who can fail to see, first, that the existence of parties is just as certain as it is, that good men are sanctified only in part, and secondly, that party distinctions will involve some real or supposed differences in respect to doctrine. That there have been and are such differences in the Presbyterian church, is matter of history; that such differences will continue, is matter of philosophy. But how is it in the Episcopal church, which offers itself as a safe refuge into which no party contentions can enter? We believe, that contentions about matters of faith have not often shaken the peace of that communion. In England, neither the latitudinarianism of Paley, nor the antinomianism of Toplady occasioned convulsions, or Act and Testimony conventions. In America, neither the Universalism of some, nor the Calvinism of others, has led to any apprehensions of division. Parties within the pale of Episcopacy, are formed by other distinctions. As the Presbyterian church glories in its forms of faith, so the Episcopal church glories in its forms of worship. As the one, from the days of Calvin, has founded its claims upon its orthodoxy; so the other, from the days of Queen Elizabeth, has founded its claims upon its order and its ritual. The consequence is, that when parties arise in the Episcopal church, they involve some difference about the prayer-book; even as parties in the Presbyterian church involve some difference about the confession of faith. When Mr. Colton knows as much about the Episcopal church as we do, he will know, that there have been such parties in it; and that however smoothly things may seem to go just now, none can tell how soon such parties will break out again. Why, it is only a few days since we saw in an Episcopal paper, a warm vindication of the memory of Dr. Bedell against the slanderous report, that on his death-bed he expressed contrition for his deviations from the prescribed forms of the church. How long is it since the city of Philadelphia, in connection with the election and consecration of a new bishop for that diocese, witnessed certain manifestations of the existence of party strife among Episcopalians, the memory of which ought at least to teach our author not to exalt his new church too highly, in this particular, at the expense of the church in which he has formerly ministered.

If then it is so, that the liability to parties is an evil inseparable from all ecclesiastical organizations which have in their great judicatories the three golden apples of political discord, power, patronage, and money; and if this evil is likely to be developed in proportion to the expansion of the body and its ascendency over rival sects, we have only to inquire, whether it is better to contend about matters of doctrine, or to contend about points of order and ceremony. Perhaps we are too much influenced by Presbyterian prejudices; but to us it seems more manly to con

tend earnestly about the comparative orthodoxy of the sublapsarian and supralapsarian theories of predestination, or even about the difference between Barnes' notes and Hodge's commentary, than to contend with like earnestness about the meaning of rubrics, and the lawfulness of praying without book where two or three are met together. If any man thinks otherwise, we have no desire to abridge his liberty of opinion.

But Congregationalists, too, have their theological controversies. True; yet as Mr. Colton himself remarks, the power is wanting to enforce discipline on the points in question.' From this, and some other peculiarities of the Congregational system, it has come to pass, that though we have had discussion and debate in New-England for two hundred years, the communion of our churches remains unbroken, except by the Unitarian defection. The Unitarian leaven was purged out with less of convulsion, than could have accompanied such a change under any other organization. At this hour, whatever may be the feelings of here and there a dyspeptic or hypochondriac zealot, and of the little circle which he happens to influence, there is communion and confidence throughout the great body of New-England Congregationalism. Ministers of all the schools and parties meet on common ground, and act together as brethren. Within a few weeks past, we have seen theological professors from Bangor, New-Haven, and East Windsor, and editors and preachers of every shade of New-England orthodoxy, sitting together first in a preliminary meeting, and then in a large convocation, and planning for the advancement of the common cause, as harmoniously as if the origin of evil, the nature of sin, and the means of regeneration, had never been brought into discussion.

The second great defect of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism, as argued by our author, is, that in these churches, "the pastoral office is robbed of its primitive, legitimate, essential, reasonable influence." His specifications, so far as we can make them out, are first, that the pastor has for helpers, under one organization, his bench of elders, and under the other organization, his deacons or his standing committee; secondly, that his hearers consider themselves competent to form an opinion respecting his doctrine and his conduct, and sometimes even dare to give him their opinion; and thirdly, that lay members of the churches feel a responsibility in regard to the prosperity of religion, and are sometimes stirred up to make efforts, either direct or indirect, for the conversion of their neighbors. Under this head he makes the following statements amongst others of similar character:

It has actually happened within a few years last past, in New-England, and I believe in other parts of the country, that there has been a

system of lay visitation of the clergy for the purpose of counselling, admonishing, and urging them up to their duty; and that these self-commissioned apostles, two and two, have gone from town to town, and from district to district of the country, making inquisition at the mouth of common rumor, and by such other modes as might be convenient, into the conduct and fidelity of clergymen whom they never saw; and having exhausted their means of information, have made their way into the closets of their adopted protegés, to advise, admonish, pray with and for them, according as they might need. Having fulfilled their office, they have renewed their march "staff and scrip," in a straightforward way, to the next parish in the assigned round of their visitations, to enact the same scene; and so on, till their work was done.' p. 36.

Now we take leave to say, that this entire piece of history is as apocryphal as the story of Bel and the dragon. We call for the proof. We demand to know where, and when, this "system of lay visitation of the clergy" had its being; who were the pastors visited; and who were the visitors. Give us places, dates, and names, that we may have opportunity to disprove the story, or to acknowledge our error.

"But to the subject." The judicious, well-informed, devout, faithful, affectionate pastor of a Congregational or Presbyterian church, has the influence which naturally belongs to his talents, bis intelligence, and his personal character. He has the influence which naturally belongs to the stated instructor of the people in religious truth and duty. He has the influence which belongs to the presiding officer of all religious assemblies. He has the influence which belongs to the individual who is expected to be the chief counsellor and leader in every charitable undertaking, and every effort for the reformation of morals or the promotion of useful knowledge. He has the influence which follows the man who is welcomed into every family as a respected and beloved friend; who is with the sick and bereaved in their hours of deepest sorrow; who prays in the house of death, and utters words of hope and benediction by the grave; who administers to the joyful bridegroom and the blushing bride the oaths of their sacred covenant; to whom devout parents bring their infant children, that by his hand and voice they may be dedicated to the God of their fathers; of whom the sin-convicted soul seeks to learn the way of life; and by whose counsels and prayers the doubting and perplexed believer seeks to be relieved. How a man of sense, and piety, and simplicity of character, can want more influence than all this; how such a man can complain because he has his elders or deacons with whom to consult about the ways and means of promoting piety in the congregation, and who are to share with him the responsibilities and perplexities at

tendant on the faithful administration of church discipline; how he can feel himself treated with indignity because his people try to think for themselves about his preaching or his measures, or because here and there a brother, or even a sister, presumes to hint an opinion or to offer advice; we are at a loss to conceive. We can indeed conceive how a weak man, or an indolent man, or a man cursed with the love of being more exquisite than his neighbors, or a man who has no natural sympathy with those around him, or a man intent upon growing rich, or a man desiring a call to some wider field, or a man whose heart, for any other reason, is not in the work committed to his hands, may find himself greatly troubled by the zeal of officious deacons, or the obtrusiveness of devout women. And that there is any thing in the Episcopal system which can answer as a substitute for talents, intelligence, and singled-minded devotedness in its ministers,-any thing which will enable a pompous blockhead, or a lazy reader of the prayer-book, and of short homilies which he never wrote, or a curled and perfumed popinjay, or a lucre-loving Demas, to get along in a Yankee congregation without difficulty,-is more than we are willing to believe to the disadvantage of Episcopacy till we see the proof. True; the rector has no deacons and no elders in his congregation; but instead of the deacon is the warden, and instead of the elder is the vestryman; and will wardens, and vestrymen, and devout and zealous churchmen, all sit by and hold their peace, while the rector, through ignorance and incapacity, or through indolence and half-heartedness, or from whatever cause, does not adequately instruct, reprove, rebuke, and exhort the souls committed to his charge?

The third charge preferred by Mr. Colton against Congregationalism and Presbyterianism, is, "the excessive amount of labor that is demanded of the clergy, which is undermining their health, and sending scores to their graves every year." On this point it might be well, before admitting the force of the argument, to inquire carefully whether Congregational and Presbyterian ministers, in the performance of the pastoral work, do in fact break down and come prematurely to the grave so much more frequently, in proportion to their numbers, than Episcopal ministers. If it should be found that such is the fact, then it would be well to inquire, whether it results necessarily from the Presbyterian and Congregational organizations, or is only accidental and transient. It would be worth the while to inquire particularly, whether when ministers are overloaded with public labors, such as preaching and lecturing, it is not generally more their own fault than the fault of their people. There are ministers, who, if they preached less, could not quiet their consciences without studying more; to whom it is far pleasanter to go into the meeting-house

or lecture room, and lift up the voice like a trumpet, than it is to sit down amid lexicons, and commentaries, and theological folios, to the task of patient and protracted investigation; and whose hearers would be at once better pleased and more profited, if instead of pouring out some four or five crude discourses weekly, they would preach on the sabbath, one or two elaborate and finished sermons. What would these men do were they Episcopalians?

The fourth objection "to the economy and practice" of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, is "the mode of admission to full communion." And what is the objection here? will be asked by as many as have not read the book before us. The objection is, first, to the examination of candidates for the sake of ascertaining whether they are, in respect to religious knowledge and experience, proper subjects for church privileges; and secondly, to the formality of a public covenant with God and the church.

Respecting the examination of candidates for admission to church fellowship, Mr. Colton testifies that it is performed by “the pastor and his session of elders, deacons, or committee men, as the case may be ;" that the first point in the process is to ascertain whether the candidate has been spiritually renewed; that after satisfaction has been obtained on this point, "the candidate is examined as to his knowledge and belief of all the articles of the creed;" and that here the lay examiners particularly are very strict, and especially so on the points "which are most difficult of apprehension, and which have most embarrassed the minds of learned theologians." This two-fold examination having been sustained, the candidate is propounded to the congregation. Now a man who has been a Congregationalist and a Presbyterian, and who, as he informs us, has made ten or fifteen different creeds for churches organized by his own agency, is not to be contradicted hastily on such a point as this; but we may say, with proper deference, that much of this is news to us. The method of examining with which we are familiar, is this. The pastor first making himself acquainted with the religious views and history of the candidates, and being satisfied of their fitness to be received into the communion of the church, sometimes, before propounding them, invites them to a simliar conference with the deacons or the standing committee, that his judgment, in a mattter of so much importance, may be confirmed by the judgment of others in whom the brethren are known to have confidence. In some churches, this confirmation of the pastor's opinion is required by a positive regulation or canon of the church. More rarely, the examination is in the presence of the whole body of communicants,—a practice which, in small churches, and in parishes where no two in