13. Another consequence which you charge on my preaching justification by faith, is, the introducing the errors of the _Moravians_. ¹_Had the people, say you, gone on in a quiet and regular practice of their duty, as most of them did before you deluded them, it would have been impossible for the_ Moravian _tenets to have prevailed among them. ――――But when they had been long and often used to hear good works undervalued――――I cannot wonder――――that they should plunge into new errors――――and wax worse and worse._
¹ Remarks, page 12.
This is one string of mistakes. _Had the people gone on in a quiet and regular practice of their duty, as most of them did before you deluded them――――Deluded them!_ Into what? Into the love of God and all mankind, and a zealous care to keep his commandments. I would to God this delusion (if such it is accounted) may spread to the four corners of the earth! But how did most of them go on, before they were thus deluded? Four in five, by a moderate computation, even as other baptized Heathens; in the works of the devil, in all the ♦wretchlesness of unclean living――――_In a quiet and regular practice of their duty_!――――What duty? The duty of cursing and swearing? The duty of gluttony and drunkenness? The duty of whoredom and adultery? Or of beating one another, and any that came in their way? In this, (not very quiet or regular) _practice, did most of_ those _go on before_ they heard us, who have now _put off the old man with his deeds_, and are holy in all manner of conversation.
♦ “wretchedness” replaced with “wretchlesness”
Have these, think you, _been long and often used to hear good works undervalued_? Or, are they _prepared for_ receiving the _Moravian_ errors, by the knowledge and love of God? O Sir, the _Moravians_ know, if you do not, that there is no such barrier under heaven against their tenets, as those very people, whom you suppose just prepared for receiving them.
But _complaints_ (you say) _of their errors, come very ill from you, because you have occasioned them_. Nay, if it were so, for that very cause they ought to _come_ from me. If I had _occasioned_ an evil, surely I am the very person, who ought to _remove_ it as far as I can: to recover, if possible, those who are hurt already, and to caution others against it.
14. On some of those complaints (as you term them) you remark as follows: ¹“_Many of those who once knew in whom they had believed_ (these are my words) _were thrown into idle reasonings, and thereby filled with doubts and fears_.” _This_, you add, _it is ♦to be feared, has been too much the case of the_ Methodists _in general. ――――Accordingly we find in this journal, several instances not barely of doubts and fears, but of the most desperate despair. This is the consequence of resting so much on sensible impressions.――――Bad men may be led into presumption thereby: an instance of which you give, page 66._
¹ Remarks, page 13.
♦ “be” replaced with “to be”
That instance will come in our way again. _Many of those who once knew in whom they had believed, were thrown_ (by the _Antinomians_) _into idle reasonings, and thereby filled with doubts and fears. This_, you _fear, has been the case with the_ Methodists _in general_. You must mean (to make it a parallel case) “That the generality of the people, now termed _Methodists_, were true believers till they heard us preach; but _were_ thereby _thrown into idle reasonings, and filled with_ needless _doubts and fears_.” Exactly contrary to truth in every particular. For 1. They lived in open sins _till they heard us preach_, and consequently were no better _believers_ than their father, the devil. 2. They were not then thrown into _idle reasonings_, but into _serious thought_, how to flee from the wrath to come. Nor 3. were they filled with _needless doubts and fears_; but with such as were _needful_ in the highest degree: such as actually issued in repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
_Accordingly we find in this journal several instances, of the most desperate despair: page 24. 36. 63._
Then I am greatly mistaken. But I will set down at length the several instances you refer to.
Page 24. “I was a little surprised in going out of the room, at one who catched hold of me, and said abruptly, ‘I must speak with you and will. I have sinned against light and against love.’ (N. B. She was soon after, if not at that very time, a common prostitute) ‘I have sinned beyond forgiveness. I have been cursing you in my heart, and blaspheming God, ever since I came here. I am damned. I know it. I feel it. I am in hell. I have hell in my heart.’ I desired two or three who had confidence in God, to join in crying to him on her behalf. Immediately that horrible dread was taken away, and she began to see some dawnings of hope.”