cumstances in its system. It was always regular in its doings. It never made one change, or abolished one custom, or added one circumstance to its system, irregularly or contrary to its own laws. As well might the Presbyterian or Methodist Church be said to make itself schismatical, to form itself into a totally new and distinct Church, repudiating and abandoning the old, because in its last General Assembly or General Conference it made some new arrangements, passed some new resolutions, enacted some new laws, as the new or changing circumstances of the year had demanded, or shown necessary or expedient. As an independent Church, the Church of England separated, as it had a perfect right to do, from its temporary connection with another and foreign Church.

Two or three familiar illustrations will make our argument perfectly clear even to the most undisciplined. It is well known that for many years the Presbyterian Church in the Middle, Southern, and Western States has been connected with the Congregational Churches of New England by some articles of association for their mutual convenience. Now, if the one of these independent bodies should see fit to withdraw from this compact, to cut its correspondence with the other, could it be called schismatical, or could it be said to form, by so doing, a new sect? Again, suppose that the Protestant Episcopal Church of the diocese of Connecticut should see fit to withdraw itself from its union with the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, and to return to the same position which it occupied before the year 1789 (when it first united with the General Convention),

could it be said that a new sect had been formed in Connecticut? Would it not be the same Church still? Once more, suppose that two men independent of each other, and resident in different places, E and R, should become acquainted with each other, and should open a correspondence with each other; and E should ask and receive advice from R, and should always be ready to entertain hospitably such persons as R should recommend to him, and indeed should place so much confidence in R as to acknowledge the validity of various unauthorized proceedings of R in relation to E's business concerns, as if R were his agent, and should presently even appoint R his authorized agent for an indefinite term; and suppose that after a time E should discover that R was not his friend, but had really been overreaching him, and involving him in difficulty, and thereupon should legally annul the agency intrusted to R, and should cut all correspondence with R, and should even publish to the world that R was not trustworthy; could it be said that, in so doing, E had violated his principles, or that, by so doing, E had lost his personal identity, and had become, actually as well as metaphorically, a new man? These illustrations are all parallel to the point at issue.

The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, we conclude, by having received its peculiar organization by a unity, acknowledged on both sides, with the Church of England, is thereby at unity with the ancient and universal Church. It is historically connected with the Church of the Apostles, and is an Apostolic Church, historically continued, unbroken and identical in its continuity, to the present day.

It may be interesting to some of our readers to learn the early history of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country. Accordingly, we have inserted in the Appendix, No. A, the history of its regular organization into the system which at present distinguishes it. The authority there quoted is the wellknown (although not so generally read) book entitled "Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States," by the late Bishop White, of the diocese of Pennsylvania.

Having now given our definition, we think that there is nothing in the fact that such a Church exists in our land to justify a doubt in the mind of any sincere Christian. We think, indeed, that there is nothing in the definition to deter any sincere Christian from looking kindly and favorably upon this Church.

SECTION II.

MEMBERS.

Clergy and laity-always connected in ecclesiastical legislation and divine worship-Bishops commonly distinguished from the other clergy by their titles of office-all Christians may be members of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

THE members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, like those of every other denomination, are of two orders, clergy and laity.

The clergy are in three degrees, or orders-Bishops, Presbyters or Priests, and Deacons.

Both clergy and laity have a reciprocal influence

upon each other; and each has peculiar rights. Both are equally concerned in the government of the Church; and both are always expected to take an equal part in the public worship of God.

The peculiar rights and duties of the clergy will be stated in their proper places. The peculiar rights and privileges of the laity will also be illustrated as they come up in the progress of the present chapter.

The Bishops, although a portion or an order of the clergy, are generally distinguished by their title of Bishops, for convenience sake; and by the clergy, therefore, are generally understood the inferior orders of Presbyters and Deacons. The laity are always referred to under their single title, as laity or laymen. Thus, for example, the acts of the General Convention, the Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer, etc., are said to be adopted or passed by the "Bishops, Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America."

If it shall be made to appear, that in the Protestant Episcopal Church are all things essential to Christian and ecclesiastical unity, and that this Church is peculiarly fitted to bring together the scattered sheep of Christ's flock, we trust there is no Christian who will not, for the love he bears his Master and his brethren, be prompt to examine carefully its claims.

The Protestant Episcopal Church co-extensive with the United Statesall one Church-its unity represented in the General Convention— DIOCESES the subdivisions of the whole Church-represented in Diocesan Conventions-combination, formation, size, and Episcopal charge of Dioceses-independence of Dioceses-present number of Dioceses and Bishops-PARISHES the subdivisions of Dioceses-independence and rights of Parishes-parochial officers-the territorial divisions of the Protestant Episcopal Church convenient for unity.

I. THE limits of the Protestant Episcopal Church are co-extensive with those of the United States and its territories.

The whole Church within these limits is one under certain general principles of union and government.

This unity is maintained in a representative and legislative body, known by the name of "the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States," which body is assembled once in three years, in such place as itself appoints from session to session. Its custom heretofore, with occasional exceptions, has been to meet in the cities of New York and Philadelphia alternately, as central, and the most generally convenient places.

The General Convention is composed of two Houses, the House of Bishops and the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies; and the concurrence of both is necessary for legislation. The former is composed of all the Bishops of this Church, and the latter is composed of a representation of both clergy and laity from all the Dioceses