and beasts to do what they list; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of alì restraint. By this liberty sumus omnes deteriores; [we are all debased] 'tis the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it."* They established their regulations with great prayerfulness and consideration, and with equal knowledge of the Bible and of men. Under these regulations our churches have, for above two centuries, enjoyed unparalleled prosperity. And it were impiety, it were treason now, to break down a system which has been blessed of God, and respected of men, so eminently and so long.

* Winthrop.

CHAPTER X.

RELATIONS OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY-PARISH AFFAIRS.

THERE is but one case in which the church and the society act in separate capacities; namely, in the settlement of a Pastor. And in this they must act harmoniously, or not at all; their concurrence being necessary to an election. In all other cases, where their common interests are concerned, they act as one body.

In settling a minister the order of proceeding is this.

The candidate usually preaches for a short term upon trial, especially if he be young in the ministry, at the invitation of a joint committee of the church and ́society.

The question of giving a call is first tried in the church. If agreed to here, the vote is communicated to the society, inviting its concurrence. In both bodies

the majority decides.

The call, being concurred in by the society, is officially transmitted to the Pastor elect, by the committee; who are expected to communicate to him the state of the vote, the proposed terms of salary, with such other facts, or circumstances, as it may be important to him to know.

If the call be accepted, the usual council is convened

to attend to the ordination; before whom the committee lay the respective votes and doings of the church and society, with the answer received, and other documents, if there are any, which the council may need.

So various are the tastes and characters of men, that perfect unanimity is not often to be expected in an affair of this kind. But it is important to have as near an approximation to unanimity as may be. If the minority be large, the candidate will not generally think it best to accept. Or if he does, the prospect of his usefulness is doubtful.

For the grounds on which the church has a separate action from the society, and takes precedence of it, in calling a minister, (the propriety of which is indisputable, and which ought not to be departed from,) the reader may consult Mather's Ratio Disciplinae, and Upham's work with the same title. The principal and obvious reason is, the securing a faithful ministry. It often happens that the majority of voters in society are not religious persons. It often happens that numbers of them are worldly, vain, or perhaps, immoral, and that some are favorable to unwholesome doctrines, or to a lax and compromising discharge of ministerial duty; and as such persons are too apt to consult their worldly tastes and interests, there would be danger of an unhappy election. It is true that the present arrangement cannot always prevent such a choice, but it

*A book which every Minister should own.

affords as much security as the case admits of. Two majorities are not so easily secured as one. And however the society may vote, the distinct voice of the church, unless the salt have lost its savor, will be for purity and faithfulness. The usage in question is scriptural, Congregational, and safe.

SUPPORT OF THE MINISTER.

The duty of providing for the maintenance of those who preach the gospel is so obvious, that to reasonable people there needs no argument on the subject. As, however, there are many who have never distinctly considered it, and have but feeble convictions with regard to it, while others deny and decry the duty, it may not unprofitably occupy some pages in this volume.

It is, in the first place, a matter of necessity that the people support the minister.

The work of the ministry is such as to forbid his supporting himself; and how is he to live?

The Bible enjoins it on him to give himself entirely to his work. The work of the ministry is to be his one and all-absorbing employment, to the exclusion of every secular avocation. 1 Tim. iv: 13-16. 2 Tim. iv: 1, 2.

The work requires such exclusive devotion. It is enough, and more than enough, for all his time, all his strength, and all his mind. There are those who ima

gine that the minister's office is for six days in the week a sinecure, and that the seventh requires but a little talking, which costs nothing. Such persons know as much of the subject as the clown knows "what is done in the cabinet." Of the mental labors of the minister, more wasting than those of any other profession; of the multitude of demands made upon his time and mind, not only in the pulpit and the lecture room, but by the sick bed, the house of mourning, and the grave; of his responsibilities, anxieties, watchings, prayers; of his duties abroad, as well as at home, at anniversaries, ordinations, councils, &c. they have no notion.

That some ministers make an easy matter of their office, I do not question; but there is no faithful minister who does not envy the farmer at his plough, or the mechanic in his workshop. Go into any faithful minister's parish, and there is seldom a man in it, even the most worldly, that has so few free hours as he. The minister, says one, "is the only person to whom the whole economy of christianity gives no cessation, nor allows him so much as the Sabbath for a day of rest." The care of every religious interest of the church and parish, and, (in this age of benevolent enterprize,) I had almost said, of the world, devolves itself upon him.

It is therefore obvious that he has no time or mind to devote to a secular calling to obtain a subsistence.