CHAPTER VI.

Principles of Congregational Church Polity. Nature of the Church. Simplicity of worship instituted by the New Testament. Early innovations and perversions. Reformation in England incomplete. Diversities among the Puritans, some at either extreme. Massachusetts Colonists shunned extremes. John Cotton's 'Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.' Cambridge Platform, 1648. Subject proposed and divided. 1. Nature of the Church and its privileges Origin of the name 'Congregational.' Letter to Skelton. Primitive Churches were parochial and independent. Primitive order restored in New England. The Church a monarchy democratically administered. Connection and communion of independent Churches. Dr. Heylin. Cotton's objections to the term 'Independency.' Opposition of Congregationalists to 'Brownism.' Cotton's reply to Baillie. John Robinson's advice. Thomas Shepard. True idea of Church unity. II. Nature and powers of the ministry. Officers of two sorts. The first order. Cotton's view. The second order, or deacons. Apostolical succession discussed. Bishop Hoadley. Archb. Whately. Bishop of Hereford. Macaulay. Ordination, what it is. Archbishop Cranmer. Bishop Burnet. Lu ther. Popular election of officers. Effect of ordination. Our forefathers free from the hierarchal temper. III. Nature and forms of public worship. What is prayer. Unlawful to impose forms. Origin of liturgies. Lord Say and Seal Origin of English liturgy. Rejected by our fathers. Inconveniences of it. The use of sacraments. Our fathers' discipline commended.

A CHAPTER or two will here be given to an account of the principles and merits of the system of church government instituted by Mr. Cotton and his associates in New England. Their

views and practices will be presented, avoiding, as far as may be, all controverting of the opinions of others.

The Church, as they viewed it, is the living temple of God. The precious material, wherewith it is constructed, is hewn from the quarry of human nature. The massive blocks had there lain shapeless and senseless, and altogether dead in trespasses and sins. But the Holy Ghost, acting by means of the fire and hammer of God's Word, hath separated them from the formless and lifeless mass, and hath squared and fitted them for their respective places, and hath entered into them and quickened them with an everlasting life, and hath joined them in vital union to Christ, that living Rock of salvation, that head-stone of the corner, that eternal foundation-ledge of Zion. Thus they, "as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house," for "spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

The grand temple at Jerusalem, which, allowing for difference of material, was modeled after the plan of the tabernacle of Moses, was intended to serve "unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." It was a type of the celestial or spiritual sanctuary, "of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Hence

the care with which it was constructed to accord precisely with a prescribed model, "as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle; for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount." The idea of the worldly sanctuary is wholly taken from the heavenly sanctuary.

The instituted worship of God under the older Testament, abounded in forms and ceremonies which had all of them a moral significance embodying some divine truth, or shadowing out some celestial reality. But even that ritual must have nothing of human origin superadded. The Pharisees brought in many innovations derived by tradition of the elders. But Jesus repeats, with approbation, the sentence of the prophet against them :-"In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' Mark the contrast here ;human traditions can never constitute a worship acceptable to God. Therefore God required that his altar should be built only of unhewn stones; and declared that whosoever lifted up a tool upon it had polluted it. The purity of divine worship is defiled by every admixture of man's inventions and devices.

The instituted worship of the New Testa

ment, delights not in figurative pomps and shows, but in plain and literal truth. Its ordinances are few and simple, because it rejoices, not in the "shadows of good things to come," but in the "very image of the things" themselves. Here too, we are to see, that all things be made according to the divine pattern, and kept free from men's contrivances and traditionary enlargements. The worship of the church is to be fashioned after the New Testament exemplar. We have there a fair transcript of the pattern in the mount, a true copy of the ground plan and elevations. To follow this, will be unquestionably safe. To depart from it, will be certainly to go wrong. It is not enough to justify such a usage in divine worship, to say that there is nothing in the Bible expressly against it."The truth is," as John Norton tersely says, "there is enough against it, if there be nothing for it."

The apostles, "as wise master-builders," left a fabric of doric strength and simplicity. But the fair edifice soon began to be weakened and marred by tasteless changes. And the spiritual architects of the middle ages made sad havoc of the venerable pile. Much of it was rased to the very foundation: and what was built instead, bore the marks of a modern and a meaner style.

The work went on, till the straggling structure presented a strange mixture of the handiwork of different ages and nations. Some remains of the primitive vastness and simplicity were still visible but oddly blended with Gothic pillars, and Saxon arches, and Norman windows, and Romanesque towers. Most of what was left of the original building was covered up by cumbrous and uncouth additions, and rudely daubed with untempered mortar, or finely plastered over with Italian stucco.

In the first times of the Protestant reformation, much was done toward removing the huge mass of innovations, and restoring the more ancient order. But in England, the work of restitution stopped all too soon. The reformation of doctrine was gloriously effected: but the reformation of order and worship fell far short of recovering the primitive purity. The Puritans felt that the work must go on much farther, before the just and necessary authority of Christ could be re-established in his kingdom. They came at once to the right principle, that the Bible is our only safe and sufficient guide in ecclesiastical practice, as well as in articles of belief.

When our fathers reached these shores, they had a general idea of the nature of that instituted