If we were to know nothing of this assembly but by its title and
function, no colours could paint to the imagination anything more
venerable. In that light the mind of an inquirer, subdued by such an
awful image as that of the virtue and wisdom of a whole people collected
into one focus, would pause and hesitate in condemning things even of
the very worst aspect. Instead of blameable, they would appear
only mysterious. But no name, no power, no function, no artificial
institution whatsoever, can make the men of whom any system of authority
is composed, any other than God, and nature, and education, and their
habits of life have made them. Capacities beyond these the people have
not to give. Virtue and wisdom may be the objects of their choice; but
their choice confers neither the one nor the other on those upon whom
they lay their ordaining hands. They have not the engagement of nature,
they have not the promise of revelation, for any such power.