Chap. 4. Retrospect. 633 Taking a retrospective view of ecclesiastical affairs in Great Britain, the reader will be struck with two things; the great obstacles which oppose the spread of Divine Truth; and the great zeal actuating the religious body in all their attempts to promote it. In order to the promotion of scriptural knowledge among the great mass of the people, the gospel must be preached in simplicity and sincerity: but the great body of the English episcopal clergy, who have the ear of the people, preach the doctrines of the pagan philosophers, mixed up with a little Christian phraseology, and high encomiums on the established church. To support these clergy the treasures of the nation are exhausted, and the religious of every communion, though not of the establishment, contribute their quota in tithes and church rates. But after all this, what a vast revenue has been spent in establishing and extending the gospel and the greater part of this has been raised, and continues to be raised, by that part of the nation which is by far the smallest part; by a people who reckon among themselves no nobility, few of the higher class of merchants and tradesmen; by a people who are held up as dangerous, schismatical and disaffected, by a people who have no revenues, but in their own industry, economy, and good will to man. By this class of people have been supported a regular standing ministry for ages, and though with difficulty they have sometimes supported their churches, yet they have not only maintained their ground, but have gained greatly upon that establishment which has opposed them; and besides this, they have formed and are now executing plans for the conversion of the world. Among this people originated all those great schemes for foreign missions-for translating the Bible into all languages and for circu 634 United States of America. Cent. 19. lating it among all nations. Whatever there is good in the established church, particularly in zeal for the truth may be traced up to the dissenters. But for the dissenters what had been the state of England at this day? and what the state of all the world? ** England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.”—Cowper. ་ CHAPTER V. GENERAL STATE OF RELIGION IN AMERICA. Ecclesiastical and National Character-Presbyterians --Congregationalists--Baptists—Episcopacy-Metho dists Divers Sects-Public Institutions-Retrospective view. DR. INCREASE MATHER says, in 1721, “I am now in my eighty-third year, and have been sixty-five years a preacher of the gospel, and had converse with the planters of this country. I cannot but be affected as the old men who saw the foundation of the second temple, and wept at the vast inferiority of it to the former. Too many are given to change, and leave the order of the gospel, which was the very design of these colonies. The grand interest of New England is changed from a religious to a worldly object." The change of which the Doctor complains was so natural, considering what human nature is, that nothing less could be reckoned upon, indeed it was almost impossible that it should have been otherwise. The first settlers who came over to plant churches, were under the necessity of planting fields, of building towns, and of establishing Chap. 5. National Character. 635 connexions of trade. These occupations and experiments naturally excited the attention of many, both in the mother country, and elsewhere, who felt no interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and who upon settling among them pursued no other objects than such as were worldly, and these were sometimes sought by means contrary to what Christianity would justify. The children too, of the first planters themselves, did not all grow up saints, some, not a few it should seem, grew up in the spirit of this world, and sought much more the things pertaining to this life than that which is to come. These two classes, in the course of a few years, gave a distinct tone to the opinions and practices of the colonists; and then after the lapse of a century, it would be natural to expect in this country, much of the same character as is common to all other countries in which are human beings like ourselves. Upon the revolution and establishment of Independence, America found herself a nation, no longer colonies subject to a sovereign and foreign power, but a free and independent empire: and though she would not, as other nations, have a king, yet she must have every thing necessary to constitute her a body politic: she must have intercourse with other countries, and as contaction is often contagion, she would be likely to share in every foreign moral disease. America would have no established church, and hence less established superstition and hypocritical formality, yet the god of this world inspired a proportion of infidelity, and excited to a course of unbridled libertinism. Religion, which the forefathers brought with them to this country, would no more grow spontaneously in the soil of the New than in that of the Old world: and what religion did grow up was found to be mixed with the tares that would grow also. To prevent, if possible, 636 Decline of Religion. Cent. 19. this deterioration, and to secure the rights of the church, some laws were framed, in civil courts, to aid and assist Christianity in her progress, and to help her against her enemies; and though these civil aids by no means amounted to an establishment, yet they were a stumbling block to some, and a matter of exultation to others. The constitution of the United States forbad all religious persecution, and dealt out equal rights to all consciences; yet some sects thought as they had had a kind of preference from the first, a preference arising from the earliest possession, that this should entitle them to the privilege of being the Standing Order, the Church, and all others be denominated sectaries. This was particularly the case in New England and especially so with the Congational churches, and thus it remains with many of this order to the present day. But as to any legal pre-eminence, the fundamental laws of the constitution know nothing. It is scarcely possible that any one sect should preponderate, but that sect will seek for some exelasive privileges: this, it is possible, may apply to the more prevailing denominations in the Southern States, as it it does to the congregational in New England. But all such things tend to bring the church of Christ into that state deplored by Dr. Mather, to change the interest of the church from a religious to a worldly object." Churches that are pretty well established in the opinion of the world generally betray symptoms of decline first at the heart. The outward form and substance are preserved, while the enemy is secretly working death at the vitals. And this seems to be the only method the prince of darkness can adopt in a time of outward prosperity, and in a land of peace. America at this period exhibits churches in a state Chap. 4. The Presbyterians. 637 very different from any other churches in the whole world; here is no hierarchy, no incorporated faith, every sect therefore may make the best of its own native powers and influence: hence we may expect that the eburch and the world will preponderate by turns. Man is a religious animal, and will have a religion, though the state provide none for him, but the religion he chooses will be of a character with himself, if he is a worldly man he will choose a worldly religion, if otherwise it must be a religion according to godliness. Real religion may exist and flourish under various forms, and so may a spurious religion; but it generally happens that where there is a want of spirituality, there is a greater excess in some outward form and showy appearance. The visible figure of churches too, are generally made to comport with the figure, and character of the government with which they are connected. In the monarchical countries of Europe, the splendour of an episcopacy was generally preferred: but in humbler and more popular forms of government, presbyterianism has been adopted, as in Holland, Geneva and Scotland. Churches upon the Presbyterian and Congregational plan seem most congenial to the soil and climate of the American Republic. THE PRESBYTERIANS, though not the largest body in the United States, yet from their union and the solid compact form of their polity, exhibit an ecclesiastical character as entire and as complete as any other denomination in the empire. These churches prevail most in the States south of New England. "Their supreme ecclesiastical judicatory is styled THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Subordinate bodies are synods, presbyteries and church sessions. There were in 1817 within the bounds of the general |