"And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ EDITED BY J. O. CHOULES, A. M. NEW EDITION. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY HUBBARD WINSLOW, A. M. PASTOR OF BOWDOIN STREET CHURCH, BOSTON. BOSTON: GOULD, KENDALL, & LINCOLN, 1841. J302 222 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by GOULD, KENDALL, & LINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 5715 PREFACE TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. IN presenting the following pages to the notice of the American churches, it is necessary to offer some remarks. During the few past years, God has graciously poured out his Holy Spirit upon various regions of our country. Zion has broken forth on the right hand and upon the left, and has received a vast accession of converts from those who were once aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. The Church has gazed upon her new-born children with delight, and inquired, "As for these, whence did they come?" They are recruits from the world, they are deserters from the army of the prince of the powers of darkness, they have sworn allegiance to another Sovereign, one Jesus. They have identified themselves with his cause, they are the subjects of his kingdom, they have become strangers upon the earth, that they may be citizens in heaven, and they seek that better country. It has been frequently lamented, that there was no work upon Church Fellowship, which could be put into the hands of church members, and especially of our youthful brethren and sisters, embodying under separate heads those scriptural instructions which lie dispersed through the Sacred Volume. I have frequently heard the complaint from ministers, "O that we had a directory for our members, that all our churches and all our brethren might be one in discipline and feeling, as well as in doctrine and practice." And since my engagement in pastoral labours, and more especially when lately called to receive a large number of young and inexperienced persons to the fellowship of the church, I have felt that a Church Member's Guide was a desideratum. After a careful examination of the various works on this subject, which are in circulation in the English churches, I am persuaded that I can render no greater benefit to the Christian church, than by presenting to its attentive regard, the treatise entitled, "Christian Fellowship, or The Church Member's Guide," by the Rev. J. A. James of Birmingham. On a careful perusal of the English edition, I was convinced, that though admirably adapted to the state of the British churches, yet it required considerable alteration to render it extensively useful in our western churches, which have so happily come up from the bondage of National Establishment, passed through the wilderness of persecution, and are planted in this thrice happy land, where government does all for Religion which she asks, wishes, or wants; and that is, lets her alone. Mr. James has displayed singular ability in his defence of the churches which have dissented from the National Establishment; and it is gratifying to see so able a champion, wielding such powerful weapons, with so fearless a temper, in a cause so good and holy as that of Protestant Nonconformity. But the existing relations of Episcopacy and dissent in England, which fully justify Mr. James in carrying his remarks on Law Establishments throughout the volume, having no place among us, it is desirable, and indeed necessary, that all passages of reference to these subjects should be expunged. I may be exposed to the cavils of a few who would blame me for altering an author's work, adding to or diminishing from it; but I find all the shelter that I need from such censure, in the opening remark of Mr. James's Pref aco: "The chief value of a book consists in its utility." The entire civil and religious liberty which we enjoy in this country, has produced habits and sentiments very dissimilar to those which are the result of a different state of society in our father land. Bearing this fact in view, I have omitted many expressions, left out whole lines and paragraphs, and in some instances altered words, when satisfied that "utility" required such a course. I have pleasure in the belief, that the excellent author would sanction the task which I have assumed; and that to promote the increased service of his work in the cause of Christ, he would permit its accommodation to a meridian very different from that in which its cir-. culation was primarily designed. May the Head of the church smile on this effort to advance the purity and happiness of that body which he purchased with his own blood; and may this work serve to render the members of the church a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Newport, R. I. March 30, 1829. J. O. CHOULES. PREFACE TO THE STEREOTYPE EDITION. THE high estimation in which the Church Member's Guide is held by the religious public has been evinced in the rapid sale of three editions. The editor, in preparing the first edition, turned his attention chiefly to an omission of all that related to the points in debate between the established church and the English dissenters; but as the demand for the work is become so general in all parts of the country, that the publishers have determined to stereotype it, a very careful revision has been made, and some sentences omitted which may accommodate the volume still farther to the state of the American churches. It is gratifying to the editor to receive continued assurances that the Guide is effecting much good.-May it elicit the energies of the Church. She has a giant's strength, but it is in repose. The discipline and order of God's house should not be neglected Personal piety, social religion, the majesty of truth, and the diffusion of the gospel, are all connected with the constitution and discipline of churches in the same degree as cause and effect. A valuable sermon, addressed as a Charge by Mr. James, at the ordination of his brother, is appended to the present edition, and, it is hoped, will prove an interesting monitor to the pastors of churches Newport, April 1, 1831 PREFACE TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. THE chief value of a book consists in its utility. We may be sur prised by what is original, amused by what is entertaining, and dazzled by what is splendid; but we can be benefited only by what is good. To discover new territories in the world of thought, is an effort of genius to which few can aspire. Every sailor cannot be a Columbus; but the labours of the pilot are not to be despised, because they are restricted to the humbler task of conducting the voyager through seas and shoals long known to geography: at any rate, he has facilitated the pursuits of established trade, if he have not opened new fields for the exploits of commercial enterprise. Such are the pretensions of the author in the following treatise; he aspires to no loftier character than a guide through channels which, although intricate, are certainly not new. The author has treated the subject of church government more in a practical than in a controversial manner. Numerous are the votive offerings which already hang around this compartment of the temple of truth; but they are too generally composed of, or attended with, a chaplet of thorns. In this treatise, the author has endeavoured to sacrifice, at the same time, to both truth and love, whose altars should ever be near each other. He has endeavoured to state his own opinions with clearness and boldness, but, at the same time, without dogmatism or asperity. His aim has been rather to regulate the spiritual police of our Zion, than either professedly to strengthen its bulwarks, or to increase its means of spiritual conquest; assured that it is most mighty, when it is most holy and peaceful; and that love and purity render our churches" bright as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners." As the form of church government here exhibited, so far as human direction is concerned, allows of a considerable share of popular influence, the author has adopted two general principles, to which he has |