more will be required of those to whom
more is given. And St. Paul's exhortation
to " receive him that is weak in the faith,
" but not to doubtful disputations," and his
repeated and earnest recommendations of
forbearance towards weak brethren, as well
as his mention of babes in Christ, who must
be "fed with milk and not with strong meat,'^
sufficiently prove, if proof be needed, that
feebleness of understanding, or backward^
ness in knowledge, may be expected to
make the faith of some more imperfesct
than that of others ; and that a tender con-
sideration for such infirmities is to be ex^
pected from the abler and more advanced
Christian. Those indeed whose defect is
ignorance, should be exhorted to learn ;
and if they fall short of that right under-
standing and full comprehension of the
Gospel scheme, which they might have ac-
quired, they may justly be admonished of
their fault in contenting themselves with
imperfect, superficial, and inaccurate views,
when a more complete and correct faith
was within their reach : but still it is nei-
ther just nor expedient to confound even



AMONG CHRISTIANS. llS

this blameable backwardness in religious
wisdom, — this slender proficiency, and, as
it were, childhood in faith,— with decided
rejection of the true faith ; it is not only
more charitable, but every way more pru-
dent,, to treat them as imperfect believers,
rather than as obstinate heretics. There
is danger, if they are abruptly and severely
thus charged, that they may be led, even
by what we say, to suppose that to be a
distinct mode of faith, which in fact is
rather a want of faith ; and may be partly
alarmed, partly provoked, and partly flat-
tered, into embodying, maintaining, and
propagating, as a peculiar system, what is
merely the result of their own slight and
inaccurate acquaintance ^ith Scripture.
