It is true indeed that sound doctrines
also, and valuable precepts, may in this
way find admittance with some, who might
otherwise have rejected them ; but while
this advantage is enjoyed by truth and
falsehood alike, we cannot but acknowledge
(if we allow truth to be in itself the stronger)
that whatever tends thus to put them on a
level, is, on the whole, less favorable to the
cause of truth, than of error. Not to men-
tion that what is thus admitted in the mass,
without separate attention and exarain-

E 4



56 PARTY-SPIRIT. Lect. II

ation, even though it chance to be true and
right, cannot have the same beneficial effect
on the mind as if it were left to stand on its
own claims, and were received ^ecazf^e it is
true and right.
And hence, it is a great recommendation
of our Church, that She appeals in all
things to the Scriptures, the only coUeq|;ion
of unmixed and infallible truth ; and chal-
lenges a trial of her doctrines and practices,
both collectively and separately, by that
test. Had She (like the Church of Rome)
demanded unhesitating assent to them on
her own authority, even though She had
been free from all the errors which, in that
church, have be^ blended with the truth,
and as it were sanctified by their union
with it, still our belief and our practice
would not have been so properly scriptural,
nor so profitable to ourselves *.
