Congregational Churches of New England.

Episcopal Church, and in striking discordance with the spirit of piety and godliness which pervades all the institutions of this Zion of the Lord.

I am ready to admit that the natural tendency of institutions will usually be evinced by the results which they produce. But owing to a peculiar combination of circumstances, results may sometimes flow in the train of apparent consequences from the operation of religious institutions, which are merely incidental. To illustrate this idea, I will advert to a fact connected with the history of the Congregational Churches of New-England.

I am far from believing that there is any necessary tendency arising from the constitution of those churches, to lower the standard of vital godliness, or to produce a willingness to receive persons into their communion upon slight and equivocal evidences of a renewal of heart. And yet, from the influence of a combination of circumstances, at one time, a large minority, if not a majority in these churches, were supposed to be men destitute of vital piety. In order that I may not state this matter too strongly, I will here introduce an extract from one of their own writers, the biographer of President Edwards. Speaking of New-England, he says: "So vast a proportion of the first planters of this country were members of the christian church, that not to be a church mem. ber was a public disgrace, and no man who had not this qualification, was considered capable of holding any civil office. The children of the first planters, also, with comparatively few exceptions, followed the example of their parents, and enrolled their names in the church calender; and there is reason to believe that a large proportion of them were possessed of real piety. Still there can be no doubt, that a considerable number of them, upon the whole, were of a different character. In the third and fourth generations, the number of this latter class increased to such a degree, as to constitute, if not a majority, yet a large minority of the whole population; but, such is the influence of national customs, it was still thought as necessary to a fair reputation, and to a full qualification for office, to make a public profession of religion, as before; and the church, by thus inclosing within its pale the whole rising generation, gathered in a prodi gious number of hypocrites;-and to make a profession of

Edwards. Qualifications for the Communion.

religion, began to be, on the part of numbers, an act of the same import as it has been on the part of the civil, military and naval officers of England "to qualify," by partaking of the Lord's Supper."*

It was this state of things which involved Jonathan Edwards in all those difficulties which gathered around him like the waves of the angry deep, and finally occasioned his removal from Northampton. He stood up as the servant of the Lord, to oppose the tide of worldliness, which, at that time, was rolling into the Congregational churches like a flood. But he stood up almost alone. Under no other circumstances of his life, do so much heavenly radiance and true moral grandeur gather around the character of this distinguished servant of the Lord, as when he girded himself up to this great conflict, and went right onward in the path of duty, leaving all consequences with God. He indeed fought manfully, and the cause he advocated has triumphed. By that one controversy in relation to the qualifications for church membership, Edwards conferred an everlasting obligation upon the Congregational and Presbyterian churches in this country. He seemed like one raised up of the Lord, to be a purifier of the churches; and it is impossible to say, how much of the consistent piety, the simple-hearted devotedness, the commendable zeal, and the exalted christian benevolence, which now happily characterize a large proportion of the churches of the denominations just referred to, are attributable, under God, to the labors of Edwards.

But I have adverted to this subject for the special object of illustrating the principle, that a declension of religion in any church, is no proof that that church is necessarily in its constitution faulty or defective.

From the fact that the Congregational Churches of NewEngland, at the time now adverted to, fell into such a lax mode of admitting members, and the cause of vital godliness so fearfully declined, I would by no means argue, that this is the natural, and necessary tendency of things in churches constituted as they are.

Such a fact by itself as the one now adverted to, does not prove that there is any essential defectiveness in the constitu*Edwards' Works-vol. 1. p. 303. See also, Christian Spectator, vol. 5. p. 288.

Entrance to the Church-how guarded.

tion of those churches, nor does it furnish the slightest evi dence that they are not of apostolic origin.

In like manner, were it true that many persons were admitted within the pale of the Episcopal communion totally destitute of piety, and that many of the members of the church were "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," this would not prove that there was any thing fundamentally wrong in the constitution of the church; it would only show that there was a declension of true piety among us-that owing to incidental causes, a fatal mildew and blight had fallen upon our Zion.

I am aware, however, that when the impression is once received, that religion is at a low ebb in any denomination, the idea almost unavoidably starts up in our minds, and gains the ascendency over all our other convictions, that there must be something radically defective in the doctrines or discipline of that denomination.

And I am also aware, that in some parts of our country the opinion has widely prevailed, that there is very little spiritual religion, or vital godliness in the Episcopal Church. On this point, it does not become me to bear direct testimony, and I would therefore say to the reader as Philip did to Nathaniel,Come and see." "Walk about Zion, and go round about her, and tell the towers thereof: mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces."

Thus much my subject requires me to affirm, that if there be a deficiency in the zeal and piety of Episcopalians, that deficiency is not the legitimate result of the operation of any of the institutions of the church. The tendency of all her established arrangements is towards a very high and elevated standard of piety. Of this, every one will be convinced who candidly examines the Prayer Book.

Were there any tendency in the arrangements of the Episcopal Church, to depress the standard of piety among her members, it would be found either in the fact that the entrance to her pale was not suitably guarded, or that an imperfect supervision was maintained over her members after their admission within her sacred enclosures.

The remainder of the chapter will be principally occupied in considering these points.

1. How is the entrance to the Church guarded?
C

Confirmation-qualifications for it.

Most obviously, the entrance into the fold of the Redeem er should not be an open pathway, for the ingress of all, however destitute of spiritual qualifications. There must be a guard at the door. Some principle must be established, and understood, upon which members are to be admitted.-The principle recognised by the gospel most manifestly is, that those who are admitted into the fold, should exhibit decided evidence of a change of heart, and of possessing that vital godliness which displays itself in a new, holy, and well ordered life. Wherever candidates are admitted upon lower evidence than this-wherever the signs and seals of the covenant are extended to the unrenewed as converting ordinances, there, from the nature of things, the church must soon be filled with ungodly members. On this point, the Episcopal Church takes the true gospel ground. No person is regarded as being in full communion with her, till he has received the rite of Confirmation. Confirmation, then, is the great door of admission to the privileges of the church, at which she stations her guard. Her rubricks and standards, by a fair and necessary construction, teach, "that confirmation is to be administered only on a credible profession of repentance and faith, or of that new birth of the spirit, which is symbolized in baptism, and is the true beginning of the christian character, and the christian life."

The practical adoption of this principle is earnestly pressed upon the attention of the clergy by our Bishops.* By express provision in the canons of the church, persons are to be "prepared," and "previously instructed," before they are presented for the holy ordinance of confirmation, and no one is to receive this rite, unless his name is presented to the Bishop by his Pastor, as a fit and "properly qualified" person to enter upon such solemn engagements :-And can any one doubt, that that pastor who wittingly presents the name of an unconverted and godless sinner as a candidate for this holy rite, will find the blood of a lost soul on his sacerdotal robe, in the great day of final reckoning!

* See Bp. Griswold's address at the diocesan convention for 1833. Also Bp. M'Ilvaine's address to the Ohio convention for 1834-also Bp. Meade on Confirmation: see also the authorities referred to in "The Pastor' ¡ Testimony," 4th edit., chap. 2d.

† 26. Canon.

Confirmation-qualifications for it.

Not only is the principle above adverted to, established as the rule of admission to the church, but the application of that principle, in deciding who are proper subjects for admission to the church, is committed to the most competent hands.

The pastor of each congregation, "whom the Holy Ghost hath made overseer of the flock," whose great business it is to understand thoroughly the principles of the Bible, and to observe their operation and influence upon the hearts and conduct of men, is most properly placed as the responsible sentinel at the gate of Zion, to see that none enter except such as give evidence that they are truly the children of the Most High.

Though it be an unquestionable fact, that "in the multitude of counsellors there is safety," yet it is no less true, that where close attention and great vigilance are necessary to secure certain results, the more you can concentrate responsibility upon a single individual, and make that responsibility felt, the more sure you are to attain those results.

On this ground, we think that the entrance to the fold of the Redeemer, in the Episcopal Church, is well and wisely guarded. In this church, the business of examining candidates for admission to the privileges of the household of faith, is committed entirely to the clergyman, whose own reputation thus stands in a measure connected with the character of each individual whom he admits as a communicant.

We are aware that many of the denominations around us, adopt another method. It is not our design to cast the slightest censure upon their practice.

It may not be improper, however, in this connection, to observe, that an intelligent and devoted minister of the Presbyterian Church, not long since remarked in the hearing of the author, "That he decidedly preferred the Presbyterian to the Congregational Church on this ground-that the door of entrance to the former was better guarded than that of the latter. The one has a chosen few placed as sentinels, but in the other, this business is left to the whole church. I fully believe," continued he, "the affairs of the church will be transacted with more judgment and caution, by a few judicious, experienced men, than where all are brought in to participate in these transactions. Just in proportion as you increase the number of individuals to whom any business of