UNITED STATES. NEW ENGLAND owes its ments were abolished. Some first settlement to religious retained a constitutional dispersecution. A number of tinction between christians and people called Puritans, who others, with respect to their refused conformity to the eligibility to office; but the church of England, labouring idea of supporting one denounder various oppressions, mination at the expense of quitted their native country others, or of raising any one in order to enjoy the free ex- sect of protestants to a legal ercise of their religion. These pre-eminence, was universally were the first settlers of New reprobated. England. But the noble principles of liberty ceased to operate on their minds after they had got the power in their hands. In a few years they so far forgot their own sufferings as to press for uniformity in religion, and to turn persecutors in order to accomplish it. These intemperate proceedings were overruled for good. As the intolerance of England peopled Massachusetts, so the intolerance of that province made many emigrants from it, and gave rise to various distinct settlements, which in the course of years were formed into other provincial establishments,*-At present no religious test is required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. The following denominations of christians are more or less numerous in the United States; viz. Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed Church, Episcopalians, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Roman Catholics, German Lutherans, German Calvinists, or Presbyterians, Moravians, Tunkers, Mennonists, Universalists, Swedenborgeans, and Shakers. The Congregationalists are the most numerous denomination in New England, where they have upwards of a thousand congregations. Formerly their ecclesiastical proceedings were regulated in Massachusetts by the Cambridge platform of discipline, and in Connecticut by the Saybrook platform of discipline; but since the revolution less regard has been paid to these constitutions, and in many in It was one of the peculiarities of the forms of government in the United States, that all religious establish- stances they are wholly dis *Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, which they regulate all their ecclesiastical proceedings, and a confession of faith which embraces the Calvinistic doctrines; all church-officers, and church-members, are required to subscribe this confession. Hence they have preserved a singular uniformity in their religious sentiments, and have conducted their ecclesiastica 1 affairs with a great degree of order and harmony. used. Congregationalists are generally agreed in this opinion, that every church, or particular congregation of visible saints, in gospel order, being furnished with a pastor, or bishop, and walking together in truth and peace, has received from the Lord Jesus full power and authority, ecclesiastically within itself, regularly to administer all the ordinances of Christ, and is not under any other ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatsoever. Their churches, with some exceptions, disclaim the word independent, as applicable to them, and claim a sisterly relation to each other. The ministers of the congregational order are generally associated for the purposes of licensing candidates for the ministry, and friendly interCourse and improvement. Congregationalists are divided in opinion respecting the doctrines of the gospel, and the proper subjects of its ordinances. Those differences oc-, minister, or minister and elders casion but little altercation. of a particular congregation. They, in general, agree to This body is invested with the difier, and live together in spiritual government of the harmony.* congregation, and have power Next to Congregationalists, to enquire into the knowledge Presbyterians are the most and christian conduct of all numerous denomination of its members; to call before christians in the United States. them offenders and witnesses They have a constitution, by of their own denomination; The Presbyterian churches are governed by congregational, presbyterial, and synodical assemblies. These assemblies possess no civil jurisdiction. Their power is wholly moral, or spiritual, and that only ministerial and declarative. The highest punishment to which their authority extends, is to exclude the contumacious and impenitent from the congregation of believers. The church session, which is the congregational assembly of judicatory, consists of the * Morse's Geography, vol, i. p. 270: to admonish, suspend, or exclude from the sacraments, such as deserve these censures; to concert measures for promoting the spiritual interests of the congregation; and to appoint delegates to the higher judicatories of the church. A presbytery consists of all the ministers, and one ruling elder from each congregation within a certain district. Three ministers, and three elders, constitutionally convened, are competent to do business. This body have cognizance of all things that regard the welfare of the particular churches within their bounds, which are not cognizable by the session: also, they have a power of receiving and issuing appeals from the sessions; of examining and licensing candidates for the ministry; ordaining, settling, removing, or judging ministers; resolving questions of doctrine or discipline; condemning erroneous opinions, that injure the purity or peace of the church; visiting particular churches, to enquire into their state, and redress the evils that may have arisen in them; uniting or dividing congregations, at the request of the people; and whatever else pertains to the spiritual concerns of the churches under their care.* A synod is a convention of several presbyteries. The synod have power to admit and judge of appeals regularly brought up from the presbyteries; to give their judgment on all references made to them of an ecclesiastical kind; correct and regulate the proceedings of presbyteries; take effectual care that presbyteries observe the constitution of the church, &c. The highest judicatory of the Presbyterian church, is styled "The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America." This grand assembly is to consist of an equal delegation of bishops and elders from each presbytery within. their jurisdiction, by the title of "Commissioners to the General Assembly.” Fourteen · commissioners make a quorum. The general assembly constitute the bond of union, peace, correspondence, and mutual confidence among all their churches; and have power to receive and issue all appeals and references, which may regularly be brought before them from inferior judicatories; to regulate and correct the proceedings of the synods, &c. To the general assembly also belongs the power of consulting, reason *Morse's Geography, vol. i. p. 271, ing, and judging in controversies respecting doctrine and discipline; of reproving, warning, or bearing testimomy against error in doctrine, or immorality in practice, in any church, presbytery, or synod; corresponding with foreign churches; putting a stop to schismatical contentions and disputations; and, in general, recommending and attempt ing reformation of manners, and promoting charity, truth, and holiness, in all churches; and also erecting new synods.* The Presbyterians are divided into five synods and eighteen presbyteries. The number of Presbyterian congregations in America was in 1788 computed to be six hundred and eighteen: there were then two hundred and twenty-six ministers.† Since the American revolution, the Episcopalian church in the United States has been completely organized. The churches of that denomination in each state have their own bishop. The Dutch reformed churches in America are ancient and respectable. They are Calvin istic, and differ in nothing essentially from the Presbyterians.‡ The number of Friends' meetings in the United States, not including New York, are two hundred and ninety-six. The number of individuals cannot be known: some meetings are small, while others are large.§ 66 The denomination of Methodists in the United States style themselves, "The United Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church." They profess themselves to be “a company of men having the form, and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love; that they may help each other to work out their salvation."|| From the minutes of the Methodist episcopal church for the year 1800, it appears that the total amount of the Methodists in the United States, was, at that time, sixty-four thousand eight hundred and ninety-four. Since these minutes were published * Morse, vol. i. p. 272. This account was given by the late Rev. Mr. Murray of Newbury-Port. + Trumbull's Century Sermon. This account was given by Mr. Moses Brown of Providence. See a particular account of the rise and progress of the Methodists, and the characters of the principal leaders of that denomination, in Dr. Haweis' Church History. there has been an addition to the south, to the amount of four thousand. The Moravians are a respectable body of Christians in the United States. Count Zinzendorf, the leader of this denomination, was a noble man of high rank and education; and he devoted his time and fortune to the promotion of his views of the christian religion. He commonly delivered two or three discourses in a day, notwithstanding his extensive travels, and other important avocations.* It has been asserted, that the Moravians have done and suffered more in the way of foreign missions, than any other denomination of christians at present existing. Animated with pious zeal for the conversion of the heathen, they have sent the gospel to the four quarters of the earth. They have been peculiarly active in spreading the knowledge of christianity among the Indians in the United States, and in Canada,† By the persevering zeal of their missionaries, upwards of twenty-three thousand of the most destitute of mankind, in the different regions of the earth, have been converted to christianity. The missionaries generally support themselves by the assiduous labour of their hands, in their several arts and occupations. Such is the characteristic Moravian-missionary zeal, that they have attempted to spread the gospel in the distant East, the coast of Coromandel, and the Nicobar islands. They have also attempted to penetrate into Abyssinia, to carry the gospel to Persia and Egypt, and to ascend the mountains of Caucasus and often have these indefatigable missionaries earned the meed of highest approbation, where their labours have been least successful.‡ The whole amount of communicants and adherents to the Baptist churches in the United States, is computed to be two hundred and fifty-five thousand six hundred and seventy.§ The whole amount of the Roman Catholics in the United States, is supposed to be fifty thousand. See a short sketch of Zinzendorf's character in the Historic Defence of Experimental Religion, vol, ii, p. 149. † See La Trobe's History of the Mission of the United Brethren in North America. Haweis's Church History, vol. iii. p. 193. This account was taken by Mr. John Asplund, who visited the several associations of Baptist churches for that purpose. This account, and the number of Roman Catholics in Maryland, were given by the Right Rev. Bishop Carrol. |