CHAP. XII.] CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 165 



held together more firmly for two centuries, and have deviated 

 far less from the original standard of faith, than might have 

 been expected ; although in Massachusetts and some neighboring 

 States, more than a hundred meeting-houses, some of them hav 

 ing endowments belonging to them, have in the course of the 

 last forty years been quietly transferred, by the majority of the 

 pew-holders, to what may be said to constitute new denomina 

 tions. The change usually takes place when a new minister is 

 inducted. This system of ecclesiastical polity is peculiarly re 

 pugnant to the ideas entertained by churchmen in general, whose 

 elibrts are almost invariably directed, whether in Protestant or 

 Romanist communities, to inculcate a deep sense of the guilt of 

 schism, and to visit that guilt as far as possible with pecuniary 

 penalties and spiritual outlawry. The original contract is usually 

 based on a tacit assumption that religion is not, like other branch 

 es of knowledge, progressive in its nature ; and, therefore, instead 

 of leaving the mind unfettered and free to embrace and profess 

 new interpretations, as would be thought desirable where the 

 ivorks of God are the subjects of investigation, every precaution is 

 taken to prevent doubt, fluctuation, and change. It is even 

 deemed justifiable to exact early vows and pledges against the 

 teaching of any new doctrines ; and if the zealous inquirer should, 

 in the course of years and much reading, catch glimpses of truths 

 not embodied in his creed, riay, the very grounds of which could 

 not be known to him when he entered the church, nor to the 

 original framers of his articles of religion, no provision is made 

 for enabling him to break silence, or openly to declare that he 

 has modified his views. On the contrary, such a step must 

 usually be attended with disgrace, and often with destitution. 



Nor does the intensity of this feeling seem by any means to 

 diminish in modern times with the multiplication of new sects. 

 It is even exhibited as strongly in bodies which dissent from old 

 establishments as in those establishments themselves. Wesley, 

 for example, took the utmost care that every Methodist chapel 

 should be so vested in the &quot; General Conference,&quot; as to insure 

 the forfeiture of the building to the trustees, if any particular 

 congregation should deviate from his standard of faith, or even 



