And a large portion of church |6gi8latio,n is done by the Cler¬ gy, who, in alniost every age of the church, have been after power. Ilonce their complicated systems of church government, in which the'largest pos¬ sible amount of power is held by them.
And now, "Wero the whole Chris¬ tian world to revert back to the origi¬ nal model, (given by Christ and his Apostles) bow far more simple, uni¬ form, and beautiful would the church appear, and ho-w far more agreeable to the ecclesiastical polity instituted by the holy Apostles/"—President Stiles.
The body, or Church of Christ is one —itis a oohsolidated unit, and it is composed of all living, active, obedient believers, in the Messiah, as the sent of the Eternal Eather, such as are de¬ votionaland obedient to the divine comnaandments, as found in the reveal¬ ed word of God, and not the tech¬ nical dogndas, as found in the dif¬ ferent creeds of men, which do not agree among themselves, on many im¬ portant points, and the most of them differ widely, in niany things from re¬ vealed truth.
If they would only consent to re¬ vert back to the Heaven-conceived, und original model instituted by Christ and his holy Apostles, thou the church would appear more uniform and beau¬ tiful than what it docs in its present distorted condition, with so many forms of church government, standing out in bold and defiant opposition to each other, and forming so many tests of what is termed evangelical fellow¬ ship. I presume that all