6.  [We  maintain,  as  one  alternative,  that  they  were  de
ceived  by  an  error,]  for  why  do  they  think  that  indiscriminate
compliance  must  be  given  to  the  precept  in  which  they  read
of  fleeing  from  one  city  to  another,  and  not  shrink  with  abhor
rence  from  the  character  of  the  "  hireling,"  who  "  seeth  the
wolf  coming,  and  fleeth,  because  he  careth  not  for  the  sheep  "?1
Why  do  they  not  honour  equally  both  of  these  true  sayings
of  the  Lord,  the  one  in  which  flight  is  permitted  or  enjoined,
the  other  in  which  it  is  rebuked  and  censured,  by  taking  pains
so  to  understand  them  as  to  find  that  they  are,  as  is  indeed
the  case,  not  opposed  to  each  other  ?  And  how  is  their  recon
ciliation  to  be  found,  unless  that  which  I  have  above  proved
be  borne  in  mind,  that  under  pressure  of  persecution  we  who
are  ministers  of  Christ  ought  to  flee  from  the  places  in  which
we  are  only  in  one  or  other  of  two  cases,  namely,  either  that
there  is  no  congregation  to  which  we  may  minister,  or  that
there  is  a  congregation,  but  that  the  ministry  necessary  for  it
can  be  supplied  by  others  who  have  not  the  same  reason  for
flight  as  makes  it  imperative  on  us  ?  Of  which  we  have  one
example,  as  already  mentioned,  in  the  Apostle  Paul  escaping
by  being  let  down  from  the  wall  in  a  basket,  when  he  was
personally  sought  by  the  persecutor,  there  being  others  on  the
spot  who  had  not  the  same  necessity  for  flight,  whose  remain-

1  John  x.  12,  13.
