Suspicion
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [1]
Consists in imagining evil of others without proof. It is sometimes opposed to charity, which thinketh no evil. "A suspicious temper checks in the bud every kind affection; it hardens the heart, and estranges man from man. What friendship can we expect from him who views all our conduct with distrustful eyes, and ascribes every benefit we confer to artifice and stratagem? A candid man is accustomed to view the characters of his neighbours in the most favourable light, and is like one who dwells amidst those beautiful scenes of nature on which the eye rests with pleasure. Whereas the suspicious man, having his imagination filled with all the shocking forms of human falsehood, deceit, and treachery, resembles the traveller in the wilderness, who discerns no objects around him but what are either dreary or terrible; caverns that open, serpents that hiss, and beasts of prey that howl."
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( n.) The act of suspecting; the imagination or apprehension of the existence of something (esp. something wrong or hurtful) without proof, or upon very slight evidence, or upon no evidence.
(2): ( v. t.) To view with suspicion; to suspect; to doubt.
(3): ( n.) Slight degree; suggestion; hint.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
consists in imagining evil of others without proof. It. is sometimes opposed to charity, which thinketh no evil. "A suspicious temper checks in the bud every kind affection; it hardens the heart, and estranges man from man. What friendship can we expect from him who views all our conduct with distrustful eyes, and ascribes every benefit we confer to artifice and stratagem? A candid man is accustomed to view the characters of his neighbors in the most favorable light, and is like one who dwells amid those beautiful scenes of nature on which the eye rests with pleasure. On the contrary, the suspicious man, having his imagination filled with all the shocking forms of human falsehood, deceit, and treachery, resembles the traveler in the, wilderness who discerns no objects around him but what are either dreary or terrible; caverns that open, serpents that hiss, and beasts of prey that howl."
See Barrow, Sermons; Gisborne, Sermons; Dwight, Theology; James, On Charity.
