Wesley Corpus

SIR,--1. I rejoice to find that in some points we come nearer each other, and that we can bear with each other where we do not. I entirely agree that hell was designed only for stubborn, impenitent sinners, and consequently that it would be absurd to 'threaten damnation to any merely for differing from me in speculations.' But it is an absurdity which I have nothing to do with; for it never yet entered into my thoughts. 2. I rejoice likewise in your allowing that my 'speculations, though false, yea, and leading to a deviation from order, may yet possibly be neither wilful nor sinful'; and much more in that which follows--'I question not but God's mercy may both forgive and reward' even that zeal which is not according to knowledge. 3. Yet 'such deviation,' you think, 'may open a door to much disorder and error.' I grant it may; but I still insist (1) that accidental ill consequences may flow from a good thing; (2) that the good consequences in the present case overbalance the evil beyond all possible degrees of comparison. The same I believe of Mr. Whitefield's public preaching (which was not the consequence but the cause of mine), whose doctrine in general (though he is mistaken in some points) I believe to be the truth of the gospel.