And though the office affumed by me upon this occafion, is not more honourable than that of the Gibeonites, who were but hewers of wood and drawers of water for the fervice of the tabernacle; yet if, by collecting good and found materials, I fhall prove the instrument of conveying useful information upon a fubject, now as little understood as it is generally neglected, I fhall hope that the merit of the defign will be fuffered to atone for the imperfection of its execution.

To thofe who are advanced, and confequently (it may be supposed) well informed in their profeffion, these papers are not addreffed; for to them nothing new can be faid upon this fubject; nothing that perhaps might not be better faid by themselves. But to those of my brethren who are not in the fame state of advancement; who are unpoffeffed of the leisure or advantages neceffary to the proper study of their profeffion, it may be a convenience to have information, which has been derived from various quarters, placed before them in fome regular and connected form. Without wishing to forestall their judgment, I feel myself justified in saying upon this occafion, that if I have been deceived in the fubject before me, I have been deceived with what I confidered to be

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the best means of information in my hand, and the fincerest intention in my mind of promoting the Christian cause. Should the ground upon which I have trodden upon this occafion be deemed unfound, it appears to me, that there must be an end to all authority on subjects of this nature.

From the general tendency of the human mind to extremes, the blind credulity of one age often leads to unbounded fcepticism in another. But the implicit faith of the monk, who, as the ftory goes, when SATAN would have drawn him into herefy, by afking him what he believed upon a certain point, anfwered, "Id credo quod credit ecclefia;" and to the subjoined question, " Quod credit ecclefia," cautiously replied, "Id quod ego credo;" is not more contemptible than the profane licentioufnefs of a PAINE, who would make his senses the only standard of his belief.

We do not disclaim private judgment; much less do we admit the infallibility of the church. But if we have not discretion in these days to draw the line between an implicit obedience to authority, and an utter contempt of it, the experience of past ages feems to have been thrown away, and reason to have been given us for very little purpose,

"Call no man your father upon earth; for one is your Father who is in heaven. Neither be ye called mafters; for one is your Mafter, even CHRIST;"* is a text that has not unfrequently been ftrained beyond its original meaning. It was addreffed by our SaVIOUR to his hearers, with the view of guarding them against the extravagant fuperiority affumed by the rabbies over the disciples, and the blind fubmiffion with which their doctrines were received. So far as it applies to a fimilar fubject, either to an affumed fuperiority in the teacher, who would "exercise lordship over God's heritage," 1 Peter v. 3; or to the blind fubmiffion of the disciple, who makes his faith in man, rather than in the Divine word, the standard of his religious perfuafion, fo far it contains most wholesome instruction to religionists of every age.

But when the idea, founded on this text, is carried to an extent to justify difobedience to the authority of the church, upon what ground foever it may be maintained, fuch a wild principle of conduct being totally inconfiftent with the object of a regular fociety, may be determined not to be within the meaning of a precept, delivered by the founder of that fociety to those who were to become the members of it. * MATT, xxiii. 28.

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The difficulty in this cafe has always been to eftablish the exact line of conduct, which will fecure that government, without which the church, as a fociety, cannot fubfift; and that liberty to the members of it, neceffary to free them from all ufurped tyranny over their confciences. Men, according to the different objects which they have had in view, and the ideas which they have formed upon the fubject from the different lights in which it has been feen, have been continually drawing this line too much either to the one fide or the other of that golden mean, in which reafon, founded upon revelation, has placed it.

GREGORY NAZIANZEN, from the confideration of the fallibility of fynods, and the difputes which too often prevailed in them, spoke of them with a contempt incompatible with the least degree of reverence for their authority. Such writers as LE CLERC and SCALIGER will not fail to record his faying. "Si aurem præbeamus viris, quorum alioquin auctotoritatem fpernere nequaquam poffumus, de fynodis veteribus loquentibus, nobis magnifica oratione defcribent αγίας και οικεμενικας συνοδές θεοφόρων πατερων συναθροισθεισας ετι τας βασιλείας τε μεγαλε βασιλεως, και ισαποςολε-fandos et cecumenicos cœtus adflatorum divinitus patrum, congre

gatos in regno magni regis et Apoftolis æquiparandi. Quis auditis his et fimilibus verbis, religiofo quodam horrore et corpore et animo non contremiscat, ac paratus non fit oracula ejufmodi coetus avidis auribus excipere, haud aliter ac fi cœlo ipfo emitterentur?. Verum, hæc eft, (quis crederet?) abstracta notio fynodorum, quæ in inconfpicua idearum republica coguntur; non imago earum, quæ inter miferos mortales olim congregatæ fuere. Reges ignari, (non legent hæc Mohammedani, nec ethnici, fed ii quorum fcire intereft, quo fiet ut verum aperte proloquar) reges, inquam, ignari, nec inter bonos principes numerandi, convocarunt Græculos, qui linguæ acuendæ per totam vitam operam dederant, rerum ipfarum ignaros, contendendi ftudiofos, perpetuis rixis inter fe divifos; et bardos aliquot homines ex Occidente, rudiores quidem illis, fed non meliores; iique post pudendas contentiones, obfcuriffima quæque dogmata, verbis fæpe parum aptis, auctoritate fuâ firmant; quæ ftupidi populi fine examine adorent, quafi divinitus accepta. Non ficta me loqui norunt qui fynodorum hiftorias legerunt; nec certe vanus erat GREGORIUS NAZIANZENUS, qui dixit,