PREFACE. SHOULD the following pages meet the eye of any one who is ignorant of the circumstances under which they were written, and is desirous of learning them, he is informed that they are the work of a Society of Christians, who have emancipated themselves from the dominion of the Priest, and from a blind adherence to the traditions of men-and who have dared to examine for themselves what it is that God has revealed to his creatures! what the principles he has given for the regulation of their conduct through life! In the view, which as the consequence of unrestricted enquiry, they now take of the Christian Religion, they see sufficient reasons for the restraints that have been imposed on the minds of the professors of that system. To them, it appears, that there is in Christianity so much simplicity, so much dignity, so much rationality in its doctrines, so much freedom in its tenor and character, as to render it at once, though mild in its spirit, a formidable and deadly foe to oppression and imposition of every sort. Error and corruption must have shrunk into their native darkness before the awful majesty of Truth, had not Truth been veiled from the eyes of man by the proscription of his reason, and corrupted to suit the corrupt taste which such proscription had engendered. Besides the imposing ceremonies that have been forced upon the simple religion of Jesus besides the mysterious air it has been made to as sume-besides the senseless dogmas that have been associated with its doctrines, it was thought necessary, in order to complete and to consolidate the work of corruption, to destroy the free constitution and the equitable laws which Jesus had given for the government of his kingdom, and to substitute others in their place eminently fitted to annihilate the liberties of those who submitted to them, and to secure the interests of those who administered them. It was the suspicion of this which led a few humble individuals, some years ago, to search the early and authentic records of Christianity, in order to ascertain what was the constitution, what the government and laws, of the church of God in primitive times, when it existed under the eye of its founders and legislators, and ere its delicate and beautiful machinery was impaired by time, or broken by the rude hand of priestly interference and interested policy. Their labour was amply repaid-a beautiful fabric rose to view, not the work of man, but of God-built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. In the constitution of the Christian church, they discovered a perfect law of liberty-not that liberty which is inconsistent with order and restraint, but which was produced and secured by wise and liberal laws, appointed by Deity, and arising out of the reason and necessity of things; and they at once applied these laws to the regulation of their conduct as the followers of Jesus, and as the willing subjects of Deity, their sovereign and their father. The work which is now presented to the Public, is but the transcript of those laws by which they have long been governed, and from which they have derived the most invaluable blessings-they have been tried and approved by experience, and are now submitted to the world, not as any thing new, but as a faithful sketch of church discipline and government, as far as can be collected from the writings of the New Testament. Some there are who consider that Christians have the right of making whatever laws they may consider necessary for the government of the Church. The principle which goes to assert the right of those who are governed, having the power to make or to alter the laws by which they are governed, is certainly a good one as far as it is accepted in preference to that power being vested in the hands of a few, who have no interests in common with the people. It is, however, defective-for, after all, the most free and enlightened philosophers are compelled to acknowledge, that the people themselves have neither Virtue or knowledge sufficient to frame laws which shall promote and secure their own well being. This evil-both these evils-are obviated in the constitution of the Christian Church; its laws were dictated neither by the few nor the many; it is of all others the most perfect form of government-a theocracy-a government by God himself! To require then the liberty of altering or amending these laws, is to require a check upon Omnipotence-is contending for the veto over the Maker of heaven and earth! But the laws of the Christian church are not found engraven upon stones, like the Jewish laws; and it is inferred that they were not intended for after ages, |