Secondly, to show that our good is often exposed to be evil spoken of through our own indiscretion; and consequently that it is often in our own power to prevent it.

There is no such thing as being truly good and virtuous till we are got to be above the temptations of the world, and free from the servitude of courting its opinion: but then it is too common a mistake for men to think, that to be above the temptations of the world is the same thing as to despise the world and all that belong to it: and hence it is that virtue often contracts such a moroseness, and becomes so untractable, that it can be of no public use or benefit, but is confined to its own cell, the poor honest heart that possesses it.

Nor is this the only inconvenience: the cause of virtue itself often suffers by the zeal and indiscretion of such mistaken votaries: they look with disdain on all the prudent methods by which goodness may be advanced, and censure them as the effects of worldly wisdom and cunning; and provided the thing they do be in itself justifiable, they are above considering the consequences that may attend it: nay, the greater the inconveniences are which threaten them, the more eagerly they embrace them, esteeming it to be the most generous part of virtue to suffer for that which is good. This sort of inflexible goodness naturally runs out into disdain and aversion, and makes men value themselves more for hating a knave than they would do for reforming him, and to look on it as a higher degree of virtue to reproach men with their vices than it is to eorrect and amend them.

What success must attend this method of propagating virtue and religion may be soon known, by considering the temper and disposition of mankind. To vex and exasperate men can serve only to make them stubborn in their vices and obstinate in their opinions; and all that is got by it is to expose the good you do to reproach, and to give the enemies of religion occasion to blaspheme. Zeal is the noblest grace, when duly tempered with charity and prudence, and whilst it continues under their influence, it produces the noblest fruit; but when it breaks loose from these restraints, it grows wild and extravagant, and becomes the grief of wise men, and the sport and laughter of fools.

This is one way by which men expose their good to be evil spoken of. Their mistake lies in not rightly distinguishing between a servile compliance with the world, and a prudent behavior towards it; and yet there is as much difference between them as between virtue and vice: one is the way which men who sacrifice honor and conscience to their interest make use of; the other is the method which wise and good men take to recommend the practice of virtue and religion. And what a wide difference is this? In the first case, to comply with the world, you must be like it, you must conform yourself to it in the other, you treat the world civilly, that it may the more easily become like you; that you may gain on it, and instil the principles of virtue, which may be infused by gentle degrees, but cannot be obtruded by noise and violence.

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Those who are of too stiff a virtue to court the world into a compliance with that which is good, may do well to consider how our Apostle is to be justified in the character he has given us of himself: Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law (being not without the law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some :' 1 Cor. ix. 19. &c. Into what a variety of shapes did he turn himself, to gain on the affections of men, that he might the more easily gain admission for the gospel of Christ? Had he fallen directly on their infirmities and mistakes, he might have fired their minds, and stopped their ears to his instruction. He knew that patience and gentle teaching would by degrees get the mastery of their errors, and lead them, without tumult or opposition, to the acknowlegement of the truth; that their prejudices would wear out and as the light of the gospel began to dawn in their hearts, their affections. would take a new turn of themselves, which at present were not to be stemmed. He used the art of a skilful pilot, who chooses to coast it along the shore when the tide runs too high in the

channel, as knowing it to be not only the safest, but the shortest way to the point he makes.

Yet thus to court the affections of men is by many thought below the dignity of religion: but where does this indignity lie? Ought not men to be made in love with virtue and religion? Yes, you will say and how is that to be done? Must it not be by engaging their affections in the cause of religion? Undoubtedly it must. And is it then necessary to engage men's affections in the cause of religion? And is it yet an unworthy attempt to endeavor to engage them? How can these things be made to agree? But if it must be allowed that it is necessary to apply to men's affections in the cause of virtue and religion, it will show the reasonableness of the Apostle's advice in the text, and the necessity there is of having recourse to Christian prudence and wisdom to direct us in the practice even of that which is good for all things have not the same appearance to all men; nay, the same object appears differently to the same man, as it is exposed in different lights ; which holds as true with respect to the eyes of the mind as of the body and therefore it lies on us to guard against any ill impressions that may be made on others by the good we do.

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This care not to offend is the foundation of civility and good breeding in common life, and will likewise be productive of mutual love and condescension in religion: it will teach us to be tender of each other's infirmities, and to avoid the occasions of giving offence, which men who have not this care on their minds rather labor to seek and to improve. Let us but view the difference there will be in one Christian grace, when attended with this care, and when not let the grace be zeal, which is in itself, without doubt, an excellent gift; but where men have no regard how far they trust or offend others, how rash and intemperate does it grow, in reproaching not only the vices, but the follies and weaknesses of mankind; how easily does it degenerate into censoriousness, and transport men beyond all bounds of charity and discretion! The consequence is, that it is immediately surrounded with enemies of its own raising, and suffers under the names of fury and uncharitableness. But on the other side, where it is found in company with prudence, and joined with a care not to offend, it is a gentle and heavenly

flame, which warms without scorching it falls on its right object, the honor of God, and the good of men, and confines itself to such methods only as may best serve to promote both: it will therefore never run into any indecencies of passion, which are unbecoming the cause it maintains; nor will it provoke and exasperate those whom it labors to reform, as knowing what little benefit men can receive by being ill-treated. Thus will it secure itself from being evil spoken of, and appear with advantage in the eyes of all that behold it. But farther,

Some there are who have so little regard to the securing their good from being evil spoken of, that their zeal for good arises even from envy and strife. This spirit is still in being; and it is no uncommon thing for men to be spitefully good, and to delight in the opportunities of exasperating others who differ from them: men often fall on subjects for no other reason but because they know how disagreeable they are to some of the company; and to justify themselves, they say that men ought not to be ashamed when they are in the right, or afraid of owning the truth; which are two very good reasons very sadly applied; for men ought to be ashamed of making this use of truth, which is merely insulting the prejudices of mankind, and not correcting them. It is a very unnatural effect of love for the truth, to labor to make others hate it; and yet what else can be expected from these measures? To make a reproach of the truth, and to upbraid men with it, is to place it in such a light before them, that it must necessarily appear to them a frightful object. It is certain that men are never to be complimented at the expense of truth or religion; nor can too hard a name be given to the mean spirit that makes men always join in the opinion of their company; nor are the opportunities which conversation affords of justifying ourselves and our opinions from the misapprehensions of others, to be neglected, It is mightily for the advancement of peace and truth that men should rightly understand each other; and this is one of the best ends that is served by conversation: and therefore there is the greater mischief in perverting it, and using it as an opportunity of revenging ourselves: the consequence of it is very plain; it makes men seldom care to converse with any

but those of their own opinion; which is the way to establish error, and to propagate it for ever. There is a difference between beating a man with the truth, and endeavoring to convince him of it; and between raising his passions to oppose it, and preparing them to receive it. This is the true end of conversation, though the other is too often the use of it; and the mischief is sufficiently great, if we only consider what a stubbornness in opinion men contract by being so unseasonably provoked.

But there is still a farther mischief: when men truly labor to promote truth, and recommend it to others, they always place it in its best light, and take care to obviate the misapprehensions of those they deal with; but where they enter into a question merely for opposition sake, or for the pleasure of exposing somebody else, they care not how little he understands the truth, or how grossly he mistakes; for the more violence and passion he shows against it, the greater the entertainment; and therefore instead of obviating his doubts, stumbling-blocks are laid in his way, and the thing is painted industriously in such colors as are known to be most offensive to him; and what is the consequence? He for ever takes his measure of your opinion from this representation of it, and goes away persuaded that you could not answer the objections which you would not: you have your entertainment for the present, and he his error, it is probable, for ever. And is not this wilfully to expose our good to be evil spoken of, and for the sake of an illnatured diversion, to sacrifice the interest of truth and religion?

The same effect is often seen to proceed from a mixture of zeal and ignorance in this case men often judge it absolutely necessary to do or say the things they approve, when they are before those who they know do not approve them they look on it to be asserting the truth; and to do otherwise, in their opinion, is deserting it. This was something of the case which the Apostle had before him when he wrote the words of the text. The question in the church of Roine was, concerning the lawful or unlawful use of meats forbidden in the law of Moses: those who held it lawful to use them were never more zealous of their liberty, or more certain to make use of it, than when they met