Wesley Corpus

SIR, -- I was in Cornwall when your last was brought to the Foundry and delivered to my brother. When I returned, it was mislaid and could not be found; so that I did not receive it till some months after the date. You judge right with regard to the tract [The Address to the Clergy. Probably intended for the Rev. George Thompson Vicar of St. Gennys.] enclosed to you. It was sent to you by mistake for another that bears the same name. Christian perfection, we agree, may stand aside for the present. The point now to be considered is Christian faith. This, I apprehend, implies a divine evidence or conviction of our acceptance. You apprehend it does not. In debating this (or indeed any) point with you, I lie under a great disadvantage. (1) You know me; whereas I do not know you. (2) I am a very slow, you seem to be a very swift, writer. (3) My time is so taken up, from day to day and from week to week, that I can spare very little from my stated employments; so that I can neither write so largely nor so accurately as I might otherwise do. All, therefore, which you can expect from me is, not a close-wrought chain of connected arguments, but a short sketch of what I should deduce more at large if I had more leisure. I believe the ancient Fathers are far from being silent on our question; though none that I know have treated it professedly. But I have not leisure to wade through that sea. Only to the argument from the baptism of heretics I reply, If any had averred during that warm controversy, ‘I received a sense of pardon when I was baptized by such an heretic’ those on the other side would in no wise have believed him; so that the dispute would have remained as warm as ever. I know this from plain fact. Many have received a sense of pardon when I baptized them. But who will believe them when they assert it Who will put any dispute on this issue