ay
follow on attacking the characters of men, especially of those who are
ministers of the gospel; and if, through a mixture of human frailty, from
which the best of men, in the best of their meanings and intentions, are
not entirely free, he had ever, in the warmth of his heart, dropped a
word which might be injurious to any on that account, (which I believe
very seldom happened,) he would gladly retract it on better information;
and this was perfectly agreeable to that honest and generous frankness of
temper in which I never knew any man who excelled him.

On the whole, it was indeed his deliberate judgment that the Arian,
Socinian, and Pelagian doctrines were highly dishonourable to God, and
dangerous to the souls of men; and that it was the duty of private
Christians to be greatly on their guard against those ministers by whom
they are entertained, lest their minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. Yet he sincerely abhorred the thought of
persecution for conscience sake; of the absurdity and iniquity of which,
in all its kinds and degrees, he had as deep and rational a conviction as
any man. Indeed the generosity of his heroic heart could hardly bear to
think that those glorious truths which he so cordially loved, and which
he assuredly believed to be capable of such fair support both from reason
and the word of God, should be disgraced by methods of defence and
propagation common to the most impious and ridiculous falsehoods. Nor did
he by any means approve of passionate and furious ways of vindicating the
most vital and important doctrines of the gospel; for he knew that to
maintain the most benevolent religion in the world by such malevolent and
infernal methods was destroying the end to accomplish the means; and that
it was as impossible that true Christianity should be supported thus, as
it is that a man should long be nourished by eating his own flesh. To
display the genuine fruits of Christianity in a good life--to be ready to
plead with meekness for the doctrines it teaches, and to labour, by every
office of humanity and goodness, to gain upon those who oppose it, were
the weapons with which this good soldier of Jesus Christ faithfully
fought the battles of the Lord. These weapons will always be victorious
in his cause; and they who have recourse to others of a different temper,
how strong soever they may seem, and how sharp soever they may really be,
will find them break in their han