Celebrating Yale Apostasy Day: James Wetmore's defence of Anglican congregations in New England
In 1747, he responded to an attack on episcopal orders by Connecticut Congregationalist minister Noah Hobart. Hobart declared that because the Church of England was an episcopal church, claiming only for its bishops succession to the apostles, its presbyters lacked apostolic commission: "They to whom it does not belong, are no Ministers of Christ, nor do they derive any Authority from him". Apostolic ministry in New England, therefore, was to be found in the presbyters of the Congregationalist establishment, claiming and exercising apostolic commission.
Attempting to portray Anglican clergy as inferior to the 'New England way', with its emphasis on and ethos of preaching ministers in the congregation, Hobart alleged that Anglican presbyters "don't receive Power by their Ordination, so much as to preach, which is a necessary Part of the ministerial Commssion". Wetmore, in A vindication of the professors of the Church of England in Connecticut, robustly refuted such a suggestion by pointing to the Ordinal:
He is too trifling to deserve a serious Answer, but something will be expected to satisfy such as may be puzzled with his Trifling and Falshood, He should have consulted the Office for ordaining Presbyters (in every Folio Common Prayer-Book) and known by that, the Power given to Priests by their Ordination; which perhaps might have saved him the Shame and Reproach, which such glaring Falshood and Prevarication must expose him to. When People are invited only to read the Form and Manner of ordaining Priests; which any Person that is curious to be satisfied concerning Mr. Hobart's Veracity, may find Opportunity for in every Church where a Folio Common Prayer-Book is lodged ...
[Of] the Form of ordaining Priests, in which are many Passages to prove this Falshood, I will here mention but three.
In the Bishop's Charge are these Words, "Now again we exhort you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you have in Remembrance into how high a Dignity, and to how weighty an Office and Charge ye are called: That is to say, to be Messengers, Watchmen and Stewards of the Lord; to teach and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's Family; to seek for Christ's Sheep that are dispersed, and for his Children who are in the midst of this naughty World, that they may be saved through Christ for ever."
One of the Interrogatories is, "Will you then give your faithful Diligence always so to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and as this Church and Realm hath received the fame, according to the Commandments of God; so that you may teach the People committed to your Care and Charge with all Diligence to keep and observe the same?"
When the Bishop and Priests lay on Hands, the Bishop says, "Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of GOD, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our Hands. Whose Sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose Sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of GOD, and of his holy Sacraments; &c. The Bishop delivering the Bible into his Hands, says, "Take thou Authority to preach the Word of GOD, and to minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation, where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto.
Who can believe now, that our Ordination is not designed actually to give us Power to preach, administer Sacraments, and exercise Discipline?
The notion that congregations in the American colonies would be denied the apostolic ministry of presbyters in the episcopally ordered Church of England was therefore exposed by Wetmore as falsehood and foolishness. The rite for the Ordering of Priests demonstrated how episcopal order secured - rather than undermined - the ministry of presbyters for American congregations:
if any Person will take Pains to consult the Form for ordaining Priests, in our Large Common Prayer Books, he will find a Commission large enough given to such Ministers as have the Care of the American Congregations, to enable them in GOD's Name, and in Behalf of CHRIST, to do every Thing that Men's comfortable Hopes and Happiness require to be done; although they act in Subordination, and are obliged to pay a proper Reverence to their Superiors the Bishops ...
Their Authority as the Apostles Successors, gives Virtue and Influence to the Powers of Presbyters and Deacons, to transact with Men in the Name of Christ, whatsoever they are intrusted to perform in reconciling Sinners to GOD, and applying the Seals of the Covenant of Grace.
Echoing Hooker ("the power of ordaining both Deacons and Presbyters, the power to give the power of order unto others, this also hath been peculiar unto Bishops", LEP VII.6.3) and Taylor ("the Bishop always had that power [of ordaining], it was never denyed to him, and it was never imputed to Presbyters"), Wetmore emphasised how the fullness of episcopal order and the fullness of presbyteral ministry were maintained by the Church of England:
A Chiefty, by our Constitution, is reserved to the Bishops as it always was in the Church of Christ, and to this belongs properly the Right of giving Power by Ordination, and presiding in Jurisdiction; but the Presbyters subordinate to them have as much Power in the Government of their several Flocks as Wisdom and Prudence can think proper to intrust them with ... What fuller Authority in the Exercise of Discipline would any desire a Minister to be invested with, than is contained in those Words of the Bishop when he lays on Hands in Ordination?
Whereas Hobart portrayed Church of England congregations in New England as schismatic separations from "an Ecclesiastical Constitution so exactly agreeable to the Gospel", cut off from the fullness of ministry found in Congregational presbyters, reliant on bishops far removed from New England, Wetmore pointed to the New England congregations of the Church of England sharing fully in the communion and unity of the national church:
And this may be said of all the Congregations in Communion with the Church of England; our Clergy are ordained by Bishops, who regularly succeed the Apostles in the Power of Jurisdiction and Ordination, have a decent Regularity established by the Legislature of the Nation, as Governors combined in one national Church, and common Rules and Laws properly enacted, to which the Members of every Congregation are subject; and thus make one Church.
Hobart had attempted to 'other' the congregations of the Church of England in New England, denying that they had a presbyteral ministry and accusing them of schism; in other words, as having no preaching ministry and being outside the congregation, two institutions which defined life in New England. Wetmore demonstrated otherwise. Church of England congregations in New England had presbyters ordained by those in succession to the Apostles; these presbyters ministered Word and Sacraments, prayer and discipline in the congregation; and the congregations were part of the national church, "the National Establishment, the Religion of our Mother Country".
Here was an Anglicanism which had taken root in the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, even in the face of Hobart's fulminations. As Wetmore said of Connecticut at the outset of his response, "Opportunities are now given for such Conformity, by having Congregations in Communion with the Church of England, in many of your Towns". The Prayer Book, episcopally ordained presbyters, and the "vital Piety and Religion fruitful in solid Virtue and substantial Goodness ... found in the Church of England" offered a rich alternative to the 'New England Way'.
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