congregation passed into other communions without even an effort being made to retain them."

Seeing, therefore, that if true doctrine and true piety are left to the care and preservation of the clergy merely, they will as certainly be in time corrupted;* and that under God the life of the church is maintained by a faithful discipline and control; the importance of a Christian eldership, who shall act as overseers of the flock, and as helps and governments, cannot be too highly estimated. They are guardians of the spiritual liberties and the religious freedom of the people. They are set for the defence and preservation of the truth, not by its inculcation from the sacred desk, but by the preservation of that desk itself from the intrusion of erroneous and unsound teachers.†

"That there has never been any open and avowed departure from Calvinistic doctrines in the Presbyterian church in the United States," says Dr. Hodge in his Constitutional History, "while repeated and extended defections have occurred in New England, is a fact worthy of special consideration. The cause of this remarkable difference in the history of these two portions of the church, may be sought by different persons in different circumstances. Presbyterians may be excused if they regard their form of government as one of the most important of those causes. New England has enjoyed greater religious advantages than any other portion of our country. It was settled by educated and devoted men. Its population was homogeneous and compact. The people were almost all of the same religious persuasion. The Presbyterian church, on the contrary, has labored under great disadvantages. Its members were scattered here and there, in the midst of other denominations. Its congregations were widely separated, and, owing to the sparseness of the people, often very feeble; and, moreover, not unfrequently composed of discordant materials, Irish, Scotch, German, French, and English. Yet doctrinal purity has been preserved to a far greater extent in the latter denomination than in the former. What is the reason? Is it not to be sought in the conservative influence of Presbyterianism? The distinguished advantages possessed by New England, have produced their legitimate effects. It would be not less strange than lamentable, had the institutions, instructions, and example of the pious founders of New England been of no benefit to their descendants. It is to these sources that portion of our country is indebted for its general superiority. The obvious

*That heresies have generally originated with aspiring clergymen, see Faber's Albigenses, p. 567. And that they have generally been opposed to all reformation of abuses, see Conder's View of all Religions, p. 78; Neals' Hist., vol. iv., p. vii., 429; Burnet's Hist. of Ref., vol. i., p. xvi., xxi. *On the Influence of Elders and the Laity, in checking error, see Bib. Repertory, 1837, p. 15, 17.

decline in the religious character of the people, and the extensive prevalance, at different periods, of fanaticism and Antinomianism, Arminianism and Pelagianism, is, as we believe, to be mainly attributed to an unhappy and unscriptural ecclesiastical organization. Had New England, with her compact and homogenous population, and all her other advantages, enjoyed the benefit of a regular Presbyterian government in the church, it would, in all human probability, have been the finest ecclesiastical community in the world.

"It is well known that a great majority of all the distinguished ministers whom New England has produced, have entertained the opinion here expressed on the subject. President Edwards, for example, in a letter to Mr. Erskine, said, ‘I have long been out of conceit of our unsettled, independent, confused way of church government; and the Presbyterian way has ever appeared to me most agreeable to the word of God, and the reason and nature of things.' Life, p. 412. Where the preservation of the purity of the church is committed to the mass of the people, who, as a general rule, are incompetent to judge in doctrinal matters, and who, in many cases, are little under the influence of true religion, we need not wonder that corruption should from time to time prevail. As Christ has appointed presbyters to rule in the church according to his word, on them devolve the duty and responsibility of maintaining the truth. This charge is safest in the hands of those to whom Christ has assigned it."

But there is also another extreme to which the church may be driven, and which is followed by consequences equally dangerous and destructive, and that is the undue influence and interference of the people. There may be a spiritual democracy as well as a spiritual despotism-a spiritual anarchy and wild misrule, as well as an arbitrary exercise of spiritual and ministerial authority. For if ministers, with all their knowledge, their motives to piety, and their solemn obligations to preserve and perpetuate the truth, are often found insufficient to withstand the temptations to self-aggrandizement, how much less are the mass of any congregation or church qualified for the exercise of power and the discernment of truth? The many will always be guided by the few, and will implicitly follow their direction; while these will be swayed in their determinations by party spirit, prejudice, or personal animosity. When all are judges and rulers, and all have equal voice and authority, tyranny and misrule must necessarily, in the very nature of things, be the result.

The principle of representation on which the power of government and control is delegated by the many to the few, is therefore found to be of essential importance in all social and

political bodies. The ultimate power being in the mass, its present exercise is committed to appointed officers.

Now this principle God has sanctioned in the church, where all authority and power, though vested not in the people generally, is to be exercised by officers chosen by, and from among, the people. An order of ministers, also, are empowered with the exclusive office and authority of preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments, ordained by previously existing ministers, and then elected by the people. And as salvation is made to depend upon the preaching and hearing of the truth; and since the power of the truth depends upon the purity and fidelity with which it is proclaimed, it is clearly as necessary that the ministry should be upheld and maintained in the exercise of all proper independence and authority, that it may be under no overbearing influence through fear of the hatred, or desire of the favor of the people, as that the rights of the people should be guarded against the encroachments of spiritual tyranny. All order, discipline, and jurisdiction are as likely to be overthrown, and the truth of God as likely to be perverted and made to adapt itself to the taste of man, where they are subject to the domineering caprices of the multitude, as when left the the exclusive management of a single individual.*

The Christian eldership, therefore, is of great value and importance, when viewed as the guardian of the just rights and necessary authority of the ministry, and as a check to the capricious and unauthorized interference of the people, or of any aspiring individuals among the people. Anarchy and wild misrule are as dangerous as despotism; and the way of safety lies in that happy medium which preserves authority within its just and proper limits, and secures obedience to all the rightful demands of lawful officers. The eldership is thus the balance-weight between the ministry and the people, by which they are kept in a happy equilibrium; appointed by the people, and yet acting with the pastor; representatives of the people, but bound over to solemn fidelity to all the interests of the church; and numerous, that they may the better supply all the necessities which demand their care, and the better guard against whatever influence might be exerted to introduce disorder or corruption into the bosom of the church.

"Presbyterianism," says the author already quoted, "though, no doubt, adapted to human nature, as every Divine institution unquestionably must be, is yet not a form of church government which men will naturally choose. It is adapted to reform, not to please human nature. There is in it both too

*As illustrative of the anarchy which must result from the exercise of spiritual powers by the people, see Div. Right of Ch. Gov't, pp. 111 and 114.

much and too little of governmental character, too much and too little of distinction of order, too much of ruling required, and yet too little power conferred upon the rulers, ever to render it generally, much less universally, palatable. Those who love power will naturally prefer prelacy. Presbyterianism, by placing all the pastors of the church on the same level, and by forbidding them to be lords, in any sense, over God's heritage, affords no scope to clerical pride or ambition on the one hand, or to the indulgence of a servile, inert, implicitly confiding submission on the other. By associating churches, and placing the government of them, not in the hands of one individual, but in a body corporate, composed not of ministers exclusively, but of ministers and elders in equal proportions, and with equal gubernatorial authority, not of a legislative, but only of a ministerial nature, Presbyterianism stands opposed to despotism, whether it be despotism over a diocese, or despotism over a congregation, the despotism of ministers over their people, or of people over their ministers. Men generally may love power and liberty in the things of this present world, but the greater part are heartily content that others both think and act for them in matters relating to religion and the world to come. All such persons will prefer, as circumstances may modify their taste, either Papal, Diocesan, or Congregational, to Presbyterial Episcopacy. Presbyterianism will not permit a minister, how strong soever his desire or great his ability to rule over a congregation, to do so; neither will it allow such of the people as may be disposed, to rule over the minister. It scripturally subordinates the minister to his ministerial brethren, and the people to those who have the rule over them in the Lord; and thus, how much soever it may be adapted to the condition, it certainly is not palatable to the wishes of fallen humanity. Presbyterianism is part and parcel of the Cross, and must, in part, partake of the offence of the Cross."

"The elders," says Dr. Aiton, in his Life of Henderson, "than whom there does not exist a more pious and kind-hearted class of men, have ever strengthened the hand and often encouraged the heart of their minister. As a connecting link between a minister and his people, they soften asperities, correct prejudices, and possess opportunities of explaining and justifying or palliating his conduct in many instances, where the injury could neither have been otherwise found out or counteracted. In the little priory council-meetings at the manse, their discretion, accompanied with modest sincerity, often corrects a want of knowledge of character on the part of the newly inducted moderator. A minister, therefore, without elders in his session, is as much to be pitied as a man without friends; and he is no more fit for the efficient discharge of his parochial

duties, than any artisan deprived of the right arm is for his trade. In the presbytery, elders give unity and vigor to our deliberations, promote impartiality of judgment, deaden jealousy among the members, and, above all, give the church a hold on public opinion. In the General Assembly, now the only remnant of Scottish independence, the introduction of lay elders has been attended with the happiest effects. The finest talents usually exercised in secular concerns, are there every day called into requisition, to advance the well-being of the church."

But we must pass on to notice another danger to which the Christian church is exposed, and that is, the tendency to make religion a ministerial and not a personal concern. This is a deep-seated principle of our depraved nature. In our alienation from God, our enmity to him, and our utter indisposition to spiritual things, we are very willing to resign to others the burden of an active and devoted piety. We are very glad to be religious by proxy, and to gratify our selfish love of ease by shifting away from us the obligations of a holy and heavenly zeal. We are full glad to witness whatever amount of consecrated piety ministers may exhibit, if the people are only left undisturbed in the pursuit of their farms, their wealth, or their merchandise. Now this whole spirit is of the flesh; it is carnal; it is earthly; it is anti-Christian. It is the voice of the old man pleading for his old and inveterate habits. It is that love of our own selves and of the world which are in their habitual indulgence wholly irreconcilable with the love of God, of Christ, and of the gospel. This spirit must be expelled, or the church will be possessed as by legions of evil spirits. It must be utterly exterminated, or the cold stupor of spiritual death will paralyze its energies.

And what, under God, is better adapted to bring home to the conscience of every Christian the imperative necessity of such Christian activity and devotedness, than the claim which is made by God himself to the services of a Christian eldership, chosen from among themselves, and the example which is thus given to every member of the flock, of the practicability and the duty of serving the Lord while diligent in business; and of giving a punctual and faithful attention to all the demands of earthly and relative obligations, while at the same time they present as a consecrated offering to God the living sacrifice of the body, soul and spirit, to the promotion of His glory in the salvation of men? There is in a holy and devoted eldership a living witness to these just claims of heaven; a visible demonstration of the duty of every Christian; an open exposure of the baseless hypocrisy and groundliness of those excuses by which too many professors of religion shield themselves from the just demand of charity and piety; and an undeniable proof