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 Todd, John, 1800-1873. 
 Principles and results of 
 Congregationalism 
 
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PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS OF CONGREGATIONALISM, 
 
 SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 DEDICATION OF THE HOUSE OF WORSHIP 
 
 ERECTED BY THE 
 
 FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
 IN PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 NOVEMBER 11, 1837. 
 BY REV. JOHN TODD, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 WILLIAM MARSHALL & Co. 
 1837. 
 
Philadelphia: 
 T. K. & P. G. Collins, Printers, 
 No. 1 I/xlge Alley. 
 
At a meeting of the First Congregational Society, it was voted 
 unanimously, that a committee be appointed to request of their 
 Pastor, a copy of his Dedication Sermon, for publication. 
 
 M. B. DENMAN, President, 
 W. S. CHARNLEY, Secretary. 
 
 Philadelphia, November 15, 1837. 
 
 Reverend John Todd : 
 
 Reverend and Dear Sir: — The undersigned, in compliance with 
 the above unanimous vote of your people, respectfully request a copy 
 of your Sermon delivered at the dedication of the First Congre- 
 gational Church, for the press. We desire its publication, because 
 we believe it to contain a correct and powerful exposition and 
 defence of the principles of Congregationalism : because we would 
 have our friends and fellow citizens, and all who are interested in 
 the cause of truth, acquainted with the foundations on which were 
 established the early Churches of this country : and because, having 
 adopted the same principles and built on the same foundations, we 
 are willing to be " known and read of all." We also believe that 
 the publication of your discourse will meet a want, which is exten- 
 sively felt at the present time. The subject of Church government 
 is becoming one of vast interest to the nation, and many are seeking 
 information on the subject of Congregationalism. That peace, 
 harmony, piety, and energetic action, have ever remarkably charac- 
 terised a large majority of the New England Churches, is universally 
 acknowledged. Now let the cause be explained : let the connection 
 between the principles of the Puritans, and the prosperity of their 
 Churches be generally understood, and we have reason to hope that 
 many Churches will long be grateful for the information. With most 
 unwavering confidence in your principles and ministry, and in the 
 bonds of the strongest attachment, we are, dear sir, most truly and 
 sincerely, yours, 
 
 THOMAS ELMES, 
 MARTIN THAYER, 
 W. K. BROWN, 
 
 Committee of the Church. 
 J. NEVINS, 
 F. H. CHURCH, 
 J. B. DANFORTH, 
 
 Committee of the Society. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/principlesresultOOtodd 
 
OETOII 
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 " Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but 
 fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ; and 
 are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom all the build- 
 ing, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the 
 Lord."— Eph. ii. 19, 20, 21. 
 
 The Church of God is here compared to a 
 building whose foundations were the teachings of 
 prophets and apostles — and which teachings are 
 all to be traced back to Jesus Christ. 
 
 On this foundation it shall stand, and the con- 
 verts are congratulated that they were becoming 
 lively stones in this glorious, eternal building. 
 
 It is also compared to a city, and the Gentiles 
 are to rejoice that they are no longer strangers and 
 foreigners, but that they belong to that great 
 household of faith who have passed from these 
 dark shores, to the regions of everlasting day. 
 
 Whatever be the figure used, the teaching is the 
 same, that the Church of God, in all ages, rests 
 upon one, immovable foundation, and that in this 
 she is to rejoice. 
 
6 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 The history of the Church shows this; — and 
 perhaps I can in no way lead you to spend the 
 hour before us this evening more profitably, than 
 by asking you to look at the Church of God ; and 
 in her history, read her design, her duty, and 
 her destiny. 
 
 That man will ever stand out in clear light, and 
 high in the esteem of men, who has the magnani- 
 mity to follow truth wherever she leads, and the 
 candor to measure human opinions by the scale of 
 truth alone. 
 
 But how rare is it, to find the man whose eye 
 does not see through the medium of his precon- 
 ceived notions, or who does not take his own views 
 as the scale by which all other things are to be 
 measured ! 
 
 You are all familiar with the term Church of 
 God, yet all do not mean the same thing by the 
 term. 
 
 One confines the meaning to his own form of 
 government; another to his own creed; another to 
 his own denomination or party; and some, even to 
 those who sit with them in the same house of 
 worship. 
 
 Allow me to say what I mean by the Church 
 of God. 
 
 In its highest, best sense, the Church is "an 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 7 
 
 assembly of creatures united in the worship of 
 God, according to his express witty 
 
 The Church of God commenced then, accord- 
 ing to this definition, the first moment that rational 
 beings were created. 
 
 Before the earth was created, before time was 
 born, or God's image was stamped on clay, the 
 innumerable company of angels around the throne, 
 — among whom sin was as yet unknown, — con- 
 stituted the Church of God. 
 
 When the morning of creation opened and 
 revealed this new world, the Church of God was 
 there, — " the morning stars sang together, and all 
 the sons of God shouted for joy." 
 
 The bright "son of the morning" had not then 
 fallen, and quenched his beams in endless night. 
 
 But God did a new thing. 
 
 He created a being made up of spirit and mat- 
 ter united — a frail but most wonderful and beau- 
 tiful exhibition of his skill and power. 
 
 He created him in his own glorious image ; 
 and now, before sin entered this world, the 
 Church consisted of the glorious company of 
 angels in Heaven, and man, their young brother, 
 on earth. 
 
 The will of God was their will, their bond of 
 
8 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 union ; and one song, one spirit, one love, filled 
 every heart. 
 
 But when sin came to earth, these sweet notes 
 began to jar — this harmony was gone, and the 
 Church of God was seen in broken fragments. 
 
 The will of God was not thenceforth the will 
 of man: and the ruin on earth had been final and 
 eternal, had not God in mercy begun a new pro- 
 cess by which to re-establish his Church on this 
 his footstool. 
 
 Since the fall, the Church has been known as 
 " the daughter of Zion," with her head sprinkled 
 with dust and ashes, and bowed like the bulrush, 
 and her loins covered with sackcloth; or else she 
 has been girded for battle against the powers of 
 hell. 
 
 Her harp has, for the most part, hung upon the 
 willows ; but when taken down, she hath sung 
 of her guilt and shame, and of the fearful chas- 
 tisements of God, in notes of penitence and sor- 
 row ; or, when a different note has been heard, it 
 has been that of a pilgrim and a stranger, fainting 
 and longing that the storm of wrath go past, when 
 she shall once more have sin and death purged 
 from the body and soul, and the Holy Ghost 
 again make them his temple, and again unite her 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 9 
 
 to the innumerable company of angels and of the 
 Church of the first born in heaven. 
 
 The Church on earth re-commenced at the fall, 
 and has ever since contained all the great articles 
 of faith which are necessary for the salvation of 
 men in all ages of the world. 
 
 By three perpetual ordinances, she has trans- 
 mitted her hopes, her duties and her character 
 from generation to generation ; viz : by 
 
 1 . Prophecy, carrying the eyes of all the Church 
 to her final salvation, that " the seed of the woman 
 should bruise the serpent's head. 
 
 2. Sacrifices, or prophecy in a bodily shape, 
 pointing to what was to come : and 
 
 3. The Sabbath, a fragment of the Church in 
 Eden, and a perpetual, stated means of preserving 
 the Church. 
 
 These three simple rites have been common to 
 the Church in all ages of time. 
 
 The entire existence of the Church on earth 
 is divided into two great periods — 1st, the fulfill- 
 ing of the prophecies and sacrifices — and 2d, the 
 full unfolding of the things foretold; — I mean the 
 period preceding the coming of Christ, and the 
 period succeeding it, called in the Bible, "the for- 
 mer days," and "the latter days." 
 
 The former period was like the moon when the 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 shadow of the earth is upon her ; the latter, like 
 the moon when every shadow and cloud is with- 
 drawn and she walks forth in her full strength 
 and glory. 
 
 The Church of God has been presented to the 
 world in three distinct forms, each having peculi- 
 arities of its own, and yet each having the same 
 grand essential. I refer to the Church under the 
 dispensations, Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian. 
 
 Under the Patriarchal, man was admitted to 
 light, hut that light was dim and indistinct. 
 
 Under the Jewish, he saw light coming through 
 forms, and gross representations. 
 
 Under the Christian, the veil is removed, and 
 we see face to face. 
 
 The Patriarch saw the Shiloh at a great dis- 
 tance, to rise at some indefinite period, among 
 mankind at large. 
 
 His views of the Shiloh were indefinite as to 
 his character and offices. 
 
 The Jew saw him rising up in the family of 
 David, the exact number of weeks specified, and 
 the object of his coming, to take away sin. 
 
 The Christian looks back, the light is clear, and 
 the Son of man is revealed in all his fulness. 
 
 The Church under the Patriarchs, had her faith 
 limited to one grand object, though indefinite. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 11 
 
 Under Moses, she saw all the steps and measures 
 preparatory to that object. 
 
 Under Christ, she sees all the work finished, 
 and cries, " he hath done all things well." 
 
 Under the Patriarchs, the sacramental host of 
 God's elect was enrolled, and the army organized ; 
 under Moses, the army was carefully drilled, and 
 taught in the camp, and prepared for conflict; 
 under Christ, the army is complete, ready to pass 
 on from conquest to conquest. 
 
 Under the Patriarchs, the head of a family offered 
 sacrifices anywhere, and erected his altar in any 
 place. 
 
 Under Moses, sacrifices must be offered only at 
 particular times and places, and by particular per- 
 sons, or else fire from the Lord destroyed them. 
 
 Under Christ, the Father seeks the true wor- 
 shipper in spirit and in truth, wherever he may 
 be found; and the table of Christ commemorates 
 the event of his having come. 
 
 Under the Patriarch, the Sabbath celebrated the 
 creation of the world, and the rest prepared in 
 heaven. 
 
 Under Moses, it celebrated these, and the tem- 
 poral deliverance from Egypt. 
 
 Under Christ it celebrates, especially his resur- 
 
12 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 recticm from the dead, and the redemption through 
 him ; as well as the rest in heaven. 
 
 The Church in the days of the Patriarchs, was 
 scattered : the lives of men were centuries, and 
 the head of a great family was its prince and its 
 priest. 
 
 In the time of Moses, life was cut down to 
 three-score and ten years, and the Church was 
 hedged in and separated from all other nations, by 
 laws, customs, food, dress, and worship. 
 
 In the days of Christ, the people of God are 
 scattered abroad among all nations to give light 
 unto all. 
 
 In these three, different dispensations, the Church 
 has been one and the same. 
 
 Her faith has had one object, Jesus Christ. 
 She has ever had one purpose. 
 
 Christ has been her object, her end, the bond 
 of union which holds all hearts. 
 
 The Patriarch and the Apostle meet at his 
 tomb, and there weep, and rejoice, and praise God. 
 
 In him all distinctions melt away, male and 
 female, Greek and Jew, and in all ages men are 
 united in Christ Jesus. 
 
 He is the head of the Church under these 
 forms. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 13 
 
 "Her prayers, her prophecies, her sacrifices, her 
 oblations and thanksgivings are all pointed towards 
 him ; her consolations and her censures are in his 
 name : her tribulations are endured for his sake : 
 her joys and triumphs are in his victory; and 
 finally, his are all her members, in heart and mind, 
 word and deed, in the life present and in the life 
 to come." 
 
 You will observe that under these three dispen- 
 sations, the Church of God is based upon one 
 great principle; viz: that God has created us with 
 a social principle which demands that his creatures 
 assemble together for his worship. 
 
 Whether you find his Church in heaven or on 
 earth, you see them gathering together around the 
 altar, and mingling together the voice of praise. 
 
 Whether you look at the Church before sin 
 was known, or at her while she is rising from the 
 ruins of sin, you see at once that she cannot wor- 
 ship God with the highest benefit to herself, with- 
 out calling to her aid the principle of social wor- 
 ship. 
 
 Without stopping to discuss the different the- 
 ories of men on this subject, it seems clear to my 
 mind, that God created angels and men with na- 
 tures needing social worship, and then instituted 
 public worship to meet those wants; just as he 
 
14 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 made man in such a way that he needed the Sab- 
 bath, and then made the Sabbath for his use. 
 
 In the days of the Patriarchs, the Church 
 seemed to use the social principle only for one 
 object, and that was to aid her individual members 
 on their way to heaven. 
 
 They gathered around the same family altar, 
 and the old Patriarch led their devotions and 
 offered their sacrifices, — not to spread religion, but 
 to keep it alive in his own family. The Church 
 was to increase only by hereditary descent. 
 
 Under the Jewish dispensation, the social prin- 
 ciple was abundantly used, — to gather all Israel 
 around one altar, that the church might be in- 
 structed, disciplined, prepared for the coming of 
 the Son of God, and armed with the Revelation of 
 heaven, by which to do a great work, when her 
 discipline should be completed. 
 
 Under the Christian dispensation, we use the 
 social principle to aid our individual piety — to 
 sustain us in our trials, 'rejoicing with them that 
 do rejoice, and weeping with those that weep but 
 above all, the social principle is here used, to aid 
 us in spreading the Gospel and proclaiming it to 
 every creature under heaven. 
 
 Hence the Apostles, having general directions 
 from their master, organized the Church in such 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 15 
 
 a way that she might best use the social principle 
 to do two things ; viz: to aid every individual to 
 grow up in piety and comfort; and to aid the 
 Church to unite her efforts, and thus most ef- 
 ficiently give the bread of life to the perishing. 
 
 A few words here on that organization which 
 was established by the Apostles. 
 
 On what principles did the Apostles organize 
 those numerous Churches mentioned in the New 
 Testament? 
 
 Were they furnished with an exact model like 
 that which Moses received in building the Taber- 
 nacle, to which all things were to be conformed ? 
 Or, 
 
 Were they furnished with general principles, 
 comprehending, but not specifying all the variety 
 of particulars, found in those Churches? 
 
 Now if you attempt to draw up a formula of 
 Church Government and discipline from the New 
 Testament which shall include any thing more 
 than general principles, and to say that this is the 
 exact form used by the Apostles, you will find 
 yourself in difficulty. 
 
 The Apostles received general directions and 
 applied general principles as occasion required. 
 
 The following may be relied on as being the 
 general principles used by the Apostles. 
 
16 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 1. The Churches were separate, independent 
 bodies, composed of renewed men, who volun- 
 tarily united themselves together to enjoy the 
 preached word and the ordinances of the Gospel, 
 and to mutually aid each other to build up the 
 kingdom of Christ.* 
 
 * It is expressly stated of the New Testament Churches, that 
 they had each their assemblies of the ichole church, for the enjoy- 
 ment of privileges, and the discharge of duties: so did the church 
 at Jerusalem, and so did the church at Antioch which is called the 
 multitude. The whole church of Corinth assembled in one place 
 for the solemn worship of God and the exercise of discipline. 
 
 These primitive churches were co-ordinate and not dependent 
 some upon others as to ecclesiastical power; and had communion 
 by letters, or messengers for each other's edification in love : each 
 church with its officers acted as they thought most expedient ; as 
 those who were to give account only to the Lord. 
 
 The churches were such as could and should meet together for 
 divine worship; becoming such by voluntary consent and agreement; 
 to which a poor brother might have ready access, and which, as a 
 church, should reason, judge, and determine. 
 
 The Scripture churches were made up of visible saints, living 
 stones, sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit 
 of our God — reputed godly persons, acquainted with the life and 
 power of religion ; and by a heavenly conversation discovering 
 themselves to be temples of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Clemens of Rome, in the first century, writes in the name of the 
 church of which he was pastor, to the church of Corinth, and 
 salutes them, "The called and sanctified through the will of God 
 by Jesus Christ our Lord." Origen says, "We do all that lies in 
 our power, that our congregations be composed of good and wise 
 men." 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 17 
 
 2. They were instructed and guided, and their 
 poor provided for, by bishops and deacons of their 
 own choosing.* 
 
 3. The bishop was the overseer, not of other 
 ministers, but of the flock of God.f 
 
 * " The primitive churches had the power of choosing their own 
 pastors. Those who were to serve Christ in that capacity, were to 
 be set apart by the whole church, or congregation. Clemens tells 
 us, that thus the first officers in the church were constituted by the 
 Apostles' direction ; and thus it was to be afterwards, (they are his 
 express words,) « with the consent of the whole church.' They 
 might ask advice and assistance of the neighboring churches and 
 ministers ; but the work in those early days of Christianity wa3 
 chiefly their own. Cyprian praises two churches who had deposed 
 their respective bishops, telling them * They had not acted irregu- 
 larly in what they had done ; since, as the people had the chief 
 power of choosing worthy bishops, so also of refusing those that 
 were unworthy.' Cyprian acknowledges that he was ordained 
 * by the suffrages of all the people.' 
 
 t " Those primitive churches * * * had their officers, viz: bishops 
 and deacons. Wherever the churches sojourned, whether in towns or 
 in villages, there their bishops and deacons were for their service. 
 Clemens, speaking of the Apostles, says, 1 That they preached the 
 word through regions and cities, and appointed the first fruits, or the 
 first converts, after a spiritual trial of them, to be bishops and 
 deacons.' They devoted themselves to minister to the other saints 
 for their edification, in faith, holiness and comfort. 
 
 "Two hundred years after Christ, in what provinces soever, 
 churches were gathered, they were called, the churches in such a 
 place. So Irenacus says, the churches in Germany, the churches in 
 Spain, France, Egypt, &c. The churches or congregations were 
 many; and the bishops were as many, for every particular church 
 3 
 
18 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 4. The government and discipline of each 
 Church was within itself and by itself.* 
 
 had its bishop or pastor. Many of them might be small, and their 
 outward appearance mean; but their real glory was in this, that God 
 in Christ was the glory in the midst of them. Lydda, Jamnia, and 
 Joppa, three Episcopal towns, were within four miles one of another. 
 The churches in the New Testament were many in one neighbor- 
 hood. Thus we read of the churches in Judeea, which was but a 
 small tract of land; an(J the churches in Galilee, yet smaller; and we 
 read of the churches in Galatia, and of the churches in Macedonia, 
 as distinct from that of Philippi, which was a town in that country ; 
 the church at Corinth, and the church of Cenchrea which is a little 
 town near Corinth. In that age bishops had their sees in poor 
 villages. We read in Usher's Religion of the Irish, that, even 
 above five hundred years after Christ,, there were in Ireland three 
 hundred and sixty-five churches, and so many bishops; but their 
 revenues were so small, that some of those bishops had no more 
 than the pasture of two milch beasts. The churches we read of in 
 Scripture, had their ministering servants, who were not to lord it 
 over them, but to serve them in the Lord; viz: Bishops and deacons; 
 the first, according to the only meaning of the Greek word {tTtinxoxoi) 
 were overseers of the flock of Christ, to feed it with the pure word 
 of truth; and minister appointed ordinances; and in other words 
 were called pastors, teachers, and elders ; the others, according to 
 their primitive institution, were to serve tables. 
 
 * " All ecclesiastical decisions, in those primitive churches, were 
 made by common consent; all the people had a voice in what was 
 done. 
 
 " When persons were received, the whole church admitted them ; 
 and when any persons were rejected, it was done " by the divine 
 suffrages of the people." All things were debated in common 
 among them. And for church worship and church acts, they 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 19 
 
 5. The gifts of the different members were 
 employed to aid the whole. 
 
 6. In cases of discipline, the Churches used 
 every proper means to vindicate the honor of 
 Christ, and to reclaim the offender. 
 
 What a mistake is that which says that the 
 Church of Christ was organized only to use the 
 social principle to aid its individual members to 
 reach heaven! 
 
 It does do this; and the Christian who neglects 
 to meet his brethren at the table of Christ, in 
 the house of God, and at the throne of prayer, 
 will sink away in fears, his light will go out, his 
 piety droop, and his soul mourn in darkness and 
 in sin. 
 
 But this is not all. 
 
 There is a nobler object in the organizing of 
 the Church of Jesus Christ; it is, that you and I 
 and all its members may aid each other to glorify 
 God and save men. 
 
 What a mistake is that which says that the 
 Church of Christ was organized for the sake of 
 
 always met in one place, which was frequently called the church's 
 house." 
 
 See Lord King's "Inquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, 
 4'C, of the Primitive Church,'''' — an author not less remarkable for 
 his impartiality and candor, than for his ecclesiastical learning. 
 
20 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 governing its members; — as if to govern were the 
 great object for which the Apostles organized the 
 Churches of God. 
 
 But look at the churches which they organized. 
 
 The discipline of these churches occupies no 
 prominent place in their history or character. 
 
 It is never that ostentatious thing, which in 
 after ages, under the name of decrees and ordi- 
 nances, has become nothing but a bone of conten- 
 tion. 
 
 It was simply the principle of brotherly love 
 carried out in meekness, patience, and long-suffer- 
 ing. 
 
 Had Christ intended that governing should be 
 the great object of his Church, he would have 
 had its forms all drawn out and defined as he did 
 under Moses, and fire from the Lord would have 
 consumed him who dared transgress the limits 
 prescribed. 
 
 Had he designed this to be the object of his 
 Church, he would so have planned its government 
 that the church could have shut out error of every 
 name and description. 
 
 But w r here has been the Church government 
 which has been able to shut out error? 
 
 Did the Apostolic? How came the Church of 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 21 
 
 Rome with her ten thousand abominations to rise 
 up out of these very churches? 
 
 Could the Church of Rome shut out what she 
 deemed error? Look at Martin Luther, fed by 
 her milk, rising up and shaking down her strongest 
 pillars. 
 
 Can the Episcopal ? Look at the mass of Ar- 
 minian and Pelagian errors which have crept into 
 the Church of England, going over the Prayer- 
 Book, the Liturgy and the Orthodox creed.* 
 
 Can the Presbyterian ? 
 
 England was once under the dominion of Pres- 
 byterianism, and the throne was overturned by it ; 
 and the nation was swayed by it; but all that 
 now remains in England of Presbyterianism is less 
 than two hundred churches, — and these almost 
 without an exception, are Unitarian.! 
 
 Can Congregationalism? Alas! how is the gold 
 become dim, and the most fine gold changed, in the 
 land of the pilgrims, where almost one hundred 
 and fifty churches deny the Lord that bought 
 them ! 
 
 * The first church which became Unitarian in this country was 
 Episcopal — Dr. Freeman's of Boston, under all the influences of the 
 Liturgy. 
 
 t See Bogue and Bennett's History of Dissenters, vols. 3. and 4. 
 See also the Unitarian Monthly Repository for November, 1829 — 
 published in London. 
 
22 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 Of all the weak things ever attempted, that of 
 undertaking to shut error out of the human mind 
 by Church government is among the weakest. 
 
 You might as well try to shut the plague out of 
 your city by surrounding it with an iron fence — 
 when this plague hangs on the wings of every 
 breeze. 
 
 No, no, error is shut out, not by voting and 
 legislating, but by holy living and praying, and 
 faithful preaching, in the Churches of God. 
 
 All other measures are useless and in vain. 
 
 Hence, the form of government in the church 
 is only her working-dress; and that dress should 
 be as loose as possible, combining two things ; viz: 
 First, a prompt discipline which will not long 
 suffer reproaches to be cast on the name of the 
 Redeemer. 
 
 That discipline is the most perfect, which makes 
 the disciple feel that the confidence of his brethren, 
 is admission into the church, and the withdrawing 
 of that confidence, is the severest discipline. 
 
 Secondly, that union of heart and feeling, by 
 which the highest and holiest efforts will be made 
 for the salvation of men. 
 
 Combine and ensure these two things, discipline 
 and action, and you have the best possible form of 
 church government. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 ■23 
 
 The circumstances under which we meet on 
 this occasion, at the consecration of this house to 
 God. seem to demand a brief, but clear view of 
 those distinctive principles which belong to Con- 
 gregationalism, as a form of church govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In doing this. I only follow the path of propriety: 
 for, if there be any reasons for erecting a Congre- 
 gational church on this ground, they ought to 
 be known. 
 
 I can truly say. too. that so far from making- 
 war upon any other denomination of Christians. 
 I shall only state our principles. — never feeling 
 any less ready to co-operate with others, than if 
 they took the same name, or marched under the 
 same standard with myself. 
 
 It would also be casting a suspicion on my 
 hearers, wholly unworthy of them, to suppose that 
 by telling them these reasons. I should any more 
 excite their prejudices, than if I were telling them 
 the reasons of my religious belief. 
 
 I should feel mortified at the thought that I 
 am speaking to those who will feel the need 
 of arraying prejudice or passion to confute what 
 I say. even if all I say be error. 
 
24 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 1 . It is a fundamental principle of Congregation- 
 alism that Christ is the head of his Church, which 
 he hath purchased with his own Mood. 
 
 He redeemed the church, raised it up — is the 
 chief corner-stone, and "in all things, has the 
 pre-eminence." 
 
 He is the head, and by and through his minis- 
 ters, who are all equal, by the ordinances of Bap- 
 tism, and the Lord's Supper, and by communion 
 in prayer, he meets his people. 
 
 All laws relating to the officers and private 
 members must come from him. 
 
 2. The Bible is the only standard of faith, 
 government, and practice. 
 
 No men may force their creeds or their inter- 
 pretations of the Bible upon us ; and no men may 
 use any but moral means by which to make us 
 receive their views or doctrines. 
 
 In all things wherein the Bible gives explicit 
 directions as to government and faith, we follow it; 
 wherein it is silent, we follow our own reason. 
 
 It was the contest for this single principle, for 
 one hundred and fifty years, which finally resulted 
 in driving our fathers from England. They did not 
 separate from the Church of England on account 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 25 
 
 of doctrines. The doctrines of the thirty-nine 
 articles are the doctrines which they held.* 
 
 The Bible has left the subject of Church gov- 
 ernment so indefinite, that different forms have 
 been used in different ages, and in these different 
 forms, God has blessed his people. 
 
 Many have been aware that the Scriptures do 
 not reveal any particular form of church govern- 
 ment; but they have not been aware that this 
 
 ABSENCE OF FORM, CONSTITUTES CONGREGATION- 
 ALISM. 
 
 If it be said that we are churches without a 
 creed, I reply, we have the same creed which the 
 primitive churches had — the Bible. 
 
 They had no other creed ; they were holy, de- 
 voted, energetic churches, and needed no other 
 standard, — nor do we. 
 
 If it be said that as we have no standard but 
 the Bible, we must, therefore, lack harmony and 
 agreement, I reply, that the world cannot show 
 churches, and history cannot show churches which 
 
 * "He had been bred by his father what was called a Puritan ; a 
 member of a sect, who, in the primitive sense of the word, were 
 persons that did not except against the doctrines of the Church of 
 England, or even in other respects against its hierarchy, but chiefly 
 dissented from it on the subject of certain ceremonies, habits and 
 forms of ritual, which were insisted upon by the celebrated and un- 
 fortunate Laud, with ill-timed tenacity." — Sir Walter Scott. 
 4 
 
26 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 have existed over two hundred years, as these 
 churches have in this land, with so few defections 
 from the faith. 
 
 The harmony of these churches has become 
 proverbial through the earth. 
 
 We have no objections to creeds when used as 
 a summary of doctrines. We use them, and none 
 can be sounder than that of this particular church; 
 but we do object to them as tests. 
 
 First, Because they do not and cannot enforce 
 uniformity of faith. 
 
 Secondly, Because they do not and cannot shut 
 out heresy. 
 
 Thirdly, Because they oftener create discord 
 than peace. 
 
 Some have great zeal for standards and creeds, 
 and but very little for Jesus Christ; and when 
 this is the case, narrow-mindedness will make the 
 creed an engine of torture by which to stretch 
 and crush the free. 
 
 We cannot and will not put a "strait jacket on 
 the limbs of charity;" for she "loves freedom as 
 much as she loves truth," and when "narrow views 
 become her jail limits," she walks in sackcloth 
 and ashes. 
 
 The Creator of the human soul made it free ; 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 27 
 
 and if men agree in any thing, it must be a volun- 
 tary agreement. 
 
 Christ has made the conscience of his disciples 
 free, and they cannot he hound. 
 
 They call hut one Father ; and hut one master, 
 even Christ ; and we feel that when Paul hid the 
 Churches of Galatia stand fast in the liberty 
 wherewith Christ made them free, because some 
 were trying to impose a Jewish creed upon them ? 
 he at the same time bids us be free. 
 
 3. // is a fundamental principle of Congrega- 
 tionalism that every church shall govern itself 
 
 In the 1 8th of Matthew, Christ has given direc- 
 tions for the discipline of the church which it is 
 impossible to obey, unless the government be vested 
 in the whole church.* 
 
 So it was understood and acted upon in the 
 primitive churches. 
 
 "In those primitive times," says Mosheim, — a 
 
 * " Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and 
 tell him his fault between thee and him alone ; if he shall hear thee 
 thou hast gained thy brother. 
 
 " But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two 
 more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may 
 be established. 
 
 "And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but 
 if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen 
 man and a publican." 
 
28 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 respectable historian who could not have had Con- 
 gregationalism in his eye, — " in those primitive 
 times each Christian church was composed of the 
 people, the presiding officers, and the assistants, or 
 deacons ; the highest authority was in the people, 
 or the whole body of Christians; for even the 
 Apostles themselves inculcated by their example, 
 that nothing of moment was to be done, or deter- 
 mined upon, but with the knowledge and consent 
 of the brotherhood. Acts i. 15 : vi. 3 : xv. 4 : xxi. 
 22. The assembled people, therefore, elected their 
 own rulers and teachers, or by their authoritative 
 consent received them when nominated to them. 
 
 "They also, by their suffrages, rejected or con- 
 firmed the laws that were proposed by their rulers, 
 in their assemblies; they excluded profligate and 
 lapsed brethren, or restored them; they decided 
 the controversies that arose $" this was their order 
 for nearly two centuries. "During the greater 
 part of this (the second) century, all the churches 
 continued to be, as at first, independent of each 
 other, or were connected by no consociations or 
 confederations. Each church was a kind of little, 
 independent republic, governed by its own laws, 
 which were enacted, or at least sanctioned by the 
 people." 
 
 This is the testimony of the impartial Mosheim. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 29 
 
 There are two most valuable things to be 
 gained by having the government vested in the 
 whole church. 
 
 Suppose you want to reclaim an offender. 
 
 You want the aid of the brotherhood ; — you 
 want the sympathy, the prayers of all. 
 
 A brother goes to the offender alone — in private, 
 according to Christ's direction. 
 
 A private man is talking to a brother; there is 
 no authority of office — it is not an official act. 
 
 If the offender be gained, the object is gained 
 in secret, and it is not known ; if he be not re- 
 claimed, two or three brethren are called in to aid; 
 if these fail, then the whole church enters into 
 the labor; and whatever may be the result, no 
 one has grown vainer or prouder by acting offici- 
 ally. 
 
 Suppose the offender be not reclaimed; then, I 
 say, the discipline is a very different thing when 
 administered by the whole church, than when ad- 
 ministered by a committee, whatever be the name 
 of that committee. 
 
 Suppose a censure be inflicted on a man by an 
 officer, or committee, (and it is of no consequence 
 by what name you call this committee,) it is felt 
 to be an official act merely, and the censured man 
 
30 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 may stand firmer on his ground after, than before 
 such censure. 
 
 But let the church, his equals and associates 
 discipline him, and it is bringing the irresistible 
 power of public opinion upon him, and he feels it, 
 and quails under it. "But ye, brethren, note that 
 man, and have no company with him, that he may 
 be ashamed" 
 
 Let him forfeit, and feel that he has forfeited 
 the confidence of the brotherhood, and his punish- 
 ment is not only severe, but it is subduing. 
 
 So if you would restore an offender, it is no- 
 thing but the voice, the confidence of the brother- 
 hood that can restore him. 
 
 An act of a committee may restore him in 
 name, but it is in name only. 
 
 The expressed opinion of the brotherhood, gives 
 Congregationalism a power in Church government, 
 of which, those who are unacquainted with it, 
 have no conception. 
 
 All diseases, whether in the body or in the soul, 
 should be healed as privately as possible.* 
 
 * Would it not be best, then, to have the discipline in the hands of 
 a select committee — known by almost any name, who should have 
 the power, and would be sure to exercise it, to heal all diseases 
 privately, and not expose them even to the church ? 
 
 I reply, that all despotism is power to crush what it believes 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 31 
 
 If you have a difficulty in your family, the 
 more privately and speedily it is healed, the better. 
 
 If you have disorder in the church, the more 
 speedily and privately it is settled and cured, the 
 better. Diseases of no kind ought to be exposed 
 in the streets; and that which can be done in the 
 closet, ought not to be proclaimed on the house- 
 top. 
 
 This is the reason why Christ seems to have 
 made no provision for discipline, beyond the 
 church. 
 
 If he neglect to hear thee, tell it to the church: 
 if he neglect to hear the church — what then? carry 
 it to a higher tribunal ? No : but let him be unto 
 thee as a heathen man, and a publican. 
 
 We hold that every church is directed by 
 Christ to manage her own discipline ; that she is 
 abundantly competent to do it, and that if she 
 resign this independence into the hands of a supe- 
 rior jurisdiction, her powers are null and void, and 
 she may be compelled to retain in her communion 
 
 to be injurious, and it is efficient ; but no despotism can be coveted 
 for the sake of a power which ought to be trusted only in the hands of 
 a perfect Being. The whole power of discipline might be efficient 
 when lodged in the hands of a committee, if they were all agreed ; 
 and it would be still more efficient, in the hands of a single indivi- 
 dual. But did Christ feel it safe, in Matthew 18th, to place this 
 power in the hands of a small portion of the church ? 
 
32 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 those who ruin her peace, and bring reproaches 
 upon her master. 
 
 If it be said that our system is too republican, 
 that there is not enough of government in it, my 
 reply is twofold. 
 
 First, That for twelve years before our fathers 
 came to this country, while in Holland, no [one 
 was ever arraigned for a civil crime; and during 
 the two hundred years which have passed since, 
 no churches in the world can be found whose 
 discipline has been more strict, more powerful, 
 more feared and more hated by the wicked. 
 
 Secondly, That if the Christian churches can- 
 not govern themselves, we may indeed despair of 
 any republic on the face of the earth. 
 
 All attempts to establish republicanism among 
 men, are foolish and visionary, if the renewing, 
 restraining and subduing grace of God does not 
 give his people power to govern themselves. But 
 we hold that the principles of the Gospel, when 
 carried out, are fully and entirely republican ; and 
 that the day which sees the Gospel covering the 
 earth as the waters fill the channels of the sea, 
 will see every monarchy and every despotic go- 
 vernment passing away, and republics taking their 
 place. 
 
 Every possible objection of this kind, which can 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 33 
 
 be adduced against this form of church govern- 
 ment, stands against all republics with a weight 
 increased a thousand-fold. 
 
 If it be said that this form of government is 
 adapted only to enlightened and intelligent men, 
 we allow it in all its force. 
 
 It is adapted to enlightened men, to those who 
 can govern themselves, and to none others; and 
 we want none others in the church. 
 
 In a state of twilight in which there is only 
 here and there one w 7 ho can take care of himself, 
 the great mass must be led, and must lean, and 
 be told what to do, and when to do but we hold 
 that when men are brought out of darkness into 
 God's marvellous light, they can, — if republics can 
 live on earth — they can govern themselves, and 
 they ought to govern themselves. 
 
 This system does call for enlightened churches ; 
 and enlightened churches it will have, wherever 
 it goes. 
 
 Darkness is not its birth-place, nor is it its food, 
 or its clothing. 
 
 The members of our churches must be enlight- 
 ened, practical men ; for, instead of being mere 
 tax-payers and worshippers, they must feel that 
 high and responsible duties devolve upon them. 
 
 Called to act together constantly, they learn to 
 5 
 
34 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 think, and to judge; and their wisdom and piety 
 are brought into habitual use, and by consequence, 
 are constantly increased. 
 
 The Pastor is the head, elected by the members 
 of the church ; and the younger learn by the wis- 
 dom and experience of the elder. 
 
 The result is to make men firm, and active; — 
 and if what I have said be true, you are prepared 
 to hear me say, that Congregationalism ought to 
 show, and can show, great results. 
 
 Let me show that I know what I am saying. 
 
 For nearly one hundred years there was no 
 other form of church government known in New 
 England but that of Congregationalism. The 
 w r hole moral character and education, whatever it 
 be, was formed there, before any other denomina- 
 tion was known.* 
 
 Taking the glorious principle that it is the 
 birth-right of all men to be free, to govern them- 
 selves by a vote of a majority of the community 
 
 * " In 1700, there were in all the New England States then settled, 
 nine hundred Episcopalians, of whom one hundred and eighty-five 
 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 in New England, besides thirty 
 churches composed of Indians." — Hist, of Dissenters, Vol. II. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 35 
 
 in which they live, both in religion and in politics, 
 Congregationalists have ever been men to think, 
 and to decide for themselves. 
 
 As much as the Puritan has been stigmatized, 
 he never oppressed or persecuted his fellow men, 
 for their religious sentiments.* 
 
 * This may seem too strong language, for few have read the 
 history of the Puritans with such care that they can distinguish 
 between facts and impressions; and it has ever been the policy of 
 those who could, with any degree of plausibility, to raise the cry of 
 persecution. 
 
 " Nor is it known that they, or the Independents in England, to 
 which denomination they belonged, ever oppressed or persecuted 
 any of their fellow men on account of their religious sentiments — a 
 fact as honorable to their principles, as it was singular in the age 
 in which they lived." — Hawes Trib., p. 48, 49. 
 
 In 1641, the Plymouth Colony passed an ordinance in these 
 words: "No injunction shall be put on any church, or church mem- 
 ber, as to doctrines, worship, or discipline, whether for substance or 
 circumstance, beside the command of the Bible." 
 
 It is the true glory of the Independents, that, " of all Christian 
 sects, it was the first which, during its prosperity as well as its ad- 
 versity, always adopted the principle of toleration." — Hume's His- 
 tory, Vol. VII. 
 
 Let us remember that our fathers endured the perils of the ocean, 
 of the wilderness, of famine and of savage warfare, for the sake of 
 having a place on which they might plant the churches of Christ; 
 that they fled to the wilderness to avoid persecution and to enjoy 
 freedom of conscience ; that their patent or charter did not secure 
 to them toleration in religion, and consequently, their own arm must 
 do it; and that they lived in an age when all men believed that the 
 
36 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 Hume acknowledges that when the light of 
 liberty had become nearly quenched in Europe, 
 they were the only people who cherished and pre- 
 
 sword of the magistrate might and ought to be used as a protection 
 to the Church of God. 
 
 M The infirm man," says Bancroft, " who is just recovering from 
 disease, shrinks from the light which is grateful to the eye of health, 
 and is chilled by the very air that gives new vigor to the strong. 
 The same is true of men in masses. An unnatural irritability fol- 
 lows a train of sufferings; the men who have just escaped from 
 persecutions for opinion's sake, shrink from contradiction as from 
 the approach of peril; and are quick to discover the seeds of danger 
 and the causes of alarm, where a healthier public feeling would have 
 observed the piogress of discussion with patience, or welcomed a 
 discovery of truth with approbation. There was perpetual reason 
 to dread an attack from the hierarchy of England; and the bulwark 
 of religious enthusiasm was made the defence of the colony. It 
 proved a sufficient defence; its energy in a community, where it 
 ruled without opposition, could never be shaken by threats, nor 
 cajoled by caresses, nor intimidated by the rewards of dependent 
 tribunals. 
 
 " To the colonists, the maintenance of their religious unity seemed 
 essential to their cordial resistance to English attempts at oppression. 
 'And why,' said they, 'should we not insist upon this union? We 
 have come to the outside of the world for the privilege of living by 
 ourselves; why should we open our asylum to those, in whom we 
 can repose no confidence? The world cannot call this persecution. 
 We have been banished to the wilderness; is it an injustice to ex- 
 clude our oppressors, and those whom we dread as their allies, from 
 the place which is to shelter us from their intolerance? Is it a great 
 cruelty to expel from our abode the enemies of our peace or even 
 the doubtful friend? Will any man complain at being driven from 
 among banished men, with whom he has no fellowship, of being 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 37 
 
 served the sacred flame, till its light again broke 
 out and caused millions to rejoice in it; and "that 
 it was to the Puritans that England owed the 
 whole freedom of their constitution." 
 
 refused admittance to a gloomy place of exile?' — The whole conti- 
 nent of America invited colonization; they claimed their own narrow 
 domains for " the brethren." Their religion was their life; they 
 welcomed none but its adherents; they could not tolerate the scoffer, 
 the infidel, or the dissenter; and the presence of the whole people 
 was required in their congregations." — Bancroft, Vol. J. 
 
 There are two cases concerning which our fathers have been 
 charged with persecution for religious opinions; viz: that of the 
 Quakers, and that of Roger Williams. 
 
 As it regards the Quakers, I remark, 
 
 1. That the first Quakers who came to this country, (1656,) were 
 two weak, fanatical women — one of whom, feeling herself divinely 
 inspired to rebuke the whole earth, went to Adrianople, delivered 
 her message to the Grand Sultan, and escaped with her life, because 
 the Turks " thought her crazed." 
 
 2. A ship which should attempt to enter a French harbor against 
 the order of the Health Commissioner, would be sunk by the fort, 
 though she might turn and go to any other part of the world. This 
 is not banishment. The magistrates of New England applied (with 
 mistaken views, undoubtedly) quarantine laws to the morals of their 
 community, and forbade those to obtain a residence who would destroy 
 these laws. But banishment is a term which cannot be applied to 
 those who had not, by any right whatever, obtained citizenship. 
 And when we speak of the Quakers having been banished, it is 
 altogether a misnomer. 
 
 3. The first Quakers who reached New England, came as the 
 open, avowed, bitter opposers and revilers of the laws, both civil 
 and ecclesiastical, of the colony; and for this, they were forbidden 
 to remain. 
 
38 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 "Several years before the American Revolution, 
 there was. near the house of Thomas Jefferson, in 
 Virginia, a church which was organized on Con- 
 
 4. When they first arrived, there Mere no laws against the 
 Quakers, and none were enacted, till they had exhausted the patience 
 of the magistrates; and it was not until these women had repeatedly 
 gone into assemblies met for public worship, totally naked, crying 
 out, " we are the naked truth," that these laws were enforced. 
 
 Laws were enacted by which the body was scourged and maimed 
 for crimes, which were common to all, whether Quakers or citizens; 
 but they were repealed before they were ever printed. 
 
 Quakers were punished with death to the number of four; but 
 not for religious opinions. It was a contest of the will between the 
 magistrate, and those who, at any hazard, defied civil laws. These 
 four suffered capitally, after their predecessors had first outraged all 
 the laws of decency and propriety; and had come to this country 
 knowing that they were coming in direct opposition to the laws of 
 the land, in an age in which Spain, probably, burned more persons 
 for heresy than Massachusetts then contained inhabitants, and in 
 which, under a single monarch, Netherlands burned, buried alive 
 and hanged over 150,000 persons for their religious belief. 
 
 5. The Quakers received no punishment from the rulers which 
 was not inflicted with equal severity and readiness upon their own 
 people, when they were guilty of the same crimes. That indecency, 
 folly, and stubbornness were punished far too severely, 1 have no 
 doubt; but it was these, and not religious opinions which were pre- 
 sented. 
 
 May not a single remark be a key to this whole subject? 
 
 Under Moses, religion and government were the same thing, and 
 he who sinned against either, was liable to punishment, So it was 
 with our Fathers. Their religious character so far predominated 
 over their civil, that we lose sight of them as a human government; 
 and both in their case, and in that of Moses, all that the arm of the 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 39 
 
 gregational principles, and whose monthly meet- 
 ings he often attended. Being asked how he was 
 pleased with their church government, he replied 
 
 civil migistrate did, has been looked upon as the doings of religion. 
 — See Bancroft, Vol. 1. 
 
 In regard to Roger Williams ; he was an extraordinary man ; of 
 commanding powers of mind, and whose success was such that, at 
 this distance, his decided and great defects are lost amid the brilliant 
 light which the historian has thrown around him. He had compre- 
 hensive views on the subject of human liberty; — he was before his 
 age ; but in many respects he was a wild, strong, self-willed man, 
 and one who felt above being subject to the powers that be. His 
 apologists say, " that the extraordinary development of one faculty 
 may sometimes injure the balance of the mind, just as the constant 
 exercise of one member of the body injures the beauty of its pro- 
 portions," and " that folly has a corner in the brain of every wise 
 man." It is certain among other things, that Williams publicly de- 
 nounced the magistrates for any laws or execution of laws by which 
 any of the first four commandments might be enforced ; that he con- 
 tended that human law might restrain men from sinning against men, 
 but not from sinning against God, even when those sins would ulti- 
 mately destroy human society ; that he denounced the government 
 for imposing an oath of allegiance to the colony, and that while he 
 was denouncing bigotry, he himself was so bigoted as to denounce 
 magistrates for imposing an oath on unconverted men, and as to 
 denounce all the churches of New England because they would not 
 discipline those who had been guilty of communing with Episcopa- 
 lians on the other side of the water. Not an individual in Salem, 
 not even his wife, was found, who felt that he was right in the con- 
 test. He was to have been sent out of the colony, but he banished 
 himself to Rhode Island. 
 
 If these men did not understand, to the full extent, the laws of 
 toleration, they are no more to be blamed for it, than for not under- 
 
40 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 that it had struck him with great force, and inte- 
 rested him very much; that he considered it the 
 only form of pure democracy that then existed in 
 
 standing the power of steam. They were, to say the least, a cen- 
 tury in advance of all other people. 
 
 But I have one thing more to say on this point, which I deem of 
 more importance than all I have said. 
 
 We say that the Puritans never persecuted for religious opinions ; 
 and we are told, " that they fled from persecution and came here, 
 and then did the same thing, viz: persecuted others !" 
 
 I reply, that the Puritans settled the colony at Plymouth in 1620. 
 This was the Colony of Puritans. 
 
 In 1630, the Massachusetts Colony was settled. These were 
 from England, and were composed of those " who had not seceded 
 from the established church" " That they had been chiefly born 
 and brought up in the national church, and had, until their emigra- 
 tion, lived in communion with her. Their ministers had been 
 ordained by her bishops, and had officiated in her parochial churches, 
 and had made no secession from her until after they left their native 
 country. But it seems that they did not relinquish the principles of 
 a national church, and of the power of the civil magistrate in matters 
 of faith and worship." 
 
 These two colonies had each a charter, government and cha- 
 racter, distinctly its own. 
 
 The Episcopo-Puritan Colony out-numbered the Colony at Ply- 
 mouth, and in 1643, for mutual defence against the Indians, the 
 two colonies were partially united; and in 1691 a complete and 
 permanent union took place. The Massachusetts colony made all 
 the obnoxious laws, and it was not until after this first union, (1643,) 
 that any laws or acts are found, which can be construed as looking 
 towards persecution. So that, while the Puritan character eventu- 
 ally prevailed and formed the character of New England, it is to 
 the excrescences which clung to the Massachusetts colony, and 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 41 
 
 the world, and that he had concluded that it 
 would be the best plan for the American colo- 
 nies."* 
 
 Having Christ for our head, our clergy all 
 equal, and dependent on their people, and their 
 interests bound up in those of the people, being 
 chosen by their people, and the laws of Christ exe- 
 cuted by the church herself, while we hold out 
 the hand of fellowship to all who love Christ, 
 we can have no communion with bigotry or in- 
 tolerance, and we cannot but hold with a martyr's 
 
 which were imported directly from the national Church of England, 
 that we owe all there is of odium now resting on the name of our 
 fathers. 
 
 It is remarkable, that while the great Sir Matthew Hale had given 
 directions for the detection of witches, while they were found in 
 abundance in England, in Scotland, and in the Massachusetts colony; 
 no laws or acts touching witches are found among the laws of the 
 Pilgrims; and the very few things they did against the Quakers, 
 (and they were trifling, and for violations of law,) were not done till 
 after the Massachusetts colony had moved them to it, and not till 
 long after the union of 1643. If the colony of Massachusetts had 
 been of the same stamp as were the real Puritans of Plymouth, I 
 verily believe the charge of persecution, or punishing for witchcraft, 
 had never been brought against them. The Puritans, the real 
 founders of this nation^ never persecuted for religious opinions. 
 
 See Farmer's Genealogical Register; George Bishop's "Xeic 
 England Judged;" and Deane's History of Scituate. 
 
 * Rev. B. B. Wisner. D. D., late of Boston. 
 6 
 
42 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 grasp to the great principles of civil and religious 
 liberty. 
 
 In this country our institutions are young, but 
 the world can no where else show such institu- 
 tions for education, for enlightened freedom, and 
 for intelligence, as were planted by our Puritan 
 fathers. 
 
 The Bible has been the great text-book of 
 civil and religious liberty in New England for 
 more than two centuries. 
 
 The Puritan is our father; and he was a won- 
 derful man. 
 
 He came to this country — not for trade, but for 
 religion and liberty. In less than eighty years, 
 more than thirty Indian churches were planted, 
 under as many native pastors. 
 
 "He that made religion as twelve, and the world 
 as thirteen, had not the spirit of a true New Eng- 
 land man." 
 
 While Europe was bound up in ceremonies, the 
 Puritan threw off all that looked like mummery; 
 he uncovered his head, and worshipped his God in 
 spirit; he bowed to no cross, he kissed no crucifix, 
 adored no saint, asked no man to pardon sins, and 
 paid no tithes. 
 
 To this very day, hardly a nation in Europe 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 43 
 
 has laws so mild, so humane, as those which the 
 Puritan at once made here. 
 
 With one dash of the pen, he struck a host of 
 crimes from the list of criminal offences. 
 
 His laws defended his family, his neighbor, and 
 the very brute creation from wrong. 
 
 The Puritan broke away from ecclesiastical 
 tyranny, and with a noble front, challenged any 
 thing to deter him from his love of freedom and 
 of religion. All that was imperfect and wrong in 
 his character, was no more than " a train of mists, 
 hovering, of an autumn morning, over the channel 
 of a fair river that diffused freshness and fertility 
 wherever it wound." 
 
 Within eight years of the time of his reaching 
 these shores, he planted a College, (the first of the 
 eleven which now bless his descendants,) w T hen 
 it could live only by levying a contribution of a 
 peck of corn from each family in all the colonies, 
 or its value in real, unadulterated wampum. He 
 planted schools free for all the people, when such 
 a thing was unknown on the face of the earth. 
 
 " Every child, as it was born into the world, was 
 lifted from earth by the genius of the country; and 
 in the statutes of the land, received, as its birth- 
 right, a pledge of care for its morals and its mind." 
 
 Scotland followed the example, and reared her 
 
44 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 glorious system of free schools, after this model : 
 but the first free schools, the glory of this land, 
 the life-blood of this nation, were planted by the 
 Puritan. 
 
 His descendants peopled New York and Ohio, 
 and there planted the system of free schools in all 
 its perfection. When Henry Brougham brought 
 forward his views on education in parliament, the 
 whole nation was electrified by his new principles; 
 but each and all of these new principles were fa- 
 miliar to every child educated east of the Hudson, 
 and have been, since the country was first settled.* 
 
 The principles which we now hold were his ; 
 for them, he counted no cost; his arm was iron, — 
 intelligence marked his way, "and as for courage, 
 a coward and a Puritan never went together." 
 
 The descendants of the Puritan are now more 
 than four millions, — more than one -third of all 
 who compose this nation. 
 
 The institutions which the Puritan planted, have 
 poured out successive generations of men, who 
 have been beautiful and glorious lights in the 
 
 * 11 It is said that in England, not more than one child in fifteen 
 possesses the means of being taught to read and write; in Wales, 
 one in twenty; in France, until lately, when some improvement has 
 been made, not more than one in thirty-five. In New England, 
 every child possesses such means." — Darnel Wdbsttt. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 45 
 
 Church of God; — stern and unbending civilians 
 in the halls of legislation and on the bench ; — and 
 men, who, in the field of battle, contending for 
 freedom, never knew how to turn their backs. 
 
 During the two centuries which have passed 
 away since he formed these institutions, dynasties 
 and kingdoms and thrones have been overturned, 
 and recalled, and again overturned, — new states 
 and kingdoms have been formed, and old kingdoms 
 have perished, but the laws and customs and insti- 
 tutions of the Puritan, in their spirit and glory, 
 remain unaltered. 
 
 If the Puritan had his absurdities, they "were 
 the shelter for the noble principles of liberty." 
 All that was outward and peculiar to him, " was 
 of transient duration; like the clay and the liga- 
 ments with which the graft is held in its place, 
 and which are brushed away as soon as the scion 
 is firmly united. " 
 
 We have always been taught to fear nobody but 
 God ; and our sons have been our inheritance, and 
 our glory for intelligence, for love of republican 
 institutions and freedom; and if the time ever 
 comes when tyranny shall seize the power in this 
 country, and make this nation slaves, the last v 
 necks that will bend, and the last spot where his 
 foot, red with blood, can stand, will be the spot 
 
46 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 where Congregationalism first breathed on these 
 shores. 
 
 "And can ye deem it strange 
 That from their planting such a branch should bloom 
 As nations envy? — Would a germ, embalmed 
 With prayer's pure tear-drops, strike no deeper root 
 Than that which mad ambition's hand doth strew 
 Upon the winds, to reap the winds again? 
 
 Oh! ye, who boast 
 In your free veins the blood of sires like these, 
 Lose not their lineaments! Should Mammon cling 
 Too close around your heart, or wealth beget 
 That bloated luxury which eats the core 
 From manly virtue — or the tempting world 
 Make faint the Christian purpose in your soul, 
 Turn ye to Plymouth's beach, and on that rock 
 Kneel in their foot-prints, and renew the vow 
 They breathed to God !" 
 
 But is there not a dark side to the picture? Is 
 not Congregationalism allied to Unitarianisin ? Or 
 rather, is not Unitarianism its legitimate child? 
 
 I reply, no, no. Unitarianism can boast of no 
 such parentage. 
 
 No churches on earth have ever maintained the 
 faith once delivered to the saints with more energy, 
 or made greater sacrifices to honor the Son even 
 as they honor the Father. 
 
 But is it not true that there are, perhaps, one 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 47 
 
 hundred and fifty churches, of Unitarians in New- 
 England? 
 
 I reply, yes ; and I can give you a short, simple, 
 and satisfactory reason for it.* 
 
 When the constitution of Massachusetts was 
 adopted, nearly fifty years ago, they made it a law, 
 that every citizen should pay taxes, and belong to 
 some religious society for the support of religion. 
 
 He might select his own religion, but he was 
 compelled by law, to support religion of some 
 name or other. 
 
 This law was made, the good, honest, religious 
 people, knowing that religion was the best thing 
 in the world, and thinking that every body ought 
 to bear his share of the expense 5 and the wicked, 
 wiser in their generation than the children of 
 light, well knowing what would be the result. 
 
 The law became a part of the constitution of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 What was the result? Why, all were a tax- 
 paying, church-going people. 
 
 *It is not pretended that the circumstances here specified were the 
 sole cause of the introduction of Unitarianism into New England. 
 It was only one of the causes, and one which is tangible and can be 
 seen by any one. Whoever would see the whole series of causes 
 assigned, will find the subject ably discussed in the columns of the 
 Spirit of the Pilgrims. 
 
48 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 But that part of the community who here and 
 elsewhere, spend the Sabbath at home, or in riding 
 out for pleasure, and who have nothing to do with 
 religion, there said, if we must support religion 
 and have the forms of religion, we will have that 
 religion and those forms which will not disturb 
 the conscience, or alarm the community. 
 
 Unitarianism was precisely adapted to do this, 
 and to meet the exigency; and it was thus created 
 by human law. 
 
 The political caucus was its father, and mis- 
 taken zeal was its mother. 
 
 Now make a law here, reaching and compelling 
 every citizen to belong to some religious society, 
 and to worship God somewhere, and I do not say 
 that you will have error in the shape of Unitarian- 
 ism, but you will have it in abundance in some 
 shape or other. 
 
 Let the strong hand of law drive all men into 
 churches, and compel them to support some kind 
 of religion, and they will, of course, have a kind 
 which has nothing of the power of the Gospel in 
 it; and no form of church government is strong 
 enough, nor did God ever intend it should be 
 strong enough, to take the mass of society thus col- 
 lected, and driven into the churches, and make 
 it receive a pure faith and a sound creed. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 49 
 
 These peculiar circumstances created our Uni- 
 tarian churches; circumstances which Congrega- 
 tionalism could not control, and which can never 
 occur again. 
 
 This peculiar law is now abrogated; and its re- 
 peal was the death -knell of Unitarianism in the land 
 of the Pilgrims; for, in that land, however errors 
 may come in like a flood, and for a time threaten 
 to destroy the inheritance of our fathers, there is 
 so much intelligence, virtue and religion, that the 
 clouds will pass over, and the inheritance still be 
 seen, fair and beautiful as ever. 
 
 You may look at that land and see it, an island 
 almost level with the waters which bathe it. 
 
 On the pure white marble of the island are 
 engraved the holy precepts of the law of God. 
 
 Near these characters is One who bends his 
 eyes respectfully on the inscription and continu- 
 ally reads it aloud. 
 
 He is the Genius of the Puritan; now and then 
 the waters around become agitated. 
 
 The winds raise them into billows: they roll 
 over and they cover the inscription. 
 
 We no longer see the holy characters, and, for a 
 time, we no longer hear the Genius read. 
 
 But the calm soon rises from the bosom of the 
 
 storm. 
 7 
 
50 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 The island re-appears white as before, and the 
 Genius resumes his employment. 
 
 If what I have said be correct, you ought to 
 expect the descendants of the Pilgrims to be ac- 
 tive and foremost, not only in creating light and 
 intelligence, and the love of freedom, but also in 
 extending the knowledge of God through the 
 earth. 
 
 And is it not so? 
 
 Of the twelve evangelical denominations in this 
 country, the Calvin istic Baptists are by far the 
 largest, embracing more than one third of the 
 ministers, and one third of the churches in the 
 land. Their mode of government is strictly Con- 
 gregational. 
 
 But including these, our own denomination, 
 if denomination it can be called, numbers more 
 than one twelfth of all the churches and ministers 
 in the land. 
 
 And what have we done? 
 
 Our history is before the world. It is known 
 and read of all men. 
 
 The son of the Puritan — a mere boy, prayed the 
 missionary spirit into existence — which has since 
 taken so deep hold of the churches of our country, 
 and called forth such a host of soldiers of the cross 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 51 
 
 of different denominations, — who have gone forth 
 to live and labor and die for Christ. 
 
 It was the children of the Pilgrims who first 
 met and prayed, and then put into operation that 
 system by which the choicest sons of the church 
 are trained up and fitted to go forth into the vine- 
 yard of God. 
 
 They first heard the wail of the starving in the 
 wilderness of the West, and sent them bread for 
 years, before any body else knew that they were 
 starving. 
 
 The fact that we have no great and powerful 
 ecclesiastical combination is often adduced as evi- 
 dence of the weakness of our system of church 
 government. 
 
 It ought to be adduced as evidence of our 
 strength — not needing to be upheld by any com- 
 bination. 
 
 But we have no such combination; and I can 
 tell you why. Because, 
 
 In the first place, Christ never organized any 
 such combinations. 
 
 Whatever may be their wisdom or their useful- 
 ness, the credit all belongs to men. 
 
 Secondly, The history of all ecclesiastical com- 
 binations is too melancholy to cause us to wish for 
 one. 
 
52 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 What is this history? Simply this : 
 
 Almost all, if not all ecclesiastical combinations 
 originated with good men; and were created with 
 the hope and expectation that they would be in- 
 struments of doing great good, — adding strength to 
 the church, so that the world could see and feel that 
 she had some arm to sustain her besides the arm 
 of God. They strongly resembled the heathen 
 poets, who first declared their hero to be so pro- 
 tected by the gods, that he is invulnerable; and then, 
 loaded him with human armor. 
 
 In the process of time, it has been found, that to 
 manage the machinery, called men of a restless, 
 ambitious spirit into action. 
 
 The power of managing and of governing was 
 felt, and the machinery became the thing on 
 which the ambitious and the restless rode into 
 notice. 
 
 But as all the ambitious could not thus get into 
 notice and power, the combination has been used 
 as the arena on which they have contended for 
 power and place. 
 
 The curtains of the tabernacle have been rent, 
 that the combatants might wrap themselves up in 
 their shreds, and the staves of the ark of God have 
 been seized, by which it might be decided who 
 should bear the ark. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 53 
 
 The next result seen is, that all ecclesiastical 
 combinations want piety enough to keep down the 
 ambitious, and to keep from quarrelling. 
 
 They have quarrelled, and do, and will; and 
 to prevent it, they must at once ask the law and 
 the sword of State to take them, and hold them 
 together, and fight for them, as the Church of 
 England has done; or, they must separate, and 
 break into fragments. 
 
 But this is not all. 
 
 As there is not piety enough to keep together, 
 so there is not enough to separate peaceably. 
 
 They must go to the world, to worldly men to 
 aid them, by opinions, or by the law-book; and 
 finally, they must ask the aid of the world in the 
 shape of law, to come in and separate them.* 
 
 This is the simple history of all ecclesiastical 
 combinations, and this, we fear, must ever be their 
 
 * This may be thought severe. I know that it is not said with an 
 unkind spirit; but the likeness will at once be recognized by those 
 who have read the controversies in the Romish Church, the discus- 
 sions of the Quakers, which resulted in a great law case, or the dis- 
 cussion of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, passim. 
 If, however, it be thought severe language, a very short examination 
 will satisfy any one, that it is mildness itself, in comparison with 
 that which the partizans of almost any ecclesiastical combination use 
 towards each other every week; and, of course, such will not com- 
 plain. 
 
54 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 history and result, and it is for these reasons that 
 we have none, and can submit to none. 
 
 At the same time you will see, that while we 
 cannot and will not jeopardize our peace, and 
 sacrifice our liberty, and give our strength to hold 
 up a great religious combination, we have no 
 desire to control others. 
 
 The spirit of proselytism never has been, and 
 never can be, ours. 
 
 We proclaim our principles clearly, simply, 
 fully and practically; and if any feel that they 
 need more government and more law, they can 
 always find them, and we have no possible objec- 
 tions. 
 
 You see too, from what are our principles, that 
 we can work and co-operate with any body and 
 every body, who love our Lord Jesus Christ in 
 sincerity. 
 
 As evidence of this, let me say that the little 
 State of Connecticut has planted over four hun- 
 dred churches in the West, and New England 
 over fifteen hundred churches at the West; — that 
 for the last forty years, New England has given, 
 on an average, full $50,000 annually, to build up 
 the Institutions of the West; that at one time I 
 knew of between twenty and thirty agents from 
 the West soliciting contributions in New England; 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 55 
 
 and that our churches did all this, and poured all 
 this tide and strength into the Presbyterian 
 church, just as freely as if they had been Congre- 
 gational churches; and in feeling, in spirit, and in 
 bestowing, our churches at the East, have never 
 made any distinction between churches that were 
 Presbyterian and those which were Congregational. 
 
 Our aim is to aid our fellow Christians to con- 
 vert the world to holiness, and our motto is, "none 
 of us liveth unto himself." 
 
 We know that a church, or any number of 
 churches, may draw a fence around themselves, 
 and love and cherish themselves, and build up 
 themselves, and be charitable towards themselves, 
 and make all their plans and charities centre upon 
 themselves: — and how many such churches would 
 it take to convert the world to God ? 
 
 How long before there would be heard loud 
 voices in heaven saying, "Hallelujah, for the Lord 
 God omnipotent reigneth, and the kingdoms of 
 this world have become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for 
 ever and ever?" 
 
 Why, you might gather as many such churches 
 as you please, and build them up, and let them 
 live unto themselves, and strengthen themselves, 
 and they would do no more in the great warfare 
 
56 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 upon the powers of darkness, and for the salvation 
 of the earth, than so many small, isolated forts — 
 each of which was taking care of itself — would 
 do towards conquering an army of light-horsemen! 
 
 One prominent feature in the church which is 
 to worship within these walls, I do trust under 
 God, is to he that of universal henevolence — not 
 living unto itself. 
 
 The ohject at which we aim, is not selfish ; it 
 is high, and broad, and vast. 
 
 We no more live for this church and build up 
 for this church, than we have reared this house 
 for the few little ornaments which are put on the 
 pulpit. 
 
 Our object looks beyond such petty distinctions 
 as that of party and sect, and the narrowness of 
 prejudices — it is to exist for God. 
 
 We claim nothing of that liberality which 
 covers up error or scepticism, or buries up the 
 great doctrines of the Bible, or strips the cross of 
 its glory, and the Son of God of his crown ; but 
 we do claim that liberality which never allows 
 the energies of the Christian character to be pal- 
 sied by prejudice, nor the everlasting claims of 
 the Gospel to be urged as a means of strengthening 
 bigotry. 
 
 We will never, knowingly, countenance wrath, 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 57 
 
 or bitterness, or collusion of any kind by which 
 to propagate, or sustain our creed. 
 
 Those who differ from us, shall, unmolested by 
 us, serve God in their own way, and we will 
 allow them all the virtue which they possess. 
 
 We call that man brother, who carries the image 
 of Christ; he shall come with us to the common 
 table of Jesus, and we will give him the hand warm 
 for every good work; we will join in any plan of 
 doing good, and the only rivalship he shall find in 
 us, shall be that of self-denying labor, holy de- 
 votedness, and an earnest desire to carry the 
 standard of the cross far into the ranks of the 
 wicked one. 
 
 And when we fall in battle, we will call him 
 the most glorious warrior, who hath, without noise 
 and strife, carried the standard of truth and 
 righteousness the farthest towards the heart of 
 sin's dominion. 
 
 Is not this the spirit of the Gospel? 
 
 That hand, which every morning lifts up the 
 curtains of night, pours his light upon all. 
 
 That creating One, whose eyes run to and fro 
 through all the earth, watches and ministers to 
 the smallest creature that lives, and to the most 
 forlorn human being that breathes. 
 
 The blood which flowed so freely on Calvary, 
 S 
 
58 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 is for all people and kindreds, and tongues and 
 nations; for the infant of a day. and for the old 
 sinner trembling over the grave. 
 
 He who does not feel that he can press to his 
 bosom all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, "the 
 true God and eternal life," is a stranger to some 
 of the sweetest streams which flow from the hill 
 of Zion. 
 
 We trust that the great object for which this 
 church has come into existence, is the glory of 
 God; to see how much she can do, in the shortest 
 time, for the salvation of men. 
 
 Sacrifices she must make; trials she must meet; 
 but if she may grow up pure, active, devoted, pos- 
 sessing the spirit of Christ, which is the very 
 spirit of missions, she need ask for no reward, 
 save what arises from doing good, and the appro- 
 bation of the Great Master. 
 
 We do hope that as long as these walls stand, 
 the Gospel will here be proclaimed faithfully, 
 simply, and purely; that this church will possess 
 the elasticity and vigor of youth, with the maturity 
 of age — not living for herself, but for God. 
 
 We hope that the altar which we rear here, 
 will be that on which we shall consecrate our sons 
 and our daughters to Christ, — devoting them in 
 the everlasting covenant of love, — and training 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 59 
 
 them up to carry the tidings of everlasting love to 
 the dark places of the earth, now full of the habi- 
 tations of cruelty. 
 
 We hope to raise up men — benefactors to im- 
 mortal souls — men who, with an eye bright with 
 faith, with a soul enlarged, generous, pure, quick- 
 ened by the Spirit of God, burning with love, 
 shall live unto him who bought his church with 
 his own blood ! 
 
 Brethren, we hope this will be the birth-place 
 of many souls — the spot over which the wings of 
 everlasting mercy will be spread — hallowed by 
 the presence of the great Redeemer — made sacred 
 by the constant visitations of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 We, who have reared these walls, — who have 
 watched their progress — whose hopes have been 
 gathering here — who have come together to con- 
 secrate this house to God, — shall soon be gone — 
 beyond the boundaries of time. 
 
 We hope these walls will be standing and this 
 house filled with worshipers when we are gone — 
 when we are forgotten on earth ! 
 
 I need not say that this house has not been 
 erected without great care, expense, and many 
 fears; and I hope it has not been done without 
 much prayer. 
 
 Those who have reared it cannot long enjoy it; 
 
60 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 but if wise, they will soon enter a temple more 
 beautiful than this, more lasting, more pure. 
 
 Sin has already defiled this; that shall never be 
 polluted ! 
 
 Oh! the ways in which God hath led us! 
 
 I cannot forget, that within the short period of 
 a little more than ten years, during which I have 
 been a minister, this is the third time I have met 
 and rejoiced with my young flocks, as we gathered 
 around the newly-erected altar of God — to conse- 
 crate it to the God of Redemption, Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost. 
 
 The finger of God wrote salvation on the walls 
 of those churches. 
 
 Oh, flocks ! led by my inexperienced youth, kind 
 to forgive my many imperfections — ready to sus- 
 tain me by your confidence and love — Oh, flocks! 
 dear to my memory as the apple of the eye, may 
 peace rest upon you, and a light from your altars, 
 pure and bright, and beautiful, go up and spread 
 wide over the sweet hills and valleys which sur- 
 round you!* 
 
 * The speaker was Pastor of The Union Church in Groton, 
 Mass., for six years, and of The Edwards Church in Northamp- 
 ton, Mass., three years. In neither place did he ever receive an 
 unkind act or word from any member of his charge; and in each, 
 hi3 situation was as delightful as can be enjoyed in this imperfect 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. Gl 
 
 But this house! this heautiful house — towards 
 it the eyes of many have been turned — to it, the 
 sympathies of many have been gathered. 
 
 We pray that it may be the spot where many 
 shall be fitted for the Temple of God in the Hea- 
 vens. 
 
 It may be consumed by fires — it may be per- 
 verted and cursed, and become a beautiful sepul- 
 chre for souls — a splendid gate-way to hell. 
 
 We cannot keep it — we cannot be here to guard 
 it, we can only commend it to God. 
 
 Oh ! the time will soon be here, when the angel 
 on the wing with the trumpet of the resurrection, 
 shall awake the dead, small and great, to stand 
 before God in judgment: — then will the effects of 
 this church, on the everlasting destiny of men, be 
 revealed ! then our motives will all be laid naked. 
 
 My dear brethren, in the hopes of doing good to 
 the souls of men — of honoring the blessed Re- 
 deemer, we have associated together as a Church 
 of Christ — we have erected this building — we 
 have come together this evening to consecrate it to 
 God. 
 
 You have come together to renew the dedica- 
 tion of yourselves, of your children, and to give 
 
 state. Both of these beloved churches are now walking " in the 
 truth and are edified." 
 
62 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 this building, the fruit of your toil and anxieties, 
 to Him. 
 
 If there be envy, wrath, strife, or pride in your 
 hearts, put it away, empty the bosom of sin. 
 
 Put off your shoes — for the ground on which 
 we stand is holy. 
 
 These spectators and friends, this assembled 
 multitude, are not all that are here, who have 
 come to see us give this house away to God ! 
 
 A great cloud of witnesses are above us; the 
 angel of the bush is here ; the spirits of just men 
 made perfect are here ; angels of light, with faces 
 covered by their wings, are here ; and here, look- 
 ing down into this assembly, is the Lord of glory. 
 
 The cloud and the glory hang over us; we are 
 in the immediate presence of the great God. 
 
 King Immortal, invisible, only wise God! the 
 heavens and the earth are thine, by creation and 
 preservation. 
 
 Dwelling m the heavens, surrounded by ten 
 thousand times ten thousand holy beings, thou 
 needest not earthly temples, but we need them; 
 and for thine acceptance, we bring thee this temple. 
 
 Saviour of sinners ! once abased even to the 
 death of the cross to redeem sinners, now exalted 
 at the right hand of God, " head over all things to 
 the church," to thee we bring this temple. 
 
OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 63 
 
 Spirit of God ! — emblem of peace — author of 
 sanctification — to thee we bring it. 
 
 To the one God in whose name we are bap- 
 tized, the God of Redemption, Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost, we now solemnly dedicate this Pul- 
 pit; may it ever be the fountain from which 
 the pure waters of life shall abundantly flow; 
 this altar of communion, may it be the place 
 where, for generations to come, the Savior w\ll 
 meet and bless, and forgive his people ; these 
 seats, these galleries, that orchestra, that 
 study, that room of prayer, that room for the 
 lambs of the flock, that lecture room, these 
 walls, this whole building — 
 
 — We dedicate this beautiful edifice, from the 
 foundation stone to its top, to the honor and wor- 
 ship of the triune God, to the inculcation of those 
 great, glorious, free truths which the Apostles 
 preached, and which to those who first planted 
 the Churches of God on these shores, were dearer 
 than life ! 
 
 God of the spirits of all flesh — Savior of sin- 
 ners — Spirit of holiness, to thee — to thee — to thee 
 we consecrate it! 
 
 Thou Dweller between the cherubims ! shine 
 forth! shine forth in thy majesty, beauty and glory! 
 
 Here let us, let our children, and our children's 
 
64 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 
 
 children, to the latest posterity, come and be guided 
 to eternal life. 
 
 Oh! Savior of men! here let thy blood be ap- 
 plied to the conscience, till multitudes are prepared 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 
 Do re of heaven! here let thy wings be ever 
 spread: and let the worshipper here ever rejoice 
 under their shadow. 
 
 God of redeeming love! here may thy church 
 see thy glory, feel thy power, taste thy love, com- 
 mune with thyself : here may she dedicate herself 
 and her children to thee, and here ever wear the 
 garments of salvation: — and 
 
 Oh! when our heads shall rest in the grave — 
 when others have found thee and praised thee in 
 these courts, and have followed us to the land of 
 silence — when these walls shall crumble and be 
 no more — when the very ground on which they 
 rest shall have been melted in the fires of the last 
 great day — may we, and a multitude too big for 
 numbering, who have been redeemed and sanctified 
 here, meet in thy presence, and at thy feet cast 
 our crowns, and forever cry, ; * thou art worthy." 
 
 " And let all the people say, Amen." 
 
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 On the 15th of February, 1836, seven young men, all na- 
 tives of Pennsylvania, met at a private house to deliberate on 
 the expediency of forming a small association for the support 
 of public worship. They unanimously resolved to form such 
 an association. 
 
 Within a few days, a room, corner of Eighth and Chesnut 
 streets, known as " Union Hall," was provided, and pleasantly 
 fitted up for the accommodation of about three hundred hearers. 
 
 Public worship was at once commenced, the Rev. Samuel 
 Washburn, now of Greenfield, Massachusetts, occupying the 
 pulpit. Independently of the Sabbath School, which, with its 
 teachers, numbered about 85, the audience, on the first day, 
 was about fifty. 
 
 On the 5th of May, 1836, after much prayer and consulta- 
 tion, it was unanimously resolved, "that a Congregational 
 Church be formed as soon as practicable." The number of 
 hearers was now weekly increasing. 
 
 A committee consisting of Messrs. Washburn, Denman, 
 Thompson and Charnley, immediately went to New York to 
 consult with such Congregational ministers as might be present 
 at the anniversaries, and "whose reputation for sound judgment 
 and evangelical piety, is high through the churches," and these 
 ministers, "without a single exception, gave their hearty ap- 
 proval of the object in raising up, under God, a Congregational 
 Church in this place, and pledged to the enterprize their co- 
 operation and prayers." 
 
 On the 7th of June, 1836, an ecclesiastical council convened 
 at Union Hall, lo take into consideration and act upon the 
 request of certain brethren who were desirous of being organ- 
 ized into a Congregational Church. 
 
4 
 
 This Council consisted of 
 
 Rev. Joab Brace, Newington, Connecticut, Pastor. 
 Dea. Levi Deming, do. do. Delegate. 
 
 Rev. John Todd, Edwards Church, Northampton, Mass. 
 Dea. James Hibben, do. do. Delegate. 
 
 Rev. Samuel M. Worcester, Tabernacle Church, Salem, 
 Mass. 
 
 Dea. Samuel H. Archer, do. do. Delegate. 
 
 Rev. Morris E. White, Southampton, Mass. 
 
 The council was organized by choosing the Rev. Mr. Brace 
 Moderator, and the Rev. Mr. White, Scribe, and opened with 
 prayer by the Moderator. 
 
 The Articles of Faith, the Covenant, and the Rules of Dis- 
 cipline were submitted to the council, examined, and with slight 
 modifications, approved. It was then voted unanimously that 
 this council proceed to organize these brethren into a Congre- 
 gational Church, to be called "The First Congregational 
 Church of Philadelphia." 
 
 On the evening of June 7th, 1836, the services of organiza- 
 tion took place, in the church in Arch street, above Tenth, 
 which had kindly been tendered for that purpose. The audi- 
 ence was very large and attentive. The services were per- 
 formed as follows: 
 
 Introductory prayer by the Rev. Mr. White. Sermon by 
 Rev. Mr. Todd, from 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2. Articles of faith and 
 covenant were read to those about to be organized into a 
 church, by Rev. Mr. Todd. Fellowship of the churches by 
 Rev. Mr. Brace. Constituting prayer by Mr. Brace, and an 
 Address to the church by Rev. Mr. Worcester. 
 
 The occasion was one of deep interest, and will long be 
 remembered by the twenty six individuals who were thus 
 constituted a Church of Jesus Christ, and hardly less long, by 
 the great audience who were present. 
 
 At a meeting of the church, June 11th, 1836, after a full 
 and free interchange of opinion on the question, "Is this 
 church prepared to go into the election of a Pastor?" it was 
 voted unanimously in the affirmative. 
 
 The vote being taken, the Rev. John Todd, of North- 
 
5 
 
 ampton, Massachusetts, was unanimously elected to be the 
 Pastor, and a Committee was appointed to present the call. 
 
 A Committee was raised, July 21, 1836, called "the building 
 committee," to make all necessary arrangements for the erec- 
 tion of a house of worship. 
 
 The Building Committee consisted of Thomas Elmes, M. B. 
 Denman, D. W. Prescott, Isaac Thompson, W. S. Charnley, 
 H. D. Harvey, and S. Martin. 
 
 The committee soon procured a lot as a building-site, on the 
 corner of Tenth and Clinton streets, 115 feet in front, and 100 
 deep, at a cost of $15,500. 
 
 At a meeting of the church, July 30, 1S36, the committee 
 reported the following letter from the pastor elect, and which 
 is inserted because it exhibits the feelings and motives of the 
 parties concerned. 
 
 "To the First Congregational Church and Society through 
 their Committee. 
 
 "Dear Brethren and Friends: — A communication from your 
 committee, dated June 12th, 1S36, informed me that you had 
 unanimously elected me to be your Pastor and Teacher. 
 You will be pleased to receive my grateful acknowledgments 
 for this token of your confidence and respect. The interest 
 which I felt in you before receiving this unexpected applica- 
 tion, was deep; but since then it has been too deep and too 
 painful for description. 
 
 "You ask a hard thing of me, my dear friends. You ask me 
 to tear myself away from the embraces of a most affectionate, 
 united, and growing people, who gave me their first love. 
 You ask me to leave my home at any sacrifice — to take my 
 family away among strangers — to sunder all the ties which 
 bind me to the natural and moral loveliness of the land, where 
 the ashes of my fathers, and of my own first-born sleep — to 
 commit my character, the happiness of my family, all I have 
 and can have, to you — to go with you into an enterprise which 
 is neither popular nor certain of success. Yes, you ask me to 
 make as great sacrifices as I can make, at the call of man. 
 
 "I have looked calmly at the subject, and viewed it on all its 
 sides, and I frankly own to you I have tried hard to reconcile 
 
6 
 
 my conscience to my feelings, and to say to you, brethren, / 
 cannot come. You cannot and ought not to ask me to come, 
 situated as I am. But after weeping over it, and praying 
 over it, I have not dared to say so. 
 
 "I do, therefore, now, with much trembling and great 
 heaviness of heart, accept of your kind invitation, and do 
 give myself away to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 "You are strangers to me, dear friends, and cannot know the 
 cost of this offering to you. 1 now commit my character as a 
 minister of the Gospel, and my happiness, it may be for this 
 life, to you. I commit the happiness of the wife of my bosom 
 to you, and to you I commit my babes, hoping and trusting 
 that you will aid me in rearing them up for heaven. To you 
 I make this committal freely, fully, unreservedly. 
 
 "You doubtless understand that I am to look to you to be- 
 come a church and a people, united, active, humble, devoted, 
 and ready for every good word and work. I shall not come 
 to you as a partizan, or a sectarian; nor do I expect you to 
 become a sectarian church. 
 
 "Nothing can be more abhorrent to my feelings than a nar- 
 row, bigoted, jealous spirit. I shall throw no unholy enclosures 
 around the church of which I am pastor; nor shall 1 try to 
 break through the enclosures which others may see fit to erect 
 around their altars. The great object for which I shall labor, 
 and at which I shall ask you to aim, is to bring the most 
 minds under the full power of the Gospel in the least possi- 
 ble time. In other words, to do most for the salvation of men 
 while we live. 
 
 "We cannot know what is before us; trials I know there are. 
 I may be called to see you walk under thick clouds, and to 
 wade in deep waters. I may be called to stand by your dying 
 bed, and watch your undying spirit as she goes into eternity. 
 But whatever may be before us, I pray God to prepare us, and 
 sustain us. 
 
 "You will be called to make great sacrifices, but for this I 
 trust you are prepared, and from it will not shrink. 'Tis on this 
 very principle that I leave a people, dear as the apple of the 
 eye, and come to you. Brethren, you will find me a poor, 
 
7 
 
 frail, sinful man, having a thousand imperfections to be over- 
 looked, and many weaknesses to be forgotten. I shall need 
 your co-operation, your sympathy, your warm love and ardent 
 prayers. I feel that I shall have your confidence, your respect 
 and I trust, your love. 
 
 "I shall hope to be with you as early in October, as the state 
 of my family will allow. Let me have your prayers daily, 
 that I may come to you in the fulness of the blessings of the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 "In the bonds of Christian love, 
 
 u Yours, dear brethren, 
 (Signed) "J. TODD. 
 
 " Northampton, Mass., July 5th, 1836." 
 
 On the 18th of August, the corner stone of the new church 
 edifice was laid with prayer, appropriate music, remarks by the 
 Rev. Dr. Blackburn of Illinois, and an address by the Rev. 
 Mr. Todd, pastor elect. 
 
 An ecclesiastical council was convened at Union Hall, 
 November 16, 1836, for the purpose of Installing the pastor. 
 It consisted of 
 
 Rev. John Brown, D. D. of Hadley, Massachusetts. 
 
 Bro. Dudley Smith, do do Delegate. 
 
 Rev. Joab Brace, Nevvington, Connecticut. 
 
 Bro. Jeremiah Seymour, do do Delegate. 
 
 Rev. Samuel N. Shepard, Madison, Connecticut. 
 
 Dea. Benjamin Hart, do do Delegate. 
 
 Rev. E. L. Cleaveland, New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 Bro. Charles Atwater, do do Delegate. 
 
 Rev. Edwin Hall, Norwalk, Connecticut. 
 
 Dea. William Weeks, do do Delegate. 
 
 Rev. Thos. T. Waterman, Providence, R. I. 
 
 Rev. M. E. White, Southampton, Massachusetts. 
 
 The council was organized by choosing the Rev. Joab Brace 
 Moderator, Rev. M. E. White, and Rev. E. L. Cleaveland, 
 Scribes. 
 
 After prayer by the Moderator, documents were laid before 
 the council, relative to the Christian and ministerial character 
 of the Rev. John Todd, the proceedings of the church and 
 
8 
 
 society in calling him to become their pastor, and also his an- 
 swer to the call. 
 
 Whereupon the council voted that the papers were all 
 regular and satisfactory. 
 
 The candidate was then publicly examined as to his doctrinal 
 views, Christian experience, motives for entering the ministry 
 and qualifications for the work. 
 
 Voted, that this examination be satisfactory, and that this 
 council are prepared to instal the pastor elect. 
 
 On the evening of November 17th, 1837, the services of 
 installation took place in the first Presbyterian Church, which 
 was kindly and generously placed at our service, in the pre- 
 sence of a large and intelligent audience. 
 
 Exercises as follows: 
 
 Introductory prayer, by Rev. Mr. White. 
 
 Sermon, by Rev. Dr. Brown, from 1st. Tim. vi. 11, 12. 
 
 Installing prayer, Rev. S. N. Shepard. 
 
 Charge to the Pastor, Rev. J. Brace. 
 
 Right hand of fellowship, Rev. T. T. Waterman. 
 
 Addresses to the people, Rev. Edwin Hall. 
 
 Concluding prayer, Rev. E. JL. Cleaveland. 
 
 Benediction, the Pastor. 
 
 After the installation of the pastor, the church continued to 
 worship as before, in Union Hall, the church, the congregation 
 and the Sabbath school, steadily and constantly increasing, till 
 April 2d, 1837, when they removed to the basement story of 
 the new house of worship, seven months after the corner stone 
 was laid. At this time we numbered about one hundred 
 children in the Sabbath school. 
 
 Thursday, the 9th of November, was spent as a day of fasting 
 and prayer, preparatory to the dedication of the new church; 
 a day of solemn and deep interest. 
 
 The house was solemnly dedicated to Almighty God, Father, 
 Son and Holy Ghost, on the evening of November 11, 1837. 
 
 We cannot better describe the occasion, and the house which 
 God has permitted a few to erect to his name, than by insert- 
 ing the account which was written at the time, by the Rev. Mr. 
 Brace. 
 
9 
 
 " The house of the first Congregational Church in Philadel- 
 phia, was dedicated on Saturday evening, November 11th, I 
 enjoyed, in the service and occasion, a high Christian entertain- 
 ment; and I wish to communicate something of the pleasure to 
 all the friends of the general and holy church of the living God. 
 Invocation of the God of salvation was the first thought uttered; 
 and it seemed to be followed by the presence of Christ and the 
 power of the divine spirit, during the whole solemnity. The 
 Selection of scripture was read, and the dedicatory prayer of- 
 fered by the Rev. J. Brace, of Connecticut. 
 
 The sermon was by the Rev. John Todd, pastor of the church, 
 on the Principles and Results of Congregationalism. The 
 preacher was plain, explicit and honest, in the statement of his 
 views; and while, with a manly boldness, he testified his full 
 satisfaction in the system of the Puritan, he was entirely free from 
 party spirit. He made no attack upon any class of Christian 
 professors — but he brought clearly to view, the instructions of 
 the bible upon Christian doctrine and church government, as 
 applicable to all churches under the light of the Gospel. His 
 definition of the church was this; %dn assembly of creatures 
 united in the worship of God, according to his express will; 
 — showing that the church of God commenced, the first mo- 
 ment rational beings were created. As to forms of church 
 government, he declared that he found no specific constitution 
 in the holy scriptures; and he assured us that he should have 
 no controversy with any denomination governed by the general 
 principles of the Bible. The spirit of the sermon, so frank, so 
 candid, and evangelical, poured through my mind the pleasure 
 and solemnity of the consciousness of being in the house of 
 God, and at the gate of heaven. The preacher was not em- 
 ployed in uttering the dogmas of a sect, nor in manifesting the 
 zeal of a controvertist — but as a ' workman that needeth not to 
 be ashamed' — he stood as the messenger of God filled and im- 
 pressed with the supreme design of glorifying the Lord Jesus 
 in the salvation of souls; and he so fully taught the doctrine 
 and spirit of Christ, as might have led every one of us to 
 eternal life. The sermon by the unanimous wish of his people 
 is to be published. 
 10 
 
10 
 
 The music, by an organ of the first power, and a full choir, 
 was grand and sublime; selected and prepared with great atten- 
 tion, for an extraordinary occasion, under the instruction of Mr. 
 George Kingsley, the organist, and filled my soul with antici- 
 pations of the everlasting song. The house is large. It was 
 filled to overflowing — two thousand, at the least. From the 
 entire order and respectful attention of the vast assembly, for 
 more than three hours, I judge that the feelings which 1 have 
 described, were correspondent with the sentiments of the whole 
 congregation. 
 
 The house itself I did admire beyond my power of describ- 
 ing — for the ingenuity and skill of the architect, T. U. Walter, 
 Esq. (the architect of Girard College,) as seen in the entire pro- 
 portion of the building — for the neatness and elegance of the 
 various execution, without and within — and for the enlarged 
 and comprehensive views of Christian liberality, in the congre- 
 gation which has erected such a temple for the honor of the 
 great Redeemer.* The contemplation of it swelled my mind 
 with unutterable emotions of reverence and delight, for the 
 honor of the people upon the house of God, and for the pro- 
 portionally higher honor of the soul unto the God of the house. 
 It is a noble edifice, dedicated to the service of Almighty God 
 — one of the most chaste and beautiful churches, in this or any 
 other city. It stands in an open place, corner of Tenth and Clin- 
 ton streets, and is secure against the close confinement of other 
 buildings, a great attraction in a high walled city. It is sur- 
 rounded by a fence of iron, enclosing a green and beautiful yard 
 on each side of the house. The foundations are 71 h feet in 
 front, and 102 feet deep. The house rests on a massive rusti- 
 cated basement, of 12 feet in height. Upon this basement the 
 walls rise 30 feet. The large windows extending from top to 
 bottom, set in their niches, and shaded with green — the broad 
 deep panels on the sides, with the projections and cornices in 
 front, and massy foundations for the tower — all finished with a 
 granite cement — together present a figure that fills the eye and 
 
 * It was erected under the personal superintendence of Mr. John Northrop, 
 Jun., and can hardly be exceeded for its stability and beauty. No ardent spirit 
 was used, nor was an oath heard, during its erection. 
 
11 
 
 holds the attention of the observer. The basement is divided in- 
 to a Lecture room, Sabbath school room, Committee room, and 
 Pastor's study, respectively and completely furnished with ap- 
 propriate accommodations; the lecture room capable of seating 
 500 persons, and beautifully finished; the committee room with 
 settees for SO, and a long covered table, for the convenience of 
 the Sabbath school teachers in their weekly meetings — the Sab- 
 bath school room furnished with semicircular backed seats, 
 with a teacher's seat and desk in every centre, equal to the 
 accommodation of 400 scholars, and their teachers, and a high 
 desk for the superintendent. The study is 23 by 18 feet, con- 
 taining every arrangement for the minister's convenience, and 
 connected with the pulpit by a flight of stairs. This study is 
 dressed with the elegance of a parlor, and done by the people. 
 
 The audience chamber is finished to admiration. Neither 
 expense nor pains are spared, to make it all that you could de- 
 sire, for the accommodation of a worshipping assembly. The 
 ceiling overhead is done in a superior style. The borderextend- 
 ing round the whole building is eight feet wide on the sides and 
 east end, and on the west it covers the whole, to the front of 
 the organ; containing 36 square projections, with sunken pa- 
 nels, and a bold projecting cornice, beautifully enriched with 
 carved mouldings in the Grecian taste. In the centre above is 
 a circle, of 30 feet in diameter, made of 20 sunken panels, with 
 a border of egg-mouldings, and honey-suckles, all encompassing 
 a gilded fan-light ventilator, of 15 feet in diameter. The interme- 
 diate space is perfectly plain, and the whole work is as smooth as 
 polished marble. — You may form some idea of the over-ceiling, 
 by reflecting that this single work was done at an expense of 
 two thousand dollars. It is a decoration of the house, on which 
 your eye would delight to dwell. — The breast- work of the gal- 
 lery is handsomely ornamented with a corniceabove — 122 deep 
 square panels in the middle, with a patera in the centre of 
 each — and an elaborate Grecian fret, of about one foot in width, 
 on the lower part. 
 
 The pulpit is made on a plan entirely new. A platform, 
 raised five feet in height, is 27 feet in length and 10 feet in 
 width, on a rusticated basement. On the front of this platform 
 
12 
 
 is built a rich mahogany desk, of 10 feet in length, with well 
 proportioned projections and deep panels, while the sides are 
 left entirely open. From this platform, just behind the desk, 
 rise four Corinthian columns, to the height of IS feet, with an 
 anti pillar on each side, all supporting the front wall of the re- 
 cess. In front of the pulpit is a chancel, or open area, raised 
 one foot and four inches above the floor ol the house, 30 feet in 
 length, and 6 feet in breadth. The platform of the pulpit, and 
 the whole chancel, are covered with rich Wilton carpeting, and 
 the aisles are all handsomely carpeted. The house has 248 
 slips, capable of seating 1500 people. The slips below are 
 stuffed in the backs, and covered on both sides with blue moreen. 
 
 The organ, with its deep sounds that shake the foundations, 
 and its high and clear notes, as soft as a flute, made a very pleas- 
 ing impression on me, heightened by the uncommon skill and 
 dexterity of the player. The cost of the organ, the work of the 
 Messrs. Hook, of Boston, is §4,250, containing above 1600 
 pipes and 30 stops. Their great attention to the cultivation of 
 sacred music must be a strong attraction to a Christian temple, 
 so rich and beautiful. I was informed that the expense of the 
 whole work of the building, including the ground, was above 
 $60,000. 
 
 I admired the work, indeed, and I was cheered by the gene- 
 rosity of the people; but I felt at the same time, that if this 
 were the effect of mere worldly pride, it would deserve the 
 blasting of the breath of God; and 1 told them that I considered 
 the house as of no value, except as consecrated in all its glory 
 and beauty to the honor of Christ and the salvation of souls. 
 But when I was at the communion table, on the first Sabbath 
 after the dedication, and witnessed the admission to the church 
 of sixteen new members, and united with five hundred fellow 
 Christians of the city, in celebrating the death of Christ, I felt 
 that God was among them in very deed, and that it was good 
 to be there. 
 
 A little more than a year ago, I attended the organization of 
 the church, in the union of twenty six members. I find evi- 
 dence that the power of the Divine Spirit has been upon this 
 people, during the whole time, in the conviction and conver- 
 
13 
 
 sion of souls, and in the great readiness of this people to 
 every good work. The church has grown to more than 
 four times its original number, and has received the favor of 
 this city to a degree exceeding my highest expectations. As 
 evidence of this, I would mention that pews to the amount of 
 $20,000 were disposed of on the first day, at private sale. The 
 God of love does appear to smile upon this beginning, and will, 
 I hope, make it evident that this church is not governed by 
 party spirit in religion, but is laboring only for the salvation 
 of souls in the pure doctrine and spirit of Christ; thus exhibit- 
 ing a fair specimen of the Puritan, evangelical churches of New 
 England; a church ready to co-operate with all the Christian 
 churches of this city in advancing the prosperity of the Re- 
 deemer's kingdom. 
 
 I will only add, that the entire harmony, affection and con- 
 fidence, subsisting between the Pastor and the church and 
 people, afford an encouraging promise that the beauty of the 
 Lord our God will be upon this people, and that his blessing 
 will be upon them, even life for evermore. All these things 
 are under the testimony of an eye witness and careful 
 
 OBSERVER. 
 
 At the time of the dedication, the Sabbath School had in- 
 creased to 325 scholars, and 50 teachers, and the church to the 
 annexed catalogue. 
 
 At every step, we have been upheld by the hand, and guided 
 by the eye of the Lord. May his hand and his eye ever 
 help us. 
 
 Prospered far beyond our most sanguine expectations and 
 hopes, may we not be left to pride, to vanity, to stupidity, nor 
 to an ungrateful heart. 
 
 Philadelphia, December 20, 1837. 
 
THE 
 
 CONFESSION OF FAITH, 
 
 COVENANT, 
 
 AND 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF DISCIPLINE AND PRACTICE, 
 
 OF THE 
 IN 
 
 i 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
CONFESSION OF FAITH, 
 ACCOMPANIED BY SCRIPTURE PROOFS. 
 
 FORM OF ADMISSION. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Beloved Friends: — You have presented yourselves 
 before God, and his people, and the world, to make 
 a solemn confession of your religious faith, and to 
 take upon you everlasting obligations. We trust you 
 have duly considered the nature of the profession 
 you are about to make, and of the engagements into 
 which you are about to enter. They will be heard 
 on high, and will be exhibited on your trial at the 
 last day. 
 
 Yet be not overwhelmed. If you are sincerely 
 desirous to be the Lord's — to believe all his declara- 
 tions, and to obey all his commands, he will compas- 
 sionate your weakness — will make you wise by 
 his wisdom, and strong by his power, and will con- 
 duct you safe to his heavenly kingdom. 
 
 Having examined and assented to the Articles of 
 
 Faith adopted by this Church, you will now profess 
 
 the same before these witnesses. 
 11 
 
CONFESSION 
 
 OF FAITH. 
 
 We believe there is but one God, the Creator, 
 Preserver, and Governor of the universe; a Being 
 self-existent, independent, and immutable; infinite in 
 power, knowledge, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, 
 and truth. 
 
 I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God besides me. The 
 Lord is the true God, he is the living God. God is a spirit. And God said 
 unto Moses, I Am that I Am. The eternal God is thy refuge. I am the Lord, 
 I change not Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. Known unto 
 God are all his works from the beginning of the world. The Lord God omnipo- 
 tent reigneth. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
 and in you all. Thou art good and doest good. To God only wise, be glory 
 through Jesus Christ forever. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Righteous 
 art thou, O Lord! and upright are thy judgments. The Lord is gracious and 
 full of compassion. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. Is. 45. 5- 
 Jer. 10. 10. John 4. 24. Ex. 3. 14. Deut. 33. 27. Mai. 3. 6. Jer. 23. 24. 
 Acts 15. 18. Rev. 19. 6. Eph. 4. 6. Ps. 119. 68. Rom. 16. 27. Is. 6. 3. 
 Ps. 119. 137. Ps. 145. 8. Is. 25. 1. 
 
 We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament were given by inspiration of God; that 
 they contain a complete and harmonious system of 
 divine truth; and are the only and sufficient rule of 
 doctrinal belief and religious practice. 
 
 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. For the prophecy came not in 
 old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
 the Holy Ghost. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's 
 wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. But I certify you, 
 
19 
 
 brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I 
 neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of 
 Jesus Christ. Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures. To the law, and to the 
 testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light 
 in them. But though we, or an angel fr«m heaven, preach any other gospel unto 
 you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. For I 
 testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If 
 any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are 
 written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book 
 of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of 
 the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 2 Tim. 3. 
 16. 2 Pet. 1.21. 1 Cor. 2. 13. Gal. 1. 11, 12. Matt 22. 29. Is. 8. 20. Gal. 1. 
 8. Rev. 22. 18, 19. 
 
 We believe that God is revealed in the Scriptures 
 as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and that 
 this distinction is perfectly consistent with the unity of 
 the Godhead, and that these three are one, and in all 
 divine attributes, equal. 
 
 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the 
 Holy Ghost; and these three are one. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com- 
 munion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. The Lord direct your hearts into 
 the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. Elect according to the 
 fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto 
 obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And God said, Let us 
 make man in our image after our likeness. Who, being in the form of God, 
 thought it not robbery to be equal with God. For unto us a child is born, unto 
 us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name 
 shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, 
 the Prince of peace. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God 
 and the Word was God. I and my fiithcr are one. And Thomas answered, and 
 said unto him, my Lord and my God. But unto the Son, he saith, Thy throne, O 
 God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 
 This is the true God and eternal life. Whose are the Fathers, and of whom as 
 concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. I am 
 Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and 
 which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Jesus Christ the same yester- 
 day and to day and forever. For where two or three are gathered together in 
 my name, there am I in the midst of them. And he said unto him, Lord thou 
 knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. For by him were all things 
 created that arc in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
 
20 
 
 they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created 
 by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 
 And he commandeth us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he, 
 which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. That all 
 men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. And again, when 
 he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels 
 of God worship him. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, 
 and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I 
 saying, Blessing and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon 
 the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And they stoned Stephen, 
 calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. But Peter said, 
 Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Thou hast 
 not lied unto man, but unto God. Except a man be born of water, and of the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Which were born not of blood 
 nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. All scripture is 
 given by inspiration of God. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
 the Holy Ghost. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the 
 spirit of God dwelleth in you? What! know ye not that your body is the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is 
 come, he will guide you into all truth. For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the 
 same hour what ye ought to say. And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape 
 like a dove upon him. For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of 
 God. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? The Spirit of God hath made me. 
 By his Spirit he garnished the heavens. Elsewhere the Holy Ghost is called 
 the eternal Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and knowledge, the Spirit of promise, 
 the Spirit of power, the Spirit of holiness, and the Holy Spirit. 1 John 5. 
 7. Matt. 28. 19. 2 Cor. 13, 14. 2 Thess. 3. 5. 1 Pet. 1, 2. Gen. 1. 
 26. Phil. 2. 6. Is. 9. 6. John 1.1. John 10. 30. John 20. 38. Heb. 1. 8. 
 1 John 5. 20. Rom. 9. 5. Rev. 1. 8. Heb. 13. 8. Matt. 18. 20. John 21. 17. 
 Col. 1.16. 17. Acts. 10. 42. John 5. 23. Heb. 1. 6. Rev. 5. 13. Acts 7. 59. 
 Acts 5. 3, 4. John 3. 5. John 1. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 21. 1 Cor. 3. 
 16. 1 Cor. 6. 19. John 16. 13. Luke 12. 12. Luke 3.22. 1 Cor. 2. 10. Ps. 
 139. 7. Job. 26. 13. Job. 33. 4. 
 
 We believe that God made all things for himself; 
 that known unto Him are all His works from the begin- 
 ning; that He governs all things according to the 
 counsel of his own will; and that the principles and 
 administration of His government are perfectly wise, 
 holy, just and good. 
 
 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for thou 
 hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. For of 
 
21 
 
 him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. 
 Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
 God. The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked for the 
 day of evil. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the 
 things that arc not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my 
 pleasure. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the 
 world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having 
 predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself accord- 
 ing to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of his grace, 
 wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Having made known unto 
 us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath pur- 
 posed in himself. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predes- 
 tinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel 
 of his own will. And hath made of one blood^all nations of men for to dwell on all 
 the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the 
 bounds of their habitation. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his 
 months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. And 
 truly the Son of man goeth as it was determined, but wo unto that man by whom 
 he is betrayed. Him, being delivered, by the determinate counsel and fore- 
 knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. 
 For of a truth against the holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both 
 Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were 
 gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined be- 
 fore to be done. Rev. 4. 11. Rom. 11. 36. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Prov. 16. 4. Is. 46. 10. 
 Eph. 1. 4, 6, 9, 11. Acts 17. 26. Job 14. 5. Luke 22. 22. Acts 2. 23. Acts 
 4. 27, 28. 
 
 We believe that our first parents were created holy 
 — in the image of God; that they fell from this state 
 of holiness by voluntarily transgressing the divine 
 command; and that in consequence of their apostacy 
 from God, the heart of man until renewed by grace, 
 is destitute of holiness, and alienated from God. 
 
 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God 
 created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. Lo, this 
 only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but. they have sought 
 out many inventions. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and 
 death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. By 
 the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. By one 
 man's disobedience, many were made sinners. And you hath he quickened who 
 were dead in trespasses and sins. But I know you that ye have not the love of 
 God in you. For I know that in me, (that is in my flesh,) dwellcth no good 
 
22 
 
 thing. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to 
 the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh can- 
 not please God. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked 
 who can know it? And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the 
 earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con- 
 tinually. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have 
 before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is 
 written, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, 
 there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are to- 
 gether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Behold I 
 was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Who can bring 
 a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. What is man that he should be clean? 
 and he which is bom of a woman, that he should be righteous? That which is 
 born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. For the 
 imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. The wicked are estranged 
 from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Fool- 
 ishness is bound in the heart of a child. For I knew that thou wouldst deal very 
 treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb. And were by 
 nature the children of wrath, even as others. Cursed is every one that continueth 
 not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. The soul 
 that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. And these shall go away 
 into everlasting punishment. Gen. 1. 26, 27. Eccl. 7. 29. Rom. 5. 12. 18, 19. 
 Eph. 2. 1. John 5. 42. Rom. 7. 18. and 8. 7, 8. Jer. 17.9. Gen. 6. 5. Rom. 
 3.9—12. Ps. 51. 5. Job 13. 4. Job. 15. 14. John 4. 6. Gen. 8. 21. Ps. 58. 
 3. Prov. 22. 15. Is. 48. 8. Eph. 2. 3. Gal. 3. 10. Ezek. 18. 4. Rom. 6.23. 
 Matt. 25. 46. 
 
 We believe that Christ, as God manifest in the flesh, 
 became the one Mediator between God and man; that 
 by his obedience, sufferings and death he has made a 
 proper and adequate atonement for sin; that he is the 
 only Redeemer of sinners; and that whosoever will, 
 may be saved: yet that such is the aversion of men to 
 holiness, that all men will refuse to come to Christ, 
 unless God, by the special influences of his Spirit, draw 
 them. 
 
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
 was God. And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Who being in 
 the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself 
 of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
 likeness of men. For in him dvvelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Be- 
 
23 
 
 hold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call 
 his name lmmanuel, which, being interpreted, is, God with us. And without 
 controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh 
 justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in 
 the world, received up into glory. The Jews answered him saying, For a good 
 work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy and because that thou, being a man, 
 makest thyself God. But ye are come — To Jesus the Mediator of the new 
 covenant. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no 
 man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Neither is there salvation in any other, 
 for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must 
 be saved. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Thus it is written, and thus it be- 
 hoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repent- 
 ance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations. 
 For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the re- 
 mission of sins. Without shedding of blood is no remission. And if any man 
 sin w r e have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he 
 is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the 
 whole world. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, 
 from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with 
 the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; who 
 verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. While we were yet 
 sinners Christ died for us. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by 
 thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. The Lord 
 is well pleased for his righteousness sake: he will magnify the law and make it 
 honorable. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his 
 blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past, through 
 the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he 
 might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. For God so 
 loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus answered and said unto 
 him, Verily,-verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see 
 the kingdom of God. Follow peace with all men; and holiness, without which 
 no man shall see the Lord. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth 
 any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Because the carnal mind 
 is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
 be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But the natural man 
 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, 
 neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. A new heart 
 also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away 
 the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Which 
 were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his 
 mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, 
 they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out that they might 
 be made manifest, that they were not all of us. For I am persuaded, that neither 
 
24 
 
 death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
 separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Being con- 
 fident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will per- 
 form it until the day of Jesus Christ. And this is the Father's will which hath 
 sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should 
 raise it up again at the last day. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them; 
 and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never 
 perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which 
 gave them me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Fa- 
 ther's hand. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth 
 in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord up- 
 holdcth him with his hand. The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he 
 that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Moreover whom he did 
 predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified; and 
 whom he justified, them he also glorified. But the path of the just is as the 
 shining light that shincth more and more unto the perfect day. John 1. 1, 14. 
 Phil. 2. 6, 7. Col. 2. 9. Matt. 1. 23. 1 Tim. 3. 16. John 10. 33. Hcb. 12. 22, 
 24. John 14. 6. Acts 4. 12. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Luke 24. 46, 47. Matt. 26. 28. 
 Heb. 9. 22. 1 John 2. 1, 2. 1 Pet. 1. 18—20. Rom. 5. 8. Rev. 5. 9. Is. 42. 21. 
 Rom. 3. 25, 26. John 3. 16. John 3. 3. Heb. 12, 14. Gal. 6. 15. Rom. 8. 7, 8. 1 
 Cor. 2. 14. Ezek. 36. 26. John 1. 13. Tit. 3.5. 1 John 2. 19. Rom. 8. 38, 39. 
 Phil. 1. 6. John 6. 39. John 10. 27—29. Psalms 37. 23, 24. Job 17. 9. Rom. 
 8. 30. Prov. 4. 18. 
 
 We believe that those who are saved, were chosen in 
 Christ before the foundation of the world, that they 
 should be holy and without blame before him in love; 
 that they are saved, not by works of righteousness 
 which they have done, but through the sovereign mer- 
 cy of God, by regeneration, repentance, and faith in 
 Jesus Christ; and that those who are born of God are 
 justified freely by his grace through the redemption that 
 is in Christ Jesus, and are kept by the power of God, 
 through faith, unto eternal life. 
 
 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the 
 image of his son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. More- 
 over, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them 
 he alsojustified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. My sheep hear 
 my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal 
 
25 
 
 life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. 
 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
 other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord. And when the Gentiles heard, they were glad, and glori- 
 fied the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. 
 According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that 
 we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated 
 us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good 
 pleasure of his will. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being pre- 
 destinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the 
 counsel of his own will. Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling 
 — not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 
 which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Therefore being 
 justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. What 
 shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 
 Being confident of this very thing — that He which hath begun a good work in 
 you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Isa. 53. 10. John 10. 27 — 
 29, and 17, 6, 9, 11,24. Rom. 8. 29—39. Acts 13. 48. Rom. 9. 11. and 11. 5, 7. 
 Eph, 1, 4.5, 11. 2 Thess. 2. 13. 2 Tim. 1. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Eph. 2. 8. 9, 10. and 3. 
 11. Gal. 2. 16. Ezek. 36. 26. Tit. 3. 5—7. Rom. 3. 20, 24,28. and 5. 1. and 8. 1. 
 John 5. 24. Phil. 1. 6. 
 
 We believe that there will be a general resurrection 
 of the bodies, both of the just and unjust; that all man- 
 kind must one day stand before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ, to receive a just and final sentence of retribu- 
 tion according to the deeds done here in the body; and 
 that the reward bestowed on the righteous, and the 
 punishment inflicted on the wicked, will be, alike, 
 eternal. 
 
 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. 
 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto 
 God who gave it. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; 
 for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and w r e 
 shall be changed. Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all 
 that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have 
 done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the re- 
 surrection of damnation. And have hope toward God, which they themselves 
 also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and un- 
 just. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with 
 him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be ga- 
 12 
 
26 
 
 thered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
 divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, 
 but the goats on the left. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 
 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. For we must all 
 appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things 
 done in the body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. For 
 God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be 
 good or whether it be evil. But I say unto you, that every idle word, that men 
 shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Then shall 
 the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, in- 
 herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then shall 
 he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlast- 
 ing fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into 
 everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Blessed are the dead 
 which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest 
 from their labors; and their works do follow them. Who shall be punished with 
 everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his 
 power. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they 
 have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast, and his image, and whoso- 
 ever receiveth the mark of his name. And many of them that sleep in the dust 
 of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever- 
 lasting contempt. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath 
 never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. The Son of man goeth 
 as it is written of him, but wo unto that man, by whom the Son of man is be- 
 trayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Heb. 9. 27. Eccl. 
 12. 7. 1 Cor. 15. 52. John 5. 28, 29. Acts 24. 15. Matt. 25. 31—33. Rom. 14. 10, 
 12. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Eccl. 12. 14. Matt. 12. 36. Matt. 25. 34, 41, 46. Rev. 14. 13. 2 
 Thess. 1. 9. Rev. 14. 11. Dan. 12. 2. Mark 3. 29. Matt. 26. 24. 
 
 Moreover, we believe that in this world the Lord 
 Jesus Christ has a visible Church; that the terms of 
 membership are a credible profession of faith in Christ, 
 and of that holiness which is wrought by the renewing 
 grace of God; that none but members of the visible 
 church, in regular standing, have a right to partake of 
 the Lord's Supper; and that only believers and their 
 households, can be admitted to the ordinance of Bap- 
 tism. 
 
 In conclusion, we believe that system of doctrines 
 contained in the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Cat- 
 echism — 
 
27 
 
 Unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in 
 Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name 
 of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Nevertheless the foundation of 
 God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. For 
 as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one 
 body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all 
 baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or 
 free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. That in the dispensation 
 of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both 
 which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him. And hath put all 
 things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, 
 which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. He that hath an ear, 
 let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And I say also unto thee, 
 That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of 
 hell shall not prevail against it. 
 
 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fa- 
 ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And as they were eating, Jesus 
 took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, 
 Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave' it 
 to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, 
 which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will 
 not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new 
 with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went 
 out into the mount of Olives. Then they that gladly received his word were bap- 
 tized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 
 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, 
 in their generations for an everlasting covenant; to be a God unto thee, and to 
 thy seed after thee. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, 
 therefore, thou and thy seed after thee, in their generations. This is my cove- 
 nant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; every 
 man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the 
 flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 
 And he that is eight days old, shall be circumcised among you, every man child 
 in your generations; he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any 
 stranger, which is not of thy seed. And he received the sign of circumcision, a 
 seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that 
 he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, 
 that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Therefore it is of faith, 
 that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; 
 not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abra- 
 ham, who is the father of us all. For the promise is unto you and to your chil- 
 dren. Their children also shall be as aforetime. For the unbelieving husband is 
 sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; else 
 were your children unclean, but now they are holy. But Jesus called them unto 
 him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for 
 of such is the kingdom of God. And he took them the same hour of the night, 
 and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And 
 
23 
 
 when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have 
 judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And 
 I baptized also the household of Stephanas. For I have received of the Lord that 
 which also I delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which 
 he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and 
 said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance 
 of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, say- 
 ing, This cup is the New Testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it 
 in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye 
 do show the Lord's death till he come. And when a stranger shall sojourn with 
 thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and 
 then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the 
 land; for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. Whosoever therefore, shall 
 confess me before men, him will I confess also, before my Father which is in 
 heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before 
 my Father which is in heaven. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbe- 
 lievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness! And what 
 communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Be- 
 lial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? But unto the wicked 
 God saith, What hast thou to do, to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest 
 take my covenant in thy mouth. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination 
 to the Lord; but the prayer of the upright is his delight. 1 Cor. 1. 2. 2 Tim. 2 
 19. 1 Cor. 12. 12, 13. Eph. 1. 10,22,23. Rev. 2. 7. Matt. 16. 18. Matt. 28. 19 
 Matt. 26. 26—30. Acts 2, 41. Gen. 17. 7, 9, 10, 11, 12. Rom. 4. 11, 16. Acts 2 
 39. Jer.30.20. 1 Cor. 7. 14. Luke 18. 16. Acts 16. 33. Acts 16. 15. 1 Cor. 1.16 
 1 Cor. 11. 23—26. Ex. 12, 48. Matt. 10. 32, 33. 2 Cor. 6. 14, 15. Psalms 50. 16 
 Prov. 15. 8. 
 
 Such is the belief of this Church. Do you truly profess 
 and heartily believe all these things? 
 
 [The ordinance of Baptism, if required, is now administered.] 
 
 You will now enter into solemn Covenant ivith God, and 
 with this Church. 
 
THE COVENANT. 
 
 In the presence of God, his holy angels, and this assembly, 
 you now solemnly avouch the Lord Jehovah, Father, Son and 
 Holy Ghost, to be your God, the supreme object of your affec- 
 tion, and your portion for ever. 
 
 You now cordially acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, in 
 all his mediatorial offices, Prophet, Priest and King, as your 
 only Savior and final Judge; and the Holy Spirit as your 
 Sanctifier, Comforter and Guide. 
 
 You humbly and cheerfully devote yourselves to God, in the 
 everlasting covenant of his grace; you consecrate all your 
 powers and faculties to his service and glory; and you promise, 
 that through the assistance of his Spirit, you will cleave to him 
 as your chief good; that you will give diligent attendance to 
 his word and ordinances; that you will seek the honor and 
 interest of his kingdom; and that, henceforth, denying all un- 
 godliness, and every worldly lust, you will live soberly, right- 
 eously and godly in the world. 
 
 You do now cordially join yourselves to this as a church of 
 Christ, engaging to submit to the rules of its government and 
 discipline; to strive earnestly for its peace, edification and 
 purity, and to walk with its members in charity, faithfulness, 
 circumspection, meekness and sobriety. 
 
 This you severally profess and engage. 
 
 [Here the Church rises.] 
 
 We then affectionately receive you, as members of the visible 
 Church of Christ, in full communion, and entitled to all its 
 privileges. We welcome you to this fellowship with us in the 
 blessings of the Gospel, and on our part engage to watch over 
 
30 
 
 you and seek your edification, as long as you shall continue 
 among us. 
 
 Should you have occasion to remove, it will be your duty to 
 seek, and ours to grant, a recommendation to another church; 
 for hereafter, you can never withdraw from the watch and com- 
 munion of the saints without a breach of covenant. 
 
 And now, beloved in the Lord, let it be impressed on your 
 minds, that you have come under solemn obligations, from 
 which you can never escape. Wherever you go, these vows 
 will be upon you. They will follow you to the bar of God; 
 and in whatever world you may be fixed, they will abide upon 
 you to eternity. You can never again be as you have been. 
 You have unalterably committed yourselves, and henceforth you 
 must be the servants of God. 
 
 Hereafter the eyes of the world will be upon you; and as 
 you demean yourselves, so religion will be honored or dis- 
 graced. If you walk worthy of your profession, you will be a 
 credit and a comfort to us; but if otherwise, it will be an occa- 
 casion of grief and reproach. But, beloved, we are persuaded 
 better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, 
 though we thus speak. 
 
 May the Lord guide and preserve you till death, and at last 
 receive you and us to that blessed world where our love and 
 joy shall be forever perfect. Amen. 
 
OFFICERS, STANDING RULES, &c. 
 
 OFFICERS. 
 
 No. 1. A clerk who shall correctly keep the records of the 
 Church. 
 
 2. A Treasurer who shall take charge of all moneys and 
 property belonging to the church, and make a report respecting 
 the same at each annual meeting, and at such other times as the 
 church may direct. 
 
 3. Deacons, who, together with the Pastor shall compose an 
 examining committee, who shall examine all applicants for ad- 
 mission, whether by letter or otherwise, and present in a written 
 report to the church the names of such as they approve; — the 
 Church having the right to attend these examinations, and make 
 any inquiries they please. It shall be the duty of the Deacons 
 also, to counsel with the Pastor in all matters relating to the 
 spiritual interests of the church, and under his direction to 
 attend and sustain meetings of inquiry, conference, instruc- 
 tion and prayer. 
 
 STANDING RULES. 
 
 1. The Pastor, if present, shall preside in all business meet- 
 ings of the Church, and of the Examining Committee, and in 
 his absence, the oldest Deacon present. 
 
 2. All meetings for business shall be opened with prayer. 
 
 3. All officers in the Church, except the Pastor and Deacons, 
 shall be elected annually by ballot, at the annual meeting, 
 which shall be on the first Monday in January of every vear. 
 
 4. All elections of officers, cases of admission and discipline, 
 
32 
 
 and all other matters of business shall be decided by a vote of 
 the brethren in regular standing in the Church. 
 
 5. It shall be the duty of the Pastor, or in his absence, 
 of the Deacons, to call a meeting of the Church at the request 
 of one-fourtli of the members in regular standing. 
 
 6. The pastoral relation between this church and its minister 
 shall be constituted and dissolved according to the usages of the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 7. All meetings of the Church shall be called by notice 
 from the pulpit in the presence of the congregation. It is de- 
 sirable that the female members of the Church should attend 
 all its meetings, except when male members only are requested 
 to attend. 
 
 8. All candidates shall be propounded to the Church at least 
 two weeks previous to admission; and notice thereof publicly 
 given on the Sabbath following. 
 
 9. The Lord's Supper shall be administered once in two 
 months, on the afternoon of the first Sabbaths of January, 
 March, May, July, September and November. 
 
 10. Admissions to the Church shall be made on the after- 
 noon of the communion, in the presence of the congregation. 
 
 11. The ends of Discipline are the removal of offences — 
 the purity of the Church — the benefit of offenders — and the 
 honor of Christ. Offences are, of two kinds — private and 
 public. Private offences are such as are known only to an in- 
 dividual, or at most to a very few. Public offences are such as 
 are widely spread, and are repeatedly charged upon an indi- 
 vidual by a general rumor. 
 
 No complaint or information on the subject of a personal or 
 private offence, shall be admitted by the Church, unless the 
 means of reconciliation, or of privately reclaiming the offender 
 have been used, which are required by Christ, (Matt. 18. 15, 
 16.) And in case of a public offence, the same steps shall be 
 taken, when circumstances will admit; otherwise, the Church 
 shall appoint individual members, to converse with the offender 
 privately, in order to reclaim him. If the offender do not 
 listen to the advice and remonstrance of those commissioned 
 by the Church to visit him, then the Church shall proceed to 
 
33 
 
 exercise such discipline, as the nature and the circumstances of 
 the offence require. 
 
 12. Admonition and excommunication are to be adminis- 
 tered by the Pastor, or, when there is no Pastor, by the Mode- 
 rator, in conformity to a vote of the Church. 
 
 13. Any member having cause of complaint against another 
 should immediately seek to have it removed, as directed in 
 Matt. 18th chapter, 15th, 16th and 17th verses. 
 
 14. No individual can cease to be a member of the Church 
 unless regularly dismissed, and recommended to some other 
 Church, or excommunicated for some offence. 
 
 15. Persons who belong to other Churches, and expect to 
 reside among us more than a year, shall be debarred the privi- 
 lege of communing with this Church, unless within a year they 
 procure letters of dismission and recommendation from the 
 Churches to which they belong, and become regular members 
 of this Church; provided, however, that if they give satisfac- 
 tory reasons to the Church, a longer delay may be admitted. 
 
 16. There shall be a meeting of the Church for conference 
 and prayer, on the Thursday next succeeding the administra- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 17. It shall be the duty of the members to attend such 
 stated meetings, as are appointed by the Church, unless provi- 
 dentially detained. 
 
 18. Any of the above rules may be amended by a vote of 
 two-thirds of the Church; the amendment having been read 
 before the Church, at least two weeks previous to their acting 
 thereupon. 
 
 13 
 
CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 
 
 JANUARY 1, 1838. 
 
 Those marked thus t are candidates for admission. 
 
 Names. 
 Atwater, Charles 
 
 " Mary, Mrs. 
 Atwood, Mary, Miss 
 
 Residence. 
 
 Pine street above Ninth. 
 
 do. do. 
 362 Walnut street. 
 
 Bacon, B. C. 
 
 " Olive, Mrs. 
 Barnes, Margaretta 0. 
 Bennett, Alfred 
 
 " Ann Maria, Mrs. 
 t " Hannah, Mrs. 
 t Blair, Henry C. 
 Boyd, James W. 
 
 " Mary, Miss 
 
 " Elizabeth, Mrs. 
 
 " Margarette, Miss 
 t Brace, Joab, Jr. 
 Bishop, George C. 
 Brown, William K. 
 
 Eleventh below Walnut. 
 
 do. do. 
 Fifth above Callowhill. 
 South Ninth below Lombard. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 Corner ol Walnut and Eighth. 
 Market below Eighth. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 Clinton above Tenth. 
 
 27 Girard street. 
 
t Briscoe, James H. 171 Walnut street, 
 t " Elizabeth V. do. do. 
 
 t " Sarah, Mrs. do. do. 
 
 t « Mary E. Miss. do. do. 
 
 Charnley, W. S. 
 
 " Elizabeth A. 
 
 " Martha A. S. 
 Church, Harriet, Mrs. 
 Coffin, Lemuel 
 t " Mary, Mrs. 
 
 " Lucia T. 
 Colton, Sabin W. 
 (C Susan, Mrs. 
 " Rhoda, Mrs. 
 " Delia T. 
 t " Mary B. Mrs. 
 Clark, John 
 Clarkson, Jacob 
 
 " Elizabeth G. Mrs. 
 
 " Charles 
 
 " Matilda, Mrs. 
 t " Jane, Mrs. 
 t " Mary, Miss 
 t Crowell, John 
 Cross, Marcus E. 
 t Cummings, Nancy, Miss 
 
 Pine above Ninth. 
 
 do. do. 
 Locust above Eighth. 
 Tenth below Shippen. 
 S3 Union street. 
 
 do. do. 
 77 Cherry street. 
 244 Market street. 
 
 do. do. 
 Corner of Eighth and Locust. 
 
 do. do. 
 Seventh below Spruce. 
 
 Tenth below Lombard. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do, 
 119 Lombard street. 
 31 Sansom street. 
 Cor. Pine and Fifth. 
 
 t Dean, James E. P. 
 Den man, Matthias B. 
 
 " Sarah, Mrs. 
 
 « Elizabeth 
 Downing, James W. 
 
 D. 
 
 South Eighth street. 
 Tenth and Clinton. 
 
 do. do. 
 88 South Fourth street. 
 244 Market street. 
 
37 
 
 Elmes, Thomas 
 " Lydia,Mrs. 
 " Thomas, Jr. 
 " Mary L. Miss 
 
 Evving, Ann, Mrs. 
 
 t Edwards, Sibby, Mrs. 
 
 Flint, Archelaus 
 
 " Mary, Mrs. 
 Fry, Elizabeth, Miss 
 
 Gibson, Ellen N. 
 Green, Richard W. 
 " Eliza, Mrs. 
 
 Hancock, Frederick 
 
 " Anne, Mrs. 
 Harvey, Henry D. 
 
 " Harriet H., Mrs. 
 Harvey, Joseph 
 Haven, Joshua P. 
 Hill, Elizabeth L. Miss 
 
 Joy, Julia A. Miss 
 " Emily, Miss 
 " Henry L. 
 
 E. 
 
 9 Portico Row. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 
 do. do. 
 150 North Tenth. 
 Cor. Spruce and Fifth. 
 
 F. 
 
 North Sixth. 
 
 do. do. 
 North Second. 
 
 G. 
 
 150 North Tenth. 
 Arch above Eleventh, 
 do. do. 
 
 H. 
 
 Prune below Fifth. 
 
 do. do. 
 Eleventh below Lombard. 
 
 do. do. 
 Thirteenth below George. 
 Seventh below Locust. 
 Vine above Tenth. 
 
 J. 
 
 Tenth below Spring Garden. 
 
 do. do. 
 Market above Ninth. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kingsley, George 
 
 " Mary D., Mrs. 
 
 Tenth below Market, 
 do. do. 
 
38 
 
 Langstroth, James N. 
 Linnard, Catherine M. Miss 
 
 Martin, Samuel 
 Milne, Anne, Mrs. 
 
 " Ann Eliza, Miss 
 Moulton, George T. 
 
 Nevins, Acsah, Mrs. 
 " Isabella, Miss 
 
 Palmer, Elizabeth, Miss 
 
 " Sarah, Miss 
 Peterson, Lawrence 
 Prescott, David W. 
 
 " Susan, Mrs. 
 t Porter, Addison 
 t " Anne, Mrs. 
 
 Rabeau, Anna R. Miss 
 Ramsay, Alexander 
 Reynolds, Nancy, Mrs. 
 Rhoades, Mary, Mrs. 
 Richards, Clarinda 
 Rogers, Henrietta, Miss 
 
 " Timothy 
 Rudrow, Eliza, Mrs. 
 
 L. 
 
 112 Walnut St. 
 Spruce below Twelfth. 
 
 M. 
 
 150 North Tenth. 
 
 Arch above Sixth. 
 Tenth above Vine. 
 
 N. 
 
 South Second below Walnut, 
 do. do. 
 
 P. 
 
 Walnut above Broad. 
 Thirteenth above Market. 
 1 9 Market street. 
 175 Pine street. 
 
 do. do. 
 Corner Eleventh and Clinton. 
 
 do. do. do. 
 
 R. 
 
 Arch above Sixth. 
 219 Market street. 
 102 Chesnut street. 
 Jacoby street, 
 Clinton above Tenth. 
 
 Eleventh above Spruce. 
 27 Girard street. 
 
4 
 
'inceton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 01034 1958