Your fears are awakened for the _purity_ of the church:—I am certainly more tender of her _purity_ than I am of her _dignity_; and that because I have been taught to regard her _white raiment_ as her truest _glory_. But what defilement has she to apprehend from a co-operation with persons differing from her, in an object upon which they are agreed? If Socinians are to be feared, if Calvinists are to be shunned, I question whether the Bible Society will furnish dangers nearly so great as those which the established church incurs from members of her own communion. Socinians are not remarkable for their zeal in promoting the circulation of the Scriptures; and I question whether half a dozen of them have subscribed their names as members of the Bible Society. As for the Calvinists, they constitute, it must be remembered, only a proportion of those denominations which are represented in the committee. The Wesleian Methodists are not _Calvinists_; many of the Presbyterians are not _Calvinists_; the Quakers are not _Calvinists_; the Lutherans are not _Calvinists_; and individuals of other persuasions, which might be named, are not _Calvinists_. Besides, though “scratchings and fightings” may be “usual with the parties when on the outside of the tavern walls,” {50} that is not a reason for there being theological wranglings within. The line of business is, with few exceptions, as direct at the Bible Committee as it is at Lloyd’s; and there is as little reason to expect the peculiar tenets of Calvin or Socinus to enter into a debate for dispersing an edition of the Scriptures, as there would be if the same men were met to underwrite a policy of insurance. But why may it not be hoped that churchmen will not be the only losers by this connexion? What if some of _us_ should grow less proud and phlegmatic, may not some of _them_ become less snarlish and fanatical? The friction which takes off our asperities will assuredly do the same by theirs. It is therefore highly probable, that we may severally bring away with us our faith, our hope, and our charity, which are all we wish to save; and leave nothing behind us but that “bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, and malice,” {51a} which can very well be spared.