THE

SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW.

VOL. X.] APRIL, MDCCCLVII. [NO. I.

ART. I.—THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

THE Protestant reformation proceeded from the practical devel-

opement of two propositions, the one of which embodied its formal,
the other its material principle. The first is, that the Scriptures
are the only rule of Christian faith and practice; and the second,
that justification before God is solely through the righteousness of
Christ, imputed to the believer, without the works of the law.
The former of these principles inaugurates the right of private
judgment, and rescues the liberties of the church and people of
God from the bondage of a usurping priesthood. The latter
enunciates a theology, which, whether designated, from its unani-
mous reception by the divines of the reformation, by the name of
“Reformed;” or from its great expounders called Calvinistic,
Augustinian, or Pauline, has always proved itself the alone sure
basis of a stable faith; and the only reliable fountain of a pure
morality.
Viewed in its practical bearings the reformation was charac-
terized by their cardinal features, springing from these principles.
These were, the preaching of a Pauline theology, instead of the
Pelagianism of the papacy; the vindication of the morality of the
divine law, in contrast with the licentiousness of Rome; and the
establishment of a scriptural polity and order in the church, in
opposition to the hierarchy of a domineering priesthood. The
three elements thus indicated, that is, doctrines, morals, and polity,
sustain to each other relations exceedingly intimate and almost
inseparable. A pure morality has never long survived that
VOL. X.—NO. 1. 1

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2 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

theology, which, whilst it disclaims all reliance on works for justi-

fication, yet developes, in love, the only principle which is adequate
to produce the fruits of a holy obedience. On the other hand,
permanent defections from sound doctrine have always been either
preceded or attended by departures from scriptural principles of
church order and government. In this respect the opposite
extremes of Hierarchy and Independency have alike proved
incompetent to the maintenance, either of truth in doctrine or
parity in practice. Whilst error has never entered a Presbyterian
church, without at once assailing the principles of its polity, and
striving to arrest or neutralize their operation; it is in all its forms
found in congenial and quiescent alliance with the lofty pretensions
and imposing ceremonies of hierarchical systems, and the popular
constitutions and irresponsible separation of Independent churches.
The distinguishing characteristic of Hierarchy is, that it
attributes to the clergy the primary and sole possession of all the
rights and prerogatives of ecclesiastical authority and grace;
asserting that every sacred function is vested immediately in them
by the Head of the church. If it be true that church power exists
essentially in the clergy and not in the church at large, it follows
that the divine prerogatives thus arrogated can only be vested in
any by the interposition of such as are already endowed; and so
at each antecedent stop back to the investiture of the apostles by
the Son of God. It further results that none are members of the
church of Christ, or entitled to appropriate the promises of the
Gospel, except such as submit themselves to the guidance of these
divinely commissioned officers; and that no degree of depravity
in morals, or heresy in their doctrines, would justify the people of
God in withdrawing from their communion, or in the least slighting
their teachings or authority. Nor do such conclusions attach
exclusively to the prelatic system, although in that they find
their normal organization. They cleave alike to any and every
theory which rests church power primarily in the ministry.
It must be manifest that whenever the church is required to
bow to such an authority as this, claiming to act in the name of
her Lord, Christ, she is imperiously bound, by the very allegiance
which she joyfully owns, to demand an open display of the com-
mission which assumes to convey such powers. With the utmost
jealousy must she examine its terms, and inspect the seal, knowing
the words of Christ, that “many shall come in his name, saying,
I am Christ, and shall deceive many;” and giving heed to the
warning of the beloved apostle,—“Beloved, believe not every
spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God; because many
false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John, iv: 1.) Nor
in such a case will probable evidence be sufficient. The very face

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 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 3

of the claim which is to be tested, implies that mistake may

involve imminent hazard of perdition. The beloved bride of
Christ is not incautiously to be entrusted to the hands of those
who may prove emissaries of the Man of Sin. Interests involving
the redemption of the blood-bought Church, the glory of God, and
the great realities of a future state, are not to be staked on doubt-
ful evidence. Nothing less than demonstration is adequate to this
occasion. To effect this, two alternatives occur. The claimant of
a divine commission may show miraculous evidence of his au-
thority. This the apostles everywhere exhibited, “God bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles,
and gifts of the Holy Ghost.” (Heb. ii: 4.) The fact of such
attestation being given to them, adds emphasis to the demand for
similar proof, in every similar case. Failing this, two things trust
be made to appear. First, the derivation of office through a
lineal succession fully authenticated in every link, from such as
had miraculous attestations on their behalf. Second, that these
predecessors, acting under this seal of divine authority, directed
the powers exercised by them, to be thus lineally transmitted
from age to age. Neither of these points may be assumed without
proof; nor will the proof of either of them alone, sustain the
claim which is under consideration. Both must be demonstrated,
to be of any avail.
It may be thought that these alternatives may be avoided, and
the claim of hierarchy justified, by the plea of prescriptive right;
that although there be irreparable defects in the evidence of suc-
cession, and it be even possible that the chain has been completely
severed, and the apostolic ordination utterly lost, still the acqui-
escence of the Church, and the undisputed possession of its au-
thoritative offices for ages, has fully compensated for any such
defect, and given validity in its present exercise to an authority,
which, in its origin, may have been irregular and invalid. If by
this reference to the acquiescence of the Church, as embodied in
its private members, it is meant to acknowledge that she has
received from the Lord Jesus Christ, power adequate to the per-
petuation of the ordinances, and her own edification, even in
default of a regular succession of officers; and that the ministry
now possessed derives its authority from that source; it is mani-
fest that such a concession in fact abandons the pretence of
hierarchical authority. It is an acknowledgment that, in the last
resort, ecclesiastical power abides essentially in the body of the
faithful; in the Church, and not in her officers. Otherwise it
must remain a mystery how the acquiescence of the Church,
which, by the terms of the statement, was originally, and remains
perpetually, without any share in the power of the keys, can by

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4 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

the mere lapse of centuries, exercise a force so extraordinary, as

to beget for the usurping officers a valid commission, and that, not
from her, but from heaven; or how it can have any other effect
than to implicate the acquiescent Church, in common with her
officers, in the guilt of treason to her Head. If, therefore, mi-
raculous powers be not displayed, or apostolic ordination and
commission demonstrated, not approximately but absolutely, the
figment of hierarchy is left without a shadow of foundation.
Should either of these proofs, however, be given, it would only
remain, that all must yield cheerful and unreserved submission to
an authority, which, in its dominion over doctrines, morals, and
order, must, in the nature of the case, be unlimited by anything
short of direct and signal interposition from heaven.
In this doctrine of clerical prerogative, is revealed the funda-
mental heresy of the papal system; the pregnant germ from
whence every essential feature of that apostacy results, by direct
logical consequence. Necessarily involved in it is the doctrine of
opus operatum, or the essential efficacy of outward forms and
rites for conveying spiritual gifts and graces to the soul—a doctrine
which strikes directly at the root of the cardinal principle in the
Pauline system, that is, the sole and entire sufficiency of Christ’s
righteousness, without any difference, “unto all and upon all them
that believe.” Admit the hierarchical pretensions, and private
judgment is impious, as assuming to sit in trial of the instruc-
tions of acknowledged oracles of God; the Bible becomes not
needlees only, but a temptation and a snare, and its instructions
must be received only so far and in such sense as they may be
affirmed by the living teacher; rites and ceremonies appointed by
these officers are to be received at once as of divine appointment;
and this power, “sitting in the temple of God, and showing itself
that it is God,” may confound every distinction in morals, canonize
the grossest sensuality, smile upon the most loathsome vice, and
discard every principle of virtue; and yet no man may protest,
or hesitate to submit his faith and his senses alike to the atrocious
dicta. A refusal to acquiesce involves the guilt of rebellion
against God, and apostacy from the fold and the salvation of
Christ. The fact that many who adopt the premises shrink with
horror from these conclusions, does credit to their hearts at the
expense of their understandings. Admit the primary position, and
the conclusions are as inevitable as the demonstration that follows
a theory of Euclid.
It is not necessary here to enter into detail in illustration of the
essential connexion that subsists between the hierarchical theory,
and the prelatic organization of the Church. The one is in fact

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 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 5

the normal development, in practice, of the other. Admit the

prerogatives thus ascribed to the ministry, and it at once becomes
important, that some be set apart as the official conservators and
dispensers of the powers and grace thus possessed; men who
shall be authorized to take charge of their proper distribution and
transmission, for the present edification of the Church, and its
perpetuation in after time. Precisely such are the distinguishing
characteristics and functions of diocesan bishops; whose office as
preachers of the word, is entirely subordinate and secondary to
that more important jurisdiction which they exercise in the ordi-
nation of ministers, and the confirmation of catechumens. In
these rites they, by the imposition of hands, assume to bestow
upon the one and the other that mysterious and inappreciable gift
of the Holy Ghost, which, whilst it neither works faith nor any
grace in the heart, nor loveliness in the life, yet entitles the one to
arrogate to himself, and those who have been similarly ordained,
the supreme and exclusive title to dispense the privileges and
blessings of God’s covenant of mercy to a lost world; and makes
the other a child of God, and heir of heaven. All this—although
the one may be a Simon Magus in heart, and the other a worker
of iniquity in his life.
The Constitution of the Methodist Episcopal Church, exhibits a
modified form of hierarchy singularly anomalous in all its aspects.
Its author, John Wesley; a professed believer in the primitive
purity of the ministry, yet an adherant of one prelatic church,
and founder of another. Citing his faith in the original equality
of the ministry, as a justification of his own position, when in the
act of trampling that equality under foot, by the assumption to
himself of apostolical authority, in the ordination of prelates to
rule in a foreign church, and the erection of a system of hierarchy,
as unmitigated in its usurpation over popular rights, as that of the
English establishment itself. Nor is the system any less remark-
able in its structure than its origin. Here is a ministry which
does not pretend to derive its authority by immediate commission
from heaven, which cannot claim apostolic succession, and which
is, therefore, shut up to the alternative of admitting, that any
prerogatives they may possess must be conveyed to them through
the mediation of the Church—the body of believers. Yet, not-
withstanding, from the day of their commission by Wesley, to the
present time, they have held the reins then seized, without pre-
tending to secure from the people, in any form, their sanction to
to the original investiture, or the subsequent use; or admitting
them to any share of authority, or any right of interposition in
the exercise of the powers thus acquired. Here are prelates con-
fessing that the system is not derived from the word of God; and

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6 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

a ministry, whose warrant is in a ministeral succession which ter-

minates in the person of a disorderly presbyter, who violated the
obligations of his own ministry, and cast indignity on the authori-
ties and order of his own church in originating theirs. In short,
the system is one whose only pretence of excuse is necessity;
whose justification was opportunity; and whose only present vin-
dication is the consent of the people, obscurely indicated in their
unresisting acquiescence. Incapable of vindication in argument,
its security is silence.
On the opposite extreme of opinions on this subject, Indepen-
dency secures, indeed, the liberties of the people of God against
the domination of usurping officers, but it is at the expense of the
existence of the Church itself. It is dissolved, and out of the ele-
ments are created a multitude of petty democracies, each congre-
gation being erected into a sect, responsible to no common au-
thority and bound to the rest by no common organization. “Each
congregation, assembly, or brotherhood of professing Christians
meeting for religious purposes in one place, is a complete Church,
receiving from Christ the right to appoint its own officers, to dis-
charge the duties of worship, to observe the instituted sacraments,
and to exercise discipline upon its own members.”
If it be true that each particular congregation is thus complete
in itself, and possessed of such privileges and independence as
are here claimed, it is evident that they are thereby involved in
an imperative obligation to maintain in full integrity the invalu-
able trust thus committed to them by the Lord Jesus Christ. As
to them belongs the privilege, so on them alone rests the obliga-
tion and responsibility, of designating officers, of directing
worship, and of exercising discipline within their own assemblies.
Faithfulness to Christ forbids that they should transfer any of
these prerogatives to others, or permit their integrity to be im-
paired, by allowing any measure of interference, any the least
weight of obligation, to extraneous influences and sister organi-
zations. Whilst thus sedulous in guarding their own rights, they
are on the other hand bound by a reciprocal obligation as carefully
to respect those of sister congregations, abstaining from any
attempt to influence the choice of officers, the exercises of worship,
or the formularies of doctrine, or to interfere in any way beyond
the limits of their own fold.
A modified form of this system is displayed in Congregational-
ism, which does not essentially differ from it in principle. It is
an attempt to innoculate independency with the efficiency and ex-

*Upham’s Ratio Disciplinæ, or Constitution of the Congregational Churches. p. 44.

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 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 7

pansiveness of Presbyterianism, by a partial adoption of its forms

and modes of action. The result so far as it differs from strict
independency, is a congeries of compromises and expedients; not
rising to the dignity of a system; reducible to no ultimate prin-
ciples; recognizing no law, but the necessities of the occasion;
and exhibiting no uniformity in its results, as developed in the
constitutions and proceedings of the multiplied Councils, Unions,
Conventions, Conferences, Associations and Consociations, Ana-
baptist and Pædo-baptist, to which it has given existence.
Although the Congregational system departs so far from pure
Independency, as to admit of the organization of councils and
synods, both occasional and stated; yet it is held as a cardinal
principle, that particular churches retain the right of examining
their decisions by the light of reason and Scripture. “If they
find them agreeable to the scriptures, and satisfactory to their
consciences, they are to be received; but if otherwise, they may
be rejected.”* The synods of these churches are not like those
of other churches; for they have no weapons but what are
spiritual. They pretend to, nor desire any power that is judicial.
If they can but instruct and persuade, they gain their end. But
when they have done all, tho churches arc still free to refuse or
accept their advice.’†’ The particular worshipping assembly is,
therefore, the tribunal of the last resort; in fact, the only autho-
ritative body known to the system. In the varying phases of
Congregationalism, we do indeed sometimes find features which
suggest the authoritative supervision and control of Presbyterian
synods. Yet, however intimately the churches may be associated
in mutual confidence and fellowship, they still remain mere
conferences of independent sovereignties. Each is entitled, in
the last resort, by the fundamental principles of the system, to
do what may seem good in its own eyes, irrespective of the
opinions or expostulations of the rest. This renders such organi-
zations altogether inadequate to resist the incursions of error.
Strictly interpreting their principles, the churches have no right
to go behind their mutual profession of a common faith; or
inquire whether any of their number may not have departed from
the truth of the Gospel. This would be assuming a right to sit
in judgment one upon another. Necessity has, indeed, induced
the partial abandonment of this principle, by the adoption of
systems of association, cemented by rules of discipline. But
the feeble influence thus exerted, has only partially protected the

*Upham, p. 205.
†Samuel Mather, in Upham, p. 205.

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8 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

bodies thus organized from the continual and desolating inroads

of error in every form. Arminian, Pelagian, Antinomian, Arian,
and Socinian heresies, have alternatively swept over their fairest
fields, until scarcely a remnant is left to lift up a standard for the
primitive faith, which was inscribed by their fathers in the Savoy
confession of 1658, the Boston confession of 1680, and the London
Baptist confession of 1689, identical as were each of these in
doctrines, almost in terms, with the confession of the Westminster
Assembly. Nor is it unworthy of special note, that the Pelagian
tendencies, which have been so actively developed in the Congre-
gational churches of this country within the last half century,
have proceeded at an equal pace with a corresponding disposition
to cast off the stricter regimen of Presbyterio-congregationalism,
and to recur to the principles of pure Independency.
An equally weighty objection to the Independent polity,
occurs in the fact that it is entirely deficient in any provision for
sending abroad the Gospel, and evangelizing the destitute, and
the heathen world. On the contrary, its principles present great
obstacles in the way of such attempts. It hence happens that
whenever churches thus organized, have attempted to do any-
thing for the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom, it has been
through organizations extraneous to the churches, abnormal to
their system, and which, at every point of contact with the
churches, are sustained and borne forward in violation of the
fundamental principles of their polity. The mission of a minister
of the Gospel to labour among the barbarians of Rarotonga,
implies, on the part of the Church which sends him forth, au-
thority competent to the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in
that distant field. The moment a church in Boston or Plymouth
attempts to designate a church officer to exercise his official
functions in a foreign field, the idea of authority limited to the
bounds of its own assembly is abandoned. A right is thus
assumed of effectually interposing as to the mode of worship, the
qualification of members, and the exercise of discipline in as-
semblies separated from her, perhaps by the diameter of the
globe. This, too, not in its proper form by the assembled Church,
but by an individual designated to act for her in this behalf. The
sons of the pilgrims, as well as many of our Baptist brethren, are
entitled to praise in all the churches for their noble exertions on
behalf of the heathen world. _But the manner in which they are
compelled to act in every branch of evangelic effort is, of itself,
an overwhelming argument against this system of polity. Take
the example of the American Board—a society originating in the
casual association of a few individuals, impelled, indeed, by noble
purposes, but in whose designation the churches as such had no

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 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 9

more to do, than in the organization of a bank or an insurance

company. Thus independent of the churches in its origin, it is
equally so in its perpetration; being a close corporation with the
sole right within itself of electing its own members from time to
time, and exercising that right by the election of men who are
not officers in any church, and men who never belonged to a
Congregational church at all. A society whose powers are
derived, not from the churches by any mode of delegation, but
from the Legislature of Massachusetts, and defined in a municipal
charter. The theory is, that the prerogative of calling men to
the ministry belongs exclusively to the several churches, each for
itself. The practice is, that the call of the missionaries comes
neither from church nor church-court, but from this civil corpo-
ration. The theory is, that the ordaining council exercises an
authority delegated to it, by the church from which the call
proceeds, and in the bosom of which the labors of the minister
elect are to be bestowed. The practice is, that the council, when
assembled, consists of ministers and messengers from churches,
none of which expect to enjoy his stated ministry; who do not
pretend to have been called together, or authorized to act by any
church which does; who, with one voice, repudiate any right of
jurisdiction beyond the bounds of their several churches; and
yet, in the teeth of all this, they go forward, and, by the laying
on of hands, assume to invest with the Gospel ministry, men
whom they design to exercise its functions in foreign lands, and
among other people. The doctrine is, that the power of the keys
belongs to the body of worshippers in a particular church. The
practice is, that it is assumed by the missionary, if there be but
one, or by the council of the mission in the earlier stages of mis-
sionary operations. Subsequently, according as the preferences
of the missionaries, or the necessities of their situation have de-
termined, the practice varies between a quasi congregationalism,
in which the Church has a nominal share of power, but is held in
real subordination to the authority of the general council of the
mission; and defectively organized Presbyterianism, exercised by
the missionary pastor, with his college of parochial assistants,
subordinate to the presbytery of the mission.
Thus have the principles of this polity met and withstood the
friends of missions in every step of their progress and every de-
partment of their operations; and compelled them to seek, in a
purely civil corporation, a channel through which to exercise
their zeal for a perishing world: and to yield to this body an
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over ministers and churches,—the rising
temple of God in heathen lands,—as authoritative, and often more
direct and effectual, than is ever exerted by the highest court of

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10 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

the Presbyterian church. All honor to those men of God whose

love of souls impelled them, despite all obstacles, to embark in
this cause, and organize that Board, and send forth that host
which has planted the standard of the Cross among the many
islands of the sea, and upon the shores of every continent, and
unfurled to the breeze that blood-sprinkled banner, whose folds
display the only hope of a perishing world. Future ages, and
many nations will rise up and call them blessed. Yet, still it
remains that the very existence of that Board, and of the other
Congregational, miscalled national societies, is a standing protest
against the Congregational theory. Churches which are pre-
cluded, by the essential principles of their polity, from acting
per se in the work of missions,—which ar ə compelled by defect of
provision in their constitution to abandon extraneous and inde-
pendent organizations, the duty of obeying the last command of
the ascending Redeemer are self-condemned. A form of govern-
ment, which is found practically inapplicable to the case of
churches newly gathered from the heathen, cannot be the true
constitution of the Gospel Church.
Broadly distinguished from Hierarchy on the one hand, and
Congregationalism or Independency on the other, is the Reformed
or Presbyterian constitution of the Church. Of this system the
fundamental principle is that the power of the keys is, by the
Lord Jesus Christ, vested primarily and essentially in the Catholic
or Universal church, which “consists of all those throughout the
world that profess the true religion, together with their children,
and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and
family of God.”* The powers thus attributed to the Church at
large, are a common investment for the benefit alike of all the
members. These hold their interest in it, not by a joint, but
several title; so that where distance, diversity of nation, or other
cause, precludes a common organization and joint use of its pri-
vileges, those who can thus associate, are fully endowed with all
the prerogatives of the keys, and assured of the presence and
sanction of the Head of the Church, to their proper exercise of
ecclesiastical functions. Ministerially, these functions are ex-
ercised by officers whose several qualifications and duties are
defined in the Scriptures; and who are called and designated to
the service by the Church, acting under the promised guidance of
the Spirit of Christ, leading her to the choice of such persons as
he has qualified and prepared for her service. Thus, the powers
exercised by church officers, are not theirs primarily and essen-

* Westminster Confession, chap. 25, sec. 2.

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 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 11

tially, but only mediately and representatively. In their several

spheres they minister in the name of the Church, acting as its
representatives, and under responsibility to its ultimate authority.
“Unto the Catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry,
oracles and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of
the saints in this life, to the end of the world.”
The services which the ordinary exigencies of the Church and
its members demand are of two kinds, namely—pastoral care and
supervision of the flock of Christ; and the management of tem-
poralities. Hence arise two classes of officers,—elders or bishops,
who, according to their several gifts and qualifications, labor in
word and doctrine, and in the exercise of government and disci-
pline;—and deacons, whose office it is to take charge of the tem-
poral affairs, and dispense the charities of the Church.† Although
the functions and services of these officers appertain to the Church
at large, yet as their labors are ordinarily, by the nature of the
case, confined to specific fields of more or less limited extent; so
are they called and set apart to their work through the interven-
tion of particular congregations, or associations of them; in this,
as in all other proceedings, acting under the constant supervision
and corrective authority of the whole body; to whose final decision
all disputed questions of whatever kind are ultimately brought.
The number, names, and particular distribution of functions,
in the series of courts which normally grew out of these princi-
ples, are entirely immaterial to the integrity of the Reformed
system. They are determined, according to the exigencies of
each particular case, by what is found requisite, in order to the
exercise of an efficient and active supply and supervision of
every part of the body. The Scotch church possessed as pure
and complete an organization, when it had no intermediate court
between the church session and the General Assembly; and our
American church, when it had only the sessions subordinate to
the general presbytery, or when the latter body had interposed a
system of classical presbyteries between it and the sessions; as
does either body as now expanded, with its gradation of sessions,
presbyteries, synods, and General Assembly. The Waldensian
church does not fell below the purest standard of Presbyterian
order, because its organization contains but the two elements of
the parochial session and the synod; nor, on the other hand,
would it involve any deviation from the same standard, should
our church in the United States find it expedient to interpose a

*Westminster Confession, chap. 25, sec. 3.

†“Of this settlement, [of the Scotch church,] besides that profession of the evan-
gelical faith which is common to all the churches of the Reformation, the peculiar and

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12 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

system of provincial synods between the particular synods now

existing, and the supreme court. In this respect the principles
which control the system are,—unity in the body, the source of
all the functions exercised by its members;—subdivision and dele-
gation of ministerial powers to the parts, so far as requisite for the
purposes of local efficiency;—and subordination of every part to
the primary authority residing in the unity of the body; thus
securing; active supervison, cooperation, and expansive action in
the work of Christ.
Development by growth and subdivision is the law of this
system. The growing church at Jerusalem sends forth its shoots
to all quarters of the world, each of which taking root becomes a
new centre of expansive and healing influence, pushing forth
into other regions as yet unevangelized. At the same time, all
recognize and cherish the relation of unity to the parent stock,
and subordination to the authority which resides in the body of
which it is the centre. The church of Scotland, planted by the
labors of a few divinely enlightened men, maintains at first the
communion of its in members through the annual convocation of its
pastors and elders in one assembly. As it expands, this body
developes an organization of subordinate synods, which, in their
turn, are divided into presbyteries, each exercising in its sphere
its distributive part of the functions of the body. A few mis-
sionaries of this church organize in Ulster a presbytery, which,
by a like process, becomes the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian church in Ireland. Driven from their homes by privation
and persecution, a handful of members of these churches find
themselves exiles from the means of grace, scattered in the wilds
of the new world. Their call for help is heard; and a missionary
from their native land erects, in their midst, the standard of the
Cross, and performs the work of an evangelist by planting
churches and dispensing the ordinances of the Gospel beneath the
shades of the primeval forests. Others join in his labors, and the
organization of the Church is completed. At first, half a dozen
names make up their roll when met in full assembly. But, as
years roll on, the infant Church expands with the widening conti-
nent, and creates out of its bosom a numerous retinue of synods
and presbyteries, whose annual commissioners, in General As-
sembly, perpetuate the succession of the original court. Hun-

essential features are: I. The government of the Church by presbyters alone, or by that
order of men which is indicated in the New Testament indiscriminately, by the terms
presbyters and bishops, or overseers,—presbuteroi, and epi,skopoi. And II. The
subjection of the Church in all things spiritual to Christ as her only Head, and his word
as her only rule.”—Act and Declaration of the General Assembly of the Free Church
of Scotland, May 31, 1851.

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 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 13

dreds of thousands of souls, the flock of Christ in her fold, are

led in the paths of knowledge and holiness by a growing multi-
tude of ministers, her sons. By them the call of mercy is urged
on unconverted millions throughout the land. Herself planted
by the spirit of missions; her organization constructed in special
adaptation to that work; her commission from Him who is the
Prince of the kings of the earth; and her field the world; mis-
sionaries trained in her schools, commissioned and sent forth
through her executive agencies, sustained by her contributions,
and followed with her prayers, bear the glad tidings of salvation
to the dark tribes of Asia and Africa, the aborigines of America,
and the baptized pagans of Europe; and her General Assembly
welcomes to its bosom commissioners from presbyteries which are
springing into existence in India, China and Africa; the germi-
nating courts of churches which shall yet flourish among regene-
rated nations, where heathenism now broods amid the gloom of
the shadow of death.
Neither historically, nor in theory, is the system which thus
unfolds itself one of confederate association, but of organic union.
The functions and powers exercised under it are not derived by
concessions of the inferior courts; nor do they primarily reside in
theirs. Originating in the fountain Christ, and replenishing the
spring-head—the Church catholic—his body; they flow down-
ward from the higher courts in a rich and exhaustless stream,
which, freighted with the riches of immortality, permeates every
congregation, and pours the blessings of life and salvation into
the heart of every believer. “Labitur, et labetur in omne vo-
lubilis ævum.”
It does not enter into the present design to exhibit the scrip-
tural argument in favor of the system of polity which is here
defined. It is a fact, however, worthy of being marked with
peculiar emphasis, that unadulterated Presbyterianism has never
been found in permanent connection with a corrupted theology.
The first step in, the apostacy of Rome, was a departure from the
simple Presbyterian constitution of the primitive Church, the
erection of a towering system of clerical orders, and a gradual
assumption of hierarchical prerogatives. The subsequent history
of the Church presents abundant examples of a similar character,
illustrating the intimate relation there is between a corrupted
polity, and unsound theology. On the other hand, sound doc-
trine has almost invariably found congenial alliance with Presby-
terian order. During the ages when the Roman antichrist sat
enthroned among the nations, the Culdees, the Waldenses, and
the Lollards; the Presbyterians of the Alps and of Britain, were

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14 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

almost alone the martyr confessions of a Scriptural faith. So

soon as the returning light burst upon Europe, the reformers with
one voice, in Germany, in Switzerland, in France, in Holland, and
in Britain, concurred in bearing witness to the divine authority of
the Presbyterian system. In every instance where the churches
were organized without secular intervention, it was under this
form. Without exception, prelacy was borrowed from Rome, and
imposed by secular influences, and for the promotion of secular
ends upon unwilling churches. Full fledged hierarchy, and inde-
pendency, are alike of later origin in the Reformed church. The
former transplanted from Rome, and freely germinating in a soil
prepared by prelatic organization, Arminian theology, and alli-
ance with the State; the latter born of oppression which “makes
wise men mad.” Its victims driven into exile, or pursued with
inquisitions and fines, scourgings and imprisonment, tortures and
death; no wonder if a morbid state of mind was induced,—if
eagerness to escape the persecutions that oppressed them should
result in comparative forgetfulness, or indifference to other con-
siderations. Under such circumstances independency originated.
Starting with the fundamental proposition that Christ has no visi-
ble Church upon earth, except the particular congregations of
worshippers, it hence seemed to follow that establishments and
persecutions for dissent must necessarily cease; inasmuch as there
could not, on this theory, be a church geographically coëxtensive
with the nation, to enjoy the prerogatives of an establishment, or
direct the engines of persecution. It was reserved for the fathers
of New England to exhibit a practical illustration of the fact, that
it is possible to erect an establishment of _Independent churches;
and that the spirit of persecution may find exercise under that
system as effectually as through the towering and gorgeous struc-
ture of an established prelacy. To the alliance of the churches
of the pilgrims with their State authorities, serving as it did for a
bond of union and discipline, is to be attributed much of their
earlier prosperity. To it they owe their preservation from the
intrusions of disorganizing heresies sheltered under their own
form of polity; as well as the effectual exclusion of Presbyterian-
ism from their soil. Yet, that alliance sprang from other causes,
and was sustained through other influences, than any essential
adaptation or peculiar tendency of Independent principles to such
a connexion with the civil power.
In this respect the affinities which characterize the three sys-
tems here described are sufficiently obvious, and their operation
plainly marked in the history of the churches. Hierarchy origi-
nating in a spirit of ambitious self-aggrandizement, under that

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 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 15

influence, naturally seeks to strengthen itself in irresponsible lord-

ship in spiritual things, by alliance with the civil rulers, and by
then exaggerating the authority of the powers on which it thus
leans. On the other hand its dignitaries, persuaded that salva-
tion depends on submission to their authority, and acceptance of
the ordinances as dispensed by them, readily conclude that the
magistrate cannot exercise his authority more properly, than in
constraining men to come within the fold, and accept the grace
that flows from the imposition of a bishop’s hands; and that
mercy itself may require that souls be snatched from perdition,
even though at the expense of tortures to their bodies, and the
erection of the stake for the destruction of the finally contuma-
cious, and the warning of others. And this especially, as those
who refuse to conform, are not only chargeable with treason to
their own souls, the souls of others, the Church and her Head;
but also with insubordination to the laws and the powers that be.
Independency originating in instincts of self preservation, and
looking no farther than the safety of the village congregation,
withdraws from the unity of the Church, as well as from contact
with the State, and seeks in solitude the enjoyment of an unlimit-
ed freedom. If heresy enter a neighbor congregation it is her
own concern. If it threaten to cut off, in detail, the great body
of the churches and impregnate all fountains with the waters of
death; the evil may be lamented, but it is without remedy; the
sister churches may not interfere; their sphere is their own fold.
If the cry of distress comes up from the heathen world, relief
may be provided, and the Gospel given them through other chan-
nels and by other agencies; the churches have no provision for
such a case; and their principles forbid them to interfere.
Of' Presbyterianism, the normal condition is that of enter-
prizing activity, alike unaided and untrammeled by State alliance;
devoted to the vigorous prosecution of measures for the conquest
of the world to the sceptre of Immanuel. Her republican insti-
tutions and inflexible temper disqualify her for winning the
smiles of royalty; whilst her recognition of the people as the
source of power, indisposes her to set a high value upon them;
and her doctrine of faith which worketh by love, and alone justi-
fies the ungodly, can expect no advantage to souls from the argu-
ments of the civil power which appeal only to fear. Cherishing
with peculiar prominence and affection the doctrine of the king-
ship of Christ, and his title to the dominion of the entire world;
and in connexion with this holding to the catholicity of the
Church, her commission to preach the Gospel to every creature,
and to recall the world to its rightful subjection to Immanuel’s
crown; and her endowment, by Christ, with all the prerogatives

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16 CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

and powers which are requisite to that end; there hence arises,
and is cherished an expansive and aggressive tendency, the true
spirit of evangelic activity and spring of the missionary enter-
prize.
Hierarchical organizations have existed without alliance with
the State, and in republican lands; Independent congregations
have been consociated, established, and endowed; and Presby-
terian churches have been allied to the throne and wrapped in
inactivity and sloth. But these have been accidental and anoma-
lous positions, at variance with the native adaptations and ten-
dencies of the several systems; and so far as influential, their
bearing has been to restrain and modify their native dispositions
and normal action.
We have thus sketched the outlines of Presbyterian polity,
broadly marked as they are in themselves, and still more clearly
as compared with the two contrasted systems. Popularly known
as Presbyterian, its more appropriate title is that primitive name
by which the early disciples loved to call the bride of Christ, “the
Catholic church,”—a designation intended to signalize her organic
unity, and her universality; and by which her polity, tracing all
authority and prerogative to that unity as its source, is descrip-
tively distinguished from hierarchy on the one hand and indepen-
dency on the other. Of this Catholic constitution the annals of
the Presbyterian church in the United States exhibit the appro-
priate results. Excluded by fine and imprisonment from the
goodly shores of New England; planted on the peninsula of
Maryland at a time when the unbroken forest still waved in
native majesty over the breadth of the continent; compelled to
struggle in infancy against the arrogant pretensions and oppres-
sions of an established hierarchy; subsequently a conspicuous
victim to the calamities of the war of the revolution, and in later
years, harrassed and betrayed by the intrigues of “false brethren,
come in at unawares;”—snccessfully resisting the interposition of
the State clothed in the allurements of endowment and honor;
and from first to last knowing no other resource, but in the free
and normal operation of her principles, and the approving pre-
sence of her Head;—her history presents a theme and unfolds
results which her children may contemplate with pleasure and
thankfulness, and others may study with intense interest and
advantage.

Volume 10, Number 1 (April 1857) 1-16.