I see no reason to alter my explanation of the words, “Baptizing them into the nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;” and, “CHRIST spiritually conceived in the heart of _Eve_:” I mean no more by these expressions than the Apostle, when he says, “Know ye not that CHRIST is in you, unless you be reprobates?” And again, “No one can call CHRIST, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” And again, “We are made partakers of a divine nature.” Volume II. page 128. these words [in the Lord’s prayer] may be left out: though, if the word _name_ signifies GOD’s attributes, according to your own confession, why may it not signify his essence? What are GOD’s attributes but GOD himself?
Volume I. page 14. After, “essential ones too,” insert, “if persons are capable of performing them.”
These, if I mistake not, are all the passages in my sermons, which you object against. And now to convince you, that I am not ashamed to own my faults, I can inform you of other passages as justly exceptionable. In my sermon on _justification_, I seem to assert _universal redemption_, which I now absolutely deny. In my _almost christian_, I talk of works _procuring_ us so high a crown. In my sermon on the _marks of the new-birth_, I say, “We shall endure to the end, _if we continue so_”. These, and perhaps some other passages, though capable of a candid interpretation, I now dislike; and in the next edition of my sermons, GOD willing, I propose to alter them. In the mean while, I shall be thankful to any that will point out my errors; and I promise, by divine assistance, they shall have no reason to say, “That I am one who hates to be reformed.” “Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, and it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.”
As for your insinuating, that I countenance Mr. _Wesley_ in his errors, it is no such thing. I prefaced _Halyburton_’s Memoirs before I saw what Mr. _Wesley_ had written; and since I have seen it, have more than once said, “If I had known what Mr. _Wesley_ had written, I would not have prefaced _Halyburton_ at all. I do not understand Mr. _Wesley_ in his interpretation of these words, “He that is born again of GOD, sinneth not;” and therefore have torn off that part of his preface, out of several of those books which I have given away lately, and have acquainted him in what I think in this particular he errs, by sundry letters.
You wrong me, if you think I am an _Antinomian_. For when I say, “GOD made no second covenant with _Adam_,” I mean no more than this: “GOD made no second covenant with _Adam_ in his own person in behalf of his posterity; nor did man’s acceptance in the sight of GOD, after the fall, depend, either wholly or in part, on his works, as before the fall.” Whoever reads the author of _The Whole Duty of Man_, will find he thinks otherwise; and I believe your friends in _Scotland_ will not thank you for defending that book, as you seemingly have done in your late queries.
Your objections, concerning my favourable opinion of some particular quakers that I have conversed with; and also about some particular promises, which I think have been made me, you may find satisfied in my “Answer to the Bishop of _London_’s last Pastoral Letter,” and in a “Letter to the Bishop of _Gloucester_.”
I am no friend to casting lots; but I believe, on extraordinary occasions, when things can be determined no other way, GOD, if appealed to, and waited on by prayer and fasting, will answer by lot now, as well as formerly.
Do not condemn me for preaching _extempore_, and for saying, I am helped often _immediately_ in that exercise; when thousands can prove, as well as myself, that it has been so. Neither should you censure me as one that would lay aside reading. I am of Bishop _Sanderson_’s mind: “Study without prayer, is atheism; prayer without study, presumption.” Blame not me, for the warmth of some of my adherents, as you call them. One of your ministers knows, how sharply I rebuked one of them for his warmth, at _Forks-Manor_. I am for loving as brethren, and wish all would copy after the lowly JESUS. But then I cannot discommend those (supposing they do it in the spirit of meekness) who exclaim against dry, sapless, unconverted ministers. Such surely are the bane of the christian church. But my other affairs will not permit me to enlarge.