By honour and dishonour
Some persons think and speak honourably of us, and behave in a
reverent manner towards us; they wish us well, bid us God speed,
receive us into their houses, and treat us with respect: others
think meanly of us, speak of us with the utmost contempt, and use
us as if we were the filth of the world, and the offscouring of
all things; so we pass through the world; this is the treatment
we meet with on the right hand and on the left; nor are we much
affected with it:
by evil report and good report;
as it fares with our persons, so with our doctrine: some speak
well of it, receive and embrace it; others blaspheme it, and have
it in the utmost abhorrence; we are charged with the vilest of
crimes, and our doctrines loaded with the most absurd and wicked
consequences, and both branded in the most infamous manner by one
set of men; and by others both our persons and principles are
cleared and vindicated from all such aspersions, and are highly
commended and applauded.
As deceivers;
for so they were accounted, as Christ was before them, by the
unbelieving Jews, and by the false apostles, as if they were the
authors, or abettors, and spreaders of errors, and the
instruments of leading people aside.
And yet true;
true and faithful ministers of the word; true to their Lord and
master; true to the trust committed to them; true to the Gospel
of Christ, and to the souls of men.