plication, the general satisfaction of Christ, by which the sins of all men become pardonable, and also the special application of this satisfaction to those whom the Father, in the covenant of redemption, gave to the Son "as the reward for the travail of his soul." It has not been proved that the Confession, contains anything opposed to our opinion of the nature and extent of the atonement, and our exscinding brethren will find it much more difficult than they suppose, to show a sentence or paragraph that favors either their commercial idea of the nature of the atonement, or their limited and pernicious views of its extent. In a future number the doctrine of Regeneration will be the subject of our inquiries.

ARTICLE VI.

1. Records and Minutes of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 1704-1837.

2. The Presbyterian Magazine. Articles on the History of the Presbyterian Church in America.

3. The Case of the General Assembly, &c., before the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, &c. Compiled by the REV. D. W. LATHROP. Philadelphia: A. M'Elroy, 1839, pp. 628. 4. Report of the Presbyterian Church Case, &c. LER, JR., A Member of the Philadelphia Bar. S. Martien, 1839, pp. 596.

By SAMUEL MILPhiladelphia: W.

"TRUTH IS THE CHILD OF TIME."-John Calvin.

SINCE our last Article was published, we have read Dr. Stearns' work on the early churches of New Jersey. He is well known to be conservative in all his views, and at the farthest remove from violent partisanship in the Church. It would be scarcely possible to be more impartial; and his

careful accuracy is unimpeachable. The sermons, which are the basis of his work, were first preached in 1851, but so careful has he been to verify the minutest detail by access to original sources, that they have been published but recently.

There is no allusion in this volume to our Articles, nor any intended connection between them, yet a stronger case of "undesigned coincidence," we have never seen. The vindication of our views by the examinations of Dr. Stearns, carried even to microscopic minuteness, is absolutely triumphant. Henceforth the mixed and liberal basis of American Presbyterianism, at its origin, must be held to be settled. No man with any regard for his reputation for historical accuracy, will question it.

We will state the matter very succinctly, and show the confirmation of our views afforded by the researches of Dr. Stearns. In general it is this: Was the Church in its origin homogeneous, composed of persons who were all rigid Presbyterians, or was it mixed, so that it took from the beginning a modified, or liberal type? As soon as this question, which is one of pure history, comes to be examined, it narrows itself substantially to the consideration of the character of the Irish Presbyterians, and of the settlers in New Jersey and Long Island, for, setting aside a small Scottish, Welsh and Dutch population, it was of these two elements the Church was at first composed. ScotchIrishmen and New Englanders came in immense numbers afterwards, but that does not immediately concern this question.

In regard to most of the settlers on Long Island and in Jersey, who formed part of the early Presbyterian Church, Dr. Hodge makes sufficient acknowledgments for our purposes. Thus: "The Church at South Hampton, L. I., was originally formed at Lynn, Mass., and consisted of Rev. Abraham Pierson from Yorkshire, in England, and some other persons. They removed to Long Island and settled the town of South Hampton, in 1640. The first permanent minister was Rev. Joseph Fordham, from England. This congregation placed itself under the care of the Presbytery, 1716. The first settlement of East Hampton, L. I., was in 1649. Most of the inhabitants came from England; some were from Salem, and some from New Haven. The first minister of Southold, L. I., was Rev.

John Young, from England, who was settled about 1652. Their next minister, Rev. Joshua Hobert, was also from England. Huntington, L. I., was settled by a number of people from England, and by emigrants from New England. The first minister was Rev. Eliphalet Jones, a Congregationalist, from New England. The Church of Huntington appears to have been conducted on the Congregational plan until April 8th, 1747. Jamaica, L. I., was settled about 1656, chiefly by emigrants from New England.'

These churches constituted the Presbytery of Long Island or Suffolk, which "produced its Presbytery-book" in Synod as early as 1718. Surely their origin is plain enough. It will be remembered that Dr. Green says, that this Presbytery "was composed chiefly, if not wholly, of members from New England." So tenacious were they of their peculiar principles that, as we have already mentioned in another connection, as late as the time of the formation of our Constitution in 1787, they asked for a dissolution between themselves and our Church, fearing that the new Constitution would be too rigid for them; but the Synod, appointing a committee to confer with them bearing a most kind and liberal letter, they agreed, just one week before the formation of the General Assembly, to withdraw their request, being satisfied that the Church was to remain upon its old tried and liberal basis, and that no new rigidity was about to be introduced.‡

So far the Long Island element. Let us now see what Dr. Hodge says of Jersey: "Fairfield was settled about 1690, by a number of persons from the town of the same name in Connecticut. This is the same as Cohansey, embracing the country about the Cohansey creek. Cape May was also a Puritan settlement, of which their records contain indubitable evidence. The township of Woodbridge was settled from 1660 to 1665. Some of the inhabitants were emigrants from Scotland, but they were principally from New England. Their first pastor was Rev. Mr. Wade. In 1714, they invited Mr. John Pierson from Connecticut, who remained with them forty years. During Mr. Pier

*Const. Hist. pp. 40, 41, notes.

Records, 532, sq.

Christ. Adv., xi. 499.

son's time there was no session. He managed the affairs of the congregation without elders. In East Jersey, the settlements of the Puritans were numerous and important. In 1664, a company from the western part of Long Island purchased a tract of land and laid out the town of Elizabethtown. There were but four houses there, however, when Philip Carteret, in 1665, arrived as governor of the Province, bringing with him about thirty settlers. Much about the same time, Middletown and Shrewsbury were settled, in a good degree by emigrants from Long Island and Connecticut."* Then there was the Church at Freehold, mainly Scottish, with some scattered families of Scotchmen, no one can tell how many, in East Jersey. It may be as well to remind the reader, just here, that there were also "the Dutch Congregation of Neshaminy, two Welsh Congregations in the Valley (the Welsh tract), besides the mixed church in Philadelphia (the First Church), connected with the Presbytery." The remainder of the Presbytery consisted, mainly, of the Irish Presbyterians in the Peninsula, and afterwards, of course, the Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania.

But Dr. Hodge makes a stand upon the Newark, N. J., Church, at which we need not wonder, considering its importance in the settlement of the question. He and Dr. Macwhorter, the Scotch-Irish pastor of the church from 1759 to 1807"the wish" being "father to the thought" in both instanceshave made out this mother of churches to have been Presbyterian from the beginning. We quote literally: "Newark was settled in 1667 or 1668, by about thirty families principally from Brandford, in Connecticut. As the New England Puritans were, some of them, Congregationalists and some Presbyterians, it is not easy to ascertain to which class the emigrants to East Jersey belonged. Those who settled in Newark were Presbyterians." Then in a note: "MS. History of Newark, by Dr. Macwhorter. The Doctor says that an aged elder, then eighty-six, stated that there had been a church session in Newark from the earliest time he could remember, and that he always understood there was one from the beginning."‡

These myths, Dr. Stearns has dissolved. In a volume of 320 Const. Hist. pp. 42, 43.

*Const. Hist., part 1 (condensed.) † Ibid.

pages, he has patiently and carefully given every important fact connected with the Church of Newark. Condensed, and as it bears upon the matter before us, it amounts to this: There existed in Branford, in what is now the state of Connecticut, a Congregational church which began its existence in 1664. This church, in consequence of dissatisfaction at the forced union of the New Haven and Connecticut colonies, removed to the banks of the Passaic in 1666-7, and formed a church and a town, called at first Milford, and afterwards Newark. The church was transported bodily; "the old pastor was conveyed at the expense of the town; its deacon continued his functions without any signs of re-appointment; its records were transferred, and it immediately commenced 'church-work;' and its pastor was invested with his office and salary on the new spot, without any ceremony of organization or installation. It is true that several of its members were left behind, but they no longer claimed to be a church; and hence there was no church in Branford after the removal, till a new one was organized there, several years subsequent.”*

1. Rev. Abraham Pierson was the first pastor. He was from Yorkshire, England, and settled at Newark from 1667 to 1678 -not quite eleven years.

2. Rev. Abraham Pierson, Jr., born at Lynn, Mass., graduated at Harvard College, pastor from 1669 to 1692, nearly twenty-three years.

3. Rev. John Prudden, born at Milford, Conn., graduated at Harvard College, pastor from 1692 to 1699-nearly seven years.

4. Rev. Jabez Wakeman, of Fairfield, Conn., graduated at Harvard College, pastor from 1699 to 1704-about five years. 5. Rev. Nathaniel Bowers, from New England, pastor from 1709 to 1716.

These were all Congregational ministers, and the church remained Congregational up to this time, a period of nearly fifty years. The first ruling elder appears in 1720, while there were deacons from the beginning. It was during the ministry of

*First Church in Newark, pp. 24, 25.