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we are , then , inquiring into the fundamental principles of a . denomination of churches , which is spread widely over this part of our country , and which , we firmly believe , if its original principles shall be perpetuated and observed , is destined to
become a universal denomination . It is , indeed , a momentous inquiry . May our minds be liberated from prejudice , that we may be prepared to enter upon it ! May they he filled with light , that we may accomplish it by the attainment of the truth !"—Pp . 33—3 « .
The " Principles of Congregationalism" are stated by Mr . Upbam to be the three following , in connexion with which we deem it needful to give a few sentences selected from his proofs and illustrations of them : "I . In the first place our fathers denned the matter of a Congregational Church to
be a body of men gathered by voluntary association , proposing to form themselves into an organized community for social worship as Christians , and possessing in themselves , previous to a covenant , or profession , or to the assumption in any form of the ecclesiastical estate , all the powers , rights , faculties , and privileges , which are needed to construct and constitute a church
of Christ . " Who were the persons that took part in the transactions of that occasion ? There were , it is probable , four ministers present , each of whom had been ordained , and two of them highly distinguished , as clergymen , in the mother country . "—P .
36 . " Still , notwithstanding all this , they seem to have divested themselves , with one accord , of ecclesiastical character . The ministers threw off * their official faculties , the church members were not recognised in that aspect . The whole
company descended , as it were , to that equal rank , in which a state of nature would have arranged them . They entered , not as church-inembers , but as Christian men , upon a free and open deliberation concerning the right method of erectiug themselves iuto a religious society . " —P . 37 .
" They , then , having become a church , by a free election , appointed their Pastor , their Teacher , and their Ruling Elder , and , although the Pastor and Teadher elect had , as has been observed , exercised the powers of those offices iu
elevated and conspicuous spheres , before they left ; England , in order most implicitly to shew that , in the newly-formed church , they were to consider themselves as holding offices , and aa invested with powers , which were wholly derived Uom
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election here , and not from previous ordination elsewhere , the brethren directed , that they should be inducted into their stations in the church , and receive the pastoral character , by the imposition of the hands of one of their own number , the Ruling Elder . "—Pp . 38 , 39 .
" When , forty-one years from the ordination of his father Francis , John Higginson was installed , the ceremony was performed by the laymen of the congregation . Major Hawthorne , assisted by the deacons , inducted him to office by the imposition of their hands . The ministers of neighbouring churches were present merely as spectators and auditors . "—P . 3 D .
" The second principle which our fathers established on the 6 th of August , 1 <> 29 , was the Independence of the Congregational Churches of all external jurisdic * tion . This principle is important beyond description or estimation . It was not only declared by the founders of this church , but , justice requires that it should
be said , its whole history is crowded with evidence , that it has been steadily and resolutely maintained to this day . It was declared at its foundation . The early writers inform us that , when Governor Bradford , with others , arrived during the solemnity of ordaining the first ministers , and it was proposed , that he should extend to the new church and
its pastors , in the name of the Christian brethren at Plymouth , the Right Hand of Fellowship , he was not permitted to discharge that interesting and friendly service , until it had first been proclaimed , that no inference should ever be drawn
from it , in support of the idea , that there was the least dependence whatever in this church upon others , the least jurisdiction over it in any external body , or the least necessary connection between it and other churches , wherever they might be . "—Pp . 40 , 41 .
" The last great principle impressed upon the Congregational Churches at their origin was this—that i while they take care , according to apostolic injunction , that all things be done decently and in order , it is their duty not to impose any thing , by way of subscription or declaration of faith , upon those who denire admission to the ordinances , which may not conscientiously be complied tmth by sincere Chris ^ tians of all denominations ., '
" A lthough the founders of this Church were zealous believers of that general system of doctrines , which , in their day , as well as in our own , was called orthodoxy , they took care to frame their covenant without expressing in it their belief
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Critical Notices —Theological . 51
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 51, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/51/
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