PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.
This is a respectable sect, not so much for its humility, spirituality,
and piety, as for its number, wealth and learning. It has about 170,000
members. Several churches, originally Congregational, have merged
into Presbytcrianism, The Congregational clergy in England, fraternize
with those of this church in America, indeed, the only real
difference between these two sects is in their church government·
The Congregational, until about 1809, was the established faith
and order of New England, and like the Presbyterian, and its sister
churches, Holland and Geneva, equally an inheritor of the unmerciful
spirit of John Calvin. Religious hypocrisy became a passport to
civil offices, under the "divine influence" of Connecticut Calvinism.
No one was permitted to hold an olFice who was not sound in the faith:
no dissenter from Calvinism, the established faith of that dominion,
was allowed to vote for civil officers; if a ^erton turned Quaker, he
was to be banished, and if he returned, to suffer death; no hospitality
was to bo shown towards a heretic; no Catholic Priest was to abide
in the colony, on pain of death, &c. See Blue Laws of Connecticut·
Every Dissenter, down to the year 1811, was compelled to support
the clergy man of the Parish, whether he approved him or not. The
General Court of Massachusetts passed a law against the Baptists»
in 1651, inflicting banishment on them, if they persisted in dissominating
their doctrines. In 1557, they cut the ears and bored the
tongues of the Quakers who became obnoxious to them, with a red
hot iron; and in 1656, put four to death for rofusing to leave tho state·
The Presbyterian church, like its Scottish parent, is not deHcientin
worldly policy, and, opportunity fitting, is not backward in offering
incense to those in power. However fair to tho eye this daughter of
Babylon may appear, decked with all her trappings of a learned
priesthood, colleges, professors, gaudy temples, benevolent societies,
wealthy and fashionable flocks—she has the elements of discord, the
seeds of dissolution rankling in her body: and, judging lrom the
avowed misgivings of her adherents, the e?e of an explosion teem·
near at hand. Calvinism, Anninianism *nd the Creed are the
conflicting elements in this, as in all other religious establishments;
and an approaching convention at Pittsburgh threatens to shiver into
contending factions, this "pure faith, primitive order," and * peculiar
theology!»
There are other sects of this church, concerning which we need not
enter into detail· It will be sufficient to lay their names before the
reader, who can make further inquiry respecting them, as his leisure
Or cariosity may prompt· Their names are as follow:
Relief Presbyterians, 1752; Dutch Reformed Church, U. 8.
1639; German Reformed Church, U. S. 1746; Cumberland Pres*
byttrians, 1810; Irvingites, 1833.
This is a respectable sect, not so much for its humility, spirituality,
and piety, as for its number, wealth and learning. It has about 170,000
members. Several churches, originally Congregational, have merged
into Presbytcrianism, The Congregational clergy in England, fraternize
with those of this church in America, indeed, the only real
difference between these two sects is in their church government·
The Congregational, until about 1809, was the established faith
and order of New England, and like the Presbyterian, and its sister
churches, Holland and Geneva, equally an inheritor of the unmerciful
spirit of John Calvin. Religious hypocrisy became a passport to
civil offices, under the "divine influence" of Connecticut Calvinism.
No one was permitted to hold an olFice who was not sound in the faith:
no dissenter from Calvinism, the established faith of that dominion,
was allowed to vote for civil officers; if a ^erton turned Quaker, he
was to be banished, and if he returned, to suffer death; no hospitality
was to bo shown towards a heretic; no Catholic Priest was to abide
in the colony, on pain of death, &c. See Blue Laws of Connecticut·
Every Dissenter, down to the year 1811, was compelled to support
the clergy man of the Parish, whether he approved him or not. The
General Court of Massachusetts passed a law against the Baptists»
in 1651, inflicting banishment on them, if they persisted in dissominating
their doctrines. In 1557, they cut the ears and bored the
tongues of the Quakers who became obnoxious to them, with a red
hot iron; and in 1656, put four to death for rofusing to leave tho state·
The Presbyterian church, like its Scottish parent, is not deHcientin
worldly policy, and, opportunity fitting, is not backward in offering
incense to those in power. However fair to tho eye this daughter of
Babylon may appear, decked with all her trappings of a learned
priesthood, colleges, professors, gaudy temples, benevolent societies,
wealthy and fashionable flocks—she has the elements of discord, the
seeds of dissolution rankling in her body: and, judging lrom the
avowed misgivings of her adherents, the e?e of an explosion teem·
near at hand. Calvinism, Anninianism *nd the Creed are the
conflicting elements in this, as in all other religious establishments;
and an approaching convention at Pittsburgh threatens to shiver into
contending factions, this "pure faith, primitive order," and * peculiar
theology!»
There are other sects of this church, concerning which we need not
enter into detail· It will be sufficient to lay their names before the
reader, who can make further inquiry respecting them, as his leisure
Or cariosity may prompt· Their names are as follow:
Relief Presbyterians, 1752; Dutch Reformed Church, U. 8.
1639; German Reformed Church, U. S. 1746; Cumberland Pres*
byttrians, 1810; Irvingites, 1833.
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