Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/722

Rh 698 PRESBYTERIANISM [UNITED STATES. The Charleston church alone maintains its independence at present. English Puritanism emigrated under the auspices of the Virginia Company to the Bermudas in 1612. In 1617 a Presbyterian church, governed by ministers and four elders, was established by Lewis Hughes, and the liturgy of the isles of Guernsey and Jersey was used. From 1620 on wards English Puritanism colonized New England. This was of the two types which developed from the discussions of the Westminster Assembly (1643-48) into Presbyterian- ism and Congregationalism. They co-operated in New England as they did in Old England in the county associa tions. The Plymouth colony was more of the Congrega tional type, the Massachusetts Bay colony more of the Presbyterian type. A mixed system was produced which has been happily called by Henry M. Dexter &quot;a Congre- gationalized Presbyterianism or a Presbyterianized Congre gationalism. . . which was essentially Genevan within the local congregation and essentially other outside of it.&quot; Presbyterianism was stronger in Connecticut than in Massa chusetts. Thence it crossed the borders into the Dutch settlements on the Hudson and the Delaware, and mingled with other elements in Virginia, Maryland, and the Caro- linas. Nine of these Puritan Presbyterian churches were established on Long Island, New York, from 1641 to 1670, and three in Westchester county, New York, from 1677 to 1685. In New York city Francis Doughty in 1643 ministered to a congregation of Puritan Presbyterians, and was succeeded by Richard Denton in 1650. Francis Doughty also preached in Virginia and Maryland from 1650 to 1659, and was followed by Matthew Hill in 1667 and others subsequently. Francis Doughty was the father of British Presbyterianism in the middle colonies, but he left it in an unorganized condition. Dutch Presbyterianism was planted in New Amsterdam, New York, in 1628, when the first Reformed Dutch church was organized by Jonas Michaelius with two elders and fifty communicants. This had a strong Huguenot and Walloon representation. Services were held in the Dutch and the French languages, and subsequently in the English language also. The Dutch churches spread along the valleys of the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Raritan, and the Passaic, and also on the Delaware. They continued in subor dination to the classis of Amsterdam, Holland, until 1747. Irish Presbyterianism was carried to America by an un known Irish minister in 1668, by William Traill in 1683, and especially by Francis Makemie in the same year, an ordained missionary of the presbytery of Laggan, who was invited to minister to the Maryland and Virginia Presby terians. He was a merchant and a man of executive ability, and was the chief instrument in establishing the presbytery of Philadelphia, and interesting the Presby terians of London, Dublin, and Glasgow in the feeble state of their church in America. In 1704 he obtained aid from the London ministers and returned to America with two ordained missionaries, John Hampton (Irish) and George Macnish (Scotch). Meanwhile the New England ministers had sent several missionaries to the banks of the Delaware : Benjamin Woodbridge and Jedidiah Andrews went to Philadelphia in 1698-1700; John Wilson became pastor of a Presby terian church at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1698; Samuel Davis and Nathaniel Taylor supplied other churches in Presby- the vicinity. Seven of these ministers organized the Phila- f P resbvtei 7 of Philadelphia in 1706. It was a meeting delphia. of memb ers for ministerial exercise &quot; to consult the most proper measures for advancing religion and propagating Christianity.&quot; The presbytery only gradually learned to exercise oversight over the churches. The ministers con stituting it were from many lands and of many types of Presbyterianism, and could agree only in a loosely organ ized body. During the existence of the original presbytery the chief sources of support were London, Glasgow, and Dublin in the United Kingdom, and Boston, Massachusetts, and Fairfield county, Connecticut, in New England. Its Presbyterianism was of the broad, tolerant type that we might expect from a happy union of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh Presbyterians, with a few Dutch, Germans, and French. In 1716 the presbytery divided itself into four &quot; subordinate meetings, or presbyteries,&quot; after the Irish model, and increased its number by a large accession of Puritan churches and ministers from eastern New Jersey and New York. The synod remained without a constitution and without subscription until 1729. It assumed the functions of Presbyterian government and discipline only gradually, as circumstances required. It developed naturally from its own inherent vitality, and adapted itself to the circum stances of the New World without anxiety as to its con formity to stereotyped models in the Old World. How ever, two parties developed with the growth of the church. The stricter section urged the adoption of the Westminster standards and conformity thereto ; the broader party were unwilling to sacrifice their liberty. The former followed the model of the Church of Scotland ; the liberal party sympathized with the London and Dublin Presbyterians. The result of the conflict was union under the Act of 1729, which adopted the Westminster symbols &quot; as being, in all the essential and necessary articles, good forms of sound words and systems of Christian doctrine.&quot; It allowed scruples as to &quot;articles not essential and necessary in doctrine, worship, or government.&quot; The presbytery was to judge in the case and not the subscriber. This Adopt ing Act (largely influenced by the Irish pacific articles of 1720) established the American Presbyterian Church on a broad generous basis ; but the happy union was brief. In 1730 the stricter party in the presbyteries of Newcastle and Donegal insisted on full subscription, and in 1736, in a minority synod, carried a deliverance interpreting the Adopting Act according to their own views. The liberal men paid no attention to it, except to put themselves on guard against the plotting of the other side. Friction was increased by a contest between Gilbert Tennent and his friends, who favoured Whitefield and his revival measures, and Robert Cross and his friends, who opposed them. The Tenneuts erected the Log College to educate candidates for the ministry ; and the synod passed an arbitrary Act, aimed at the Log College, that all students not educated in the colleges of New England or Great Britain should be examined by a committee of synod, thus depriving the presbyteries of the right of determining in the case. The presbytery of New Brunswick declined to yield, and the body became more and more divided in sentiment. The Cross party charged the Tennents with heresy and dis order ; the Tennents charged their opponents with un godliness and tyranny. Passions were deeply stirred when the synod met in 1741. The moderate men remained away. The Cross party brought in a protestation to the effect that the Tennent party were no longer members of the synod ; and thus the synod suddenly broke in two. The New York presbytery declined at first to unite with either party, and endeavoured to bring about a union, but in vain. The Tennent party were found at length to be more reasonable, and the New York presbytery combined with them in establishing the synod of New York, which was called the New Side in contradistinction to the synod of Philadelphia, which was called the Old Side. During the separation the New Side established Nassau New Hall at Elizabeth town in 1746, and the Log College of the Tennents was merged into it. It was removed to Princeton