§ 152. Of the feelings with which Councils should be called.

Sometimes churches, and other persons and bodies of men who are acknowledged to have the right of sending Letters Missive, neglect to call Councils, when they should; but not less frequently there is too great precipitancy in calling them. A council ought never to be assembled, without a deliberate and conscientious regard to all the possible results. It is equally at variance with common honesty and religion for a church or part of a church, to ask the advice of a Council, when they have determined beforehand the course to be pursued, whatever the character of that advice may be. If they are certain of being right, it is palpable deception to seek that aid, of which they are conscious of not standing in need. But if this be not the case, they virtually admit the possibility of being in an error.

Now if persons confess it possible for them to be in the wrong or liable to take a wrong course in future, and ask advice in relation to their conduct, they are certainly under obligations, strictly to follow that advice, in some things, and in all cases to regard it with the greatest deference. Hence Councils are not to be called, until after much deliberation, and with a serious determination, that the truth shall have its due influence on the conscience and conduct, at whatever expense of prejudice and in

terest.

§ 153. Principles on which Councils are to decide.

The grounds or foundation of the existence of the Council is the wish or invitation given, as made known in the Letter Missive. It is true, the Council cannot be formed without the approbation and concurrent action of the churches, which are sent to on the occasion. But it has been justly remarked, that the act of the churches, in voting to comply with the request and send delegates to form constituent parts of the Council, is rather a means

or medium, through which the Council is brought into being, than the originating cause.

Hence the Council are limited in their proceedings and powers by the Letter Missive. Being called by its authors for a particular purpose and no other, and being authorised to act by their respective churches for the same purpose, they are bound to keep that particular object in view in all their transactions. As to the rest, they may consult the written opinions of men and derive light from various sources, but are to be governed chiefly by the Scriptures and their own consciences. Justice can hardly fail to be secured, where a regard to God's Word and the teachings of the Spirit is united with candor and prudence, even without the voluminous aid of a pile of recorded precedents, which these churches generally are in want of.

154. Of the weight due to the advice of Councils.

It is an acknowledged principle in respect to Councils, that they possess only advisory powers; in other words, their decisions are addressed to the understandings and consciences of men, and are enforced solely by moral obligations. They are considered by the churches as interpretors or expositors of what is right, expediency, and duty in the particular cases submitted to them. Their proper business is to GIVE LIGHT.

Nevertheless, as those, by whom they were called, are supposed to have been sincere in their request, it is incumbent on them to examine the opinions or decisions given, with prayerful, honest, and unprejudiced minds. When their temper is such, they will generally find good reason to agree with the Council.

In the early periods of our ecclesiastical history, such bodies were so judiciously constituted and their decisions so respectfully received, as to have extorted the remark

from Cotton Mather, that the Councils in the churches of New England rarely meet with contradictions from the churches, whose cases have been laid before them. In case a church, or part of a church refuse a Council's opinion, the neighboring churches have a right to judge of the propriety of their course, and to censure and withdraw from them, if there be good reason for so doing. (See Platform, Chap. xv.)

§ 155. Advice of Council in matters merely prudential.

The decisions of Councils are in all cases termed ADVICE; and abstractly considered, are susceptible of being either received or rejected. But this power of receiving or rejecting, although admitted to exist in the abstract, is necessarily checked and controlled in practice by the principles of our moral constitution. Consequently it may be laid down as a principle, that there are cases, where moral considerations imperatively require the Advice of Councils to be followed, although the abstract power of resisting it is admitted to remain. And such seem to be all matters of mere expediency or prudence.

Perhaps the question, submitted to the Council, is, Whether a person may leave a church, in order to join another, whose meetings are in some respects more accessible. This is a mere prudential question; a matter, not of conscience, but of expediency. The Council may see reasons not to grant the request of the applicant; and if so, he is bound to abide their advice; otherwise he was not sincere, he was not honest in asking it. It is admitted, he has power, (what may be termed the physical power,) to reject it; but it seems to be equally clear, that he cannot do it, without a violation of morality.

§ 156. Advice of Council in matters of conscience. But there are other cases of a different character; and

such are all matters of conscience; involving not merely a person's desires, but his sense of duty. When a man's conscience is concerned, it is true he asks Advice, as in the other case; but in respect to the applicants for it, the same consequences do not follow the Advice given. In the one case, the nature of the application is such as to lay the applicant under a moral obligation to adopt the Advice of the Council, supposing him sincere in his request. In the other it is not so; nor is it possible, that it should be. An unreserved reference of matters of conscience to another person or any body of persons, is repugnant to the Scriptures, which make our consciences, amenable to God alone. It is also repugnant to the nature of the human mind; since we are so formed, that neither the power of belief, nor the moral susceptibility can possibly operate, except on evidence being presented.

Consequently, in all such cases, when the Advice is given, the applicant, while he is bound to examine and weigh it seriously, must be the judge, whether his scruples are cleared up, or not. If they are, he is bound to pursue the course pointed out; if not, he is forbidden by a higher obligation.

§ 157. On the right of a Council, which has been dissolved, to reassemble and act by its own authority.

The question is sometimes asked, whether an ordaining or installing Council, or a Council for any other purpose, retains the right of reassembling and of exercising anew any powers over the Church or Pastor, or of doing any thing else, after they have completed the business for which they first assembled, and have dissolved themselves as a Council, or, what is commonly regarded as the same thing, have adjourned "without day."

In answer to this inquiry, it is an obvious remark, that the Council derives its power from the Church, at whose invitation conveyed in the Letter Missive, it has assem

bled. And accordingly their legitimate powers of action cannot go beyond the business, whatever it may be, which is specified as the subject of their inquiry and action. If they are called to ordain or install a man, or for any other purpose, their authority terminates as soon as the specific business, which called them together, is completed. To reassemble, therefore, by their own authority and without the originating power of a new Letter Missive, and to prosecute inquiries anew in relation to the church and people, or to do any thing else as a Council, would be considered at variance with Congregational .principles.

CHAPTER XVI.

MUTUAL COUNCILS.

158. Occasions of calling Mutual Councils.

It will hold good as a general statement, that mutual Ecclesiastical Councils are called only in cases of doubt and difficulty; and in respect to which there exists some difference of opinion. The particular cases, therefore, in which they are summoned, (at least those of most frequent occurrence,) are these three; viz. The dissolution of the pastoral relation, where a removal is contemplated, which the church does not assent to;* Cases of contro

*Wherefore, (says Increase Mather, in his TESTIMONY to Good Order in the Churches, p. 4,) if a minister be upon a removal from his flock, especially when there are no sufficient causes evident for it, and the flock earnestly propound and request, that the thing may be laid before a Council of the neighbor churches, but he refuse it, it may be feared, that it is an hour of temptation with him and that his way is not right before the Lord.