who soon became sensible of the injury which their church was 

 receiving from that source, and from a prevalent prejudice that the episcopal 

 form of government had a peculiar affinity for monarchical institutions. The best 

 efforts of the clergy were put in requisition to refute these prejudices, and in 

 many of the pamphlets, written for that purpose, may be found very able argu- 

 ments against a union of the church and the state, and in defence of the cardinal 

 principle that religion is best promoted, and most fruitful of blessings, when wholly 

 independent of the patronage and control of government. 



Soon after the revolution, all the religious denominations in the state, with one 

 exception, had risen to ecclesiastical independence. Candidates for the clergy, 

 for many years, obtained their theological education in the private study of some 

 approved divine of their particular sect. But provision was early made to guard 

 against the admission of unqualified candidates, by an open examination before 

 the body which conferred orders. The advantages, however, which would be 

 afforded by public institutions for theological education were too obvious to be 

 overlooked. The " Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Synod of 

 New- York," was established in 1801, through the efforts of the reverend John 

 M. Mason, D.D., and was the first theological institution in the United States. 

 Dr. Mason wels elected the only professor of the school in 1804, and it went into 

 actual operation in 1805. It received a valuable theological library, procured in 

 Europe in 1802, by the personal solicitations of its founder. He relinquished 

 his office after about fifteen years. The school was removed to Newburgh, and 



