CONGREGATIONALISM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 98, 25 December 1869, Page 6

CONGREGATIONALISM.

As we have received a good many queries concerning the character of the Congregational belief, we extract the following from a paper written by Mr. Matthew Arnold.— " The Cougregationalists form one of the two great divisions of the English Puritans. 'Congregational churches believe,' their Tear Book tells us, ' that the first man disobeyed, the divine cor mand, fell from his state of innocence and purity, and involved all his posterity in the consequences of that fall. They believe that all wh': will be saved were the objects of God's eternal mcl electing love, and were £>iven by an act of divine sovereignty to the Son of God. They believe that Christ meritoriously obtained eternal cdemption for us, and that the Holy Spirit is given in consequence of Christ's mediation.' The essential points of Ca".viuism are all here. To this profession of faith, annually published in the Year Book of ths Independents, subscription is not required ; Puritanism thus remaining honourably consistent with the protests which at tho. Reformation ib made a-gainst the call for subscription. -But the' a'ut'.iorja of the Tear Boole say wfth pride — and it is a common boast with the Independent churches — thai though they do not require subscription, there is perhaps in no religious body such, firm and general agreeirient in doctrine as amonof the Congrcgationali.ts. This is true - v and it is eveq mpre true of tho flocks thfin of the ministers, of whom the abler and tho younger begin to be 'lifted bey the/ stream of modern ideas."