_To T―――― K――――, at London._
_On board the Minerva, Feb. 20, 1741._
_My dear Brother K――――_,
I Received your kind letter at _Savannah_, and though I hope to see
you face to face soon after you receive this, yet love to your dear
soul constrains me to write you an answer before I come on shore.
I find, since my departure, the brethren have fallen into errors.
Dear Brother _K――――_ will not be offended, if I say, “He, I fear, is
one of them;” for his letter bewrayeth him. My dear Brother, you say,
“You have been striving a long, long while, but to very little purpose,
&c.” By this, I suppose, you have left off the means, and fallen
into _stillness_; expecting now, that JESUS CHRIST will so work upon
your heart, that you shall not feel the least stirring of indwelling
corruption in your soul; in short, that you shall be completely
perfect: This was pretty near my case about six years ago, and now
I see why GOD suffered me thus to be tempted, “that I might be more
capable of succouring my brethren, now they are tempted.” My dear
Brother, let us reason together. “You have been striving (you say) a
long while, but to very little purpose.” And what then? must you be
therefore still, and strive no more? GOD forbid: No, you are yet to
wait at the pool. “Constantly attend on ordinances;” and who knows but
by-and-by the loving Saviour may pass by and visit your soul. Have you
not, in some degree at least, felt his divine power in the use of the
means? Why should not that encourage you to expect more in the same
way? But you say, “I find all that is of self is sin.” And do you
expect ever to do any thing, or to offer up to GOD one sacrifice,
without a mixture of sin in it? If you do, indeed you are building
a _spiritual Babel_. My dear Brother, even our most holy thoughts
are tinctured with sin, and want the atonement of the Mediator; and
therefore, if you leave off striving, because “whatever is of self
is sin,” you must never attempt to do any duty whatsoever again. Your
stillness hath as much a mixture of self in it, as your striving, and
if you proceed in this manner, you must become a professed _Quietist_.
Six weeks did satan keep me under this delusion, but the LORD helped
me in the hour of extremity: May he also help my dear Brother _K――――_!
Another error you seem to be fallen into is, “that a man cannot be a
christian, at least that he is a very weak one, so long as he finds
corruption stirring in his heart.” If I was to urge the seventh to
the _Romans_, you would say, St. _Paul_ only speaks of a man under
first-awakenings, and not of a converted man; but my dear Brother, did
you ever know a man, that was not really converted, delight in the law
of GOD after the inner man? And yet such an one the Apostle speaks of
in the latter part of that chapter. Be not deceived, we are to be holy
as CHRIST is holy; we are to receive grace for grace; every grace that
is in the blessed JESUS, is to be transplanted into our hearts; we are
to be delivered from the power, but not from the indwelling and being
of sin in this life. _Hereafter_, we are to be presented blameless,
without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. If you labour after
any other perfection here, you will labour in vain. St. _Paul_ had
attained no other, when he wrote to the _Philippians_, and to the
other churches: But my dear Brother _K――――_ seems to think, “I did
wrong in writing to Mr. _H――――_ to know his sentiments upon several
texts of scripture, and in sending for several of _Calvin_’s books.”
And why, my dear Brother, was this wrong? Why you say, “you think
it is contrary to St. _Paul_ in his Epistles, when he says, he would
not speak other men’s words;” but St. _Paul_ says no such thing: The
place you aim at, I believe, is _2 Cor._ x. 16. “And not to boast in
another man’s line, of things made ready to our hand.” My dear Brother,
examine the context, and you will find the Apostle means no more
than that he would not enter into other men’s labours, as ver. 15.
He would not preach where churches were already settled, but go where
the gospel had not been delivered. This, and this only, is the meaning
of the passage, which dear mistaken Mr. _K――――_ has wrongly quoted.
My dear Brother, did not St. _Paul_ bid _Timothy_ to give himself to
reading? What, if the Holy Spirit is to lead us into all truth, does
not the Holy Spirit make use of, and lead us by the means? Has he not
indited the scriptures? Has he not helped holy men to explain those
scriptures? And why may I not, in a due subordination to the Holy
Spirit, make use of those men’s writings? Has not my dear Brother
_K――――_ bought sermons? And why then does “He make use of other men’s
words?” O, my dear brother, you are in the wilderness; GOD bring you
safe out of it.
I suppose, because the Dissenters oppose some of your new principles,
you term them enemies; but, my dear Brother, though there are many
Christless talkers, and hypocritical formalists among the Dissenters,
as no doubt there are some such in the purest church under heaven; yet
many of them hold and practice the truth as it is in JESUS. But I have
done. Count me not your enemy, because I tell you the truth. I expect
that great numbers will look shy on me, for thus opposing what I think
to be error. Thus the _Galatians_ treated St. _Paul_; but I must be
tried every way. I could add a thousand kind things, but I hope you
shortly will have a personal interview with
Your affectionate brother and servant in CHRIST,
_G. W._