On the Reasons of the Presbyterian Form of Church Government--before the Students of the Theological Seminary of the 2d A. R. Church of the West, by Rev. J. Claybaugh, D. D., Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 10th, 1844.

There is a semi-infidelity abroad, the sum of which is,-Christianity is a good thing: but down with the Church. The truth of the christian religion has in the discussions of the last and present century, been surrounded with such a flood of light, and the divine inspiration of the Scriptures has been so triumphantly vindicated and so luminously displayed, and the distribution of the Bible as the Word of God is, throughout the Protestant world, a movement so universally popular, that none but a charlatan or a fool, will risk his reputation for sense and honesty, by avowing his unbelief.

But as imperfection attaches itself to the christian profession, --to the individuals who make it,--to the church, the society in which it is made,--and to the officers of the church, who are set for the administration of its government, and for the defence and promotion of christian doctrine and practice; and inasmuch as that authority, with which those officers are vested, has been abused; the enemy finds that he can with more shew of reason and a better prospect of success, turn his powers of assault on the Church; and, by bringing her authority, her discipline, and thereby her very constitution and whole scheme of agency into contempt and hatred, hopes to peril her existence, and with it that truth, of which she is "the pillar and and foundation." His creed runs thus;-"The christian religion is a good thing; but the christian profession is hypocrisy;-church discipline is a usurpation over conscience; its exercise, tyranny; subjection to it, base servility: Church officers are ambitious claimants of prerogative, and church-members, their dupes. The gospel is

good, but its official preaching, its regular systematic dispensation, is priestcraft. Christianity is of heaven; the church of man. The christian religion is beneficial, the church works mischief. Let christianity live, but down with the church."-Thus, that enmity, which dares not assail christianity itself, assails the appointed, and the only, means, by which this religion can be maintained and extended in the world, and the only means by which it receives a definite and specific character, and a living and efficient embodiment. I called the spirit which speaks and acts in the tone and manner just described, semi-infidelity;— it is infidelity itself,-only with a tinsel mask. And it is rife. It displays itself in the indifference of the non-professing world to the profession of that religion which it admits to be true and good, in the numerous flouts against the christian ministry and the church, to be found in certain publications of the day, and in none more than in those of experimenting rereformers, and ultra-philanthropists,-in the inculcations and practices of those, who would annul ecclesiastical organizations, and merge all ecclesiastical distinctions,-in the levity, with which people join, and leave, the church,-in the increasing popularity of the sentiment, that there is no divinely-instituted form of church government, and that the church is merely a voluntary association,- and, in the growing unpopularity of church discipline, not only in the world, but in the church itself, as is manifested by the disposition to set aside and trample down established rules, to sympathize with irregular and disorderly church-members, and to gainsay, complain of, set at nought, and otherwise resist and weaken the exercise of discipline. Let a church-member, for example, commit scandal. Until process is commenced, he is a monster;-a thousand tongues are buisy against him. But, let the church take it up snd pass censure; and he is quite a clever fellow. He has the sympathies not only of the world, but of a great many members of the church. And, you will often hear those sympathies expressed in cavils and objections against the court, dealt out by those ecclesiastical Solomons, who are so very wise to under

stand perfectly those things which they know nothing at all about. In a word the censured man is a persecuted man, and the officers of the church are his persecutors. And, he, who stands up for order and discipline, encounters from a certain class the unenviable epithet of tyrant; and the court that does it, is an inquisition,

Now, while all this arises from the malice of the carnal heart against the truth and law of God, it yet shows that there is mournfully prevalent a very great ignorance of the nature, source, design and uses of church power:-that the minds of people are not impressed with the fact, that God has instituted church government, and directed its form and administration, and that this form and administration are adjusted, with infinite wisdom, to the social condition and religious interests of man.

THE CHURCH OF GOD IS A DIVINELY-ORGANIZED SOCIETY' Her members exist in a regular association, by the will and appointment of God; and the laws, institutions, and officers, as well as the principles of that association, are from him. The semi-infidelity, to which I have adverted, not only opposes the idea of a divine organization, but of any organization whatever. With it religion is a thing only between man and his Maker, and not between man and man at all. Social, man may be in Let a every thing else; but here he must be a perfect recluse. vague, undefined, christianity pervade the minds of men, but let not its principles be reduced to a determinate form in books, in creeds and confessions;-let there be no associations of men united in professing and maintaining certain doctrines and rites; let there be no set order of men officially to declare and administer them; and let there be a universally tolerant charity, that shall look kindness and approbation on one class of doctrines and ceremonies as well as another. This is the popular creed of those who pride themselves on their liberal and enlarged views, and who look down on the controverted points of religion as little matters, beneath the notice of a liberal mind. A creed, by the way, popular, because it furnishes a reputable plea for ignorance and indolence, for which, like parsimony, any

thing will do for an excuse. But how near are these wise ones to the wildest fanatics! History informs us of those, who hold that every christian is under the infallible guidance of an immediate influence of the Spirit, so as to supersede the instructions of an outward revelation, and to set him above fixed rites and ordinances, and their stated observance. Of course there is no room for officers to instruct and govern, To put the christian under teachers and governors, would be to degrade him. Christians may agree to meet, in hopes that the Spirit will move some of them to speak to the edification of the rest; but whom he may move is unknown, or whether he will move any is uncertain;-but, whoever is moved is at once set for the time above the control of his brethren. Such was the scheme conceived in the brain of George Fox, and in substance professed by bis followers;-but practically abandoned; for experience taught them, that without an organized association, they would soon cease to exist. Hence, they have adopted an organization with its office-bearers, its gradation of something like courts, and its executive authority, with power to judge, and to receive and exclude members.

Now, we can conceive of individuals, holding the principles of the christian religion and practising its precepts, in what may be called a state of nature, as opposed to a state of society. And holding the same principles and feeling the obligation of the saine duties, we can conceive of them as morally united:-one in faith, in morals, in affection, in hopes and interests. But we cannot conceive of them in this state, and at the same time having stated times and established forms of social worship. Such times and such forms imply social organization. The idea, that the christian religion is to exist, and continue, and spread, and overspread the earth, without such an organization, is preposterous. It is repugnant to the nature and relations of man as a social being. Had God thus, in some mysterious way made christians, and then left them to get along in maintaining and extending their principles, without directing any organization;-had he appointed no seasons and no ordinances of

social and public worship, had he given no instructions or rulers, had he given them no command to associate, and no direc tions how they should do it;-still, nature and reason would dictate, that they should associate, and that, by rights inherent in them as a society, they had, and should use, the power to adopt a form of government, make rules and regulations, fix upon institutions of religion, and upon times and seasons of worship, and establish rites and ceremonies, for the good of the whole and for the maintenance and extension of their principles; and power to appoint the requisite officers for carrying out all these arrangements; and likewise to provide for a reguJar succession of such officers. If the principles of the christian religion be true and good, and of salutary tendency, and above all, if they be capable of conferring the highest benefits on the whole world of man, it is important, reason and benevolence demand it, that they should be preserved and extended. The very laws of our social nature teach, that the friends of these principles should unite in so doing; and, that there may be wise and efficient co-operation, there must be a plan of action, and there must be laws, and there must be officers to carry out the plan and put the laws in force, and these officers must be clothed with authority, and this authority implies subordination. Order is Heaven's first law; and, had God not positively instituted the church and prescribed its form of government, reason and nature would have demanded a voluntary association to supply the lack.

But in this case, the people would be the source of power. With them it would remain to settle every thing;-to establish either by themselves, or by their representatives, the ordinances, and the times and seasons of worship, to determine the form of church government, the different grades of office, and the nature of the power to be lodged in each; to determine also who should be clothed with office. The people would be the source of all power, and the officers of the church, only their agents to execute the popular will. Nothing would be from God, but simply the doctrinal principles and moral pre