Part 14

I THANK your Lordship for your Lordship’s kind letter. My frequent removes from place to place prevented my answering it sooner. I am greatly obliged to your Lordship, in that you are pleased to watch over my soul, and to caution me against acting contrary to the commission given me at ordination. But if the commission we then receive, obliges us to preach no where but in that parish which is committed to our care, then all persons act contrary to their commission when they preach occasionally in any strange place: and consequently your Lordship equally offends, when you preach out of your own diocese. As for inveighing against the clergy, (without a cause) I deny the charge. What I say, I am ready to make good whenever your Lordship pleases. Let those that bring reports to your Lordship about my preaching, be brought face to face, and I am ready to give them an answer. St. _Paul_ exhorts _Timothy_, “Not to receive an accusation against an elder under two or three witnesses.” And even _Nicodemus_ could say, “The law suffered no man to be condemned unheard.” I shall only add, that I hope your Lordship will inspect into the lives of your other clergy, and censure them for being _over-remiss_, as much as you censure me for being _over-righteous_. It is their falling from their articles, and not preaching the truth as it is in JESUS, that has excited the present zeal of (those whom they in derision call) _the Methodist preachers_. Dr. _Stebbing_’s sermon, (for which I thank your Lordship) confirms me more and more in my opinion, that I ought to be instant in season and out of season. For to me, he seems to know no more of the true nature of regeneration, than _Nicodemus_ did, when he came to JESUS by night. Your Lordship may observe, that he does not speak a word of original sin, or the dreadful consequences of our fall in _Adam_, upon which the doctrine of the new birth is entirely founded. No: like other polite preachers, he seems to think in the very beginning of his discourse, that St. _Paul_’s description of the wickedness of the heathen is only to be referred to them of past ages: whereas I affirm, we are all included as much under the guilt and consequences of sin, as they were; and if any man preach any other doctrine, he shall bear his punishment, whosoever he be. Again, my Lord, the Doctor entirely mistakes us, when we talk of the sensible operations of the Holy Ghost. He understands us just as those carnal Jews understood JESUS CHRIST, who, when our LORD talked of giving them that bread which came down from heaven, said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Indeed I know not that we do use the word _sensible_, when we are talking of the operations of the Spirit of GOD. But if we do, we do not mean, that GOD’s Spirit does manifest itself to our senses, but that it may be perceived by the soul, as really as is any sensible impression made upon the body. But to disprove this, the Doctor brings our LORD’s allusion to the wind in the third of St. _John_, which is one of the best texts he could urge to prove it. For if the analogy of our LORD’s discourse be carried on, we shall find it amounts to thus much: that although the operations of the Spirit of GOD can no more be accounted for, than how the wind cometh and whither it goeth; yet may they be as easily felt by the soul as the wind may be felt by the body. My Lord, indeed we speak what we know. But, says the Doctor, “These men have no proof to offer for their inward manifestations.” What proof, my Lord, does the Doctor require? Would he have us raise dead bodies? Have we not done greater things than these? I speak with all humility; has not GOD by our ministry raised many dead souls to a spiritual life? Verily, if men will not believe the evidence GOD has given that he sent us, neither would they believe though one rose from the dead. Besides, my Lord, the Doctor charges us with things to which we are entire strangers, such as the denying men the use of GOD’s creatures. Encouraging abstinence, prayer, &c. to the neglect of the duties of our stations. LORD, lay not this sin to his charge! Again, he says, “That I suppose Mr. _Benjamin Seward_ to be a person believing in CHRIST, and blameless in his conversation, before what I call his conversion.” But this is a direct untruth: for it was through the want of a living faith in JESUS CHRIST, which he now has, that he was not a christian before, but a mere moralist. Your Lordship knows that our article says, “Works done without the Spirit of GOD, and true faith in JESUS CHRIST, have the nature of sin.” And such were all the works done by Mr. _Benjamin Seward_, before the time mentioned in my Journal. Again, my Lord, the Doctor represents, that as my opinion concerning quakers in general, which I only meant of those I had conversed with in particular. But the Doctor, and the rest of my reverend brethren, are welcome to judge me as they please.――Yet a little while, and we shall all appear before the great Shepherd of our souls. There, there, my Lord, shall it be determined, who are his true ministers, and who are only wolves in sheeps cloathing. Our LORD, I believe, will not be ashamed to confess us publicly in that day. I pray GOD we all may approve ourselves such faithful ministers of the New Testament, that we may be able to lift up our heads with boldness. As for declining the work in which I am engaged, my blood runs chill at the very thoughts of it. I am as much convinced, it is my duty to act as I do, as that the sun shines at noon-day. I can foresee the consequences very well. They have already in one sense thrust us out of the synagogues. By and by they will think it is doing GOD service to kill us. But, my Lord, if you and the rest of the bishops cast us out, our great and common Master will take us up. Though all men should deny us, yet will not he. And however you may censure us as evil doers, and disturbers of the peace, yet if we do suffer for our present way of acting, your Lordship at the great day will find, that we suffer only for righteousness sake. In patience therefore do I possess my soul. I willingly tarry the LORD’s leisure. In the mean while I shall continually bear your Lordship’s favours upon my heart, and endeavour to behave, so as to subscribe myself, my Lord,