To the AUTHOR of the _Enthusiasm_ of _Methodists_ and _Papists_ compared.
_Ecce iterum Chrispinus!_ JUVENAL.
To the Right Reverend the LORD BISHOP of EXETER.
_My Lord_,
1. I WAS grieved when I read the following words, in the third part of the enthusiasm of _Methodists_ and _Papists_ compared. “A sensible, honest woman told the _bishop of Exeter_, in presence of several witnesses, That Mr. _John Wesley_ came to her house, and questioned her, whether she had _an assurance of her salvation_?” Her answer was, that “she _hoped_ she should be saved, but had no absolute _assurance_ of it.” Why then, replied he, _you are in hell, you are damned already_. This so terrified the poor woman, who was then with child, that she was grievously afraid of miscarrying, and could not in a long time, recover her right mind. For this, and the Methodists asking her to live upon free cost, she determined to admit no more of them into her house. So much is _her own account_ to his lordship, on whose authority it is here published.”
2. This renewed the concern I felt sometime since, when I was informed (in letters which I have still by me) of your lordship’s publishing this account, both at _Plymouth_, in _Devonshire_, and at _Truro_, in _Cornwall_, before the clergy assembled from all parts of those counties, at the solemn season of your lordship’s visiting your diocese. But I was not informed, that your lordship shewed a deep concern for the honour of God, which you supposed to be so dreadfully violated, or a tender compassion for a presbyter whom you believed to be rushing into everlasting destruction.
3. In order to be more fully informed, on _Saturday, August 25, 1750_, Mr. _Trembath_, of _St. Ginneys_, Mr. _Hame_, of _Shaftesbury_, and _I_, called at Mr. _Morgan_’s at _Mitchell_. The servant telling me her master was not at home, I desired to speak with her mistress, the “honest, sensible woman.” ♦I immediately asked, “Did I ever tell you or your husband, that you would be damned, if you took any money of me?” (So the story ran in the first part of the comparison: it has now undergone a very considerable alteration.) “Or did you or he ever affirm (another circumstance related at _Truro_) that I was rude with your maid?” She replied vehemently, “Sir, I never said you was, or that you said any such thing. And I do not suppose my husband did. But we have been belied as well as our neighbours.” She added, “When the bishop came down last, he sent us word, that he would dine at our house. But he did not, being invited to a neighbouring gentleman’s. He sent for me thither, and said, ‘Good woman, do you know these people that go up and down? Do you know Mr. _Wesley_? Did not he tell you, you would ♠be damned, if you took any money of him? And did not he offer rudeness to your maid?’” I told him, “No, my lord. He never said any such thing to me, nor to my husband that I know of. He never offered any rudeness to any maid of mine. I never saw or knew any harm of him. But a man told me once (who I was told was a Methodist preacher) that I should be damned, if I did not know my sins were forgiven.”
♦ added word “I” per Errata
♠ “de” replaced with “be”
4. This is _her own account_ given to me. And an account it is, irreconcileably different (notwithstanding some small resemblance in the last circumstance) from that she is affirmed to have given your lordship. Whether she did give that account to your lordship or no, your lordship knows best. That the comparer affirms it, is no proof at all; since he will affirm any thing that suits his purpose.
5. Yet I was sorry to see your lordship’s authority cited on such an occasion; inasmuch as many of his readers, not considering the man, may think your lordship did really countenance such a writer: one that turns the most serious, the most awful, the most venerable things into mere farce; that makes the most essential parts of real, experimental religion, matter of low buffoonery; that beginning at the very rise of it in the soul, namely, _Repentance towards God, a broken and a contrite heart_, goes on to _faith in our Lord Jesus Christ_, whereby _he that believeth is born of God_, to _the love of God shed abroad in the heart_, attended with _peace and joy in the Holy Ghost_; to our subsequent _wrestling not_ only _with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places_, and thence to _perfect love_, the _loving the Lord our God, with all our heart, mind, soul and strength_: and treats every one of these sacred topics with the spirit and air of a merry-andrew. What advantage the common enemies of Christianity may reap from this, your Lordship cannot be insensible.