Investigator and Friendly.
Investigator.—Good morning, sir.
Friendly.—Good morning.
Investigator.—How is your health, and your mind?
Friendly.—Why, sir, much as usual; God has blessed me with tolerable health and spirits, which I consider great mercies, amidst so many exercises of body and mind: I am, at times, weak in my nerves, but most wonderfully upheld, and sometimes dejected in mind, through the variety of inward and outward conflicts which God has given to me, to be exercised with beneath the sun: both body and mind are affected with the fretting leprosy, and though often healed by a look from the Great High Priest, and by the application of his all-cleansing sacrifice, and the oil of his comforting and sanctifying spirit; yet the plague frequently breaks out again, and it will be the case, I suppose, till this leprous house is pulled down, the stone, the timber and the mortar, and carried to the grave.—Leviticus, xiv. But may I be permitted to ask the reason of your calling this morning?
Investigator.—Why, sir, I hope I am not intruding on your time, but I have long desired an interview with you; for having occasion to travel much, for many years, I have frequently heard your name mentioned, both in public and private, sometimes with credit, honour, and pleasure with pity and commiseration. I have also met with some persons who are, I believe, very spiritual and consistent, God-fearing persons, who have heard you preach, both in town and country, and read your publications with profit and pleasure; but, alas! I have also heard your name treated with the utmost scorn and contempt, stigmatized as the vilest miscreant, the most abominable wretch, advancing the most dreadful antinomianism, living the most dissolute life, and as industriously circulating the most licentious doctrines, totally subversive of all morality and common honesty.
Friendly.—Well, sir, really these are awful charges, and as they have been so many years propagating, I almost wonder these calumniators are not tired of talking about one so unworthy of their notice; but I guess who that ever-restless agent is, who them, going about; (1 Peter, v. 8.) this is the roving commission he has received; and he must fulfill it.
Investigator.—But is it not strange, sir, so many pretended advocates for morality, holiness, and the moral law, should exert all their influence to suppress the truths you preach; and employ so many hands to write, print, publish, and circulate your history in the most degrading manner possible?
Friendly.—It is so, but there is no new thing under the sun; various indeed, are the motives of such calumniators; some degrade me to cover their own infamy; some from pharisaic principles; some to exalt themselves upon my ruin; some to please those above them, and some to gain money by it, which they have, and to which I have no objection, had they not filled their pages with so many palpable falsehoods, which have disgraced the writer, and shewn the malignity of their spirits. These infamous squibs have been sent to the four winds of heaven, to Wales, Ireland, Scotland, America, the East and West Indies, and to almost every county and village in England, in twopenny, fourpenny, and sixpenny pamphlets; each containing from one to two hundred well-known falsehoods.
Investigator.—Yes, I believe that not less than twenty thousand such scandalous pamphlets have been published, and circulated.