sion, passed an act of incorporation, and also provided a mode by which institutions, having the same laudable purposes, can partake of the same benefits and privileges.

In the late establishment of Sunday Schools in this city, the Board rejoice that the field of their labour has been much enlarged, and they anticipate, with pleasure, the time when these schools shall be formed in every part of the Union, and by instilling into the tender mind, principles of piety, become efficient pioneers for the extensive dissemination of religious knowledge. We are confident, that to rescue the young from ignorance and vice, to make them useful members of society, to promote their interest in this life and that which is to come, present such strong motives for the general establishment of Sunday Schools, that they cannot be disregarded; and we are inspired with the hope, that this beneficial system will, at no distant day, shed its blessings upon every city and village of our country.

During the last year, your Board of Managers have gratuitously distributed 623 Bibles; and the number of Common Prayer Books issued from our depository during the same period, is 5,239. The account of the Treasurer, exhibits the number of Prayer Books supplied by us to societies and individuals, for gratuitous distribution. These distributions have been principally made in the most destitute parts of our state; and as our operations are not confined to pre, scribed limits, we have paid every attention to the spiritual wants of other states. The most gratifying accounts have been received from the Clergymen who were travelling into, and intrusted with our distribution in the new settlements of our country. Through the industry of these gentlemen, many congregations have been formed for divine worship, and the most important results may be expected. Our distributions have also been liberal in the state of Connecticut, and the acknowledgments of the Clergy very gratifying.

It will appear, by the Report of The Treasurer, that the receipts dur

ing the year amount to $3,497 78, and that the disbursements amount to $3,346 22, leaving in the treasury a balance of $151 56. The present demands on the treasury will nearly absorb this balance; we confidently rest, however, in the assurance, that the liberal patronage hitherto extended to us by our fellow-citizens, will still be piously afforded.

Your Board of Managers have lately concluded an arrangement for the printing of the Book of Common Prayer, from their stereotype plates, by which not only this Society, but sister Societies, and charitable individuals will be enabled much more extensively to promote their views. In the completion of this arrangement, your Board are inspired with the hope, that these prayers, which have obtained universal reputation, and have been deservedly admired among Protestants in every age, will be more widely circulated; and by the religion infused and embodied therein, the hearts and lives of many will be transformed, and brought to the worship of God with zeal and knowledge, spirit and truth, purity and sincerity.

From this detail of our proceedings, it is gratifying indeed to learn, that among the many and various institutions to further the eternal interests of mankind, we have not been inac tive, and that our usefulness has been co-extensive with the means intrusted to us; and we are justified in entertaining the most sanguine hopes, that it is impossible to calculate the good which, under Divine Providence, we have been and may be instrumental in producing. Although at the commencement of religious societies, their fervour is generally the most active, still it is a subject of congratulation that the members of this Society, feeling the important objects for which they were associated, seem to have increased in zeal to further them. Let this zeal suffer no diminution until its holy flame be extinguished in death; but while we linger on this stage of mortality, let the glory of God, and the diffusion of his truth, unite us more and more in Christian love, that the riches of redeeming

grace, which we so highly prize, may be extended to those who are desti

tute.

By order of the Board,

WM. E. DUNSCOMB.

THE second anniversary of the "Auxiliary New-York Bible and Common Prayer Book Society" was held in Trinity Church, on Monday evening, the 26th inst. The minutes of the last anniversary being read and approved, the Annual Report was then read by William E. Dunscomb, Esq.-Whereupon, on motion of the Right Rev. Bishop Hobart, seconded by the Rev. Mr. Lyell, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That this Society receive, with much satisfaction, the very interesting Report of the Board of Ma

nagers,

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to the Board of Managers, for the zeal and fidelity with which they have prosecuted the objects of the institution.

Resolved, That in the opinion of this Society, the increasing number of Episcopalians, who are scattered through the new settlements, and the wants of many in other parts of our country, render necessary augmented zeal to provide them with the means of religious knowledge and worship, by the distribution of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer; and that these considerations, while they afford to the Society, and to the Managers, a powerful stimulus to perseverance, under the Divine blessing, in their labours, will, they trust, induce the friends of religion, and the Church, to co-operate with them in their pious and benevolent work, by extending to the institution their patronage and

beneficence.

The Society then proceeded to the election of a Board of Officers and

Managers for the ensuing year; when the following gentlemen were elected, viz.

EDWARD N. Cox, President.

LUTHER BRADISn, 1st Vice-President. Dr. GERARDUS A. COOPER, 2d VicePresident.

FLOYD SMITH, 3d Vice-President. *Wм. E. DUNSCOMB, Corresponding Secretary.

WM. ONDERDONK, jun. Recording Secretary.

JOHN SMYTH ROGERS, Treasurer.
WM. H. HARISON, Agent.

Managers.-Dr. John Watts, jun. Cornelius R. Duffie, John Anthon, Benjamin Haight, Thomas N. Stanford, Lewis Loutrel, Duncan P. Campbell, John H. Hill, Ferris Pell, Charles Nichols, Charles Keeler, Alexis P. Proal, David A. Clarkson, John J. Lambert, Charles W. Sandford, John M. Aspinwall, Murray Hoffman, Henry Barclay.

New-York, January 27th, 1818.

EVANGELICAL PREACHING.-Those truths of the Gospel which characterize it as a system of faith, distinct from a code of morals, as a dispensation of mercy to man

through a Redeemer, may be considered

as

minate it "glad tidings.” The most cur

evangelical-as those truths which deno

sory reader of the New Testament must perceive that the following truths are inculcated in every part of this sacred volume :— That man is in a fallen and corrupt state; that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has made atonement for the sins of man; that through the merits of Christ only can guilty man be justified; that by the grace of the Holy Spirit only can corrupt man be sanctified; that while the atonement of Christ is the meritorious cause of salvation, repentance and faith producing holy obedience are the indispensable conditions of salvation, without which no man to whom the Gospel is preached will be saved; and that, in the exercise of of Christ are applied to the believer, to repentance and faith, the merits and grace his justification and sanctification, through

his union with the Church, the mystical body of Christ, by the participation of its sacraments and ordinances dispensed by its authorized ministry. This last truth, the necessity of union with the visible Church, as the divinely constituted mean of salvation, is a distinguishing feature of the

*B. Haight, Esq. the former Corresponding Secretary, haying declined a re

election.

Gospel dispensation. In this respect it indeed resembles the patriarchal and Jew ish dispensations; in both which external covenant with God, by the devout participation of ordinances constituted by him, was the mode of obtaining his mercy and favour. That Christ founded a visible society-that of this visible society he is the head-that into this visible society baptism is the mode of admission-that communion with it is maintained by the participation in the exercise of repentance and faith of its sacraments and ordinances, are truths as prominent as any other in the writings of the New Testament. "Christ is the head of the Church, the Saviour of the body;" he "loved the Church, and gave himself for it," "to the Church the Lord added daily such as should be saved;" and communion with this Church was maintained by continuing steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers." It is a characteristic of all the "Epistles" recorded in the New Testament, that they consider the body of Christians to whom they are addressed, as united in a visible society, into which they were admitted by baptism; in which they are in a state of visible covenant with God; and by communion with which they are to " keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace."

If then this doctrine of external covenant with God in the Church be a distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel, it would seem that to insist on it is an essential part of evangelical preaching. But it is humbly presumed that many of those Clergy in the Church of England who either assume or have obtained the title of evangelical preachers, lay very little stress on the necessity of communion with God by the participation of the ordinances of the Church administered by those who are duly commissioned for the purpose. This class of divines may not deny this doctrine, but they rarely if ever bring it forward into view. On the contrary, faith alone is insisted on, as uniting believers with Christ, in terms which if they do authorize Christians to disregard Church unity, lead them to consider it as among the non-essentials

of the Gospel. In evidence of this, the sermons of GISBORNE and COOPER might be cited, and the CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. In these publications Christians are not regarded agreeably to the views of them, in the Epistles of the Apostles, as a visible society, maintaining under a divinely constituted ministry, the unity of the Spirit by the participation of the sacraments and ordinances of the Church. The necessity of an union to that mystical "body" of which Christ is the head, in order to a vital union with him, and the preservation of this union with his Church, by submitting to its ministry and ordinances, in order to maintain communion with its Divine Head, are rarely if ever enforced. Those Clergymen, on the contrary, who, after the example of the Apostles, of the primitive Fathers, and of many of the most distinguished divines of the Church of England, enforce the nature and necessity of a visible covenant with God through the ministrations and ordinances of the Church, however faithful they may be in proclaiming the other leading doctrines of the' Gospel, are frequently accused and cen-* sured as bigotted formalists, who are opposed to evangelical truth, and destitute of vital godliness.

The faithful steward of the mysteries of God will not, however, be deterred by any misrepresentations or reproaches, from maintaining, on the authority of inspired Apostles, the evangelical truth, that Christians, in the exercise of penitence and faith, are united to their Divine Head, by union with his mystical body, the Church, by the participation of its ordinances dispensed by its authorized ministry. And in proportion as the popular spirit of the day may countenance the opinion, that Church unity is not incompatible with varying systems of faith, with discordant forms of the ministry, and even with no ministry at all, will fidelity to his ordination vows require of him, diligently to strive to “banish and drive away from the fold this erroneous and strange doctrine.”

Printed and published by T. & J. Swords, No. 160 Pearl-street, New-York; where Subscriptions for this Work will be received at one dollar per annum, or 24 numbers.-All Letters relative to this Journal must come free of Postage.

No. 3.]

THE LIFE OF POLYCARP.
(Abridged from Cox's Lives of the Fathers)

POLYCARP, the venerable bishop of Smyrna, long survived his friend Ig natius, when, in many respects, he seems to have resembled. Like him he appears the plain Christian pastor; void of any pretensions to great at tainments in human literature; but osund in the faith, esteeming his labour his reward, and ready to die for the Lord Jesus,

This venerable man was born in the East; but the exact place of his nativity, and the circumstances of his parents, are unknown. At a very early period of his life he is reported to have been sold as a slave to a noble matron, whose name was Calisto. This lady resided at Smyrna, and is said to have possessed a large fortune and eminent piety.

In such a family it may be conjectured that our young captive experienced little of the usual rigours of slavery'; especially as we have ground to believe that he here exchanged the galling bondage of sin and Satan, for "the glorious liberty of the children of God."

"A liberty unsung By poets, and by senators unpraised; Een liberty of heart, derived from heaven; Bought with his blood who gave it to mankind,

And seal'd with the same token."

During Polycarp's continuance with this pious mistress, he was not only carefully instructed by her in the rudiments of Christianity, but enjoyed also the privilege of attending the ministry of Bucolus, the vigilant and holy bishop of the place.

On the death of his kind benefactress, which happened whilst he was VOL. II.

[VOL. II.

still a youth, Polycarp appears immediately to have become a stated disciple of the apostle John, and an inmate in his family; an event which he never after referred to without the most lively gratitude. The society of such a man must, indeed, have proved to every real Christian an unspeakable advantage; but more particularly to a well-disposed youth, like Polycarp, who had thereby an opportunity not merely of obtaining information on the most important subjects, but also of modelling his yet unformed character by that of an eminently pious, amiable, and inspired apostle.

How long Polycarp resided with St. John is not ascertained. But it appears he was yet very young when appointed deacon under Bucolus, the bishop of Smyrna, which office he discharged with great labour and success. At length, on the decease of his worthy diocesan, he was, notwithstanding his youth, appointed his successor, by the apostle John, and those of his brethren who were yet alive. Thus this venerable minister of Christ received the government of the Church at Smyrna from those who had been eye-witnesses and ministers of our Lord; and, for the long period of seventy-four successive years, was spared to inculcate those all-important doctrines, which he had himself learnt from the mouth of an apostle.

Let us here pause for a moment to admire the wonderful operations of a superintending Providence, Polycarp at length becomes an invaluable blessing to the Church of Christ, by regulating, during many years, a numerous flock with apostolical simplicity, and training up a succession of

5

pious men for the sacred work of the ministry. And how was he brought into so important a situation, and qualified to discharge the duties of it? "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."* In consequence of his being placed, whilst a child, in a state of servitude, an event which he 'then probably considered as a great calamity, he was early trained in the ways of God, brought under the ministry of a Christian bishop, and, at length, made the immediate disciple of an apostle, who appears more than any of his brethren to have imbibed -the spirit of his Divine Master. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" It is truly profitable to trace the hand of God in the accomplishment of his own purposes. Such an exercise when entered upon with a Christian spirit, and regulated by Christian prudence, will increase the piety and humility of a believer, and excite his gratitude and admiration.

The vicinity of his apostolical friend was, doubtless, considered by Polycarp as an invaluable blessing. On every emergency he would have an -inspired teacher to consult; and would also frequently be honoured by his company, when he paid his pastoral visits to the Asiatic churches.

During the former part of Domitian's reign the Christians appear to have been unmolested; but towards the conclusion of it this emperor increased in cruelty, and, at length, renewed the horrors of Nero's persecution. Although Polycarp appears himself to have escaped the fury of the storm, this season must have been a peculiarly afflictive one to him, in consequence of the banishment and subsequent sufferings of his venerable friend, the apostle John.

This dreadful persecution was not of very long duration. On the ac

Isaiah xlii. 16. Rom. xi. 33.

cession of Nerva to the throne, the laws against the Christians appear to have been repealed; the chains of many worthy persons confined in the prison were struck off, and the captives permitted to revisit their native country. On this occasion John returned from Patmos, and again superintended the Asiatic churches.

In the year 107, Polycarp, as we have mentioned above, was visited by Ignatius on his way to martyrdom. They had been fellow-disciples of the apostle John; but whether they had seen each other since that interesting period cannot now be ascer tained, though, doubtless; the important duties of their respective situations must have rendered their visits to each other very rare.

Their meeting on this occasion was affectionate in the highest degree, and can be more easily conceived than described. The solid and precious fruits of Polycarp's ministry were most gratifying to his friend, and the religious intercourse which they now were permitted to enjoy with the deputies from the neighbouring churches afforded to all parties the most refined pleasure and spiritual benefit. Ignatius, like another Barnabas, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, who had done such great things for them; whilst Polycarp was so far from being discouraged at the approaching martyrdom of his friend, as even to congratulate him on his sufferings.

Shortly after Polycarp was left by his venerable friend, he received from him a letter, which he had an opportunity of writing on his journey to Rome. After having expressed his gratitude to God for their late intercourse, he gives Polycarp the most suitable advice with respect to the due discharge of his pastoral office; the benefit of which he probably experienced to the conclusion of his life. "I beseech thee, (says he) by the grace with which thou art clothed, to press forward in thy course, and to admonish all, that they may obtain salvation. Be studious of that best