2. Singing.

3. Reading of the Scriptures. [Where, as is often thought well, this reading includes (a) a portion from the Old Testament, and (b) also from the New, the Gloria Patri may with good effect be chanted (unannounced) between these portions.]

4. The principal Prayer.

5. Singing [with needful notices].

6. Sermon.

7. Singing.

8. Prayer.

9. Benediction.

Baptism is usually administered by sprinkling, but as Congregationalists believe that the reverent application of water, in proper relations, in any form by a competent administrator, is baptism, candidates with whom it is matter of conscience, are baptized by immersion. The form of words employed is simply that indicated by the Master [Matt. xxviii: 19] in His last command.

The Lord's Supper is administered usually on the first Sabbath of every other month. Often, as formerly always, this is done at the close of a regular preaching service; sometimes an entire service is devoted to it. In either case it is usual for the pastor in the name of the church to invite those present who are duly qualified, not members of that particular church, to share with the celebrating church in the ordinance. In the ancient time this required consenting action on the part of the church as to each individual. And later the tenor of invitation ran: "All present who are members in good standing of churches in fellowship with us, are invited to partake with us at the Lord's Table." Within a generation this has been by many modified so as to invite "all members in good standing in Christian

churches"-expressly leaving to each individual the responsibility of deciding whether he become a participant or not, and not necessarily excluding devout members of churches claiming to be Christian with whom the Congregational body is not in formal fellowship, should they desire to unite in the service. More recently some pastors have felt it to be right to widen the invitation to include "all persons who think they love the Lord Jesus Christ," or "who desire to live a religious life, whether members of the visible church or not." This is violently un-Congregational in its essence, because the one regnant idea out of which the Separatism of three hundred years ago evolved itself, was that of being able to purify the Lord's Table of the presence of those who did not belong there. It is, moreover, revolutionary, in its tendency to break down all distinction between the church and the world; and to discourage the public confession of faith in Christ, and the banding together of those who are His, to be His co-workers in His great work of saving lost men.

Of course such a matter is at the discretion of the churches which now and then may experiment in unwise directions. But it should be distinctly understood that the Table is the Lord's (not the pastor's), and that it is spread under the affectionate care and custody of the church, who (and not the pastor) are responsible for the right administration of all things in connection with it. No pastor, therefore, has the right to give, of his own motion, and simply as pastor, any invitation whatever; while it is seemly and discreet, in a matter of so much consequence, that the church prescribe such form of invitation to the Lord's Supper

as may satisfy its own sense of what the occasion demands.1 And it will then become as much the duty of the pastor to confine himself to that form of invitation, as it is his duty, in admitting new members to its fellowship, to confine himself to those Articles of Faith and Covenant which the church has adopted.

It is usually recognized among Congregationalists as seemly that some formal action be taken, in response to the charge of the Apostle [1 Cor. xi: 28] in the way of special self-examination and preparation for the faithful reception of the Eucharist; and to promote this a familiar lecture called "The Preparatory Lecture"

1 See Rule 11, Form No. 14, chap. viii. We may be wiser than our fathers, but they had thought this question thoroughly through, and their conclusion [J. Davenport's Answer of the Elders, etc., unto nine Positions Sent over, etc., (1643) 69] was this:

...

"They that are not capable of Church-censures, are not capable of Churchpriviledges; But they that are not within Church-covenant, are not capable of Church-censures: Ergo. . The Church shall indanger the prophaning of the Seales, and want one speciall means whereby the grace and pietie of men may be discerned and made knowne, for if without respect to their Churchestate, men of approved pietie, as you say, are to be admitted to fellowship in the Seales; how shall their pietie be approved to the Church, not by their owne report of themselves alone, without the attestation of such as are approved by the Church? And how can such beare witnes to their approved pietie, who against light refuse to professe subjection to the Gospel of Christ, by orderly joyning themselves with fellowship to some approved Church of Christ, as members thereof, when they have opportunitie thereunto? Seeing such Church fellowship is an action of true pietie required of all beleevers in the second commandement; and true pietie frameth mens spirits to have respect to all God's commandements; and we have had much experience of it; that men of approved pietie in the judgement of some, have been found too light, not onely in the judgement of others, but also in their owne consciences, when they have come to the tryall in offering themselves to be members of Churches: with such a blessing hath God followed this Ordinance of taking hold of Church-covenant, by publique profession of faith and repentance, before men be admitted to the Seales: But this means of discoverye of mens pietie and sinceritie would be wholly left, if men should be admitted to the Lord's Table, without entering into Church fellowship."

most commonly takes the place of the usual weekly meeting for conference and prayer last preceding the Sabbath on which the Lord's Supper is to be administered.

In the matter of Sunday schools, prayer-meetings, sewing circles and other social meetings, and the general administration of religious affairs, Congregational churches differ in no way from other active Christians; and it is their fundamental principle that their polity has congenial and welcome place for every wise method of working for the glory of God, and the temporal and eternal good of men, which sanctified ingenuity can devise, and Christian common sense indorse.

As already suggested, Congregationalists enjoy a larger liberty in respect to all things which have been in this chapter discussed, than is within the constitutional reach of Christians of other polities. Any Congregational church, whose taste and sense of expediency may so incline it, is at perfect liberty to order its worship by the liturgy of the Church of England, or the Protestant, or Reformed Episcopal Church of the United States, or by a liturgy of its own. So long as it do nothing which shall give reasonable ground of offense to the other churches with which it is in fellowship, it may order its prayers, its praise, and all the methods of its worship, to its own entire content; and its pastor, remaining true to our fundamentals of doctrine and of polity, though enrobed and endowed [as by 25 Hen. VIII., c. 19] with “Chasuble, Albe, Amice, Stole, Maniple and Zone, with two blessed Towels, and all their Appendages,” would remain, in good faith and entirely, a Congregational minister still.

CHAPTER V.

THE WORKING OF CONGREGATIONALISM.

A

IS a matter of course so free a system of church polity as ours cannot tie its adherents with absolute rigidity to any one process rather than another. Yet experience will gradually show which method, of several that are possible, has advantage over others.

SECTION I.

FORMATION OF A CHURCH.

When it becomes clear to a sufficient number of believers in any locality, that their own spiritual advantage and the interests of the cause of Christ require the formation of a Congregational church there; having considered the matter with much mutual prayer, they should agree together to undertake the work. Such of them as are already members of churches in that neighborhood, or elsewhere, should request letters of dismission each from his own church to an Ecclesiastical Council to be called to advise as to the formation of the proposed church, and if judged expedient to coöperate in such formation, and admit the said church to Congregational fellowship. The others should stand ready to join on confession of their faith. Let them then appoint a committee to prepare a list of all intend

2

1 See Form No. 3, chap. viii.

2 See Form No.4, chap. viii.