which constitutes the principal feature of the system to which name Calvinism is given, was taught in the Christian church long before Calvin, has always had adherents who, were not in connection with the Reformed church, and was held by Luther Melancthon, &c., themselves. The term Zwinglians is equally inappropriate. Zwingli held some opinions, both in doctrine and in church government, which were at no time generally received in the Reformed church, and in some of which he had few followers even in his own country.

As members of the Reformed church we are not pledged to receive and defend the system either of Calvin, or of Zwingli, or of any other man, except so far as it is in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. We acknowledge no master on earth; one is our master, even Christ. To his authority we submit with humble and cheerful acquiescence; we set at his feet in the character of learners, and receive his instructions as the teaching of God. Henly is the Lord of conscience, and only his decision can limit the right of private judgment, and the freedom of enquiry. The memory of those great men who were iustrumental in restoring the light of truth and the blessings of religious liberty is justly held in high veneration, and their faults are forgotten in the grateful remembrance of the benefits which they have conferred; but we do not forget that they were fallible men, and that God never could design to liberate us from the domination of one earthly master that we might be subjected to that of another.

The principal divisions of the Reformed church are the Helvetic or Swiss Reformed, the German Reformed, the French Reformed, the Dutch Reformed, and the English Reformed. The Waldenses and the Bohemian brethren are of the Reformed persuasion; and there are also many Reformed churches in Hungary, Poland, Transylvania, and other countries of Eu

rope.

The Reformed churches of Switzerland and of Germany may be taken as one, and comprised under the general designation of German Reformed, inasmuch as they use the same language, and differ in nothing that is of importance.

The English Reformed Church is subdivided into the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, and the Congregational or Independent, which have embraced different theories of church government. Dr. Mosheim, in his Ecclesiastical History, speaking of the state of the Reformed church in the eighteenth century, says, "The Church of England is now the chief and leading branch of that great community that goes under the denomination of the Reformed Church." He means the established church of Eng

land, which is the Episcopal. This representation differs widely from the impressions which are common in this country. It is imagined here, that the two great English churches, the Episcopal and the Presbyterian, must correspond to the two great German churches, the Lutheran and the Reformed; and it is common to speak of the Episcopal church as the English Lutheran, and of the German Reformed as the German Presbyterian. This is an error which ought to be avoided. The Episcopal church, which disallows the ordination of all other churches that are not governed by bishops, and, so far as the rigid party in it are concerned, does not allow that they are christian churches at all, differs more from the Lutheran Church than the Lutheran differs from any other of the Reformed churches. Though the Presbyterian Church and the German Reformed are both members of the same family, they are not one and the same member, any more than is the Episcopal or the Congregational. The difference of language is not the only difference, nor the most important one, subsisting between them. The German Reformed Church is governed by Elders and Deacons,' both of which are elected for limited periods; the Presbyterian Church is governed by Elders only, and these are chosen and ordained for life. The Reformed Church observes the festivals of Christmas, Good-Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Whitesuntide, in commemoration of the birth, the passion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles; the Presbyterian rejects all holy-days except the Lord's day, on the ground that all others are of human appointment, and thus disallows the principle which other Christians hold, that the Church itself may set apart sacred seasons for the purpose of particularly commemerating the great leading facts of the Christian history, and contemplating the manifestations which they give of the riches of divine grace in our redemption. The German Reformed Church, like the Lutheran, considers the Lord's day a sacred season set apart for the perfor mance of the ordinary public worship of God, and deriving all its sacredness from the service to which it is appointed; the Presbyterian regards the day as intrinsically holy. Presbyterians consider it the Sabbath enjoined by the fourth commandment, but modified by our Lord as to the day, and the penalty of its violation, and derive its sanctity from the fact that the sev enth day is the day of God's resting from all his work.

'In Switzerland it has neither lay-elders nor deacons.

The

Reformed Church admits the use of a liturgy in the worship of God and the administration of the sacraments; the Presbyterian rejects all set forms in its sacred ministrations as inconsistent with the spirituality and the freedom of Christian worship. The Presbyterian Church is strictly Calvinistic in her creed, and pronounces Arminianism, and all approaches to it, heresy, which it refuses to tolerate in its communion; the German Reformed Church indulges greater liberty of conscience to her members, and cherishes equally the Calvinist and the Arminian in her bosom. There is, therefore, as much difference, and of as much importance, between the German Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church, as there is between any two other Protestant churches, except, in some respects, the Episcopalian; and it is consequently a great mistake to imagine that the languages which they use constitute all the difference between them.

The terms Episcopal, or Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Congregational, have respect to the form of Church government in the several Churches to which these designations are respectively given. Episcopal, from the Greek Episcopos, a bishop, denotes a government of the Church by bishops, in the modern sense of this title. In this sense the bishop is the head of a diocess, and has under his jurisdiction two other orders of inferior clergy, namely, the order of priests, and, below this, the order of deacons. Each of these orders has its appropriate functions, and all are subject to the bishop's directions. Presbyterian, from the Greek Presbyteros, an elder, designates a government of the Church by elders. There are preaching elders or ministers of the word, and ruling elders. They constitute the several judicatories by which the Church is governed, which are essentially the Session and the Presbytery. The Session consists of the minister and the elders of a particular congregation. It manages the internal concerns of the congregation; but an appeal may be taken from its decision to the Presbytery. A Presoytery is composed of the minister and an elder from each of the congregations within certain bounds. It administers the external relation of the congregations within its bounds, and has an appellate jurisdiction in matters of internal interest. A Synod is an assemblage of several Presbyteries. The General Assembly is a delegated body composed of the representatives of all the Presbyteries, and deriving all its authority from them. An appeal can be taken from the Presbytery to the Synod, and from the Synod to the General Assembly, which is the court of final judicature: but neither the Synod nor the Assembly is essential to Presbyterianism. Congregational denotes a form of government which considers each particular congregation a perfect and independent commu

nity within itself. "Every Christian society formed upon the congregational plan is strictly independent of every other relig ious society." It transacts all its own affairs, decides every question without appeal, and acknowledges no binding authority in the decisions of any number of congregations acting by delegates in an associated capacity.

The German Reformed Church differs from all these. She is essentially Presbyterian in her church government, as she holds the principle of the purity of all ordained ministers; but the form of her government is not in all respects the same as that of the Presbyterian Church; neither do her judicatories possess the same coercive power. The Dutch Reformed Church is, in this respect, more like the Presbyterian; the German Reformed more like the Lutheran.

"The nature and constitution of the Reformed Church," says Dr. Mosheim, "which was formerly denominated by its adversaries after its founders Zwingli and Calvin, is entirely different from all other ecclesiastical communities. Every other christian church has some common centre of union, and its members are connected together by some common bond of doctrine and discipline. But this is far from being the case of the Reformed Church, whose several branches are neither united by the same system of doctrine, nor by the same mode of worship, nor yet by the same form of government. It is farther to be observed that this church does not require from its ministers either uniformity in their private sentiments, or in their public doctrine, but permits them to explain in different ways several doctrines of no small moment, provided that the great and fundamental principles of Christianity, and the practical precepts of that divine religion, be maintained in their original purity. This great community, therefore, may be properly considered as an ecclesiastical body composed of several churches, that vary, more or less from each other in their form and constitution; but which are preserved, however, from anarchy and schisms, by a general spirit of equity and toleration, that runs through the whole system, and renders variety of opinion consistent with fraternal union."

"This indeed," the same author continues, "was not the original state and constitution of the Reformed Church, but was the result of a certain combination of events and circumstances, that threw it, by a sort of necessity, into this ambiguous form. The doctors of Switzerland, from whom it derived its origin, and Calvin, who was one of its principal founders, employed all their credit, and exerted their most vigorous efforts, in order to reduce all the churches, which embraced their sentiments, under one

rule of faith, and the same form of ecclesiastical government. And although they considered the Lutherans as their brethren, yet they shewed no marks of indulgence to those who openly favored the opinions of Luther, concerning the Eucharist, the Person of Christ, Predestination, and other matters that were connected with these doctrines; nor would they permit the other Protestant churches, that embraced their communion, to deviate from their example in this respect. A new scene, however, which was exhibited in Britain, contributed much to enlarge this narrow and contracted system of Church communion. For when the violent contest concerning the form of ecclesiastical government, and the nature and number of those rites and ceremonies that were proper to be admitted into the public worship, arose between the abettors of Episcopacy and the Puritans, it was judged necessary to extend the borders of the Reformed Church, and rank in the class of its true members, even those who departed, in some respects, from the ecclesiastical polity and doctrines established at Geneva. This spirit of toleration and indulgence grew still more forbearing and comprehensive after the famous Synod of Dort. For though the sentiments and doctrines of the Arminians were condemned in that numerous assembly, yet they gained ground privately, and insinuated themselves into the minds of many. The church of England, under the reign of Charles I. publicly renounced the opinions of Calvin relating to the divine decrees, and made several attempts to model its doctrine and institutions after the laws, tenets, and customs, that were observed by the primitive Christians. On the other hand, several Lutheran congregations in Germany entertained a strong propensity to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of Geneva; though they were restrained from declaring themselves fully and openly on this head, by their apprehensions of forfeiting the privileges they derived from their adherence to the confession of Augsburg. The French refugees also, who had long been accustomed to a moderate way of thinking in religious matters, and whose national turn led them to a certian freedom of inquiry, being dispersed abroad in all parts of the Protestant world, rendered themselves so agreeable by their wit and eloquence, that their example excited a kind of emulation in favor of religious liberty. All these circumstances, accompanied with others whose influence was less palpable, though equally real, instilled, by degrees, such a spirit of levity and forbearance into the minds of Protestants, that at this day, all Christians, if we except Roman Catholics, Socinians, Quakers, and Anabaptists, may claim a place among the members of the Re