ers appointed by the King for receiving and hearing appeals in Spiritual causes, from his Majesty's plantations in America. This was granted, and a year and a day allowed for prosecuting the appeal and hearing the result. It was ordered, that, in the interim all further proceedings should be staid. After the expiration of the limited time it was certified by the Register of the Court, that no prohibition whatever from further proceedings in the said cause, nor any decree or determination of any superior Court had been interposed, and therefore on motion, the business was resumed as if no appeal had been made. Due notice was given to George Whitefield to attend, but as he did not appear, the following articles and interrogatories were, after a proper pause, objected to him as if he had been present:

"Imprimis, we article and object to you the said George Whitefield, that you were and are a Minister in Holy Orders, as Deacon and Priest, and that when you were admitted into the Ministry you did, pursuant to the thirty-sixth canon of the Canons and Constitutions ecclesiastical, subscribe to the following articles:

That the Book of Common Prayer, and of Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God; and that it may lawfully so be used, and that he himself will use the form in the said book prescribed, in public prayers and administration of the Sacraments, and none other.

66

'Item, we article and object that you, the said George Whitefield, do believe and have heard say, that by the thirty-eighth canon of the Canons and Constitutions ecclesiastical, it is provided, ordained, and decreed, that

If any Minister after he hath once subscribed to the aforesaid article, shall omit to use the form of prayer, or any of the orders or ceremonies prescribed in the Communion-Book, let him be suspended; and if after a month, he do not reform and submit himself, let him

be excommunicated; and then if he shall not submit himself within the space of another month, let him be deposed from the Ministry.

"Item, we article and object that notwithstanding the premises in the foregoing articles mentioned and deduced, you the said George Whitefield, on divers Sundays or Lord's days and week days, you have officiated as a Minister in divers Meeting-houses, and more particularly in that commonly called the Presbyterian or Independent Meeting-house, in CharlesTown, by praying and preaching to public congregations, and at such times have omitted to use the form of prayer prescribed in the Communion or Common Prayer Book, in contempt of the laws, canons and constitutions ecclesiastical, aforesaid.

"Item, we article and object to you the said George Whitefield, that by reason of the premises in the foregoing articles deduced, you have incurred canonical punishment and censure, and were and are by us, and our authority, canonically to be punished, and to which and every part of which articles, we will and require you the said George Whitefield, to make true, plain, full and faithful answer."

Successive adjournments were made to give time for the answer of George Whitefield, but he neither appeared or put in any answer. The facts of his frequently preaching in Dissenting Meeting-houses without using the forms of prayer, prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer, were proved by Hugh Anderson, Stephen Hartley, and John Redman. A final decree, after a full recital of all facts, was pronounced in these words:

"Therefore we, Alexander Garden, the Judge aforesaid, having first invoked the name of Christ, and setting and having God himself alone before our eyes, and by and with the advice of the Reverend persons, William Guy, Timothy Mellichamp, Stephen Roe, and William Orr, with whom in that part we have

advised and maturely deliberated, Do Pronounce, Decree and Declare, the aforesaid George Whitefield, Clerk, to have been, at the times articled, and now to be a Priest of the Church of England, and at the times and days in that part articled, to have officiated as a Minister in divers Meeting-houses in CharlesTown, in the Province of South-Carolina, by praying and preaching to public congregations; and at such times to have omitted to use the form of prayer prescribed in the Communion-book, or Book of Common Prayer, or at least, according to the laws, canons and constitutions ecclesiastical in that part made, provided and promulged, not to have used the same according to the lawful proofs before us in that part judicially had and made. We therefore pronounce, decree and declare, that the said George Whitefield, for his excesses and faults ought duly and canonically, and according to the exigence of the law in that part of the premises, to be corrected and punished and also to be suspended from his Office; and accordingly by These Presents, we do suspend him, the said George Whitefield; and for so suspended, we also Pronounce, Decree and Declare him to be Denounced, Declared and Published openly and publicly in the face of the Church."

No

A few observations occur on reading this trial. person can be Ordained in the Church of England, except he subscribes to three articles; of which the following is the second:

II. That the Book of Common Prayer, and of Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God, and that it may lawfully so be used, AND that he himself will USE THE FORM IN THE SAID BOOK PRESCRIBED, IN THE

PUBLIC PRAYER, and administration of the Sacraments,

AND NONE OTHER.

To these Articles Mr. Whitefield subscribed his name according to the prescribed form: "I, G. W.

do willingly and ex animo subscribe to these three articles above mentioned, and to all things that are contained in them." The Subscription to these Articles, and his Ordination vows, bound him to a faithful observance of the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of the Church of England. It is certainly left to the choice of an individual whether he will enter into Holy Orders or not. There is no constraining authority to impose the Sacred Office upon any Christian. None, therefore, need subscribe to its restrictions and rules, but such as are willing, honestly and faithfully, to observe them. In the Church of England, there is no mystery in the business of Ordination; nor are any tenets, or canons, withheld from public view, to be brought to light when the Candidate is so entangled with promises and subscriptions, that he cannot disengage himself from their operation. All its obligations and requisitions are known to the Laity, as well as to the Clergy; every thing that the Candidate must subscribe and promise, before God and his Church, he can read and reflect upon at his leisure, before he applies for Ordination. If he thinks that he ought not to subscribe to a formulary of religious articles; that the solemn and evangelical Liturgy of the Church will shackle his inventive genius, or restrain his erratic judgement, let him continue a Layman, or go into a communion more congenial with his views. If, however, after serious reflection, and solemn and continual prayer to the Throne of Grace, he has been convinced that the Church of England is truly an Apostolical Church; that its doctrine, discipline and worship may be proved from the Holy Scriptures and the practice of the primitive Church; and if he has then freely subscribed his name to the Articles and Canons, and solemnly ratified this covenant at his Ordination, by receiving the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, surely he is bound, both to God and Man, to perform his obligations faithfully. The Church of England

does not believe that a man is so specially called to the Ministry, by the Holy Spirit, as to be placed above human instruction and control. And it therefore is not believed, that any individual is now so divinely appointed, as to be a law to himself, and above the authority of the Church. Nor is it believed, that any man can now say with St. Paul, "I speak this by permission, and not of commandment." And again, "I command, yet not I, but the Lord."*

Mr. Whitefield, however, appears to have laboured under this delusion; for he went strolling about England in defiance of the Laws and Canons of the Church, without a License from the Bishop;† intruding into the Cures of the Parochial Clergy; omitting the Liturgy of the Church whenever he thought fit, and preaching doctrines different from the Articles he had subscribed. His egotism was fulsome and unbounded. "At Charles-Town, says Mr. Whitefield, and other parts of Carolina, my poor labours have met with the usual acceptance; and I have reason to hope a Clergyman hath been brought under very serious impressions."‡ In a letter to the Rev. Mr. Tucker, Minister of AllSaints, Bristol, he says, " for two years I under"for went a series of Temptations, and continual buffetings of the Devil, which have in a high degree qualified me for the Ministerial office, in that I have experimentally tried all things, and having suffered every sort of Temptation, can suit my advice to the different states and conditions of other People's Souls, not to mention my being better qualified than other people for the composing my Sermons, for I never preached any thing but what I have experimentally felt; and whereas other People are forced to plod and rack their Brains whole weeks in compiling a Discourse, I am enabled to compile as fast as I can write."

* I Cor. VII. 6. 10.

+ Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical LXXII.

Gillies' Memoirs of Whitefield, 167; See Notes p. 81. § Gent. Mag. IX. 239. Hewatt's His. of So. Ca. ii. 166–173.