A letter to the author of the pamphlet called An answer [sic] to the…A letter to the author of the pamphlet called An answeer [sic] to the…

You say our Scheme is such as will destroy the Congregational Scheme, because the Platform says, the Government of the Church, since the Coming of CHRIST, is not National, Provincial, nor Classical, but Congregational only: But, Sir, won't it hence follow, on the other Hand, that your Principles are subversive of the congregational Scheme, by insisting that we are under a provincial ecclesiastical Constitution, as you seem to do? In Page 5, you say, in a Word, we don't look upon them (i. e. Associations) to be any Part of the Constitution of these Churches: Page 35, you speak of Mr. Breck's choosing a Method more agreeable to our Constitution; and Page 95, you say your Proceedings are to be justified on the Principles of Liberty, and the Constitution: Now, Sir, How do these Things consist together, that the Government of our Churches should be only Congregational, but the Constitution of Government that they are subject to Provincial? If the Constitution of Government established by Churches be extended beyond the Limits of particular Churches, in that very Thing the ecclesiastical Government they are subject to is extended beyond those Limits; for certainly the making a Constitution of Government for particular Churches to be subject to, is itself an Act of Government if any Thing is. It seems to us that a Number of Churches, limited by the Bounds of a Province, united in and subject to an ecclesiastical Constitution, that is Provincial, is ipso facto a provincial Church; unless the Word Constitution has one Signification in New England and a quite different in other Parts of the World: The Notion of a Constitution is not mere Advice that is left with every ⟨p. 22⟩ones Arbitrament and Pleasure, whether he will follow or not, but something of the Nature of a Rule established by Authority. There can be but these two Ways whereby any Method or Form of Church Discipline, can take Place in a Country or Province, either by a constituting Authority, or voluntary Agreement; if it be only by voluntary Agreement, then it in no wise reaches any more than them that do voluntarily agree, and can't, without a great Abuse of Language, be called a Constitution: A Constitution of ecclesiastical Government can extend no farther than constituting Authority extends;

You say our Scheme is such as will destroy the Congregational Scheme, because the Platform says, the Government of the Church, since the Coming of CHRIST, is not National, Provincial, nor Classical, but Congregational only: But, Sir, won't it hence follow, on the other Hand, that your Principles are subversive of the congregational Scheme, by insisting that we are under a provincial ecclesiastical Constitution, as you seem to do? In Page 5, you say, in a Word, we don't look upon them (i. e. Associations) to be any Part of the Constitution of these Churches: Page 35, you speak of Mr. Breck's chusing a Method more agreeable to our Constitution; and Page 95, you say your Proceedings are to be justified on the Principles of Liberty, and the Constitution: Now, Sir, How do these Things consist together, that the Government of our Churches should be only Congregational, but the Constitution of Government that they are subject to Provincial? If the Constitution of Government establish'd by Churches be extended beyond the Limits of particular Churches, in that very Thing the ecclesiastical Government they are subject to is extended beyond those Limits; for certainly the making a Constitution of Government for particular Churches to be subject to, is itself an Act of Government if any Thing is. It seems to us that a Number of Churches, limited by the Bounds of a Province, united in and subject to an ecclesiastical Constitution, that is Provincial, is ipso facto a provincial Church; unless the Word Constitution has one Signification in New England and a quite different in other Parts of the World: The Notion of a Constitution is not meer Advice that is left with every