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CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO HIS THEOLOGICAL
STUDIES, AND TO THE CHURCH OF NEW-YORK.
The state of the Dutch Church in America, at the
time when Mr. Livingston thought of entering upon
the study of Divinity (exhibited in the last chapter),
was not such, it must be confessed, as was likely
to excite in him the least inclination to become one
of her ministers. The great schism that existed,
the hatred and turmoil so prevalent in consequence,
the difficulty of obtaining ordination, his ignorance
of the language then used in divine service in every
part of the Church, excepting only a single congregation — for, owing to the education he had received,
he was not at all familiar with it, — these were discouragements which, it is natural to imagine, would
have determined him, without hesitation, to join
some other denomination of Christians. — But he
did hesitate, notwithstanding: and he decided, eventually, to continue in the Church.
And, let no one suspect there was any bigotry in
this decision. There was some magnanimity, but
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no bigotry in it. His heart glowed with Christian
charity. He detested the spirit that regards any
ecclesiastical line of demarcation as the boundary,
beyond which the operations of saving grace
must necessarily cease, — or that blind zeal, which
debars from a participation in the benefits of salvation, all who are without the pale of a particular
Church. — He believed that the exercise of that
faith in Christ, which is the effect of a divine influence upon the heart, and not the mere fact of belonging to a Church, however pure its doctrines, or
primitive its government might be, secured heaven
to a sinner; and, therefore, that all of every name,
having that faith, and worshipping in spirit and truth,
were of the number of God's precious people, and
would be saved. — Still, as he observed some difference in the distinctive peculiarities of the several
denominations, whose standards included substantially the same articles of faith, he deemed it proper,
before making any positive arrangements for his
future studies, to satisfy himself which Church
was, in every respect, the most comformable to the
model presented in the word of God, and in which
he would have the fairest prospect of usefulness.
The inquiry was one of great importance; and
the result showed, that he had sought in it only the
testimony of a good conscience. Those very circumstances, which almost any other youth similarly
situated, would have viewed as conveying in the
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