CHURCH. 
303 
State. The age demands more liberality in all its institutions. 
As the Church has professed to respond to this feeling, by 
going back to primitive times, popular opinion will not let it 
stop short at the third century, but make it go on to the 
fountain head. It is to the first century, to the times of the 
Apostles at the latest, that we must seek for direction, and 
from Scripture only we should draw up our code of Church 
government. 
The grand and permanent form which the Christian Church 
will assume on earth, is yet to be seen; nor will it be surpris¬ 
ing if it should first assume it in these distant parts of the 
earth, in our colonies, where the deeply-rooted prejudices and 
feelings of former times are not established, and where every¬ 
thing is prepared for the introduction of a more truly com¬ 
prehensive form of divine worship, which shall not only be 
national, but universal in its operation. The Church in New 
Zealand was first commenced with the preaching of the 
Gospel, as in Apostolic times, so the same constitution then 
established cannot be unsuitable for our infant Church. We 
ought to begin de novo, and not see how much of intermediate 
systems can be retained. The strong effort now made to erect 
an ecclesiastical hierachy in the southern hemisphere will and 
must fail, because the times and feelings of the people, as well 
as the word of God, are against it. Hence the feeble impres¬ 
sion made on the public mind by the minutes of conference 
of the Australian Bishops at Sydney, from whose united 
spirituality so much was naturally expected.* 
« - 
government as we now seek should be founded : and we earnestly trust that, 
if your Lordship shall think fit to accede to the request which we have made, 
you will not lose sight of the great importance which we attribute to them. 
In conclusion, we have only to add, that we venture to anticipate your 
Lordship’s favourable consideration of our suggestions with the greater 
confidence, because we are aware that you have long been anxious to see an 
efficient form of Church government established in your diocese, and have on 
various occasions recommended the subject to our serious consideration. 
(Signed) Octavius Hadfield, Archdeacon of Kapiti, 
And twelve others. 
* That the introduction, &c., of the question of Holy Baptism, &c , was un¬ 
called for and injudicious; the construction put by them (i.e. Bishops), if 
