But   this  question,    "Whom   do   men  say
that  I  am?"  may  be  put  by  benevolence.     The
good  of  society  requires  each  member  to  enter
tain  just  notions  of  some  persons.     A  magis
trate,  who  acts  disinterestedly  for  the  good  of
the  state,   and   for  the  support  of  religion,
would  be  often  distressed  in  his  government,
if  he  were  represented  as  a  man  devoted  to
his  own  interest,  cruel  in  his  measures,  and
governed  by  his  own  imperious  tempers.     A
pastor,  who   knows  and   preaches  the  truth,
who  has  the  power  of  alarming  hardened  sin
ners,  and  of  exciting  the  fear  of  hell  in  them,
in  order  to  prevent  their  falling  into  it,  or,
shall  I  rather  say,  in  order  to  draw  them  out
of  it:  such  a  pastor  will  discharge  the  duties
of  his  office  with  incomparably  more  success,
if  the  people  do  him  justice,  than  if  they  ac
cuse  him  of  fomenting  errors,  and  of  loving
to  surround  his  pulpit  with  "devouring  fire
and    everlasting   burnings;"    Isa.   xxxiii.    14.
