turned to the page where he exhibited Wesley in this light. All this vas as much candor as I expected, but certainly less politeness. This is a game the Church of England has been playing for many years in order to draw, if possible, the Methodists back to her bosom.

Southy wrote the life of Wesley for this very end: he altered the beautiful proportions of his character, and tried to unsettle the adjustment of those springs that formed and moved it. Still he could not conceal his excellence without subjecting himself to ridicule. The serene rays of the diamond shines through the interposing incrustations, almost too much for humanity.

Mr. Southy is the poet laureate, he has £300 sterling per annum, and a butt of sack or wine for writing a birth-day ode for the king. This same McGee wrote his work on the atonement in which he tries to represent Wesley in the light so much admired by Mr. Otey. He sent a

copy

of the work to the Queen of England, she had him appointed to a living in the city of Dublin, in Ireland, worth I believe, $30,000 sterling a year. Mr. Otey is the mere echo of the former two, but he congratulates himself like the fly on the chariot wheel.-O dear what a dust I raise. Wesley burned with a deep, yet calm love of moral grandeur and celestial purity. "He was a lion, an old lion who dare rouse him up, but when provoked he sprang from his lair, shook the dew from his mane, and swept the groaning forest."

"Pygmies are pygmies, still tho' perched on Alps,
And pyramids, are pyramids, although in vales."

On the day referred to, we held the anniversary of the Williamson county Union. Mr. Otey calls it the celebration of Sunday Schools. I am surprised that he would form such a member of a sentence as this. He certainly ought to know the structure and genius of the English language better. However, as he says, the meeting was large, embracing wealth, intelligence, and respectability; that it was so large, and his so small, with the Bishop of North Carolina, officiating at the same hour, is said to be one item in the sum of provocation. "The toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, that he galls his kibe."

Now for Mr. Otey's exposure, as he calls it. And let me ask what has he exposed? Nothing but himself. He exhibits as new, old, dry records, which the A. S. S. Union had published years ago. Let me here remark that he is what is called high Church of England, and pretended to a divine right of ordination. This is all popery asks to establish her system. If Mr. Otey proves his divine right of ordination, I say all our institutions-our laws and constitution, the glory of our country-the admiration of the world, should all yield to the divinity of his claims and pretensions. I here in the face of the sun formally, solemnly in the fear of God, enter my protest against his pretensions, to a divine right of ordination, as unscriptural and dangerous in its tendences. I call for the proof.

I stated in my sermon when Henry the VIII. threw off the supremacy of the people, he became the head of the Church of England.

"This is the head and front of my offending."

Mr. Otey has not divulged this; for like the Spartan youth, and the fox, be conceals the cause of his misery. This is the cause of his trouble, because it interferes with his claim to a divine right of ordination. Before I enter on the proof of the King of England, I will inform Mr. Otey that Episco palians are divided into three classes, two of whom differ with him on divine right: that is 19 are against him where he has but one for him. I shall here give a list of the most distinguished ministers in his own church that are opposed to him. Cranmer, Grindal, Whitgift, Bishop Leighton,

Tillotson, Bishop Burnett, Bishop Croft, D. Stillingfleet, Bishop Hall, Bishop Dawnham, Bishop Bancroft, Bishop Andrews, Arch Bishop Usher, Bishop Farbes, the learned Chillingworth, Arch Bishop Wake, Bishop Hoadly. Though these differ amongst themselves they are opposed to Mr. Otey's creed. See Dr. Miller's letters on the subject.

He considers all out of his order of divine ordination as aliens from Christ, out of the appointed way to heaven, and have no hope but the 'uncovenanted mercy of God.

He declared in Franklin he would suffer his hand to be chopped off before he could recognize any ministers as lawfully ordained but his party. I would say this amputation would disclose the nature of his spirit-not the solidity of his argument. I also inform him if his intolerance does not proceed from a defect in his mind it will soon produce one, In conversation with a respectable gentleman in this county, he told him they had the keys of the kingdom. The document is now in my pocket to prove this. I am sure an enlightened public will give proper weight to his proscriptions against us coming into any towns of the United States; but to keep on the hills and in the valleys, because forsooth Mr. Otey lives in Franklin, has a small Sunday School, and about twenty-five attached to his church. Were the people of the United States left to his agency, and the operation of his principles, they would soon become as cold and lifeless as the rocks that slumber on the bosom of the great valley we inhabit.

The Pope of Rome would not have been more imperious. It seems as if Mr. Otey had his eye on the papal chair and the mitre. A divine right of ordination first. Infallibility is the next link in the chain. Then supremacy-afterwards the holy inquisition; and like the Albigenses and Waldenses we would not be permitted to have the mountains and valleys. An auto-de-fe would close the scene.

When Mr. Otey and Bishop Ravenscroft came to Nashville, they obtained the Methodist church for service. At the commune our venerable pastor, brother Gwin, went into the altar. Mr. Otey informed him it would be desirable if he would withdraw, and waited on him the next day to inform him he did not consider him an ordained minister. Will society not look at this.

I had said the King became the head of the Church of England when he threw off the authority of the people. Mr. Otey denies it. Now for the proof.

I simply refer to Humes' history of England, Vol. 2, page 291. "A confession was extracted from the clergy, that the king was the protector and supreme head of the church and clergy of England, so far as is permitted by the law of Christ." Again page 299, the Parliament being assembled, conferred on the king the title of the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England. These are the words. I also refer to Moshiem's church history, Vol. 3, page 18. Soon after this Henry was declared by the Parliament, and people, supreme head of the Church of England, and from the reign of Henry the VIII, down to the present day, the King and Parliament, appoint the Bishops. I now ask is the King not the head of the Church of England! Most assuredly he is. Then what becomes of the divine right of ordination.

At a certain time, Mrs. Clark had unbounded influence over the Duke of York, for reasons, chastity would blush to name. Many, very many, applied to her for livings in the Church of England. She received large sums of money; influenced the Duke, he had influence with the King, his father and Parliament. Therefore, by this royal strumpet, like Cleo. patra, her elder sister, many were appointed to fat livings, produced by

the hard earnings of the poor, in the church of England. Could we be so gross in folly; so stupid in nonsense, as to believe Mr. Otey and Bishop Ives, that there was a divine right here? According to the most philosophical relation between cause and effect, where Mrs. Clark gave the first impulse. Is she not, therefore, at the head of this disgusting busiBut I, in mercy to human nature, draw a veil over it.

Dess'

Mr. Otey is a graduate of Chapel Hill, I learn; he is a tolerable teacher; his enunciation intolerably coarse. There is no exception to his moral character; he is a good citizen, but in the absence of all oratory, he is a very rugged speaker. I submit the correctness of the sketch to a correct taste and a sound judgment.

A

He ought not to have published when I was absent, in the upper counties, for he acknowledges no one complained to him. What, has he done nothing? for it is a law in heaven and earth, that nothing can produce nothing. His effort, therefore, to extinguish the institution and injure me, is as idle à puff as the drone pipe of his organ, which occasioned a tax on the public of five hundred dollars. I write the above not as a general agent for Tennessee, for the A. S. S. Union, but on my own responsibility. They authorize no publications, but those which procee¿ from the publishing committee. I would recommend Mr. Otey to study the fable of the viper and file,

SIMPSON SHEPHERD,

It will be very obvious to every one who will take the trouble to read the foregoing letters, that Mr. Shepherd, artfully endeavors to evade the whole subject properly at issue, by making personal reflections upon his opponent, and by railing at the Church of England; and by saying much about divine ordination-divine right-divine appointmentdivine institution and Episcopacy, old matters, about which, the Methodists and Episcopalians have differed for many

years.

This controversy, which in many respects, was of a very singular character, continued for a number of weeks together, through the medium of the Western Weekly Review, at Franklin, Tennessee.

The controversy, it will be seen by the reader, originated in a public meeting called in that town by the Rev. Mr. Shepherd, as agent for the American Sunday School Union, for the special benefit of that association and of the schools connected with, and sustained by it. The Rev. Mr. Otey, then rector of the Episcopal church at Franklin, but now Bishop for the diocess of Tennessee, believing that an erroneous impression had, on that occasion, been made on the public mind, in relation to the character of the Institution, and the relation which other denominations of Christians sustained to it, published the above article over his proper signature, declaring that the Institution referred to was essentially and exclusively Presbyterian, and disclaiming

any connexion with it, on the part of the Episcopal and Methodist churches. In this, Mr. Otey was substantially correct. To this communication, Mr. Shepherd replied in quite a tart and acrimonious manner. A rejoinder followed on the part of Mr. Otey, in which he replied with much asperity, and the controversy widened into quite an extensive field, embracing in its range some of the most important topics of polemic theology, and relating especially to the doctrines, government, and most prominent divines of the Methodist and Episcopal churches, both in Europe and America. In this discussion, many severe things were said of Messrs. Wesley and Asbury of the Methodist church, and of Bishops Ravenscroft and Ives, of the Episcopal church, all of whom, save the latter, were then dead, and in heaven, as I believe. In this, therefore, the gentlemen were both to blame, but Mr. Shepherd more especially, for having first lugged these topics into the discussion. Mr. Otey says, however, that in consequence of the extraordinary course pursued by Mr. Shepherd, the discussion took a range which he never expected. It is true, that Mr. Shepherd, in the foregoing letter, as well as in his succeeding numbers, introduced a variety of topics wholly irrelevent to the question properly between them, some of which, Mr. Otey may have considered himself compelled to notice, in order to vindicate his character, as well as that of his church; but still, he should have abided by the old proverb, "contempt is the best return for scurrility." But no circumstance whatever, could have justified Mr. Shepherd, in introducing all that heterogeneous mass of personal abuse, and grave charges, which characterized most of his letters.

Finally, the Rev. Mr. Douglass, of the Methodist church, published a lengthy article in defence of Wesley and Asbury, to which the Rev. Mr. Weller, rector of the Episcopal church in Nashville, replied with great asperity. This introduction of new combatants, led to a still more extended discussion, until great excitement was produced throughout Middle Tennessee. I perused the whole controversy, and with considerable interest too, though I disapprove of the turn it took. My reasons for not publishing more of these letters are, first, the subject matter of them is irrelevent to my present purposes; and next, because they are too lengthy, filling from. two to eleven columns in a large newspaper! In conclusion, permit me again, to put my veto on Mr. Shepherd's course, in that he, in the progress of this controversy, brought into view, other men and circumstances, with certificates, state'

ments, answers, replies, &c. The fact is, Mr. Shepherd dreaded an investigation of the principles of the A. S. S. Union; and knowing as he did, the Methodists generally, disapproved of his conduct as an agent, and wished Mr. Otey success in exposing this, his beloved Union, he very artfully introduced a new and distinct subject, manifestly with a view to induce other Methodist preachers to engage in the controversy. As to Mr. Shepherd having made erroneous impressions, on the minds of the citizens of Franklin, on that particular occasion, it is as evident, as that light accompanies the rising of the sun. Whether he designed to make such impressions or not, I leave the reader, in the exercise of that charity which hopeth all things," and which "suffereth long, and is kind," to determine. One thing, however, I do know, that during the same year, Mr. Shepherd, did, in Athens, Madisonville, Knoxville, and Dandridge, in East Tennessee, make the impression, on the minds of many, that the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, &c, were equally interested in, and benefited by the Union; and many respectable persons in each of those places, will testify that they heard him, and so understood him. And indeed, in most if not all of those towns, he was opposed and contradicted. And since Mr. Shepherd has been so faithfully and repeatedly warned on this subject, it is devoutly hoped, that in future, he will not let the zeal inspired by the EIGHT HUNDNED DOLLARS he receives annually, as a missionaryagent, carry him to such length.

CHAPTER VII.

SPEECHES OF MESSRS. POWEL AND BURDEN, IN THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, ON THE APPLICATION OF THE AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, FOR AN ACT OF INCORPORATION.

AFTER the reader shall have perused the following highly important, and every way instructive speeches, of these honorable and talented gentlemen, together with a few concluding remarks of my own, he will be fully prepared, I think, in every material respect at least, to form a correct opinion with regard to the American S. S. Union. The bill, an act to incorporate the Trustees of the American Sun