426 MEMOIRS OF MRBOSTON know, and the brethren of the committee know, they have a faithful copy of my notes ; and not only fo, but of all things de- livered by me, though they were not in my notes, fo far as I can remember them. Whatever meafure I have got, or may further get, never did one give his judges fairer play againft himfelf, than I have done. What (ball I fay, Moderator ? I am made agazing-flock, a reproach, and aworld's wonder, through- -.out Scotland, and may be further too, for any thing I know. Reproach lometiwes breaks my heart ; and were it not in foam ineafure I believe the promifes, and the fpecial providence of God, 1 behoved to fink, and be broken effectually. Moderator, It is not in the power of this Synod, were they ever fo willing, to make reparation of the injuries done nie by means of their procedure : for infamy will flick better. As to the point of prudence and expedience, under which confideration fome of the quarrelled paffages will fall, I will not pretend fo much as a tolerable lkill of thatfort ; but I defire to dea pend on him onwhom the fpirit ofwifdom, and underftanding refts, and in whom dwell all the treafures of wifdoni and knowledge. The expediency of fpeaking and aóting in particular inftances, is a point we will never all be agreed in ; but good folk, as they will be differing among themfelves, fo they may happen to be of a different judgment from our Lord Jefus Chrift himfelf iR fuch cafes. The gofpel furnifhes us with inftances enow of this, particularly of the woman who was not only accepted and ap- proved of our Lord, but has an everlafting badge of honour put upon her for a deed which was the object of the difciples indig- nation. Moderator, I adduce this, not as if I took mine for an exa 'parallel cafe, but only as a document of what may be, where even good folk are very confident, and reckon themfelves pretty fire ; and it is not very choiceable, nor what any of us would with, to be of a differentjudgment from Chrift, efpecially in fuch matters as concern his own glory. Moderator, As minifters fhould (how an example ofimpar- tiality one towards another, 'in cafe of error or vice, fo ought they to fet people a pattern of charity, tendernefs, and brotherly love, in not wrefting, ftretching or (training one another's words or actions, to fuch meanings as they neither fairly bear, nor were ever intended toexprefs, or fo as todifcover the prevalence of Inch works of the flefh in themfelves, as we condemn and preach againft in others. This bath been, and will be the way of the world ; the way of enemies towards the faints, efpecially to- wards the minifters of Chrift ; and it is both pity and fhame that it'thould ever be their way one towards another. Charity re- joiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. If there had dropped from one's pen, on a paper which in his account the world was never to fee, expreffions not fo well chofen, or guard- ed ; would not the love of God, the love of truth, and the love of our neighbour, which the gofpel fo much teacheth and re-
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