ISBN: 9781230269580

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHA… Altro …

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. / ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALISM IN CONFLICT WITH THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. The Reformation in England was not an accident, resulting from the domestic infelicities of Henry VIII. It was not the contagion of German Protestantism. It was not a premeditated revolt against the papacy. It was a part of that great providential movement, whose causes operated simultaneously in Great Britain and on the Continent, in souls prepared of God to receive the truth. Its cardinal ideas were the supremacy of Christ, the authority of the Scriptures, the individual responsibility of believers. To call those ideas Congregational is not to claim a monopoly of them for one denomination, but only to recognize the spiritual kinship of that denomination with the men who were inspired by them. They were not new ideas to English Christians. They had been made familiar throughout the realm28 Henry VIII. by the preaching of Wiclif and the Lollards, and their marvelous vitality appeared in that, after a hundred and fifty years of persecution, they not only were more deeply rooted than ever in the minds of earnest believers, but were at last substantially adopted by the very party which had denounced them as heresies. Henry VIII, as a papist, was as bitter an enemy of Lollardism as any of his predecessors had been. He not only allowed the clergy to persecute without restraint all who were so much as suspected of dissenting from the doctrines of the Church, but personally aided and directed the work, issuing edicts and proclamations against the popular heresy, procuring acts of Parliament for its suppression, and placing the royal constabulary at the service of the inquisitors. The fires of Smithfield were often lighted to consume Lollard martyrs. William Carder, William Sweating, Robert H Books History~~General Outlines-Of-Congregational-History~~George-Huntington General Books LLC<

2013, ISBN: 1230269584

[EAN: 9781230269580], Neubuch, [PU: Theclassics.Us, United States], Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****. This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can… Altro …

[EAN: 9781230269580], Neubuch, [PU: Theclassics.Us, United States], Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****. This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: . pastors and churches generally labored to the same end. At the close of the seventeenth century thirty or more Indian Congregational churches had been formed, each with its own native pastor. But partly through the bad faith of individuals, and partly through the inability of the two races to understand one another s ideas and traditions, conflicts arose, culminating in that long series of Indian wars which not only interrupted missionary work, but greatly affected the whole religious life of the colonists. The effects of the Half-way Covenant were referred to in the previous chapter, but need further notice in this connection. Instead of encouraging the half-way members to qualify themselves for full membership in the churches, the covenant tended either to render them content with the partial privileges thus secured, or to lead them to demand under it the privileges of full membership, including the right to partake of the Lord s supper. To these demands many churches acceded, some by informal practice, others by deliberate vote. In consequence, the number of persons owning the covenant was greatly increased, so as sometimes to include almost the entire community, and to obliterate the distinction between regenerate and unregenerate character. An ecclesiastical degeneracy followed the decay of personal piety. Congregationalism, being based upon a regenerate membership, must, as Increase Mather declared, stand or fall as godliness in the power of it does prevail or otherwise. In this case it was too often otherwise, and the most lamentable results followed. Churches were rent by grievous dissensions within themselves; they failed to exercise Christian fellowship one with another; councils assumed.<

2013, ISBN: 1230269584

[EAN: 9781230269580], Neubuch, [PU: Theclassics.Us, United States], Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****.This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can … Altro …

[EAN: 9781230269580], Neubuch, [PU: Theclassics.Us, United States], Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****.This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: . pastors and churches generally labored to the same end. At the close of the seventeenth century thirty or more Indian Congregational churches had been formed, each with its own native pastor. But partly through the bad faith of individuals, and partly through the inability of the two races to understand one another s ideas and traditions, conflicts arose, culminating in that long series of Indian wars which not only interrupted missionary work, but greatly affected the whole religious life of the colonists. The effects of the Half-way Covenant were referred to in the previous chapter, but need further notice in this connection. Instead of encouraging the half-way members to qualify themselves for full membership in the churches, the covenant tended either to render them content with the partial privileges thus secured, or to lead them to demand under it the privileges of full membership, including the right to partake of the Lord s supper. To these demands many churches acceded, some by informal practice, others by deliberate vote. In consequence, the number of persons owning the covenant was greatly increased, so as sometimes to include almost the entire community, and to obliterate the distinction between regenerate and unregenerate character. An ecclesiastical degeneracy followed the decay of personal piety. Congregationalism, being based upon a regenerate membership, must, as Increase Mather declared, stand or fall as godliness in the power of it does prevail or otherwise. In this case it was too often otherwise, and the most lamentable results followed. Churches were rent by grievous dissensions within themselves; they failed to exercise Christian fellowship one with another; councils assumed.<