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which I now occupy. It is an auspicious circumstance, that the attention of the clergy, and of Episcopalians generally, appears to be awakened to the importance of this object; and I trust it will not be long before a theological school is established."

From an early period of his ministry he had also been deeply impressed with the necessity of establishing an Episcopal college, in which those young persons who had been nurtured in the bosom of the Church, might enjoy the advantages of a liberal education, not only without endangering their religious principles, but where, in connexion with human science, those principles might be inculcated and confirmed. His anxiety on this subject had doubtless been increased by his own observation and experience during a long residence in a Presbyterian institution, as a student, graduate, and tutor, and in a town where there was no Episcopal service. He was convinced that under such circumstances there would, in most cases, be the risk of a growing indifference among young men to their peculiar opinions, and in some a complete estrangement from that communion which had once been the object of their veneration and love. Regarding the Church as "the pillar and ground of the truth," he therefore considered the interests that were put in jeopardy as more precious than human learning itself. The religious influence of almost every college in the country was unfriendly to our system, while, at the same time, there were abundant resources among Episcopalians to establish one of their own, if they could only be aroused to a sense VOL. I.

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of its importance. With the view of attracting their attention to this subject, he drew up a plan of an humble institution, which might be the beginning of this good work, and which he hoped might eventually be placed on that more extended scale which would be suited to their wealth, their numbers, and their wants.

Accordingly, in the spring of 1814, he proposed to institute a Grammar School, to be conducted under his superintendence, and in which were to be taught the various branches of an English and classical education. It was to be amply supplied with instructors and ushers; the pupils were to board and lodge in the institution, to attend regularly upon divine service, and to go through such a course of religious instruction as should be particularly suited to their capacity and years.

This, however, was only to be made subservient to the more useful and important scheme which he had so long been anxious to accomplish. The whole profits of the establishment were to be appropriated to the support and endowment of a Theological Seminary. The instruction in this seminary was to be conducted according to the canons of the Church, and the course of study prescribed by the authority of the same. It was to be placed under the patronage of the General Convention, and under the immediate care of a board of trustees, who were to render an account of the state of the institution to that body at its regular meetings. The Bishops were to be ex officio members of the board; to nominate the trustees in the first instance, consisting of an equal number of the clergy and laity;

and the board itself was to fill up all vacancies. The Bishop of New-York, and the Bishop of NewJersey, were to be superintendents of the school; the former in the capacity of President, and the latter of Vice-President. The objects of the establishment were to train up the young men designed for holy orders in the spirit of evangelical piety; to establish them in habits of close thinking and accurate research; to advance them in theological attainments, and to instruct them in the proper mode of celebrating holy offices, in pulpit eloquence, and in the important practical qualifications which constitute a faithful, laborious, and zealous parish minister. For this purpose there were to be ample theological instruction and recitations, exercises in the composition of sermons, and in reading and speaking, as well as devotional services. None were to be admitted into the institution until the superintendents were satisfied, from personal acquaintance or the fullest testimony, of their pious and amiable dispositions, the correctness of their morals, their fitness for the sacred office, their desire of entering into the ministry, as the means of advancing the glory of God in the salvation of man, and their attachment to the doctrines, order, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It was to be the duty of the officers, not merely by exercises of devotion, but by frequent practical addresses, and by all other means in their power, to cherish these dispositions in the young men designed for holy orders, to impress upon them the origin, the duties, and the difficulties, as well as the aids and rewards of the Christian ministry, that they might be devoted to the sacred work,

and prepared to exert, with prudence, fidelity, and zeal, all their talents and attainments in the service of their divine Lord and Master, and of the Church which he purchased with his blood. Theological scholarships were to be established for the education of young men who might be destitute of pecuniary means, and the benefits extended to them during the term of their classical as well as of their theological preparation. The sums contributed towards the seminary by the pious beneficence of individuals or corporations, were to be equally divided, and one half appropriated to the endowment of professorships, the erection of buildings, and the general purposes of the institution; and the other to the endowment of scholarships, bearing the names of the donors.

It was another part of the plan, that the location of the Seminary and Grammar School should be in such a position as would be most convenient to Episcopalians in general, as the former was designed for the benefit of the Church at large, and as the latter, in case it should become a college, might then attract students from various parts of the Union. But in regard to both, he deemed it of the utmost importance that they should be in a retired situation, where there might be but few temptations to the pleasures of social life, and none to the dissipation of a city: for he not only thought that the ease and social enjoyments of a city life, but even its literary pleasures, and the literary vanity which those pleasures tend to cherish in the youthful mind, were apt to be unfavourable to those modest and humble tempers which are the ornaments of the

Christian, and the peculiar graces of the Christian minister. The self-denying, devoted, and zealous spirit of the ministry, was to be formed in retirement, by study, meditation, and prayer.

With this view he had, many years before, as has been already noticed, purchased a place in a beautiful and secluded spot in New-Jersey, on which he had proposed to locate these institutions; and it had been his determination partially to withdraw from the city, and to devote to them his principal attention and labours. But though the change in his situation had made that scheme impracticable, yet he did not think that a general and faithful superintendence of them, and an occasional participation in their instruction and discipline, would be incompatible with his other duties.

In these outlines of a plan for educating our youth in such a way as to combine literary improvement with religious culture, agreeably to our own views of rational worship and primitive truth, we perceive with what fond solicitude he always dwelt upon every subject connected with the extension and prosperity of the Church. The Theological Seminary, from the immediate and urgent call for welltrained ministers in every part of our country, had engaged more of his thoughts and attention, and accordingly, in the brief sketch which he exhibited to the public, we find almost all of those general provisions for such an institution, which might have been expected from mature and anxious reflection, and to which little has been added by experience. Notwithstanding the multiplicity and the importance of his engagements, yet, for the promotion of

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