Had I a mind to return your false and low wit, I might reply, “There is a greater windmill in thine own;” but at present, I am too serious to make sport with my own deceivings. Surely, Sir, you forget yourself, or you never would write thus at random: for is there any thing, that the blessed Author of our religion more recommends to his disciples, than to “take heed and beware of covetousness,” and to “take heed, lest at any time their hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, or the cares of this life?” What said St. _Peter_? “Silver and gold have I none.” What says St. _Paul_? “But thou, O man of GOD, flee these things.” And in respect to contempt, and sufferings for the gospel, does not our LORD command us to expect, to prepare for, and rejoice in them? Nay, does he not bid us to leap for joy, and be exceeding glad, when we have all manner of evil spoken against us falsely for his name’s sake? In obedience to this command, did not the great Apostle of the _Gentiles_ declare, that he took pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for CHRIST’s sake? Did he not, like his LORD, go about doing good? Was he not filled with a holy restless impatience and insatiable thirst of _travelling_, and undertaking _dangerous voyages_ for the conversion of infidels? And had he not a declared contempt of all dangers, pains, and sufferings, when, like a true christian hero, he said to his mourning friends, “What mean ye to weep and break my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but to die also for the LORD JESUS?” Dare you, Sir, call the Apostles enthusiasts? Or think you all this was only a _bait_ to catch admirers? And yet, what have you done less, by asserting, that an insatiable thirst of travelling, &c. is very common among enthusiasts? I add, among our LORD and his Apostles also: and can we copy after more unexceptionable examples?
“But the Methodists contempt of money is only a _seeming contempt_.” That is more than you know. Here you are again invading the divine prerogative. The great day will determine this. In the mean while, I would observe to you, that whatever can be produced out of any of my writings, to prove that I have desired, or prayed for ill usage, persecution, martyrdom, death, &c. I retract it with all my heart, as proceeding from the overflowings of an irregular, though well-meant zeal. However it might be with me formerly, I now find myself no ways disposed to say with _Peter_, “Though all men deny thee, yet will not I.” Alas! alas! we know not what feathers we shall be, when tossed in the wind of temptation! Sufferings for the cause and cross of CHRIST, will come fast enough of themselves, without our praying for them. But should the Methodists be called even to die for the cause in which they are embarked, as I am verily persuaded it is the cause of GOD, so I doubt not but suffering grace will be given for suffering times, and the Spirit of CHRIST and of glory will rest upon the sufferers souls.