ame set of doctrines with
only immaterial varieties; they no longer accept their articles in the
sense of the original framers. The body at large has contracted the
immoral taint; the whole head is sick; any remaining soundness is not
with the acquiescent mass, but with the out-spoken individuals. In such
a state of things, ordinary rules are inapplicable. There is a sort of
paralysis of authority, an uncertainty whether to punish or to wink at
flagrant heresy. To say in such a case that the relaxation of the creed
is not a thing to be proposed, is to confess, like Livy on the condition
of Rome, that we can endure neither our vices nor their remedies.

Too much has at all times been made of individual divergences from the
established creed. The influence of a solitary preacher smitten with the
love of heretical peculiarity has been grossly overrated. The assumption
is, that his own flock will, as a matter of course, follow their
shepherd; that is to say, the adhesion of individual congregations to
the creed of the Church depends upon its being faithfully reproduced by
their regular minister. Such is not by any means the fact; the creed of
the members of a Church is not at the mercy of any passing influence.
It has been engrained by a plurality of influences; one man did not make
it, and one man cannot unmake it. Moreover, allowance should be made for
the spirit of opposition found in Church members, as well as in other
people.

[INDIVIDUAL DIVERGENCES UNIMPORTANT.]

It may be said that persons ought not to be subjected to the annoyance
of hearing attacks upon their hereditary tenets, in which they expect
to be more and more confirmed by their spiritual teacher. This is of
course, in itself, an evil. We are not to expect ordinary men to
recognise the necessity of listening to the arguments against their
views, in order to hold these all the stronger. If this height were
generally reached, every Church would invite, as a part of its
constituted machinery, a representative of all the heresies afloat; a
certain number of its ministers should be the avowed champions of the
views most opposed to its own--_advocati diaboli_, so to speak. There
would then be nothing irregular in the retention of converts from its
own number to these other doctrines. It would be, however, altogether
improper to found any argument on the supposition of such a state of
matters.

It is an incident of every institution made up of a large collect