162 ON NOVEL OPINIONS conveyed to any distance, and infect the patient, though he had never come in contact with him from whose eruption it was taken. " It is time for thee, Lord, to lay to thine hand, for they have de- stroyed thy law !" But it is not the entertaining a dange- rous opinion, it is this rage for proselyt- ing to new opinions, which constitutes the most malignant part of the mischief ; an erroneous doctrine not propagated, hurts none but him who holds it ; but by propagating it to unsettle the minds of multitudes, to deteriorate the Gospel, and to disturb the peace and unity of the church, is surely no light evil, especially in a country like ours, proverbial for its credulity and love of novelty ; and in a church like ours, which has been re- formed, sifted, and purified, beyond the example of any other in the Christian world. The everlasting edifice of the Gospel is founded on a rock, whose stability neither storms can shake, nor waves
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