may be ascertained, by reference to Messrs. Rivington, from whom the printed copy in our possession was obtained; and its merits will, no doubt, be duly appreciated by all well-wishers to the cause of true religion and holiness.

A LAYMAN, resident at St. Andrews.

A MINUTE OF THE CONFIRMATION, &c.

"It has seemed good to us, the resident Minister and the undersigned Wardens of the English Episcopal Chapel at St. Servan, to record upon our journals an event so singular and interesting, as the visit of the Right Reverend Bishop Luscombe, to hold a Confirmation, which took place on Thursday, the 15th of September, 1825, when nearly seventy persons received the benefit of that rite.

"When we consider our situation, as members of the Church of England, living abroad, and protected in the exercise of our particular form of religion by the tolerant laws of this Christian land, we cannot omit the present occasion to express, in the name and on the behalf of our community, our gratitude to the king and government of France.

"It is true, indeed, we are a Christian community, unconnected with the civil establishment either of our own country, or of that in which we sojourn. The ministry is exercised among us, as being a part of the general Church of Christ, indefinitely dispersed throughout the world; and the Episcopal visitation, which is now no less our duty than our pleasure to record, partakes only of a spiritual nature and jurisdiction. But this occurrence opens to the mind of the intelligent Christian many new and singular considerations. It is an important event in the general history of the Christian Church. It sets forth, that the kingdom and rule of Jesus Christ are not of this world; and that the Christian ministry, which is the visible government of the Church, is purely spiritual. Go, and preach the Gospel to every creature,' was the Saviour's command, shewing us, that the diocese of his religion is that of the whole world.

"We view our own Protestant Episcopal Establishment at home as a part of Christ's holy Catholic Church, independent of, though allied to the State; and under this view only can we, who are its members residing abroad, justly consider ourselves as part of its communion; and in the same spiritual light we regard the visitation of Bishop Luscombe.

"Though any State may confer on the body of the Clergy, or its more eminent order, some peculiar honours and immunities, the validity and force of their respective ministrations are ecclesiastically entire without them, and independent of them. They may even possess an advantage which may counterbalance state distinctions; namely, a character more primitive and apostolic. The diocese of the first Bishops was not contained in any local compass, in the opinion of Usher, Hooker, and other indisputable friends of the English Church. Temporal distinctions and canonical regulations may be superadded, extended, or curtailed, and altogether laid aside, without invading or affecting that which is purely evangelical.

"The simple form of church government by deacons, presbyters,

and bishops, may become established and guaranteed by acts of the State, or be separated from it, and yet not lose its ecclesiastical character and powers. Our own excellent Church is a proof of this. At home she enjoys the sunshine of political prosperity. We ourselves are an instance where she is separated from the State, and exists simply on the model of the primitive ages :-an incontrovertible proof that the Church of England does not want a spiritual character, and a catholicity, which has been sometimes denied; that she is not confined to the narrow limits of the sea-girt isle; or exists only by the arm of secular power.

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The reason which we assign for thus stating at length this point, is, if it be necessary, to exculpate us, who are a professed Church of England society, uniting sometimes in our service, by its catholic spirit, those even who at home may follow some peculiar persuasion, and at this juncture more especially, for receiving in an ecclesiastical and spiritual capacity one of the chief pastors of the Church. We do it also to obviate any scruple which might arise; to inform those of our countrymen who might not have reflected on the spiritual nature of Christ's church in the world; and because this minute necessarily establishes a precedent of Episcopal jurisdiction in and over our particular community; and because the office of Episcopacy, which at home is connected with the State, might seem to require this explanation. A moment's reflection, indeed, shows, that as inferior ministers serve in a spiritual manner, and the resident one here exercises the Presbyterial function, so in the same way we receive the Episcopal ministration; a coincidence striking and gratifying.

"The advantages of a superiority, spiritually exercised in the Church, is obvious, on the grounds and reason of all government. Those which concern us and the other English churches scattered abroad, are apparent from the following considerations :-- their number and increasing importance; the many persons born, or chiefly educated,without the possibility of receiving many of the ordinances of their religion, and especially the rite of confirmation; the interest and mutual concern thereby excited among the members of the same communion, dispersed through the continent of Europe; the increased security which is given against the intrusion of unworthy ministers, and the encouragement that is afforded to the rightly-called and faithful minister; the respectability which results to the community in general, in the eyes of others, and the stimulus which is given to hold fast the form of sound words,' which the good and pious of former ages have by the noblest means obtained and bequeathed to us. Besides these advantages, by the juxta-position in which different parts of the Christian Church are placed, the real discrepancies from truth may be discerned, prejudices and false impressions removed, the surmisings amongst false brethren silenced, and charity and good-will enlarged,

"Nor are we without authority from the sacred volume, which is left us as well to teach the government as the doctrines of Christ's church. We read therein of the visitation which St. Paul made, when he went into Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches, the brethren of his own native province. And he said unto Barnabas, Let us go where the word of the Lord is preached, and see how our brethren do.' He wished to visit these newly-formed communities, that he might

nurture them in true religion, supply their defects, impart unto them spiritual gifts, and confirm the young converts in their faith.

"Such oversight now belongs to the superior ministers of the Church, and is necessary, since every infant church especially needs parental nurture; and in all ages, since the days of the Apostles, the two chief means have been confirmation and episcopal inspection. The universal and invisible Church, which is not of this world, is founded on the immutable Rock of Truth; is built up by the Spirit, and remains for ever: but the church militant on earth may suffer through neglect, or an insufficient ministry; or may be strengthened and enlarged by the care and vigilance of its governors. In the Church itself a superiority is lodged in some, whose duty it is to be overseers of the Clergy, as they are of the laity; and to set in order all things that be wanting, according to the example of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, who left his beloved brother Titus in Crete, commissioned to superintend the concerns of those newly-planted churches.

"Our own circumstances seem to bear some resemblance to this state of the primitive Church; and we cannot but, as in duty bound, beg the Divine blessing on the labours of him who has undertaken the mission of an Evangelist, that it may be for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ.' We rejoice also that the Spirit of the Lord God has awakened the Christian compassion of our brethren in Scotland, to send forth their missionary Bishop to visit us. May blessings be multiplied on the Church of Great Britain and Ireland, and especially on him who comes, and they who receive, a prophet in the name of a prophet. May glory result to God, and much reward to man. May the sheep of Christ, dispersed on the dark mountains of this naughty world,' be collected together in one faith, and be fed in one fold, under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ the Lord. May the Gospel be purely preached, the sacraments duly administered, the ordinances and discipline of the Church observed, morality and true piety revive and flourish, until all mankind be saved, and earth be made the nursery for heaven.

"Thus have we, the undersigned, executed a duty and a pleasure in recording this first visitation of the Right Reverend Bishop Luscombe, so considerately sent by the Church at home, to inspect the state, and enhance the welfare, of her sons abroad; and as a small testimony of our grateful sense of the kindness shown us, and of the benefit which the junior members of our families have received in the rite of Confirmation, we, the undersigned resident Minister and Chapel-wardens, do enrol this minute for ourselves and the English community, as a record of the past; and do forward it to the Right Reverend Prelate, as a small testimony of their views and feelings, and of the very general satisfaction which was given by his visit and by his highly-esteemed exhortation."

(Signed by)

SHOVEL BRERETON, M. A. Minister.
CAPTAIN GRANT,

BISHOP LUSCOMBE'S MISSION.

To the Editor of the Christian Remembrancer.

SIR, Without any intention or desire of discussing the merits of Bishop Luscombe's Mission, I cannot permit the observations of "Simplex," in your last number, to pass unnoticed, since it appears to me that he has argued not only upon a mistaken view of the subject, but upon an erroneous principle. The error into which he appears to have fallen is this, that he considers the Church of England merely as a sect, instead of what it really is, and has been triumphantly proved to be, by the best and wisest of our divines, a branch of the Catholic Church. Let Simplex view the Church in this light, and the chief of his objections will vanish. For of the Catholic Church it has been the invariable tenet, long before the days of Cyprian, that the Episcopate is one,* and, consequently, that a member of that Church owes allegiance not merely to the prelates of the country in which he was born, but to the duly consecrated bishop of the place in which he may chance to reside. With that bishop he is bound to communicate, notwithstanding any difference that may exist between the rites and ceremonies of that foreign Church, and those of his native land, except where, as in the case of Greece and Rome, they have degenerated into heretical and idolatrous superstitions; for there, as it was ruled by Cyprian, and thirty-six other prelates, in the case of the Spanish bishops, Martialis and Basilides, the Clergy and people are not only authorized, but in duty bounden to renounce their allegiance, and the orthodox bishops of a neighbouring nation, acting not in their ordinary, but their Catholic character, are permitted to send one of their number to preside over those who may continue in the primitive faith. But in those things, as St. Austin says, "De quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura divina, mos populi Dei, vel instituta majorem pro lege tenenda sunt." This was the ancient principle, and this is the principle upon which the soundest of our divines continue to act; it was on this principle that the great Bishop Horsley advised those

"The Episcopate, St. Cyprian tells us, is single, and there is but one, of which, however, each bishop holds his part, with the privilege and duty of being interested in the whole." I quote this to let Simplex see by what right the Scottish bishops acted on the late occasion.

+ The supporters of bishop Luscombe's mission have been called upon to adduce a precedent for the measure that has been adopted by the church in Scotland. That the learned bishops in Scotland have not acted without sufficient warranty from antiquity, all who are acquainted with the history of their venerable church must be convinced. But, in order to shew that, in an extraordinary case, bishops may be permitted to transgress a general rule, I will cite, in addition to what is said above, the example of the famous Eusebius, of Samosata, who, as Theodoret (Lib. iv. cap. 13.) informs us, went about the world in a soldier's habit to ordain presbyters and deacons, in the heat of the Arian persecution: for which action he was never, that I have heard of, visited with the censures of the church, although, as Bingham observes, he committed a breach of two laws, one against the wearing of armour, the other, against ordaining in another's diocese, the necessity of the times being sufficient

clergymen who happened to be resident in Scotland, not only to pay allegiance to the Scottish bishops (for in this he was seconded by all the members of the English bench who were applied to, some of whom are still in existence), but to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the form adopted by their communion, and it is upon the same principle that one of the most learned of the prelates of Ireland, whose name I am not at liberty to mention, has, at a later period, tendered the same advice.

Now, if the Church of England were merely a sect; then, indeed, it would be necessary for the English abroad, on all occasions, to apply for sanction to the authorities at home. But being, in fact, when once they have quitted the shores of England, members of the Church at large, their allegiance becomes due, not, as I said before, to an English diocesan, but to the Ordinary of the place wherein they reside; if in Scotland, to the Scottish bishops, if in America, to the American bishops, &c. When, however, they are resident on the continent of Europe, there are few places where there is an authority established which they can conscientiously acknowledge; for as Theodoret observes, "Where Christians are given to the worship of angels"-à fortiori of saints and idols, as the papists are" they have left the Lord Jesus Christ." They must, therefore, in this case, apply to proper ecclesiastical authority for the appointment of an Ordinary qualified for the discharge of the episcopal functions. The question, then, is,-In whom is that authority vested? Simplex would answer, that they could only lawfully apply to the bishops of England;-whereas I contend, that although, as an Englishman, I should prefer making application to those excellent and exemplary prelates who preside over our national Church, yet this is by no means a necessary, and, in some cases, may be an inexpedient course. Suppose, for instance, I were resident in a town in France, in which there were also resident several Scottish and several American Episcopalians ;-Simplex, if not an Erastian, will allow that we should be of the same communion, and that if any one of us should refuse to hold communion with the others, we should be schismatics: Suppose, also, an American clergyman were to come to reside among us for the purpose of performing divine service, and that, convinced of the irregularities arising from the want of an Ordinary, and desirous of securing the rite of confirmation for our children, we should determine to apply in the proper quarter for the redress of the grievance: while the Englishman would contend that application should be made to the English Bench, and the Scotchman would plead for the Episcopal College in Scotland, the American would think it necessary to uphold the dignity of the prelates of the United States. Each party would, in this instance, be acting on the narrow principles of a sect, and Catholic unity would be thus destroyed. But, sinking all national distinctions, they would, if they acted properly, and as really Catholic Christians, come to the determination of applying to any lawful authority capable of judging of the expediency or inexpediency of granting their petition and relieving their wants. Referring to the records of the Church in its primitive and purest ages, they would find that the Christians in those days, when they were in want of a bishop, did not think it necessary to apply to any particular Church,-to the