this principle is the same throughout: as it was with the primitive Christians,--as it was with so many of the most pious and active men of the Middle Ages,--as it has been with the Methodists,--so it was with those of whom I speak. They began their work--"in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." Voluntaryism, so far as it affected Puritanism, did not contribute to its weakness, but to its strength; yet amongst those who professed Voluntaryism, as amongst those who adopted different views, there appeared an element which proved injurious to them all. It was dis-union--it was strife. If the Crusading knights had been of one mind, it is a question, whether, in the end, they would have retained mastery over the Mussulmen; but certainly they stood no chance whilst feuds were rife in the Camp of the Cross. The same may be said of the Puritans. It would have been hard enough, with the utmost concentration of force, to bear down opposition; but amidst their own discords it became simply impossible. Presbyterians were of different shades of opinion, and they were not without mutual jealousies. But their hatred of what they stigmatized as Sectarianism appears scarcely less than their hatred of Prelacy, or even of Romanism; in some minds abhorrence existed equally in reference to all three. The sects were not behindhand in their mutual antipathies, and were by no means gentle in their collisions. Independents, Baptists, and Quakers, to mention no others--I speak of them all generally--did anything but keep "the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace." The apostolic warning betokened evil to Puritan Christendom in England--"If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." Yet those whose eyes are open to discern the defects in principle and temper of the ecclesiastical organizations of the Long Parliament and the Commonwealth, can also see that Puritanism has bequeathed to English Christendom a precious legacy of religious freedom. That spirit has not only wrought out modern Free Churches--which, whatever may be men's opinions on ecclesiastical questions, must be admitted by everyone to be efficient powers in spreading Christianity at home and abroad, and in exerting beneficial influences of many kinds upon society at large--but that spirit has also leavened, to a large extent, other communities not based upon what is called the voluntary principle. Toleration, for which the Independents struggled under Cromwell, won a victory in 1688--an imperfect victory it is true, but still precious; and the toleration then established opened the way for the progress now advancing along the paths of mutual religious justice. Puritanism presents another--a _spiritual_ aspect--under which it has exercised an influence more vigorous and salutary than it has done in any other way.