Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fourth day of November, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1826, DAVID ELLIOTT, A. M. of the said District, hath deposited in this office the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit : "Letters, on the General Structure, Government, Laws and Discipline of the Church; embracing some Remarks on Creeds and Confessions of Faith. Addressed to the People of his charge. By David Elliott, A. M. Pastor of the Congregation of Upper West Conococheague, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. 66 Do not ye judge them that are within?"-I. Cor. 5. 12. In conformity to an Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned."—And also to the Act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE. THE following Letters were principally drawn up during the suspension of the author's public labours, for a short season, by a special affliction, which, although it disabled him from preaching, did not altogether destroy his ability to write. Their publication was not determined upon, for some time after they were written, The reason was, the great reluctance which he felt to appear before the public in connection with subjects requiring a much abler pen; as well as the weak state of his health, which almost disqualified him for the revi sion of the manuscript. Nor should they now have been committed to the press, had it not been from a conviction that something of this kind was needed in the particular district of the church, and country in which Providence had cast his lot. For although the several topics here presented, may have been discussed by others, the author had not met with any thing affording a connected and practical view of the principles, developed in the following pages, nor such as appeared suited to the peculiar circumstances of the church in his region. Although brevity has been consulted, the critical reader will occasionally discover the same thoughts illustrated under different forms, in different parts of the work, bearing the appearance of repetition. This, it is hoped, will not be attributed to any want of attention on the part of the author, but to a desire to have his views well understood by those, whose intellectual powers and habits might render them less capable of comprehending them in a more compressed form. In the IV Letter, some of his readers will recognize the substance of a Lecture, delivered, not long since, from the pulpit. It has been altered to comport with the form of the present publication. With regard to the remarks in the VI Letter, on the subject of Creeds and Confessions, in which the Rev. Mr. Duncan's views are opposed, perhaps a word or two of explanation may be necessary. By what has been written on this subject, it is not intended to interfere with the very respectable writer, who has already been engaged in this controversy, and who is fully competent to conduct it to a successful issue. But the author had heard it intimated, that the point respecting the divine warrant for Creeds and Confessions of Faith, on which Mr. D. had laid so much stress, had not received that attention, which its importance in the controversy required. Being sensible that some were in difficulties on this point, he was desirous to relieve their embarrassment, by a developement of the grounds on which, in his opinion, their scriptural character might be sustained. This was the more desirable, as Dr. Miller had intimated his determination to take no farther notice of the subject; and even if he should, those whose conviction is sought in the remarks now submitted, might have no opportunity of perusing his abler productions. It may, also, be here stated, as the intelligent reader will observe, that the subject of Creeds is prosecuted no farther than as it stands connected with church government. The nature of the |