He dissented equally from the school of Laud and from the school of Cameron, from the men who held that there could not be a Christian Church without Bishops, and from the men who held that there could not be a Christian Church without synods.

Which form of government should be adopted was in his judgment a question of mere expediency.

He would probably have preferred a temper between the two rival systems, a hierarchy in which the chief spiritual functionaries should have been something more than moderators and something less than prelates.

But he was far too wise a man to think of settling such a matter according to his own personal tastes.

He determined therefore that, if there was on both sides a disposition to compromise, he would act as mediator.