General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great BritainPeters, Samuel
History
General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain
Peters, Samuel
Connecticut -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Connecticut -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
“That the Church of England increases in America, without bishops,
faster than it does in England, where are bishops to spare.” If the
dissenters in America err not in advancing, as a fact, that in 1715
the Church of England, under the bishops, had been upon the decline,
and the protestant dissenters upon the increase, in England, it may be
but natural to suppose that the dissenters in America wish to have the
English bishops resident there, and the dissenters in England to
retain them, as they appear to be so beneficial towards the growth of
the dissenting interests here; and so the dissenters in both countries
disputing about the residence of the bishops merely because the
absence of them is disadvantageous to the one, and their presence
advantageous to the other, would it not be the best way of
strengthening the interest of both those parties, and weakening that
of the Church of England, to retain half the bishops in England and
send the other half to America? Against this plan, surely, no
dissenter could object; it will neither add to the national expense
nor to the disadvantage of England or America, since it promises to be
equally serviceable to the protestant dissenting interest on both
sides the Atlantic, and will reconcile a difference between the
protestant dissenters, that has been supposen in New-England to be the
reason of bishops not being sent to about one million episcopalians in
America, who are left like sheep in a wilderness without a shepherd,
to the great danger of the protestant dissenting religion in those
parts. Nor can it be apprehended that this plan of dividing the
bishops will meet with the disapprobation of the episcopalians, except
a few licentious clergymen in the American southern colonies, who
dread their lordships’ sober advice and coercive power.
Of all the wonders of the English Church, the greatest is that the
rulers of it should hold episcopacy to be an institution of Christ,
and that the Gospel should be spread among all nations, and, at the
same time, should refuse the American Churchmen a bishop, and the
fanatics and heathen all opportunities of enjoying the Gospel
dispensation in the purity and lustre with which it shines in the
Mother Country. If bishops are necessary, let America have them; if
they are not necessary, let them be extirpated from the face of the
earth; for no one can be an advocate for their existence merely for
the support of pomp, pride, and insolence, either in England or
America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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