more than effects brought about by certain more active minds that happened to have the lead in it when those decisions were made. And he probably imagines that now, when certain other active minds are taking the lead in that body, with different views of the trine, it will be quite as easy to lead that general assembly of the Lord's church to essentially, if not formally, opposite decisions of this question.

:

The fortieth conference did not act upon the motion, of which it had been thus notified but "Resolved, That the consideration of this subject be postponed till the next conference, and that the opinions of the various societies be requested thereon." We shall, therefore, wait for the Minutes of the Forty-First General Conference. We expect then to see, whether that body, as the representative of the whole church in England, can "blow hot and blow cold" on this important subject-whether it is indeed true, that the members of this body, for thirty-three years, have had no rational convictions in their own minds of the truth of its decisions, but have been only led to their conclusions by the more active minds which happened to "take the lead amongst them"-and thus whether they can be brought to decide in their next assembling, that they were wrong in all their previous decisions of the question of the trine, by those certain other more active minds which are now the influential leaders of their councils. Whatever may be their decisions, we beseech them to allow us to hope, that they will not consummate the rejection of a trinal order of the ministry, without the most thorough investigation, and the most satisfactory demonstration, of what the Word and the writings of the church teach on this subject; so that whatever they do, may be done understandingly and after the fullest consideration. Constituted as we are to act in freedom according to reason, we implore that the decisions of this vexed question which the church in England may now make, shall be seen to rest on a clear and stable rational basis. May the Lord guard his church, now in still her beginning, from any more conceits of celestial perception, in determining what is the proper relation of her ministers to her people or to one another! Knowing that "that is first which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual;" hence that "the unerring judgment of 'yea, yea; nay, nay,'" which belongs to the celestial state, must be yet very, very far from the visible bodies of our church in this natural world; and that even in the spiritual world, the Lord takes especial care lest "truth should instantaneously be so confirmed as to leave no doubt concerning it," so that "it is according to the laws of order" even there, "to think and consider whether a thing be so, and to collect reasons, and thereby to bring that truth rationally into the mind" (A. C. 7298)—we do most sincerely deprecate any settlement of this question now by any other decision than the stroke of the rod of iron, which, in the hand of the man-child, born of the woman in the wilderness, is to rule our nations, and to dissipate our fallacies as the vessels of a potter are broken to shivers! In short, we implore our english brethren, when they shall next settle this question in their general conference, that they will commend them

selves to us as wise men, and so found their building of external order on "the rock," that our church may no longer be shaken, as it has been, by the tempests, which can only beat dangerously upon those structures that rest upon the sand!

We have now faithfully, we believe, traced the question of a ministerial trine from its rise, through its progress, to its present state in England. And in final review of all that has been here shown and seen, we have but a few concluding observations to make. It does not appear, from the history of the new church in England, that "before any idea was agitated about a trine in the ministry, such a trine did exist." It does not appear that after that idea has been agitated in that country for more than thirty years, such a trine exists now. It does appear that this idea, as a spiritual conception of the clearest, strongest and best minds of the new church in that country, has been struggling in gestation and agonizing in birth, against the most strenuous, persevering and even obstinate oppositions to its being brought into corresponding ultimate form and order. And so far is it from being true, in either the early or late exemplification of the external order of the english church, that a trine "had actually come into spontaneous existence without any external contrivance;" we in fact see it has been from the first uniformly declared to be inexpedient to carry this order out in the english ministry, because the time had not come for it yet; and even now there are but two instead of three grades acknowledged; and it is found necessary to determine what is the distinction between these two, because that distinction has never heretofore been declared. Indeed so far has a trine of ministers -regular ministers-been from coming into spontaneous existence in the new church in England, the whole history of it shows, that the spontaneous efforts of professing members of the new church there have tended to an administration of the most holy sacraments of our church without them: and the attempt to bring about this disorder by "external contrivance," has all along forced the general bodies of the church to agitate the idea of a trine, with the end of settling it by deductions from the Word and the writings of the church. Even now, in this comparatively late and advanced period of the church, so far are we from discerning that "such a trine" does now spontaneously exist; we, on the contrary, behold, with pain, systematic efforts set on foot to break up even the imperfect approaches to a trinal arrangement of ministers which the english church has been struggling for thirty-three years to make. What was the order of the english new church from 1788, when Mr. Hindmarsh, the first minister, was ordained, to 1813, when the idea of a trine seems first to have been agitated in it, we have had no documents to show: but we conclude that the ministry in that period had not come spontaneously into a trine, or there would have been no necessity of suggesting that order subsequently, and of expressly providing in its ordination, that it was "not intended to have any retrospective operation, by interfering with the ordinations which had already taken place in the new church, but to be considered binding in all future cases." And why should it have been deemed "expedient," in 1814, "as speedily as

possible to establish these three orders," if "such a trine" "had actually come into spontaneous existence" before, and "without any external contrivance?" In this country, the case, in this respect, was somewhat different, as we shall presently see. But we have as

yet no historical evidence to show that a trine has ever come into full and clearly defined existence, either spontaneously or factitiously, in England.

IV. AS TO A TRINE IN THE MINISTRY OF THE NEW CHURCH IN AMERICA.

We at first supposed that all we had to write on the history of the question of the trine in the ministry of the new church, might be embraced in one topic. But the sketch of that question as agitated and determined in England, has so extended itself, that it seems best to put the history of its rise, progress and present state in the new church of America, under a distinct head.

In America, as in England, the question of a trine was not agitated when the new-church ministry was first instituted. Indeed there was no original institution of a general ministry in this country as in that. There was, indeed, somewhat of an original institution of an american new-church ministry. But there seems to have been an acknowledgment that a general new-church ministry had originated in England, so as to have its root and stock there; and the ministry here has been deemed the sprouting of a bud inoculated from that stock. Still there was not a regular and formal translation of ecclesiastical power or authority from that country to this. Circumstances would not admit of such a translation. The new church was so small and feeble in her beginnings in this country, that only measures for the support of public worship in a single and very small society could at first be carried out. Hence the institution of a ministry in only a lower and simpler degree could be made at first. A minister to conduct the forms and ceremonies of public worship in a single society was all that was first thought of. And of course the idea of originating a general ministry for the gradual establishment and unlimited extension of the church in this and all lands, could not be at all entertained. A ministry of a more general character, and having higher degrees of rank, or wider scopes of administration, even in this country, could only arise gradually, as the receivers of the church's doctrines became more numerous, and the growth of her visible body increased. At first, all that could be done, and all that was aimed at, was to obtain, or provide, the administration of the holy sacraments, and other ordinances of an external church, for those few persons who first received the doctrines, and found themselves in sufficient numbers to be "of one accord together in one place" in the discharge of the duties, or in the fruition of the enjoyments, of public worship according to the principles of the new faith. In the providence of the Lord the circumstances for forming a regular ministry first occurred in the city of Baltimore and state of Maryland. And it would seem as if the first society was formed here in conse

quence of influences vibrated from the general conference of the new church in England. But let us take a brief survey of the rise and first establishment of the new church in this country.

We have seen that the First General Conference, which was held in London in 1789, recommended, "to all the readers and lovers of the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg, both in England and other countries, to form themselves into societies distinct from the old church, and to meet together as often as convenient, to read and converse on the said writings, and to open a general correspondence for the mutual assistance of each other." This was the thirtieth of the thirty-two resolutions passed unanimously by that conference. The first echo to these recommendations from this side of the Atlantic, was heard from Halifax, in Nova Scotia, then, as now, a British possession. It is found in a letter dated November 19, 1791, signed by Joseph Russell, and printed in "The New Jerusalem Journal," edited and published by Robert Hindmarsh in London in 1792. Mr. Russell says "Agreeable to your thirtieth Resolve of Conference held in Great East-Cheap 1789, we have separated ourselves from the old church, by fully embracing the doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church, as now first organized by you. We therefore, though small in number, wish to hold a correspondence with your society, as it will serve to strengthen and excite us to pursue, with more order, those pure revealed truths contained in the writings of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg. We know it will afford you pleasure to hear what progress the church is making in any part of the world, and we therefore shall now inform you, that we have for more than six years met together for the sake of reading, and conversing on the subjects unfolded in the important writings of Emanuel Swedenborg; and since the publication of your Liturgy for the New Church, we have in every respect conformed thereto in public worship, and read some part or other of the Theology, forenoon and afternoon every sabbathday. We likewise meet every Friday evening, for the further improving ourselves in the knowledge of the said truths, with psalmody and christian conversation. Also, agreeable to the twenty-second Resolve, we have formed ourselves by baptism into a church, and have since baptized our children, and thus hope to increase by degrees. We shall be very glad to receive any further instructions, which you may think necessary and useful for us."

We thus learn that the first meetings for social worship according to the doctrines of the New Jerusalem upon the american continent, were held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In fact we learn that the receivers of those doctrines had met together for the sake of reading and conversing upon the subjects unfolded in the writings of Swedenborg for more than six years prior to November, 1791, that is, for about four years before the first general conference of the new church was held in London. Probably early receivers of our doctrines in England, migrating to this continent, had, like birds of passage, brought the seeds of truth to this country, before the church had assumed any organized form in that. And so soon as a general conference in the mother country had projected a form of external order, its recom

mendations were immediately conformed to by receivers in her colonies, because they were only remote nerves of feeling and action whose nervous centre was still in England. We also learn that these receivers in Nova Scotia formed themselves into a church by baptism, and afterwards baptized their children. And it seems they did this without a regular minister-which they could hardly have at so early a time, and in so remote a place, where they were so "small in number." Probably they thought and acted as some of their brethren in England did at even a later period, and supposed that a church could exist without a minister, or could ordain a minister for itself, or could authorize its leader to perform the sacraments of baptism and the supper, as well as to preach and teach, without his having any direct or formal commission from the Lord, by the sign of the translation of his holy spirit. In short, they probably acted on the supposition that lay baptism was of equal authority and validity with clerical baptism. And hence they virtually concluded that a church could be formed and exist without a clergy. If so, they widely differed in opinion on this subject from the first instituters of our church in the United States. And it is, perhaps, a striking proof of the error of the one opinion, and of the truth of the other, that the new church has made so little, if any, advance in the British Possessions of North America, in the more than fifty years which have elapsed since this beginning of it there, while, during the same period, it has, comparatively, grown so much, and extended so widely, in our portion of the con

tinent.

The brethren in Halifax say they formed themselves into a church by baptism, and afterwards baptized their children, "agreeable to the twenty-second resolve" of the First General Conference. This makes it important that we should know what were the terms of that resolve, and whether it set forth a recommendation to receivers in distant countries to form themselves into churches by baptism without a clergy. The twenty-second resolution of the first conference is in these words:" Resolved unanimously, That it is the Opinion of this Conference, that as Baptism in the Old Church is a Baptism into the Faith of Three Gods, between which Faith and Heaven there can be no Conjunction; so Baptism in the New Church, being a Baptism into a Faith of One God, between which Faith and Heaven there is Conjunction, is highly necessary, inasmuch as the Person baptized thereby takes upon him the Badge and Profession of genuine Christianity, and is at the same time inserted among Christians even in the Spiritual World. It is therefore recommended to all who desire to become Members of the New Jerusalem Church, to be baptized, both themselves and their Children, in the Faith of that Church; and in case they have already been baptized in the Faith of the Old Church, to be re-baptized in the Faith of the New." In this we observe nothing like a recommendation to receivers of the doctrines in distant countries to form a church by baptism without a new-church clergy regularly instituted distinctly from that of the old church. The recommendation to them "to form themselves into Societies distinct from the Old Church," is set forth in the thirtieth resolution before