ation were then preached, as they ought to be now, to the poor and
ignorant without fear that what is truly the Gospel can be dangerously
misapprehended, and without intimation that the faith needs the
interpretation of fallible understandings, or the guardianship of human
wisdom.

If we believed (which we do not) that error in matters of faith could of
itself endanger salvation,--_i. e._ exclude from the happiness of a
future state,--we should be convinced that those were much more liable
to error who adopted the faith after it had passed through a fallible
mind, than those who received it from Christ himself, speaking directly,
as in fact he does, in the faithful records which the Bible presents.
And the more feeble and ignorant the recipient mind, the more liable
will it be to admit the errors of others, as well as to originate some
of its own. While, if referred to the sacred volume itself for his
faith, a man is in danger of entertaining no errors but his own. However
imperfect his mental vision may be, he is thus more likely to behold the
object in its true form and colors, than by the interposition of a
faulty medium. If it be objected that the medium, so far from being
faulty, corrects the imperfections of the natural faculty, we ask for
the test of its possessing this quality, and for the proof that it was
ever conferred.

But, being convinced, for reasons given before, that the possession of
the true faith is not an indispensable requisite for future happiness,
and that the non-possession of it is not to be followed by eternal
misery, or by any arbitrary infliction whatever, we cannot admit the
plea of care for the souls of men as any reason or excuse for trenching
on the natural liberty of the mind, or prescribing opinions which Christ
himself only administered the means of forming, and which his Apostles
presumed not to impose. Purity of faith is the most exalted attainment
of the most exalted mind,--the richest of the myriads of rich blessings
which the Father of our spirits has placed within our reach. It should
be sought as the most precious of all treasures; it should be guarded as
the most sacred of all trusts: but though it may be won by any, it can
be communicated by none. It is the especial reward of individual search,
and loses its very nature by being transferred: for that which is truth
to a man who has discovered it for himself, can be truth to another man
only so far as his faculties are exerci