archbishop, who in return waited on him with the answer transmitted. I think the committee should return him their thanks, for the part he (Mr. Adams) has taken.

Dont publish the bishop's answer, as it will get over here, and be a subject of news-paper discussion.

No. 18. Page 167.

An act of the clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The good Providence of Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness, having lately blessed the protestant episcopal church in the United States of America, by supplying it with a complete and entire ministry, and affording to many of her communion the benefit of the labours, advice and government of the successors of the Apostles;

We, Presbyters of said church in the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, deeply impressed with the most lively gratitude to the Supreme Governor of the universe, for his goodness in this respect, and with the most ardent love to his church, and concern for the interest of her sons, that they may enjoy all the means that Christ, the great shepherd and bishop of souls, has instituted for leading his followers into the ways of truth and holiness, and preserving his church in the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace; to the end that the people committed to our respective charges may enjoy the benefit and advantage of those offices, the administration of which belongs to the highest order of the

ministry, and to encourage and promote, as far as in us lies, a union of the whole Episcopal church in these states, and to perfect and compact this mystical body of Christ, do hereby nominate, elect and appoint the Rev. Edward Bass, a Presbyter of said church, and Rector of St. Paul's, in Newburyport, to be our bishop; and we do promise and engage to receive him as such, when canonically consecrated, and invested with the apostolic office and powers, by the right reverend the bishops hereafter named, and to render him all that canonical obedience and submission, which, by the laws of Christ and the constitution of our church, is due to so important an office.

And we now address the right reverend the bishops in the states of Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, praying their united assistance in consecrating our said brother, and canonically investing him with the apostolic office and powers. This request we are induced to make, from a long acquaintance with him, and from a perfect knowledge of his being possessed of that love to God and benevolence to men, that piety, learning and good morals, that prudence and discretion, requisite to so exalted a station, as well as that personal respect and attachment of the communion at large in these states, which will make him a valuable acquisition to the order, and, we trust, a rich blessing to the church.

Done at a meeting of the Presbyters, whose names are underwritten, held at Salem, in the

county of Essex, and commonwealth of Massachusetts, the fourth day of June, Anno Salutis, 1789.

Samuel Parker, Rector of trinity church, Boston. T. Fitch Oliver, Rector of St. Michael's church, Marblehead.

John Cousens Ogden, Rector of Queen's chapel, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

William Montague, minister of Christ's church, Bos

ton.

Tillotson Brunson, assistant minister of Christ's church, Boston.

Resolves on the foregoing.

1st. Resolved, That a complete order of bishops, derived as well under the English as the Scots line of episcopacy, doth now subsist within the United States of America, in the persons of the right Rev. William White, D. D. bishop of the protestant episcopal church in the state of Pennsylvania; the right Rev. Samuel Provoost, D. D. bishop of the said church in the state of New York, and the right Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D. bishop of the said church in the state of Connecticut.

2d. Resolved, That the said three bishops are fully competent to every proper act and duty of the episcopal office and character in these United States, as well in respect to the consecration of other bishops, and the ordering of priests and deacons, as for the government of the church, according to such rules, canons and institutions, as now are, or here

after may be duly made and ordained by the church in that case.

3d. Resolved, That in christian charity, as well as of duty, necessity and expediency, the churches represented in this convention ought to contribute, in every manner in their power, towards supplying the wants, and granting every just and reasonable request of their sister churches in these states; and, therefore,

4th. Resolved, That the right Rev. Dr. White and the right Rev. Dr. Provoost be, and they hereby are, requested to join with the right Rev. Dr. Seabury, in complying with the prayer of the clergy of the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for the consecration of the Rev. Edward Bass, bishop elect of the churches in the said states; but that, before the said bishops comply with the request aforesaid, it be proposed to the churches in the New England states to meet the churches of these states, with the said three bishops, in an adjourned convention, to settle certain articles of union and discipline among all the churches, previous to such consecration.

5th. Resolved, That if any difficulty or delicacy, in respect to the archbishops and bishops of England, shall remain with the right Rev. Doctors White and Provoost, or either of them, concerning their compliance with the above request, this convention will address the archbishops and bishops, and hope thereby to remove the difficulty."

No. 19. p. 169.

An Address to the Most Reverend the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

Most Venerable and illustrious Fathers and Prelates!

We, the bishops, clergy and laity of the protestant episcopal church in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina, impressed with every sentiment of love and veneration, beg leave to embrace this earliest occasion, in general convention, to offer our warmest, most sincere and grateful acknowledgments to you, and (by your means) to all the venerable bishops of the church over which you preside, for the manifold instances of your former condescension to us, and solicitude for our spiritual welfare. But we are more especially called to express our thankfulness, for that particular act of your fatherly goodness, whereby we derive, under you, a pure episcopacy and succession of the ancient order of bishops, and are now assembled through the blessing of God, as a church duly constituted and organized, with the happy prospect before us of a future full and undisturbed exercise of our holy religion, and its extension to the utmost bounds of this continent, under an ecclesiastical constitution, and a form of worship, which we believe to be truly apostolical.

The growing prospect of this happy diffusion of christianity, and the assurance we can give you that our churches are spreading and flourishing throughout these United States, we know, will yield you more