"THE CONGREGATIONAL THEORY "- AND LIBERTY OF THOUGHT.
(TO TER EDITOR 07 TEE " 87117ILT01.1 shall be glad of the opportunity of making my meaning more plain. The representation of the Congregational theory, against which I protest, includes a statement and an opinion.
The statement is that "each congregation defines the theology which it wishes to hear," and the opinion is added that the limits thus defined are "generally very narrow." My affirmation is that, as a matter of fact, no definition of this kind is made by Congre- gational Churches. A proposition for establishing one would not,
I believe, find a seconder in the Assembly of the Baptist or of the Congregational Union, and certainly would be summarily rejected. Further, I contend, that if such definition were made, the limits marked out would be broader than the standards which the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan Churches impose on their ministers. In proof, I refer to the "Declaration of Faith, published every year by the Congregational Union, which is broader than the Creeds commonly (but falsely) attributed to the Nicene Council and to St. Athanasias, and than the Westminster Confession or Wesley's sermons ; and I ask your readers to notice the express and emphatic terms in which the utility of "creeds, articles, and formularies" is disallowed in the remarks prefixed to that Declaration. A " Declaration " even of that kind would not be tolerated by the Baptists, among whom the objection to human formularies is still more strong. The editor of Winer's " Confes- sions of Christendom" has entirely misconceived the position of this latter denomination on the point.
I do not mean to assert that if a Congregational minister were to depart from doctrines commonly deemed vital, no "effort would be made to dismiss" him. His own good sense, however, would render such an effort unnecessary. To him, as well as to his congregation, agreement in fundamental truths would seem necessary to useful- ness. A system which prevented a separation would be self- condemned. Similarly, if the clients or patients of a lawyer or physician lose confidence in the theory or practice of their pro- fessional adviser, they will dismiss him, bat it would be obviously incorrect to say that they define the limits of his legal or scientific inquiries.
Notwithstanding our freedom, it may be fearlessly asserted that there is a very considerable agreement in doctrine throughout the five or six thousand Congregational Churches. We believe that "it is liberty, and liberty alone, by which the evils resulting from liberty can be repaired."
Those who imagine that we dissent only about "questions of Church Government" will neither understand the remarkable growth of Nonconformity since the beginning of the present century, nor estimate its future.—I am, Sir, &c.,
H. C. LEONARD.
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