178 ILL EFFECTS OF scaffold and the stake ? Will not the loose and careless be likely to be con- firmed, in impiety, when they see these men, who were fostered in her bosom, who had subscribed to their belief in her articles, who had been warm beyond their fellows in the admiration of her liturgy, her doctrines, and her discipline, - when they see these men not only desert her altars, but take up arms against her ; when they behold a per- petual conflict between Christian mi- nisters P.- for a church that is attacked must be defended - will they not think that an establishment which is so fre- quently assailed, which requires such continual vindication, from which there are so many recent deserters, must needs be an erroneous and unsound church, and even the Scriptures on which it is founded, uncertain, if not false ? What is so likely as this defection to give confidence, without the least in- tention of doing so, to that spirit of infidelity which used to skulk in corners,
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