THE VOLUNTARY CONTROVERSY. 347 



and malevolence. But what, you ask, is all this to the 

 purpose ? Much. Let us try whether we cannot ascend 

 the several terraces, and catch a glimpse from each 

 of them of the question now agitating the Church. 

 Prom the first we see a scene of contention and uproar ; 

 much good feeling lost and much bad argument found ; 

 the Christian sunk in the politician, and the peace of the 

 Gospel swallowed up amid the dissensions of the Churches. 

 We reach the second terrace, and the view begins to 

 open. We see in both parties the good and the bad 

 linked together by a common cause, and grown careless 

 of that only true and legitimate distinction which had 

 hitherto held them apart, we see the infidel and the 

 Christian dissenter united on the one side, the cold- 

 blooded hireling and the useful minister on the other. 

 Could the old deceiver have fallen on a more ingenious 

 stratagem for neutralizing the effects of Christianity than 

 this of binding together the dead and the living ? Let 

 us now ascend, but with becoming reverence, the sum- 

 mit of the eminence. The view expands ; we see that 

 the effervescence below, however unconscious the dis- 

 cordant elements which produce it, is tending to good, 

 to the purification of an excellent and venerable 

 Church, which, however, like that of Pergamos, has its 

 "few things " that are evil. The whole structure is 

 assailed, and the unsolid parts of it must fall. The 

 good, not the wealthy or titled, must choose its teachers, 

 the hireling must resign his stipend, the Arminian 

 quit his pulpit. 



* In copying forme you cannot, as you truly observe, 

 go far wrong. Our tastes may, perhaps, vary in some of 

 their decisions, but they are evidently of the same family. 

 Collins 7 beautiful Ode on the Superstitions of the High- 

 lands I have seen, but not for the last ten years. I 



