OF AMERICA COMPARED WITH SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, PARTICULARLY ENGLAND: IN A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN TRINITY CHURCH, IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. BY THE RIGHT REV. JOHN HENRY HOBART, D.D. BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. SECOND EDITION, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES. LONDON: JOHN MILLER, 40, PALL MALL. 1828. TREASURER OF THE SOCIETY (IN ENGLAND) FOR PROMOTING &c. &c. &c. MY DEAR SIR, I KNOW too well your attachment to England, to suppose that you will approve of all the sentiments expressed in this discourse. But I have received too many evidences of your candour and liberality, to be for a moment apprehensive that you will censure an American for the frank, but, I trust, decorous avowal which he makes of his preference for the in'stitutions of his own country; accompanied as this avowal is, by the declaration of the debt of gratitude which is due to yours, for those civil and religious blessings which his countrymen. have derived, as their best inheritance, from the land of their fathers. My object in dedicating this discourse to you, is to express the feelings of private gratitude; and to bear testimony to eminent Christian worth, and to zeal devoted and unwearied in the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Your favourable opinion of some of my early publications, in which I advocated the cause of 'evangelical truth" in union with "Apostolic order," introduced me to the notice of individuals in England, whose attachment to that truth and order, and whose exalted character, and station, and influence, render their friendship most honourable and valuable to me. your hospitable board I often met this honoured circle; and in your society, and that of your interesting family and friends, I spent some of the most delightful hours that solaced my absence from my country, my diocese, my congregations, and my home. At But, my dear Sir, it is in your public character that I most admire, honour, and venerate you. As the prudent, and wise, and uniform friend of the Church, divinely constituted in her sacraments, ministry, and worship, to be the guardian of the faith once delivered to the Saints, you devote your time, your talents, and your fortune, to her interests and advancement; and in this exalted work of Christian benevolence, you are associated with the highest dignitaries of the Church of England, and with some of the nobles of that land. But I esteem it a still more enviable distinction, that in primitive principles, in unaffected piety, in every amiable virtue of the Christian, the name of Watson is not unworthy of being ranked with those of Nelson, of Wogan, of Waldo, and of Stevens. That your life, so valuable to the large circle of your friends, and to that Church to which it is devoted, may to a distant period be prolonged in health, in usefulness, and in happiness, is the fervent prayer of, My dear Sir, Your very faithful, affectionate, And obliged friend, New York, Nov. 18, 1825. J. H. HOBART. |