ANSWER TO THE BISHOP of LONDON’s LAST PASTORAL LETTER.
ANSWER TO THE BISHOP of LONDON’s LAST PASTORAL LETTER.
_My Lord_,
I NEED make no apology for troubling your Lordship with this. As your Lordship was pleased to make me the chief subject matter of your _last Pastoral Letter_, I think it my duty to answer in the best manner I can.
Your Lordship is highly to be commended, for the care you have taken in watching over the souls of those, who are committed to your Lordship’s charge. Lukewarmness and enthusiasm, are the two rocks against which even well-meaning people are in danger of splitting. All ought to be thankful to that pilot, who will teach them to steer a safe and middle course. I would gladly hope, that “a zeal for GOD in the discharge of your duty, and a hearty concern for the safety of souls,” moved your Lordship to write. These are the principles, I trust, which now excite me, to direct this answer to your Lordship. And, blessed be GOD, that I can write with somewhat of that love and meekness, which becomes a disciple of JESUS CHRIST, and with all that humility and reverence, which is due from a presbyter to a bishop of the church of GOD.
Lukewarmness and enthusiasm, my Lord, are certainly the bane of true christianity. I thank your Lordship again for your kind cautions against them. The only query is, “Whether there was any occasion for your Lordship’s warning the people of your diocese, against running into either of these extremes, upon account of any thing, I have either spoken or written?” Your Lordship thinks there was, and quotes passages out of my Journal to prove it; if it can be proved, I will ask public pardon, both of your Lordship and them, with all my heart.
As for your Lordship’s cautions against _lukewarmness_, I am not much concerned in them. You do not seem to point at me in particular; unless it is, where your Lordship (page 10.) informs your people, “That a diligent attendance on the duties of the station wherein Providence has placed them, is, in the strictest sense, the serving of GOD.” None but those, who condemn me unheard, can justly charge me with affirming to the contrary.
However, I beg leave to observe, that your Lordship, (page 8.) calls that a very imperfect state of christianity, which is _no state of christianity_ at all. St. _Paul_, writing to the _Corinthians_, _2 Corinthians_ chapter xiii. verse 5, says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your ownselves.” And that they might have a certain rule, whereby to judge whether they were in the faith, truly so called, or not; he immediately adds, “Know ye not your ownselves, how that CHRIST JESUS is in you, except ye be reprobates?” So that, according to St. _Paul_’s rule, “He that finds, he has hitherto contented himself with a bare bodily attendance upon the public worship of GOD, and with following his daily employment on other days, and with abstaining from the more gross and notorious acts of sin, and from doing any hurt or injury to his neighbour, and has rested finally upon these, as the whole of what christianity requires of him;” is so far from being in a very imperfect state, as your Lordship is pleased to affirm, page 8. that he is in no state of christianity at all. No, my Lord, he is a _reprobate_, or, one who at present is out of a state of salvation, nor can he ever have any assurance that he is in a state of salvation, till he knows that JESUS CHRIST is in him, by the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. If I have mistaken your Lordship’s expression, I will freely beg your Lordship’s pardon.