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PREFACE.
THE READER is here presented with the Observa-
tions on Church Government, promised to the
public three years ago, in the address which accompa-
nied the Last Will and Testament of Springfield Pres-
bytery, in these words--" At their last meeting, they
"undertook to prepare for the press, a piece entitled
"Observations on Church Government, in which the
"world will see the beautiful simplicity of Christian
"Church Government, stript of human inventions and
"lordly traditions. The materials for the above pub-
"lication are in our hands, and we mean to send them
"to the public as soon as curcumstances will admit ; in
"which our reasons for dissolving will more fully ap-
"pear." (See last Will & Test. page 7 & 9.)

Concerning these Obsrvations, several things are
worthy of notice:
I. That they were written in the meridian light of
the Kentucky revival, by those six men whose names
are annexed to the last Will and Testament, and de-
signed as their last legacy to those who had looked upon
them as ministers of the gospel.
2. IT is evident from the Observations, that these
men considered the true primitive power of the Church
Government to have been lost from all the denomina-
nations--that they themselves had it not-- that God was
now about to revive it in these latter days by the mighty
out-pourings of his Spirit -- and that they dissolved their
presbyterial union, which they considered as anti--chris-
tian, in hope of receiving the true power from on high,
when it should be manifested.
Altho' it was contemplated, both before and after the
presbytery dissolved, to have the Observations come for-
ward to the public more full and complete than they ap-
pear at present : and to this end the materials were put