That branch of the subject is therefore as far as possible avdidediPoints of practical difficulty in the conduct of social life were principally adverted to in the application for advice.s The author was requested to enforce the social duties of Christianity, to shew that the spirit of our holy religion requires ho gloomy austerity, justifies no captious exceptions to the conduct of others, permits no unkind neglect of relas tions and friends, no self-willed defiance of parental authority. It was his object to convince the individual he addressed that herviews of Christian duty were mistaken; not so much that they were too exalted or too strict, as that they were uncharitable or, which is the same thing, unscriptural. No views can be too exalted, no zeal too fer vent, no obedience too strict, insan case where eternal happiness is at stake, and the will of Almighty God is graciously revealed for the instruction of man.embét not then the worldly minded a reader imagide that these pages are designed to justify his indifference, or to palliate the lukewarmness of this faithǝd They were writtens for the advancement of true piety in a mind earnestly seeking the truth they are made public in the hope that they may be useful to others in the same situation. They may be thought perhaps to be directed against as class of professing Christians who sepa rate themselves from the general society of the world. But they are directed against principles, not against persons; and it is trusted that individuals of that class will not object to having their principles ens quired into, and tried by God's word, so it be done in fairness and good temper Their principles may be objected to, esteemed unchristian, and most carefully avoided, by one, who, though no convert from their doctrines, has yet good reason to say to themselves, in the spirit of St. Augustine's address to the Manichæans *; Let them rail bitterly against you who 16 know not with what labour truth is dis ** covered, how hard it is to avoid error ; let them rail bitterly against you who * know not how rare, how difficult it is to overpower the imaginations of the 66 " flesh, and to acquire in their stead the 66 tranquillity of a devout state of mind; 3201 Illi sæviant in vos qui nesciunt quo cum labore #overum inveniatur, et quam difficillime caveantur errores. Illi in vos sæviant qui nesciunt quam rarum et arduum sit carnalia phantasmata piæ mentis serenitate superare. Illi in vos sæviant qui nesciunt 1 quanta difficultate sanetur oculus interioris hominis, blut possit intueri solem suum.Illi in vos sæviant, qui nesciunt quantis gemitibus et suspiriis fat ut "ex quantulacunque parte possit intelligi Deus. Postremo illi in vos sæviant qui nullo tali errore 1000 decepti sunt, quali vos deceptos vident. Ego autem bosavire in vos omnino non possum, quos sicut me ipsum illo tempore, ita nunc debeo sustinere, et "tanta patientia vobiscum agere, quanta mecum "egerunt proximi mei, cum in vestro dogmate rabiosus et cæcus errarem." ¿t get thems rail bitterly against You, WHO « know not by what a toilsome process thẻ « eye of the inner man must be healed, for it to behold its proper light, the Sun of Righteousness ; let them rail bitterly さる 3 against you who know not by what sighs and groanings that study must be accompanied, which should lead to any degree whatsoever of the knowledge of "God; lastly, let them rail bitterly against you who have never themselves been deluded by an error like that which they perceive in you. For myself, I can in "no wise rail against you; but rat ff must I now bear with you as once of old *" with myself, and now treat you with the rather same mildness and patience which, in the 12 days of my own blind wanderings into off the very same opinions, I experienced 39 from my friends."q dili muequ mucem stasup evage drozdov situsitaq stori `-oider stamgob oueer at mus dem imzoną jau1999 |