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    is- elected .-by men * who have their offices for Jife a community is formed , which will have separate interests - 'from the great body of Christians ; and as in-the cbtirrh of Rome wiH introduce that spirit * y £ domination , which is

    compietely opposite to the spirit ot the Ghyismm reVigkm . Incapacity from age , illness , deprivation of senses , arc sufficient objection of themselves to the idea of perpetuity , ' and we wiay aelti too a

    degree of misconduct ^ which might be such as to prevent the Te- election of a person into the o ^ iccy though it would raot be stttKcieiH to procure a resignation without considerable confusion

    and iar > eas * ne 5 S in the society * Perpetuity we therefore lay aside , a& highly inconsistent with the state of Christ ' s kingdom ^ and turn our atteniion to tlie proper titnc for the office to be intrusted

    without danger into a brother ' s -hawis-On this subject , various opinion * will be entertained ^ and there is not the least necessity for

    uniformity . One society may adopt one , and another another mode . Too long a period will subject a society to evils , bordering on those , which perpetuity produces ; too short & tinuf manifests too

    much of a spirit of jealousy . To , me it appears , that three years is all ample time : and if that were adopted , I should recommend , that the person should not he reeligible , till the expiration of two

    years : but I shoald prefer the office being annual , the same person being capable of holding the office for two years together ; after which he should pass a year without any office , and then be re-eligible again to offices * On

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    this however , as J said before , different communities will decide differently . Supposing then that we have fixed on the office to be annual , under the preceding enlargement ,

    the next question is by whom the bishop or president should be ap * pointed , Here is room also for a difference of opinion , It may be left with the - community at large , or with the committee of

    elders . If left with the body at large , there is the danger of a Diotrephes introducing confusion ; and for this reason I am decidedly of opinion , that the choice is bettetf left with the committee of eL

    ders , subject however to the approbation © f the body . The intimate connexion . - between the el * ders and the body will prevent such a trust from being abused ;

    and in fact when we conssdey the nature of the office , aixJ the man-» er in which the elders are to be chosen , it is not likely that arrv danger will arise to the society from this mode of appointment .

    We . have supposed for our com * roifctee a body of ten elders , and they will have to elect according to this plan the bishop or presi , den . t at the annual day of election of officers ^ or at some other day . I should prefer another tiny * that

    the newly elected may be fox some time ttrcder an experienced bishop or president ; and for this reason it appmrs to tne that the secoml quarterly- doy after the election day might be appointed lor this purpose .

    At the meeting of the committee of elders tie bifihop might be elected out of their own . body or out of the general body . It put of their own body he would have a vote in every question a *

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    IS $ On fJte Discipline of a Christian Community . Letter III .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1809, page 192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1735/page/16/