PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

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and if Toleration. 421
(·:'SS of the measure itself, a~';l)ciations for the support
of Christian worship and instr~lction would neither be
numerous nor long continued? The devout and pious
might lament in vain the want or the distance of a religious
assembly: theycould not form or maintain one,
without the concurrence of neighbours, who felt nei ..
ther their zeal nor their liberality.
1 .From the difficulty with which congregations i
. would be established and upheld upon the I(}o/u/itary ~
,- plan, let us carry otlr thoughts to the condition of '
I thQse whe arc to officiate in them. Preaching, in
time 41 "Tould become a mode of begging. With whati
sincerity,orwith what dignity, can a preacher dispense
the truths of Christianity, whose thoughts are perpetually
solicited to the reflection how he may increase
his subsc.ription? His eloquence, if he possess
any, resembles rather the exihibition of a player who
is computing the proffits of his theatre, than the sim.
plicity of a man, who, feeling himself the awful expectations
of reliI?;ion, is seeking to bring others to
such a sense and understanding of their duty as may
save their souls. Moreover, a }itt1e experience of
the ~po$ition of the common people will in every
country informs us, that it is one thing to edify them
in Christian knowledge, and another to gratify their
taste for vehement impassioned oratory; that he;]­
not onlywhose success, but whose subsistence depends
llpon collecting and p}ea~ing a crowd 41 must resort to
{1,her arts th~ln the acquirenlent and comrnunication
of sober and profirable instruction. j.'(,r., pr~acher
ta be thus at the mercy of his Cludienc r , to be (:bliged
to adapt his doctrines to the pleasure of a capriciou~
multitude, to be continua1ly affecting a ~tyle and
nl~llner neirher natural to him, nor agreeable to 11is
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