LETTER VI.

Education of Candidates for the Ministry, and Settlement of Clergymen.

DEAR SIR;

FEW subjects, within a moderate number of years, have been more frequently canvassed by many Americans than the character and privileges of the New-England clergy-I mean the Presbyterians. Perhaps no subject has been environed with more error, misrepresentation, or abuse. My observations will be confined to a mere explanation of the character and situation of the clergy. It is my wish to remove misapprehensions from the minds of candid men. Others I shall leave to themselves. It will be unnecessary to go beyond the limits of Connecticut for this purpose, as the differences between this state and most other parts of New-England are not in this respect very material.

The progress of every clergyman in the state of Connecticut, until he arrives at the desk, is the following:

From infancy to manhood his whole character is subjected to the inspection of his parents, of his schoolmaster, of the parish in which he is born and bred, of the government of the college in which he is educated, of the church to which he is united, and of the clergyman by whom he is instructed in theology*. The inspection of the parish is here a serious object; for in no country is personal character so minutely scrutinized, or so well known, as in Connecticut. After his preparatory studies in theology are ended, he is licensed to preach; and whenever he finds a congregation sufficiently

Until within a few years, there were no seminaries for the instruction of students in theology in New-England. Previously to their establishment, young gentlemen, after completing their collegiate education, placed themselves under the direction of clergymen of respectability, for the purpose of preparing themselves for the ministry.—Pub.

pleasing to him, and sufficiently pleased with him to render his settlement in it desirable, he is ordained, and has the congregation committed to his care. During every part of this progress he is subjected to a series of strict examinations concerning his character, conduct, and improvements. Besides earlier investigations of this nature, he is examined with regard to his learning and character, in order to his admission into a college. Here he passes through eight public examinations, before he can be admitted to the degree of bachelor of arts. Before he can be received into a church, his Christian character is scrupulously investigated. Before he can receive a licence, he is again particularly questioned on this subject, and passes through a minute and comprehensive examination concerning his acquaintance with theology, the doctrines which he believes, and the talents which he possesses. If he is approved, he receives a licence, limited to six months, a year, or sometimes to two years. When this licence expires he cannot, without being disorderly, continue to preach, unless it is renewed; and it will not be renewed unless his character continues to be incensurable. While he is a licentiate he is under a kind of daily examination. His sermons, his elocution, his doctrines, his moral and religious character, his manners, and the prudence of his conduct, all undergo a species of ordeal, both from the friends and the enemies of religion.

When he offers himself for ordination he passes through a new, more solemn, and still more critical trial, conducted according to the pleasure of a consociation (a tribunal hereafter to be explained), every member of which has a right to protract his inquiries till he is satisfied. At this time it is absolutely necessary, that the candidate should appear unexceptionable in his knowledge, prudence, and piety.

Before he can become a settled minister he is invited to preach, merely for the purpose of conducting, for a moderate number of sabbaths, Divine service in a destitute congregation. If both his preaching and manner of life are sufficiently agreeable, he is invited to preach, as it is termed, upon probation; that is, to give a fair and full exhibition of his talents and character, and to disclose his views of the principal doctrines contained in the Christian system.

Soon after this a farther trial commences. A standing

committee of the association, within whose district the society. is included, assembles upon notice from the society's committee to hear him preach a lecture, and to converse with him freely on the topics mentioned above. When their inquiries are ended, these ministers advise the society to proceed in the design of giving him a call or to desist, as they find there are, or are not, any serious objections. After the period of his probation has been sufficiently extended, a legal meeting of the society is warned, for the announced purpose of determining whether they will invite him to settle with them in the ministry. At this meeting every member makes every objection to the candidate and to the proceedings, which he thinks proper. When the deliberation is ended, the question is put by the moderator. If it is carried in the affirmative, the quantum of his salary is next decided. In this particular the society vote just what they please, having nothing to influence them but their own judgment and inclinations.

Immediately before this meeting of the society, the church assembles to determine whether they will receive him as their minister. As the prime relation between a minister and his fellow-men is his relation to the church, it is indispensable, that the question concerning this relation be determined before the subjects, mentioned in the last paragraph, can be properly brought forward for discussion.

If both the church and the congregation unite in inviting him to be their minister, certified copies of their records, containing all these proceedings, are transmitted to him. When he has sufficiently considered the proposals, he gives written answers, which are also recorded in the public books of the church and the society. If he accepts the call, a day is appointed for his ordination. The consociation of the district, or a council mutually chosen, assembles on the morning of the preceding day. He is then examined in the manner already mentioned. If the members of the council are satisfied with his answers, they proceed the following day to his ordination. The parts of this religious service are, a psalm; an introductory prayer; a second psalm; a sermon, appropriated to the occasion; a consecrating prayer, conjoined with the imposition of hands upon the candidate; a charge, in which his duties as a minister are explained and enjoined, and the

church and congregation solemnly committed to his care; sometimes another charge to them, explaining and enjoining their corresponding duties; the giving of the right hand of fellowship in the name of the ordaining council, as a token of their cheerful admission of him into their Christian fraternity, and to the office and privileges of a minister; a concluding prayer; a third psalm, or an anthem; and the evangelical blessing.

In all the votes above mentioned a large majority must coincide. Three-fourths constitute the smallest proportion, which in any ordinary case can be supposed. Often, the opposition of a small number of respectable individuals will be a sufficient reason to the council for postponing, and in the end declining the ordination.

After a minister is settled, his conduct is watched with more attention than that of any other man. He must not only be substantially free from censure, but, like the wife of Cæsar, unsuspected; uniting and exemplifying the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove.

Notwithstanding the rigidness of the laws, heretofore recited, and the apparent security which they furnish to him, he holds his place in the congregation, which settled him, and the living attached to it, by a more precarious tenure than that of almost any other man. Should a very moderate number of his parishioners, should even an individual of peculiar consequence become opposed to him, it may in the end be the cause of his removal. His living in the mean time furnishes barely a comfortable subsistence. The average salary of ministers in Connecticut, including all the perquisites annexed to it, does not, I believe, exceed four hundred dollars. There are, perhaps, from six to ten within two hundred and fifty dollars. I know of but one, which amounts to eleven hundred dollars. When it is remembered, that the public sentiment demands, that a minister, in his dress and manner of living, should appear as a gentleman; and that the price of all the means of subsistence has, during the last twenty-two years*, been doubled; it must be seen, that such a salary is sufficiently stinted.

I am, Sir, &c.

1816.

LETTER VII.

Influence of the Clergy in Connecticut: its Nature and

Derivation.

DEAR SIR;

THE powers of a clergyman, about which so much has been lately said, are, a power to marry within the county in which he lives; and a power, when he is chosen, to preside as moderator, or, when he does not preside, to vote in ecclesiastical meetings, where none but ecclesiastical subjects are considered. In the meetings of his own church he is the moderator ex officio. I doubt not but a multitude of those, who read this declaration, will read it with astonishment. Hardly will they believe, that the formidable stories, the alarming suggestions, which have been so often reiterated concerning the New-England hierarchy, can have grown out of these puny things. Yet these are the only powers of a New-England clergyman. Let the men, who have uttered these suggestions, blush over this account, if a remaining solitary drop of crimson yet wanders through their cheeks.

Whence then, it will be asked, is all that clerical consequence, about which such a multitude of tongues have been so long busied? That it exists in some degree cannot be doubted; or it could not have been made the subject of so much obloquy, or even of discussion. I will answer the question frankly. The real weight of clergymen in New-England, particularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, consists wholly in their influence; an influence derived from their office and their conduct.

Their office is, and is acknowledged to be, sacred; instituted by God himself; eminently useful to the present, and immensely important to the future well-being of mankind.