Excerpt from Letter to the Rev. Samuel C. Thacher: On the Aspersions Contained in a Late Number of the Panoplist, on the Ministers of Boston and the Vicinity

On the present occasion, when our moral character is impeached, we are justified, I think, in an appeal to our respective societies; and I trust, my'friend, that we and our accused brethren can say with confidence to those to whom we minister, Brethren, you know us, for we live among you; we visit you in your families, we speak to you from the pulpit; we repair to you in your sorrows, and we sit too at the table of your festivity. You know some thing of our conduct in our families, and in the common relations of life. We are, indeed sensible, that in all these sitnations, we have exhibited to you much of human imper fection, and our frequent prayer to God is, that he will for give our deficiences. But, brethren, we ask you to recels lect our general deportment and ministrations. Have we seemed to you men of artifice and deceit, men Without rev erence for truth, and without the fear of God, men of sordid and selfish views, seeking your wealth or applause, and careless of your souls Have we ever seemed to you to belabouring to build up a cause, or to establish sporty, which we were ashamed to acknowledge? Have we ever directed you to any foundation of hope or guide of life, but the Gos pel of Christ? Have we not continually exhorted you, as a father doth his children, that you would walk worthy of this religion from heaven? In your affliction have We not sup plied you with the 'consolations which it offers? And in the more dangerous seasons of enjoyment, have We not' discov ered the purity and moderation which it inculcates? To what work of christian usefulness have you found us reluc tant? In what relation of life have you found us unfaithful? On what occasion have We discovered, that our profession is a cloak of hypocrisy? It is not our design, by these questions, to advance our own glory God forbid it But we wish to impress you deeply with the criminality of those aspersions, which are casthabitually on your teachers and with the urgent necessity of discouraging that unrelenting party spirit, which has no respect for innocence or virtue, and which threatens to overwhelm our churches with dis 'cord and contention.

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