921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Rev. Samuel /4/'hiling. I 15
as one of the most famous councils ever con-
vened in the country. Few of its proceedings
have been recorded. Over its deliberations
Mr. Samuel Whiting of Lynn is believed to
have presided: a place for which his mind and
manners were most happily adapted; and to
similar places he was often called, as it were, by
common consent. It does not appear that this
famous synod was able to settle any thing.
Some of its troubles were about proper subjects
for baptism, and a ' Consociation of Churches.'"
It would have been well if all the synods had
come to the same result, better if they had
forborne the attempt " to settle any thing,"
and best if they had allowed each individual to
entertain his own opinions, without interfer-
ence of the civil or ecclesiastical authorities.
Though this effort to make the clergy the
instruments of their own subjection to the ex-
ecutive and legislative branches of government
ended in a complete failure, it was but a short
time before an attempt was made by one of the
civil courts to interfere with the church disci-
pline of Mr. Whiting's society at Lynn.