After this, when a candidate has finished his primary studies and applies for ordination, first as a Deacon, and then as a Presbyter, he must pass through certain literary and theological examinations.* He must also present from the Standing Committee certain other testimonials to his moral and religious character and fitness for the ministry, before he can be ordained.† Candidates for Orders and Deacons are both subject to the particular care and direction of the Bishop. + Before a person can be ordained a Bishop, he must produce to the House of Bishops testimonials of his proper character and of his election. These testimonials must be signed by the members of the Convention which elects him, and also by a majority of the clerical and lay Deputies in the General Convention. Or, if the election occur more than six months previous to the meeting of the General Convention, they must be signed by the members of the Convention which elects him, and approved by the Standing Committees of the major number of the Dioceses in connection with the General Convention. In both cases the majority of the Bishops must approve the testimonials, and consent to his consecration, before he can be ordained a Bishop.§ No person may be ordained a Deacon or a Presbyter until he has, in a book kept by the Bishop who ordains him, subscribed the following declaration: "I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage Ibid., Canon 6, Sections 7 and 8. § Ibid., Canon 15. *Title I., Canon 4. to conform to the doctrines and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.” * Every person ordained a Bishop, publicly before the Church at the time of his ordination, repeats and assumes the following promise to the same effect: "In the name of God, Amen. I, N, chosen Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in N, do promise con-formity and obedience to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. So help me God, through Jesus Christ."+ II. The duties of the three orders are defined in the questions and answers and exhortations in the three ordination services respectively. They may be seen at length in the Common Prayer Book. They are, substantially, to fulfil the various duties of the Gospel ministry, as these are commonly understood; and to conform to the laws of the Church, as they exist from time to time. The peculiar duties of the Bishop, as may be seen in the Ordinal referred to, are: To ordain ministers in obedience to the laws of the Church; to confirm or lay hands upon those who have been baptized and come to years of discretion; to see that the lawful discipline of the Church is duly administered; and to exercise all possible moral influence for the glory of God and the unity and edification of the Church. If the reader will examine carefully the several ordination services in the Common Prayer Book, and also the several Canons which relate, in divers particulars, * Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Art. 7. See Ordinal, Common Prayer Book. to the ministry, he will perceive that there is in the Protestant Episcopal Church a very remarkable scope and variety of clerical influence and effort provided for. It is true that these have never yet been but partially developed or improved, because the hitherto straitened circumstances of the Church have not warranted nor indeed called for any new applications of clerical influence. But it is still true that almost all the peculiar varieties and modes of clerical influence and effort now in operation among the several denominations in our country are actually provided for, and in many cases. employed, in the Protestant Episcopal Church. Thus the itinerant or unsettled missionary clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church are identical nearly with the itinerant clergy of the Methodist Church. Thus the Missionary and Diocesan Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with less powers and in a definite district, fulfil the same Episcopal or supervisory care of the Churches which the Bishops of the Methodist Church fulfil, and which the general agents of the Presbyterian and Congregational missionary districts in the West fulfil. The State or County missionaries of the Protestant Episcopal Church, indeed the Bishops themselves, are correspondent to the Evangelists of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches. The parochial or settled clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church correspond to the same class in all other Churches. Then, in the office of Deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church there is a provision (which has never yet been fully improved) for an order corresponding to the local clergy of the Methodist Church; and also for an order intermediate between the local clergy of the Methodist Church and the Deacons of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches—a less educated and local, yet an ordained ministry, assistant to the regularly settled parochial clergy. There are sundry other modifications of clerical influence provided for by the system of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Not to be tedious, we assert (what may be proved and what the reader may prove for himself) that there is hardly a single mode or form of the ministry existing in the many bodies of professing Christians among us, which either is not actually, or may not be easily, evolved out of the existing system of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In the arrangements of this Church on the subject of the clergy, or rather of ministerial agencies, there is a scheme of unity provided, and respectfully and affectionately offered to the several denominations of Christians in our country, upon which all may be united without the sacrifice of any important principles. SECTION VII. RIGHTS OF THE BISHOPS AND CLERGY. Each order has a separate right in legislation-a right to fulfil its duty without restraint ordinary rights-those of the clergy well understood those of the Bishops misunderstood-proper to explain-their rights all defined by the laws of the Church-no arbitrary official power of Bishops-they cannot be oppressive-for several reasonsfrom the organization of the Church-they are subjects of discipline -under public opinion-depend on the clergy and laity—are elected by the Diocesan Conventions-subject to their control-the Bishops are good and trustworthy men-elected for this reason-we appeal to their character-are thankful for them-the system of the Protestant Episcopal Church a medium between extremes-invites to unity. EACH of these orders has a separate and an equal right, as has been illustrated, with the laity, in the legislation of the Church. Each of these orders has the right to fulfil its canonical and lawful duties, as has been represented, without restraint. In all matters not connected with their peculiar ministerial duties and official character, they have the various rights of laymen. The rights of the clergy are generally well enough understood. But it will be well to consider more minutely the rights of the Bishops, as on this subject there is a great deal of misapprehension. If any one will take the trouble to look over the Constitution and Canons of the General Conventions and the Ordinals of the Church, and observe also the actual relation of our Bishops to the Diocesan Conventions, he will be ready at once to inquire, in almost the very words of St. Jerome to Evagrius or Evangelus: "What does the Bishop do, ordinatione excepta, ordination excepted, which the Presbyter may not do?" The Bishop has.canonically a general right of supervision over the spiritual and other interests of his Diocese; and he has, moreover, a position of extraordinary moral influence.* But he has not a single right beyond, or above, or aside from the laws of the Church. *The writer cannot soon forget the impression made on his mind, when once in his youth he heard the venerable Bishop Brownell, of Con |