of the convenience of this learned language, I may remark, how very necessary it is, in a judicatory, which, in fact, holds plenary powers, both legislative, judicial and executive. But,

Secondly, It is not to be understood that every member in this court, can suddenly rise to this great attainment. Many heavy, plodding men, of mere plain common sense, have the infelicity never to be able to acquire this skill. They must jog on as they can, but they never can hope to arrive at eminence, or place their feet on the shoulders of others; of course, they can neither shove those above them, nor rise from the dead level of the base of the pyramid-can never become good pres byterians.

I have often heard it remarked, that a man who means to acquire influence, must be active in the judicatories of the church; and this notion seems to be the main spring of action. The skill of which I am speaking, is the grand desideratum. There is one art, it is said, in which some men never can acquire skill.* Enough, however, can acquire this juridical skill, to give tone to the system, to take a decided preëminence, and to inspire a much larger number with emulation.

Parliamentary business has one dialect, courts of justice another, theologians a third; common, civil, statute, and cannon laws, have distinct phrases, and separate courts; but in the court before us, they all unite the spirit of their maxims, and the concentrated and rectified science of their language. But it is the superlative felicity of a few men, a few, very few rare spirits, to exhibit perfect models here. I have them this moment in my eye;

"Eloquar, an sileam ?"

Were not the admiration of men a principle of absolute levity, they carry enough of it about them, to crush Hercules, Sampson, or Atlas. But light as it is, I fear to load them with more; I shall therefore be silent.

But though I must not speak names, I surely may give some lines, perhaps filled with a little mezzotinto, in doing which I shall feel an inward satisfaction, and, perhaps, give to some a de

gree of the same sort of pleasure, while I discharge a debt of justice.

I fancy some oracle of ecclesiastical jurisprudence rising slowly from his seat. Ah! 'tis he-it is the venerable Dr. Stambaugus! While he lays back his foretop, and raises and waves his hand, to put the humeri extensores in tune for harmonious action; while the ophthalmic muscles, with awful convergence, point the visual ray level, beneath a superciliary nexus of majesty and thought, as when the sun from the eastern horizon shows half its orb beneath a line of darkness, an attention spreads that would almost render thoughts audible, and give an echo to silence itself. He speaks!

"Mr. Moderator,

"When I consider the dignity of the chair you fill, which dignity it derives from the dignity of HIM who fills it, who is promoted by the dignitaries of the church, to be the chief dignitary of all the dignitaries of this ECCLESIASTICAL COURT, I feel myself dignified, while I dignify you, Sir, who are dignified by those whom all men dignify. Sir, I rise to move you, that there be a commission instituted, and a committee appointed, to prepare and report a bill, to this house, relative to the regulation of forms of business, the arrangement of precedents, and the revision and enlargement of law phrases: the object of which is to lay a broader foundation for juridical science. And furthermore, Sir, if this motion shall prevail, and be carried into effect, I have it in contemplation to introduce another motion, which I move may be the order of the day for next Monday, the object of which shall be to establish a seminary of ecclesiastical or canon law, in which there shall be three professorships: the first, to form into a body of reports the decisions of all judicatories, drawn from their records and judgment rolls; the second, from these reports, and from our standards, to form regular digests, pandects, or codices legum ecclesiasticorum; the third, to arrange and complete a Lexicon of legal terms and phrases, to be entitled, Lexicon verborum theologiorum ecclesiasticorumque and furthermore, that, provided this motion shall prevail, to move for the order of the day on Tuesday, that the theological course of every candi

date for licensure shall be completed by four years instruction, under these professors, which I presume every one will perceive to be of vital importance to the ministerial character."

Though I have stated the above motions merely as possible specimens of court deliberation, yet, the reader will readily perceive that there is far more than mere imagination in all this. How grand would be the æra, when professors, fellowships, and colleges of ecclesiastical law, shall be established. These canon laws would, probably, soon derive a concurrent jurisdiction with all other laws of the country. We shall not then see such bungling, as we now often see with blushes, or with regret. Our young divines will come forth skilful and accomplished lawyers, and our ecclesiastical judicatories will open a wide and splendid field of parliamentary eloquence and taleuts. But,

2. The good presbyterian will never fail, in all the revolutions of court business, in all debates, appointments, elections, influences, manœuvres, ruses de guerres, coup de mains, forlorn hopes, and extremities of court management, I will not say intrigue, to maintain firmly, magnanimously, gloriously, nay, furiously, and desperately, the power and prerogative of the clergy. And what can be more just, more excellent, more necessary. Who ought to have power but men possessed of holiness? Are they not born to rule? And where is authority so well coupled as with wisdom and justice? Are they not formed and fitted to govern? Behold their gravity, their meekness, their candour, their wisdom, their tender regard for the welfare of all below them, their magnanimous mercy, and disinterested benevolence !

A congregation may have an anxious desire to settle a certain minister; but a body of clergymen may know better than to gratify that desire. An infant will sometimes cry, and be very petulent, because a careful and tender nurse keeps its fingers out of the candle. It is often so with congregations of people; their wishes are nothing; and what do they know? It is for their good to be always subject to the high and infallible decision of every ecclesiastical court," IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER"-a boon, though denied the King of Great Britain, can

not be denied a reverend clergyman.

A majority is nothing

in the eye of the law; since it is well known that the minority is often on the right side of the question.

3. In the ecclesiastical courts, the good presbyterian is known by his inviolable adherence to forms. And this, in the present state of business, is a most difficult affair to manage, and will so remain till legal professorships are instituted. Where the standard prescribes no form, and where no direct order of a higher judicatory can be adduced that will touch the case, I have sometimes seen the strongest indications of a brown study on many countenances. In these distressing caBes, some master-spirit always affords relief by recollecting a precedent.

The ancient advocates of the doctrine of substantial forms, used to say, "If it is important that a thing should be done, it is equally so, that it should be done in some manner-that it should have some form." Is there not reason in that argument ? Can a hat exist without the form of a hat? Forms are as essential as things, and I suspect that the doctrine of substantial forms will soon be revived. Why should we spurn and disparage the old philosophers, and extol and revere the old divines? It is absurd, and there is, no doubt, as much merit, in certain respects, in the one class as the other.

Such glorious displays of invincible, inviolable attachment to forms as I have seen! Reader, it would do your heart good, to see the like; it would, I aver, exalt your opinion of human nature. The principle of uniformity is one of the grandest of all nature's harmonies. When a thing is once done, it should always be done in the same manner, and then people may know how to do it. No possible improvement can countervail the beauty and uniformity of sameness. The man that sticks to this principle, in the judicatories of the church, cannot but rise to greatness; and I, in fact, know some men who are toiling and climbing to the high and distant eminence of the double D, by dint of nothing else. Men, whose minds are naturally dull flat, insipid, and inelastic as a piece of slate, by constantly and strenuously pressing formality of proceeding, become, at length, highly distinguished, in the spiritual court :-Moderator of a Sy

nod--Moderator of the General Assembly-Doctor-Professor

any thing very thing

"His countenance like

The morning star, that guides the starry flock,

Allur'd them, and drew after him a third

Part of heaven's host."

Nothing makes a man appear so great, so reverend, so wise. He becomes, at once, a sacred diplomatist--a he-goat of the flock; though these terms may not seem to agree. He is skilful; he is ready; he is every where the fac totum. " Quod dicendum-dicit-faciendum-facit." Common sense, when set in competition to form, appears foolishness; reason no better than madness, and all the rules of expediency, like David's ser vants, under the shears of Hanun, king of Moab, glad to keep out of court till their beards are grown, or, at any rate, till they oan get longer garments.

4. The last thing I shall mention is the wonderful faculty of some great leaders to vindicate all their doctrines, all their opinions, all the rules, proceedings, forms, decisions, and decrees of ecclesiastical courts, by their standard, consisting of a few duodecimo pages; and this is done with perfect promptitude and convincing perspicuity. There must be a ductility in the standard which surpasses all example. I do not say that every man, or even every man of talents can do this: it is the rare felicity of a few men whose genius must be as plastic as the law book itself. A small piece of gold, says Lewenhoeck, will gild a wire that will reach round the globe; but these moral ductilities seem, for aught I can perceive, to be absolutely infinite. But to arrive at this happy talent, the ecclesiastical civilian must explore the standard with the eyes of Archimedes, many times, before he shall be able to pronounce the joyful “Esgio, Eigionw.”

Before I close on this article, I would barely suggest, whe ther it would not be better to have the bible used in a more re stricted manner. It is an exceedingly sacred book, and very liable to perversion. If every man be allowed to read it for himself, and be his own expositor, there will certainly be a diversity of opinions both in doctrine and discipline; and many people will be continually differing from the standard. All ex