ever it may lead us. We concede that a really
dispassionate and patient conduct in this respect is what man is too
ready to assume he has practised,--and this fallacy cannot be too
sedulously guarded against. But that guilty liability to selfdeception,
does not militate against the truth of the representation now made. It
is his duty to see that he does not abuse the maxim,--that he does not
rashly acquiesce in any conclusion that he wishes to be true, or which
he is too lazy to examine. If all possible diligence and honesty have
been exerted in the search, the statement of Chillingworth, bold as
it is, we should not hesitate to adopt, in all the rigour of his own
language. It is to the effect, that if 'in him alone there were a
confluence of all the errors which have befallen the sincere professors
of Christianity, he should not be so much afraid of them, as to ask
God's pardon for them;' absolutely involuntary error being justly
regarded by him as blameless.

On the other hand, we firmly believe, from the natural relations of
truth with the constitution of the mind of man, that, with the exception
of a very few cases of obliquity of intellect, which may safely be left
to the merciful interpretations and apologies of Him who created such
intellects, those who thus honestly and industriously 'seek' shall
'find;'--not all truth, indeed, but enough to secure their safety; and
that whatever remaining errors may infest and disfigure the truth they
have attained, they shall not be imputed to them for sin. According to
the image which apostolic eloquence has employed, the Baser materials
which unavoidable haste, prejudice, and ignorance may have incorporated
with the gold of the edifice, will be consumed by the fire which 'will
try every man's work of what sort it is,' but he himself will be saved
amidst those purifying flames. Like the bark which contained the Apostle
and the fortunes of the Gospel, the frail vessel may go to pieces on
the rocks, 'but by boat or plank' the voyager himself shall 'get safe to
shore.'

It is amply sufficient, then, to lighten our responsibility, that we are
answerable only for our honest endeavours to discover and to practise
the truth; and, in fact, the responsibility is principally felt to be
irksome, and man is so prompt by devices of his own, to release himself
from it, not on account of any intrinsic difficulty which remains after
the above limitations are admitted, but because he wishes