versy in general between a church and its pastor; Cases of controversy between a church and a private member, or members respecting removal, discipline, and the like.

§ 159. Practice in selecting the Council and Letter Missive.

In other cases, such as the ordination or installation of a minister, there is but one party, the Council being convoked by the church as a body. That is to say, the arrangements, relative to the calling of the Council, are determined solely by the majority of votes, although the minority if there be one, have the right of making their statements and remonstrances, when it is convened.

But occasions, calling for the formation of Mutual Councils, are always understood to imply the existence of two parties, which sustain to each other such a relation, as to render it expedient to deviate from the common practice. It has, therefore, become the usage, unless some other plan be especially agreed upon with mutual satisfaction, for each of the parties concerned to select an equal number of the churches, which are invited to the Council, together with an additional church, if it be thought advisable, selected by the two parties conjointly.

Nevertheless, the LETTERS MISSIVE in these cases, as in others, are sent by the church. "If the church, (says the Ancient Ratio Discipline, Art. Ix. § 1,) think it advisable for them to have their share in choosing and calling the Council, the LETTERS then go in their name, signed by the pastor."

§ 160. Mutual Councils representative of the whole body of the Churches.

There is one view of Mutual Councils which is important to be kept in mind, viz. That they are representative of the whole body of the churches. This we suppose to be the proper view of all regular Councils,

but emphatically so of those under consideration. Dr. Owen, in his Brief Instruction in the Worship and Discipline of the Churches, (p. 227, ed. 1667,) asserts, that those, who are rightly and justly censured in any church, ought to be rejected by all churches whatever; and offers the mutual communion of the churches as the ground and reason of the assertion. But if the just act of a particular church ought to be thus regarded by all others, certainly the acts of the assembly of churches, which we call a Council, ought to be still more.

An offender or aggrieved person, for instance, declines listening to the church of which he is a member; and accordingly, in concurrence with the church, he makes his appeal to the churches at large, requesting of them to decide, whether the treatment he has received from the church of which he is a member, be just or not. But as such an appeal cannot, from the nature of the case, be literally carried into effect, the churches assembled in Mutual Council, are held to be virtually representative of all the rest. We may consider the plan of Mutual Councils as the method, which has been seriously and carefully considered and adopted, for securing this general representation in all cases, which cannot be otherwise settled. Consequently their ADVICE is in theory the advice of the whole body of Congregationalists, and is to be regarded as such in practice.

§ 161. Mutual Councils are ultimate tribunals.

The ADVICE, therefore, of Mutual Councils, supposing the opinions of the last section to be correct, cannot be disregarded and rejected without injury and offence to the whole body of believers of the same name, except it be done on the most serious and conscientious grounds. And whether rejected or not, it is the decision of the highest and ultimate ecclesiastical tribunal; and is not

susceptible, as is often done in civil cases, of being rejudged by an appeal to another, and more authoritative body.*

§ 162. Consociated or permanent mutual Councils.

It seems proper to observe here, that the great liberty, enjoyed in these churches, has resulted in an absence of perfect uniformity in their proceedings. In some parts of the American Congregational Church, particularly in the State of Connecticut, the plan of Occasional Councils, summoned on each particular occurrence, has been, in a great measure, given up; and standing or permanent councils, technically called Consociations, established in their stead. As these bodies exist, antecedently to the particular causes and occasions, which call them into being, and cannot be regarded as more favorable to one party than another, they are entitled to be considered Mutual Councils; and, therefore, rightly come under consideration in this chapter.

Consociations are composed of certain neighboring churches, (generally those, that happen to be embraced within the limits of a County,) which are permanently represented in the same, by their respective ministers and by lay-delegates, chosen from time to time. The authority, vested in Consociations, has its origin in the Saybrook articles, which are given at No. II. of the Ap

* This statement will apply to the great body of the Congregational churches; but in respect to those of Connecticut must be modified by the doctrines of the Saybrook Articles. Their Mutual Council is the Consociation; nevertheless, the decision of a single Consociation, on the subject submitted to them, is not always final. In cases of great difficulty, (Art. vii.) it is referred to a fuller council, consisting of a joint assembly of the Consociation, before which the subject was originally brought, and a neighbouring Consociation.

pendix. According to those articles, they are required to afford assistance on all ecclesiastical occasions; and their powers appear to be of a more decisive and authoritative kind, than those of occasional councils.

§ 163. Of the authority or powers of consociations.

That such is the nature of the powers, granted to Consociations, seems to be sufficiently evident from the language of the Saybrook Articles, which are alike the foundation of their existence, and of the authority, conferred upon them."-All cases of scandal, (says the thirteenth article,) that fall out within the circuit of the aforesaid Consociations, shall be brought to a council of the elders and also messengers of the churches within the said circuit."

The decisions of Consociated Councils, which extend not only to lay-men, but ministers, are not mere ADVICE, as in other cases; but are decisive of the subject, submitted to their consideration, and are enforced by a high moral penalty. According to the sixth article of the Saybrook Platform, if any pastor or church decline conforming to the decision of the Consociation, they shall be reputed, after due patience used with them, " guilty of a scandalous contempt, and dealt with, as the rule of God's word in such case doth provide, and the sentence of noncommunion shall be declared against pastor and church."

Some difference of opinion seems to have existed in respect to the thirteenth Article; but the settled usage is to this effect. When a minister is guilty of scandal or heresy and the like, the accusation is brought, in the first instance, before the Association of which he is a member. The Association are to receive it, and to make provision for the minister's trial before the Consociation; nor does the Council, otherwise called the Consociation,

take cognizance of it, except it be brought in this way.*

p. 164. Historical Remarks on Consociations.

The circumstances, relative to the origin of Consociations, are briefly these. About the commencement of the last century considerable dissatisfaction existed among the Congregational churches, especially on the part of the ministers, with the System of occasional Councils. The subject of Councils had not been fully and explicitly laid down in the Cambridge Platform, which was the great law of the churches; and a vague notion was very generally afloat, that something better might be substituted for them. Accordingly at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Convention of Ministers in May, 1706, a System of permanent Mutual Councils was proposed, and adopted, as far as that body was concerned, under the name of Consociations. But it experienced the animadversions of a number of able and influential pastors; and was particularly held up to rebuke, in a publication of Mr. Wise of Ipswich, entitled The Church's Quarrel Espoused, or a Reply to certain Proposals, &c. The plan was revived, under a somewhat different form in the year 1815, in the Massachusetts General Association. But in neither instance did it meet with the concurrence of the churches generally, and was, therefore, abandoned.

*It seems to be necessary to add here a remark, explanatory of what has been formerly said. The principles and practice, which have been laid down in a former chapter in respect to the disciplining of a minister, apply to a large majority of the Congregational churches; but not in their full extent to those, which have adopted the plan of permanent or Consociated instead of occasional Councils. The methods of proceeding and the principles, in the churches last referred to, may be found in the Saybrook Articles, given at No. II. of the Appendix; with the exception of some things peculiar, which exist in the practice of a few small districts.