[2] He studied theology in Elizabethtown, and then, going abroad, received at the same time both deacon's and priest's orders in the Protestant Episcopal church on 21 September 1773, from the bishop of London.

[1] For some years after the beginning of his ministry he labored as a missionary in Sussex County, New Jersey, but after April, 1779, he preached occasionally in Trinity church, Newark, of which parish he was rector from 1788 till 1805.

Meanwhile, he was in 1784-'9 one of the assistant ministers of Trinity church in New York city, and connected with St. John's in Elizabethtown, also preaching at least, once each Sunday in a chapel at what is now Belleville, New Jersey.

[2] In 1798 he was elected bishop of New Jersey, but consecration was refused by the general convention in June, 1799, owing to difficulties that, existed between him and his parish.

He published numerous letters, addresses, sermons, and Antidote to Deism: being an ample refutation of all the objections of Thomas Paine against the Christian religion, as contained in a pamphlet entitled The Age of Reason, addressed to the citizens of these states (2 vols., 1795).