Confessions, of the doctrines of Sin and Predestination like that of Dort and Westminster, would be to require an impossibility. It would be like demanding that a theologian of the year 150 should construct, in his single day and generation, the entire systematic theology of the year 1850; that a Justin Martyr, e. g., should anticipate and perform the entire thinking of a thousand minds and of seventeen hundred years! And yet the substance and staple of all this vast and comprehensive system of divinity was in that Bible which Justin Martyr possessed without note or comment.

The theorizing spirit of the individual divine needs, therefore, to be both aided and guided by symbolism. In proportion as individual thinkers can bear in mind that the church which they honor and love has already earned a definite theological character, and has given expression to its theological preferences in its own self-chosen symbol, they will come under a unifying influence. Their differences and idiosyncracies, instead of being exaggerated by themselves or their adherents, will be modified, and harmonized, by the central system under which all stand, and to which the whole body has given assent. There will be no loss of mental vigor upon this method, nor of true mental originality, any more than there is when the mathematician's genius is guided, and stimulated, by the axioms and theorems of a science that was wrought out before he was born. He does not copy, but he reproduces, the mathematical processes of the past, within his own intellect, and in and by this reproduction is conducted to fresh and original products that are also in the true scientific line. In what other way will the active and ingenious minds of a denomi nation be likely to see eye to eye, and the sum-total of their speculations constitute a homogeneous theology, except as they revere the symbolism of their ancestors? It is when differing, and perhaps diverging, minds are called upon to defend the peculiarities of a common denominational faith, that their differences are dissolved. So long as it is an open question what the common faith is, and the thinkers of a denomination are at leisure to cultivate their peculiarities,

so long there must be collision and debate. But the very instant it appears that there is a recognized denominational creed, and it becomes necessary to maintain this creed as vital to the very existence and growth of the denomination, all sincere members of it rally to the defence; and the tendency of defences, as the whole history of Apologies proves, is to harmonize and unite.1

5. Fifthly, and finally, Congregationalism needs a stronger symbolical feeling, in order to success in its present endeavor to extend its denominational limits.

The two forms of evangelical Christianity which are to spread over the United States are the Calvinistic and the Arminian. The history of the church upon this Western continent will be substantially the same with its history in the Eastern. One portion of American Christendom will demand the more exact and self-consistent statement of Biblical doctrine, while the other portion will be content with that less precise, and comprehensive, enunciation of it, which emphasizes, indeed, with evangelical energy the doctrine of forgiveness through the blood of Christ, but rejects the predestination and irresistible grace that secures the vital acceptance of the Gospel provision. Throughout the land, there will be those, on the one hand, who, in the phrase of Edward Irving, "will rest content with the infant state of Christ, and see no more in the rich treasures of God's word than a free gift to all men, shrinking back with a feeling of dismay from such parts of the sacred volume as favor a system of doctrine suited to the manly state of Christian life;" and those on the other, who "will not be content evermore to dwell in the outer court of the holy temple, but who resolve for their soul's better peace and higher joy to enter into the holy and most holy place, which is no longer veiled

1 When the doctrine of vicarious satisfaction was attacked by Duns Scotus, Thomas Aquinas rushed to its defence, and in so doing substantially retracted positions which he himself had previously taken; because he now saw, as he did not before, that it was impossible to defend the faith of the church if he retained them. And the whole history of Calvinism proves that it has been enunciated with most unanimity, and defended with greatest power, when the Calvinistic divines were hardest pressed by their Arminian opponents.

and forbidden, and find a full declaration of the deepest secrets of their faith, expression for their inmost knowledge of the truth, and forms for their most profound feeling, upon the peculiar, and appropriate, and never-failing love of a covenant God towards his own peculiar people." The American church, like the old Patristic, like the modern European, will crave, according to the grade of its Christian culture, either the milk that is for babes, or the meat that is for strong men.

Congregationalism now proposes to go from East to West, from North to South, upon its mission of love. Outside of its old ancestral home, it is not yet strong. It enters into a friendly rivalry with other branches of Christ's church, upon fields which they have preoccupied, and upon which it has yet to get a firm foothold. Shall it give up, or modify, its old historical character, and adopt the laxer of the two great systems of evangelical doctrine, and seek to build up. churches upon the same doctrinal basis with the pioneering, the fervid, the beloved Methodist? If it does, it will fail; first, because it will not be true to its own genius and antecedents, and second, because the wonderfully effective and persistent "method" of Methodism will absorb all its acquisitions, upon this basis, into itself.

It only remains, therefore, for Congregationalism to carry into the new regions which it proposes to enter, the very same doctrine, and the very same creed, which it brought over from England and Holland. The denominations with which it has most affinity, and with which it will come into nearest contact, are themselves built upon the Calvinistic foundation. They have become strong and consolidated in those regions by their persevering attachment to their his torical symbol. If they are true to Christ and the New Tes tament, they will welcome, and not repel, all who stand upon the same doctrinal platform with themselves.

Irving's Preface to Horne on the Psalms.

The

2 We use this word advisedly. We feel a deep and warm affection towards that large denomination which goes everywhere preaching the doctrine of man's guilt, and his forgiveness through atoning blood.

merely secondary matter of polity will never, in the long run, alienate denominations who are one in doctrine, and in the experimental consciousness that grows out of doctrine. Standing firm upon the creed of Owen and Robinson, and equally firm upon the polity of Owen and Robinson, who can doubt that an advancing career is in reserve for the Congregational churches? Thorough orthodoxy (which means thorough accuracy) in the technical statement, in friendly alliance with the utmost freedom and simplicity in the political structure, the longest and firmest of roots bursting out into the brightest and most delicate of flowers, this will be a phase of Christianity that must attract and influence. It lies within the province of Congregationalism to originate and exemplify a style of Christianity that will be somewhat unique in the history of the church. Exactitude of doctrine has sometimes been associated, in ecclesiastical history, with rigid and stately forms of polity. The muscle has been enveloped in tissues as tough and fibrous as itself. It is now competent for the most republican of the polities to clothe the bone and the sinew in the warm and flexile flesh; to exhibit the most profound and scientific type of truth in the most simple form of church government, and the most ethereal style of church life. In so doing, Congregationalism will find a welcome from all the true friends of Christ the world over. And particularly will it be welcomed by that large portion of evangelical Christendom to whom the theology of Augustine and Calvin is precious as the apple of the eye. There can be no collision and no hostile rivalry, between denominations that see eye to eye, in respect to an exact and a living orthodoxy. How was it in the days when the Reformers on the Continent fraternized with the Reformers in the British islands? There was much more difference between the Presbyterianism of Geneva and the Episcopacy of London, than there is between the Presbyterianism of the Middle and Southern States, and the Congregationalism of New England. Yet how respectful was the feeling of Richard Hooker, the great defender of prelacy, towards John Calvin. Read the Zurich Letters, and see how deep

was the interest which the English prelates took in the prosperity of the Swiss pastors. And yet there was no sacrifice of principle, or of conviction, upon either side, even in regard to polity. Bishops Grindal and Jewell will not be called lax Episcopalians. John Calvin and Henry Bullinger will not be regarded as indifferent Presbyterians. Each stood firm upon his own ecclesiastical position, and each labored, in every legitimate manner, for the upbuilding of the particular branch of Christ's church with which birth, and education, and personal conviction had connected him. But both knew that there is a higher, a more august thing than the external regimen of the visible church. Both felt the mutual respect, and the mutual fellowship, which springs out of a common reception of a common type of doctrine.

And so will it be upon the wider arena of denominational life and action. By identifying itself, always and everywhere, with that theological system whose most fitting material symbol is Plymouth rock, while yet it maintains, always and everywhere, that simple and spiritualizing form of polity which is in such perfect keeping with the doctrine which it enshrines; by uniting the firmness and solidity of the œcumenical symbol with the freedom and flexibility of the local church, Congregationalism will receive the "God speed" of the church universal. Go where it may, upon this continent or upon other continents, it will hear from the lips of the worn and weary penitent, the warm words of the hymn :

"Brethren! where your altar burns,
Oh! receive me into rest."

We have thus, Brethren and Fathers, considered some of the reasons for the cultivation, among ourselves, of a stronger symbolical feeling, and a bolder confidence in creed-statements. In so doing, we are well aware that we tread upon difficult ground. In the minds of some, the symbol has come to be associated with rigid, and more or less monarchical forms of church polity. The adoption of an exact denominational creed seems to carry with it the renun