bishops amongst them; and bishops may be sent amongst them, without any intention of episcopizing them. Dean Kennett, confessed to be a worthy man writing to Dr. Colman in 1712, concerning the Society's "desire to have bishops settled in the foreign parts committed to his care," saith, as Dr. Mayhew himself quotes him, "I hope your churches would not be jealous of it." Certainly therefore, he did not know any cause why they should be jealous of it. Archbishop Tennison, who, though a very good churchman, is allowed to have meant no harm to any dissenters any where, left by his will one thousand pounds, to encourage the appointment of two bishops, one in the continent, and another in the islands of America. Bishop Butler, whom the Doctor praises so highly and so justly, was a hearty friend to this scheme, and left five hundred pounds to the Society. Bishop Benson, whose Christian and catholic temper is well known to almost as many as ever heard his name, bequeathed to it such a legacy as he was able, " to be added to the fund for settling bishops in our plantations in America, hoping" [these are his own words]" that a design, so necessary and unexceptionable, cannot but at last be put in execution." The Doctor professes himself an enemy to it, because "of the narrow, censorious, and bitter spirit, that prevails in too many of the episcopalians in America." But may not he think too ill of their spirit? I verily believe he doth. Or if he doth not, is there not an equal share of the same spirit in too many of the presbyterians and congregationalists there? And are invectives and acts of unkindness * Page 53. VOL. VI. + Page 88. + Page 129. the way to mend it on either side? Or may not the appointment of proper bishops, conduce greatly to mend it on the side of the episcopalians? But he fears, that "if this growing party should get a major vote in the Houses of Assembly, tests might be obtained to exclude all but conformists from posts of honour and emolument, and all men be taxed for the support of bishops and their underlings; and therefore he cannot think of the church of England's gaining ground there to any great degree, and especially of seeing bishops fixed upon them, without great reluctance *." Now this very passage implies it not to have gained ground, as yet, to any great degree: in another, already quoted, he scarcely seems to think it grows at all; and in a third, though he falsely supposes the promotion of it to be a " favourite point" pursued" at a vast expence," he still "hopes in God it will never be carried." The likelihood therefore of its obtaining a majority, is by no means considerable. Now if it were, would excluding bishops be any mighty guard against it? So that either the admission of them will be very safe, or the Doctor must think of more vigorous measures than have hitherto been used, to prevent the increase of this malignant faction. But supposing the episcopalians were the majority there, why should a test law follow? Is there any such law in the episcopalian colonies? Or even though there were, can it be imagined that if a prevailing party in New England were wild enough to propose, his majesty would ever be advised to pass one for that country? The terror of being taxed for bishops and their underlings, as he civilly calls the body of the clergy, is yet more chimerical than the former; as an act for that purpose would affect a much greater Page 129. + Page 90. * number of persons, and in a still tenderer point. Tithes are paid in England to the clergy by virtue of grants, which laid that burthen upon estates many ages before the present possessors enjoyed them. But could an act of Parliament be obtained now to impose a tax never known before, of this or the like nature, on this whole nation, dissenters not excepted, for the maintenance of an ecclesiastical hierarchy ? Nobody will pretend it could. And with what modesty then can the Doctor suggest, that such a thing might be feared in New England? Besides, would it have been a good reason at the Revolution, for debarring the dissenters from the full exercise of their church government and worship, that, if they obtained it, they might perhaps increase till they got a "major vote" in both houses, and then might enact no mortal knows what? But indeed the poor man's fears, if you will believe him, run to vastly further lengths yet. He imagines already himself and his brethren driven to the last extremities by these savage episcopalians, and vents his lamentations in such moving strains, that I must transcribe them; for they are the finest flight of oratory in his whole book, though it is adorned with many. "Will they never let us rest in peace, except 'where all the weary are at rest? Is it not enough that they persecuted us out of the old world? Will they pursue us into the new, to convert us here?What other new world remains as a sanctuary for us from their oppressions, in case of need? Where is the Columbus to explore one for, and pilot us to it, before we are consumed by the flames, or deluged in a flood of episcopacy? For my own part, I can hardly ever think of our being pursued thus from world to world, without calling to mind, though without applying [to be sure] that passage in the Revelation of St. John: And to the woman given two wings of a great eagle, that she might flee into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished-from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water, as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood." Happily, soon after, the Doctor recovers from his panic into some degree of composedness, and saith, "it is not his design however to dishonour the more moderate and Christian spirit of the English bishops since the Revolution, and particularly of this day, by comparing it to the persecuting antichristian spirit of many prelates, antecedent to that glorious æra of British liberty." But why then such dismal apprehensions? why such outcries? where are the persecutors? where is the dragon? All the world must see, the Doctor himself must see, that his declamation is quite foreign from the purpose; and on his first recollection he should have been ashamed of it, and have struck it out. But paternal tenderness would not let him destroy so pathetic a rant on so darling a subject. Not only the present bishops, but the present age is grown milder in religious matters. Protestants in general, of all denominations, in all countries, but especially in the British dominions, bear with each other far better than they did a century ago; and the smallest attempts towards an oppressive enlargement of spiritual power, would immediately be crushed with indignation by our legislature. The dissenters here know it well; those abroad can hardly fail to know it; and so far as human foresight can reach, both the moderation of the clergy, and the watch* Page 129, 130. fulness of the laity over them, are much more likely to increase than diminish. But above all, a bishop in New England would find abundant reason to be cautious of exerting himself too far, and very thankful, if with all his caution he could live in any tolerable degree of peace. Therefore the Doctor would not need to be at all anxious for the liberty of his dear country, though one were to be placed there. But to make him perfectly easy, he may be assured, that this neither is, nor ever was, intended or desired; which must certainly be admitted as another proof still, that episcopizing that province hath not been "the favourite scheme," nor indeed any scheme, of the Society. During the course of more than fifty years, that sending bishops to America hath been in agitation, I believe no single person, there or here, hath once named or thought of New England as a proper place for the residence of one; but episcopal colonies have always been proposed. proposed. And this the Doctor might so easily know, that one cannot help thinking he must know it. But then, alas! if he had owned it, what would have become, not only of his pompous harangue already mentioned, but of his ingenious suppositions, that Mr. Apthorp was "right-reverendly inclined," and that a certain "superb edifice," near Harvard college, "was even from the foundation designed for the palace of one of the humble successors of the Apostles +?" So much wit and archness, how greatly soever the Doctor abounds in it, would have been too great a sacrifice to make to dull truth and fact. We confess indeed, that we cannot perceive why the presbyterians and congregationalists in new England might not as safely breathe the same air with a Page 149. + Page 89. * |