The other eminent ministers sermons I have not yet met with: but I have great reason to believe they have been treated in the same manner: the time would fail me, dear Sir, to send you all the vouchers that might be produced for the glorious work in New-England. Messrs. Webb, Cooper and Prince, in a preface to a sermon by Mr. M‘Gregor, a presbyterian minister, and which I hope also will be reprinted, speak nobly of it. Mr. Edwards’s sermon I think is most admirable, and answers all the objections that Mr. A. M. or others can make against it. In short, if any work had all marks of a divine signature, this undoubtedly has.
When I consider how Mr. A. M. so quarrels with it, and endeavours to represent it in so ridiculous a light, I cannot but wish he may consider Romans viii. 7. 1 Corinthians ii. 14. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; and the natural man discerneth not the things of the spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned.” The sum of the matter seems to be this; there has been a great and marvellous work in New-England: but, as it should seem, by the imprudences of some, and the overboiling zeal of others, some irregularities have been committed in several places, which Mr. Tennent himself, in a letter to Mr. Parsons, printed in the Boston Gazette, has borne his testimony against, as strongly as any of these eminent ministers. This, dear Sir, is nothing but what is common. It was so in Old-England some few years ago. Many young persons there, ran out before they were called: others were guilty of great imprudences. I checked them in the strictest manner myself, and found as they grew acquainted with the Lord Jesus, and their own hearts, the intemperance of their zeal abated; and they became truly humble walkers with God. After a gathering, there will always be a sifting time: and the church is generally shaken before it is settled. But must the whole work of God be condemned as enthusiasm and delusion because of some disorder? No, I wish with all my soul, that those who extracted from Mr. Parsons, had observed what he says, page 41, and 42. “It is very much to be feared,” says he, (speaking to persons who cried down the whole work of God because of the imprudences and miscarriages of a few) “that you are strangers to the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost, when you can so easily pass over the table of the rich dainties which God spreads for his own children, which while they feast upon, their souls are drawn out in rivers of pleasure and love; and like the crow, light upon, and greedily pick up, every bit of filthy carrion you can meet with.”
Dear Sir, as I allow you to publish my letter; out of compassion to the compilers and publishers of the pamphlet, I cannot but express my concern, that they may seriously consider, whether this mentioned by Mr. Parsons be not directly their case. And that they may take heed lest the God of this world may have blinded their eyes: since they had this and the other sermons before them, they must sin against light and knowledge in publishing such a tract. And therefore, to use the words of Mr. Parsons in his sermon, page 42. “It is not possible that you should be innocent, but on the contrary plunge yourselves under amazing guilt, by such a dreadful conduct. Whilst you stand amazed at the rings of the wheels, as things too high and dreadful for you; whilst you know not what to make of the effusions of the Holy Spirit, but are blundering at every thing amiss; when God is working a work of his astonishing grace before your eyes which you will not believe; beware lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets, ‘Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish!’ Dear immortal souls, I beseech and persuade you, by the mercies of God and the astonishing love of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would not sacrifice the operations of the blessed Spirit to your own prejudice, by means of our imperfections: I beseech and charge you by the coming of the great Jehovah in the word of his grace, that you do not despise his glorious name, and the riches of his mercy, now offered to you. I charge and admonish you by the dignity and worth of your immortal souls; by the powerful impressions of an approaching change; by the certain tremendous appearing of the Great Judge; by the inexpressible agonies of hell, and inconceivable joys of an everlasting heaven, that you do no longer reject, nor once more cavil against the glorious interest and kingdom of the blessed Jesus triumphing at this day, and inviting the miserable slaves of the devil, to become the happy subjects of it. I warn and charge you before the great God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the holy Angels, upon your peril, that you take diligent heed to these things. And if you reject to hear, if you dare reject, or boldly despise the admonition, remember you are answerable at the great tribunal, and must expect a most fearful share of torments among the damned world, for such unspeakable guilt.”
Thus speaks this great and good man: my heart warmed, dear Sir, whilst I was reading his discourse; it is close, succinct and powerful: how could the publishers, after reading such a dreadful warning, print any thing out of his sermon, to prove the work in New-England, to be enthusiasm? I would heartily join with him and the other ministers in New-England, was I there, in bearing a faithful testimony against any thing that I might judge to be inconsistent with the precious rules of the holy scriptures. At the same time I pray, that even the ministers themselves may act with the same caution they recommend to their people, and then I doubt not but we shall see a happy end put to what may now be irregular or disorderly. The dear Redeemer has assured us, “that the gates of hell shall never prevail against his church.” He will cause that all things shall work together for her good. The wrath of man shall turn to his praise, and the remainder of it shall he restrain; he will bring order out of confusion, and the church shall be more than conqueror through his love. I will therefore conclude this long letter, with the words of the psalmist in the second psalm,
Why rage the heathen? and vain things,
Why do the people mind?
2. Kings of the earth do set themselves,
And Princes are combin’d
To plot against the Lord, and his
Anointed, saying thus,