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 »Tyler, Edward R. 1800-1848. 
 The congregational catechism 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Tlieological Seminary Library 
 
 littp://www.arGliive.org/details/congregationalcaOOtyle 
 
THE 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CATECHISM, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A GENERAL SURVEY 
 
 ORGANIZATION, G O V E R N IVl E N T, 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 
 
 J5j C4naT^ r\^ Cl^fl^r. 
 
 NEW HAVEN: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY A. IF. MALTBV 
 
 1844. 
 
Entered, 
 
 According to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by 
 
 A, H. MALTBY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 
 
 Printed by 
 
 HITCHCOCK AND STAFFORD, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface, . . .... 5 
 
 Chap. I. General Principles of Church Polity, 7 
 Chap. II. Constitution of the Primitive churches, 17 
 Chap. III. Officers of the Primitive churches, 33 
 
 Chap. IV. Changes in the Organization and Gov- 
 ernment of the churches after the 
 ApostoUc Age, . . . 51 
 
 Chap. V. Constitution of the Congregational 
 
 churches, .... 79 
 
 Chap. VI. Congregationalism preferable to every 
 
 other ecclesiastical system, . 93 
 Chap. VII. Constitution of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal church, .... 107 
 
 Chap. VIII. Constitution of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal church, .... 125 
 
 Chap. IX. Constitution of the Presbyterian 
 
 church. . . • • 133 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Congregational Catechism exhibits in a con- 
 densed form the Constitution of the first Cliristian 
 Churches ; the principal modifications of ecclesiastical 
 government in succeeding ages ; the Constitution of the 
 Congregational churches and its superiority to other ec- 
 clesiastical systems ; together with an outline of the 
 general frame and regulations of the other principal 
 forms of church order and government. The most im- 
 portant principle advanced in the work, is, that the di- 
 vine Head of the church estabhshed no complete sys- 
 tem of order and rule according to which His church 
 must be organized and governed, to the exclusion of 
 every other ; but yet that the Congregational system 
 corresponds most closely with the primitive plan, and 
 answers best the eqds of confederation in Christian 
 
 churches. 
 
 1* 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 The work is designed for the use of ministers of the 
 Gospel, theological students, and intelligent readers gen- 
 erally ; and it is hoped it may prove to be a convenient 
 Text-book for the instruction of classes by pastors and 
 teachers : £md be received with favor wherever the re- 
 ligious institutions of the pdgi-im fathers of New Eng- 
 land are held in esteem. 
 
 In prosecuting his task, the author has been assisted 
 by the Rev. Dr. Murdock, of New Haven, to whom he 
 is indebted for those parts, especially, which relate to the 
 Jevinsh Synagogue, and the constitution of the church 
 in the ages immediately succeeding the Apostles. He 
 has also to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Dissen- 
 ter's Catechism, a work in use among the Enghsh In- 
 dependents, for aid in preparing the chapter on the Pro- 
 testant Episcopal church. 
 
 EDWARD R. TYLER. 
 New Haven, Dec. 12, 1843. 
 
THE 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CATECHISM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH POLITY. 
 
 Question 1. What is meant by Ecclesias- 
 tical Polity ? 
 
 Answer. The principles and rules by which 
 churches are regulated and governed. 
 
 Q. 2. What is a church ? 
 
 A. A company of professed believers in 
 Christ, associated together for the public wor- 
 ship of God, for the observance of Christian 
 ordinances, and for mutual aid and encourage- 
 ment in all Christian duties. 
 
 Q. 3. Whence must be derived all imperative 
 rules for the regulation and government of 
 churches ? 
 
 A. From the sacred Scriptures. It is ad- 
 
8 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 mitted by all Protestants that the Bible is the 
 only rule of faith and practice. 
 
 Q. 4. Do the Scriptures prescribe any com- 
 plete system of church polity, obligatory upon 
 Christians in all ages and countries ? 
 
 A. They do not. They merely inculcate 
 certain general principles, and enjoin certain 
 ordinances, which all Christians should observe. 
 Q. 5. What are some of these general prin- 
 ciples ? 
 
 A. That all Christians are brethren in Christ, 
 on a footing of perfect equality in the church, 
 and should be actuated by the purest love and 
 the most fraternal feelings. Matt, xxiii. 8-12. 
 Mark x. 41-45. John xiii. 34, 35. John xv. 
 12. Rom. xii. 3-10, 16. James iii. 1. 1 Pet. 
 i. 22, and iii. 8, 9. That the ends of their 
 confederation in churches should be their mu- 
 tual edification and advancement in holiness, 
 and the diffusion of religious knowledge and 
 piety around them. Matt. v. 13-16. 1 Cor. 
 viii. 9-13. Eph. iv. 11-16. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 James v. 16-20. And that all their proceedings 
 should harmonize with the spirit of their reli- 
 gion, " all things be done decently and in or- 
 der," and for the furtherance of the ends of 
 their confederation. 1 Cor. xiii. 33, 40. 
 
CHURCH POLITY. 9 
 
 Q. 6. What do you ini'er from the omission 
 of the Apostles to record a system of express 
 rules of church order, and exact descriptions 
 of their own ecclesiastical usages ? 
 
 A. That such points as are omitted in the 
 inspired record, are not to be held essential to 
 the right organization and ordering of a church; 
 and that they are designedly left open for con- 
 sideration and determination by human dis- 
 cretion in each age and country. See Whateley's 
 Kingdom of Christ, Essay II, Sections 12 
 and 16. 
 
 Q. 7. What authority has the mere example 
 or practice of the Apostolic age in respect to 
 the organization and government of churches \ 
 
 A. It has not the authority of a law, obliga- 
 tory upon all succeeding ages ; but it is an 
 exemplification of Apostolic wisdom and pru- 
 dence, in adopting suitable rules and regula- 
 tions for the infant churches, in that age and 
 state of the world. 
 
 Q. 8. What belongs to a church, from the 
 essential nature of a community ? 
 
 A. It belongs to the very essence of a com- 
 munity that it should have, first, officers of 
 some kind ; secondly, rules enforced by pen- 
 alties ; and, thirdly, a power of receiving and 
 
10 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 excluding members. See Whateley's Kingdom 
 of Christ, Essay II, Section 2. 
 
 Q. 9. What is manifestly excluded from a 
 chm-ch, by the nature of Christianity, though 
 not, perhaps, by express precept ? 
 
 A. 1, The very nature of Christianity, as it 
 aims to found a spiritual and not a temporal 
 kingdom, excludes all temporal sanctions, and 
 admits only those that are spiritual, for the 
 support and enforcement of ecclesiastical laws. 
 
 A. 2. As the Christian religion recognizes 
 only one sacrifice for sin, that made by Jesus 
 Christ upon the cross, it forever excludes from 
 the Christian church, all real sacrifices, all 
 real altars, and a literal priesthood. 
 
 A. 3. As Christianity is altogether a spiritual 
 religion, announcing the coming of the prom- 
 ised Messiah, and offering grace and salvation 
 to all who repent of their sins and believe and 
 obey his Gospel, it of course annuls all the 
 types and shadows of the Old Testament dis- 
 pensation, dispels all mysterious rites, which 
 shroud the way of salvation in obscurity, and 
 requires a simple, direct worship, with as few 
 ceremonies as will comport with decency and 
 the efficacy of religious ordinances. John iv. 
 21-24. iJohnii. 8. 
 
CHURCH POLITY. 11 
 
 A. 4. As it places all Christians, as such, 
 on a footing of perfect equality with each 
 other, it necessarily prohibits all dominion and 
 lordship in the church, all subjection or subor- 
 dination of one portion of the household of 
 faith to the control of another, and all distinc- 
 tions between clergymen and laymen, which 
 would be incompatible with the most fraternal 
 and affectionate feelings and intercourse. — 
 Matt. XX. 27. Whateley, Essay II, Sec. 16. 
 
 Q. 10. What system of ecclesiastical polity 
 and church-order may be considered as the 
 most perfect ? 
 
 A. That which is most in harmony with 
 all the principles and precepts of Christianity, 
 best secures the regular and profitable observ- 
 ance of Christian ordinances, and most effectu- 
 ally attains all the ends of Christian confedera- 
 tion. 
 
 Q. 11. What are the consequences of an 
 error of judgment in regulating a church 1 
 
 A. The error is not fatal to the being of a 
 church, the members of which are united to- 
 gether in a Christian spirit, agreeably, as they 
 suppose, to the rules of the Gospel. But the 
 error will be apt, in a greater or less degree, to 
 mar their piety and impair their usefulness. 
 
12 GENERAL PRINCIPLES 
 
 Whoever insists that an association of Chris- 
 tians cannot be a church, unless they are or- 
 ganized and governed in strict accordance with 
 a fixed and perfect model, must account for 
 the omission of such a platform of government 
 in the New Testament, and for the smiles of 
 divine providence on all Christian sects who 
 agree in holding the Head, however they may 
 differ in forms and ceremonies. 
 
 Q. 12. Are the members of a local church 
 bound to regard its by-laws and other regula- 
 tions, which are not contrary to the Scriptures, 
 but on the other hand, are not expressly en- 
 joined in them 1 
 
 A. Certainly. Every church must have 
 some rules for conducting its business ; and 
 the determination of these rules must be left 
 to the good sense and judgment of the mem- 
 bers, so far as the sacred writers have not par- 
 ticularly mentioned and prescribed them. The 
 by-laws of the church, therefore, being made 
 in conformity with the divine plan, have the 
 same power to bind the conscience as the 
 enactments of civil government. 
 
 Q. 13. Where does all ecclesiastical power 
 and authority reside ? 
 
 A. Primarily, in the individual communities 
 
OF CHURCH POLITY. 13 
 
 or local churches ; and then in the officers of 
 their appointment, and in the conventions and 
 representative bodies, to which the churches 
 give their sanction. 
 
 Q. 14. Whence does a local church derive 
 all its power ? 
 
 A. From the good pleasure of God, author- 
 izing and requiring Christians to form them- 
 selves into churches, and to regulate all their 
 proceedings according to their discretion, in 
 conformity with the laws of God. 
 
 Q. 15. Are officers an essential part of a 
 church ? 
 
 A. A church may exist without officers, like 
 any other corporation or society, but it is not 
 prepared to act efficiently and in a regular 
 manner, until it becomes an organized body, or 
 has officers to preside over its movements and 
 to execute its will. 
 
 Q. 16. What is it that imparts official power 
 to the officers of a church ? 
 
 A. Their election or appointment by the 
 church according to its by-laws, and their for- 
 mal induction into office agreeably to the same 
 laws. 
 
 Q. 17. What are the limits and boundaries 
 of official power in the officers of a church ? 
 2 
 
14 GENERAL PRINCIPLES 
 
 A. Each officer possesses precisely those 
 powers, and those only, which the church 
 gave to him, when it appointed him to be a 
 church officer. 
 
 Q. 18. Do the Scriptures prescribe the 
 number, the grades, and the powers of church 
 officers ? 
 
 A. They do not. They leave each church 
 at liberty to follow its own discretion in this 
 matter, and only admonish them to keep in 
 sight the great principles of their religion, and 
 to preserve themselves a holy, spiritual body. 
 
 Q. 19. What obedience is due to church 
 officers ? 
 
 A. Such as is due from the citizens of a 
 free State, or the members of any voluntary 
 association, to those whom they have invested 
 with official power. 
 
 Q. 20. Are the churches under obligation 
 to provide for the temporal support of their re- 
 ligious teachers ? 
 
 A. Yes. Consult 1 Cor. ix. 14. 2 Cor. xi. 
 7-9, and 12, 13. Yet we have no evidence 
 that in the primitive church any except the 
 traveling preachers, Apostles, and Evangel- 
 ists, derived their support from the people. 
 The elders and teachers of the local churches 
 
OF CHURCH POLITY. 15 
 
 probably supported themselves by their own 
 industry, not being wholly occupied in the 
 service of the church. 
 
 Q. 21. In what relation do local churches 
 stand to each other ? 
 
 A. As churches, they are entirely distinct 
 and independent bodies, with no jurisdiction or 
 control over each other. But as they are asso- 
 ciations of the same class of people, for the 
 very same purposes, and under the same Christ- 
 ian principles, the most perfect cordiality, and 
 the mutual interchange of kind offices, should 
 exist among them. And they may and should 
 form confederacies for their common benefit, 
 so far as circumstances will permit ; and they 
 not only may establish rules for friendly inter- 
 course and correspondence, but they may or- 
 ganize synods, or conventions of delegates, to 
 superintend their common interests, and clothe 
 them with such powers as are compatible with 
 the principles of Christianity and the best 
 interests of the churches. 
 
 Q. 22. In what relation do the churches in 
 any country stand to the State or civil power ? 
 
 A. In that of voluntary associations, which 
 owe obedience and respect to the laws, and 
 
16 GENERAL PRINCIPLES, &C. 
 
 are entitled to protection, and to entire freedom 
 in the management of their own affairs in their 
 own way, provided they do not violate the 
 riffhts of other citizens. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCHES, OR OF THOSE WHICH WERE 
 GATHERED AND ORGANIZED IN THE APOS- 
 TOLIC AGE. 
 
 Q. 23. In what acceptations or senses is 
 the word Church used in the New Testa- 
 ment? 
 
 A. Sometimes it denotes the aggregate or 
 whole number of professed believers of the 
 gospel, or what is called the Universal Visible 
 Church: see Philip, iii. 6. 1 Cor. xii. 28. 
 Eph. iii. 21. At other times it denotes all 
 the redeemed and sanctified, or the Universal 
 Invisible Church : see Matt. xvi. 1 8. Eph. i. 
 22, and iii. 10, and v. 24, 25, &c. But most 
 commonly it denotes the organized body of 
 Christians assembling regularly for worship in 
 a particular place, town or city, or what may 
 2* 
 
18 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 be called a Local Church : Acts ii. 47. 1 Cor. 
 xiv. 23. Acts ix. 31, and xv. 41, &c. 
 
 Q. 24. When a Jew or Pagan was convert- 
 ed to Christianity, what religious rites did he 
 pass under ? 
 
 A. He was baptized in the name of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit : Matt, 
 xxviii. 19. 
 
 This baptism was ordinarily administered by the teach- 
 er that converted him, or by an attendant of the teacher, 
 and as soon as the genuineness of his conversion was 
 manifested. Acts ii. 38, 41, and viii. 12, 13, 36-38, and 
 ix. 18, and x. 47, 48, and xvi. 33, and xviii. 8, John iv. 
 2, 1 Cor. i. 14. After such baptism, it was not un- 
 common for an apostle to lay his hand upon the convert 
 and pray that he might receive the Holy Spirit. Acts viii. 
 15, 17, 19, and xix. 6. 
 
 Q. 25. Did a person by passing under these 
 rites become a member of any local church? 
 
 A. No. He thereby became no more than 
 a visible Christian, or a member of the univer- 
 sal visible church. Such must have been the 
 case with the Eunuch, whom Philip baptized, 
 Acts viii. 36, and with all the first converts in 
 any place to which the gospel was carried, 
 until a church could be there established. 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 19 
 
 Q. 26. What proof is there that in the apos- 
 tolic age, there were no diocesan or provincial 
 or national churches embracing many congre- 
 gations ? 
 
 A. No such ecclesiastical body is men- 
 tioned or alluded to, throughout the New Tes- 
 tament ; the word church is never so used in 
 reference to Christians ; no epistle is addressed 
 to such an ecclesiastical body ; and no action 
 of any such body, or of its officers, is recorded 
 in the New Testament. On the contrary, we 
 find that the seven churches in the province of 
 Proconsular Asia, are called " the seven 
 churches of Asia," Rev. i. 4, 11, 20 ; each of 
 them is designated by the city where it was 
 located ; and each is addressed as a distinct 
 and a whole church : Rev. ii. and iii. And 
 whenever churches of any province or country 
 are spoken of, they are uniformly designated 
 as the churches of that province : for example, 
 " the churches of Galatia" and '' the churches 
 of Asia," 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 19 ; "the churches of 
 Macedonia," 2 Cor. viii. 1 ; " the churches of 
 Judea," Gal. i. 22 ; Paul went through Sy- 
 ria confirming the churches. Acts xv. 41. 
 The general epistles of the apostles, Peter, 
 James, and John, are not addressed to churches, 
 
20 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 but to Christians generally, or to the individu- 
 al converts in certain countries or provinces, 
 just as if there vrere no ecclesiastical ties or 
 combinations uniting them in larger masses or 
 in well known provincial and national bodies. 
 
 Q. 27. What evidence have we that the 
 early Christians were combined together in 
 regular organized bodies, or that their local 
 churches were not merely fortuitous meetings 
 of such Christians as happened to get to- 
 gether ? 
 
 A. 1. The brethren in each particular city 
 or town had regular and permanent officers or- 
 dained over them, who were charged with the 
 performance of appropriate functions in their 
 respective churches : Acts xiv. 23, and xv. 4, 6, 
 23, and xx. 17. Titus i. 5. 1 Tim. v. 1, 17, 
 19, and iii. 3-8, &c. James v. 14. 1 Peter 
 v. 1-5. 
 
 A. 2. Letters were addressed to the breth- 
 ren, through their officers ; and their past his- 
 tory and conduct as permanent bodies were 
 scanned, and warnings and exhortations in re- 
 gard to their future conduct addressed to them : 
 see the epistles to the seven churches of Asia, 
 Rev. chap. i. and ii. Philip, i. 1, and ii. 19, 
 25, &c. Col. i. 1-11,21-23. 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 21 
 
 A. 3. The brethren were charged with the 
 maintenance of watchfulness over each other, 
 with caution whom they admitted to fellow- 
 ship, and with the discipline and excommuni- 
 cation of incorrigible offenders against the 
 laws of Christianity : Matt, xviii. 15-18. Heb. 
 X. 25. IThess. V. 14. 1 Cor. v. 1-13. 2 
 Thess. iii. 14, 15. 
 
 Q. 28. How were the early Christians dis- 
 tributed and aggregated into these organized 
 bodies, called churches ? 
 
 A. Not by the decrees or commands of any 
 Qcclesia^ical authorities, (as enlisted soldiers 
 are distributed into companies and regiments 
 by their commanding officers,) but by a volun- 
 tary union among themselves, with the appro- 
 bation and advice of those who were instrumen- 
 tal in their conversion. 
 
 For, in the absence of the compulsory power of either 
 civil or ecclesiastical courts, the only possible way of form- 
 ing churches, is by the voluntary confederation of indi- 
 viduals. The primitive Christians, doubtless, followed 
 the instructions and ad\Tice of the apostles and evangelists, 
 but they followed as freemen. They were drawn togeth- 
 er by their common views, common hopes, and common 
 desire to enjoy Christian fellowsliip and ordinances, and 
 to conform their conduct to the will of Christ, and com- 
 bine their strength in extending the blessings of his king- 
 
22 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 dom. 2 Cor. viii. 8. Acts ii. 41-47, and v. 12-14, and 
 xiv. 22, 23. 
 
 Q. 29. What limits had the primitive 
 churches, both as to the nmnber of members, 
 and the extent of territory allotted to each ? 
 
 A. No precise limits, probably, were estab- 
 lished ; though all the Christians in a city or 
 town, seem to have constituted but one church, 
 for we never read of two churches in the same 
 place. 
 
 Yet Cenchrea, one of the ports of Corinth, a few miles 
 from it, had a separate church : Rom. xvi. 1. ^The Greek 
 word, translated "church," properly denotes an assembly 
 or congregation of people called together ; and Paul, 1 
 Cor. xiv. 2.3, speaks of " the whole church at Corinth, 
 being come together into one place, and all speaking 
 with tongues," as producing confusion ; and he directs 
 the Corinthians to regulate their meetings, so that " all 
 things be done decently and in order." The primitive 
 churches seem always to have been named either from 
 the city or village where the members resided, or from 
 the building in which the church held its meetings. 
 Rom. xvi. 5. 1 Cor. xvi. 19. Col. iv. 15. Philem. 2. 
 
 Q. 30. Had these local churches any formal 
 Articles of confederation or written Church- 
 Covenants 1 
 
 A. The new Testament does not inform us : 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 23 
 
 but it is most probable they had neither writ- 
 ten covenants, nor written creeds. Yet we 
 cannot suppose them ignorant of the ends and 
 objects of their union in churches, and of their 
 duties and obligations as members of such fra- 
 ternities. They were formed into churches 
 by the apostles themselves, and the assistants 
 of the apostles ; and they were instructed and 
 counseled from time to time by inspired men, 
 both orally and by epistles. That they had 
 definite rules and regulations for their ecclesi- 
 astical proceedings, is manifest. See Acts 
 xvi. 4. 1 Cor. vii. 17, and xiv. 33-37. 2 Cor. 
 xi. 28. 1 Thess. ii. 13, 14, and iv. 1, 2. 
 
 Q. 31. In what relation did these primitive 
 churches stand to each other ? 
 
 A. They were completely independent bod- 
 ies. That is, they had power to appoint and 
 to depose their own officers, to administer dis- 
 cipline, and to regulate and determine all their 
 other ecclesiastical concerns, subject to no 
 court of appeal or higher power having author- 
 ity to reverse their decisions. They were 
 united to one another by the ties of a common 
 faith, common hopes, and common aims ; but 
 they acknowledged no subjection or subordi- 
 nation of one church to another ; nor did they 
 
24 CONSTITUTIOxV OF THE 
 
 in the Apostolic age enter into any confedera- 
 tion of churches, thereby creating a central 
 power having dominion over them all. See 
 Murdock's Mosheim, Cent. I, P. II, Ch. II, 
 ^ 14, and Cent. II, P. II, Ch. II, ^ 1, 2. 
 
 Q. 32. What is the evidence of this inde- 
 pendency of the primitive churches ? 
 
 A. 1. There is no account in the Scriptures 
 of the appointment, or notice of the existence 
 of any prelate, presbytery, or consociation of 
 churches, having power to review and reverse 
 the decisions of particular churches, or to over- 
 rule their doings : nor is there any instance in 
 which their acts were reviewed and set aside 
 by any such authority. This omission to men- 
 tion such a tribunal can be accounted for only 
 on the supposition, that no tribunal of the kind 
 existed. 
 
 A. 2. The Apostles themselves referred to 
 the brotherhood every question, not determined 
 by revelation, respecting the order and govern- 
 ment of the churches. The question about 
 circumcision. Acts xv. 22-32, was decided by 
 the joint action of the Apostles, Elders, and 
 " whole church." The appointment of El- 
 ders was made by a vote of the brethren. Com- 
 pare Acts xiv. 23, with 2 Cor. viii. 19. The 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 25 
 
 word rendered " ordained" in the former pas- 
 sage, is rendered in the other, " chosen" of the 
 churches. The sense in Acts xiv. 23, is, 
 " when they had by election or vote of the 
 brethren provided them with Elders in every 
 church." 
 
 A. 3. The rejection, deposition, or exclu- 
 sion from the church, of unworthy teachers, 
 belonged to each particular church. One of 
 the seven churches of Asia is commended for 
 trying false teachers, Rev. ii. 2 ; and another 
 is censured for tolerating them, Rev. ii. 20. 
 The churches are also commanded, 1 John iv. 1, 
 to try " the spirits," that is, the teachers of re- 
 ligion, for the purpose, evidently, of deciding 
 who were worthy of confidence, and of forbid- 
 ding those to teach in their assemblies, who 
 should be found unworthy. 
 
 A. 4. Particular churches are expressly rec- 
 ognized as independent communities, admit- 
 ting and excluding persons as members, Rom. 
 xiv. 1, 1 Cor. V. 1-7, without appeal from 
 their decisions, which manifestly includes all 
 the powers of self-government. 
 
 Q. 33. After what general pattern were the 
 first Christian churches modeled and regula- 
 ted? 
 
 3 
 
26 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 A. In a great measure after the pattern of 
 the Jewish synagogues ; and not, as some have 
 supposed, after the pattern of the Mosaic in- 
 stitutions for the national worship in the Tab- 
 ernacle and Temple, in which there were 
 three orders of proper clergymen, the High- 
 priest, the Priests, and the Levites. See this 
 subject ably and fully discussed in Camp. 
 Vitringa de Synagoga Vetere Libri Tres. 
 Franeker. 1696, pp. 1138, 4to. See also 
 Lightfoot, Horae Hebr, et Talmud, in Matt, 
 iv. 23. Whateley's Kingdom of Christ, Es- 
 say II, sec. 9. 
 
 It was perfectly natural for the first Christians, who 
 being native Jews were accustomed all their hves to at- 
 tend on the synagogues, to form and organize their re- 
 ligious fraternities, and to regulate their public worship, 
 after the model of the synagogue. They could have sim- 
 ilar officers, manage their ecclesiastical affairs in much 
 the same way, and adopt the very same modes of wor- 
 ship, by merely substituting Clu'istian principles and 
 Christian doctrines for those of the Rabbis. Such 
 churches, Uke synagogues, could be erected with no diffi- 
 cult}', in any place or country, wherever a sufficient 
 number of members could be found ; and the ordhiary 
 worship was to be substantially the same in both, 
 namely, the reading and expounding of the Holy 
 Scriptures, accompanied with religious exhortations, and 
 with pubUc prayer and praise. On the contrary, the 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 27 
 
 Christian dispensation did not rcquiie, nor would it ad- 
 mit of the offices of a Highpriest, and common priests, 
 with attending Levites; nor were the ceremonies and 
 the higlily typical worship of the temple, which were de- 
 signed to foreshadow the coming Messiah and the way 
 of salvation by Him, at all suited to the noonday light of 
 gospel times, and to the more direct and spiritual wor- 
 ship which God now requires. 
 
 Q. 34. Will you state the origin, the objects, 
 and the constitution of the ancient Jewish syn- 
 agogues ? 
 
 A. Synagogues appear to have formed no 
 part of the original Mosaic establishment, but 
 to have been a device of Ezra and the devout 
 men of his times, for diffusing religious 
 knowledge and piety among the people. They 
 were popular assemblies, in which all classes 
 of people met together fraternally, on the Sab- 
 bath and on festival days, to hear the Scrip- 
 tures read and explained, to offer prayer and 
 praise to God, and to receive religious instruc- 
 tion from any persons competent and willing to 
 give it. See Prideaux's Connections, Part I, 
 B. VI. Anno 434, and Vitringa de Synagoga 
 Vetere. 
 
 As civil and sacred things in the Jewish Theocracy 
 were completely blended together, all the public institu- 
 
28 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 tions of any Jewish city, as well the rehgious and litera- 
 ry as the civil, were under the official direction and con- 
 trol of one single board of rulers, called The Elders of 
 the city. According to the Talmudic writers, this 
 board consisted of three men, weU read in the Jewish 
 law, chosen annually and constituting a local Sanhedrim 
 under the great national Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. They 
 decided whether a synagogue should be builded, where it 
 should be located, on what occasions it should be opened 
 for pubUc worship, what rehgious exercises should be 
 held, who might be admitted to fellowship in that wor- 
 sliip, and who be excluded from it, or be " put out of the 
 synagogue." They also attended and presided in the 
 principal synagogue of their local jurisdiction, and were 
 the only persons having authoritative control over the 
 proceedings there. See Vitringa, p. 550-555. In conse- 
 quence of their possessing this power, they were called, 
 dj3;^i(rvvay wyot, rulers of the synagogue. Mark v. 22, 35, 
 &c. Acts xiii. 15, and xviii. 8, 17. Vitringa, p. 610. 
 
 But although the Elders of each city had the entire 
 control of all the synagogues in it, they were not offi- 
 cially, or by virtue of their relation to the synagogues, the 
 persons whose duty it was to read and expound the 
 Scriptures to the people, to recite the public prayers, and 
 to give public religious instruction. For, in ancient 
 times, there were no officers in a synagogue, to whom 
 these duties appropriately belonged, but all the male per- 
 sons present, who were competent and of reputable char- 
 acter, might be and actually were called out successively 
 to perform these services, in accordance with certain 
 rules of decorum and courtesy : Vitringa, p. 947. And 
 hence the whole regular service of the synagogues might 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 29 
 
 be, and often was, performed without even the presence 
 of an Elder: for there were numerous synagogues on 
 which no Elder could ordinarily attend ; as in small 
 towns and villages which had no Elders, and in the 
 large cities which had more synagogues than Elders. 
 Nazareth had probably no Elders, (see Luke iv. 16-30,) 
 and Jerusalem is said to have contained several hxmdred 
 synagogues. 
 
 The most indispensable functionary in a synagogue 
 was the minister, virriperris, Hebr. (jnD!D3?l I-IH/j or 
 
 the pubhc servant of the congregation, who had charge at 
 all times of the house, its furniture, utensils and books, and 
 who, in time of worship, brought forward the sacred vol- 
 ume, called forth the readers, pointed out to them the 
 lessons of the day and inspected their reading ; and when 
 the reading closed he returned the book to its place ; 
 Vitringa, p. 890. The Rabbis tell us, tliis functionary 
 was not himself the reader of the lessons, but his duty 
 was to caU forth readers at each pubhc service, seven 
 persons successively, first a priest, if one were present, 
 then a Levite, and then five laymen. While they read 
 he was to look over them, and to point out tlieir errors 
 and mistakes in a low tone of voice, so that they might 
 correct themselves on the spot. He also called for a 
 translator. For the Scriptures were read in Hebrew, 
 and translated into the vernacular tongue on the spot by 
 some other person than the reader — the books of Moses, 
 verse by verse, and the lessons from the Prophets, three 
 verses at a time. 'And the translator must not read from 
 any written translation, but must give a translation of 
 his own. He might, also, paraphrase or explain the text 
 3* 
 
30 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 if he saw fit, but he must express himself modestly and 
 with no ostentation. The translating of the lesson was a 
 less honorable function than the reading of it : Vitringa, 
 pp. 979, 1018, &c. 
 
 The Liturgy, or the written forms of prayer, (if such 
 forms existed in the Apostolic age,) were few and sim- 
 ple, and such as might be, and actually were, read by 
 any grave and competent person in the assembly, called 
 out by the minister (ITH)* Vitringa, p. 1093. But af- 
 terwards the Liturgy was greatly enlarged ; and it be- 
 came so comphcated that it required some experience to 
 read it properly, and therefore this service was assigned 
 to a particular officer in each synagogue : Vitringa, p. 
 1093. The man who thus led the congregation to the 
 throne of grace, or who, in behalf of the assembly, pre- 
 sented before God their united prayers and praise, was 
 called on this account, the (*|^)31 IS n^DtS) (ayyc^os ttjs 
 cKKWriaCai) Angel or Messenger of the congregation : 
 Vitringa, p. 905. During the recitation of the prayers, 
 
 the minister ('l^H/ waved a handkerchief from time 
 to time to notify the people when to give the responses : 
 Vitringa, pp. 1124, &,c. 
 
 Besides the reading of the Scriptures and the recita- 
 tion of the prayers, extempore sermons or addresses to 
 the people were made by one or more persons, if any per- 
 sons competent to instruct happened to be present and 
 were disposed to speak. These discQurses were of two 
 kinds ; the one in connection with the reading of the 
 Scripture lessons, and explanatory of them, the exposi- 
 tor being any priest, Levite, or layman learned in the 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 31 
 
 law, {vofiiKdi,) who might be present, (Vitringa, p. 688, 
 &c. :) the other after the reading of the lessons and the 
 prayers, being direct addresses to the people, based on 
 some passage of Scripture, or without a text, occasion- 
 ally made by an Elder, (Vitringa, pp. 694, 696,) or by 
 any grave and learned man in the assembly, and even 
 by strangers incidentally present: Vitringa, p. 704. 
 Jesus Cln-ist and his Apostles often thus preached in the 
 synagogues: Matt. iv. 23, and xiii. 54. Ltike iv. 16. 
 John vi. 59, and xviii. 20. Acts iv. 20, and xiii. 5, 14- 
 16, and xiv 1, and xvii. 2, 17, and xviii. 4, 26. 
 
 Q. 35. In what respects were the order and 
 government of the primitive churches different 
 from those of synagogues ? 
 
 A. 1. As Christ's kingdom is not of this 
 world, the officers of a church had no civil 
 power, and could inflict no civil pains or pen- 
 alties on offenders. 
 
 A. 2. As there was at first only one church 
 in a city, each church had its own board of El- 
 ders ; who of course were the proper and ap- 
 propriate officers of that church, and were or- 
 dinarily present to direct and to take an active 
 part in all the meetings of the church, whether 
 for business or for worsnip. 
 
 A. 3. The board of Elders in a church 
 seems not to have been limited to just three 
 
32 CONSTITUTION, &C. 
 
 members, nor to have been annually renewed 
 by re-election. 
 
 A. 4. Instead of one (l^n) Deacon, the 
 
 churches seem to have had several, and they 
 probably performed a greater variety of duties 
 than were assigned to the Deacons of syna- 
 gogues. 
 
 A. 5. The worship in the primitive churches, 
 though conducted on the same social principles, 
 was probably less conformed to a fixed and 
 established rubric ; for there was not a formal 
 liturgy, and probably no stated lessons of 
 Scripture to be read. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 
 
 Q. 36. What general classification would 
 you make of the officers in the primitive 
 church ? * 
 
 A. They may be divided into two classes — 
 officers in the church universal, and officers 
 over single local churches. 
 
 Q. 37. What officers in the primitive 
 churches were of the first class ? 
 
 A. The Apostles and their coadjutors, com- 
 monly called Evangelists. 
 
 Q. 38. What was the Apostolic office, and 
 how did it originate ? 
 
 A. The Apostles were those extraordinary 
 officers of the Church Universal, who were 
 instructed and commissioned by Christ him- 
 self, to be his immediate legates or ambassa- 
 dors to all nations, and the authorized publish- 
 ers and expounders of the Christian religion, 
 
34 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 not only to that, but to all subsequent genera- 
 tions ; and who were enabled to authenticate 
 their mission by miracles : Matt, xxviii. 18-20. 
 Mark xvi. 15-20. John xv. 15, 16, 18-21, 26, 
 27. 2 Cor. V. 19, 20. 
 
 Q. 39. What official powers did the Apos- 
 tles possess ? 
 
 A. They had power to give authoritative ex- 
 positions of the Christian religion, and to ad- 
 minister all Christian ordinances everywhere. 
 They were also authorized to instruct, exhort, 
 and admonish men of all classes, conditions, 
 and ranks in the church, and out of it ; but 
 they had no power to command or to coerce. 
 Their power was only moral or persuasive. 
 
 In all their epistles, they state authoritatively what 
 ought to be done, and why ; but they never say, By vir- 
 tue of my Apostolic office, I command or decree that 
 you do thus and so. On the contrary, after an exposition 
 of Christian duty, they entreat, exhort, admonish, and 
 urge by motives suited to persuade. Thus, 1 Thess. iv. 
 10-12. Philem. V. 8-10. -1 Cor. chap. V. See also the 
 latter part of all the epistles of Paul. They contain no 
 official decrees, no judicial sentences, but most elaborate 
 counsels, admonitions, and exhortations. 
 
 Q. 40. In what relation did the Apostles 
 stand to the local churches ? 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 35 
 
 A. In the relation of founders, fathers, 
 guides, and friends ; but not in that of official 
 rulers and governors. They neither enacted 
 by-laws for them, decided controversies in 
 them, nor executed their commands. They 
 were to the local churches very much what the 
 ancient prophets were to the Jewish Church, 
 not their officers, but the guides of both officers 
 and private members. 
 
 Q. 41. Did they divide the world into apos- 
 tolical provinces, each occupying one as his 
 exclusive charge or field of labor ? 
 
 A. No : they made no formal division, but 
 they agreed from time to time in which direc- 
 tion to travel, and among what classes of peo- 
 ple each should especially labor. Thus Paul 
 was more the Apostle of the Gentiles, and Pe- 
 ter the Apostle of the Circumcision : Gal. ii. 7, 
 8, 9. See also 2 Cor. x. 13-16. 
 
 Church history has preserved some vague traditions of 
 their separating and going into different fields of labor. 
 Euseb. B. Ill, Ch. I. Mosliiem's Institutes, Cent I., 
 P. I, Ch. IV, Sec. 1, 6. Yet we repeatedly find two or 
 more of them present and exercising their office in the 
 same place, and in one instance disagreeing and con- 
 tending: Gal. U. 11-1.3. Acts xv. 6, 13, 22. Their 
 epistles were also addressed, sometimes to the same lo- 
 
36 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 cal churches. Thus Peter addressed the Cliristians scat- 
 tered tlirougliout " Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
 and Bithynia," in all wliich provinces Paul labored 
 much, planted many churches, and addressed epistles to 
 several of them. 
 
 Q. 42. What was the office of the Evan- 
 gelists ? 
 
 A. As the twelve Apostles could not person- 
 ally preach the Gospel everywhere, and nurse 
 adequately all the infant churches till they were 
 able to dispense with foreign aid, they chose the 
 most enlightened and competent of their fellow 
 Christians to be their assistants, their travel- 
 ing companions, and their envoys to visit and 
 reside temporarily in certain districts of coun- 
 try, in order to instruct the converts more fully 
 and organize them into churches. Besides 
 these immediate coadjutors of the Apostles, 
 many other of the early Christians took upon 
 them the office of public teachers and propa- 
 gators of Christianity. And they were en- 
 couraged by the Apostles in doing so, for in 
 that early age, any private Christian might 
 preach the Gospel and administer its ordinan- 
 ces, without any formal license or consecra- 
 tion to the work. 
 
 That unordainud men were encouraged to preach the 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 37 
 
 Gospel, and were useful, is apparent from the liistory of 
 Apollos, Acts xviii. 24-28, who, being merely a disciple 
 of John the Baptist, but mighty in the Scriptures, when 
 instructed by Aquila and his wife Priscilla, immediately 
 commenced preaching at Ephesus, and was thence 
 recommended to Corinth, where he was so successful a 
 preacher, that Paul says, 1 Cor. iii. 6, " I have planted, 
 Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." See 
 Gieseler's Text Book, by Cunningham, vol. i. p. 58, and 
 Coleman's Christian Antiquities, p. 49. 
 
 Q. 43. Have the offices of Apostles and 
 Evangelists continued to exist in the Christian 
 church down to modern times ? 
 
 A. The office of Apostles has not continued, 
 and from the nature of it, could not become 
 permanent. But the office of Evangelists, 
 under different regulations, has existed in all 
 ages ; and it still continues in the missionaries 
 to the unevangelized, and in the ministers of 
 the Gospel who labor among the feeble and 
 vacant churches, or who otherwise serve the 
 Church Universal, without having the pastoral 
 care of any local church. 
 
 Q. 44. What officers of the second class, or 
 officers of local churches, are recognized in 
 the New Testament ? 
 
 A. Two distinct orders, namely, Elders and 
 Deacons. 
 
 4 
 
38 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 Q. 45. What were the Elders of a local 
 church ? 
 
 A. A Board of their most competent men, 
 appointed to take the oversight of the little 
 community, and to manage all its concerns, 
 agreeably to the by-laws of the association. 
 
 Q. 46. What evidence have we that they 
 were a Board ? 
 
 A. 1. There was a plurality of elders in 
 each church. Acts xiv. 23, and xv. 4, and xx. 
 17. Titus i. 5. James v. 14. 1 Pet. v. 1. 
 
 A. 2. They are always addressed collec- 
 tively. See Acts xx. 17. Phil. i. 1. 
 
 A. 3. We find no intimation of any distinc- 
 tion of rank or power among them. 
 
 A. 4. Christian churches were modeled after 
 the form of the Jewish SvnaofOffues, which are 
 acknowledged to have been under the control 
 of a Board of Elders. 
 
 If these elders constituted a Board, they 
 would of course need, and doubtless had, a 
 Moderator or Chairman. See Vitringa, de 
 Synag. Vet. Lib. I, Cap. II. 
 
 Q. 47. What were their official titles, or 
 designations as officers ? 
 
 A. Their most common title is that of 
 Elders ; as in the texts above cited : but they 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 39 
 
 were also called Bishops or Overseers ; as in 
 Phil. i. 1. Acts XX. 28. 1 Tim. iii. 2. Titus 
 i. 7. 
 
 That the titles Bishops and Elders designate one and 
 the same order of church officers in the New Testament, 
 has been so fully sliown by various writers, from Jerome 
 A. D. 380 to the present time, that it is unnecessary to 
 repeat the proof. See, for example, Gieseler's Text 
 Book, by Cunningham, vol. i, sec. 29, Note 1 ; and 
 sec. 32, Note 2. 
 
 Q. 48. How were the Elders appointed and 
 inducted into office ? 
 
 A. They were elected by the brethren of 
 their respective churches, and were solemnly 
 invested with office by prayer and the imposi- 
 tion of hands. 
 
 I'he proofs that local churches appointed 
 their own Elders by election, are : 
 
 1. All the designations to office in the local 
 churches described in the New Testament, 
 were by the free choice of the people ; for 
 example, the seven Deacons, Acts vi. 6, and 
 " the brother — chosen of the churches to travel 
 with Paul" to Jerusalem, and carry the contri- 
 butions to the saints there, 2 Cor. viii. 19. 
 Delegates were also chosen by the church at 
 Antioch, to go to Jerusalem, with Paul and 
 
40 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 Barnabas, to the consultation respecting the 
 circumcision of Gentiles, Acts xv. 2. And 
 even a successor to Judas in the Apostleship, 
 was elected in a popular assembly, who chose 
 two men, and then cast lots between them, 
 Acts i. 23-26. 
 
 2. The Apostles nowhere claimed controll- 
 ing power over local churches, or asserted the 
 right to appoint their officers. On the con- 
 trary, they treated these churches as bands of 
 brethren, perfectly free and independent, and 
 only took upon themselves to make known to 
 them the will of God. 
 
 3. Local churches being altogether volun- 
 tary associations, (Ques. 28,) their right to ap- 
 point their own officers would follow of course. 
 
 4. The principle, that no elder or bishop 
 should be imposed on any church, but that their 
 free consent was necessary, previous to in- 
 duction, continued during three centuries. See 
 Murdock's Mosheim, Cent. I, P. II, Oh. II, 
 Sec. 6. Coleman's Christian Antiquities, p. 60. 
 Gieseler's Text Book, by Cunningham, vol. i, 
 p. 158. That the ordinary mode of inducting 
 a person into office, or of designating him to 
 any important service in the churches, was by 
 prayer, with fasting, and the laying on of hands, 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 41 
 
 by the Presbytery or Elders, seems manifest 
 from Acts vi. 6, and xiii. 3, and xiv. 22, 1 Tim. 
 iv. 14. 
 
 Q. 49. What were their official powers and 
 duties ? 
 
 A. Their official powers were precisely such 
 as the constitution of the churches gave them. 
 They were properly executive officers, and 
 not either legislative or judicial. Their duties 
 were, to preside in all meetings of the body, 
 aid in their deliberations, and execute their 
 decisions ; to see that the by-laws were carried 
 into effect ; and to be ensamples, guides, and 
 counselors to all the brethren. 
 
 That such were their powers and duties, appears from 
 the significant titles given them, from the terms which 
 denote their official acts, and from the qualifications 
 which were required in them. They bore the significant 
 titles of Overseers or Bishops, {liriaKonoi,) Acts xx. 28. 
 Philip, i. 1. 1 Tim. iii. 2. Titus i. 7. Of Shepherds or 
 Pastors, TToineves, Acts iv. 11. And of Leaders or Pre- 
 siders, Trpoe^cJTes, or 6t npors-ajxevoi, 1 Tim. v. 17. Rom. 
 xii. 8. 1 Thes. v. 12. And their official acts were de- 
 noted by the expressive terms, to guard and guide, as a 
 shepherd his flock, iroifiaiveiv, Acts xx. 28. 1 Peter v. 2. 
 To oversee, eiriTKorreTv, 1 Peter v. 2. To take care of, 
 inifxeXcTOai, 1 Tim. ui. 5. To watch, Yp^yopeTv, Acts xx. 
 31. To help or aid the weak, dvTiXaix0dv£s-9ai, Acts 
 XX. 35. 
 
 4* 
 
42 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 The qualifications required in an Elder were, not deep 
 ^earning, theological or secular; not skill and sound 
 judgment in expounding the Scriptures ; not popular elo- 
 quence or superior talents for public speaking ; but solid, 
 consistent piety, an exemplary life, discreetness in all their 
 conduct, and such a weight of character and such wis- 
 dom of speech, as would fit them to be the influential or 
 head men in their respective communities. See 1 Tim. 
 iii. 2-7. Titus i. 6-9. See also Neander's Apostel- 
 geschichte, I, p. 123, &c. 
 
 Q. 50. Was it not their official duty to preach 
 to the congregations, to lead in their public 
 devotions, and to administer the holy sacra- 
 ment? 
 
 A. No. They were not by virtue of their 
 office, the public teachers of religion nor the 
 leaders of the public devotions ; but like the 
 Elders in the synagogue, they presided over 
 the worship and the reading and exposition of 
 the Scriptures in the Christian assemblies. At 
 the same time they had the right, as individ- 
 uals, to take an active part in public worship, 
 so far as they saw fit, and as seemed to meet 
 the wants and wishes of the congregation. 
 And as they were the most intelligent and 
 influential men in their respective bodies, we 
 may suppose, that ordinarily they were the 
 chief speakers in the worshiping assemblies, 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 43 
 
 except when an Apostle or Evangelist, or some 
 one having extraordinary spiritual gifts, was 
 present. 
 
 That all male persons had the right of speaking in the 
 assembhes of the early Cliristians, and that the pri\'ilege 
 was sometimes abused, seems to be clearly represented in 
 1 Cor. xiv. 2.3-37. The right would also be inferable from 
 the practice of the s3Tiagogue, after which the first 
 Christian churches copied. See Ques. 34, 35. See also 
 Gieseler's Text Book, by Cunningham, I, p. 58. Nean- 
 der's Apostelgeschichte, I, pp. 30, &c. 127,~«fec. Cole- 
 man's Cliristian Antiquities, p. 49. 
 
 The fact that the religious services of the Primitive 
 Christian assemblies were performed by the brethren, 
 without distinction, shows that those services were not 
 considered the official work of the elders, Heb. x. 25- 
 Still, those elders who were distinguished for their labors 
 in " word and doctrine," deserved the highest considera- 
 tion for their pecuhar exertions and usefulness, 1 Tim- 
 V. 17. And it was a matter of importance in selecting 
 persons for this office, that men well qualified to teach 
 should be chosen, rather than those who would not turn 
 their official influence to so good an accoimt, and who 
 would be less able to silence tlae cavils of the enemies of 
 Christianity, 1 Tim. iii. 2. 
 
 Q. 51. What were the functions of Deacons 
 in the early churches ? 
 
 A. They seem to have been assistants to the 
 Elders, or the public servants of the churches. 
 They acted as messengers and envoys, aided 
 
44 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 in keeping order in the public assemblies, as- 
 sisted in the administration of ordinances, and 
 in the collection and distribution of the public 
 alms, and under the direction of the elders, 
 performed various minor pastoral duties. 
 
 The Scriptures, indeed, afford us but little direct in- 
 formation respecting their functions. The word Deacon 
 properly denotes one who serves : but it is used with great 
 latitude in the New Testament. The seven Deacons 
 mentioned in Acts vi. 1-6, were appointed for a special 
 purpose ; and we ought not to limit the permanent office 
 to the single duty of those special officers. If we con- 
 sider the quaUfications for the office of a Deacon, in 1 
 Tim. iii. 8, 13, we shall see that very nearly the same 
 qualifications were required in Deacons as in Elders: from 
 which we may infer that their duties could not have been of 
 a totally different nature. Besides, it seems to be intimated 
 in V. 13, that the office of Deacon was often a stepping 
 stone to the office of Elder. 
 
 Q. 52. Who were the Prophets and the men 
 of spiritual gifts, in the Apostolic age, and 
 what were their functions ? 
 
 A. Inspiration and miraculous powers were, 
 in those times, conferred not only on the twelve 
 Apostles, but also, in a lower degree, on the 
 Evangelists and teachers, and on other eminent 
 Christians, for the edification of the church, 
 and for the confirmation of the Christian doc- 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 45 
 
 trine : and all these special divine influences 
 were called spiritual gifts, ■)(a^tiixaTa "TTvsojxarixa, 
 because they proceeded from the Holy Spirit, 
 working in those who possessed them. 
 
 These gifts were, tindoubtedly, of inestimable value to 
 the nascent churches : but as they have long since ceased 
 to exist, (their place being suppHed by the New Tes- 
 tament Scriptures, and by an educated Cliristian min- 
 istry,) we cannot expect to obtain very distinct concep- 
 tions of their various phases and operations. It appears 
 that they were imparted as quite an ordinary thing, by 
 the Apostles to their baptized fellow Cliristians, by prayer 
 and the imposition of hands, Acts viii. 15-19, x. 44-47, 
 xi. 15-17, xix. 6. 2 Tim. i. 6. Heb. ii. 4. 
 
 Concerning these spiritual gifts, their variety, their dis- 
 tribution, their uses, and their procedure from the Holy 
 Spirit, Paul discourses at large, in his first Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, chap. xii. It would seem, from his account, 
 that they were shared in some measure or degree, by 
 nearly all true believers in Christ, vs. 7, 11, 12, &,c., and 
 that by means of them the church universal became hke 
 an 'organic living body, composed of many members, 
 each fitted for some office or function beneficial to the 
 whole. But all these possessors of spiritual gifts could 
 not have been office-bearers in the churches ; for we 
 cannot suppose so great a number and variety of public 
 officers as there were of spiritual gifts. Besides, the 
 Apostle himself, v. 12, &c., clearly intimates, that all 
 the possessors of such gifts were not clothed wnth official 
 power over Ihe body ; neither should Ihe^i aspire to be^ 
 but should be content with filling the sphere allotted to 
 
46 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 them : see also Rom. xii, 3-8. There is another pas- 
 sage, Eph. iv. 11, 12, in which Paul has been supposed 
 to enumerate the proper church officers instituted by 
 Clirist himself. But the passage seems rather to enu- 
 merate the principal functionaries, whether officers or 
 not officers, by whom the Gospel dispensation was made 
 efficient in its first promulgation. 
 
 Q. 53. What was the nature and form of 
 Ordination in the Apostolic times ? 
 
 A. Ordination was simply induction into 
 office, or the installment of an officer elect : 
 and it consisted in the devout worship of God, 
 with fasting and prayer, and the imposition of 
 hands, Acts vi. 6, xiii. 3. 
 
 That ordination in the apostoHc times was not a proper 
 consecration, like that of Aaron and his sons to the 
 priesthood, or like that of the Christian clergy in after 
 ages, appears from the terms by wliich it is expressed. 
 The appropriate terms for consecration, as appUed to 
 Aaronic priests, and to later Christian priests, were 
 TzXdcoGig and reXziooi. See the Sept. Ex. xxix. 10, 22, 
 26,27,29,31, 33, 34, 35; and elsewhere, often: also 
 Suicer's Thesaur. Eccles. II, p. 1261 : and compare 
 Heb. vii. 28. But neither of these terms is ever used in 
 the New Testament to denote the ordination of church 
 officers. The words used for this purpose are, ■x^tiporoviixi, 
 to elect or to appoint. Acts xiv. 23 — Kadirn[ih to estab- 
 lish, to set up, Titus i. 5 — and riOri^i, to constitute, 
 1 Tim. ii. 7. And neither of these words in their strict 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 47 
 
 and proper sense imports any thing more than a simple 
 appoijitment to office, or an instaUment in office. See 
 Suicer's Thesaur. Eccles. II, p. 1512, &c., and Schleus- 
 ner's Greek Lexicon. 
 
 Q. 54. Did ordination convey to the per- 
 son official powers, which he could not other- 
 wise possess ? 
 
 A. No. The ordination was rather a recog- 
 nition of him as one already clothed with offi- 
 cial powers, by virtue of his previous election 
 or appointment to office. He must necessarily 
 enter on his official duties at some particular 
 time, and it was very suitable to mark that 
 occasion by devoutly commending him to God, 
 in a public assembly, and by supplicating the 
 divine blessing on his official life. 
 
 Q. 55. Were the Apostles and Evangelists 
 and all the officers of local churches thus or- 
 dained ? 
 
 A. We have no evidence that they were ; 
 for in the New Testament, so little importance 
 is given to ordinations, that no precept is re- 
 corded requiring them, and they are seldom 
 mentioned, and then only casually. 
 
 We have no account of the ordination of any one of 
 the Apostles or Evangelists, previous to his entering on 
 his office. Indeed, the only ordination of mdividuals 
 
48 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 mentioned in the New Testament are, (1.) that of the 
 seven Deacons, Acts vi. 6, (2.) that of Paul and Barna- 
 bas by the church at Antioch, when about to commence 
 their missionary tour, Acts xiii. 2, 3, and (3.) that of 
 1 Timothy iv. 14, where Paul speaks of the gifts that 
 Timothy had received by the la3ring on of the hands 
 of the Presbytery and of Paul himself, 1 Tim. iv. 14. 2 
 Tim. i. 6. Besides these particular ordinations, we have 
 general notices of the ordinations of Elders in every 
 church or city. Acts xiv. 23. Titus 1. 5. 
 
 Q. 56. Who had the power of ordaining 
 officers in the primitive church ? 
 
 A. Those, doubtless, who had the power 
 of electing or appointing such officers ; provi- 
 ded they were competent to conduct the sol- 
 emn exercises in a proper manner. 
 
 But the new formed churches would, of course, wish 
 to have the presence and assistance of an Apostle or 
 Evangelist, to perform lor them the solemn services, and 
 to point out the duties both of the officers and those over 
 whom they were placed. And in the older churches, 
 the presence and aid of neighboring church officers and 
 brethren would naturally be desired ; and would greatly 
 tend to strengthen the ties of fellowship and fraternal 
 feeling among contiguous churches. 
 
 Q. 57. Did the officers of the primitive 
 church, by virtue of their ordination, become 
 a distinct order of men from the people, 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 49 
 
 such as the Jewish Priests, and such as the 
 Clergy of the Christian church, in subsequent 
 ,ages ? 
 
 A. No. They did not become a distinct order 
 of men, clothed with a peculiar sanctity in the 
 household of faith ; but were merely the breth- 
 ren charged with certain duties, and invested 
 with certain powers, for the common good of 
 the church. 
 
 See, on this fundamental point, Neander's 
 Kirchengeschichte, vol. i, p. 276, &lc., 299, 
 300. Gieseler's Text Book, by Cunningham, 
 vol. i, sec. 29, p. 58. Henke's Kirchengesch. 
 vol. i, sec. 13, p. 72, &c. G. J. Plank's 
 Gesch. der chrishl. kirchl. Gesellschafts-Ver- 
 fassung, Jahr 68-300, ch. x., vol. i, 149, (fee, 
 and Coleman's Christian Antiqq., p. 66, 67. 
 
 Both the .Jewish Levitical Law and the Pagan reli- 
 gions recognized a holy order of Priests — consecrated 
 persons, standing in nearer relations to the Deity than 
 other men, and who alone could perform certain reU- 
 gious acts, in a manner acceptable to God and profita- 
 ble to the people. But primitive Christianity acknowl- 
 edged only one Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 through whom all beHevers may draw near to God, and 
 make known their wants and present their sacrifices of 
 praise. These fundamental principles were everywhere 
 inculcated by Christ liimself, and by all his Apostles. 
 5 
 
50 OFFICERS, <fcC. 
 
 But in the next age after the Apostles, the Cliristian 
 Churches began to copy after the nations around them ; 
 and very soon the officers of the churches claimed to be 
 a Christian Clergy, made so by their Ordination, and 
 possessing important powers and prerogatives, which 
 they received directly from Christ through the hands of 
 his Apostles and ministers. And thenceforth Ordina- 
 tion became an awful and mysterious transaction, 
 which none but consecrated hands could validly per- 
 form, and which, when so performed, transfoi-med a 
 Christian brother into a clergyman, a holy man, a priest 
 of God, or at least, a competent dispenser of the sacra- 
 ments, and an authorized ruler and teacher in the 
 church. (See Planck, ubi supra, p. 159, &-c.) 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHANGES IN THE ORGANIZATION AND GOVERN- 
 MENT OF THE CHURCHES AFTER THE APOS- 
 TOLIC AGE. 
 
 Q. 58. Did the primitive churches retain, 
 for a long time, their original form and organi- 
 zation ? 
 
 A. No. Changes began to be made as 
 soon as the Apostles were gone, and change 
 after change succeeded, till gradually the 
 whole system of church order was subverted. 
 
 Q. 59. Are we able to trace accurately the 
 commencement and the progress of all these 
 changes ? 
 
 A. We are not ; because the history of the 
 church is nearly a blank for about a century 
 after the Apostles, and it affords but scanty in- 
 formation for a much longer period. 
 
 The writings of the Apostolic Fathers are meagre 
 performances, and, with the exception of the first epis- 
 tle of Clemens Romanus, are of very questionable a u- 
 
52 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 thenticity. The writer next after them is Justin Mar- 
 t3nr, who lived about the middle of the second century. 
 He was followed by the other Apologists, and by Irenae- 
 us and Clemens Alexandrinus, who close the list of 
 Christian visiters in the second century. Now, of all 
 these ^^^iters of the two first centuries, not one has at- 
 tempted any regular delineation of the constitution and 
 order of the Christian Churches in his day ; and it is 
 only on a few occasions that they incidentally drop some 
 remarks bearing on the subject. And when we come 
 to the more voluminous writers of the third century, who 
 give us a fuller view of the chm-ches in their age, we 
 find that very great changes had already been made, 
 of the reality of which, and of their origin and causes, 
 these writers had very inadequate conceptions. 
 
 Q. 60. What was, probably, the first im- 
 portant change in the form and order of the 
 primitive churches ? 
 
 A. The several churches began to have 
 their appropriate religious teachers, who resi- 
 ded constantly among them, presided in their 
 assemblies for worship, taught and instructed 
 the people, administered the sacraments, of- 
 fered up the public prayers, and were at the 
 head of the board of Elders in each church. 
 
 This important and salutary change would naturally 
 occur in the progress of events. For, by continued 
 practice and study, prominent individuals would grad- 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 53 
 
 iially acqiure talents for teaching and ministering in 
 holy things superior to those of their brethren : and as the 
 Spiritual Gifts, doubtless, gradually ceased when the 
 Christian Scriptures became known, and as study and re- 
 flection supplied the place of supernatural enlighten- 
 ment, these brethren would of course become the 
 chief speakers in the public assemblies of their respect- 
 ive churches, or would come to perform regularly and 
 constantly much the same services as had been per- 
 formed by the Apostles and Evangelists when occasion- 
 ally present. They would indeed become a sort of per- 
 manent and stationary successors to the itinerant 
 Apostles and Evangelists. That is, they would be- 
 come, in the language of modern times, the regular 
 pastors and teachers of their respective churches ; yet 
 without excluding the other brethren, and especially the 
 Elders, from the occasional exercise of their gifts. 
 
 These proper teachers and pastors of individual 
 churches were, doubtless, many of them persons who 
 had acquired their knowledge and talents for the minis- 
 try, while filling the offices of Deacon first, and then of 
 Elder. And if so, they would be already clothed with 
 the office of Elder, at the time they became official 
 teachers. And if they had other training, or had come 
 from other chm-ches, they would, doubtless, at once be 
 elected to the office of Elder. And being Elders, and 
 the principal functionaries in their churches, as well as 
 the most enlightened and most eloquent members of 
 their boards, they would of course become the most ac- 
 tive and influential men in the board of Elders. They 
 would be made the standing Moderators, as well as the 
 chief executive officers of those boards ; and the other 
 5* 
 
54 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 Elders, by yielding deference to their opinions, and re^ 
 lying upon tlieir wisdom and powers of execution, 
 would grada^lly come to leave most things to their dis- 
 cretion, or would themselves become little more than the 
 official advisers, or the privy council of these exclusive 
 pastors and teachers. And when this became the state 
 of things, the official titles, Bishop and Presbyter, 
 common to all members of the board, would have a high- 
 er import, when applied to them ; and in process of 
 time might become appropriated to them exclusively, 
 as seems to have been the fact near the close of the 
 second century. 
 
 The earliest intimation of the existence of such an 
 order of officers in local churches, is, perhaps, near the 
 end of the first century, in the superscriptions of the 
 Apocalyptical epistles to ih.Q Angels of the seven churches 
 of Proconsular Asia. Such official teachers of single 
 chm'ches may, for a time, have been called the Angels 
 of their churches, in allusion to the title Angels of the 
 Congregation, in the Jewish Sj-nagogues. (See the 
 answer to Ques. 31.) But against so early a rise of 
 this class of officers, the authority of Clemens Romanus 
 seems to militate ; for he represents the church of Cor- 
 inth, about the year 96, as having only two kinds of offi- 
 cers, namely, a company of Elders or Bishops, and a 
 number of Deacons; and he reproves the Corinthians 
 for having factiously displaced some of their Elders, 
 when they had done nothing censurable. (See his epist. 
 I. ad' Corinth, § 42, 44, 47, 54, 57.) Justin Martyr, 
 however, about fifty years later, very distinctly men- 
 tions a chuich officer, whom lie calls the President, 
 (© vpo£5-o)s,) who instructed the people every Sunday, of- 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 55 
 
 fercd the prayers, blessed the Sacramental bread and was 
 the head and leader of the whole Christian worship. 
 (See his Apol. II, p. 97, 98, ed. Paris, 1636. 
 
 Q. 61. What was the next step of depart- 
 ure from the form and order of the primitive 
 churches ? 
 
 A. The ecclesiastical functionaries gradu- 
 ally imbibed the idea, that their offices were 
 of divine appointment ; that the powers and 
 prerogatives they possessed, did not come to 
 them from their churches, but directly from 
 Christ through a canonical ordination ; that 
 they, of course, constituted a proper clergy, a 
 higher and holier order of persons than the 
 laity ; and that, by divine right, it belonged to 
 them, and to those delegated by them, to rule 
 and govern the church, to admit and exclude 
 members, to preach and instruct the people, to 
 administer the sacraments, and to conduct on 
 all occasions the public worship of God. 
 
 These ideas only glimmer faintly in the un- 
 adulterated writings of the second century ; 
 but in the third and fourth centuries, especial- 
 ly in the latter, they stand out in bold relief in 
 the writings of various ecclesiastics, and in 
 the acts of the synods or councils. 
 
56 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 This supposed divine right of Clergymen only, to bear 
 rule in the churches, and to officiate in holy things, is 
 the radical principle of that High Churchism, which 
 still prevails among various denominations of Christians. 
 For it is, comparatively, of little importance how many 
 grades of church officers w^e admit, or what distribution 
 of power exists among them, provided they are allowed 
 to grasp and to wield all ecclesiastical power, so that 
 the laity have no authority in sacred things, but are sub- 
 jected to the absolute authority of their spiritual lords. 
 
 Q. 62. What simultaneous change occurred 
 in regard to the supposed nature and efficacy 
 of religious rites and ordinances ? 
 
 A. As the ministers of religion were sup- 
 posed to have a divine commission , so all their of- 
 ficial acts and administrations were supposed to 
 be accompanied by a mysterious divine efficacy. 
 And hence, all religious rites and ordinances, 
 instead of being regarded merely as the ap- 
 pointed mediums of worship, acceptable to 
 God and profitable to men so far as they were 
 attended with right views and feelings in the 
 worshiper, came to be regarded with reverence 
 for their own sake, and to be relied upon as 
 the direct and proper mediums of sanctifica- 
 tion. For they were regarded as either the 
 channels through which God causes his grace 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 57 
 
 to flow, or as having in themselves a mysteri- 
 ous efficacy, and, in either case, as transform- 
 ing the character and changing the state of all 
 those to whom they were duly administered. 
 
 Thus Christian Baptism became, either itself regen- 
 eration, or the appointed channel of the regenerating 
 grace of God ; and thus, in either way, it would be the 
 infalUble medium of regeneration, and the door of salva- 
 tion to sinful man. In Hke manner, the Eucharist, if 
 consecrated by one duly authorized, was an appointed 
 and efficient means for sanctifying the heart. So also 
 the official blessing of a clergyman duly ordained, was 
 efficacious before God, and insured the divine favor to 
 the persons on whom it was bestowed. The canonical 
 clergy, moreover, could give a valid Absolution to sin- 
 ners, on certain conditions ; or they could withhold such 
 Absolution, and thereby endanger their eternal salva- 
 tion. Even the chiu-ch buildings, and their vessels and 
 furniture, when duly consecrated by these ministers of 
 God, acquired such a sanctity, that it was sacrilege to 
 use them for any worldly purpose whatever. Moreover, 
 the sign of the cross, and holy water, and Hghted can- 
 dles, and tlie smoke of incense, and other sacred cere- 
 monies and objects, were supposed to be of essential 
 benefit to the souls and bodies of men, when used with 
 due reverence and according to the established ritual. 
 But it was canonical ordination, or the consecration of 
 church officers, by such as had received consecration in 
 a direct line from the Apostles, which was supposed to 
 have the most potent and mysterious efficacy. It trans- 
 
58 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 formed a common Christian into a Clergyman, a holy 
 man of God, and mvested him permanently and forever 
 with all the wonderful powers and prerogatives attribu- 
 ted to these vicegerents of God. 
 
 Q. 63. What change in the condition of the 
 laity, grew out of these high church princi- 
 ples ? 
 
 A. When these principles became fully de- 
 veloped, the condition of the laity was totally 
 changed. For they lost all their sacred rights 
 and privileges as members of a fraternity, or a 
 voluntary association of brethren, and sunk 
 into a state of complete and absolute depend- 
 ence on the clergy. 
 
 The door of admission to church membership could 
 be opened only by the priests. And they allowed no 
 one to enter, till he had passed a long period of proba- 
 tion and instruction in the character of a Catechiunen ; 
 nor even then, without sponsors or God-fathers to give 
 bonds for him. When admitted into the church, the 
 laity held all their privileges at the pleasure of the 
 priests. In the public worship — as in that of the Jew- 
 ish temple — the priests stood between the people and 
 the Deity. The priests alone could approach the altar, 
 offer the pubhc prayer and praise, explain the scriptm-es, 
 instruct and exhort the people, and administer the holy 
 ordinances. Through them alone, as the channels of 
 intercourse, could the laity commune publicly with their 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 59 
 
 Maker and Redeemer in any divine ordinance, or obtain 
 from it the precious benefits wliich it was intended to 
 convey to men. In the discipUne of the church, and in tlie 
 management of all its temporal concerns, the laity were 
 no longer the citizens of a free republic, having a voice _ 
 in the enactment of its laws and in the regulation of 
 both its external and internal affairs. For all ecclesias- 
 tical constitutions and laws were supposed to be either 
 enactments of Jesus Christ himself, or the decrees and 
 decisions of his divinely appointed, and divinely guided, 
 vicegerents ; and therefore they were all held to be so 
 sacred, that no layman might question their wisdom, or 
 even presumfe to interpret them according to his own 
 discretion. The condition of laymen in the church was 
 like that of minor children in a household, who have no 
 voice in the regulation and government of the family, no 
 control of its property, no disposal of any tiling that be- 
 longs to it. Their duties and obligations as church 
 members, were all included in perfect submission, pro- 
 found reverence, and impHcit obedience to those whom 
 Gk)d had constituted their spiritual guardians and 
 guides. 
 
 Q. 64. What was the origin of the Episco- 
 pal Hierarchy, with three orders of Clergy, in 
 the Christian Church ? 
 
 A. The introduction of stated teachers of 
 local churches, as described under the 60th 
 question, and the gradual transfer to them of 
 the principal functions both of worship and 
 government, produced in the end three kinds 
 
60 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 of officers in each church, viz : the Pastor or 
 Bishop, just described, the other Presbyters 
 who were his counselors and assistants, and 
 the Deacons who were the public servants of 
 the church. And when these officers came to 
 be regarded as a proper clergy — an order of 
 consecrated men, and their offices were con- 
 sidered as of divine institution, (see Quest. 
 61,) they very naturally began to compare 
 themselves with the Levitical clergy of the 
 Mosaic dispensation ; and, about the year A. D. 
 200, the splendid titles of Highpriest, Priest, 
 and Levites, were actually applied to them : 
 and at length, it was explicitly maintained 
 that, by divine appointment, the churches con- 
 nected with the mother church of each city 
 should form, in connection with it, a diocese, 
 and be furnished with a bishop and a number 
 of priests and deacons, constituting a complete 
 episcopal hierarchy. 
 
 It is not difficult to conceive how, in the progress of 
 thmgs, such a radical change in the constitution of the 
 churches might take place. For when the Christians in 
 a large city, (e. g. Jerusalem, Rome, Corinth, &lc.) be- 
 came too numerous to assemble conveniently in one 
 house, they would be compelled to meet separately in 
 different places ; and yet they would wish to be consid- 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 6l 
 
 cred but one church or fraternity, and to have one prin- 
 cipal Pastor or Bishop, with several assistants to supply 
 the different meetings. This arrangement would afford 
 opportunity for the presbyters and even for the Deacons, 
 to be much employed in ministering to the different con- 
 gregations, under the direction and supervision of the 
 chief Pastor or Bishop, who might assign them their 
 places of labor from week to week, or appoint them to be 
 stated preachers in the several places of worship. And 
 this arrangement might extend to the immediate sub- 
 urbs of the city, while the several districts more remote, 
 to wliich the city presbyters could not conveniently 
 minister, might form distinct congregations, with either 
 local presbyters, or dependent rural Bishops, (x^pewicr- 
 Koiroi,) for their pastors, but still under the supervision 
 of the cify Bishop. And when Christianity became es- 
 tablished in any of the smaller cities, and a church 
 with the usual officers was instituted, the same process 
 would there go forward, as in the larger cities ; and 
 thus the whole countrj- would become divided into dio- 
 ceses, with diocesan Bishops, numerous presbyters, and 
 preaching Deacons. 
 
 Now when this diocesan form of churches became 
 quite common, as we suppose it did as early as the 
 second century, nothing would be wanting to the com- 
 plete estabUshment of an episcopal hierarchy, but for 
 the various classes of Christian ministers to arrogate to 
 themselves, and the people to accord to them, the char- 
 acter of a proper Clergy by divine appomtment, distrib- 
 uted into three orders, after the pattern of the Levitical 
 priesthood, and dcmving their authority from Christ 
 through the medium of a canoniceil ordination. And if 
 6 
 
62 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 we consider how readily all religious customs and usa- 
 ges acquire sanctity by age, how prone men are to at- 
 tribute holiness both to persons and things in any way 
 connected with religious worship, and how natural it is 
 for all classes of men to improve every fair opportunity 
 for extending their own power and influence ; and if we 
 recollect also, that the people of that age were utter 
 strangers to free constitutions of government in church 
 or state, or were accustomed to arbitreiry power in all 
 pubUc officers, whether civil or religious ; and that a^l 
 the Pagan nations, as well as the Jews, regarded their 
 respective priests as a proper clergy, a holy order of per- 
 sons, invested with powers wliich no others could 
 possess, powers which they derived from the mysterious 
 rites used in their consecration ; we need notjgin view 
 of all these circumstances, regard it as a strange thing, 
 and proof of degenerate piety and unholy ambition in the 
 Christian ministry, if they, under the influence of such 
 causes, gradually swerved from the principles of the 
 apostolic churches, and became at last a complete hie- 
 rarchy. 
 
 The principles here stated will account for the occa- 
 sional mention of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, as 
 three distinct classes of church officers, in the last half 
 of the second century, and before the earhest notice of 
 the hierarchy. For, we may suppose, three grades of 
 church officers actually existed in the church, from the 
 very next age after the Apostles. And hence, if the ex- 
 isting epistles of Ignatius bear marks of a later age than 
 the reign of Trajan, it is not so much by their maintain- 
 ing three distinct grades of churoJi officers. Bishops, 
 Presbyters, and Deacons, at the time he wrote, as by at- 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 63 
 
 tributing to them a higher elevation above the people, 
 and greater authority in the churches, than belongs to 
 so early an age, or than can be found in any other wri- 
 ter till near a century later. 
 
 These principles moreover show, that the episcopal 
 hierarchy was of gradual and slow growth. It did not 
 start into being at once, producing a sudden and violent 
 revolution, like those by wliich civil republics are some- 
 times overturned and divested of their liberties. The 
 powers originally inherent in the Christian churches 
 were so gradually transferred to the officers, that, nei- 
 ther the ministers nor the people were conscious of the 
 change. Hence it is, that the writers of the early ages 
 are so silent on the whole subject ; and hence, too, the 
 modem writers on church government have very gen- 
 erally agreed that Jesus Christ himself, or his Apostles, 
 established from the beginning a hierarchy of some sort, 
 i. 6. a dominion over sacred things, in the persons of 
 church officers ; and they have disagreed and contended 
 only about the form of this hierarchy ; namely, whether 
 it was Papal, in the line of St. Peter and his successors ; 
 or Prelatical, in a succession of diocesan Bishops, 
 Priests, and Deacons ; or Preshyterial, in local Pastors 
 with ruling Elders, arranged in a gradation of ecclesias- 
 tical courts ; or Congregational, in the settled Pastors 
 of independent churches, wath advisory councils. For 
 all these forms of hierarchy recognize a real Clergy, 
 created by consecration, and by divine right exercising 
 a dominion more or less complete over sacred things. 
 But, according to the principles we maintain, there was 
 no hierarchy of any kind set up by the Apostles ; nor 
 
64 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 did any exist, till about the commencement of the third 
 century. 
 
 From an inspection of the ecclesiastical writers of 
 those times, it will appear, that the churches were grad- 
 ually surrendering their power, more and more, to their 
 religious teachers, during the whole of the second cen- 
 tury ; and that those teachers felt, more and more, their 
 elevation above the people, and their independence of 
 all human responsibilities. Yet it was not till the be- 
 giiming of the third century, that these teachers claimed 
 to be a proper Clergy, a holy order of men divinely ap- 
 pointed to guide and govern the churches, and traced 
 their official powers to their regular ordination. Nor till 
 then, did they hold themselves to be Highpriests, Priests, 
 and Levites in the Christian church, to whom belonged 
 by divine right the various prerogatives of the Levitical 
 priesthood. And it was not tUl far into the fourth cen- 
 tury, that the prelatical hierarchy attained full maturity. 
 The Papal hierarchy, which succeeded the Episcopal, 
 is generally supposed by Protestants to have com- 
 menced sometime in the seventh century, and to have 
 attained its complete development about the twelfth 
 centmy. 
 
 That the ecclesiastical polity first became a hierarchy 
 about the year 200, may be inferred from the following 
 historical facts : 
 
 1. Anterior to that period, the Fathers never use the 
 terms Clergy and Clergymen, Laity and Laymen, as 
 designating different classes of men in the church ; nor 
 do they anywhere describe the thing intended by these 
 terms, under other and equivalent expressions. On the 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 65 
 
 Contrary, TertuUian, Origen, Cyprian, and all the Fath- 
 ers after A. D. 200, often speak of a high and privileged 
 order of men in the church, whom they not only call 
 Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, &c., but also denominate 
 the Clergy or Clergymen, (in Greek, KXiipos and K\r]pi- 
 Koi, in Latin, Clerus and Clerici.) in distinction from 
 common Christians, whom they style Laymen and the 
 Laity, (in Greek, XaiVcdt and Xadj, in Latin, Laid and 
 Plebs.) Joseph Bingham (in his Antiqq., Eccles. B. I, 
 ch. 5) attempts, indeed, to prove, (against Nic. Rigal- 
 tius, CI. Salmasius, and Jo. Selden,) that the distinction 
 between Clergymen and Lapnen existed from the very 
 first institution of chm-ches. But his proof is a complete 
 failure. He is able to find the term Laymen once only, 
 in the early Fathers ; namely, in Clemens, Rom. I, Ep. 
 ch. 40, where it refers exclusively to the Levitical insti- 
 tutions, and of course is nothing to his purpose. And 
 the word Clergy he also finds once, in a passage of 
 Clemens Alex. (Quis dives salvetur,) where it certainly 
 does refer to Christian ministers. But that work of Cle- 
 ment was undoubtedly written after the year 200, be- 
 ing a later work than his Stromata, which were com- 
 posed some time in the reign of Severus. 
 
 2. The Fathers prior to Tertullian seldom speak of 
 the ordination of church officers, and never in terras 
 showing that much importance was attached to it. 
 They never call it a consecration ; nor do they intimate 
 that it conveys official power and rank in the church. 
 On the contrary, TertuUian, Origen, Cyprian, &-c., 
 speak of ordination as a most important thing, and as 
 being that which makes a man a Clergymen, or raises 
 him from one order among the Clergy to another. Ter- 
 6* 
 
66 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 tullian, moreover, (de Praescript, c 41,) charges it upon 
 the Heretics, that they allowed their church officers to 
 take up and lay down their offices, according to their 
 convenience ; thus disregarding the sanctity of ordina- 
 tion. Jerome brings the same charge against them. 
 How little importance, on the other hand, Clemens Al- 
 exandrinus attached to ordination, appears from his pla- 
 cing every private Christian of enlarged knowledge and 
 exemplary life, though not ordained, upon a par with 
 Presbyters in the church. (Strom, vi. p. 793, al. 667.) 
 Having stated that Matthias was elected to succeed Judas 
 in the Apostleship, because he was found worthy, Cle- 
 ment goes on to say : " It is therefore lawful, now, to 
 em*oll in the company of Apostles those who are well 
 versed in the commands of the Lord, and live perfectly 
 and intelligently according to the Gospel. A man is in 
 reality a Presbyter of the church, and a true Minister 
 of the kingdom of God, if he do and teach the things of 
 the Lord, even though not ordained (xiipoTovyjjisvoi, 
 elected, appointed) by men : nor because he is [official- 
 ly] a Presbyter, is he accounted a righteous man, but 
 because he is righteous, he is em-olled a Presbyter ; and, 
 although here on earth he may not be honored with the 
 highest seat, he wUl sit on the four and twenty tlirones 
 judging the people : as John speaks in the Apocalypse." 
 3. Not one of the Fathers, before TcrtuUian, ever 
 calls the Bishops and Presbyters, Priests, or the Dea- 
 cons, Levites ; except in the sense in which all Christ- 
 ians are Priests, agreeably to 1 Peter ii. 9. (Ye are a 
 chosen generation, a royal priesthood, &c.) See Justin 
 Martyr, Dial. p. 344, ed. 1636: Irenajus, Haer. iv. c. 
 20: Clemens Alex. Strom, iv. p. 635, al. ^1. They 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 67 
 
 never represent the Ministers of the New Testament as 
 holding the same relation to the Christian Church, as 
 the Levitical priests held to the Jewish Church. They 
 do not claim for the former the prerogatives, powers, and 
 immunities of the Jewish priesthood ; nor do they apply 
 the Levitical laws to Christian Ministers, as if they 
 were obligatory in regard to them. But Tertullian and 
 the Fathers that succeeded him, do all these tilings. 
 Thus Tertullian (de Bapt. c. 17) says: Jus habit sum- 
 mus Sacerdos, qui est Episcopus. And in Cvprian, the 
 words Sacerdos and Sacerdotiwn are of perpetual oc- 
 currence, applied to Bishops and Presbyters, and to 
 their official duties. . And Jerome (contra Lucifer. To- 
 II. p. 145) says : Ecclesia non est, quae non habit sa- 
 cerdotes. He also (Ep. 27) calls the Deacons Levites. 
 The application of the Levitical law to the Christian 
 ministry, as defining its powers and prerogatives, may 
 be seen everywhere in Cyprian : e. g. Epp., 55, and 
 64, and 66, and 68, and 76, &c. 
 
 Q. 67. What were the inferior orders of the 
 Clergy, and when were they introduced ? 
 
 A. They were those below the order of Dea- 
 cons ; namely, Sub-deacons, Acolythists, Exor- 
 cists, Lectors, Janitors, &c. The earliest 
 mention of these orders is, by Cyprian and his 
 contemporary, Cornelius of Rome, about the 
 middle of the third century. See Cyprian, Epp. 
 viii., XX., xxix., xxxiv., xxxv., xlv., Ixxviii., 
 Ixxix., ed. Potter ; Cornelius, Ep. apud Euseb. 
 
68 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 H. E. Lib. vi. c. 43 : and Bingham. Antiqq., 
 Eccl. B. III. 
 
 The idea prevailed, especially in the Western 
 churches, that as the church of Jerusalem chose only 
 ■seven Deacons, (Acts vi. 3, 5,) there should be no more 
 than seven in any one church. Hence, when the 
 churches in the larger cities became very numerous and 
 were divided into several congregations, seven Deacons 
 were found inadequate to the discharge of all their du- 
 ties, and assistants were assigned them. This is sup- 
 posed to be the origin of the inferior orders, who in fact 
 performed the humbler duties of tlje Diaconate. They 
 appear first in the large chm-ches, (e. g. Rome, Carthage, 
 &c. ;) and, it is said, were wanting in some of the small- 
 er churches as late as the fourth, and even the fifth 
 century. Nor were these orders the same in all churches. 
 Some had more than jive orders, and others less : their 
 titles and duties, also, varied. These orders, we are 
 told, were a sort of school, in which young men were 
 trained for the higher orders. They undoubtedly served 
 to increase the pomp of worship, to elevate the dignity 
 of the higher orders, and to gratify the aspirings of am- 
 bitious laymen, who wished to participate in the honors 
 and emoluments of the Clergy. As early as the latter 
 part of the fourth century, some of them at least were 
 ordained, though without imposition of hands, and 
 could not afterwards return to the rank of Laymen. 
 
 Q. 68. What was the origin of Archbishops 
 or Metropolitans, and of Primates and Pa- 
 triarchs ? 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 69 
 
 A. Metropolitans originated from the estab- 
 lishment of Provincial Synods or Councils, 
 about the beginning of the third century. — 
 Primates and Patriarchs were first established 
 in the fourth century, under the Christian 
 Emperors. 
 
 The first church founded in any country or province, 
 would naturally be established in its metropohs. And 
 hence the Metropohtan churches were generaUy the oldest, 
 the largest, the most wealthy, and composed of the best 
 informed Christians, in their respective countries. And 
 the pastors of these churches would of course be distin- 
 guished men, and would be treated with deference by the 
 ministers of the yoimger and smaller churches of their 
 provinces. In the latter part of the second centiiry, 
 ecclesiastical councils began to be held for the settling 
 of difficult questions. (See Euseb. H. E. Lib. v. c. 16 
 and 23-25.) Most of these councils assembled at the 
 request of the pastors or bishops of MetropoUtan chm-ches, 
 who took a leading part in the debates, and generaUy 
 drew up the results and published them to the world. 
 Near the close of the second century, or early in the 
 third, annual or semi-annual provincial councils were 
 also established over the greater part of the Roman 
 empire. (See Mosheim, Cent. II, P. II, ch. II, § 2, ed. 
 Murdock, vol. i, p. 16, n. (2).) And in these provincial 
 councils, (except in five out of six provinces of AMca, 
 in which the senior bishop always presided,) the Bishop 
 of the Metropolitan church was the standing Moderator, 
 with power to call special meetings. He also kept the 
 
70 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 records of the Council, as well as the documents of the 
 ordination of all Bishops. His powers, at that period, 
 seem to have been very similar to those of the Mode- 
 rators of Presbyteries among the Scotch and American 
 Presbyterians, or those of the Moderators of Consocia- 
 tions in some parts of New England. Such were the 
 MetropoUtans of the third century. Afterwards their 
 powers were much enlarged ; for they had jurisdiction 
 over their suffragan Bishops, and appellate jurisdiction 
 in all ecclesiastical causes in their respective provinces. 
 In the fourth century, when Christianity became the 
 estabUshed religion of the Roman empire, the govern- 
 ment of the churches was regulated very much after the 
 form of the civil government. (See Mosheim, Cent. IV, 
 P. II, ch. II, § 3, vol. i, p. 232, n. (2).) Subsequently, 
 the great Patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, 
 Jerusalem, and Alexandria, who had before been the 
 most prominent MetropoUtans, were clothed with eccle- 
 siastical authority over their patriarchates ; and the 
 Exarchs or Primates of certain coimtries took rank and 
 received power, above those of simple Metropolitans, 
 but inferior to that of the Patriarchs. 
 
 Q. 69. When and how was the original 
 independence of local churches subverted ? 
 
 A. The independence of single churches 
 was undermined and subverted in the third and 
 fourth centuries, by the introduction of eccle- 
 siastical councils with legislative and judicial 
 powers. 
 
 If — as wc liavc stated — the Christians in each city or 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 71 
 
 town, however numerous they might become, always 
 remedned but one community or church, and, although 
 obhged to meet in separate bodies for ordinary worship, 
 always assembled as one body for the transaction of 
 business, and had one set of church officers, with a chief 
 Pastor or Bishop, to superintend their affairs; and if 
 these complex bodies, duriiig the second and third cen- 
 turies, gradually surrendered their powers of self-govern- 
 ment, and submitted to be ruled entirely by their Minis- 
 ters, who claimed to be a proper Clergy by divine right ; 
 then there could no longer be any independence of 
 churches, except the independence of these complex 
 bodies of each other. And this independence, which 
 seems to have been complete during the greater part of 
 the second century, was afterwards gradually subverted 
 by the estabhshment of Provincial and General Coimcils, 
 with power to fi-ame ecclesiastical Canons, binding upon 
 all the bodies under their jurisdiction. For these Canons 
 were multipUed and extended, from time to time, till 
 they reached every part of both discipline and worsliip ; 
 and, by instituting the right of appeal in all cases, from 
 single churches to higher tribunals, they made even the 
 Bishops Httle more than the executive officers of the 
 statutes enacted for them by a supposed higher au- 
 thority. 
 
 Q. 70. What was tlie origin of liturgies or 
 written forms of worship among Christians ? 
 
 A. For three centuries, written formulas of 
 worship were unknown among Christians. But 
 after the full establishment of the Episcopal 
 
72 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 hierarchy, in the reign of Constantine, and the 
 erection of splendid churches, with large rev- 
 enues, in order to render the public worship 
 more imposing, and to secure greater uniformity 
 and a more perfect conformity to the mandates 
 of the Bishops, some of the prelates drew up 
 forms of prayer and ceremonials of worship, 
 in accordance with what they considered the 
 best models, and imposed them on their own 
 dioceses, and recommended them to others. 
 How many such liturgical works were orig- 
 inally drawn up, and by whom, cannot now be 
 ascertained. We only know that they orig- 
 inated in this age, that they were soon brought 
 into general use, and that although each bishop 
 had the right to prescribe forms of worship in 
 his own diocese, yet each grand division of 
 the empire had very much the same liturgy. 
 The canon of the Mass or the proper com- 
 munion service, was indeed nearly the same 
 in all countries ; while the Missa Catechume- 
 norum, or the prayers and offices which pre- 
 ceded the Mass, were widely different. 
 
 Most of the earlier liturgies bore the names of certain 
 Apostles, who, it was supposed, cstabUshed those par- 
 ticular forms of worship, in the countries where they 
 labored, wliich wore handed down orally till the fourth 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 73 
 
 century, and then were committed to writing. The 
 first written liturgy of Palestine and Syria, was called 
 the Liturgy of St. James, who was accounted the first 
 Bishop of Jerusalem. The Utiu-gy of Egypt and the 
 adjacent countries, was named after St. Mark, the re- 
 puted first Bishop of Alexandria. The old Liturgy of 
 Italy and Rome, was ascribed to St. Peter, who, it was 
 supposed, presided over the Romish See. Some also teU 
 us of a Liturgy of the Apostle John, which was origi- 
 nally used at Ephesus, and was thence carried to the 
 Grecian colonies at Marseilles, Lyons, and Vierme, from 
 whence it was propagated over Gaul, Britain, and perhaps 
 Spain. But the Liturgy which prevailed in Asia Minor, 
 Constantinople, and Greece, in the fifth and following 
 centuries, was the Liturgy of St. James, which is said to 
 have been revised and improved by Basil of Cappadocia, 
 and by Chrysostom. This same oriental Liturgy, in 
 some or other of its recensions, is the basis of the modem 
 Russian, the Melchite and Jacobite Greek, the Armenian 
 and Nestorian Liturgies, and of one fonn of the Coptic. 
 The Romish Liturgy, or that of St. Peter, -was revised in 
 the fifth century by Leo the Great, f^d in the sixth by 
 Gelasius and Gregory the Great, the latter of whom in- 
 troduced the Gregorian or plain chant. The succeeding 
 Roman pontiffs enlarged and modified it, frOm time to 
 time, and made gieat eflforts to extend its use over all 
 the countries subject to the papal authority ; and from 
 about the eighth or ninth century, quite down to the 
 Reformation, scarcely any other was used throughout 
 papal Europe. The Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, in Great Britain and America, is based on this 
 Romish Liturgy, but with very great alterations and 
 7 
 
74 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 improvements, derived in part from the ancient Litur- 
 gies, and in part from the hicubrations of the Reformers. 
 
 There is another ancient Liturgy, in the eighth book of 
 the spurious work called the Apostolic Constitutions, 
 falsely ascribed to Clemens Romanus. But there is no 
 reason to believe that it was ever adopted and used by 
 any church whatever. It is therefore of no importance 
 to our inquiries, except as casting some light on the ori- 
 gin of written Liturgies. It is agreed among the learned, 
 that this is one of the earliest, and perhaps the earHest 
 written Liturgy of which we have any knowledge. It 
 bears the marks of an Arian hand, and is supposed to 
 have been produced some time in the fom'th centuiy ; — 
 some think it may have been written near the end of the 
 third century. 
 
 The ablest writers on Liturgies, both in the Romish 
 Church and in the EngHsh Episcopal, have long been 
 agreed, that the so called ApostoUc Liturgies are not 
 genuine, that neither the Apostles nor their assistants 
 furnished the churches with written formulas of worship, 
 and that written Liturgies were not known in the 
 Christian church, ^till some time in the fourth century. 
 The proofs they allege, are : (1.) That if the Apostles or 
 EvangeUsts had supplied the churches with written 
 Liturgies, those Liturgies would have been added to the 
 canon of Holy Scripture, would have been preserved as 
 carefully and with as little alteration as the Gospels or 
 Epistles, and would have been as often cited and re- 
 ferred to in the contests with heretics and schismatics. 
 (2.) That, if the churches had possessed and used such 
 Liturgies for 300 years, it is utterly unaccountable that 
 no ecclesiastical writer should either mention, cite, or 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE, 75 
 
 even allude to them, during that long period. (3.) That 
 Basil the Great, about the year 374, (de Spiritu Sanc- 
 to, c. 27. 0pp. T. Ill, p. 53, ed. Bened.) expressly de- 
 clares, that no one of the holy men, up to his time, had 
 set forth any written formulas of prayer to be used in 
 the celebration of the Eucharist : to. ttJs £n-t*cX^o-£wj 'pfifia- 
 
 ra, Tig rwi/ ayiojv eyypdcpcjjg ^/^rv KaraXeXoincv. 
 
 These arguments are deemed perfectly conclusive 
 against written Liturgies, anterior to the fourth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 But, say the Romanists and the English Episcopa- 
 lians, it is incredible that the Apostles should have giv- 
 en no directions for pubHc worship and for the adminis- 
 tration of sacraments ; or that the churches, for three 
 centuries, could have maintained decorous worship, and 
 a due administration of Christian ordinances, without 
 Liturgies of some sort. We must therefore suppose, that 
 they had formal Liturgies, which were handed down 
 orally, till the fourth century, and then were committed 
 to writing. And they did not write them so long as 
 they were surrounded with Pagans, because they 
 wished to conceal the mysteries of Christian worship 
 from the knowledge of Pagans and Catechumens. The 
 disagreements among the first written Liturgies, are also 
 proof that they had come down through an imperfect 
 medium of transmission, like that of oral tradition. 
 
 To these arguments it may be replied, That the Apos- 
 tles did give ample directions for pubhc worship, and 
 for the administration of ordinances. Paul devoted to 
 this subject tliree entire chapters in his first Epistle to 
 the Corinthians, chapp. xi., xii. and xiv. But these direc- 
 tions were widely different from the complicated rites 
 
76 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
 
 which make up the canon of the Mass and the other 
 offices in the oldest written Liturgies. They described 
 and recommended a mode of worship so simple and un- 
 ceremonious, that the first Christians no more needed 
 written formulas to guide them, than those churches now 
 do, which, in obedience to the same directions, at this 
 day, worship without a Liturgy. The supposition that the 
 Apostles and early Christians refrained fi-om using writ- 
 ten Liturgies, lest the mysteries of their worship should 
 become known to Pagans and Catechumens, is confu- 
 ted by facts. Both Catechumens and Pagans, during 
 this whole period, were allowed and encouraged to at- 
 tend the entire worship of Christians, except the Eu- 
 charist and Baptisms. The whole antecommunion ser- 
 vice, therefore, or the Missa Catechumenorum, could 
 not have been left unwritten for the reason supposed. 
 And as to the communion service, Paul gives a pretty 
 full account of it ; and Justin Martyr, in the middle of 
 the second century, had no scruples in publishing a mi- 
 nute description of it, in his larger Apology, addressed 
 to a Pagan Emperor. (Apol. I, p. 97, 98, ed. Paris, 
 1636.) If therefore any such concealment was ever 
 practised, it must have been after the times of Justin 
 Martyr, and have extended only to the Eucharistial and 
 Baptismal services. (See Coleman's Chr. Antiqq. p. 35, 
 36.) Yet the Missa Catechumenorum, equally with the 
 Missa Fidclium, remained unwritten during this long 
 period. The disagreements in the oldest written Litur- 
 gies are no evidence of the long use of oral formulas ; 
 for they have much more the appearance of having 
 arisen from essentially different usages in different coun- 
 tries, than from the faulty memories of those who were 
 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 77 
 
 accustomed to repeat memoriter one and the same Lit- 
 urgy. We will add, that it seems morally impossible 
 that all the Christian ministers, for three hundred years, 
 should have been able to repeat, without book, so long 
 and complicated a service as the ancient Liturgies pre- 
 scribe ; or indeed, any Liturgy foimded on the same 
 general model. If, then, the Early Christians had an 
 oral Liturgy, which all the Clergy could commit to 
 memory, it must have been a very different thing from 
 the subsequent written Liturgies ; and, of course, also 
 from the Liturgies now used in the modem Greek, Ro- 
 mish, and Anglican churches. 
 
 That no Liturgies whatever, or no prescribed formu- 
 las of worship, were in common use, in the Apostolic 
 times, may be inferred from the fact that they are nev- 
 er mentioned, or alluded to, in the New Testament. 
 No Evangelist or minister is there charged to obey the 
 canons, and never violate the rubric. No church is 
 commended for its skill and scrupulousness, or censm-ed 
 for its ignorance and irreverence, in regard to the pre- 
 scribed formulas of worship. Cliristians are exhorted to 
 " pray without ceasing," and to " pray with all prayer 
 and supplication, in the Spirit ;" but are never directed 
 to " say prayers," or to repeat the prescribed formvdas of 
 prayer. Paul, in describing the requisite qualifications 
 for a Bishop or Elder, never mentions a strong and well 
 stored memory, or ability to repeat the prescribed ser- 
 vice correctly. And Peter, directing men how to offi- 
 ciate in sacred things, says : " If any Minister, let him 
 do it as of the ability which God giveth," (1 Peter iv- 
 11 ;) i. e. according to his best ability — not according to 
 a prescribed ritual. If the Corinthian church had been 
 7* 
 
78 THE CHURCHES, *C. 
 
 accustomed to use the canon of the Mass, they would 
 not easily have fallen into such irregularities as are sta- 
 ted ; or if they did, Paul need not have written them a 
 whole chapter (1 Cor. xi.) on the nature and the form 
 of the Lord's Supper : he might have said, simply : 
 Follow strictly the Liturgy, as I Paul taught you. So 
 also, if their ordinary worship had been conducted by a 
 priest, and in accordance with any such Liturgy as af- 
 terwards prevailed, they would never have needed the 
 instructions which Paul gives them, respecting spiritual 
 gifts, especially that of tongues ; 1 Cor. xii. and xiv. 
 Nor would he have reproved them, and given them such 
 specific rules for their public worship, as he does in 1 
 Cor. xiv. 26-40. Indeed, it seems manifest, from the 
 passage referred to, that all Christians, in that age, 
 might speak and pray in the public assemblies ; and 
 that all such performances Avere extemporaneous : they 
 who then ministered, did so, literally and truly, as of the 
 abiUty which God gave them. (1 Peter iv. 11.) And 
 the same mode of worship continued in the churches 
 down to the times of Justin Martyr ; for he tells us, that 
 the president of the assembled people then prayed 
 (bar] Svvaixis) according to his ability. (Apol. I, p. 98, 
 ed. Paris, 1636.) 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CONSTITUTIOX OF THE CONGREGATIONAL 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 Q. 71. Are any modern churclies modeled 
 exactly after the primitive pattern 1 
 
 A. No. But the polity of the Congrega- 
 tional churches corresponds in its general fea- 
 tures with that of the Apostolic churches. 
 
 Q. 72. What is the Congregational system 
 of church polity ? 
 
 A. It is that system of church order and 
 discipline which was established in New 
 England by the first English Colonists, and is 
 now maintained by the great body of their de- 
 scendants. 
 
 The Congregational system of church government is 
 also adopted by the churches of the Congregational Un- 
 ion of England and Wales, by the French Evangelical 
 churches generally, by the Baptist churches in Great 
 Britain and America, and by many churches called In- 
 
80 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 dependent or Congregational in various parts of the 
 British Empire and of the United States. 
 
 Q. 73. What was the origin of the Congre- 
 gational churches of this country ? 
 
 A. The Congregational churches of New 
 England were founded by certain ministers 
 and Christians of Great Britain, who, in the 
 early part of the 17th century, were driven by 
 religious persecution to seek an asylum in this 
 newly-discovered country. 
 
 Q. 74. Was there any thing peculiar in the 
 origin of modern Congregationalism to favor 
 the presumption that the system is nearly 
 identical with that of the primitive churches ? 
 
 A. Yes ; the Congregational system was 
 entirely framed out of the Bible by men learned 
 in the Scriptures, who believed that Christ and 
 his Apostles had there prescribed a complete 
 ecclesiastical system of absolute authority. 
 
 Such men as John Robinson, John Owen, Thomas 
 Hooker, and all the early writers in favor of Congrega- 
 tionalism, went to the Bible to learn how the church 
 was originally constituted, with a strong sense of obli- 
 gation to ascertain and scrupulously follow the primi- 
 tive pattern. This explains the fact that the first 
 churches of New England submitted to the expense 
 and inconvenience of maintaining two ministers instead 
 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 81 
 
 of one — having discovered, as they supposed, that every 
 local church in primitive times had both ruling and 
 teaching Elders. And this presents very strong pre- 
 sumptive evidence that the system adopted by them is 
 closely conformed to that in the New Testament. No 
 other ecclesiastical system has this presumption in 
 its favor. The oldest systems, as the diocesan Episcopal, 
 are known to have departed widely from the primitive 
 pattern, and in modern times they have not been 
 modified with a view to'conform them to that model. 
 The Wesleyan Episcopal Church was not even profess- 
 edly built on a careful examination and copying of the 
 Apostolic churches. 
 
 Q. 75. What are the sources of information 
 respecting the polity of the Congregational 
 churches ? 
 
 A. The Platforms, standard authors, and 
 especially the practice of those churches. 
 
 Q. 76. Have the Congregational churches 
 any Platforms or Constitutions, according to 
 which they are bound to regulate all their pro- 
 ceedings ? 
 
 A. No. Platforms have been at various 
 times drawn up by Congregational bodies ; 
 but the churches of the present day do not 
 feel bound rigidly to follow them. They of- 
 ten refer to them with respect, as embody- 
 ing the wisdom of their predecessors ; but 
 
82 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 they are governed in their own practice gen- 
 erally by usage, and in some districts by par- 
 ticular Constitutions. 
 
 See " Platform of Church Disciphne, gathered out of 
 the Word of God, and agreed upon by the Elders and 
 Messengers of the churches assembled in the Synod at 
 Cambridge, in New England, Anno. 1648:" and "The 
 Heads of Agreement assented to by the United Minis- 
 ters, formerly called Presbyterian and Congregational ; 
 and also Articles for the administration of church Dis- 
 cipline, unanimously agreed upon by the Elders and 
 Messengers of the churches in the Colony of Connecti- 
 cut, in New England, assembled by delegation, at Say- 
 brook, Sept. 9th, 1708." See also the " Digest of Rules 
 and Usages in the Consociations and Associations of 
 Connecticut," contained in tlie " Congregational Order." 
 
 " Mather's Ratio Discipline," and " Mather's Power 
 of the Keys," were generally referred to as guides, before 
 the adoption of the Cambridge Platform. Several mod- 
 ern writers have published treatises, more or less full, up- 
 on the Congregational system. " See Upham's Ratio Dis- 
 ciplina?" — " Punchard's View of Congregationalism" — 
 " Bacon's Manual," and " Mitchell's Guide to Church 
 Members." 
 
 Q. 77. Do Congregationalists hold that 
 their system exists by divine right in such a 
 sense that there can be no true church under 
 any other form ? 
 
 A. No. They generally hold that devia- 
 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 83 
 
 tions from the primitive model are lawful, un- 
 less they are contrary to some plain precept 
 or principle of Christianity. See Ques. 7. 
 
 We may mention as examples of a lawful departure 
 from primitive practice, the discontinuance of a plurali- 
 ty of Elders in individual chui'ches, of deaconesses, 
 and of the weekly administration of the Lord's Supper ; 
 and as examples of the opposite character, the neglect 
 of Christian ordinances by the Friends, and the usurpa- 
 tion of church power, not properly belonging to them, 
 by the clergy of most sects. This latter class of devia- 
 tions from the primitive model, Congregationalists look 
 upon as serious irregularities, but do not suppose them 
 to be incompatible with the being of a church. They 
 regard as a Christian church any body of credible be- 
 lievers in Christ, imited by voluntary confederation for 
 the purpose of serving God in a church capacity, ac- 
 cording to their best understanding cf the Scriptures ; 
 even if, by misapprehending the mind of Christ, they do 
 not order every thing in the best manner. These liberal 
 views, however, should not make Congregationalists in- 
 different to the maintenance and extension of that sys- 
 tem of church order and discipline which complies with 
 all the laws of Christ's house. See Ques. 11. 
 
 Q. 78. What distinguishing points of cor- 
 respondence between Congregationalism and 
 the primitive system of church order and dis- 
 cipline, can you mention ? 
 
 A. According to Congregationalism, a reg- 
 
84 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 ular Christian church is a voluntary associa- 
 tion of professed believers in Jesus Christ, 
 united together for the social vrorship of God, 
 and for the administration of religious ordi- 
 nances. See Ques. 2, 14, 23, 28. 
 
 Q. 79. In what sense is a Congregational 
 church a voluntary association ? 
 
 A. A Congregational church is not a volun- 
 tary association in the sense of being a mere 
 human institution, with which believers in 
 Christ are under no kind of obligation to con- 
 nect themselves. All Christians, or regener- 
 ate persons, are justly expected to confess 
 Christ before men, by becoming members of 
 some branch of his visible church. But the 
 association is voluntary in this respect, that it 
 was formed by a free act of confederation on 
 the part of individuals, and not by the author- 
 ity of any court, civil or ecclesiastical. See 
 Cambridge Platform, ch. iv, sec. 6. 
 
 Q. 80. Does Congregationalism recognize 
 the right of any number of persons of suitable 
 qualifications to organize themselves into a 
 Christian church 1 
 
 A. The right is unquestionable ; but the 
 expediency of the step depends on the ques- 
 tion, whether the organization of those indi- 
 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 85 
 
 viduals into a church is desirable for their per- 
 sonal edification, and the glory of God. But 
 Congregationalists invariably recognize a body 
 of believers in Christ, voluntarily united by 
 covenant in a church capacity as a true 
 church. 
 
 Q. 81. Must a Congregational church have 
 officers ? 
 
 A. A Congregational church may exist or 
 have essential being without officers ; but can- 
 not be complete in Jorm, or fully organized 
 without them. See Ques. 8, 15. 
 
 Q. 82. What are the powers of a Congrega- 
 tional church ? 
 
 A. A Concrreffational church is a demo- 
 cracy. All the members are equal, and all its 
 affairs are definitively determined by a major 
 vote of the brotherhood. They elect their 
 own officers, admit, govern, and expel their 
 own members, and do all other things which, 
 according to the laws of Christ, may of right 
 be done in and over his church. 
 
 Q. 83. Is a Congregational church an inde- 
 pendent body 1 
 
 A. A Congregational church is independent, 
 because no other church or ecclesiastical 
 body has power to reverse its decisions. It 
 8 
 
86 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 has no other head than Jesus Christ, and is 
 subject to his authority alone. Hence, in 
 Great Britain, the churches embraced in the 
 Congregational Union of England and Wales, 
 are commonly called independent churches. 
 
 A Congregational church, however, is sub- 
 ject to the admonition of sister churches for 
 heresy, lax discipline, or any scandalous of- 
 fense, and if incorrigible, to a withdrawal of 
 church fellowship. See Upham's Ratio Dis- 
 ciplinae, Ch. II, sec. 20. 
 
 Q. 84. What qualification is required for 
 membership in a Congregational church ? 
 
 A. Credible piety. See Cambridge Plat- 
 form, Ch. Ill, sees. 1, 2. 
 
 Q. 85. By what process is a Congregational 
 church formed ? 
 
 A. Whenever several persons, after taking 
 the private advice of some neighboring minis- 
 ters and Christians, desire to be formed into a 
 church, they invite a number of ministers, or 
 a council, to assemble and aid them in their 
 organization. The council thus assembled 
 inspect the proceedings of those who have 
 called them together ; and being satisfied that 
 it is right and suitable to proceed, the council 
 lead them to combine themselves by solemn 
 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 87 
 
 VOWS into a church — accompanied by appro- 
 priate religious services and ceremonies. See 
 Upham's Ratio Disciplinae, Ch. III. 
 
 Q. 86. What are the officers of a Congre- 
 ^gational church ? 
 
 A. The officers of a Congregational church 
 are of two orders only — Elders and Deacons. 
 The Elder or minister is the preacher or public 
 teacher of the people, and the Chief Execu- 
 tive officer or ruler of the church. The Dea- 
 con or Deacons, for there may be two or more, 
 have charge of the temporalities of the church 
 and the care of the poor, and they assist the 
 minister in administering the ordinances of the 
 Gospel. See Bacon's Manual. 
 
 Q. 87. Are Congregational ministers known 
 by any other titles 1 
 
 A. Yes. They are called the pastors and 
 bishops of their respective churches. See 
 Ques. 44. 
 
 Q. 88. In what manner are men raised to 
 the pastoral office in Congregational churches ? 
 
 A. By the free election of the brethren, and 
 a solemn induction into office. 
 
 The brethren of the church having first fixed their 
 eyes upon a candidate for the pastoral office over tlieni, 
 and sought the divine guidance in a matter of so great 
 
88 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 importance, by fasting and prayer, make the election — 
 and if the ecclesiastical society concurs in their choice, 
 and the pastor elect accepts the appointment, a council 
 of neighboring churches is called, by whose aid he is 
 ordained or solemnly inducted into ofRce. See Upham's 
 Ratio Disciplinee, Ch. III. 
 
 Q. 89. May a church elect any person 
 whom it deems of suitable character, learning, 
 and talents, to the pastoral office over them ? 
 
 A. A church has this right inherently, but 
 by tacit consent, for the sake of guarding 
 against an incompetent ministry, the churches 
 do not elect any to the pastoral office, or hear 
 any preach as candidates, except such as have 
 been first approved and licensed to preach by 
 some Association of ministers or pastors, 
 connected with the churches in their commun- 
 ion. The Baptist churches, which are Con- 
 gregational, do not, we believe, take this pre- 
 caution, but receive preachers as candidates 
 for the ministry on the recommendation of the 
 churches to which they belong. See Say- 
 brook Platform, Part II, sec. VII. New 
 Englander, Vol. II, Art. Baptist Polity. 
 
 Q. 90. May a person be constituted a min- 
 ister of the Gospel without being elected to 
 the pastoral office over a particular church ? 
 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 89 
 
 A. Yes. For, although no one can be made 
 the pastor of a particular church, without the 
 vote of said church, a person may be ordained 
 to preach the Gospel, and gather churches in 
 destitute places, to labor as an evangelist 
 among feeble churches, or as a missionary 
 among the unevangelized. Compare ques- 
 tions 36 and 43. 
 
 Q. 91. In whom is the power of appointing 
 and ordaining missionaries vested ? 
 
 A. The churches or missionary associations 
 which send them forth, make the appointment ; 
 the ordination service is performed by coun- 
 cils convened for the purpose. 
 
 Q. 92. Is it agreeable to Congregational 
 usage for everybody of ministers of the Gospel 
 to ordain others to the work of the Christian 
 ministry ? 
 
 A. No. The work of ordaining ministers of 
 the Gospel is restricted to standing or special 
 councils, composed of pastors and delegates 
 of churches, called together for the purpose by 
 the candidate for ordination, and by those 
 who invite him to be their pastor or missiona- 
 ry. See Upham's Ratio Disciplinae, Ch. VII, 
 sec. 91 ; Ch. VIII, sec. 92. 
 8* 
 
90 CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 
 Q. 93. What is the process of church disci- 
 pUne in the Congregational churches ? 
 
 A. It is precisely that laid down in Matt, 
 eh. xviii. 
 
 In relation to open, well known, and flagrant sins, 
 some infer a more summary process is proper, from the 
 course which they suppose Paul urges the church of 
 Corinth to adopt in the case of the incestuous man. 1 
 Cor. V. ch. And this is agreeable to usage in most 
 Congregational chiurches. Yet it does not appear that 
 Paul censures that church, solely for not proceeding 
 to excommunication, or that he authorizes them to take 
 the last step, without taking the first. He may per- 
 haps have known that the first steps had been taken 
 without reclaiming the offender ; and if this was the 
 case, the apostle merely censured the church for neg- 
 lecting to carry out the process of discipUne by a final 
 act of excommunication. See Upham's Ratio Disci- 
 pUnee, sec. 96, and Bacon's Manual, p. 101. 
 
 In the case of a pastor, the coiu-se of procedure is not 
 uniform. In most consociated churches, a complaint 
 against a pastor camiot be brought except through the 
 associated pastors of the district to which the church 
 belongs, by whom, if they see fit, the complaint is car- 
 ried before the consociation for trial and final detennina- 
 tion. See Congregational Order, pp. 295-98. In 
 churches, not consociated, the course is, for the church 
 to refer the matter either for advice or final determina- 
 tion to a council of neighboring churches. See Upham's 
 Ratio Disciplinae, sees. 136, 37. 
 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 91 
 
 The simple deposition of a pastor or evangelist from 
 the ministry, does not dissolve his church relations. 
 After his deposition, the church to which he belongs 
 may proceed against him, as in the case of any other 
 member. See Upham, sec. 140. 
 
 Q. 94. Is there any appeal in a case of 
 discipline from the decision of the church? 
 
 A. The decision is final unless the church 
 consents to refer the matter to a mutual coun- 
 cil for advisement before the final decision. 
 
 An aggrieved member may, however, ask for 
 a mutual council, and if that is denied by the 
 church, he may call an exparte council to re- 
 examine his case, and to advise the church to 
 recall its censure, if it appears to the council 
 to be unjust. 
 
 The decision of a council is considered merely 
 advisory ; and as such may be either accepted or 
 not accepted by the church, yet the moral influence of 
 councils is so great, that the churches are seldom known 
 to disregard their advice. And indeed it would be 
 thought disrespectful to a council, and a breach of Christ- 
 ian fellowship, if a church should refuse to accept its ad- 
 vice in matters merely prudential. See Upham's Ratio 
 DiscipUnoB, Ch. XIV., sees. 182-3. 
 
 Many Congregational churches, particularly in Con- 
 necticut, are consociated, as it is called ; that is, they 
 have constituted ttiemselves into standing mutual coun- 
 
92 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 
 
 cils, one or more in a county, consisting of the several 
 pastors, with a lay delegate from each church. To 
 these bodies the churches represented in them, have 
 agreed, in advance, to submit their difficulties ; and the 
 result or decision of the comicil is in all cases to be a 
 final issue. See Congregational Order, p. 300. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISM PREFERABLE TO OTHER 
 SYSTEMS OF CHURCH POLITY. 
 
 Q. 95. What other Ecclesiastical systems 
 have been adopted by modern churches ? 
 
 A. The most important are the Episcopa- 
 lian and the Presbyterian. 
 
 Q. 96. Why should Congregationalism be 
 preferred to these systems ? 
 
 A. Congregationalism deserves this prefer- 
 ence, because it appears to be the only system 
 in existence that complies fully with the spirit 
 and precepts of Christianity. 
 
 Q. 97. To what inspired rule or principle 
 does Congregationalism conform, which other 
 systems disregard ? 
 
 A. Congrepationalism leaves in the hands of 
 the brotherhood the discipline of the church, 
 of which the other ecclesiastical systems di- 
 vest them. 
 
94 PREFERABLENESS OF 
 
 Q. 98. Is this a sufficient reason for prefer- 
 ring Congregationalism ? 
 
 A. Why is it not ? Are we not commanded 
 by Christ, if a brother trespass against us, to 
 take certain steps to gain him, and if these fail, 
 to " tell it to the church'^ ? And have we then 
 a right to prefer a constitution of the church 
 which refers these matters to a very different 
 tribunal ? 
 
 Q. 99. Is this the only point in which Con- 
 gregationalism alone complies with the rules of 
 the Gospel ? 
 
 A. No. The denial by other sects of the 
 fundamental principle of the primitive church, 
 that all ecclesiastical power is vested in the 
 hands of the brotherhood of each particular 
 church, or that such a society is a complete 
 church in itself, independent of all foreign con- 
 trol, carries with it many and wide departures 
 from the rules which Christ has given for the 
 right ordering of His church. The several lo- 
 cal churches, for example, are constituted by 
 Christ their own guardians. They are not 
 only to judge of the qualifications of all who 
 enjoy their communion, to admit and exclude 
 persons as members, but to see to the charac- 
 ter and doctrine of their teachers, and to keep 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM. 95 
 
 alive a spirit of piety by the mutual watch and 
 exhortations of the members : in one word, 
 they are respectively charged with the duties of 
 self-government, of self-culture, and of self-pro- 
 tection. These important trusts are taken from 
 the churches by other ecclesiastical systems, 
 wholly or in part, and committed to the hands 
 of the clergy. 
 
 Q. 100. Is not this an objection which lies 
 also against Congregationalism ; that is, ^ 
 there not some rules of order prescribed by 
 Christ, to which this system does not conform ? 
 
 A. I have no knowledge of any such rule. 
 Congregationalism is not an exact copy of the 
 primitive church ; but it deviates from that orig- 
 inal form in none of those particulars which are 
 based upon the nature of things, or upon pre- 
 cepts of permanent obligation. 
 
 The most material de\dations respect the numher of 
 Elders in each particular church, the office of Deaconess, 
 and the Love Feasts ; but these regulations were not 
 founded in the nature of things, or in any permanent 
 necessity, nor were they estabUshed by any positive en- 
 actment of Christ. The council of elders in each church 
 was no doubt at first adopted in imitation of the form of 
 government which existed in the Jewish synagogues. 
 (Sec Neander, vol. i, p. 186, and Ques. 3.3.) There is 
 no scriptural injunction requiring such a board to be 
 
96 PREFERABLENESS OF 
 
 maintained in the church : and as every object of church 
 rule and edification is secured as well or better by having 
 a single elder, the Congregational practice is abundantly 
 justified. It should also be remembered, that Congrega- 
 tionalism admits of a plurality of elders. Churches are 
 not unfi-equently furnished with two colleague pastors, 
 and sometimes with a greater number. In respect to 
 deaconesses, as the office had its origin in the pecuhar 
 customs of the East, it is properly discontinued among 
 us. Even there it was not enjoined on the churches, but 
 was adopted as a means of introducing the gospel into 
 tli^ private apartments of the women. The case is dif- 
 ferent with those ecclesiastical systems which divest the 
 church, or particular congregation of believers of church 
 rule. By doing this, they take from the church the power 
 of obeying the express commands of Christ ; those, for 
 instance, relating to the admission, government, and ex- 
 pulsion of members. The investiture of the church with 
 all church power seems to be founded in the nature of 
 tilings. For who can care for the church Uke the church 
 itself; or who is so competent to manage wisely all its 
 aff^airs ? If the business is taken from the brotherhood 
 and placed in other hands, it changes radically for the 
 worse, the whole system of chui'ch government. 
 
 Q. 101. Is it evident that the Congregational 
 system is better in practice than other systems ? 
 Although they may be less scriptural, is it clear 
 that they are less adapted to this age of the 
 world ? 
 
 A. There is certainly a presumption in favor 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM. 97 
 
 of the scriptural system ; and the stronger pre- 
 sumption because it was democratical, a kind 
 of government which is best suited to the most 
 intelligent communities ; and of course better 
 suited to this age and country than to the age 
 of the apostles. If all church power was 
 vested in the church in primitive times, it is 
 too late to question the wisdom of continuing 
 the power in the same hands, in this enlight- 
 ened age. 
 
 Q. 102. But is it not true, that the Episcopal 
 and Presbyterian systems of church polity are 
 found in practice to be highly conducive to the 
 peace and purity of the churches under them ? 
 
 A. There is, I believe, much sincere piety 
 and fraternal harmony in those communions. 
 The systems of government are no doubt ad- 
 ministered with much impartiality and wisdom. 
 And wherever the gospel is preached in purity, 
 the peculiar excellence of Christianity will 
 shine forth in the lives of many of the hearers. 
 The truth is, we are not to look for all imagin- 
 able evils to follow a faulty system of church 
 order, any more than we are to suppose that a 
 people cannot be happy and prosperous under 
 a monarchy. Nevertheless, Congregationalism 
 appears to me to have the best tendencies. 
 9 
 
98 PREFERABLENESS OF 
 
 Q. 103. What good tendencies do you see in 
 Congregationalism on account of which it is to 
 be preferred to other ecclesiastical systems ? 
 
 A. It seems to exert a happier influence on 
 individual piety, usefulness, and intelligence ; to 
 afford the strongest safeguards against corrup- 
 tion in the body of the church, and to be more 
 propitious in its influence on civil society and 
 the world. 
 
 Q. 104. What proof is there of the peculiar 
 tendency of Congregationalism to promote in- 
 dividual excellence and usefulness ? 
 
 A. Congregationalism impresses the minds 
 of individuals with a sense of responsibility, 
 and calls into exercise their best powers, as 
 judges of all matters of doctrine and practice 
 in the church. 
 
 It treats the individual as a man, capable of self-gov- 
 ernment. By respecting him, it inspires him with self- 
 respect; by imposing responsibilities on him, it qualifies 
 him to bear them. The adage that " circumstances 
 make the man," has all its force in relation to him. He 
 looks, or at least is moved to look into all questions of 
 doctrine, of Christian experience, and of ecclesiastical 
 order, not for his own sake merely, but that he may do 
 his duty as one of the governors of Christ's church. 
 
 Congregationalism also calls forth all the energies of 
 the individual in the work of benevolence. As a mem- 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM. 99 
 
 ber of the church he considers it liis dut}' to promote the 
 spiritual good of others to the extent of his ability, by im- 
 provong his gifts of prayer, of exhortation, and of counsel. 
 He is not trammeled by fear of doing something for 
 Christ too holy to be done by a layman, but does as a 
 duty whatever good he is qualified to do. He devises 
 new plans of usefulness, which he is in no way hindered 
 by ecclesiastical lawgivers from carrying into execution. 
 He keeps up wdth the age in his knowledge of theological 
 truth. He is not restrained by the imposition of a creed, 
 framed in less enlightened times, from proving all things 
 and holding fast that lohich is good, lie is constantly 
 inquiring, praying, studying for a purer faith as well as a 
 purer heart. This freedom of action, freedom of inquiry, 
 and sense of responsibility, it cannot be denied, distin- 
 guish the Congregational churches. In the same degree 
 in which other commmiions are less distinguished by 
 these spurs of intellect, and facilities of individual useful- 
 ness, has Congregationalism the preeminence. (See 
 Punchard's View of Congi-egationaUsm, pp. 172-175. 
 
 Q. 105. What peculiar safeguards to the pu- 
 rity of the church does Congregationalism 
 afford ? 
 
 A. The fundamental principle of Congrega- 
 tionalism, that none but regenerated persons 
 may properly be admitted to membership in 
 the church, taken in connection with the fact, 
 that no person can be admitted except by vote 
 of the brotherhood, after an examination by the 
 
100 PREFERABLENESS OF 
 
 whole church or a committee appointed for the 
 purpose, is the strongest possible barrier to the 
 admission of unworthy members. When the 
 doors of a church are vigilantly guarded by 
 all the members, it is a ground of assurance that 
 its spiritual life and vigor will be preserved. 
 This assurance is strengthened by committing 
 to the church the care and discipline of the 
 members. It is unquestionably true, that these 
 duties may be well discharged by a board of 
 elders or a single clergyman ; and much better 
 discharged than is sometimes done by a Con- 
 gregational church. But the question is, to 
 which is the purity of the church most safely 
 intrusted. To the church itself, I have no 
 doubt. Whoever has consulted history, or is 
 acquainted with human nature, must know that 
 ambition, timidity, favoritism, are more apt to 
 pervert the action of church officers than of the 
 church itself. But the most important consid- 
 eration belonging to this subject, is, that Con- 
 gregationalism is much more favorable to the 
 work of reform, than its rival systems. When 
 the church has become corrupt, how shall piety 
 and doctrinal purity be restored to it ; or how 
 shall true religion be revived in the community ? 
 According to Congregationalism, the piety 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM. 101 
 
 ■which remains may then secede and reorganize 
 itself in a new church : or if no spiritual life 
 remains, if all the members have become apos- 
 tate from the true faith, then on the reappear- 
 ance of piety in any number of individuals, they 
 may be immediately organized into a new church. 
 Every congregation of believers associated for 
 church purposes, is a complete church, invested 
 with all the powers which are necessary to at- 
 tain its end, and may come into existence, ac- 
 cording to the Congregational system, without 
 the concurrence of a bishop or presbytery. 
 But not so with those systems which see in 
 particular churches only the parts of a national 
 or provincial church, and hold all their pro- 
 ceedings subject to revision by powers without 
 and above them. Revi^ls of piety and at- 
 tempts at reform are liable to be suppressed in 
 their very beginnings, by such ecclesiastical 
 courts. See 8th chapter of Bacon's Manual ; 
 also Punchard's View of Congregationalism, 
 pp. 176-182. 
 
 Q. 106. What evidence is there that the in- 
 fluence of Congregationalism on civil society is 
 peculiarly propitious ? 
 
 A . There is an obvious tendency in a popular 
 form of ecclesiastical government, both to sug- 
 9* 
 
102 PREFERABLENESS OF 
 
 gest to the minds of men a popular civil govern- 
 ment, and to qualify a people for self-govern- 
 ment. This tendency is the parent of our own 
 free civil institutions. See Punchard's View 
 of Congregationalism, pp. 169-172. 
 
 Q. 107. How is Congregationalism likely to 
 confer greater benefits on the world than other 
 ecclesiastical systems ? 
 
 A. The way is obvious, if we consider a mo- 
 ment the tendency of Congregational Chrstian- 
 ity to subvert both civil and ecclesiastical des- 
 potisms, the two grand obstacles to the progress 
 of society in religion and general happiness. 
 Wherever this form of Christianity goes, it must 
 carry with it that free spirit, intelligence, and 
 capacity for self-government, which will gradu- 
 ally liberalize, if it d^es not wholly change, 
 the constitutions and laws of nations. And as 
 to ecclesiastical despotisms, Congregationalism 
 supersedes them wherever it gains possession 
 of the soil. 
 
 Whether this is a blessing to the world or not will in- 
 deed be differently decided by mankind according to their 
 opposite views of the practical Influence of the liicrar- 
 chies of Christendom. Some will justly consider these hie- 
 rarchies as so many obstacles to the progress of truth ; 
 incumbrances to Christianity ; burdens on the church. 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM, 103 
 
 They load the people witJi taxes to support their higher 
 clergy in a state of grandeur and luxury that ill accords 
 with the spirit of the gospel. They frowTi on all reforms. 
 Change, progress, improvement, are to them only omens 
 of their own downfall. How different would be the pros- 
 pects of Protestant Clnistianity within the boundaries of 
 the Papal and Greek churches, if those hierarchies were 
 destroyed, and all the particular congregations of Chris- 
 tians organized on the Congregational plan ! How 
 would the spirit of piety, of intelligence, of general im- 
 provement, revive in all those countries ! What new 
 success would crown the efforts of Protestant Mission- 
 aries to restore the corrupt churches of the old world to 
 evangehcal purity ! 
 
 Q. 108. What other peculiar excellence do 
 you perceive in Congregationalism ? 
 
 A. The Congregational mode of discipline is 
 more effective than any other. This is owing 
 in part to the fact that " the punishment which 
 is inflicted of many," carries with it the weight 
 of public opinion. Compare the effect of Con- 
 gregational discipline with that of some other 
 churches. How slight a sense of shame and 
 alarm is felt by an Episcopalian or a Methodist 
 on being excluded from the church by the sole 
 act of the minister in charge ! It is a very 
 trivial affair in comparison with the proceedings 
 of a Congregational church, according to the 
 rules in Matt, xviii ; and produces on the sub- 
 
104 PREFERABLENESS OF 
 
 ject of discipline and the community at large, a 
 very different and inferior impression. But this 
 is not the sole excellence of the Congregational 
 method of discipline. Discipline is well de- 
 scribed (Mitchell's Guide, p. 62) as a uther and 
 a better thing in the hands of the church than 
 it is in merely official hands. The aid of the 
 brethren is of great use in reclaiming offenders. 
 It is the very influence which Christ has pre- 
 scribed to be employed, and by far the most 
 likely to effect its object. 
 
 Q. 109. But is it not alledged as a practical 
 objection to Congregationalism, that it has no 
 public Confession of Faith by which to secure 
 uniformity of views and guard the purity of the 
 churches ? 
 
 A. This objection is doubtless of great weight 
 with those who are accustomed to depend on 
 such Formularies of Doctrine and Discipline 
 for safety, but it has in fact no weight what- 
 ever. For — 
 
 1. The Bible is the standard of the Congre- 
 gational churches. They have each a particu- 
 lar Confession, and commonly a few simple ar- 
 ticles of practice, drawn up for the sake of 
 convenience, although they do not appeal to 
 these formularies as " standards" of faith and 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM. 105 
 
 practice. In this they are sustained by the 
 Bible, for that " declares its own authority and 
 sufficiency, and requires a direct reference to 
 itself on all questions of a religious or moral 
 nature." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17; John v. 39; Matt, 
 xxii. 29. 
 
 2. In this respect the Congregational church- 
 es conform to the primitive model. The first 
 Christians had no standard or test of truth but 
 the Bible. See Mitchell's Guide, p. 50. Com- 
 pare Ques. 30. 
 
 3. Notwithstanding Congregationalists have 
 no other authoritative rule of faith or practice 
 than the word of God, their sentiments are un- 
 commonly well defined, well known, and har- 
 monious. (Mitchell, p. 51.) What the Con- 
 gregational Union of England and Wales say 
 respecting the denomination in that country, is 
 equally true of the churches in the United 
 States. " They wish it to be observed, (they 
 say,) that notwithstanding their jealousy of 5m6- 
 scription to Creeds and Articles, and their gen- 
 eral disapproval of the imposition of any human 
 standard, they are far more agreed in their doc- 
 trines and practices than any church which 
 enjoins subscription and enforces a human 
 standard of orthodoxy." 
 
106 PREFERABLENESS, &C. 
 
 4. The effect of these human standards is 
 proverbially the opposite of what it is intended 
 to be. They do not accomplish their object 
 either as defenses against heresy or as bonds 
 of union and concord. Mitchell's Guide, pp. 
 53-56. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 Q. 110. What was the origin of the Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church in this country ? 
 
 A. The early clergymen of this denomina- 
 tion were missionaries from the established 
 church of England. Their parishes were in- 
 cluded in the diocese of London, previous to 
 the American Revolution. 
 
 Q. 111. What was the origin of the estab- 
 lished church of England ? 
 
 A. It is the ancient church of England as it 
 was reformed and organized by the court and 
 bishops in the reigns of Henry the VIII, Ed- 
 ward the VI, and Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Q. 112. How does the Protestant Episco- 
 pal church in the United States differ from the 
 church of England ? 
 
 A. The church of England is connected 
 with the State as a national establishment, and 
 
108 THE PROTESTANT. 
 
 has various officers, as Archbishops, Archdea- 
 cons, Deans, Prebendaries, Canons, Minor 
 Canons, Chancellors, Vicars-general, Com- 
 missaries, Officials, Surrogates, Proctors, 
 &€., which are not known in this country. 
 The monarch of England is the supreme head 
 of the church, with power to nominate the 
 Bishops, reverse votes of Parliament, and stop 
 the proceedings of the clergy. 
 
 Q. 113. Wherein does the Constitution of 
 this church, in the United States, differ from 
 that of the primitive churches, as described in 
 the New Testament ? 
 
 A. The Protestant Episcopal church is in- 
 capable of being assembled in one place, that 
 the members may give their vote in ecclesias- 
 tical affairs : and the several congregations of 
 which it is composed are all obliged to an 
 absolute uniformity of faith, worship, and dis- 
 cipline. They are not so many distinct 
 churches, but together constitute one national 
 church. 
 
 Q. 114. How many orders of ministers are 
 there in the Protestant Episcopal church ? 
 
 A. Three ; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. 
 
 Q. 115. What is the office and authority of 
 the Bishops ? 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 109 
 
 A. They have the sole power of ordaining 
 the clergy, of consecrating churches, and of 
 administering the right of confirmation. They 
 also have great authority over the inferior 
 clergy. 
 
 Q. 116. What have you to object to the su- 
 periority of the Bishops over the parochial 
 clergy 1 
 
 A. No such distinction of ministers is ap- 
 pointed by Christ in his church, but on the con- 
 trary he has expressly forbidden them to as- 
 sume dominion over one another. See Matt. 
 XX. 25-27, xxiii. 8. 
 
 Q. 117. What is there objectionable in the 
 manner of ordination by Bishops ? 
 
 A. They require all whom they ordain, to 
 declare that they are moved by the Holy 
 Ghost, in undertaking the ministerial office ; 
 and then pretend to confer the Spirit by the 
 imposition of their hands, saying, " Receive 
 the Holy Ghost," &c. 
 
 Q. 1 18. Can none officiate as ministers in the 
 Protestant Episcopal church, who have not re- 
 ceived Episcopal ordination ? 
 
 A. No ; all other ordination is pronounced 
 invalid. Even ordination by Methodist Bish- 
 ops is considered insufficient, because it has 
 10 
 
110 THE PROTESTANT 
 
 no higher authority than Presbyterian ordina- 
 tion, the first Methodist Bishop having been 
 consecrated by a presbyter, John Wesley. 
 
 Q. 119. What is the common argument for 
 the exclusive right of the Bishops to ordain ? 
 
 A. That they have derived the right by un- 
 interrupted succession from the Apostles. 
 
 Q. 120. What is objected to this right by 
 uninterrupted succession ? 
 
 A. There are several objections : 
 
 1. The Scriptures nowhere mention it as 
 necessary to render ordination valid. 
 
 2. There is no reason why it should be ne- 
 cessary. What good purpose would be an- 
 swered, if instead of tracing their ordination to 
 Mr. Wesley, the clergy of the Methodist de- 
 nomination could trace it back to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury ? Would it give them 
 any new ideas ? Would it make them more 
 able or more devoted ministers of the New 
 Testament ? Would it add to the force of 
 their preaching, or to the sanctifying influence 
 of Christian ordinances administered by their 
 hands ? Certainly not. What good purpose 
 then could it answer ? Was this doctrine of 
 succession an expedient of the Apostles to pre- 
 serve the external unity of the church, or, as 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 Ill 
 
 it is said, to prevent schism or secession from 
 the Catholic church ? This is the use to which 
 it is now attempted to put it ; and strange as it 
 may seem, Episcopalians cling to it as a 
 " principle" which is uUimately to reunite the 
 scattered fragments of the universal church. 
 That state of things which they hope to see, 
 viz: all Christians combined in one denomi- 
 nation, if it shall ever come to pass, is not to 
 be effected by such a miserable device. The 
 expedient, if it was apostolical, has accom- 
 plished nothing ; for we see the churches of 
 Rome and of Constantinople early divided, and 
 subsequently, the church of England separa- 
 ting from that of Rome, besides a multitude of 
 other divisions in every age of the church. 
 And it is remarkable, if this doctrine is apos- 
 tolical, that the greatest evils the kingdom of 
 Christ ever suffered, have been produced by 
 the efforts of its adherents to secure this unity 
 and uniformity. Why, moreover, if the Apos- 
 tles established this law of succession for the 
 sake of unity, did they not record so important 
 a fact ? The truth is, they never did establish 
 it ; for nothing would tend so directly and 
 powerfully to build up a spiritual despotism in 
 
112 THE PROTESTANT 
 
 the churches of Christ ; and to perpetuate the 
 worst corruptions that might infest them. 
 
 3. The Protestant Episcopal church cannot 
 prove that her ministry is derived by a regu- 
 lar succession of ordinations from the Apos- 
 tles. 
 
 This is admitted by the best scholars in her 
 own communion. See Archbishop Whateley, 
 in his late learned work on the Kingdom of 
 Christ, Essay II, sec. 30. 
 
 Q. 121. What is the highest authority in 
 the Protestant Episcopal church in this coun- 
 try, where there are no archbishops ? 
 
 A. The sovereignty resides in the individ- 
 ual diocesan churches, each of which forms 
 its own constitution, frames canons for internal 
 government, and decides on all cases of disci- 
 pline, except that the Bishop must be approved, 
 ordained, and, when impeached, tried by his 
 peers, that is, by other Bishops. But all gen- 
 eral matters relating to the whole church are 
 regulated by a triennial Convention, which 
 frames canons, regulates the Liturgy and offi- 
 ces of worship, decides on the formation of 
 new dioceses, appoints missionary Bishops, 
 and holds correspondence with foreign bodies. 
 This Convention has also the power of alter- 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 113 
 
 ing or amending its own constitution, by pub- 
 lishing the proposed alteration at one triennial 
 meeting, and adopting them at a subsequent 
 meeting. It is composed of all the Bishops, 
 who form an upper house : and of clerical and 
 lay delegates from the several dioceses, who 
 form a lower house ; and the concurrence of 
 both houses is requisite to the validity of its 
 acts. See Constitution of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal church in the United States of Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 Q. 122. What is the nature and design of 
 the rite of confirmation as performed by the 
 Bishops ? 
 
 A. It is designed for young persons, who 
 thereby take upon themselves the vows which 
 their sponsors made in their names at their 
 baptism. 
 
 Q. 123. What does the Bishop do on these 
 occasions ? 
 
 A. He thanks God for having regenerated 
 them by water and the Holy Ghost, and for- 
 given all their sins. He then lays his hands 
 upon the head of every person to certify them 
 all, by that sign, of God's favor and gracious 
 goodness towards them. 
 10* 
 
114 THE PROTESTANT 
 
 Q. 124. What is required of persons in or- 
 der to their being thus confirmed ? 
 
 A. Nothing more than their having a cer- 
 tificate from their minister, that they can say 
 the Lord's prayer, the creed, the ten com- 
 mandments, and the catechism ; and their an- 
 swering all together to the question, " Whether 
 they renew the vows made in their name at 
 their baptism ?" 
 
 Q. 125. What objection is there to this 
 ceremony ? 
 
 A. It has no foundation in Scripture, and is 
 attended with very dangerous consequences. 
 
 The principal text urged in favor of confirmation is 
 nothing to the purpose, viz : Acts ^^ii. 14, &lc., which 
 refers to the extraordinary gifts conferred by Peter and 
 John. The confirmation spoken of, Acts xiv. 22, and 
 XV. 41, was not by unposition of hands, but hy preach' 
 ing. 
 
 Q. 126. What dangerous consequence is 
 likely to arise from this rite ? 
 
 A. Ignorant people who have too good an 
 opinion of the Bishop to think he would de- 
 clare a falsehood, are likely to look upon them- 
 selves to be what he has declared they are, 
 pardoned, regenerated, and interested in God's 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 115 
 
 favor, and so conclude their state is safe, 
 while yet they continue in their sins. 
 
 MODE OF WORSHIP. 
 
 Q. 127. What is the mode of worship in 
 the Protestant Episcopal church ? 
 
 A. A form of prayer is statedly used, called 
 the Liturgy or Common Prayer. 
 
 Q. 128. Are forms of prayer in themselves 
 sinful ? 
 
 A. No : it is better to pray by a form than 
 not at all, or in an indecent, incoherent man- 
 ner. 
 
 Q. 129. What objections then are there to 
 Liturgies ? 
 
 A. 1. The Scripture is silent respecting the 
 necessity or expediency of them, and refers to 
 none in use, though it treats largely on divine 
 worship, and mentions the prayers of good men, 
 on various occasions. See Ques. 70. 
 
 2. It seems unreasonable that Christian 
 ministers should be confined to an invariable 
 form in their prayers, more than in their ser- 
 mons. 
 
 3. The influence of sympathy between the 
 minister and his hearers is in a great measure 
 
116 THE PROTESTANT 
 
 lost. The people are moved and excited to 
 devotion by the fervor of an extemporary- 
 prayer, the evident breathings of the spirit of 
 their pastor. A prescribed form breaks this 
 chain of sympathy. 
 
 4. A form tends to promote indolence in 
 ministers, so far as it prevents the exertion of 
 their faculties. 
 
 5. The constant repetition of the same thing 
 tends to deaden the affections of the worship- 
 ers, and promote formality. 
 
 6. Liturgies cannot be adapted to all the 
 circumstances of different societies, and the 
 several events which may occur, and which 
 ought to be noticed in public prayer. 
 
 Q. 130. What is exceptionable in the gen- 
 eral form and construction of the Liturgy ? 
 
 A. 1. The method is irregular and confused. 
 The several prayers, collects, &c., are with- 
 out any order or connection. 
 
 2. The parts into which it is divided are too 
 many and too minute. Some of the distinct 
 prayers, and especially the collects, seem to 
 have no distinguishing object, but are little 
 more than introduction and conclusion. See 
 Col. for 2d Sunday after Epiph., 2d before 
 Lent, 3d, 4th, and 5th in Lent. 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 117 
 
 3. It is full of tautology and vain repeti- 
 tions. 
 
 4. It is in some views very defective. The 
 confession is too general ; as, indeed, are the 
 petitions and thanksgivings. 
 
 5. The service is too long ; in consequence 
 of which too little time is given for preach- 
 ing the Gospel. 
 
 Q. 132. What is exceptionable, as to senti- 
 ment, in particular parts of the Liturgy ? 
 
 A. 1. In the office of Baptism. 
 
 Such expressions are used concerning the 
 efficacy of that rite as naturally lead persons 
 to conceive of it as a saving ordinance. 
 
 God is thanked for having regenerated the 
 child hy his Holy Spirit. The water is called 
 the laver of regeneration, by which the child, 
 being born in original sin and in the wrath of 
 God, is received into the number of the child- 
 ren of God, and heirs of everlasting life. Ac- 
 cordingly in the Catechism the child is taught 
 to say of its baptism, — " wherein I was made 
 a member of Christ, a child of God, and an 
 inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven." A sen- 
 timent as dangerous as it is unreasonable and 
 unscriptural. The catechism recognizes a dis- 
 tinction between the " outward sign" and the 
 
118 THE PROTESTANT 
 
 " inward grace ;" yet the doctrine commonly 
 maintained is, that the " inward grace" is con- 
 ferred on the child by the Holy Spirit at the 
 time of applying the "outward sign." 
 
 2. In the Communion Service. 
 
 Some expressions strongly favor the notion 
 of Christ's real presence in the bread and wine : 
 a superstitious regard to which is encouraged 
 by the use of the term consecration, and by 
 bowing the knee, to receive the bread and 
 wine. 
 
 The words used are : " Grant us therefore 
 so to eat the flesh of thy dear son Jesus Christ, 
 and so to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies 
 may be made clean by his body," &c. When 
 the minister gives the bread, he says, " The 
 body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy 
 body and soul ;" and when giving the cup, 
 " The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, preserve 
 thy body and soul," &c. 
 
 3. In the Burial Service. 
 
 This one service is read at all funerals 
 without distinction, whatever the age, circum- 
 stances or character of the deceased may be ; 
 even though he is known to have been a most 
 abandoned sinner and hardened infidel, and to 
 have died without any signs of repentance ; 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 119 
 
 the only exceptions being unhaptized adults, 
 self-murderers, or excommunicated persons, 
 which last case very rarely happens. In this 
 service the minister is required to style the de- 
 ceased — " Our deceased brother" — an ex- 
 pression which must often wound the con- 
 science of the minister, and be attended with 
 very dangerous consequences to the people, 
 who may naturally encourage themselves to 
 go on in sin, on the presumption of obtaining 
 happiness at last, since they so often hear 
 persons of the most infamous characters, and 
 others with no pretensions to piety, called, 
 when dead, Christian brethren. 
 
 4. The use of the Apocryphal Books. 
 The reading of Lessons from the Apocryphal 
 books seems to give the Apocrypha equal 
 authority with the Bible, and encourages the 
 Papists in their errors. 
 
 5. In the Litany, or General Supplication, 
 the manner in which the Trinity is addressed, 
 at the beginning, has been thought by Trinita- 
 rians (Calvin in particular) very exceptionable, 
 as it is without Scripture precedent. 
 
 Q. 132. How is it to be accounted for that 
 the Liturgy contains so many exceptionable 
 things ? 
 
120 THE PROTESTANT 
 
 A. The plain reason is, the greater part of 
 it was taken from the old Popish Liturgy ; 
 from which the first Reformers prudently made 
 as little variation as possible. Some improve- 
 ments have been made by the church in this 
 country. 
 
 When the Devonsliire men were stirred up to rebell- 
 ion on account of the alteration of their Mass Book, 
 King Edward VI tells them in a letter, to quiet them, 
 As for the service in the Enghsh tongue, it perchance 
 seems to you a new service, but yet, indeed it is no other 
 but the old ; the self same words in English. Accord- 
 ingly some of the Popes offered to confirm the English 
 Liturgy. See Art. Liturgy, in the New Englander, Vol. 
 L See Delaune's Plea, 47-52. 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 Q. 133. What are the objectionable ceremo- 
 nies used in the Protestant Episcopal Church ? 
 
 A. 1. Bowing at the name of Jesus. 2. Sign- 
 ing with a cross in baptism. 3. Particular ges- 
 tures in worship, especially kneeling at the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 Q. 134. Why should not the people "bow 
 at the name of Jesus" ? Are we not required 
 to do so ? 
 
 A. The passage of scripture (Philip, ii. 10) 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 121 
 
 on which this practice is founded, cannot rea- 
 sonably be taken in a literal sense ; and it is 
 absurd to suppose that such a ceremony should 
 be enjoined in honor of the Son, and not of the 
 Father, or at the mention of the name Je- 
 sus, and not of any other of the numerous 
 names by which the Son of God is called. 
 The practice savors of superstition. 
 
 Q. 135. What is the pretence for the Priest's 
 crossing the forehead in baptism ? 
 
 A. It is said to be done as a token that the 
 person baptized " shall not be ashamed to con- 
 fess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully 
 to fight under his banner." 
 
 The cross in baptism was first introduced in 
 the fourth century, by a sect called the Basil- 
 idians. 
 
 Q. 136. What is objected to this ceremony ? 
 A. 1 . Christ never appointed it. 
 
 2. If the mark of a cross must be used as a 
 badge of a disciple of Christ, it ought to be 
 either visible and permanent, or often repeated, 
 as it is by the Papists. 
 
 3. To use this sign in baptism, is to make 
 two sacraments of one, according to the defini- 
 tion of a sacrament, as an " outward visible 
 sign of an inward and spiritual grace." 
 
 11 
 
122 THE PROTESTANT 
 
 4. If there were no particular objections to 
 the practice, it would be condemned by the 
 general principle, that no additions should 
 needlessly be made to the simple ritual of the 
 primitive church. 
 
 Q. 137. Why should we object to so trifling 
 a ceremony as kneeling at the sacrament of the 
 supper, since we do not scruple to kneel in 
 prayer ? 
 
 A. The practice of kneeling took its rise 
 from the Popish adoration of the elements as 
 the very body and blood of Christ ; and it can- 
 not be repeated in the presence of those who 
 regard them in this light, without encouraging 
 their superstition and idolatry. 
 
 Q. 138. Are there not some other questiona- 
 ble ceremonies observed in this church ? 
 
 A. There are several customs, which par- 
 take of the nature of ceremonies, and are liable 
 to much the same objections : for example, the 
 wearing of particular habits, observing certain 
 days as holy, the distinction of places and the 
 use of sponsors in baptism. 
 
 All these are mere human and arbitrary appointments, 
 unknown in the prhnitivc chm'ch, ill according with the 
 simplicity of the Gospel, and calculated to satisfy the re- 
 ligious feeling of the people with forms, rather than with 
 divine truth. 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 123 
 
 The office of sponsors is particularly exceptionable, 
 because the sponsors are made to personate the child at 
 its baptism, and soleimily engage for its religious educa- 
 tion, though often they expect never to have any thing to 
 do with its education ; and they even promise and vow 
 these things in its name : 1st. That it doth renounce 
 the de^^l and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of 
 the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and 
 the sinful desires of the flesh. 2d. That it doth believe 
 all the articles of the Christian faith. 3d. That it will 
 keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk 
 in the same all the days of its Ufe : which engagement 
 is such as none can fulfill. 
 
 DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Q. 139. Is there any thing objectionable in the 
 discipline of this church ? 
 
 A. Yes ; it is not in the hands of the brother- 
 hood of each particular church, according to the 
 primitive pattern ; and all persons who have 
 been confirmed by the bishop, and who are not ex- 
 communicated nor grossly immoral, are allowed 
 to come to the communion, contrary to the order 
 of the primitive church, which was composed 
 solely of those who gave credible evidence of 
 having been " born again." It is true that the 
 minister charges those that come to the sacra- 
 
124 THE PROTESTANT, &C. 
 
 merit, to be truly penitent for their sins, &c., 
 but there is no personal examination to see 
 whether they are so, and nothing required at 
 their confirmation to satisfy a sober and intel- 
 ligent Christian, that they have ever passed 
 from death unto life. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Q. 140. What was the origin of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal church in the United States ? 
 
 A. It was founded by John Wesley, who, in 
 1784, by the imposition of his own hands, or- 
 dained Thomas Coke for the Episcopal office in 
 America, and commissioned and directed him 
 to set apart Francis Asbury to the same of- 
 fice. By the hands of these Bishops and their 
 successors, the present clergy of this church 
 have chiefly received ordination. See Disci- 
 pline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Ch. 
 I, sec. 1. 
 
 Q. 141. What is the general frame of this 
 church ? 
 
 A. 1. All the particular associations of be- 
 lievers are embraced in one general organiza- 
 tion. 
 
 11* 
 
126 THE METHODIST 
 
 The entire field is divided into several annual Confer- 
 ences — thirty-three at the present time in the United 
 States, and one each in Texas and Liberia. Each an- 
 nual Conference is divided into several Districts — and 
 each District into several Cii-cuits and Stations. A Sta- 
 tion is one society or congregation. A Circuit includes 
 several societies and congregations. 
 
 2. The societies and congregations are gov- 
 erned and instructed for the most part by an 
 itinerant ministry. 
 
 It is the duty of the Bishops or general Superintend- 
 ents to travel over the whole field, and exercise their 
 Episcopal functions in every part of it. They are gener- 
 al, rather than diocesan Bishops — for they have equal 
 authority in all the Conferences, and divide the field 
 among them in such a way that each goes over the 
 whole ground. A Presiding Elder has charge of each 
 District ; but one person camiot fill the office in the same 
 District more than four years in succession. And no 
 pastor can remain more than two years on a Circuit or 
 Station. See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 4, Ques. 3. 
 
 3. There are only two orders in the ministry, 
 Deacons and Elders or Presbyters. See John 
 Emory's Defense, sec. 5, p. 20. 
 
 The Elders, Presiding Elders, and Bishops, are consid- 
 ered of the same order, differing only in respect to office. 
 The Deacons are the second order, who have not yet risen 
 to the rank of Elders. There are many itinerant preachers 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 127 
 
 who have not been ordained, but are candidates for the 
 order of Deacons. 
 
 4. The business of organizing churches, 
 teaching the people, and administering disci- 
 pline, belongs wholly to the ordained ministry. 
 See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 3. 
 
 But this does not imply that the clergy shall not call 
 m the aid of others. Hence they have various officers in 
 the church to assist in pastoral labor and in the adminis- 
 tration of discipline, viz : Local Preachers, Exhorters, 
 Class Leaders, Stewards, and Committees. 
 
 5. The chief government of the church is 
 vested in various official bodies or judicato- 
 ries. 
 
 The highest is the General Conference, which meets 
 once every four years, and is composed of delegates 
 from the Annual Conferences. The next in order are the 
 Annual Conferences, w^hich are composed of the travel- 
 ing preachers within their several bounds. The next are 
 Quarterly Conferences. Tliese are composed of the 
 Preachers, itinerant and local, of a circuit or station, with 
 the Exliorters, Class Leaders and Stewards. See Dis- 
 cipline, Ch. I, sec. 4, Ques. 4. Ch. I, sec. 3, Ques. 2. 
 Ch. I, sec. 21. 
 
 6. The Presiding Elders, and the pastors 
 of the several circuits and stations, receive 
 
128 THE METHODIST 
 
 their appointments directly from the Bishop, 
 at each Annual Conference — for the appoint- 
 ments are made or renewed every year. 
 
 Churches or societies may petition for a particular 
 minister, but can do no more. So ministers, if they see 
 fit, can solicit an appointment to a particiolar field of la- 
 bor, but still they are subject to the appointing power. 
 See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 4. 
 
 Q. 143. How are members admitted to the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church ? 
 
 A. The official minister or circuit preach- 
 er receives into full membership any baptized 
 person whom he considers worthy, provided 
 he has been on trial and has met in class for 
 six months, and is recommended as a suitable 
 person for church fellowship by his class lead- 
 er. See Discipline, Ch. If, sec. 2. 
 
 Q. 143. How are unworthy members ex- 
 cluded from this church ? 
 
 A. '* The Society," or several individuals, 
 are summoned by the minister to try the case, 
 and if the accused is found guilty, the minister 
 suspends or expels him from the church, as 
 the circumstances of the case may require. 
 If either the minister or the subject of disci- 
 pline is dissatisfied with the result of the trial, 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 129 
 
 he may appeal to the next Quarterly Confer- 
 ence. See Discipline, Ch. II, sec. 7. 
 
 Q. 144. What are the official powers of a 
 pastor or preacher of a Circuit ? 
 
 A. He Licenses the exhorters ; appoints 
 and removes at pleasure the class leaders ; 
 and has the general oversight and direction of 
 all the spiritual and secular affairs of the Cir- 
 cuit. See Discipline, Ch. I. sec. 10. 
 
 Q. 145. What are the official powers of a 
 Presiding Elder of a District ? 
 
 A. He has the control and direction of all 
 the traveling and local preachers within his 
 District. See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 5. 
 
 Q. 146. What are the powers of the Bish- 
 ops ? 
 
 A. They have the sole power of appointing 
 the Presiding Elders, of stationing the preach- 
 ers, and of moving them whenever they think 
 best, subject to certain restrictions. They 
 have also the power of ordination, and the 
 general control of the temporal and spiritual 
 concerns of the church. See Discipline, Ch. 
 I, sec. 4, sec. 5, Ques. 1. Yet this power of 
 stationing the preachers may be taken from 
 them at any time by the General Conference — 
 on which body, indeed, they are wholly de- 
 
130 THE METHODIST 
 
 pendent. See " A Defense of our Fathers," 
 by John Emory, p. 64. 
 
 Q. 147. What have you to object to this 
 system of church polity ? 
 
 A. My principal objections are — 
 
 1. It divests all the particular churches of 
 church power, and vests the w^hole power in 
 the hands of the clergy, by whom, history in- 
 forms us, it is extremely liable to be abused. 
 
 2. It wholly overlooks and abrogates the 
 rules of discipline given by Christ in the 18th 
 chap, of Matt. 
 
 3. It takes from the brethren the right of 
 choosing their own religious teachers, on 
 which right, more than on any other, the 
 church depends for defense against false and 
 incompetent teachers. 
 
 4. It deprives the churches of resident pas- 
 tors and teachers, contrary to primitive prac- 
 tice, and to the highest advancement of the 
 members in Christian knowledge and experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Q. 148. Has not the Methodist itinerant 
 system been productive of great good ? 
 
 A. Undoubtedly that feature of the Meth- 
 odist economy has conduced much to its rapid 
 growth and advancement. But it seems to be 
 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 131 
 
 adapted to the early operations of a new sect, 
 and to the wants of a sparse population, rather 
 than to the highest edification and improvement 
 of the people. This requires a permanent minis- 
 try. And it should also be recollected, in institu- 
 ting a comparison between the Congregational 
 and Methodist systems, that the employment of 
 traveling preachers, although reduced to a sys- 
 tem and carried to a great extent by the Meth- 
 odists, is not unknown to Congregationalism. 
 Evangelists and missionaries are not confined 
 to the care of a single church ; and it would 
 be in perfect keeping with Congregational or- 
 der to supply new and thinly inhabited regions 
 with an itinerant ministry. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Q. 149. What was the origin of the Pres- 
 byterian church in this country ? 
 
 A. Among the first colonists of this coun- 
 try were persons from England and Scotland, 
 who were partial to Presbyterianism ; and in 
 the course of the 18th century Presbyterian 
 churches were organized and Presbyteries con- 
 stituted, with a Synod embracing the whole 
 body of Presbyterian ministers, called the Synod 
 of Philadelphia. Until 1727, this Synod had 
 no written confession or form of government. 
 In that year it adopted the Westminister Con- 
 fession of Faith and Catechisms, and also re- 
 commended to the churches under its care, 
 " the Directory for Worship, Discipline, and 
 Government, commonly annexed to the West- 
 minister Confession." In 1741, the Synod 
 was rent asunder, and two rival Synods were 
 12 
 
134 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 formed, viz : New York and Philadelphia. In 
 1758, these Synods were united ; and in 1788, 
 they adopted " the Constitution of the Presby- 
 terian church in the United* States of Ameri- 
 ca." Under this constitution, with a General 
 Assembly as the highest Judicatory of the 
 church, they remained united until 1837, with 
 the exception of the schism of 1810, when 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian church was 
 constituted. In the year 1837, the General 
 Assembly passed an act exscinding from the 
 church the Synods of Geneva, Utica, Genesee, 
 and the Western Reserve. These exscinded 
 bodies and other portions of the church which 
 sympathized with them, regarding the exscind- 
 ing act of the assembly as unconstitutional, re- 
 tain their former title of " the Presbyterian 
 Church m the United States of America." In 
 their General Assembly of 1840, they enacted 
 that that Body shall hereafter meet triennially, 
 instead of annually, and that the judicial deci- 
 sions of the Synods shall in all cases be final. 
 In the other body of the same name, the Gen- 
 eral Assembly is still the highest ecclesiasti- 
 cal court. See Ques. 150, Ans. 5. 
 
 Q. 150. What is the general frame and 
 Constitution of the Presbyterian church ? 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 135 
 
 A. 1. Like the Protestant Episcopal and 
 Methodist Episcopal churches, the Presbyte- 
 rian is in theory a national church. "The 
 several different congregations of believers, 
 taken collectively, constitute one church of 
 Christ, called emphatically, the Presbyterian 
 church. See " Form of Government of Pres- 
 byterian churches in United States," p. 397, 
 18mo. 1821. 
 
 2. A Church Session, as it is called, con- 
 sisting of the pastor and several ruling Elders, 
 is " charged with maintaining the spiritual 
 government of the Congregation." Plan of 
 Gov., Ch. X, § 6. 
 
 3. From the decisions of the Session, ap- 
 peals may be made to a higher court, called 
 " the Presbytery," which is composed " of all 
 the ministers, and one ruling Elder from each 
 congregation," within a given district. 
 
 4. An appeal may be made from the deci- 
 sions of the Presbytery to a third judicatory, 
 called " the Synod," composed of the minis- 
 ters and Elders of several Presbyteries. 
 
 5. A General Assembly, composed of a del- 
 egation of ministers and Elders from the sev- 
 eral Presbyteries of the whole church, is con- 
 stituted the supreme tribunal and a court of ap- 
 
136 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 peal for the final issuing of all cases, which 
 may be carried up to it from the inferior judica- 
 tories. This assembly has authority over the 
 whole church ; and is in fact the Presbyterian 
 church itself. See Ques. 149. 
 
 Q. 151. In what important respects does 
 this church differ from the Protestant Episco- 
 pal and the Methodist Episcopal churches 1 
 
 A. 1. In maintaining the parity or equality 
 of all who labor in word and doctrine. Both 
 the Methodist Episcopal and the Protestant 
 Episcopal churches require of the inferior 
 clergy an oath of obedience to their superiors. 
 
 2. In recognizing more fully the right of the 
 several churches to appoint their own officers. 
 In the Methodist Episcopal church the people 
 have no voice in electing any of their officers, 
 and in the Protestant Episcopal church, the 
 Bishop, who is in a sense the pastor of all the 
 churches of his diocese, may not be the choice 
 of a single congregation. And in all cases the 
 people are obliged to petition their bishop to 
 grant them the pastor of their choice. 
 
 Q. 152. In what important respect does the 
 Presbyterian church agree with those just 
 mentioned, contrary to the primitive and Con- 
 gregational systems ? 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 137 
 
 A. In depriving the brotherliood of each 
 particular church of the government thereof, 
 and vesting all ecclesiastical power in the 
 hands of church officers. 
 12* 
 

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