[An indiscreet conduct, even where the person's intentions on the whole are good, will involve him in many difficulties, and rob him of those supports and consolations which under other circumstances he might enjoy. True it is, that the wisest demeanour will not avail to root out prejudice, or to make religion lovely in the eyes of carnal men : for the children of darkness cannot but hate the light : and our blessed Lord him- self, in whose conduct not the slightest fault or error could be found, was an object of universal hatred to the whole Jewish nation. But it is no less true, that imprudence in religious characters calls forth against them, and, in appearance, justifies, the malignity of many, who, if their zeal had been better regu- lated, would never have raised their arm against it. Many parents, masters, magistrates, who would never have interposed their authority to obstruct a prudent exercise of religion, have been induced to exert their power in consequence of the indis- cretion of those whom they were constrained to oppose. In such cases their opposition can scarcely be called persecution ; nor can the cross which the sufferers are called to bear, be called " the cross of Christ :" it is their own cross, that they have to bear, and their own folly, that they have to blame. Enthusiasts do indeed persuade themselves that they are suffer- ing for righteousness sake : but having no satisfactory evidence that such is indeed the true ground of their trials, they cannot feel that humble acquiescence in the divine appointments, which, if they had acted a wiser part, would have calmed their spirits, and sweetened their afflictions a.]
2. The benefit of all around us —
[Nothing can be more unreasonable than that men should condemn religion for the faults of those who profess it : but they will do so, and will take occasion from the misconduct of religious people to defame and decry all vital godliness b.
It is of no consequence in their eyes, that the wise and pru- dent condemn the things that are complained of : no ; their adversaries are not disposed to discriminate between the guilty and the innocent : they involve all in the same obloquy : and will bring the faults of former ages as grounds of accusation against those who live in the present day c. Even the errors that were acknowledged and lamented by the persons who in early life committed them, are still adduced as characterizing not only the persons who openly renounced them, but those also who have never in any degree approximated towards themd: and all this is done for the purpose of discrediting
a 1 Pet. ii. 19, 20. and iv. 15, 16. b 2 Pet. ii. 2.
c The errors of the Puritans are imputed to those who profess re- ligion in the present day.
d This is particularly to be noticed in reference to the early journals