Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

sionary to the domestic society of the Presbyterian church, which was then first excited to active utility;-their prior missionary enterprise being a mere bagatelle. Then having formed a sufficient party, they let slip the dogs of war.'.

Accordingly, two prominent individuals among them, Messrs. Beecher and Barnes, were arraigned as heretics. It is not our purpose to pronounce judgment on the theological publications of these gentlemen. Another and more fitting opportunity may occur for this. But judging impartially between them and their opponents, it is plain that the allegations against them were a pretext only to aid the scheme by which the cravings of ambition and the lust of power might be gratified.

During several years the Presbyterian churches in the United States have been convulsed throughout their whole borders. Each succeeding year witnessed different decisions upon the disputed points; while the leaders of the opposite parties expended their time and energies in mutual crimination. The conclave that formerly swayed the Presbyterian churches having discerned that the protraction of the controversy diminished the number of their adherents, resolved upon a desperate attempt to carry one most iniquitous measure, per fas aut nefas, unmindful of the consequences which might flow from it. Their determination was to decide in opposition to the clear evidence of facts, that the churches and ecclesiastical bodies formed by the compacts of 1801 and 1808, and which had always been a part of their Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies, never were Presbyteries, and never had any right or title to a seat in their representativechurch-courts.' Thirty-five years those societies had supported Presbyterian ministers; sustained their public institutions, theological seminary, &c., and contributed to their various funds; and had also gradually submitted to their discipline, until in form and in reality they had become Presbyterian churches to all intents and purposes whatever. But how was that astounding manœuvre accomplished?

Each of the religious denominations in the United States supports one or more newspapers, which are chiefly devoted to the defence of their distinctive principles. At that period there were seven or eight journals almost exclusively Presbyterian, besides the Baltimore Magazine, a monthly periodical, and the Biblical Repertory, a quarterly miscellany. Under these two weightier publications as leaders, the majority of the papers commenced the cry of alarm. Heresy was resounded. Congregationalism was repeated. The duty of the church to manage missionary operations, with all benevolent labors for the good of souls, was reverberated. Reform was demanded. Persons who knew not the meaning of the words they used, and had never before concerned themselves respecting doctrines, discipline, or the conversion of

the colored Heathen in their own country, or Pagans in the Pacific Ocean, suddenly became inflamed with zeal against errors which they could not comprehend, and church government with which they were not acquainted, and on behalf of philanthropic efforts in which they had never participated nor felt any interest. The cabal who invented the uproar, like Demetrius and the workmen of Ephesus, shouted, "The church! the Presbyterian 'church!' and the cry was re-echoed by many who understood not what they said, nor when they met, wherefore they were come together. Having filled the whole land with confusion, they endeavoured to procure a majority in the General Assembly of 1837. The parties were very nearly balanced; but by dexterity, the craftsmen elected their Moderator, and consequently the committees which are appointed by him were of their own character. Conscious that another such an opportunity would never occur, the clerical lawyers resolved to secure the ascendency which they had unexpectedly obtained. With this view they announced that four Synods, including about 600 ministers and 60,000 members, were not Presbyterians; that the agreement of 1801, between the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians, was null and void from the beginning-and that those ministers and members who in any way were affected by the operation of that procedure never were Presbyterians, and had no part in their church, either de jure or de facto.

By this measure they secured a decisive majority. All the members of the Assembly of 1837 who were included within the four proscribed Synods, were instantly ejected from their seats. After which Mr. Robert Breckinridge, with his fellow crusaders and the slave-drivers, adopted a variety of measures contrary to all equity and Christian love, and subversive of the rights of conscience and of civil and religious liberty. From that period until May, 1838, a flood of calumny, recrimination, and wrath was effused throughout the land, by Messrs. Breckinridge, Plummer, and their associates, for the good of the church !'

The inventors and actors of this tragedy by which it was attempted to destroy the ministerial character of 600 preachers, and to rob several hundred congregations of their houses of prayer, grave-yards, and other property, avowed two motives for their flagitious proceedings. One was, that if the excision was not then done, they should never again have the power to do it, for in the Assembly of 1838, there would be a majority opposed to their ungodly design. The other was like unto it-that they might silence all the opponents of slavery, so that the 'stealers of 'men' might prosecute their nefarious trade and practices without reproof or molestation. Their motives, by their own public avowals, were as base as their acts were unchristian.

The interval until the meeting of the Assembly of 1838, was

6

[ocr errors]

devoted on the one side to futile attempts at peace, and on the other to ceaseless exertions to secure the advantage which the proctors in their church-courts had gained. Three days prior to the opening of that ecclesiastical judicature,' both parties met in separate bodies, and efforts were made that the 'old school and the new school,' as the parties are denominated, might be peacefully severed. Exulting in their triumph, the old school rabbes scornfully rejected every offer, and superadded insult to outrage. Application was made for the admission of the delegates who had been anathematized by the Assembly of 1837, but their certificates were denounced as of no more value than the clean pa'pers' of a Mohammedan Mufti, or a Hindu Brahmin. The Moderator refused to accept resolutions, and to put questions to the decision, so that all their proceedings were arrested; upon which a formal division into two Assemblies ensued. As the 'old schoolmen' were in possession of all the funds, and the theological seminary, and other institutions belonging to the body, suits were commenced in the civil courts of Pennsylvania, to which the trustees are amenable for the discharge of their obligations, to ascertain which of the contending parties is the Presbyterian church. That cause is now under adjudication, and will most probably be continued until many of the litigants have been summoned to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, there to give an account of themselves to God.

The situation of the Presbyterian church is appalling. Contemplated as a community, they are like Samson shorn of his strength. Their newspapers and ecclesiastical meetings are become mere vehicles of disputation, and their energies are devoted to strife for the mastery, and the perpetuation of slavery; which is the idol the American churches have set up,-the stumbling-block of iniquity which they have put before their feet. Whatever may be their differences, on that point they all coalesce; and the hopes of philanthropists that one benefit would flow from the collision in the extirpation of slavery from one half of the Presbyterian churches, are now abandoned.

There is considerable variance of theological opinions among the Presbyterians. Much of their polemics seems to be mere logomachy. Other parts of their doubtful disputations,' appear to be the result of those emotions which are combined with abstract theories of moral duty and obligation; and probably the whole are affected by the opinions which they hold concerning the importance of human instrumentality in accomplishing the great purposes of redeeming mercy, and in expediting the glorious things which are spoken of the city of God. Nevertheless, many propositions have been uttered as oracular that are not reconcilable with their Confession of Faith.

About forty years ago there was an extensive religious awaken

ing in the Western States. The ordained preachers were but few and distant from each other. Some of the Presbyterian brethren in Kentucky and Tennessee, called to their aid young men of piety and talents who had not passed through a course of academical tuition. The General Assemblies censured their proceedings, and prohibited those evangelists from further engaging in the duties of the ministry. Their anathemas were disregarded. Upon which, after the fashion of their Scottish ancestors in the case of the Erskines and their brethren, the western ministers were denounced as schismatics. The standard of revolt was instantly unfurled, and from this cause has been formed a numerous denomination, called the Cumberland Presbyterians, who still retain their separate organization. Their doctrinal principles are what we usually define as Baxterian upon the five points, but they are specially distinguished by their opposition to the hierarchical assumptions of the older body. Their secession and success were doubtless one main cause of the contracts that were made with the Congregationalists in 1801 and 1808.

The present controversy in the Presbyterian church agitates the denomination from its centre to the circumference, besides affecting very sensibly the other religious communities. Christian benevolence and the means of doing good are paralyzed, and the mischief can only be repaired by a return to the simplicity and godly sincerity, from which there has been so universal and manifest a departure. Both parties must assert gospel doctrine in its purity; and church discipline according to the liberty with which Christ makes his people free; and above all, they must extirpate from their borders the demon of slavery, who now rules sovereign in the American temple of God.

From a large mass of publications which have issued from the press, it is evident to us, that many of the allegations on each side are true. Our own theological opinions are those which the Puritans and Nonconformists maintained; and we do not, therefore, believe that all the theories which American writers have promulged are tenable. Some of them have evidently wandered astray after metaphysical phantoms which fit from the grasp while others have flagrantly violated that royal law of love, without which even prophecy, and the understanding of mysteries and all knowledge, profit nothing. The old school leaders seem to retain the antiquated notions and formalities of the ages by-gone; when missionary enterprise was unknown, and inroads upon the dominion of Satan were quietly left to the 'Lord's time,' when Christians slumbered, without dreaming of the world dead in trespasses and sins,' and branded as fanaticism and disorder every attempt to deliver men from spiritual death, which was not accordant with a prescribed routine, and did not harmonize with the reading of a drowsy sermon. The juniors

appear not to respect this Sanhedrim, and have no desire to be embodied with so sleepy a generation.

III. THE EPISCOPALIANS. At the close of the war between Great Britain and the United States, in 1783, the Episcopal community was reduced almost to a name. The indecorous lives, and the tory principles, of the major part of their priests had either silenced or expatriated them. After much delay, the Archbishop of Canterbury consecrated' some prelates for America; and as they said, by apostolical succession from Peter, through Pope Boniface and his successors, communicated the Holy Ghost to them that they might carry the celestial donation across the Atlantic, and bestow it upon others.

By some mysterious means, the Vestry of Trinity Church, in New York, at the period of the war, claimed large tracts of land to which it is generally affirmed they have no legal or equitable title. In consequence of the extraordinary enlargement of that city those lands have become immensely valuable, and so fearful was the power which it was conceived would result from the management of a fund so enormous, that the Legislature of New York enacted a law against the accumulation of it; the consequence is, that they are annually obliged to expend a vast revenue in the erection of new churches, and in endowing the ministers appointed to such stations. There are now about 1000 Episcopalian ministers in the United States governed by a regularly constituted prelacy, and conventions formed of clerical and lay delegates.

It appears from their several Miscellanies which we have examined, that there is no small stir' in this community. Like their English and Irish counterparts, they are divided. There are high and low churchmen-orthodox and evangelical churchmen-churchmen who strenuously urge the power of godliness, and others who plead for the sufficiency of their forms. The New York churchman is about a semi-infidel in reference to the necessity of divine revelation for the salvation of mankind, and upon the essential topics which are comprised in the Protestant controversy with the Papal hierarchy, is a genuine half Romanist. The Episcopal Reader of Philadelphia denounces those delusions concerning natural religion, baptismal regeneration, the virtue of the priestly office, and the efficacy of the sacraments when administered by a man who can trace his official pedigree through the English state church, and the council of Trent, to the councils of Constance and the Lateran.

The Episcopalians differ also respecting the character of other Christian denominations. A large majority, probably about the same proportion as with us in Britain, assert that the preachers of all other sects are intruders into the ministry, without call, without right, without authority; and that the ordinances admi

« ZurückWeiter »