CONGREGATIONALISM. 280 CONGREGATIONALISM. a particular group of churches in Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia, which are 'Congregational' in their government and 'Evangelical' in their type of Protestant doc- trine, and stand in recognized relations of de- nominational fellowship one with another within the bounds of the respective countries of their location, and to some extent in international fraternal union. In this sense it is proper to speak of the Congregational denomination of the United States, or of England and Wales. The Congregational polity, in its modern his- tory, had its origin in the Reformation age, and was due to the belief that the Bible contains an authoritative revelation of the will of God con- cerning cliurch organization, no less than a God- given revelation of religions truth. In working out the details of the Congregational system, its early expounders conceived that they were simply reproducing the divinely appointed model of the Apostolic churches. Few modern Congregation- alists hold, however, that the minutis of church government are matters of revelation, or that any one form of church organization was divinely appointed tor all times, countries, iind stsiges of civilization ; though Congregationalists generally believe that their polity embodies the broad scriptural principles of fraternal equality, indi- vidual responsibility, and full-rounded independ- ent Christian manhood. They deem it, also, pe- culiarly consonant with the democratic tenden- cies and high individual intelligence of modern civil society. As indicated in the name, Congre- gationalism believes the basic element in the visible organized Church to be the local congrega- tion of Christian disciples. It holds that con- gregation competent to designate its ovra offi- cers, admit members to commimion, discipline the erring, state its faith in langiuige of its own choosing, and order its worsliip as seems best suited to its needs. Each local congregation, modern Congregationalism regards as a democ- racy, where affairs of concern are decided by the votes of the membership, normally under the moderatorship of the pastor — if there be a pastor in office. Like all democratic bodies, however, a Congregational church makes large use of committees, which report results rather than processes for the consideration of the body as a whole, and act as the executive arms of the con- gregation. Congregationalism holds to the autonomy of the local church. It rejects the judicial sys- tem of Presbyterianism, or the supervision of any form of episcopacy, as an undue interfer- ence with the rights of the local body. But Con- gregationalism in America, and increasingly in Great Britain, rejects pure independency. Though one church or body of Christians has no judicial authority over another, each owes fraternal counsel to its neighbors, and no act of large im- portance in any single congregation should be done without seeking the advice of the repre- sentatives of sister churches. Illustrated in various ways in different countries, mutual re- sponsibility and helpfulness are distinguishing . features of the Congregational polity. The Local Church. — The local church is held by Congregationalists to be a company of pro- fessed disciples of Christ, who have some intelli- gent acquaintance with Christian truth, and per- sonal experience of the saving work of Christ. Hence admission to church-membership is based on evidence of intelligent determination to lead a Christian life. Such a company of Christians is knit together into a church by the covenant which they make with God and one with an- other, to live as those who have God for their Father and Christ for their Saviour, and to join in the worship, seek the welfare, and submit to the discipline of the particular local body of believers of which they are members. In early Congiegationalism, and in American practice to the present day, this covenant, which each local congregation may express in whatever way seems best to it, was written; in Great Britain written covenants are now rare. In addition to a written covenant, it is usual for American Congregation- al churches of the present day to have a lirief confession of faith, assent to which is required of would-be members. Such local confessions, though not unknown, are unusual in Great Brit- ain. Examination of candidates for membership as to their knowledge of Cliristian truth has pre- vailed since the beginnings of Congregational- ism; but the local confession of faith, thovigh occasionally exemplified in Xew England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at- tained general use in America during the doc- trinal discussions of the opening years of the nineteenth century. Each local church is free to express its faith in its own language, and such confessions, like the examination of candi- dates for church-membership, have steadily tend- ed toward greater catholicity and simplicity. While Congreg.ationalism recognizes no creed- statement as binding on a local church save that which the church may itself adopt, Congrega- tionalists have never hesitated, in their repre- sentative gatherings, to adopt confessions of faith. These have the value of a testimony to the common faith of the churches, and have never been regarded as creed-tests. Thus, the exiled London Congregationalists put foith a confession in 1596; the Cambridge Synod, rep- resenting the churches of New England, ap- proved the doctrinal parts of the Westmin- ster Confession in 1648. Ten years later, a meeting representative of the Congi-ega- tional churches of England put forth a modi- fied form of the Westminster Confession, known, from the place of their assembly, in the Savoy, in London, as the 'Savoy Declaration'; and meetings of the delegates of the Massachu- setts churches in 1680, and of those of Connecti- cut in 1708, set their approval, save for slight changes, on this work of the Savoy Synod. The 'Congregational Union of England and Wales' put forth a statement of 'Principles of Reli- gion' in 1833; the 'National Council of the Con- gregational Churches of the United States' adopted the 'Burial Hill [Plymouth. Mass.] Declaration' in 1865; and in 1883 a commission appointed by the 'National Council' three years before reported a creed that has had wide accept- ance among American Congregationalists. and has been adopted as their statement of faith by many local churches. Doctrinal Position. — The doctrinal position of early Congregationalism was that of general Puritan or Presbyterian Calvinism. It was not on doctrinal grounds that the founders of New England left their homes. They were wholly one theologically with the Puritan Party of the Eng- lish Civil V'aT. with which they and the English Congregationalists were alike associated. His-
