conveying any new powers, yet they admit of it, and practise it. Many of them, indeed, suppose that the essence of ordination does not lie in the act of the ministers who assist, but in the choice and call of the people, and the candidates' acceptance of that call; so that their ordination may be considered only as a public declaration of that agreement *. As is also the case with the Presbyterians, the candidate is always ordained in presence of the particular congregation among whom he is to labour; but not till after he has made an open profession of his faith, and that not so much to satisfy the congregation who have already preferred him, as the other ministers who officiate +. They do indeed grant a certain preeminence in point of power to their elders or pastors. It is their province, they allow, to sit as presidents in the meetings of their churches, and preserve order; to prepare the business which is to be the subject of discussion, in order to its being laid before the members; to state, explain, and enforce, by argument and persuasion, the decision which appears to them most consonant to the mind of God; and, after the members have finally determined, to announce that determination, and to require submission to it from the various persons connected with their society. They are also allowed a casting vote; but in all other respects, their power, which is not legislative, but ministerial, is the same with that of even the lowest members of their congregation, who have so much to say and to do in all church matters, that of whatever is done, decreed, or determined, by this denomination which excites the wonder of others, it may be said, as the painter said of his picture which had been mended, or rather marred, according to every one's fancy, "hanc populus fecit,”-it is the issue of the people's brain ‡. *This doctrine seems to have prevailed in Scotland, when Presbyterianism was first established there in the latter end of the sixteenth century: see Courayer's" Defence of the English Ordinations,” p. 21. edit. 1728 ; Dr. M'Crie's "Life of Knox," 1st edit. p. 226, note. + The elective franchise is limited, in general, to the church members; but some congregations extend it to all the subscribers, including females. ‡ Mr. Turnbull, speaking of the strict Independents or Brownists of the present day, says, "At their ordinations, all idea of office-power and authority is usually protested against, very distinctly, and often with warmth. And, in their church meetings, acting up to their professed principles, there are too often unseemly conflicts of passion, prejudice, or interest; while their pastor, unless a man of courage and address, is left to sigh over their insubordination, or to attach himself to the strongest party for support. We do not mean," adds he, "that such scenes are confined to this denomination of Christians ;" and he only specifies them "as more liable, from their professed principles,-10 the frequent occurrence of disorderly scenes."-Comparative View, p. 52-3. Though they consider their own form of ecclesiastical government as of Divine institution, and as originally introduced by the authority of the Apostles, nay, by the Apostles themselves, and, of course, look upon every other form as unscriptural; yet many of them, with more candour and charity than their predecessors the Brownists, acknowledge that true religion and solid piety may flourish in those communities which are under the jurisdiction of Bishops, or the government of Synods and Presbyteries. They are also more attentive than the Brownists were, to keep up a distinction between ministers and people; for while the Brownists allowed promiscuously all ranks and orders of men to teach in public, and to perform the other pastoral functions, the Independents have usually had fixed and regular ministers, approved of by their people: nor do they in general allow every person to pray or teach in public, who may think himself qualified for that important office, before he has submitted to a proper examination of his capacity and talents, and been approved of by the congregation. WORSHIP AND CEREMONIES. Their public worship differs but little from that of the Presbyterians. Both parties, confounding worship by a form of prayer with formal worship, seem to unite in conducting theirs without form or ceremonies, and in forgetting how very like their psalms and hymns are to the forms they condemn *. Many of the Independents in Scotland administer the Lord's Supper every Lord's-day, at the close of the afternoon's service, and not, according to the practice of the Presbyterians, to the people sitting at a common table, but in their respective pews. All classes, however, of this denomination, seem to agree with the Presbyterians, in affixing their negative to the question as to the propriety of occasionally administering the Lord's Supper in private houses, for the sake of sick persons who are incapable of attending the solemnities of public worship t. * "Crito freely will rehearse Forms of prayer and praise in verse. See" Apologia," &c., as above, p. 153, by the Rev. J. Newton, late Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London. + Some of their reasons for this decision may be seen at p. 179, &c., of a work lately published by a Mr. James, entitled "Christian Fellowship, or the Church Member's Guide." Hence, there are, no doubt, those who claim the privilege of thinking that this, and some other of their decisions, are as independent of Divine authority as of foreign controul. EMINENT MEN, NUMBERS, &c. This denomination has produced many persons eminent for piety and learning, whose works will reflect lasting honour on their abilities and acquirements. Of the English Independents of the seventeenth century, Dr. John Owen, and John and Thomas Goodwin, were the most distinguished, and the chief leaders of the party*. To these may be added the names of Hooker, Elliot, and Cotton, in America; and at home, those of Howe, Ames, Gale, Neale, Charnock, Orton, Glass, Watts, Doddridge, and Priestley. Of those who have written against the Independents, it may be sufficient to mention the names of Cawdry; Bastwick; Baillie; Professor Wood of St. Andrews; Dr. Thomas Edwards, author of the "Gangræna;" Ferguson; and lately, Mr. Brown, a respectable minister of the Scottish Establishment. The number of members belonging to this denomination, if we include those who, though Independents in principle and practice, bear other names, is very considerable, and is, I believe, daily increasing. In England, they are more numerous than either of the two other denominations of Dissenters; or, rather, they may be said to include them; and in Scotland they have received so great accessions of late, by the zeal and exertions of the Messrs. Haldane and their friends, &c., that they are now estimated there at about 50,000. Their brethren, the Congregationalists of America, are supposed to be the most numerous denomination in the United States; and are said to have upwards of a thousand congregations in New England, and nearly half that number in Massachusetts alone. MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. Such are the different sentiments of professing Christians on the subject of church government and discipline; and thus do the adherents in general of each lay claim to the exclusive right of divine or apostolical institution, and insist that the first churches were modelled according to their particular plan. How far their respective claims are well founded, and whose plan approaches the nearest to the primitive model, different readers will judge very differently; yet every reader, I presume, will be glad to learn; and many will, no doubt, pay some deference to It is worthy of remark, that the second, as well as the first of these, vindicated the King's murder, which occasioned his being exempted from pardon at the Restoration, but he was never proceeded against. One of the Goodwins, and only other six of the Westminster Divines, were Independents. the judgment of an able and minute inquirer into ecclesiastical antiquity, who, after examining and balancing the arguments for the above three forms of church government, as supported by experience, observes, that they "may be briefly stated thus:-In no one instance does the Independent plan appear to have a solid foundation either in Scripture or antiquity; yet, the interference of the people, and the share of authority exercised by them, though never on the plan of Independent congregations, gives some plausible colour to Independency. The Presbyterian system seems to be scriptural and primitive, so far as the institution of the clergy is concerned, but defective for want of a bishop. The Episcopal form, no doubt, obtained in all the primitive churches without exception, but-what effectually checks the pride of those who are fond of the pomp of hierarchy-it must be confessed, that ancient Episcopacy had no secular mixtures and appendages *.” *Milner's "History of the Church of Christ," vol. i. p. 518, third edit. While some have expended all their zeal on the subject of church government, as if nothing else had been so closely connected with the best interests of Christianity, or as if it had been an essential part of "the faith once delivered to the saints;" it has been perhaps too much disregarded by others, as by Mr. Baxter and Mr. Calamy, who owned themselves "indifferent to the Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Independent scheme." HAVING now discussed the main Doctrinal Distinctions, and the leading Differences as to Church Government, I proceed to treat of the several Churches, Sects, and Denominations of Christians, in the order noticed above (p. 36), commencing with THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. THE large body of Christians that goes under the general denomination of the Oriental or Eastern Church-so called in contradistinction from the Western Church, or that of Rome -is dispersed throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, and may be divided into four distinct communities. I. The first is that of the Greek Christians who not only agree in all points of doctrine and worship with the Patriarch* of Constantinople, but who acknowledge likewise his supreme authority and jurisdiction, rejecting the pretended supremacy of the Roman Pontiff. This is, properly speaking, the Greek, though it assumes likewise the title of the Eastern Church, and is styled by its own members the Orthodox Greek Oriental Church. It is divided, as in the early ages of Christianity, into four large districts or provinces-namely, those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem-over each of which a bishop presides, with the title of patriarch, whom the metropolitans and inferior bishops, and the monastic orders, respect as their common father; the Patriarch of Constantinople being, as is above intimated, the supreme chief' of all these patriarchs, bishops, abbots, &c. Patriarchs are supreme ecclesiastical dignitaries or bishops, and are so called from their paternal authority in the church. The title is now in use only in the Eastern churches; and this Patriarch is considered as the head or chief of the Greek Church and nation. |