Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/267

In these circumstances, I cannot help thinking that Dr. Balguy is unreasonably severe upon the members of his own church, and expects too much from them, when he says, p. 4. "It might well have been expected, that the members of the English church should have seen farther, and judged better (than to consult the scriptures for what is not to be found in it, with respect to church government) because this church, even from its foundation, has been carefully instructed on these very points by some of its ablest defenders. But so capricious is the public taste," &c. Had these ablest defenders of the church defended her upon the same principles, and upon the same general maxims of church power, this writer's censures might have been just; for, by a proper degree of attention and deference to such instructors, they might have been long ago well grounded in this important branch of knowledge. But he only says that some of the ablest defenders of the church, not all of them have instructed her so carefully. And were the members of the