THE

VOLUNTARY SYSTEM.

BY THE

REV. S. R. MAITLAND.

"While some hearers, like the foolish Corinthians, may be every now and
then exclaiming, 'I'am for such and such preaching, and such a preacher;'
and others, I am for another:' and some preachers themselves, I should
like such a people,' which God has not given them,-Does it not appear to
savour of more sound wisdom and true faith in God to be able to say, I am
for that preacher or that people which he has appointed and provided for me;
because he knows better than myself how to suit me; and if I cannot be
happy, satisfied, and benefitted with his provision and appointment, neither
shall I with my own?" The one is to be carnal, and walk and talk as men ;
the other is to be spiritual, and to walk as Christians."

Evan. Mag. 1807, p. 168.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD,

AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.

PREFACE.

THE following Letters originally appeared in the Gloucestershire Chronicle, under these circumstances:-After an absence of three months from Gloucester, I returned near the end of March, 1834. During almost two months of that time, a controversy had been carried on in the Gloucester Journal, originated by a letter from the Rev. Mr. Burder, of Stroud, in the form of an advertisement, in that paper for February 8th. I do not think that during the whole time of my absence, I saw a copy of the Gloucester Journal. Certainly,I was not one of the parties who wrote in it; and I should even now be at a loss to assign real names to all the letters which appeared under the signatures of" A Friend to full and fair Statements," 66 Philo," "An