The first Protestant Synod was held in February, 1528, at Berne in Switzerland, the mother-land of the Reformed communion.* In several cantons regular annual or semi

The high Church Episcopal Church Journal" of New York for Nov. 3, sees fit to ridicule Reformed Synods without bishops. In noticing the article of the Rev. H. Harbaugh on Synods, in the last number of the Mercersburg Review, it says:

The Mercersburg Review opens with an article on Reformed Synods, which is to us dreary in the extreme. The history of the rise and varieties of Presbyterian Synods, at Berne, in Geneva, in France, in various parts of Germany and the Low countries, in Scotland and England and America, among the "Reformed" and the "Lutherans,"-all this is wearisome to mind and heart. Which comes nearest to the pure "Presbyterian ideal," is a matter of comparative indifference to us. The question is settled for us on the first page. "The first Synod in the Reformed sense," it tells us, "was beyond doubt the one held at Berne, February 13, 1528." That will do for the first "Synod" held without Bishops. It is also "beyond doubt" that the first Synod with Bishops and also with "elders and brethren"-was held in Jerusalem, in the year of Grace 52: and such Synods continue to be held, to this day. A careful reader of the article, however, will find many incidental proofs of the vast superiority of the Church'system, and can reckon up the heavy toll paid to the truth, by the flounderings and tanglings and perpetual changings of It is not among such specimens of ecclesiastical felo de se (i. e., Reformed Churches without Protestant Episcopal Diocesans], such acephalous organizations, that we are to look for the Church of the Future in America !"

error.

We have no controversy with the Episcopal Church, which we sincerely esteem and love for its standards, its ministers and membership, its important mission and salutary, conservative influence among the various Christian denominations of this country. But to the writer of the above specimen of modest and charitable criticism, we feel strongly tempted, in reply, to address the following questions:

1. Who were the Protestant Episcopal Diocesans in the apostolic Council at Jerusalem, A. D. 52 (or rather 50)?

2. Where are the inspired apostles, evangelists and prophets in the Diocesan and Triennial General Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America?

3. What has become of the Convocations of the Church of England since 1717?

4. How many wives had Henry VIII, the first "supreme head" of the Episcopal Church of England, and what did he do with them?

5. How many beaux had Elizabeth, the first "supreme governor" of the Church of England?

6. How often did Cramner, the first archbishop of the Protestant Church of England, abjure his faith?

7. How much was the Reformation of England and its earliest standard divines indebted to Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Calvin, Bullinger, Bucer, Fagius, Peter Martyr, and other Lutheran, German, and Swiss Reform

ers?

8. Who helped to frame the Thirty Nine Articles and the Common Prayer

annual Synods were instituted, with or without lay delegation, yet always under the general control of the civil government, as may be expected from the union of Church and State, which there prevails as well as in Germany. But there has never been a general Synod of the Reformed Churches of Switzerland, each canton having its own independent ecclesiastical organization. This is certainly a defect. The evangelical portion of the Swiss ministers have indeed held for several years past an annual Conference for the discussion of important theological and practical questions. But this Pastoral Conference is altogether free and has no official character nor legislative authority. I was highly delighted by the interesting discussions and fraternal intermingling of such a meeting at Basel in 1854, but greatly surprised, at the same time, that so few of the members seemed to have any desire for a general consolidation of the Swiss Churches in one organic body, and that even the worthy President, Dr. Hagenbach, the Church historian, discouraged any tendency in this direction. Since that time, however, the idea of a general legislative Synod has made some progress.*

In Germany pastoral conferences of a similar character have been held since the revival of evangelical religion, especially in Württemberg and in Prussia. The largest

Book in the age of Edward and Elizabeth, according to the testimony of your own Burnet?

9. What has become of Newman, Manning, Wilberforce, and many others, who but a few years ago were lauded and commended by just such men as the editors of the "Church Journal," as the brightest ornaments and soundest divines of the same Church of England?

10. What special claims have the Onderdonks, Doanes and Ives, of this country, to be regarded as the successors of the holy apostles?

Until the "Church Journal" satisfactorily answers these questions, which might easily be multiplied, we take the liberty of giving its editors the advice: Sweep before your own door; mind the eleventh commandment; be humble, and learn as your fathers did, for nothing befits you so well.

*We just learn from Hagenbach's Kirchenblatt fuer die Reformirte Schweiz, for Sept. 2, 1858, that the principle topic of discussion at the last Pastoral Conference held at Aarau, in August, 1858, was the "closer union of the Swiss Reformed Church. To what extent and in what respect is it desirable? What can the Pastoral Conference do towards its promotion?"

and most influential body of this kind is the German Evangelical Church Diet, which convenes annually since 1848, and consists of pious ministers and laymen of the Evangelical, Lutheran and Reformed Churches. These free conferences have nothing to do with church government or other business matters; they are strictly spiritual and devotional in their character, and, therefore, very interesting, refreshing and edifying. But the very idea of a Synod in the Reformed, as well as in the old Catholic sense, includes legislative and judicial functions.

The Synodical system in Europe was most fully matured in the Reformed Churches of France, the Wupperthal, the lower Rhine, Holland and Scotland. It is impossible to calculate the amount of influence for good, which has proceeded from these assemblies, upon the pastors and people under their charge. If the Wupperthal in Prussia, if Holland, especially in former days, and if Scotland have been, and are still so highly distinguished by the general intelligence, ecclesiastical order and religious life among the people, it is to be attributed, in a great measure, to their presbyterian and synodical form of government.

Yet after all, the great principle of ecclesiastical self-government, and, therefore, the true idea of a Snyod, is not and cannot be fully realized in any of the Protestant Churches of Europe, as long as they are united with the secular power, and hold to the Erastian or Cæsaro-papal doctrine, that the head of the State is also the head of the Church within his dominion. It is characteristic, that a commissioner of the crown and a layman generally presides over these ecclesiastical meetings, even the assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland. Their decisions must be confirmed by government before they can pass into laws, and these governments, as matters now stand in Europe, are of such a mixed character as to religious profession, that a variety of interests, altogether foreign perhaps to those of any particular denomination, must be consulted in granting or refusing the necessary sanction.

In this respect the Churches of America are in advance

of their mother churches in Europe. Here the Church and the State are separated, although by no means hostile to each other as in the ante-Nicene age. Each power manages its own affairs independent of the other. The Church enjoys the protection of the State for its property and free exercise of its discipline and its worship; while the State is continually receiving the incalculable benefit of the moral power which emanates from the Church upon its own. citizens. This peaceful separation has been brought about without design and calculation of men, by Providence itself in the irresistible course of events. The necessary result of it is, the voluntary principle in the support of religion and the self-government of the Church. The civil and political self-government, on which the constitution of the United States rests, is itself a result of the Reformation, and more particularly of the Reformed principle; while in turn, the privilege of religious freedom can now be fully enjoyed on the basis of, and in connection with, - civil and political freedom.

In America then, we see the principle of ecclesiastical self-government fully established, but under different forms, in the different denominations. The constitution and polity of the Old School Presbyterian, the Dutch Reformed, and the German or Evangelical Reformed Churches are strictly presbyterian and synodical, each congregation having its local self-government in the consistory, i. e., the pastor with the elders and deacons; each district being united under the Presbytery or Classis; and the whole body being governed by the general Synod as the highest legislative and judicial tribunal. The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States has, in addition to its episcopal supervision, its annual diocesan and its triennial General Conventions or Synods with lay representation and full legislative powers. The Methodist Episcopal Church differs from the other Protestant denominations by excluding the lay element from its Conferences. The Congregational or Independent Churches of New England have a full congregational self-government, but to the exclusion of a

higher tribunal, and allow only advisory power to their Associations and Consociations. The General Assembly of the New School Presbyterian Church, since 1840, and the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States, organized in 1820, but embracing as yet only a portion of this denomination, are likewise deprived of legislative authority and function, which is ceded to the particular or district Synods. They thus occupy a middle ground between Presbyterianism and Congregationalism. The German Reformed Church in this country was first organized as a Synod in the city of Philadelphia, A. D. 1747, one year before the Lutheran, and has since that time held one hundred and twelve regular annual meetings exclusive of special Synods. As is customary with all the leading ecclesiastical bodies of the country, an abstract or summary of the proceedings is printed every year for the use of the ministers and elders under its care.* But these Minutes of Synod are simply a dry skeleton, a caput mortuum of the actual life which animates these meetings. The names of delegates and advisory members, the various committees and their reports as far as adopted, the results and resolutions arrived at, are faithfully recorded; but the speeches, the debates and the entire process through which the Synod passes until it reaches those results, are left out. We are far from finding fault with this custom; full official reports of all the transactions and speeches, like the reports of all the sessions of our civil legislatures and of the Federal Congress, would form too large and expensive volumes for practical use and embrace a great deal that is merely of local or transient interest or not worth recording at all.

*Is it not time now for our Synod, or its officers, or some other member well acquainted with its history, to take into consideration the propriety of preparing a full and well arranged digest of all our Synodical Minutes, with running titles and full alphabetical indexes for convenient reference? Such an epitome might be brought within the compass of one or two moderate volumes and could be much easier prepared now, than twenty or fifty years hence, when the preparation of a work of the kind will be a practical necessity. The O. S. Presbyterian Church has recently been provided with such a digest, which is said to be of incalculable use to its members