USA > Virginia > A digest of the proceedings of the conventions and councils in the diocese of Virginia > Part 15
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"Hitherto God has so blessed our efforts at supporting both profes- sors and students with annual contributions, aided by a fund, whose interest is only a little more than sufficient for one salary, that we have not permitted the Seminary to suffer for the want of instruction, or a needy candidate to be turned away for the want of food, and lodging, and tuition; but the time has come when, in the opinion of those most attentive to its concerns, it would be not a proper reliance on, but tempting of, Providence any longer to postpone judicious and active efforts at securing an increase of our permanent fund for the support of our professors, instead of relying so much on annual contributions. The great increase of our own Diocesan expenses in the support of the Bishops and Missionaries-the increasing families of the ministers re- quiring more support from their parishioners-the greater number of our beneficiaries at the High School and Seminary-the pressing de- mand of our General Missionary Society-all these, more or less, inter- fere with the regular annual contribution to the support of our profes- sors, and render it very desirable that we should have some more per- manent source of supply. We must believe that there are many in our Diocese both willing and able to contribute to this object, from a deep conviction that there is no institution in the Church which has such claims on their pious liberality, whether they regard what it has done, is doing, or is likely to do in time to come.
"And may we not most reasonably look for assistance elsewhere? When we remember with pleasure how many young men have come from all parts of our country to receive the benefits of this institution from its first establishment, and have gone back again to their several places of abode, and are now preaching the gospel in every State of the Union-when we think, with gratitude to God, how his unmerited grace has honored and blessed it to be the nursery of almost all our foreign
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missionaries, and how dear it is on that account to many hearts, we must believe that there are individuals in every part of our country who only require to be informed of its history, its character and needs, to make a free-will offering to it. * * * *
"This brings me to another subject, in which all our institutions are interested, and which must not be passed over in silence-I allude to the resolution adopted at our last Convention, to petition, in common with other denominations of our State, for some legislative act enabling our literary, benevolent and religious institutions to exercise under proper restrictions the right of receiving and holding property-a right so freely granted to individuals and associations in the pursuit of any mere secular object.
" The committee to whom the execution of the above-mentioned resolution was committed-in the exercise of that discretion which was allowed to it-on conferring with some judicious and zealous friends thought it best to decline a direct petition to the last Legislature, hoping that so moderate and reasonable a measure as that which was wished, and one so accordant with the unsolicited action of the Legislature of forty-one and two, might be obtained by the simple motion of some member of the house. In this hope, however, we have been disap- pointed, and the pious and benevolent Christian who is about to depart this life, and desires to bequeath a portion of his estate to some beloved institution of religion, learning and humanity, must still, as heretofore, leave it in the painful uncertainty of not knowing whether it shall be faithfully applied to the intended object, or whether his last and pious effort at beneficence is not to prove a temptation to relatives who had also shared in his living and dying kindness, to be guilty of the crime of defeating the intention of the deceased, and robbing religion, humanity and literature of those means of support which were given them under the most sacred sanction of a testament. Such, I say, is the temptation held out to sacrilege by the absence of any such provision in the State of Virginia, as that which is now desired, as I believe, by the Christians of all denominations amongst us-a provision which we believe, after no slight examination, has been refused by no other State in our Ameri- can Confederation."
The following extracts are made from Bishop John's address :
"June 16th .- I preached at Yeocomico and confirmed three persons. Unhappily the right of the vestry of this Church to control the use of the building has been questioned by some of our Methodist brethren,
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who, regarding the building as public property, had made their appoint- ments for preaching in it, as if it were free for all. This, of course, led to a misunderstanding, which might have been productive of conse- quences deeply to be deprecated by both parties. In pursuance of what they no doubt regarded as a just claim, our Methodist friends brought the subject before the Legislature at its last session-in the form of a petition-to sell the property. This petition was referred to a commit- tee, of which the Honorable Mr. (now Judge) McComas was the chair- man. The committee reported the case as one not requiring legislative interference, and recognized the vestry's right of occupancy and con- trol. This was adopted by the Legislature, with, I was informed, but a single dissenting voice. The Honorable Chairman alluded to, himself a member of the Methodist Church, was so fully satisfied of the truth and equity of this decision, that he generously volunteered a letter to his brethren in Westmoreland, counselling them to acquiesce in the view taken by the Legislature. It is to be hoped that the proceeding in this case will terminate all difficulty, and prevent any similar occur- rence in other places.
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"Under ordinary circumstances, the preceding record of services and statistics, with such interspersed remarks as the facts suggested, would comprise all that is called for in an annual address. It is, however, as I have reason to believe, expected that I should embrace this occasion to record briefly my testimony touching the difficulties by which the Church at large has, within the last few years, been disquieted. Those difficulties have been too often identified to require being defined here, and too ably met, as I conceive, to need any new mode of resistance for their counteraction. To their origin, nature and tendency, your atten- tion has just been directed by the address of my Right Reverend brother. With the principles of that address, my own views so accord, that to give it my endorsement would be enough to acquit my con- science at this juncture. The whole system which it opposes, I cannot but regard as unscriptural-at variance with the doctrines of the Refor- mation as embodied in our Articles-and so pernicious in its influence, that were it to succeed in effecting the changes which it seeks, by as- similating to itself the standards and usages of the Church-that Church, in the language of the present metropolitan of India, "would not be worth preserving"-or rather, as far as primitive truth and protestant principles are concerned, it would be already destroyed. I am con- strained to regard the whole system as originating largely in a most mistaken desire to magnify unduly the office and functions of the Chris- tian ministry, by superadding to its just claims pretensions to a kind of
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priestly character and service, not only unrecognized, but discounte- nanced by the gospel. To effect this, the nature, design, and efficacy of the sacraments, and the range and powers contemplated by the evangelical commission, are withdrawn from the light in which they are set by the inspired penmen, and shrouded in a mystery which overawes investigation, and invested with a superstitious sanctity which forbids all interference. The relation of anxious inquirers to the Saviour is thus seriously changed. Instead of a direct personal approach to him, whose language is, "Come unto me," they are required to seek ac- ceptance and sanctification through the hands of a priestly order, to whom exclusively the dispensation of these blessings is committed, and by whom they are imparted in a way which, after all modest ex- planation, savors more of spiritual legerdemain than of evangelical truth and simplicity. To sustain this spurious system, the appeal is not directly to the Scriptures-these alone, by many who have spoken out, are represented as an insufficient, and on some points, an unsafe rule of faith and practice-whilst others of this school, without indulging in positive expressions of distrust, betray the same mind by maintaining that the only safe position from which to study the Word of God is in company with the post Nicene Fathers, and in submission to their con- sentient interpretations. Hence the theory which insists, not avowedly, on another rule than the sacred Scriptures-but upon that which is tantamount to such substitution, the recognition of what is termed the concurrent testimony of the fathers as authoritative in the determi- nation of the meaning of Scripture, and binding on the conscience. Their competency as witnesses to matters of fact we do not question. For the information which they furnish we are grateful. But as theolo- gians and expositors of God's Word, we receive their opinions not without due consideration. The moment we admit the insufficiency of the sacred Scriptures-associate anything coördinately with it as a rule of faith, or yield implicitly to the authority of any uninspired teachers, we become liable to gross imposition and fatal error. Any system which even connives at such a surrender of' Christian liberty and prostration of human intellect, needs in my view, no other condemnation. The Bible, my brethren, after all, is and must be our religion. As clergy, we are bound by solemn oath of office, to teach nothing as necessary to salvation, but what may be clearly proved by sacred Scripture. It is because our Creeds and Articles may be so proved, that we believe them. And it is because our ecclesiastical organization and our mode of worship have, as we are satisfied, this clear sanction, that we main- tain them. It may be necessary to feel one's way down into the dark- ness and corruption of the middle ages in quest of other views and
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practices, which when found are worse than useless-tending in gene- ral to exalt the priest at the expense of the Saviour-despoiling him of his mediatorial garments for the adornment of his ministers, and im- poverishing and degrading his people, to aggrandize and glorify those who should deem it honor enough to be 'helpers of their faith and joy.' To say that the dogmas and ceremonies, which it is now attempted to revive amongst us under the miserable misnomer of 'Catholic verities and usages,' and the sanction afforded by the unguarded language of later fathers and the occasional inflated phraseology of a few of earlier date-do not differ materially from the wholsome truths set forth with so much simplicity in our Articles-to maintain that the present con- troversy is mainly a mere verbal disagreement, is preposterous-unless words have no definite meaning, and serve only to cloud and conceal, and not to convey ideas. That the movement which we condemn is made in much mystiness-that such, to a considerable extent, is the character of the style and thought of many of its abettors, we concede. It is not surprising, therefore, that they should sometimes be misappre- hended-and if so, the fault is with themselves. But it must be ob- served, they profess to understand, and they deplore the uncatholic position of the Church to which they avowedly belong. They mourn over it as 'working in chains.' They have declared their purpose to 'unprotestantize' it. We give them credit for their discernment and design. We see that what they desire, would indeed be the result of the prevalence of their schemes, which we regard as Romanism, not in germ only, but in considerable and increasing development. And as we are satisfied with the Church as it is, and seek no change, but least of all, such change as they would give us, we feel bound, accord- ing to our vow, 'with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Church these erroneous and strange doctrines, contrary to God's Word, and both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to do the same."
The Diocesan Missionary Society reported having em- ployed thirteen missionaries, at an expense of $2,000.
Rev. Mr. Slaughter offered the following, which was con- curred in :
As it is desirable that the missionaries should be supplied with Tracts and Prayer Books, your committee would take the liberty of adding another article to the Constitution of the Missionary Society, providing a depository for them in Richmond; therefore,
Resolved, That the Diocesan Missionary Society be directed to keep
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on hand a supply of Prayer Books and Tracts, to be distributed gratui- tously, at the discretion of the Executive Committee.
The following is taken from the report of the committee on the State of the Church:
Among the favorable indications of advancement may be selected, for especial notice, the increase of candidates for Holy Orders during the year-the unusual number of new parishes organized and received into connection with the Diocese by the present Convention, with the addition to our churches by those newly built, or old ones repaired, and once more rendered vocal with the praises of God, after the silence and profanation of many years. * And in this connec- tion we would advert to the marks of unusual prosperity by which the Theological Seminary of the Diocese has been attended. The large addition of students, which a wide-spread public sentiment in behalf of evangelical truth has collected around the several chairs of its dis- tinguished Faculty, gives a most encouraging prospect of good to the cause of religion and the Church, both within and without our own ecclesiastical limits. Long may this important institution, fostered by the unwearied supplications and benefactions of the Church, continue as a rich fountain of spiritual health, to pour its healing streams over the desolate and barren places of this and other lands, till the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.
Something responsive to the addresses of the Bishops, delivered at the opening of the Convention, may not, in the existing emergency of the Church, be deemed inappropriate on the part of your committee. The clear and conclusive statements of the documents referred to, do not, indeed, leave much to be said, besides an expression of entire agreement in the arguments and facts therein brought to our view. The remark, however, may be allowed us, that they show that the errone- ous tendencies apprehended and complained of by many as inherent in the Church, have not their origin in her Constitution or doctrines, but in the wrong dispositions and sympathies of our fallen nature, im- pelled in a special direction by circumstances incidental to her peculiar relative position. Here we believe may be found the true source of men's affinity with Rome, and the antipathy of some to the magnificent cause and glorious achievements of the Reformation. That aversion to truth, and thirst for official dominion, which led the Papacy to degrade the Scriptures, and prefer, as the Homely speaks, "the stink- ing puddles of men's traditions," to the pure waters of the well of life,
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the same disaffection and self-love still induce men to reject the hum- bling and spiritual doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, and seek repose of mind, or a more convenient instrumentality on what may well be called "another Gospel." But truth only is God's instrument of spir- itual good to man. Error has ever been and ever must be attended by appalling evils for both worlds. Whilst we, therefore, regard with unfeigned satisfaction, the scriptural and primitive purity of the Church, we cannot sufficiently evince our sense of the importance of preserving her undefiled. Yet this cannot be done without the price of a cease- less vigilance and fidelity. It will be necessary that those who have been placed on the watch-towers of our Zion guard with sleepless eye the avenues to her inner sanctuary. The admission is sufficiently pain- ful that here chiefly lies the danger. The experience of the past, like a flaming beacon, admonishes to beware of an unsound and benighted priesthood. "Like priest, like people," is a proverb sustained by the testimony of ages. If the congregation of the Lord, then, is to be duly fed and nourished with the bread of life, the chief officers of watch and ward must especially beware of slumbering at their posts, or wa- vering in the hour of trial. No Church, however pure, can long bear the weight of a ministry "destitute of the truth, and supposing that gain is godliness." Of this we have a warning voice of startling em- phasis from Rome on the one hand, and from Geneva on the other.
We are happy in the belief that, in regard to the questions here re- ferred to, and those generally which now agitate the Church of our affections abroad and at home, there is an essential harmony of senti- ment prevailing in this Diocese not often to be found in so large a com- munity. Fidelity to the Church and her ascended Lord forms the sacred bond which binds in such pleasant agreement of thought and action the whole body of her Bishops, clergy and laity. Loving the Church as she is, regarding her as a true interpreter and witness of Divine truth, they desire no further reformation, especially no reforma- tion backwards. May this hallowed unanimity-this dwelling together of brethren in unity, be long continued to us as a pledge of favor and ap- probation by him who is "the author of peace and lover of concord."
Seminary Trustees report nothing special.
The High School gave appearances of failure.
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CONVENTION OF 1845.
Convention met in St. George's church, Fredericksburg, May 21.
William M. Blackford was appointed Secretary.
St. John's church, Green Spring parish, Louisa county, was admitted into union with the Convention.
In his address the Bishop said:
"It is an useful employment for societies, as well as individuals, at certain seasons, to look back through their past history, and mark the dealings of a kind Providence towards them. The history of the Epis- copal Church of Virginia has, by universal consent, been from the very beginning, a most interesting and eventful one-beyond that of any other Diocese in the Union. I would briefly refer to some of its partic- ulars, in order to raise our hearts in gratitude to God for its wonderful preservation, and to make us more faithful and zealous in using the proper means for its further advancement.
"The Episcopal Church of Virginia commenced with the first settle- ment of the first colony. The code of laws of that colony was drawn up at a time when 'religion (as Bishop Taylor expresses it), was painted upon banners,' for it was 'divine, martial and moral,' all in one, being enforced, even among Protestants, by civil pains and penalties, which we would fain now banish from our recollections, and blot from the page of history.
"That there was much of sincere piety moving the hearts of those who incorporated the forms of the Episcopal Church with the colony of Virginia, as well as of those who established other forms among the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, I doubt not. Nor do I question the piety and fidelity of some of the people and pastors during its whole subsequent history. But that its spiritual condition was ever, at any time, even tolerably good, bearing a comparison with that of the Mother Church, over whose defects also there was so much cause to mourn, faithful history forbids us to believe. Many were the disadvan- tages under which she had to labor, during the whole period of her existence in connexion with the Government of England, which were well calculated to sink her character beneath that of the Church of
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England, and of some other Churches in America. Immense were the difficulties of getting a full supply of ministers of any character; and of those who came, how few were faithful and duly qualified for the station. One who was indeed so faithful as to be called the Apostle of Virginia, at an early period of its settlement, lamenting over the want. of ministers in the colony, thus upbraids those who refused to come : 'Do they not either wilfully hide their talents, or keep themselves at home for fear of losing a few pleasures? Be not there any among them of Moses and his mind, and of the apostles, who forsook all to follow Christ?' The Council of Virginia also addressed the most solemn and pathetic appeals to the clergy of England, beseeching them to come over to the work of the Lord in the colony-though, it is to be feared, with little success-for in the year 1665 it is recorded, that many places were destitute of ministers, and like still to continue so, the people not paying their 'accustomed dues.' There were at this time about fifty parishes in the colony, most of which were destitute of clergymen, as there were only ten ministers for their supply. To remedy this evil, it was proposed to establish in the English Universi- ties Virginia fellowships, imposing it as a condition that the fellows. spend seven years in Virginia; but we do not read of its execution.
"That the ministers then in the colony were men of zeal, can scarce be supposed, as a law was required enjoining it upon them to preach constantly every Sabbath and administer the sacrament at least twice every year.
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"If we proceed in the history of the colony another fifty years, which will carry us beyond the first century of its existence, we shall find only a few more parishes established, and though glebes and parishes had been provided, not more than one-half of the congregations were sup- plied with ministers, the rest being served by lay readers. In some places, indeed, lay readers were preferred to settled ministers, because less expensive to the parishioners. The tenure by which ministers held their livings was precarious, and this contributed to the negligence of some, and was a severe trial to the fidelity of the more worthy. If a. clergyman was faithful to his duty, and preached against the vices of the people, he was removed; 'and instances are numerous of clergy- men having been displaced by vestries without a charge made, or even a reason assigned for it.' The effect of this on the better portion of the English clergy who might be disposed to emigrate, need not be stated. As to the unworthy and hireling clergy of the colony, there was no ecclesiastical discipline to correct or punish their irregularities and vices. The authority of a Commissary was a very insufficient sub- stitute for the superintendence of a faithful Bishop. The better part of
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the clergy, and some of the laity, long and earnestly petitioned for a faithful resident Bishop, for the Bishop of London was of necessity only the nominal Bishop.
"For about two hundred years did the Episcopal Church of Virginia try the experiment of a system whose Constitution required such an head, but was actually without it. No such officer was there, as the Church requires, to watch over the conduct, and punish the vices of the clergy; none to administer the rite of confirmation, and thus admit the faithful to the Supper of the Lord.
"It must be evident, that the Episcopal Church without such an officer is more likely to suffer for the want of Godly discipline, than any other society of Christians, because all others have some substitute, whereas our own Church makes this office indispensable to some important parts of ecclesiastical government and discipline.
"Such being the corrupt state of the Church in Virginia, it is not wonderful that here, as in England, disaffection should take place and dissent begin. The preaching and zeal of Mr. Whitfield, who visited Virginia about this time, contrasted with the sermons and lives of the clergy generally, contributed no doubt to increase disaffection. The pious Mr. Davies, afterwards President of Princeton College, made the first serious inroad upon the unity of the Church. His candid testimony deserves to be here introduced. 'I have reason to hope,' he says, "that there are and have been a few names in various parts of the colony who are sincerely seeking the Lord, and groping after religion in the communion of the Church of England.' 'Had the doctrines of the Gospel been solemnly and faithfully preached in the established Church, I am persuaded there would have been few dissenters in these parts of Virginia, for their first objections were not against the peculiar rites and ceremonies of that Church, much less against her excellent articles, but against the general strain of the doctrines delivered from the pulpit, in which these articles were opposed, (or which was the more common case,) not mentioned at all, so that at first they were not properly dissenters from the original constitution of the Church of England, but the most strict adherents to it, and only dissented from those who had forsaken it.'
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