20. Neither can I conceive how it was possible to do that work, the doing of which, we are still under the strongest conviction, is bound upon us at the peril of our own souls, in a less exceptionable manner. We have, by the grace of God, behaved not only with meekness, but with all tenderness towards all men; with all the tenderness which we conceived it was possible to use, without betraying their souls. And from the very first, it has been our special care, to deal tenderly with our brethren the clergy. We have not willingly provoked them at any time; neither any _single_ clergyman. We have not _sought_ occasion to publish their faults; we have not _used_ a thousand occasions that offered. When we were constrained to speak something, we spake _as little_ as we believed we could, without offending God: and that little, though in plain and strong words, yet as _mildly_ and _lovingly_ as we were able. And in the same course we have steadily persevered (as well as in earnestly advising others to tread in our steps) even though we saw that with regard to them, by all this we profited nothing; though we knew we were still continually represented as _implacable enemies to the clergy_, as railers against them, as slanderers of them, as seeking all opportunities to blacken and asperse them. When a clergyman himself has vehemently accused me of doing this, I bless God he could not provoke me to do it. I still _kept my mouth as it were with a bridle_, and committed my cause to a higher hand. 21. The truth is, you impute that hatred to _us_, which is in _your own breast_. (I speak not this of all the clergy; God forbid! But let it fall on whom it concerns.) _You_, it is certain, have shewn the utmost hatred to _us_, and in every possible way: unless you were actually to beat us (of which also we are not without precedent) or to shoot us through the head. And if you could prevail upon others to do this, I suppose you would think you did God service. I do not speak without ground. I have heard with my own ears such sermons, (in _Staffordshire_ particularly) that I should not have wondered if as soon as we came out of the church, the people had stoned me with stones. And it was a natural consequence of what that poor minister had lately heard, at the bishop’s visitation: as it was one great cause of the miserable riots and outrages which soon followed. It is this, my brethren, it is _your own preaching_, and not _ours_, which _sets the people against you_. The very same persons, who are _diverted_ with those sermons, cannot but _despise_ you for them in their hearts: even those who on _your_ authority believe most of the assertions which you advance. What then must they think of you, who know the greatest part of what you assert to be utterly false? They may pity and pray for you; but they can _esteem_ you no other, than false witnesses against God and your brethren.