USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 15
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fact, but seemed to regard it as a matter of little im- portance. It was, however, not so with me; and wishing to read further on the subject, I enquired what work he could recommend ? He jocularly re- plied, "Go to Dr. Beasley ; he can tell you." I took the advice in earnest; and introducing myself to the Rev. Doctor, enquired if he could recommend to me any approved work on the first organization of the Christian Church? He went to his library, and bringing out the work of Archbishop Potter on that subject, kindly offered me the loan of it. The peru- sal of this work was like the opening of a new world to me. I read the whole with deep attention. It unfolded to me a new aspect of Christianity. The survey afforded to me unspeakable relief; but it was necessarily attended with many regrets. I had no near relation, and no intimate friend, belonging to the Episcopal Church ; and I seemed to be left alone in the world, in regard to my religious sympathies.
It was now autumn; and I determined to return to my home, for the winter, and to take time for a decision in regard to my future course.
About this time, Dr. Maxcy, the President of Union College, had been called to the Presidency of the University at Columbia, South Carolina, and the Rev. .Dr. Nott was elected to fill his place. Soon after he had accepted, and entered on his new duties, I was appointed tutor in the Latin and Greek languages, in the institution. After due reflection, I decided to accept the station, and entered on the discharge of its duties on the 5th of April, 1805.
To sustain myself reputably, in my new position, I was now obliged to devote all my leisure hours to the study of the ancient classics.
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At the Commencement of 1807, I was elected Pro- fessor of " Belles Lettres and Moral Philosophy." A new department of learning was now. opened to me, which necessarily occupied the greater portion of my thoughts and of my studies.
Two years later, I was again requested to change my professorship, and course of study. The sciences of Chemistry and Mineralogy were then in their in- fancy in this country. But Professor Silliman, of Yale College, had now returned from Europe, with an imposing chemical apparatus. A fine cabinet of minerals had been procured for that institution from Colonel Gibbs ; and these acquisitions had given to Yale College an imposing position, which could not fail to stimulate the exertions of kindred institutions. Accordingly, a department of Chemistry and Mine- ralogy was established in Union College, at the Com- mencement, in 1809, and I was appointed the first Pro- fessor ; with leave to spend a year in Europe, in the examination of kindred institutions.
In the autumn, I sailed for England ; having been appointed, by President Madison, as "Bearer of Des- patches " to Mr. Pinckney, the American ' Minister in London, and to General Lyman, the United States Consul General. It was during the famous Embargo ; and the only conveyance to be obtained was by the British Packet from New York to Falmouth. It was also during the famous " restrictive system " of Bona- parte, and there was allowed no communication be- tween England and the Continent of Europe.
My travels and researches were, therefore, neces- sarily confined to Great Britain and Ireland. I had taken letters of introduction to Sir Humphrey Davy, VOL. II. 13
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Dr. Singer, Dr. Babington, Dr. Marcet, William Allen, and other distinguished scientific gentlemen in Lon- don, and found a free access to their cabinets, labora- tories, and lectures. My winter was thus spent very industriously in London.
In the spring, I had resolved on a tour through the interior of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and a well-educated young gentleman of New York, who had been my fellow-passenger on ship-board, and fel- low-boarder in London, volunteered to accompany me. Our object was not so much to see the large towns, as to examine the agricultural, manufacturing, and mining operations of the country ; and to effect this end we resolved to travel on foot. Though such a mode of travelling, by gentlemen in our situation, was then a novelty, we found no reason to regret our decision. On one occasion, indeed, in an obscure part of Scotland, and when separated from our credentials, we were arrested for a robbery and murder which had been committed in the vicinity; yet we found but little difficulty in making our real character under- stood, and were speedily released.
We spent a considerable time in exploring the caverns and mines of Derbyshire ; and in visiting the manufactories of Worcester, Manchester, and Birming- ham ; and in admiring the lake and mountain scenery of Cumberland and Westmoreland. We passed through the southern part of Scotland to Port Patrick ; and from thence crossed over to Donahaddie, in Ireland. After visiting Lough Neagh, and the Giant's Causeway, we returned by the eastern coast of Ireland to Belfast, and thence by packet, again to Port Patrick, in Scotland. From the latter place we
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pursued our way along the western coast to the city of Glasgow. In this latter place we spent two or three weeks, during which time I had free access to the laboratories of Dr. Ure and Dr. Cleghorn. From Glasgow we proceeded to the city of Edinburgh. Here we spent a few weeks in examining the most interesting objects of the city and its environs. I found every facility in visiting the laboratories, and attending the lectures of the distinguished chemists and mineralogists, who have added so much to the fame of the ancient capital of the kingdom.
Our peregrinations on foot terminated in this city. It had come to be time for our return to America. We took the mail stage for Liverpool ; from whence we embarked in a merchant ship for New York. After a pleasant passage to that city, I reached my home at Union College, just in time to commence my course of chemical instruction at the opening of the Fall term.
I had brought with me a considerable cabinet of minerals, and sufficient chemical apparatus to enable me to illustrate the principles of chemical science to advantage. Thus had passed one of the most busy and eventful years of my life ; and I now entered on my course of instruction with zeal and industry.
The year after my return from Europe, on the 6th of August, 1811, I was married to Charlotte Dickin- son, of the city of Lansingburgh, N. Y. She was daughter of Tertullus Dickinson, once a partner in mercantile business with Col. Beverly Robinson, of New York, and her mother was a daughter of Dr. Huggeford, an eminent physician of the same city.
My wife, and nearly all her connections, were of
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the Episcopal Church ; and we were married by the Rev. Dr. Butler, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Troy. I was thus, for the first time, brought into intimate rela- tions with Episcopalians.
Previous to this, I had become convinced of the historical and Scriptural grounds of Episcopacy, yet I had not felt the necessity of changing my church relations. But I was now led to give a more particu- lar examination to this subject. At the ensuing Easter, I took a pew in St. George's Church, Schenec- tady, under the Rectorship of the Rev. Dr. Stebbins. On the 5th of September, 1813, I was baptized in that church by the Rector. Shortly afterwards I was con- firmed by the Bishop, and was admitted to the Holy Communion of the Church.
It will seem strange that I had not received Chris- tian Baptism at an earlier period. The fact of the delay is to be accounted for, though not justified, by the state of society in which I was reared.
The community in which my early years were passed, were either Quakers, or Calvinistic Congregation- alists. My parents attended public worship with the latter denomination ; and though they had a distance of five miles to travel, and over bad roads, they were very punctual in their attendance, and were careful to provide a conveyance for a good portion of their family. Though always exemplary in their moral character, they were not technically "members of the Church." But when they came to be about forty years old, an extensive " revival " prevailed in their vicinity ; they became subjects of it, and were then baptized, with all their younger children. I was at that time some thirty miles from home, at Bristol
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Academy, and on the point of entering college. I may add, too, that it was then considered almost an unheard of thing that a person twenty years of age should receive baptism, unless he was the subject of some prevailing revival, and had, as it was termed, " experienced a change of heart;" a change which was supposed to be sudden, if not instantaneous, and wrought by the irresistible operation of the Holy Ghost.
Soon after my baptism, confirmation, and admission to the Holy Communion of the Church, I began to devote my leisure hours to the study of theology, as it is taught in the standard Church works - not, how- ever, with a view to the relinquishment of my college avocations, but in the hope that I might add to my usefulness by receiving Holy Orders, and affording a Sunday supply to some vacant parishes in my vicinity.
On the eleventh of April, 1816, I was admitted to the Holy Order of Deacons, in Trinity Church, New York, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hobart ; and soon after- wards, in the same place, I was admitted by him to the Holy Order of the Priesthood.
During the ensuing summer and autumn, I offici- ated every Sunday in vacant parishes within twenty miles of Schenectady. In the early part of the fol- lowing spring, I was attacked with a severe disease, which settled on my lungs, and disqualified me for labor through the ensuing summer. In the autumn, my physician advised me to spend the coming winter in a milder climate, and I determined on a journey through the Southern States. Accordingly, I pro- ceeded, by easy stages, as far south as Georgia ; spend-
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ing a few days in each principal city by the way, and devoting four or five weeks each to Charleston and Savannah. My health was, all the time, steadily im- proving, and I found myself able to preach at least a portion of nearly every Sunday.
Returning to New York in the spring, with recov- ered health, I spent a Sunday there, and preached in Trinity and St. Paul's Churches. There was then a vacancy in the ministry of Trinity parish, occasioned by the recent defection of the Rev. Dr. How. Shortly after returning to my home in Schenectady, I received an invitation to fill that vacancy. The overture was altogether unexpected. But as I received private letters from the Bishop, who was Rector of the parish, and also from his two assistants, assuring me that my acceptance would be agreeable to them personally, I decided on a change of occupation, after the ensuing College Commencement, if my health should then appear to be sufficiently reestablished.
Accordingly, in the ensuing month of August, I entered on the duties of Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New York, and removed my family to that city on the following October.
My residence in the city of New York was of brief duration, but was, in all respects, agreeable. I was received with great cordiality by the Bishop, and by my brethren of the clergy, and with all kindness by the people among whom I was called to minister. I supposed I had then entered upon the labors of my entire subsequent life.
But, in the following June, I was waited on by a delegation from Connecticut, informing me of my election to the Episcopal charge of that Diocese.
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Such an event was altogether unexpected by me. I had received no previous intimation of it ; and having entered the sacred ministry so late in life, there would have been but little probability that I should ever be called to one of its highest stations. But though such an office was not to be sought, nor expected, it was not to be hastily declined.
After seeking the Divine direction, after consulta- tion with my Bishop and other friends, and under assurances of the unanimity of my election, I decided on accepting the solemn responsibilities of the office to which I was called.
I was accordingly consecrated to the Episcopal office, in Trinity Church, New Haven, on the twenty- seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, by the Rt. Rev. William White, D. D., Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart, D. D., Bishop of New York, and the Rt. Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold, D. D., Bishop of the Eastern Diocese.
With what degree of faithfulness, and with what success, I have fulfilled the duties of the sacred office, it becomes not me to speak. I entertain a most grateful sense of the indulgence and kindness with which my imperfect services have been received by the Diocese.
Commending the people of the Diocese, and your- self, as my assistant and successor, to the keeping of Almighty God,
I remain your affectionate friend and brother,
THOMAS CHURCH BROWNELL
RT. REV. BISHOP WILLIAMS.
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CHAPTER XV.
THE CHURCH DEFENDED; COVERT ATTACKS; "SERIOUS CALL;" AND " SOBER APPEAL."
A. D. 1819.
IT was natural for an opponent to watch with some degree of alarm the prosperity of the Church. But the part they sustained, during the high political ex- citements through which the State had just passed, rendered Episcopalians particularly obnoxious to the Congregational ministers, and new attempts were made to weaken or destroy their influence. “ An association of gentlemen " was formed professedly for the purpose of "inculcating the doctrines which have ever prevailed in the great body of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches ; " but really, as one of its members incautiously avowed, " to write down the Episcopal Church in Connecticut." The question of Orders was revived, and among the first fruits of this association was a doctrinal tract entitled, “ Plain reasons for relying on Presbyterian ordination." It was the third in the series and extensively circulated, and triumphantly put into the hands of churchmen as an unanswerable argument. Though written with some degree of cant and bitterness, mingled with much affected candor and liberality, the tract ad- vanced everything that could be embraced in so short a compass, in favor of Presbyterian ordination,
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and the subject of it was regarded by the author, who withheld his name, as of " the highest practical impor- tance." He labored to show among other things that the succession in the Episcopal Church is Presby- terian ; that all ministers of the Gospel are successors of the Apostles, and that any claim on the part of bishops to " a superior rank is nothing less than usur- pation."
The pamphlet was a reproduction of the same reasonings which had often been met, but like every former attempt of the kind, it was destined to enjoy but a temporary triumph. It called forth a very able and conclusive answer from an Episcopal clergyman in Connecticut,1 under the title of " Presbyterian Or- dination Doubtful," in two parts, the first of which contained the Scripture evidences on the matter in controversy, and the other the historical testimony. The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge had already published an address on the primitive government of the Christian Church as proved by the Holy Scriptures, in which the difference between Episcopalians and Presbyterians was fairly stated, and the claims of a threefold ministry modestly but firmly vindicated. Mr. Judd's work, two thousand copies of which were published and distributed by this society, was clear in its reasonings and courteous in its style. In no single instance was he drawn by the provoca- tion of his opponent into any undue warmth or the least degree of asperity.
The learning displayed in this controversy was not so great, and the researches made by the respective
1 Bethel Judd. The author of the doctrinal tract to which he replied was Luther Hart, the Congregational minister at Plymouth.
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authors were not so extensive as in the earlier and more notable controversy on the same subject be- tween Dr. Miller, a Presbyterian divine of the city of New York, and Dr. Bowden. In the latter case Dr. Miller challenged to the onset, and wrote his " Letters concerning the Constitution and Order of the Chris- tian Ministry," at his leisure and in his best and most fascinating style. He assailed Episcopacy in a way well fitted to satisfy those who had rather lean on others than think and search for themselves. At that period the writings of the Fathers were but little known in this country, and their testimony was locked up in Greek and Latin, where few were able to find it or to verify another's citations. Dr. Bowden was a master in patristic learning, and stepped for- ward to vindicate an abused and calumniated church, as well as to show how much there really was in the history of the first and second centuries to disprove the doctrine of ministerial parity. In replying to these " Letters," he sometimes exceeded the bounds of a gentle nature and wrote with severity, especially when he detected his opponent in mutilating and mis- representing the Fathers, and making them to say things they never dreamed of, and to bear testimony against truths which they had spent their whole lives in defending.
Reference to Dr. Miller's work, as authority for the historical evidence in favor of ministerial parity, was made by the writer of the doctrinal tract, in a re- joinder to " Presbyterian Ordination Doubtful," and at a later period zealous champions arose in other quar- ters and lent their support to the common cause of crushing " Episcopal claims." In 1822, five years after
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the author had gone to his rest, and nearly twenty since the controversy was first started, James Wilson, a Congregational minister in Providence, R. I., pub- lished in a pamphlet of one hundred pages, an elabo- rate "Review of the Letters of the late Rev. John Bowden, D. D. ; " and though not fully concurring in the Presbyterian idea of ordination, he left as much unsettled as ever, the question of what he was pleased to call " Congregational Episcopacy."
The friends of the Church in Connecticut were puzzled at this time to know precisely on what ground the Congregationalists meant to rest. In seeking shelter under the standard of Presbyterianism, they virtually abandoned their own system in regard to a valid ministry, for according to this no lineal suc- cession from the great Head of the Church is neces- sary. According to this system, our Lord's commission to the Apostles confers full and complete authority to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments, on every person who is set apart for that purpose, either by " delegated brethren," or "ruling elders." The earliest divines of New England, as it has already been seen,1 were troubled about the matter of lay- ordination. Dr. Stiles, President of Yale College, re- ferred to this in his Election Sermon before the Gen- eral Assembly, May, 1783. He seems to have used Congregational and Presbyterian as synonymous terms ; and visions of the future greatness of the body with which he was connected floated before his mind, and emboldened him in his ecstasy to make assertions which do not place him among the most sagacious and far-seeing men of his age.
1 Vol. i. p. 40.
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" When we look forward," said he, "and see this country increased to forty or fifty millions, while we see all the religious sects increased into respectable bodies, we shall doubtless find the united body of the Congregational, Consociated, and Presbyterian Churches, making an equal figure with any of them ; or to say the least. to be of such magnitude as to number, that it will be to no purpose for other sects to meditate their eversion. This, indeed, is enterprised, but it will end in a sisyphean labor. There is the greatest prospect that we shall become thirty out of forty millions, and while the avenues to civil improvement and pub- lic honors will here be equally open to all sects, so it will be no dishonor hereafter to be a Presbyterian, or of the religious denomination which will probably ever make the most distinguished figure in this great republic. And hereafter when the world shall behold us a respectable part of Christendom, they may be induced by curiosity, with calmness and candor to ex- amine whether something of Christianity may not really be found among us." 1
From this statement, President Stiles went on to say, " Our churches are as completely reformed and as well modelled as can be expected till the millen- nium." He devoted ten pages of his extraordinary sermon to the matter of ordination, and in the history of it in New England, which it came within his prov- ince to give, he made some admissions or confessions that would be spurned by those who do not believe a lineal succession from Christ and His Apostles neces- sary to a valid ministry.
" The invalidity of our ordinations is objected against 1 Sermon, pp. 57, 58.
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us, and so of consequence the invalidity of all our official administrations. And now that we are upon the matter, give me leave to exhibit a true, though summary state of it, as the result of a very full, labo- rious, and thorough inquiry. It was the mistaken opinion of some of our first ministers in New England (than whom there never was a more learned collec- tion, for they embosomed all the theological and eccle- siastical erudition of all ages), it was, I say, their opinion, that the power of ordination of all church officers was in the church, by their elders. They well knew, from ecclesiastical and Scripture antiquity, that the power of election was there ; and they judged ordination the lesser act; but their great reason was, that the church might not be controlled by any ex- terior authority, whether Episcopal or Presbyterial, and so no more be harassed by Bishops' courts, or any other similar tribunals.
" Immediately upon publishing the Cambridge plat- form, 1648, our brethren in England remonstrated against allowing lay ordination. They alleged that we had no example in Scripture, and not only that it was safest to proceed in this way, but that it was the only Scriptural ground. These arguments convinced our fathers, and they immediately set about to rem- edy the practice, which had hitherto, providentially, wrought no mischief, as the body of the pastors had been ordained by the Bishops." 1
Lay ordination, in the judgment of President Stiles, " was almost the only error of moment," which the ministers of New England fell into, in the first century of its settlement ; but he seemed to think that even
1 Sermon, pp. 59, 62.
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this irregularity was not to be condemned, since it " was done by the advice and under the inspection " of those whom English bishops had ordained to the work of the ministry. These bishops did not intend, however, according to his own admission, to " commu- nicate ordaining powers," and every presbyter of the Church of England, in his vow of submission to Epis- copal authority, made when he answered to the ques- tions in the Ordinal, gave a very solemn pledge that he would exercise no such powers. The theory, therefore, of a lineal succession from Christ and the Apostles, maintained in this way, was a virtual sur- render of the principle of lay ordination. It was worth nothing to the cause of Congregationalism, and it did not help the Presbyterian idea of ministerial
parity. But Wilson in his " Review of the Letters " of Bowden, adhered to it, and denied what he found stated in the work which he was criticising, that " In New England, there have been numerous instances of lay ordination." Speaking of her Independent Churches, he said, " Nor does it distinctly appear,1 that more than two lay ordinations, actually such, ever occurred in those churches ; the first was at Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1642, and the last at Stratford, in Connecticut, in 1665. This last instance was the lay ordination of Israel Chauncey." 2 At the same time, he frankly admitted that appearances sanctioned in some degree the statement of Dr. Bowden, because the installment or the introduction of ministers, al-
1 Review, etc., p. 89.
2 " His ordination was in the Independent mode. It has been the tra- dition that Elder Brinsmaid laid on hands with a leather mitten. Hence it has been termed the leather mitten ordination." - Trumbull's Hist. of Conn., vol. i. p. 464.
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ready ordained, into the pastoral charge of a particu- lar congregation, was performed by lay-brethren, and this, from the beginning, was termed ordination. In establishing their rules of ecclesiastical polity, the Puritans could not quite forget the obligation due to English bishops, and still they acted as if there could be no true religion unless they kept themselves " out of sight of mitres and the purple."
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