gregation of believers statedly meeting in one place. A provincial or national church, including many particular churches, and governed by general officers, has no place in the Congregational system.

3. It is distinguished from the forementioned systems, by the principle that all church power resides in the church, and not in church officers; and resides in each particular church directly and originally, by virtue of the express or implied compact of its members, and not traditionally, or by virtue of any authority derived by succession from some higher body, ecclesiastical or clerical.

4. It is distinguished from strict Independency, by the principle of the communion of churches.

5. It is distinguished from the system of the Baptist churches, by the principle of the right of believing parents to dedicate their infant children to God in baptism; by the principle that in the ceremony of baptism it is not material how much water is used, or whether the water is applied to the person or the person to the water; and by the principle of open communion with all who make a credible profession of being Christ's disciples.

As to the difference between the congregational system and the presbyterian, two points may be stated more distinctly.

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1. A Congregational church, like a Presbyterian church, may have its ruling elders; but while the presbyterian system makes the elders accountable, not to the church, but to some "superior judicature," Congregationalism permits nothing to be done in the name of the church, without the distinct consent of the brotherhood.

2. A Congregational church may hold communion and intercourse with sister churches by means of such bodies as presbyteries and synods; but, while Presbyterianism regards these bodies as "judicatures," "courts of the Lord Jesus Christ," having authority to decide all controversies judicially, and to "send down" their injunctions to the churches,-Congregationalism must needs regard them only as meetings for intercourse and communion, as councils to advise and persuade in matters of common interest, and as means of keeping up a common feeling among the neighboring and the distant members of the great union. Congregationalism acknowledges no power over the churches but the power of LIGHT AND LOVE.

It is matter of gratulation to friends of christianiity, that, notwithstanding such differences, there has long been a harmonious and happy intercourse between the churches of these two denominations. And this intercourse has tended to assimilate the parties, in spirit if not in form. Presbyterianism as it exists in the United

States, is exceedingly and increasingly unlike the Presbyterianism which reigns in Scotland, and that which the Westminster Assembly proposed in England. The free spirit of Congregationalism already breathes through the forms of Presbyterian rule. Difficult and alarming controversies, when carried up to Synod or Assembly, are now ordinarily settled, not by judicial decrees, but by advice and persuasion, by friendly mediation and fraternal compromise. Less and less reliance is placed on creeds and legislation to maintain truth and purity; and the truth itself and the spirit of prayer and enterprise are more and more relied on. It is felt daily, more and more, that no ecclesiastical council, under whatever name, can do any good except as it instructs, enlightens, and persuades those whom it would influence.