ourselves to any human authority in matters of faith, (though whilst it
lasts, it of course affords an effectual check to open scepticism,) does
not ultimately and in very deed prove a far more prolific source of
disguised infidelity. Doubts repressed as they arise, but not solved,
silenced but not satisfied, gradually accumulate in spite of all
external precaution; and at length (like streams pent back by some
temporary barrier) break forth at once to an utter discarding of all
authority, and an irrecoverable rejection of the Christian faith. From
unlimited acquiescence in a guide whom our associations have invested
with infallibility, the step is very short, and frequently taken, to
entire apostasy and the renunciation of all belief.

The state of undisturbed tranquillity and repose in one, who has
divested himself of all responsibility in matters of religious belief
and practice, enjoying an entire immunity from the anxious and painful
labour of trying for himself the purity and soundness of his faith, is
often painted in strong contrast with the {8} lamentable condition of
those who are driven about by every wind of novelty. The condition of
such a man may doubtless be far more enviable than theirs, who have no
settled fixed principles, and who wander from creed to creed, and from
sect to sect, just as their fickle and roving minds suggest some
transitory preference. But the believer must not be driven by the evils
of one extreme to take refuge in the opposite. The whirlpool may be the
more perilous, but the Christian mariner must avoid the rock also, or he
will equally make shipwreck of his faith. He must with all his skill,
and all his might, keep to the middle course, shunning that presumptuous
confidence which scorns all authority, and boldly constitutes itself
sole judge and legislator; but equally rescuing his mind from the
thraldom which prostrates his reason, and paralyzes all the faculties of
his judgment in a matter of indefeasible and awful responsibility.