*4. Do you think now, I have an eye to _your_ case? Doubtless I have; for I do not fight as one that beateth the air. “Why have not I a right to hinder my own wife or child, from going to a conventicle? And is it not the duty of wives to obey their husbands? And of children to obey their parents?” Only set the case seventeen hundred years back, and your own conscience gives you the answer. What would St. _Paul_ have said to one whose husband forbade her, to follow _this way_ any more? What directions would our Saviour have given to him whose father enjoined him, not to hear the gospel? His words are extant still, _He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me._ (Matthew x. 37, 38.) Nay more, _If any man cometh to me, and hateth not_ (in comparison of me) _his father, and mother, and wife, and children, yea and his own life, he cannot be my disciple_. (Luke xiv. 26.)
*“O, but this is not a parallel case. For they were _Heathens_; but I am a _Christian_.” A Christian! Are you so? Do you understand the word? Do you know what a Christian is? If you are a Christian, you have the mind that was in Christ; and you so walk as he also walked. You are holy as he is holy, both in heart, and in all manner of conversation. Have you then the mind that was in Christ? And do you walk as Christ walked? Are you inwardly and outwardly holy? I fear, not even outwardly. No; you live in known sin. Alas! How then are you a Christian? What a railer, a Christian? A common swearer, a Christian? A sabbath-breaker, a Christian? A drunkard or whoremonger, a Christian? Thou art a Heathen barefaced; the wrath of God is on thy head, and the curse of God upon thy back. Thy damnation slumbereth not. By reason of such Christians it is that the holy name of Christ is blasphemed. Such as thou they are, that cause the very savages in the _Indian_ woods to cry out, “_Christian_ much drunk, _Christian_ beat men, _Christian_ tell lies, _Devil-Christian_! Me no _Christian_.”
*And so _thou_ wilt direct thy wife and children in the way of salvation!――Woe unto thee, thou Devil-Christian! Woe unto thee thou blind leader of the blind! What wilt thou make them? Two-fold more the children of hell than thyself? Be ashamed, blush, if thou canst blush. Hide thy face. Lay thee in the dust. Out of the deep cry unto God, if haply he may hear thy voice. Instantly smite upon thy breast. Who knoweth but God may take thee out of the belly of hell?
*5. “But you are not one of these. You fear God, and labour to have a conscience void of offence. And it is from a principle of _conscience_, that you restrain your wife and children from hearing _false doctrine_.” But how do you know it is false doctrine? Have you heard for yourself? Or, if you have not heard, have you carefully read what we have occasionally answered for ourselves? A man of conscience cannot condemn any one unheard. This is not common humanity. Nor will he refrain from hearing what _may be_ the truth, for no better reason than fear of his reputation. Pray observe, I do not say, every man (or any man) is obliged in conscience to hear us. But I do say, every man in _England_ who condemns us, is obliged to hear us first. This is only common justice, such as is not denied to a thief or a murderer. Take your choice therefore. Either hear us, or condemn us not. Either speak nothing at all, or hear before you speak.
But suppose you have both read and heard _more than you like_: Did you read and hear fairly? Was not you loaden with prejudice? Did you not read or hear, _expecting no good_; perhaps desiring to find fault? If so, what wonder you judge as you do? What a poor mock-trial is this? You had decided the cause in your own breast, before you heard one word of the evidence. And still do _you_ talk of acting out of conscience? Yea, a conscience void of offence?
*We will put the case farther yet. Suppose your censure was just, and this was actually false doctrine. Still every one must give an account of himself to God: and you cannot _force_ the conscience of any one. You cannot _compel_ another, to see as you see. You ought not to attempt it. Reason and persuasion are the only weapons you ought to use, even toward your own wife and children. Nay, and it is impossible to _starve_ them into conviction, or to _beat_ even truth into their head, You may _destroy_ them, in this way, but cannot _convert_ them. Remember what our own poet has said,
“By force beasts act and are by force restrain’d; The human mind by gentle means is gain’d. Thou canst not take, what I refuse to yield: Nor reap the harvest, tho’ thou spoilst the field.”