* _Allow Mr._ Wesley, _you say, but these few points, and he will defend his conduct――――beyond exception_――――That is most true. If I _have_ indeed _been advancing nothing but the true knowledge and love of God_: if God has made me an _instrument_ in _reforming_ many sinners, and bringing them to _inward and pure religion_: and if many of these continue _holy_ to this day, and _free from all_ wilful sin, then may I, even I, use those awful words, _He that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me_. But I never expect the world to allow me one of these points. However, I must go on, as God shall enable me. I must lay out whatsoever he intrusts me with, (whether others will believe I do it or no) in advancing the true Christian knowledge of God, and the love and fear of God among men: in reforming (if so be it please him to use me still) those who are yet without God in the world; and in propagating inward and pure religion, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
10. But you believe, “I only corrupt those who were good Christians before, teaching them to revile and censure their neighbours, and to abuse the clergy, notwithstanding all their meekness and gentleness, as I do myself.” _I must declare_ (say you) _we have, in general, answered your pretence, with all meekness and temper――――the railing and reviling has been chiefly on the side of the_ Methodists, page 16.
Your first charge ran thus, (Remarks, page 15.) _How have such abuses as these been thrown out by you――――against our――――regular clergy, not the highest or the worthiest excepted!_――――I answered, “I am altogether clear in this matter, as often as it has been objected: neither do I desire to receive any other treatment from the clergy, than they have received from me to this day.” page 30.
You reply, 1. _One instance of your misrepresenting and injuring a preacher of our church I mentioned_, (page 105.) Mentioned! Well: but did you _prove_ it was an _injury_ or _misrepresentation_? I know not that you once attempted it. 2. You next quote part of a letter from the third journal; (page 36.) wherein (according to your account) the _most considerable of our clergy are abused, and at once accused in a very gross manner_. (page 106.) Set down the whole paragraph, and I will prove, that this also is naked truth, and no abuse at all. You say, 3. _You approved of_ Whitefield’s _railing against the clergy_――――i. e. I say, “Mr. _Whitefield_ preached, concerning the _Holy Ghost which all who believe are to receive_; not without a just, though severe censure of those, who preach as if there were no Holy Ghost,” (_Journal 3._ page 65.) Nor is this railing, but melancholy truth. I have myself heard several preach in this manner. 4. You cite my words, “Woe unto you, ye blind leaders of the blind! How long will you pervert the right ways of the Lord?”――――And add, _I appeal to yourself, whether you did not design this reflection against the clergy in general who differ from you?_ No more than I did against _Moses_ and _Aaron_. I expresly specify whom I design: “Ye who tell the mourners in _Zion_, Much religion hath made you mad.” You say, 5. (with a N. B.) _All the clergy who differ from you, you stile so_, page 82. _in which and the foregoing page you causelesly slander them, as speaking of their own holiness――――as that for the sake of which, on account of which we are justified before God._
Let any serious person read over those pages. I therein _slander_ no man. I speak what I know; what I have both heard and read. The men are alive, and the books are extant. And the same conclusion I now defend, touching that _part_ of the clergy who preach or write thus, viz. “If they preach the truth as it is in Jesus, I am found a false witness before God. But if I preach the way of God in truth, then they are blind leaders of the blind”. 6. You quote those words, “Nor can I be said to intrude into the labours of those who do not labour at all; but suffer thousands of those for whom Christ died, to perish for lack of knowledge.” (_3 Journal_ page 69.) I wrote that letter near _Kingswood_. I would to God the observation were not terribly true! 7. The first passage you cite from the _Earnest Appeal_, page 36. evidently relates to _a few_ only among the clergy: and if the charge be true, but of one in five hundred, it abundantly _supports_ my _reasoning_. 8. In the next, (page 47.) I address all those, and those only, who affirm that I preach for gain.
You conclude, _The reader has now before him the manner in which you have been pleased to treat the clergy――――and your late sermon――――is too fresh an instance of――――the like usage of the universities_――――(page 107.) It is an instance of _speaking the truth in love_. So I desire all mankind may _use_ me. Nor could I have said less either to the university or the clergy, without sinning against God and my own soul.