THE FRUITS OF CONGREGATIONALISM. A CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE, DELIVERED BEFORE THE FIRST CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS SOCIETY IN IPSWICH, AUGUST 10, 1834, BY DAVID T. KIMBALL. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CHURCH. BOSTON: PRINTED BY LEONARD W. KIMBALL, CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. The tree is known by his fruit.-MATT. xii. 33. THIS is literally truc. If you have in your orchard a tree which produces good fruit, you call that a good tree. If on the contrary you have one which produces bad fruit, you call that a bad tree. That is a good tree which bears good fruit; and that is a corrupt tree which bears evil fruit. This is true also in a moral and spiritual sense. Those are good principles, from which proceed good actions. And those are bad principles, from which proceed bad actions. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things." In this respect therefore a tree is known by its fruits. Would you form a correct judgment concerning the true nature of religious principles, taught at any time, or by any denomination of men? Carefully examine the natural and proper effects of those principles. Look at their actual results. If their results be good, the principles from which they proceed must be presumed to be good. By this test let us try the principles of our fathers, who two hundred years ago planted the churches of New England. In other words by this test let us try what is commonly called orthodox Congregationalism. In vindicating the order of the Congregational churches and of the principles of our forefathers, in showing wherein we conceive their superior excellence consists, I am not to be understood, as speaking against Christians of other denominations, nor as cherishing unfriendly feelings toward them. Nothing is further from my heart than this. In prosecuting the design before me, I begin with the inquiry, What is a Christian church? It is a company of professed Christians, voluntarily associated together for the worship of God, and for the observance of religious ordinances. "Persons must be formed into such a society on the principle of voluntary consent. No authority whatever of an earthly nature is to constrain them to unite themselves in fellowship, nor to select for them any particular company of believers with whom they shall assoctate. All is to be the result of their own selection."* For what objects were Christian churches formed? To enlist the social principles of our nature in the cause of religion; to promote the edification of Christ's disciples; to unite their hearts closely to each other; to enable them to exert a powerful and happy moral influence on those around them; to perpetuate christianity, and extend it through the world. What power does a Christian church possess? No power to make new doctrines or precepts of religion, or laws, inconsistent with those which Christ has made for the government of his household. But a power to elect its own officers; to judge of the qualifications of candidates for its communion; to determine the mode of their admission; and to exercise discipline upon offending members. In admitting and disciplining meembrs, churches should have regard solely to Christian character and the want of it. No church has a right to reject an applicant, who gives evidence in the view of charity of gospel qualifications. "No persons, who assent to the creed and the ecclesiastical organization of a particular church, and give suitable evidence of possessing a Christian character can be refused admission."+ "The right of each church to choose its own officers, to decide by its free vote, who shall be added to its communion, and to determine, who shall be excluded, as unworthy, is a right, as invaluable as it is inaliena James' Church Members' Guide, 3d American Edition, p. 15. + Upham's Ratio Disciplinæ, p. 91. |