With the home influences which I have described, it may be readily
imagined that my young mind turned very much upon the subject of
religion, the more so as my father and mother took different views upon
it. The old Puritan soldier held that the bible alone contained all
things essential to salvation, and that though it might be advisable
that those who were gifted with wisdom or eloquence should expound the
Scriptures to their brethren, it was by no means necessary, but rather
hurtful and degrading, that any organised body of ministers or of
bishops should claim special prerogatives, or take the place of
mediators between the creature and the Creator. For the wealthy
dignitaries of the Church, rolling in their carriages to their
cathedrals, in order to preach the doctrines of their Master, who wore
His sandals out in tramping over the countryside, he professed the most
bitter contempt; nor was he more lenient to those poorer members of the
clergy who winked at the vices of their patrons that they might secure a
seat at their table, and who would sit through a long evening of
profanity rather than bid good-bye to the cheesecakes and the wine
flask. That such men represented religious truth was abhorrent to his
mind, nor would he even give his adhesion to that form of church
government dear to the Presbyterians, where a general council of the
ministers directed the affairs of their church. Every man was, in his
opinion, equal in the eyes of the Almighty, and none had a right to
claim any precedence over his neighbour in matters of religion.
The book was written for all, and all were equally able to read it,
provided that their minds were enlightened by the Holy Spirit.

My mother, on the other hand, held that the very essence of a church was
that it should have a hierarchy and a graduated government within
itself, with the king at the apex, the archbishops beneath him, the