Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/249

CONGREGATIONALISM 245 with the confession and catechisms compiled by the assembly at Westminster in 1643. It is customary for each church to have a summary of tenets in which its members are agreed, and to which the assent of candidates for member- ship is expected. These summaries differ in minuteness and in phraseology, and from time to time may be modified to meet prevalent forms of error, and bear testimony to the truth. Inasmuch as the inspired word of God is re- ceived as the only perfect standard of belief and rule of duty, church creeds have not usually been employed to exclude from communion the real subjects of experimental religion. They are intended to express, "not denomi- nationalism, but catholicity." Many of the churches of New England were constituted without particular creeds, and candidates for admission added to the relation of their re- ligious experience either a confession of faith of their own composing, or an intimation of some received confession to which they ad- hered. Congregational churches are paedo- baptist, recognizing the right of Christian parents to present their children for baptism, which is regarded as the counterpart of cir- cumcision and the seal of God's covenant with Abraham. While the principles of Congrega- tionalists allow them to recognize other local churches not conforming exactly to their faith and order, they do not hesitate to appeal to Scripture in support of their own customs. There they claim to find evidences of a popular church government, analogous to that in the Jewish synagogues; distinct local churches, instead of one national or provincial church, e. g., the seven churches of Asia Minor ; the right exercised in those churches of electing officers and teachers, as an apostle, Acts i. ; deacons, Acts vi., 2 Cor. viii. 19 ; elders, Acts xiv. 23 ; also the right of administering eccle- siastical discipline, Matt, xviii. 15-18, 1 Cor. v. 3-5, 2 Cor. ii. 6-11, &c. ; and an identity of bishops with presbyters, Acts xx. 17, 28. They find confirmation of their views, not only in the history of the apostolic churches, but in the course of events in the next century, according to the concessions of ecclesiastical historians of other denominations, such as Waddington, Mosheim, Neander, and Gieseler. The influence of Congregationalism has en- tered most fully into the development of our national history, especially in New England and the northwest. The Congregationalists, while claiming Scriptural warrant for their polity, do not feel themselves troubled in ma- king the admission that the discovery and prac- tical use of their principles is of recent date. Relying on present evidences of life and truth in churches, they do not feel themselves bound to trace the visible links by which the ordi- nances have been transmitted to them since the apostolic days. In their view each local church exists re.ally and rightfully, not because it existed in a previous generation, but because it holds to the head, which is Christ, and is composed of men renewed and sanctified. He who would trace their history should go back 300 years, and examine the state of things in the established church of England when Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne made her the supreme head of the church. The Puri- tan party in that church grew up out of an unwillingness to conform to usages which they esteemed idolatrous, such as the wearing of the surplice, the use of the sign of the cross, and kneeling at the communion. Persecution followed. Some of the Puritans disowned the church entirely, and became separatists; others adhered to it, protesting against its errors, and were simply nonconformists. Of the former class was Robert Brown, who in 1586 propounded a theory of church govern- ment, more radical and exclusive than that which was afterward advocated by John Rob- inson, who is generally esteemed the father of modern Congregationalism. Before the close of the century the Brownists were num- bered by thousands. In 1602 "several re- ligious people" in the north of England, driven by their troubles " to see further into these things by the light of the word of God," determined to "shake off this yoke of anti- Christian bondage, and, as the Lord's free peo- ple, join themselves by covenant into a church state, to walk in all his ways, made known or to be made known to them, according to their best endeavors, whatever it cost them ;" and, added Gov. Bradford nearly 30 years after, with touching simplicity, " that it cost them something, this ensuing history will declare." Over a portion of this church, which had been divided for the convenience of its scattered membership, Robinson was pastor, and in 1608 he went with it to Holland. There they re- mained several years, until it became evident that a return to England was hopeless, and that Holland was not the place for their per- manent home ; and having great hope of ad- vancing the kingdom of Christ by coming to this western world? they prepared for another removal. The church was again divided ; the pastor remained temporarily with the majority in Ley den, and the colony took with them their elder, William Brewster, it being agreed that those who went first should be an abso- lute church of themselves as well as those who stayed. This young church, receiving Robin- son's benediction at Delft Haven in 1620, was transported in the Mayflower to Plymouth, where the colonists, having first organized themselves as a civil body politic, landed, Dec. 21, literally " a church without a bishop, and a state without a king." Robinson died in 1625, before he could join them in America. This was the first church in New England. The first church formed in New England was that gathered at Salem, Aug. 6, 1629. The first settlers of Massachusetts Bay had appa- rently no intention at the outset of separating from the church of England, and their minis- ters were persons who had been episcopally