deplored) it may still be asked, what body of Christian professors respect it more than they do, or have shown themselves more solicitous to protect it from profanation? If less severe, or strenuous, in their opposition. to vice, which of the sister denominations is before them in every work of reform; or against which has the enmity of the profligate been more manifested on this account?

I hope we may never be backward to confess our sins, and to lament our degeneracy. But whatever our sin, or degeneracy, may be, may it never be that of abandoning the principles and habits of our fathers. Return, we beseech thee O God of hosts, look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine!

We revere

We revere the memory of the Pilgrims. their principles. We cherish their institutions. We cannot but love the churches of their planting; not merely, or blindly, because of their origin with them, but because of their scriptural simplicity and tried excellence. We hold fast that which is good. We contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, identical, as we believe, with the faith of these churches; and for its precious fruits, as developed in their influence.

We cannot look at the results of the Congregational system, ecclesiastical and doctrinal, as we behold them in New England, and elsewhere, without feeling that for us to abandon it, would make us culpable as freemen and

philanthropists, as well as degenerate as sons and Christians. If it was an enlightened piety in the fathers which devised the system, must it not be either ignorance or degeneracy in the sons, that discards it? And though we can appreciate, and acknowledge what-ever is excellent in other communions, yet, after more than two centuries experience of the fruits of this, unaided as it was, and for a long time unmolested, by other systems, and operating alone in forming the character of New England; we may, without bigotry, we trust, say to such as would proselyte us, or our children, to other modes, brought in to rival, or supplant, the Cóngregational, Show us better fruits, before we forsake the tree which produces these.*

If this land were now a wilderness, as it was, and the foundations of our welfare were now to be laid, who were the men, or what the principles, which were bet

*"Let it be recollected, that for nearly a hundred years after the settlement of New England, there were very few of any denomination in the land besides Congregationalists. In 1700, there were in all the New England states then settled, 900 Episcopalians, [equal to one moderate congregation] of whom 185 were communicants. There were no Methodists; and with the exception of Rhode Island, very few Baptists. Not a single church of this denomination existed in Connecticut, and but two or three in Massachusetts. There were at the same time one hundred and twenty Congregational churches, besides thirty churches composed of Indians. It is plain then that New England is, what it is, chiefly from the influeace of the Congregationalists, and of Congregational principles." Hawes,

ter fitted for the work, than those we are considering? And if these principles are any less valuable now than they once were, if they are less scriptural, or less efficacious, let the system be brought forward, of all the existing systems of faith and order, which is more scriptural, and endued with a greater efficacy to make men virtuous and happy. "Where is truth, where is piety, where is hope and salvation to be found, if not in these Christian societies, which, for two hundred years, have shared so signally in the protection and care of Almighty God, and which, for the same period, have exerted so happy an influence on all the dearest interests and hopes of this favored community?"* Or if these principles do not now reside in the Congregational communion, if the gold has become utterly dim, and the most fine gold changed, let it be shown in what communion they do reside—and we will be converts to that, communion. But if no such church or system can be named, then let the Congregational descendents of the Pilgrims sustain, under God, to the latest times, the faith, and the order, of their Congregational progenitors.

Meantime, we repeat the testimony of the venerable men before quoted,† and hand it down to our children. "We do therefore earnestly testify, (say they) that if any who are given to change, do rise up to unhinge the well established churches in this land, it will be the duty and interest of the churches, to examine, whether the

* Hawes.

† Messrs. Higginson and Hubbard.

men of this trespass, are more prayerful, more watchful, more zealous, more patient, more heavenly, more universally conscientious, and harder students, and better scholars, and more willing to be informed and advised, than those great and good men, who left unto the churches what they now enjoy. If they be not so, it will be wisdom for the children to forbear pulling down with their own hands, the houses of God which were built by their wiser fathers, until they have better satisfaction." And they conclude with their "prayers unto the Lord for these holy churches, [in which, who will not unite?] that he would surely visit them, and grant much of his gracious presence and Spirit in the midst of them; and raise up, from time to time, those who may be happy instruments of bringing down the hearts of the parents into the children. The Lord bless these His churches, and keep them steadfast, both in the faith, and in the order of the gospel, and be with them, as he was with their fathers, and never leave them nor forsake them!"

CHAPTER II.

PRINCIPLES OF THE CONGREGATIONAL SYSTEM OF CHURCH ORDER.

As the rights and duties of a church-member are essentially modified by the polity of the church to which he belongs, it is important to him, and also to the church, that he should understand the principles of that polity. The government of a church, like any other government, is a practical thing: it defines relations, distributes powers, prescribes duties. And these vary with the character of the system. It is therefore ́obvious, that though all believers, considered simply as disciples of Christ, have the same duties to discharge, yet considered as subject to this or that particular ecclesiastical organization, their duties, as well as their privileges, may be quite diverse. As the active duties of the citizen of a republic are not the same as those of the passive subject of an oligarchy; being more numerous, more responsible, more noble: so, under the various schemes of church order, there is more or less for the laity to do, or to submit to, in the management of affairs, as the schemes have more or less of the character of free institutions.

The following are essential features in the Congregational system. They do not comprise the whole, but include those which are most distinctive. They