Being intermixed, however, with Congregational brethren, instead of establishing presbyteries in due form, they united with their fellow-Christians in adopting, in 1708, the Saybrook Platform, according to which the churches and pastors are consociated, so as virtually to be under Presbyterian government, under another name.
The first Presbyterian churches duly organized in the United States, were the first Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, and the church at Snow Hill, in Maryland.
The first presbytery in the United States was formed about 1794, by the voluntary a.s.sociation of several ministers, who had received Presbyterian orders in Europe, and who agreed to govern themselves agreeably to the Westminster Confession of Faith, Form of Government, Book of Discipline, and Directory for Worship. (See _Andover Orthodox Creed_.)
The reason why the Presbyterians first settled in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey, was undoubtedly this-that in these places they found toleration, and equal religious rights, while the Episcopacy was established by law in Virginia, Congregationalism in New England, and the Reformed Dutch church, with Episcopacy, in New York.
The doctrines of the Presbyterian church are Calvinistic; and the only fundamental principle which distinguishes it from other Protestant churches is this-that G.o.d has authorized the government of his church by presbyters, or elders, who are chosen by the people, and ordained to office by predecessors in office, in virtue of the commission which Christ gave his apostles as ministers in the kingdom of G.o.d; and that, among all presbyters, there is an official parity, whatever disparity may exist in their talents or official employments.
All the different congregations, under the care of the general a.s.sembly, are considered as the one Presbyterian church in the United States, meeting, for the sake of convenience and edification, in their several places of worship. Each particular congregation of baptized people, a.s.sociated for G.o.dly living, and the worship of Almighty G.o.d, may become a Presbyterian church, by electing one or more elders, agreeably to the form prescribed in the book styled the Const.i.tution of the Presbyterian Church, and having them ordained and installed as their session.
They judge that to presbyteries the Lord Jesus has committed the spiritual government of each particular congregation, and not to the whole body of the communicants; and on this point they are distinguished from Independents and Congregationalists. If all were governors, they should not be able to distinguish the overseers or bishops from all the male and female communicants; nor could they apply the command, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account." (Heb. 13:17.) If all are rulers in the church who are communicants, they are at a loss for the meaning of the exhortation, "We beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, _and are over you in the __ Lord_, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work"s sake."
If an aggrieved brother should tell the story of his wrongs to each individual communicant, he would not thereby tell it to the church judicially, so that cognizance could be taken of the affair. It is to the church, acting by her proper organs, and to her overseers, met as a judicatory, that he must bring his charge, if he would have discipline exercised in such a way as G.o.d empowered his church to exercise it.
The general a.s.sembly is the highest judicatory in the Presbyterian church, and is const.i.tuted by an equal number of teaching and ruling elders, elected by each presbytery annually, and specially commissioned to deliberate, vote, and determine, in all matters which may come before that body. Each presbytery may send one bishop and one ruling elder to the a.s.sembly: each presbytery, having more than twelve ministers, may send two ministers and two ruling elders, and so, in the same proportion, for every twelve ministerial members.
Every Presbyterian church elects its own pastor; but, to secure the whole church against insufficient, erroneous, or immoral men, it is provided that no church shall prosecute any call, without first obtaining leave from the presbytery under whose care that church may be; and that no licentiate, or bishop, shall receive any call, but through the hands of his own presbytery.
Any member of the Presbyterian church may be the subject of its discipline; and every member, if he judges himself injured by any portion of the church, may, by appeal, or complaint, carry his cause up from the church session to the presbytery, from the presbytery to the synod, and from the synod to the general a.s.sembly, so as to obtain the decision of the whole church, met by representation in this high judicatory.
Evangelical ministers of the gospel, of all denominations, are permitted, on the invitation of a pastor, or of the session of a vacant church, to preach in their pulpits; and any person known properly, or made known to a pastor or session, as a communicant in good, regular standing, in any truly Christian denomination of people, is, in most of their churches, affectionately invited to occasional communion. They wish to have Christian fellowship with all the redeemed of the Lord, who have been renewed by his Spirit; but, in ecclesiastical government and discipline, they ask and expect the cooperation of none but Presbyterians. See _Statistics_.
c.u.mBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS.
In the year 1800, a very great revival of religion took place within the bounds of the synod of Kentucky, in consequence of which, a greater number of new congregations were formed than it was possible to supply with regularly-educated ministers. To remedy this evil, it was resolved to license men to preach who were apt to teach, and sound in the faith, though they had not gone through any course of cla.s.sical study. This took place at the Transylvania presbyter; but, as many of its members were dissatisfied with the proposed innovation, an appeal was made to the synod, which appointed a commission to examine into the circ.u.mstances of the case, the result of whose report was, a prohibition of the labors of uneducated ministers, which led the opposite party to form themselves into an independent presbytery, which took its name from the district of c.u.mberland, in which it was const.i.tuted.
As to the doctrinal views, they occupy a kind of middle ground between Calvinists and Arminians. They reject the doctrine of eternal reprobation, and hold the universality of redemption, and that the Spirit of G.o.d operates on the world, or as coextensively as Christ has made the atonement, in such a manner as to leave all men inexcusable.
The c.u.mberland Presbyterians have about 550 churches and ministers, and about 70,000 members. They have a college at c.u.mberland, Ky.
EPISCOPALIANS.
That form of Church polity, in which the ministry is divided into the three orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, each having powers and duties, distinct from the others, the Bishops being superior to the Priests and Deacons, and the immediate source of all their authority, is called EPISCOPACY, and those who adhere to this polity, are called EPISCOPALIANS.
It is believed, by Episcopalians, that the Savior, when upon earth, established a Church, or Society, of which He was the Ruler and Head, and with which He promised to be, till the end of the world. They believe, that, during the forty days in which He remained upon earth, after His resurrection, "speaking" to His disciples "of the things pertaining to the kingdom of G.o.d," He gave them such directions for the government and management of this Society, or Church, as were necessary; which directions, they implicitly followed: and that, from their subsequent practice, these directions of the Savior, whatever they may have been, are to be ascertained.
"That it was the design of our blessed Redeemer to continue a ministry in the Church, after His ascension, is a truth, for which we ask no better proof, than that furnished by the narratives of the Evangelists, and the practice of the Apostles. If, then, a ministry, divinely authorized, was to exist, it is equally evident, that it would a.s.sume some definite form.
It would consist, either of a single grade of office, in which every person ordained would have an equal share in its functions and prerogatives; or, of two, three, or more grades, distinguished from each other by degrees of authority and peculiarities of duty." There must, also, exist, _somewhere_, the power of transmitting the ministry, by ordination. Among those, who suppose there is but one grade of office, this power is lodged in every minister. By Episcopalians, the power is confined to the highest order of the ministry,-the Bishops. It is evident, that the Savior could not have established both these different modes; and therefore both cannot possibly be correct. "To suppose, that He, who is the Fountain of all wisdom, could have been the Author of such inevitable disorder,-a kind of disorder which must ever keep the axe at the root of that _unity_ for which He prayed,-is not only an absurdity, but an opinion equally repudiated by all parties." "It is manifest," therefore, "that whatever may prove itself to be THE form of ministry, established and authorized by Jesus Christ, every other must be altogether void of such authority, and based simply on human appointment."
That this Church, or Society, might endure, it must be provided with a well-arranged organization, or form of government, and consist of officers and members. No society can exist, without this; and the powers and duties of the officers should be well defined, and so adjusted, as to promote, in the best manner, the permanent good of the society. That this Society might endure forever, some provision must be made for the renewal of its officers, so that, when any were taken away, by death, their places might be supplied with suitable successors. That the Savior made all necessary provision for these purposes, there can be no doubt; and that the organization which He directed His Apostles to establish, was Episcopal, is easily susceptible of proof.
Throughout the Bible, different orders in the ministry are recognized or referred to. Under the Jewish dispensation, (which, be it remembered, was established by G.o.d Himself,) there were the three orders of High Priest, Priests, and Levites. When the Savior was upon earth, He was the visible head of the Church,-the "Bishop and Shepherd of our souls,"-and the Apostles and seventy Disciples were the other two orders. After his ascension, the Apostles became the visible heads of the Church, the lower orders being Bishops, (called also Priests or Presbyters, and Elders,) and Deacons. When the Apostles were called hence, their successors did not a.s.sume the name or t.i.tle of Apostle, but took that of Bishop, which thenceforth was applied exclusively to the highest order of the ministry, the other two orders being the Presbyters (Priests or Elders) and Deacons.
Thus it has continued to the present day.
It is worthy of remark, that "early writers have been careful to record the ecclesiastical genealogy or succession of the Bishops, in several of the princ.i.p.al Churches. Thus, we have catalogues of the Bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, &c.; though it does not appear that the Presbyters and Deacons of those Churches were honored with any similar notice." In like manner, catalogues of temporal Rulers are preserved, when the names of officers subordinate to them are suffered to pa.s.s into oblivion. It is easy to trace back the line of Bishops, by name, from our own day, up to the Apostles themselves.
There is no ancient writer on ecclesiastical matters, who does not speak of the division of the ministry into different and distinct Orders, and of certain individuals as Bishops of particular Churches; or who mentions, as existing at the same time, and in the same Churches, any other persons by the same name of Bishops.
But, it is to be observed, that it is not only necessary that a Church should preserve the true Order in the Ministry, but also that it retain the true faith. For a true faith and true Order are both necessary to const.i.tute a Church. All the heretical sects of the ancient Church had the Apostolic Ministry; but, when they departed from the true faith, they were excluded from the communion of the Church. "The Arians, the Donatists, the Novatians, &c. &c., were all Episcopal in their Ministry, and in this respect differed in nothing from the Orthodox Catholic Church. Their grand error lay in the want of that union of Order _and_ Faith, which are essential to the being of a Church."
An external commission, conveyed by Episcopal consecration or ordination, is considered necessary to const.i.tute a lawful ministry; and it is therefore declared, by the Church, that "no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in this Church, or suffered to execute any of said functions," unless he has "had Episcopal consecration or ordination;" and the power of ordaining, or setting apart to the ministry, and of laying on hands upon others, is vested in the Bishops.
The _ministry_ is of Divine appointment, and consists of three orders, only,-Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. The _government_ is of human regulation, and may be modified as circ.u.mstances require. Other officers may be appointed, and the manner in which ministers are invested with their jurisdiction may be varied. To use the language of the Episcopal Church in the United States, in the Preface to her Book of Common Prayer, "It is a most invaluable part of that blessed liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, that, in His worship, different forms and usages may, without offence, be allowed, provided the substance of the faith be kept entire; and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to Doctrine, must be referred to Discipline; and therefore, by common consent and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most convenient for the edification of the people, "according to the various exigencies of times and occasions." ...
The particular Forms of Divine Worship, and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable, and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable, that, upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as to those, who are in places of authority should, from time to time, seem either necessary or expedient."
In the Church of England, there are Archbishops, Deans, and various other officers and t.i.tles of office; but these are of local authority, and do not interfere with the three Divinely-appointed orders. To use the language of Hooker, "I may securely, therefore, conclude, that there are, at this day, in the Church of England, no other than the same degrees of ecclesiastical orders, namely, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, which had their beginning from Christ and His blessed Apostles themselves. As for Deans, Prebendaries, Parsons, Vicars, Curates, Archdeacons, and such like names, being not found in the Scriptures, we have been thereby, through some men"s errors, thought to allow ecclesiastical degrees not known nor ever heard of in the better ages of former times. All these are in truth but t.i.tles of office," admitted "as the state of the Church doth need, degrees of order still remaining the same as they were from the beginning."
Two hundred years ago, Hooker gave the following challenge, which has never yet been accepted:-"We require you to find but one Church upon the face of the whole earth that hath not been ordered by Episcopal regiment since the time that the blessed Apostles were here conversant." And though, says Bishop Doane, departures from it, since the time of which he spoke, have been but too frequent and too great, "Episcopal regiment" is still maintained as Christ"s ordinance, for the perpetuation and government of his Church, and is received as such by eleven twelfths of the whole Christian world. For a period of fifteen hundred years after the Apostolic age, ordination by Presbyters was totally unknown, except in a few crooked cases, where the attempt was made, and followed by instant condemnation from the Church, and the declaration that they were utterly null and void. There was no ministry in existence, before the era of the Reformation, but that which had come down direct from the Apostles, that is, the Episcopal. This is admitted by nearly all the opponents of Episcopacy.
The Episcopal Church in the United States, agrees with that of England, in doctrine, discipline, and worship, with some few unessential variations.
Their Ritual, or Form of Worship, is the same, except that some few parts have been omitted for the sake of shortening the service, or for other reasons. Changes became necessary in the prayers for Rulers, in consequence of the independence of the United States.
The different Episcopal parishes in each of the United States, (except in some of the newly-settled parts of the Country, where two or more States are united for this purpose,) are connected by a Const.i.tution, which provides for a convention of the clergy and lay delegates from each parish in the State or Diocese. This Convention is held annually, and regulates the local concerns of its own Diocese, the Bishop of which, is the President of the Convention. The Conventions of the different Dioceses elect Deputies to a General Convention, which is held once in three years.
Each Diocese may elect four Clergymen and four Laymen, as delegates, who, when a.s.sembled in General Convention, form what is called the "House of Clerical and Lay Deputies," each Order from a Diocese having one vote, and the concurrence of both being necessary to every act of the Convention.
The Bishops form a separate House, with a right to originate measures for the concurrence of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, each House having a negative upon the other, as in the Congress of the United States.
The whole Church is governed by Canons, framed by the General Convention.
These Canons regulate the mode of elections of Bishops, declare the age and qualifications necessary for obtaining the orders of Deacon or Priest, the studies to be previously pursued, the examinations which each candidate is to undergo, and all other matters of permanent legislation.
Deacon"s orders cannot be conferred on any person under the age of twenty-one, nor those of Priest before that of twenty-four. A Bishop must be at least thirty years of age. Prejudices have prevailed against the Episcopal Church, and probably still exist in the minds of some persons, from an impression, that Episcopacy is not congenial with a republican form of government, and the civil inst.i.tutions of our Country. But, that this is an erroneous opinion, will be evident, to any one who will carefully and impartially examine the subject. It will he seen, from what has been stated above, that its Const.i.tution is founded on the representative principle, and is strikingly a.n.a.logous to the form of government of the United States. "In the _permanent_ official stations of the Bishops and Clergy in her legislative bodies, our own Church," says Bishop Hobart, "resembles all other religious communities, whose clergy also are permanent legislators. But, in some respects, she is more conformed than they are to the organization of our civil governments. Of these, it is a characteristic, that legislative power is divided between two branches. And it is a peculiar character of our own Church, that her legislative power is thus divided. Again, a single responsible Executive characterizes our civil const.i.tutions. The same feature marks our own Church, in the single Episcopal Executive in each Diocese, chosen, in the first instance, by the Clergy and representatives of the Laity. Nor are these the only points in which the Bishop of our Church may feel pleasure in a.s.serting the free and republican const.i.tution of our government; for, in our ecclesiastical judicatories, the representatives of the laity possess strict coordinate authority,-the power of voting as a separate body, and of annulling, by a majority of votes, the acts of the Bishops and Clergy."
The doctrines of the Episcopal Church are contained in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, subjoined to this notice. See Book of Homilies, the Canons of the Church, Archbishop Potter"s Discourse on Church Government, Hooker"s Ecclesiastical Polity, Daubeny"s Guide to the Church, Burton"s Early English Church, the Church Dictionaries of Rev. Dr Hook and Rev. Mr.
Staunton, Bishop Onderdonk"s Episcopacy Examined and Reexamined, and other similar works.
Historical Notice Of The Church In The United States.
Though the greater proportion of the early emigrants to this Country were opposed to the form of religious worship established in the Mother Country, some of them were devoted adherents of that establishment, and Episcopal churches existed, of course, in several of the Colonies, at an early period, although, from the opposition made to them by the other emigrants, and from other causes, the number was not so considerable as might have been expected under different circ.u.mstances. At the commencement of the Revolutionary War, there were not more than eighty parochial clergymen North and East of Maryland; and these, with the exception of those in the towns of Boston and Newport, and the cities of New York and Philadelphia, derived the princ.i.p.al part of their support from England, through the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," an old and venerable Inst.i.tution, yet in existence, and still zealously engaged in spreading the Gospel to the utmost parts of the earth. In Maryland and Virginia, the members of the Church were much more numerous, than in the other parts of the Country, and the clergy were supported by a legal establishment.
The distance of this from the Mother Country, and the consequent separation of the members of the Church from their parent stock, which rendered them dependent for the ministry upon emigrations from England, or obliged them to send candidates to that Country, for Holy Orders, operated as a serious obstacle to the increase of the Church here. All the clergy of this Country were attached to the diocese of the Bishop of London, who thus became the only bond of union between them; but his authority could not be effectually exerted, at such a distance, in those cases where it was most needed; and, for these and other reasons, several efforts were made by the clergy to obtain an American Episcopate. But the jealousy with which such a measure was regarded by other denominations, and the great opposition with which it consequently met, prevented the accomplishment of the design. When, however, the tie, which had thus bound the members of the Church together in one communion, had been severed, by the independence of the United States, it was necessary that some new bond of union should be adopted; and renewed efforts were made to procure an Episcopate.
The clergy of the Church in Connecticut, at a meeting held in March, 1783, elected the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., their Bishop, and sent him to England, with an application to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his consecration to that holy office. The English Bishops were unable to consecrate him, till an Act of Parliament, authorizing them so to do, could be pa.s.sed; and he then made application to the Bishops of the Church in Scotland, who readily a.s.sented to the request, and he was consecrated by them, in Aberdeen, on the 14th of November, 1784. The Prelates, who were thus the instruments of first communicating the Episcopate to this Country, were, the Right Reverend Robert Kilgour, D. D., Bishop of Aberdeen, the Right Reverend Arthur Petrie, D. D., Bishop of Ross and Moray, and the Right Reverend John Skinner, D. D., Coadjutor Bishop of Aberdeen. Bishop Seabury returned to this Country, immediately after his consecration, and commenced his Episcopal duties without delay.
A few clergymen of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, having held a meeting at Brunswick, N. J., on the 13th and 14th of May, 1784, for the purpose of consulting in what way to renew a Society for the support of widows and children of deceased clergymen, determined to procure a larger meeting on the 5th of the ensuing October, not only for the purpose of completing the object for which they had then a.s.sembled, but also to confer and agree on some general principles of a union of the Church throughout the States. At this latter meeting, a plan of ecclesiastical union was agreed upon, with great unanimity; and a recommendation to the several States, to send delegates to a general meeting, at Philadelphia, in September, 1785, was adopted.
At the meeting, in Philadelphia, in September and October, 1785, there were present, deputies from seven of the thirteen States. This Convention framed an Ecclesiastical Const.i.tution, recommended sundry alterations in the Book of Common Prayer, to adapt it to the local circ.u.mstances of the Country, now severed from the parent State, and also took some measures towards procuring the Episcopate from England. An Address was forwarded to the English Bishops, through his Excellency John Adams, then Minister to England, and afterwards President of the United States who zealously used his influence to promote the views of the Convention.