become Unitarian. A few have united with them in other parts of New England. With the exception of these, the congregationalists generally, closely adhere to the doctrines of the Reformation. If there is any one point of doctrine by which they may be characterized, it is the distinction between man's natural and moral ability to obey the law of God and receive the gospel of Christ. Viewing him as possessed of all his original natural faculties, they consider him as under obligation to do all that God requires of him, and guilty for not doing it. They call upon him immediately to make to himself a new heart and follow Christ. At the same time they view him as totally averse to the service of Christ, and made actively and cheerfully obedient only by the power of the Holy Spirit operating by the truth. No ministers therefore are more full believers in personal election, and more active in the use of means that revivals may be promoted, sinners be gathered in, and the world be converted to God.

There are in New England about 1250 Churches and congregations, which are supplied with well educated and pious ministers, and have handsome houses for public worship. The office of Teacher as distinct from Pastor, and of ruling Elder, is entirely extinct. In almost every county, the ministers meet twice a year in Association for mutual improvement; to consider and improve the state of religion in their bounds, and to examine and license candidates for the ministry. They also appoint delegates who, in each State, meet annually in General Association or Convention. These public bodies are represented by delegates in each other's assembly and are very harmonious. They have a similar connexion with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. Their communicants number about 155,000.

There are many Congregational Churches in New York and Ohio-composed chiefly of emigrants from New England.

The Congregationalists were early distinguished for ef forts to christianize the Indians, and have, of late, been very active in sending the Gospel to the new settlements and to Pagan nations.

A valuable Theological Seminary was established at Andover, Mass. in 1808, through the princely munificence of a few individuals. It has four professorships, one of Sacred Rhetoric, one of Christian Theology, one of Ecclesiastical History, and one of Sacred Literature.

Its course of instruction extends through three years. The average number of its students is about 140. A Theological school is also connected with Yale College and with Harvard University. One is established also at Bangor, Maine. A Theological Seminary was also established in East Windsor, Conn., in 1834.

The state of literature in New England has ever been very respectable; and in no part of the christian Church have the doctrines of the gospel been so well understood by the great mass of her ordinary members. Catechetical instruction has been thoroughly pursued. Sabbath schools and Bible classes are now in powerful operation. And the orthodox clergy have considered it a great part of their business, continually to explain and defend the great doctrines of natural and revealed religion.

The distinguished lights of these Churches have been numerous. Cotton, Hooker, Davenport, the two Mathers,d Shepherd, Chauncey,f Willard,s Wadsworth,h and Colman,i shone conspicuous in their early periods. Of a later age have been the two Presidents Edwards, and Doctors Bella

k

(a) Mr. Cotton died, Dec. 23, 1652. Before coming to Boston, he had been a very eminent minister in Boston, Eng. He was a great scholar and an eloquent man, but was strangely deluded by Mrs. Hutchinson.

(b) Mr. Hocker died at Hartford, July 6, 1647, ag. 61. Dr. Ames declared that he never met with Mr. Hooker's equal, either in preaching or disputation.

(c) At the close of life, Mr. D. removed to Boston, and became pastor of the first Church. He died March 15, 1670, ag. 73.

(d) Increase and Cotton, father and son. The first was sixty-two years minister in Boston, and president of Harvard College, a man of great learning and extensive usefulness. He died in 1723, ag. 84; the second succeeded him in the pastoral office. He was a prodigy of learning and eminently pious. His publications amount to 382. Among them was an ecclesiastical history of New England.

(e) Minister of Cambridge. Author of " the parable of the ten virgins illustrated."

(f) (g) (h) Presidents of Harvard College.

() Minister in Boston. Died Aug. 29, 1747, ag. 73.

(k) Father and son. The former was born at Windsor, Conn., 1703, educated at Yale College, and settled in the ministry at Northampton. He died in the presidency of Princeton College, March 22, 1758, ag. 54. He was the most acute metaphysician and distinguished divine of that age, and perhaps any other. His works are published in 8 vols. 8 vo. The latter was some years minister at New Haven, and died in the presidency of Union College, Aug. 1, 1801, ag. 56, but little inferior as a theologian to his father.

(1) Minister of Bethlehem, Ct. A very powerful preacher and able instructor in theology. A large number of young men were fitted by him for the ministry. He died March, 9, 1790, ag. 71.

my,' Hopkins, Lathrop," Dwight," Strong," Trumbull,s Backus, Smalley."

CHAPTER XXI.

Episcopal, Presbyterian, Dutch, Associate Reformed, German Lutheran, and Reformed Churches in the United States.

THE State of Virginia was settled for purposes of worldly emolument. The emigrants from England, who took possession of that favored soil, with few exceptions, fled not from their country for the enjoyment of religious liberty. They were Episcopalians, high in favor with the governing party in England. Planted in America, they took bold and decisive measures to establish and maintain their own worship. As early as 1621, we find the Virginia company setting apart in each of the boroughs, an hundred acres of land for a glebe, and two hundred pounds sterling, to be raised as a standing, and certain revenue, out of the profits of each parish to make a living. There were at this time five ministers in the colony. In 1633, the Legislature passed severe laws against all sectaries, which drove numbers of Independents and Presbyterians from their colony, and prevent

(m) Minister of Newport R. I., author of a System of Divinity. He was supposed to carry the principles of Calvin farther than any other writer. His leading principle was, that holiness consists in disinterested benevolence, and sin in selfishness. Such as coincided with him have been called Hopkinsians. Died Dec. 20, 1803, ag. 83.

(n) Minister of West Springfield, author of a number of volumes of pop

ular sermons.

(0) President of Yale College. He was born at Northampton, 1752, educated at Yale College, and settled in the ministry at Greenfield, Ct. In 1795, he removed to New Haven, where he died in the presidency, Feb. 11, 1817, ag. 65. He was one of the greatest and most excellent and useful men in the Church of Christ. His theological lectures delivered to the college students, have been published since his death in 4 vols. 8 vo.

(p) Minister in Hartford, Ct. A sound theologian and most solemn and penetrating preacher of the gospel. Died Dec. 25, 1816, ag. 68. Author of Benevolence and Misery, or the future punishment of the wicked vindicated. (9) Minister in North Haven, Ct. an excellent divine, and author of a history of Connecticut.

(r) Minister in Somers, Ct. and head of a large theological school. Died 1803.

(s) Minister in Berlin, Ct. A man of great logical powers, who contributed more than any one of his age to the progress of theological science. Died 1820, aged 86.

ed others from settling. Some pious people there, however, earnestly desired some ministers from the eastern Churches, and three were sent to them from Boston in 1642; but by the law of the State, such as would not conform to the ceremonies of the Church of England, were required to depart on a certain day, and they returned in a few months. A congregational Church six years after, had increased to the number of 101 persons; but its pastors were obliged to depart, and it was dispersed. During the triumph of the Puritans in England, multitudes of Episcopalians came to this colony for the enjoyment of Church privileges, and on the restoration of Charles II. the Church became very prosperous. It received the support of the legislature; handsome Churches were built; glebes were laid out, and vestries appointed; ministers, who had received their ordination from England, were inducted by the governor; all others were prohibited from preaching on pain of suspension or banishment. The English in general, who settled the other southern states, were of the same order, excepting the settlers of Maryland, who were Roman Catholics. Those that were Puritans, found the best asylum in New England.

In 1693, Mr. James Blair founded in Virginia, under a charter from queen Mary, William and Mary College, and served as president of it fifty years.

The first Episcopal society in Boston was formed in 1686, when Sir Edmund Andros assumed the government of the colony. To encourage the emigration of Episcopal clergymen from England, Sir Edmund pronounced no marriages valid, unless celebrated according to the rites of the Church of England. The old South Church was demanded and used for the Episcopal service. In 1688 a Church was built in Tremont street and called the king's chapel.

To Connecticut, Episcopacy was introduced in the year 1706. Some of the people of Stratford had been educated in the doctrines and practices of the Church of England, and being dissatisfied with the rigid doctrines and discipline of the Puritans, invited Mr. Muirson, a Church missionary at Rye, N. Y. to labor among them. Mr. M. came and baptized five and twenty. He made several successive visits; and in 1722, Mr. Pigot was appointed by the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts, missionary at Stratford. He had twenty communicants, and one hundred and fifty hearers.

Soon after the establishment of Yale College, a number of new and learned works on the Arminian and prelatical con

troversy, were presented to its library. These were read with avidity by President Cutler, Rev. Mr. Johnson of West Haven, and Rev. Mr. Wetmore of North Haven, who became converts to Arminianism and Episcopacy. They all resigned their respective charges, and went to England in 1722, and obtained orders. President Cutler became rector of Christ's Church in Boston, where he remained until his death, August 17, 1765. Mr. Johnson became rector of Christ's Church in Stratford, where he remained until 1754, when he was elected President of Columbia College in New York. Mr. Wetmore was stationed as a missionary at Rye. In a few years a number of persons in the county of Fairfield, adopted the Episcopal worship; and for some time a warm controversy was carried on between Mr. Johnson, Mr. Wetmore, Mr. Beach and Mr. Carver on the one side, and Mr. Hobart, Mr. Graham, Mr. Dickinson, and Mr. Foxcraft on the other.

At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, the whole number of Episcopal clergymen to the north and east of Maryland, did not exceed eighty; and these, with the exception of those settled in Boston, Newport, New York and Philadelphia, derived the greater part of their subsistence from the society established in England for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts. In Maryland and Virginia they were more numerous and had legal establishments for their support.

The governors of the provinces had an inducement to patronise the episcopal order, as it would have given them popularity in the mother country; but, on the other hand, many grants would have been very obnoxious to the Presbyterians and Independents, who composed the great body of the people. The largest grant ever made was of land to Trinity Church in New York, which was at the time inconsiderable in itself, but which has been ultimately of immense value from the extension of the city.

The Church labored under great disadvantages from the distance by which it was separated from England. The Bishop of London was the diocesan of the episcopal Churches in America, and his inspection was unavoidably very imperfect, and his authority not much regarded. In Maryland, the civil law forbade his interference, except in the business of ordination. How unworthy soever an offi. cer might be, he could not there depose him. Every can. didate for the ministry was obliged to go to England for or. ders, which was often very difficult and always expensive.