J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.J i — ^ -— — i ! ^^,.Ci £ j J UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. j cAjM'i' ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM AND THE SECTS. BY REV. DORUS CLARKE, D. D. tl It hath so much force as there is force in the reason of it." Richard Mather. BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK: LEE, SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM, Nos. 47 and 49 Greene Street. 1871. ^ O Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S71, By DORUS CLARKE, n the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Cambridge : Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, , 11) Spring Lane. At a regular meeting of the Suffolk North Association of Congregational Ministers, held at Charlestown, February 21, 1871, the following Resolution was unanimously passed, viz. : — The Suffolk North Association having listened to an Essay on Congregationalism, by the Rev. Dorus Clarke, D. D., which met their general approbation, desire to express the opinion, that it is a clear, compact and comprehensive view of the sub- ject, and that its publication at this time would be especially fitted to aid the ministry and the churches in giving a correct view of our polity, and of its relation to other evangelical denominations. Attest, Abijah R. Baker, Moderator. Lucius R. Eastman, Jr., Scribe. CONTENTS. CHAPTER FIRST. The Special Grounds of Orthodox Congregation- alism 9 1. Its Etymology. 2. It is a Transcript of the New Testament Pattern. 3. Its Historical Continuity from the Apostles down to the Present Day. CHAPTER SECOND. Causes op its Progress being less Rapid than that of some of the sects 68 1. The injudicious Civil Policy of the Early Settlers of New England. 2. The Superior Tact and supposed Greater Advantages of some of the Sects, (a.) Methodists. (5.) Baptists. 5 6 CONTENTS. (c.) Episcopalians. (d.) Presbyterians. 3. Idiosyncrasies, or Traits of Mind, which more natu- rally affiliate with Error than with Truth. 4. Partial Unsoundness of some Congregationalists. 5. Immigration. CHAPTER THIRD. Things to be done to promote Orthodox Congre- gationalism 149 1. Improvements in Public Worship. 2. Return to the Doctrinal Standards. 3. Frequent and Pure Revivals of Religion. 4. Cultivation of the highest Social Life. CONCLUSION. Its Noble Record and its Ultimate Triumph. . . 1G3 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM AND THE SECTS. What is Congregationalism? It is a form of Church polity. And what is a Church polity ? It is the costume in which a body of Christians perform their work for Christ. It is a means to the end, and not the end itself. Just so far as it is made the end, and not the means to the end, it is sectarianism. The great end of Christianity is to save the souls of men. This is, or it should be, the great end and aim of all Christians. If this be a correct definition or description of a church polity, then that is the best which enables the Church of Christ to perform its work the most easily, the most intelligently, and the most suc- cessfully. Admitting this to be the true crite- 7 8 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM rion of the comparative excellence of the various forms of ecclesiastical polity, it would seem that the best form might be ascertained with little difficulty. But since each denomination, in its turn, claims that the decision is in its own favor and against all others, it becomes necessary to subject the matter to other and more crucial tests. AND THE SECTS. 9 CHAPTER PIEST. THE SPECIAL GROUNDS OF ORTHODOX CON- GREGATIONALISM. What, then, are the special or concrete reasons on which Orthodox Congregationalism grounds its claim to be considered the best polity of the Christian church ? One of these grounds is etymological. The term Congregationalism is derived from Congrega- tion ; that is, a congregation of Christians is, under Christ, their Great Head, the original and the only source of power. The authority is within itself. It is an autocracy. It is the the- ory of Congregationalism that a meeting of Chris- tian believers, voluntarily called and organized for the purpose of doing church acts and enjoy- ing church privileges, is, of itself, a real and true Church of Christ. It may and it should have the recognition and cordial co-operation of all the churches scattered over the earth ; but this indi- vidual congregation, or company of believers, has 10 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM within itself, and not by virtue of its connection with others, all the power which is necessary in the case ; and this congregation has not only, in itself, all the power that is necessary to do all acts which it is competent for a church to do, but by its very isolation and independence it admits the right of no other earthly power to intervene, and overawe or revise or veto its doings. It is a government of the people, and by the people, and for the people. " Each particular church, " says the Rev. Dr. Arnold, though he was an Episcopalian, " is an authority to the members of that church/ 7 * Congregationalism, then, places all church power in the hands of the people or the Congrega- tion, and thus it brings all church acts more closely home to the body of believers and to the individual members thereof, than any other known form of church polity. In no associated capacity do the acts of the body become so nearly personal acts. Their acts are as nearly personal acts, as it is possible for such acts to be in society. Besides, Congregationalism exactly meets the instincts and cravings of all men for personal liberty. Every man loves freedom, — this polity, * Life of Thomas Arnold, D. D., p. 41. AND THE SECTS. 11 and this only, gives it to him. Every man wishes to be master of himself, — this system, unlike all others, allows him that privilege. It is in harmony, then, with the deepest desires of our nature, — with the instincts of every human heart. The very term Congregationalism, then, shows the origin and the nature of this svstem. It is the simplest form of polity known to history. No form can be more simple. It is upon this normal fact, that it founds one of its claims to be the very best polity for all ages and all nations. For several years after our Pilgrim Fathers came to this country, their churches were called "The Churches of Christ." They had no de- nominational name, just as the Apostolic Churches had no denominational name. They had no such name, because they were not a sect. They had no such name, because they were the true church- es of Christ. The purity of their faith and the severity of their trials, proved that they were of the apostolic stamp. In process of time, the title Congregational was forced upon them by the necessities of the case. The congregation, or the body of believers, were accustomed to do all the church business, and hence it was natural and 12 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM proper that they should assume the name Congre- gationalists, when, by the rise of the Baptist and the Episcopal sects, they were obliged to adopt some title to distinguish them from those sec- tarians. Other church polities, — all other church poli- ties have other origins. They have never claimed and do not now claim, that they originated in the congregation. Indeed, they not only make no such claim, but they reject the theory that the congregation or body of believers, is the proper source or embodiment of church power, or is competent to do church acts. Congregationalism, then, has this glory exclusively. " No man taketh it from " us. This crowning excellence of Congregationalism is, in the view of all other forms of church government, its crowning objec- tion, and therefore it has and can have no rival claimants. The especial point then, on which Congrega- tionalism differs from all other forms of church polity, is, that the churches are competent to govern } — all other plans hold that they must be governed. The aristocratic and the hierarchical theories in the church, like the aristocratic and monarchical theories in the State, are built on the AND THE SECTS. 13 assumption that the people are ignoramuses or wiseacres, — that they are incompetent to do their own thinking and acting ; and that some- body else who claims to have more knowledge, whether he has it or not, must step in and per- form their work for them. This theory Congre- gationalism in the Churches and Republicanism in the State wholly repudiate, and both assert the ability, the right, and the duty of self-govern- ment. But what is Orthodox Congregationalism ? Here appears the poverty of language, when we at- tempt to give that a denominational name, which was never intended to have a denominational name. By the phrase it is not meant that the " Congregationalism " is " orthodox," but that the Faith which underlies it and is historically con- nected with it, is " orthodox. " " English unde- fined " has no convenient name for this body of Christians. Words here refuse to perform their office. They seem to protest against calling " the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth," by any sectarian appella- tion. But this Faith and Polity must have some title. We have therefore to resort to an awkward 14 ' ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM periphrasis to distinguish it. Hence it is called " Orthodox Congregationalism" The Sects have no such difficulty. Each of them has some char- acteristic, which broadly distinguishes it from the others, and from the unsectarian churches. Hence the terms, " Episcopalians," "Baptists," "Meth- odists," "Presbyterians," " Universalists," "Uni- tarians," etc., exactly indicate their peculiarities respectively. " Orthodox Congregationalists," alone, have to be content with a long, incorrect appellative. The Fathers of New England, — those modern revivers of the faith and polity of the apostles and primitive Christians, — were unequalled in their day for the soundness of their doctrinal belief. This, "in their heart's just estimate," far exceeded in importance the very best form of church government. It was for this that they suffered so much. It was this, which was so much dearer to them than life. But their sound dogmatic faith was the result of their true con- version to God, and of their intelligent and emi- nent piety. They were regenerated men, — regenerated, not by any improvement of morals or manners ; nor by any form of baptism or rite of confirma- AND THE SECTS. 15 tion, by whomsoever administered ; nor by any cultivation of their religious nature ; nor by any priestly absolutions or manipulations ; nor by any austerities or penances ; nor by any "correlation of forces ; " but by " the renewing* of the Holy Ghost." " Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saveth us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." It was the love of Christ, as the result of regen- erating grace, consciously felt by those holy men, which was the root of their orthodox belief, and the mainspring of their sacrifices for the enjoy- ment of the rights of conscience. Orthodox Congregationalism is, therefore, but another name for the soundest religious faith and the holiest walk with God, as well as for the simplest polity. This title, though grammatically indefinite, is now, by common consent, the nom de plume of this body of Christians. But no class of Christians ever took greater pains to form a Confession of Faith, which should be absolutely correct ; and they probably suc- ceeded, so far as the then existing knowledge of biblical interpretation would permit. 16 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM Cotton Mather says : " The churches of New England took all the occasions imaginable to make all the world know, that in the doctrinal part of religion, they have agreed entirely with the Re- formed Churches of Europe ; but as a further demonstration hereof, when there was a Synod assembled at Cambridge, September 30, 1648, even that Synod which framed, agreed and published the Platform of Church Principles, there was a most unanimous vote passed in these words : ' This Synod, having perused and considered the Confession of Faith by the late reverend Assem- bly in England, do judge it to be very holy, ortho- dox, and judicious in all matters of faith, and do therefore freely and fully consent thereunto for the substance thereof, Only in those things that have respect to church government and discipline, we refer ourselves to the platform of church dis- cipline agreed upon by this present assembly.' " Again, he says : " Besides the vote of the New England churches for a concurrence with the Confession of Faith made by the Assembly at Westminster, a Synod assembled at Boston, May 12, 1C80, whereof Mr. Increase Mather was mod- erator, consulted and considered, what was fur- ther to be done for such a Confession. Accord- AND THE SECTS. 17 ingly, the Confession of Faith consented by the Congregational Churches of England in a Synod met at the Savoy, which, excepting a few vari- ations, was the same with what was agreed by the reverend Assembly at Westminster, and after- wards by the General Assembly of Scotland ; was twice publicly read, examined, and approved ; and some small variations made from that of the Savoy, in compliance with that at Westminster ; and so, after such collations, but no contentions, voted and printed, as the FoAth of New England. But they chose to express themselves in the words of those assemblies ; that so (as they speak in their preface) we might not only ' with one heart/ but ' with one mouth, glorifio God and our Saviour Jesus Christ/ " * Logically and naturally, then, do the Congre- gational form of church government and the Evangelical system of faith, grow out of intelli- gent, personal piety. They are both evolved from intimate communion with Christ. Such intimate communion evolves no Sects, but only the true Church of Christ. Nothing sinister, or narrow, or exclusive, or worldly can spring from such a source. Sectarianism originates in some worldly * Magnalia, vol. ii. pp. 155-0. 2 18 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM motive, or is largely the result of natural temper- ament or of a perverted education. Love to Christ never suggests the idea of earning some- thing by the self-denial of going into " the waters of baptism, " nor the desire ,to exclude fellow- believers from His table, nor the love of cler- ical preferment, nor noisy ejaculations in public prayer, nor any pompous rites and ceremonies. But close fellowship with Christ, as a Personal Redeemer and Beloved Friend, works out spon- taneously into a correct Faith and Polity. Its natural outward expression is Orthodox Congre- gationalism. Secondly. Orthodox Congregationalism claims to be the best polity, because it is evidently a fac- simile of the New Testament pattern. The idea has been advanced, that the New Testament does not indicate any church polity whatever, and that the matter is left entirely to human discretion. But this theory is not correct. The New Testa- ment has something to say on the subject. The matter is not ignored, — it is distinctly recog- nized ; and what Christ and His apostles say about it is as binding as the Ten Commandments. Nor can it be reasonably supposed, that the church polity, outlined by the New Testament, is AND THE SECTS. 19 so very recondite, as to be eliminated only by the most scholarly investigation. That polity, what- ever it is, must be expected to lie upon the sur- face of the record, inasmuch as it was designed for universal use. It is a fact admitted by all, that the polity indicated by the sacred writers, is nowhere in the New Testament elaborated into a system. There is no professed treatise on the subject. All that is said about it is isolated and fragmentary ; nothing structural and complete. These scattered indications must then be brought together, and interpreted by the soundest canons of exegesis, by the obvious intent of a church polity, and by its adaptation to society in its various stages of culture and under all forms of civil government, and to the great work of spread- ing the Gospel over the earth. The extreme simplicity of the polity of the New Testament finds its counterpart only in the proverbial simplicity of this system. Congrega- tionalism holds that the Christian church is a vol- untary association of believing men and women for church purposes, and that it is fully compe- tent to manage its own affairs. And there is nothing sacerdotal in it. It rejects an earthly priesthood, and all penances, sacrifices, genuflex- 20 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM ions, confessionals, absolutions, and other priestly appliances for shriving the soul. It holds, in stead, " that we have a Great High Priest that is passed into the heavens — Jesus the Son of God ; " " who needeth not daily, as other high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the people's ; for this He did once, when He offered up Himself." For the institution of the ministry, Congrega- tionalism finds authority in the fact, that, when " certain prophets and teachers " at Antioch :l ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, ' Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 7 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed." By the same simple and solemn rites are Congre- gational ministers ordained and set apart to their work. The theory is, that the clergy must be " called by the Holy Ghost," and have evidence of it which is satisfactory to their own minds, and that the "laying on of hands" by the brethren, or by the neighboring pastors as their agents, is simply a public recognition of their call to the work and of their fitness for it. The " laying on of the AND THE SECTS. 21 hands of the presbytery," and the " ordaining of elders in every city/' did not denote the com- munication of any holy influence, but were ap- propriate acts or votes of the apostles, denoting their confidence in their new associates, and of their cordial admission of them to " the work where unto they were called." Congregational- ists, therefore, regard such acts simply as public recognitions of qualification for the work of the ministry. They reject the theory of the Episcopate; whether Romish or English, that the " imposi- tion of hands " imparts some esoteric influence, which descends down through Episcopal fingers from the apostles to the end of the world. The theory of the Episcopalians, that the power of ordination resides alone in their bishops and that it can be transmitted only by them, is blocked by the fact, that instead of observing the apostolic direction, — " the same commit thou to faithful men," — they have often attempted to commit it to unfaithful men and to incompetent men — to men who were unable " to teach others also." In all those cases, and they have been numerous, the " apostolic " current was broken. The " insu- lation " was not perfect. It is just as impossible 22 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM to transmit the supposed holy current through a bad man or a, good blockhead, as to send a mes- sage through the Atlantic without a cable. This theory is also seriously embarrassed by the fact, that Cranmer, Archbishop of Canter- bury, and Bonner, Bishop of London, both took out commissions to ordain from the crown. Henry the Eighth, probably the vilest man who has occupied the English throne, being excom- municated by the Pope, assumed to himself the supremacy of the Church of England, and, as a layman, and contrary to the " apostolic succes- sion 7; theory, issued commissions to ordain. Thus was broken again, as had been done sev- eral times before, all "historical continuity 11 be- tween modern Episcopacy and the apostles But this theory is in another trouble Upon the accession of Mary to the throne, the Church of England reverted to Popery, and as a distinct church ceased to exist. The present Episcopal Church, therefore, lost again all connection with the apostles. Then, under the reign of Elizabeth, another Episcopal Church was set up in England, and the Queen assumed the supremacy of the church, and, like Henry, claimed and exercised the right to say who should have the power to AND THE SECTS. 23 ordain, and men were ordained outside of the claimed historical line. All the present Episcopal bishops have, therefore, derived their " exclusive right of ordination " from Miss Lizzie Tudor. Thus break after break, and chasm after chasm unfortunately occur between the diocesan bishops and " the glorious company of the apostles." Hence, according to their theory, the present dio- cesan bishops in England and in this country have no power to ordain, and have nut been ordained themselves.* But woes continue to multiply. This theory is, if possible, still more effectually blocked by the fact, that, for three hundred years after the apostles, there was no Episcopate at all, and no * John Wesley said, " Apostolical succession is a fable, which no man ever did, or ever can prove." Chillingworth said, " I am fully persuaded there hath been no such succession." Bishop Stillingfleet declares that " this succession is as muddy as the Tiber itself." Bishop Hoadley asserts, " It hath not pleased God, in His providence, to keep up any proof ot the least probability, or moral possibility, of a regular uninterrupted succession ; but there is a general appearance, and, humanly speaking, a certainty to the contrary, and that the succession hath often been interrupted." Archbishop Whately affirms that " there is not a minister in Christendom who is able to trace up, with an approach to certainty, his spiritual pedigree." 24 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM Episcopal Church. Out of nothing can anything come except by creative power ? The churches, during that period, were called the " churches of Christ/ 7 and their form of ordination and govern- ment was independent or congregational. To get through, or around, or over this fact, has been the crux of Rome for twelve hundred years, and of England for three hundred years. Much history has been " made to order/' both at Rome and in England, to meet this exigency. Some time ago, a meeting of clergy was held in Lon- don to devise ways and means to lay a pavement of wooden blocks around St. Paul's Cathedral. Various plans were proposed, considered, and abandoned ; at last, the Rev. Sydney Smith rose, and said, " Mr. Chairman, if the Bench of Bishops would only lay their heads together, the thing will be done/' But the " Bench of Bish- ops " have often " laid their heads together ;? to support their claim to the exclusive right of ordination, while the churches have continued to flourish under clergymen set apart by Congre- gational hands, and the earth, with surprising equanimity, has continued to move forward in its orbit, and the other planets have manifested no unusual perturbations. AND THE SECTS. 25 For the character of the ministry, Congrega- tionalism refers to the Epistles of Paul to Timo- thy and Titus ; and for the parity of the minis- try, it appeals to the fact, that the terms "pas- tor," "bishop,"' "elder," and " presbj^ter " are used convertibly in the New Testament, thus placing them all on the same plane of official dignity, or, rather, they are used to designate one and the same officer. " That the name enlawoTioi, or bishops, was synonymous with that of presbyters, is clearly evident from those pas- sages of Scripture, where both appellations are used interchangeably (Acts xx. ; comp. v. 11 with v. 28 ; Ep. to Titus, ch. i. v. 5 with v. 7), and from those where the office of deacon is named imme- diately after that of bishop, so that between these two church offices there could not be still a third intervening one, (Ep. to Philippians i. 1 ; 1 Tim. iii. 1 and 8). This interchange in the use of two appellations shows that they were perfect- ly identical." * " In those early days titles sprung out of realities, and were not yet mere hierarchical classifications." f * Neander's History of the Church, vol. i. p. 184. t The Greek Testament, 2 Cor. ii. 6, by Kev. Henry Alford, D.D., Dean of Canterbury. 26 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM For the only other office in the churches, namely, that of deacons, Congregationalism finds authority in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where it is stated that " the multitude " of the disciples, being called together for that purpose, did, in open meeting, and by the popu- lar vote, make choice of seven men to be " dea- cons," not to preach the Gospel, but, as the rec- ord expressly affirms, " to serve tables," that so the clergy might be relieved from the secular care of the churches, and be able to "give them- selves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word." It is also noteworthy here, that the mode of ascertaining the popular voice was by raising the hand, or by a show of hands. This is evident by the Greek word zeigoiovyft-ig, 2 Cor. viii. 19, which indicates the manner in which the churches usually voted, and in which they did vote when they chose " the brother/ 7 whom they would have "to travel" with the Apostle Paul Observe, too, how carefully even the apostles themselves abstain in the choice of the deacons, from the least encroachment upon the preroga- tives of the church. " Thev agree among them- selves," says Lange, " that a change is needed, and then communicate the result of their dcliber- AND THE SECTS. 27 ations to the church. They called unto them, not simply a committee of the church, nor even the original nucleus, the ' one hundred and twenty/ but the whole multitude of the dis- ciples ; that is to say, all the male members. But they do not undertake to nominate the par- ticular persons who are to be invested with the new office ; they ask the church to select suitable persons, and the members did select the seven deacons/ 7 * Those who were subsequently in- trusted with the diaconate,f as it was called, do not seem to have taken any part of the mission- ary work of the apostles, as did Stephen and Philip of the first deacons, but devoted them- selves, as the representatives of the charity of the churches, to the care of the sick and the needy. For the independence of the churches, Congre- gation alists point to the isolated, unconnected condition of the early churches : " Greet the church that is in their house ; " " Salute Nym- ph as, and the church that is in his house ; ?; Phebe was " a servant of the church at Cen- * Lange's Commentary on Acts vi. 2. f Rom. xii. 7, diuxovia; Phil. i. 1, dianovuig. 28 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM chrea ; " the Apostle Paul wrote letters to the churches in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica and Galatia ; and the Apostle John was directed to write to the " angels " or pas- tors of the seven churches in Asia. We also read of the church at Jerusalem, the church at Antioch, etc. No bond of connection appears to have existed between these widely scattered Christian congregations, save that of love to Christ, love to each other, and mutual desires for each other's welfare. To Christ, their much- loved Head, they acknowledged the most implicit and affectionate subjection, but none to any earth- ly power. In short, the primitive churches were Christian republics, and under Christ they "were a law unto themselves. " The fiction had not then arisen of an impersonal Church distinct from the various local churches. When Congregationalists need advice, they find authority for Ecclesiastical Councils in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which states minutely how the first Council was called, and what was its Eesult. " It did not issue anything like positive decrees, but confined itself to recom- mending a compromise, which had no obligatory AND THE SECTS. 29 character." * It was simply advisory, and so are the Results of Congregational Councils. When, unhappily, Congregationalists have a case of heresy or immorality which requires dis- cipline, they find, in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew and in the second Epistle to the Cor- inthians, the mode of proceeding pointed out with great particularity, and their practice is governed accordingly. They find that if all private efforts to obtain satisfaction fail, the case is to be referred to the church, or, as Lange says, "to the meeting of believers, whether it be large or small." And Alford, him- self an Episcopal dignitary, concedes all which Congregationalists claim, when he says, " that dxxlqcria cannot mean the church as represented by her rulers, as appears by verses 19, 20, where any collection of believers is gifted with the pow- er of deciding such cases. Nothing could be further from the spirit of our Lord's command, than proceedings in what were oddly enough called ' Ecclesiastical Courts/ " f With regard to what the Apostle Paul says * Early Years of Christianity, by Bey. Edmond De Pressense, D. D., p. 334. t The Greek Testament, by Rev. Henry Alford, D. D., in loc. 30 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM about " the punishment which was inflicted by the many, or the nleiovec, upon the incestuous person in the church at Corinth, Lange says, " It could not have been done by the eldership, but by the majority of the church." * This is further evident from the fact, that the Corinthian Church were to excommunicate that offender when they were ''gathered together." Here, then, is conclusive proof that cases of discipline were decided, not by a vestry or session, but by the popular vote, and doubtless by a show of hands, as is now the custom in the Congregational churches. These few statements are a synthesis of all that the New Testament says upon the matter of Church Polity ; and are not the Congregational usages approximately, if not exactly, a transcript of the New Testament pattern ? Indeed, it may be asked, whether, with the present advanced knowledge of biblical exegesis, it is possible to construct a polity more in harmony with that which is indicated by Jesus Christ and His Apostles ? Everything about the Congregational usages is natural. In the interpretation of the New Testament, no point is strained here, and * Lange's Commentary, in loc. AND THE SECTS. 31 none cut off there, to accommodate it to some preconceived theory. Congregationalism is no Procrustean bed, to which the Scriptures must at any rate be made to fit. These few indices of the Scriptural polity, Congregationalism ac- cepts in all their unconstrained naturalness, and on this basis its entire system is constructed. For this most irrefragable reason, it claims to be the very best form of church order. It is, as nearly as can now be conceived, the primor- dial polity of the Christian Church. Thirdly. Orthodox Congregationalism makes this claim because it is the only historical con- tinuity of the polity of the New Testament. The Romish and the Episcopal sects hold that their hierarchies are the hierarchies of Peter and Paul. But an unforced construction of the New Testa- ment shows, as we have seen, that there were no hierarchical establishments in their days. If, then, Peter and Paul set up no hierarchies, they can have no successors. The jure divino pretensions of Episcopacy, once flaunted with so much assur- ance in the face of Christendom,* have of late * Times have changed since Bishop Hobart, of New York, in the plenitude of his grace, consigned over all "Dissen- ters to the uncovenanted mercies of God ! " 32 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM assumed a very subdued, and even deprecatory tone ; and for this reason, that the most thor- ough modern research into mediaeval and patristic church history, and the most scientific biblical exegesis have successfully challenged those pre- tensions, and have relegated the benefits of the argument from "continuity " into the hands of the Congregationalists. They are found to be the only lineal descendants of the apostles. But they do not claim that their polity can be traced back, historically, by an unbroken chain, to the apostolic age. That cannot be done by any de- nomination.* But they do claim a historical con- nection with the apostles, on the ground of a oneness of principles. No continuity of sect is necessary, but a continuity of principles only. Mosheim, who wrote to serve the interest of no party, says, " During the greater part of the second century, all the churches continued to be, * The Rev. George Punchard, in his able and learned " History of Congregationalism," has shown how nearly Congregationalists can make out an unbroken historical connection with the primitive churches, through the Pauli- cians, the Luciferians, the Donatists, and the Novations of the early Christian centuries. Those historical facts, how- ever, rather serve to show, that liberty in the churches at- tempted, in those several cases, to assert itself, though not exactly in the Congregational form. AND THE SECTS. 33 as at the first, independent of each other. Each church was a kind of little state, governed by its own laws, which were enacted or at least sanctioned by the people. At first the bishops did not deny that they were merely the representa- tives of their churches ; but, by little and little, they made higher pretensions, and maintained that power was given them by Christ himself to dictate rules of faith and conduct to the people. Hence originated Metropolitans, Patriarchs, and ultimately a Prince of Patriarchs, the Roman Pontiff. " * John Eliot, the Apostle so called, was perhaps as remarkable for his learning as for his devoted- ness to Christ, and he says, " that no approved writers, for the space of two hundred years after Christ, make any mention of any other organical, visible, professing church, but that only which is Congregational." f Pierre Jurieu, in his learned work, — " Traite de P Unite de PEglise," — affirms, "that the apos- tolical churches lived not in any confederation for mutual dependence. The grand equipage of Met- ropolitans, of Primates, of Exarchs, of Patriarchs, * Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., London edition, 1847. pp. 62, 63. t Mather's Magnalia, vol. i. p. 489. 3 34 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM was yet unknown ; nor does it any more appear to us that the churches had then their provincial, national, and oecumenical synods ; every church was its own mistress, and independent of any other." Dr. Neander explicitly affirms that " the prim- itive churches were democratic," and that "the monarchical form of government was not suited to the Christian community of spirit." Mil man, one of the highest English authorities, says, " In their polity, the Grecian churches were a federation of republics, as were the settlements of the Jews. Each church was an absolutely inde- pendent community ; " and, on the other hand, he affirms, that " Latin Christianity " or the Chris- tianity at Rome, " had an irresistible tendency towards monarchy." * Archbishop Whately, himself an Episcopalian, in his "Annotations" on Bacon's Essays, makes this remarkable concession which is fatal to the Episcopal claim of " historical continuity," that "the apostles founded Christian churches, but they were all quite independent of each other. " *)' No better testimony than this can be produced, that the independence of the Congregational * Latin Christianity, vol. i. pp. 21 and 41. f Annotations, p. 26. AND THE SECTS. 35 Churches is precisely the independence of the churches founded by the Apostles. Near the close of the second century, the first symptoms of defection from the simple republi- canism of the apostolic churches and of a ten- dency towards centralization, made their appear- ance. Those infringements of the rights of the churches gradually assumed more serious pro- portions, and the Novatians in A. D. 251, the Donatists in 311, and the Luciferians and iErians in 363, attempted to stem the torrent of clerical encroachments, but their spasmodic and discon- nected efforts were in vain. During the third and fourth centuries, the distinction of bishops from presbyters and the gradual development of the monarchico-Episcopal Church government began to appear, and also the formation of a sacerdotal caste, as opposed to the evangelical idea of the priesthood. It was in that period that, as Milman says, " Po- pery grew up in silence and obscurity." By and by, its efforts to suppress freedom of thought and personal independence became more open and avowed, and the independence of the churches fought a hard battle with high church claims, till, in the year 606, the first Pope was pro- 36 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM < claimed at Eome, and the right of private judg- ment in religious and political matters was overwhelmed by pontifical oppression. Except- ing the efforts of the Paulicians in 660 to restore the primitive faith, the only remains of freedom, for six centuries thereafter, were found among the Waldenses or Vaudois, who have been not inap- propriately termed " The Israel of the Alps." " It may be said that there were no churches in the Alps in the time of the Apostles, but the apostolic churches did not die with the Apostles. In the era of the martyrs the seeds of Christian- ity were sown all over Italy. The Vaudois did not mean any particular sect, but were the Churches of the Valleys. 71 * They w^ere " the chosen people of God," — the depositaries of civil and religious freedom during the long night of the Middle Ages, — when Popery, like a nightmare, oppressed, with grim satisfaction, the intellect, the enterprise, the liberties and the hopes of the world. They kept the coals of freedom alive on their altars, in the inaccessible fastnesses of Savoy. The " slaught- ered saints," of whom Milton tells us in his noble sonnet, and whose "blood," shed by the * Israel of the Alps, by Alexis Muston, D. D. AND THE SECTS. 37 emissaries of Rome, he calls upon the "Lord" to "avenge," were numbered by thousands dur- ing the slow progress of five centuries of perse- cution, but the primitive faith was heroically maintained to the end. Outside of that isolated and devoted band of Christians, — the true successors of the Apostles in their faith and trials, — the first note of liber- ty, in modern times, was sounded by Wycliffe in England in. 1380, and the echoes of that note were heard in Germany, when Luther threw his inkstand at the head of the devil, nailed his the- ses to the door of the Wittemberg Church, and said to Tetzel, "Your indulgences are no letters of credit on Heaven, but flash notes on the Bank of Humbug, and you know it." Hooper reechoed that note, when, being appointed Bishop of Glou- cester, he refused to be consecrated in the vest- ments of the Anglican and Romish priesthood, lest it should savor of connivance at Popish su- perstitions. According to Skeat's " History of Free Church- es in England," Richard Fitz was the first pastor of the first Independent Church in that kingdom. They held, with the early disciples, that the church is a purely spiritual association ; that it 38 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM has power to choose its own teachers and to regulate its own affairs, and that it should be entirely separate from the world and its rulers. This made them extremely unpopular in a corrupt age ; gave mortal offence to the ruling powers ; afforded opportunity for charges of disloyalty and sedition ; and awakened the wrath of an intolerant court and hierarchy. " They were obliged to wor- ship in secret places, — in ships moored in the river Thames, in obscure corners of the city, and in the woods and fields which surrounded London and some other towns. 77 * To Eobert Browne belongs the honor of first setting forth, in writing, the scheme of Free Church Government. Eobert Browne was a clergyman of the diocese of Norwich in 1580, and he loudly declaimed against the ceremonies of the Established Church, and called upon the people to come out and be separate. He organized a church on the plan of strict Inde- pendency. Though he afterwards apostatized and returned to Episcopacy, many of his follow- ers did separate themselves from the Established Church, and by way of reproach they were called "Separatists/ 7 or " Brownists. 77 * The Pilgrim Fathers, by Benjamin Scott, F. R. A. S., Chamberlain of the City of London. AND THE SECTS. 39 Such was the commencement of that great movement on behalf of the independence of the churches which has electrified the globe, and wrought out the most stupendous political and moral revolution of modern times. Its " line has gone out through all the earth, and its words to the^ end of the world," and it will sound through the corridors of all the coming ages. Edmund Burke said, " the Puritan spirit is the Protestantism of the Protestant religion ; " and Carlyle affirms, that " Puritanism is the only phasis of the Protestant religion which has re- sulted in a living faith. ;; This new order of things in the churches was substantially Con- gregationalism, though that system was not fully organized till it was done by Cotton and others in New England. Persecution followed the Non-Conformists close- ly and relentlessly. Many were fined, six of their number — " men of piety and learning ;; — were hanged, others were banished, and others still died in prison. They were vigilantly watched day and night, and were allowed neither to re- main in England nor to escape from the coun- try. Those were the days when such men as Bancroft, and Laud, and Whitgift were the 40 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM u Primates of all England. 77 Never did prelates of the Church of Borne work with a heartier will to exterminate Protestants, than those dignitaries of the English Church to destroy the Puritans. Whit-gift was an able man ; but what were the others ? " The system of persecution/ 7 says Hallam, ''which was pursued by Bancroft and Laud, with the approbation of the king, far op- posed to the healing counsels of Burleigh and Bacon, was just such as low-born and little- minded men, raised to power by fortune's ca- price, are ever found to pursue/ 7 * But "the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church/ 7 The right of private judgment in matters of religion — the very essence of Congregationalism — spread all the more for dun- geons, and banishment, and death. " I am afraid/ 7 said Sir Walter Raleigh, in the House of Commons, " there is near twenty thousand Brownists in England. 77 " I 7 11 harrie them out of the kingdom/ 7 said the Episcopal king ; " they are a sect unable to be suffered in any well- ordered commonwealth. 77 James had forgotten, * Constitutional History of England, London edition, 1870, p. 280. AND THE SECTS. 41 if he had known, the ominous exclamation of Donatus, fifteen hundred years before: "What has the emperor to do with the church!" In re- ply to the king, the significant language was used, " A people may be without a king ; a king cannot be without a people." Events hur- ried on apace. The cloud which overhung the Puritans grew thicker and blacker, and more portentous of the coming storm. "It is well knowne," says Governor Bradford, " unto ye godly and judicious ; however, since y e first breaking out of y e lighte of y e gospell, in our Honorable Nation of England (which was y e first of nations, whom y e Lord adorned there- with, after y e grosse darkness of popery which hath covered and overspread y e Christian world) what warrs, and opposissions ever since Satan hath raised, maintained, and continued against y e saintes, from time to time, in one sorte, or other, sometimes by bloody death and cruell tor- ments : other whiles imprisonments, banishments, and other hard usages. As being loth his king- dom should goe downe, the trueth prevaile ; and y e churches of God reverte to their anciente pu- ritie, and recover their primitive order, libertie, and 42 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM benejie" * And Burke quotes from Sully a re- mark of great sagacity, and one which applies as well to religious as to political revolutions : "It is never from a desire to attack that the people rise, but from impatience under suffering" That was the primal cause which drove our fathers from England. And Buckle, in his " History of Civilization/' says, with truth equally pro- found, " England made the greatest progress in liberty under the worst kings, because then the people acted." And so they did. It was in such troublous times as these, that Orthodox Congregationalism — the polity and the faith of the Apostles and the primitive Christians, — a system which has given America her free in- stitutions in the Church and in the State, and a sys- tem which is spreading those institutions over all the civilized world, — reappeared after the lapse of twelve hundred years of darkness and despo- tism. It is quite unnecessary to rehearse, with greater minuteness, the story of the privations, the wrongs and the dangers to which our Pil- grim Fathers were subjected in their native land, " for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus * Bradford's Manuscript History, chap. i. ; Massachusetts Historical Collections, Vol. iii., Fourth Series. AND THE SECTS. 43 Christ." It is enough for the present purpose to say, that they were formed into a church of Christ, by mutual desire and consent, at Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, England, in 1606, and sol- emnly covenanted with the Lord and with each other, " to walk in all His ways made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatever it should cost them." Soon after, they prepared to leave the land of their fathers. Several years later, Milton ex- claimed, " What numbers of faithful and free- born Englishmen have been constrained to for- sake their dearest homes, their friends and kin- dred, whom nothing but the wide ocean and the savage deserts of America could hide and shelter from the fury of the bishops ! " * Persecuted past all endurance, the little Scroo- by church attempted to escape from their beloved country, when several of the members were ar- rested and imprisoned. On a second attempt, a part of the company were taken on board the ship, when the Dutch captain, fearing pursuit, ''weighed anchor, and was away;" " but pitiful it was to see the heavy case of the poor women who were thus separated from their husbands : * Reformation in England, Book ii. 44 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM what weeping and crying on every side ; some for their husbands who were carried away in the ship, and others n3t knowing what should be- come of them and their little ones ; others melted in tears, seeing their poor little ones hanging about them, crying for fear, and quaking with cold."* A part of them finally reached Amsterdam, and the next year Leyden. A third attempt to escape was more successful. But persecution followed them across the sea. Sir Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, attempted to arrest Elder Brewster, their beloved teacher, but failed, as Carleton says, because u the sellout em- ployed to apprehend him was a dull, drunken fellow, who took one man for another." And even after their arrival at Leyden, English Episco- pal hatred continued to harass them. Fearing the British government, the Dutch " would not allow them a church in which they might wor- ship God ; " but " their religious assemblies," as Mr. George Sumner informs us, " were probably held in some hired hall, or in the house of Robin- son, their pastor." f * Bradford's Manuscript Journal. Collections Massachu- setts Historical Society. t Sumner's " Memoirs of the Pilgrims at Leyden," Vol. ix. Collections Massachusetts Historical Society. AND THE SECTS. 45 But these wandering exiles were "Pilgrims" in- deed, for they were not to find a permanent home even in Holland. " They went out, not knowing whither they went. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And, truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly ; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God ; for He hath prepared for them a city." After the sad expe- rience of about twelve years, they determined to leave Leyden, — though they enjoyed, says Brad- ford, "much sweete and delightefull societie and spirituall comforte under y e able ministrie and pru- dente governmente of Mr. John Robinson and Mr. William Brewster, and many came unto them from divers partes of England, so as they grew a great congregation. But they heard a strange and uncouth language, and beheld y e dif- ferente maners and customes, and strange fash- ons, all so farre differing from y 1 of their plaine countne (wherin they were bred and had so longe lived) as it seemed they were come into a newe 40 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM world. Many of them were poore, and the coun- trie was not so beneficiall for their living and es- tats, that they could hardly raise a competente living, but with hard and continuall labor. Sundry of them were taken away by death. M Surrounded by such uncongenial society, such manifold temptations, such licentiousness of youth, and such " neglect of observation of the Lord's Day as a Sabbath, y e sagest members began wisely to think of a timly remedy by remoovall to some other place ; yea, some chose y e prisons in England than this libertie in Holland. But of all sor- rowes most heavie to be borne, was that many of their children, by y e great licentiousness of y e countrie were drawn away by evill examples into extravagant and dangerous crimes, getting y° raines off their neks, and departing from their parents, to the danger of their soules, and to y e great greefe of their parents and dishonor of God. Lastly (and which was not least), a great hope and inward zeall they had of laying some founda- tion for y e propagating and advancing y e gospell of y e kingdome of Christ in those remote parts of the world ; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others fory e perform- ing of so great a work. They knew that they AND THE SECTS. 4T were pilgrims, and looked not so much on things of earth, but lift up their eyes to the heavens , their dearest countrie, and quieted their spirits. The place they had thoughts on was some of those vast and unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitfull and fitt for habitation, being devoyed of all civill inhabitants, wher thcr are only salvage men, which range up and downe like y e wild beasts of y e same." * Oppressed with the cares incident to their re- moval to America, they still deemed it their duty to leave behind them a re-avowal of their Faith and Polity, and they therefore sent the fol- lowing brief statement to Sir John Worssenham, one of the principal members of the Virginia Company, under the auspices of which they were about to embark : — " Touching y e Ecclesiasticall ministrie, namely of pastores for teaching, elders for ruling, and deacons for distributing y e churches contribution, as allso for y e two Sacraments, Baptisme and y e Lord's Supper, we do wholy and in all points agree with y e French reformed churches, accord- ing to their publick confession of faith. "Signed, John Robinson, William Brewster." * Bradford's Manuscript Journal. Collections Massa- chusetts Historical Society. 48 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM The emigrants left Leyden for England, July 2, 1620, amid the prayers, tears and benedictions of Robinson and of the remaining members of the church, who were expecting soon to follow them. The story of their voyage from Plymouth in Old England to Plymouth in New England, with all their perils and hardships, has been rehearsed a thousand times, and will be a thousand times more. " Fathers have told it to their sons, And they again to theirs ; And generations yet unborn Shall tell it to their heirs. " Little children have dropped their playthings, and older ones Thackeray and Dickens, and have gathered round the mother's knees and the father's old arm chair to listen to it again. It is perti- nent here to refer to the incidents of their voyage only in the most general manner. Bradford speaks of " the fierce storms with which the ship was badly shaken and her upper works made very leaky ; and one of the mainbeams in the midships bowed and cracked;" and of their " serious con- sultation " in mid-ocean about putting back, when " the great iron screw which the passengers brought out from Holland " was so providentially AND THE SECTS. 49 found " for the buckling of the mainbeam," and " raising it into his place." And Mr. Edward Everett tells us, as they at last approached the land, of the " coast fringed with ice ; dreary forests, interspersed with sandy tracts, filling the background : " of "no friendly lighthouses as yet hanging out their cressets on their headlands ; no brave pilot-boat hovering like a sea-bird on the tops of the waves to guide the shattered bark to its harbor ; and no charts and soundings making the secret pathways of the deep plain as a grav- elled road through a lawn. 77 But on the tenth day of December, 1620, they reached Provincetown, on Cape Cod. That prom- ontory was discovered by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, in 1602, and it was so named by him, as Cotton Mather informs us, a in remembrance of the codfish in great quantity taken by him there ; a name it will never lose, till shoals of codfish be seen swimming upon the tops of its highest hills ! " During their long and tempestuous voyage of sixty-five days, symptoms of insubordination be- gan to appear, and were more fully developed while they lay in Provincetown harbor. "They 4 50 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM had no charter from their king, and no right to the soil on which they landed." * Perceiving the necessity of some form of civil government for their own control, all the men on board the Mayflower, forty-one in number, adopt- ing the principle of "universal suffrage," — a principle which has hardly yet become fully accli- mated in some parts of our country, — voluntarily framed and signed that memorable, solemn cov- enant, which Mr. Winthrop affirms to be " the earliest original compact of self-government, of which we have any authentic records in the annals of our race." It runs as follows : — " The Compact. " In y e name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, y e loyall subjects of oar dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y e grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland, king, defender of y e faith, &c. haveing undertaken for y e glorie of God, and advancemente of y e Christian faith, and honour of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant y e first colonie in y e Northerne parts of Vir- ginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, cov- enant & combine our selves together, into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preserva- tion & furtherance of y e ends aforesaid ; and by * John Quincy Adams's Discourse on the New England Confederacy of 1G43. AND THE SECTS. 51 vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, con- stitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y e generall good of y e colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. " In witnes whereof we have hereunder sub- scribed our names at Cap Codd y e n. of November, in y e year of y e raigne of our soveraigne Lord, King James, of England, Franc, & Ireland y e eighteenth, and of Scotland y e fifty fourth. Anno Dom. 1620." Sir James Mackintosh has said, that " Consti- tutions are not made but grow." This first con- stitution of free civil government which this op- pressed world ever saw, "grew" out of the free religious system of the Pilgrims. It was the result of their high sense of personal responsi- bility, — of their strong love of social order, — and of their deep conviction that liberty will degen- erate into licentiousness, unless it is regulated by law. They learned it by their own cordial per- sonal subjection to the King of kings. Turn now again to that third exploring party which left the Mayflower, — not quite blown up by the rashness of Francis Billington, a mischievous boy, and still riding at anchor in Cape Cod harbor on the 16th of December, N. S., — to those "ten 52 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM of our men," with "two of our seamen," and with six of the ship's company — eighteen in all — in an open shallop, who, after spending a large part of two days "in getting clear of a sandy point, which lay within less than a furlong of the ship," — " the weather being very cold and hard," two of their number "very sick," and one of them almost " swooning with the cold," and the gunner, for a day and a night seemingly " sick unto death," - — found " smoother water and better sailing " on the lTth, but " so cold that the water froze on their clothes and made them many times like coats of iron ; " who were startled at mid- night by " a great and hideous cry," and after a fearful but triumphant "first encounter," early the next morning, the 18th, with a band of Indians, who assailed them with savage yells and showers of arrows, and after a hardly less fearful encoun- ter with a furious storm, which " split their mast in three pieces" and swept them so far upon the breakers that the cry was suddenly heard from the helmsman, "About with her, or else we are all cast away I " — found themselves at last, when the darkness of night had almost overtaken them, " under the lee of a small island, and remained all that night in safety," " keeping their watch in the rain." AND THE SECTS. 53 There they passed the 19th, exploring the island, and perhaps repairing their shattered mast. The record is brief but suggestive : " Here we made our rendezvous all that day, being Satur- day." But briefer still, and more suggestive of the character of these emigrants, is the entry on the following day : — "20th of December, on the Sabbath day wee rested." At this point in Bradford's Narrative, Mr. Winthrop, in his admirable Oration, exclaimed : — " I pause, — I pause for a moment, — at that most impressive record. Among all the marvel- lous concisenesses and tersenesses of a Thucyd- ides or a Tacitus, — condensing a whole chapter of philosophy, or the whole character of an indi- vidual or a people, into the compass of a motto, — I know of nothing terser or more condensed than this ; nor anything which develops and ex- pands, as we ponder it, into a fuller or finer or more characteristic picture of those whom it de- scribes. ' On the Sabbath day wee rested.' It was no mere secular or physical rest. The day before had sufficed for that. But alone, upon a desert island, in the depths of a stormy winter ; well nigh without food, wholly without shelter ; 54 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM after a week of such experiences, such exposure and hardship and suffering, that the bare recital at this hour almost freezes our blood ; without an idea that the morrow should be other or better than the day before ; with every conceivable mo- tive, on their own account and on account of those whom they had left in the ship, to lose not an instant of time, but to hasten and hurry for- ward to the completion of the work of explora- tion which they had undertaken, — they still 'remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' ' On the Sabbath day wee rested/ " Hear this, all ye to whom six days in the week are not enough in which to collect the pelf of earth, — " On the Sabbath day wee rested/'" Hear this, all ye who would know what is the corner-stone of our national prosperity, — " On the Sabbath day wee rested." Hear this, all ye who would learn the way to heaven, — "On the Sabbath day wee rested. " At last, on the 21st day of December, 1620, N. S., the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, — " the door-step, " as Longfellow says, " into a world unknown, 7 ' — and with the richest cargo of principles that ever crossed the Atlantic. Carver, Brewster, Winslow, Bradford, Standish AND THE SECTS. 55 and their associates — viri illustrissimi — became the founders of our churches and of a nation of forty millions of free worshippers of God. " The Mayflower on New England's coast has furled her tattered sail, And through her chafed and moaning shrouds December's breezes wail j Yet on that icy deck, behold a meek but dauntless band, Who, for the right to worship God, have left their native land; And to this dreary wilderness this glorious boon they bring — A Church without a Bishop, and a State without a King ! Those daring men, those gentle wives, say, wherefore do they come ? Why rend they all the tender ties of kindred and of home ? 'Tis Heaven assigns their noble work, man's spirit to unbind; They come not for themselves alone — they come for all mankind; And to the empire of the West this glorious boon they bring — A Church without a Bishop, and a State without a King ! Then, Prince and Prelate, hope no more to bend them to your sway — Devotion's fire inflames their breasts, while Freedom points their way ; And in their brave hearts' estimate, 'twere better not to be, Than quail beneath a despot, where the soul cannot be free; And therefore o'er a wintry wave, those exiles come to bring A Church without a Bishop, and a State without a King ! And still their spirit, in their sons, with freedom walks abroad; The Bible is our only creed, our only sovereign, God ! The hand is raised, the word is spoke, the joyful pledge is given- And boldly on our banner floats, in the free air of Heaven, The motto of bur sainted sires; and loud we'll make it ring — A Church without a Bishop, and a State without a King ! " It should be forever remembered, that the Scrooby Church, the Leyden Church, the May- flower Church, the Plymouth Church, the " Church without a Bishop/ 7 was substantially a Congrega- tional Church, though all the details of that pol- 56 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM ity weie not yet fully wrought out and digested into a scientific form. That church discarded every relic and shred of hierarchy, whether it was Romish or English. The Pilgrims, — those eminent revivers of the polity of the apostolic age, — were profound students of church order. The times in which they lived required them to be deep thinkers on that subject. They were com- pelled to make very considerable progress in ec- clesiastical philosophy. Instructed men have not only better opinions, but they have a better right to their opinions than ignorant men. It is not supposed that the Fathers of New England fully anticipated, "whereunto" their own principles "would grow." They builded better than they knew. But they were eminent for their age ; and their attainments in the science of church order will appear all the more surprising, when we remember that the human mind had then scarcely begun to emerge from the darkness of the Middle Ages, and that there was almost uni- versal ignorance upon all the -sciences with which we are now so familiar. Astrology was more orthodox than belief in the Copernican astronomy. Descartes thought himself safer in Holland than in France. Harvey's theory of the circulation of AND THE SECTS. 5*7 the blood was rejected by all the physicians in Europe above the age of forty. Thirty years after our Fathers landed at Plymouth, Pascal de- clared the earth to be the centre of the universe, though he knew Galileo was right ; and in 1683, long after Congregationalism was wrought into a complete system, the Copernican theory was held in Paris to be heretical, and Leibnitz pronounced the Newtonian theory to be immoral. And a hundred years later still, John Wesley believed in witches, and Dr. Samuel Johnson in ghosts. But the Congregational theory of church govern- ment, in many of its leading characteristics, had been both thought out and wrought out as early as 1606, by such men as Richard Clifton, John Robinson and William Brewster. That polity was carried to Leyden, and brought to Plymouth. It is one of the peculiar glories of Orthodox Congregationalism, that it cannot be traced back to any one individual as its founder. " Be not ye called Rabbi ; for one is your Master, even Christ ; and all ye are brethren." The Methodists glory in John Wesley, as the founder of their denomination ; the Baptists, in Roger Williams ; the Unitarians, in Thomas Belsham ; the Univer- salists, in John Murray ; the New Church, in Em- 58 ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISM manuel Swedenborg ; and the Mormons, in Joe Smith. The Eev. Mr. Man ton, in his discourse before the British House of Commons, said, " The devil getteth a great advantage of us bynames" But Christ clearly intended to deprive him of that " advantage ?; in the case now before us, for He so ordered events that in organizing Congregation- alism into a system, He has not allowed us to call any man " Master, ;; or to ascribe to any mortal the honor that belongeth to Himself alone. We have no saints in our calendar, and no founder to canonize. He has thus graciously saved