And indeed I am in doubt, whether it does admit (I am sure, it does not require) any other answer, than that course one of the countryman to the Romish champion, “Bellarmine, Thou liest.” For every proposition contained herein, is grossly, shamelessly false. 1. “You cannot agree in your doctrines among yourselves.”—Who told you so? All our fundamental doctrines, I have recited above. And in every one of these we do and have agreed for several years. In these we hold one and the same thing. In smaller points, each of us thinks, and lets think. 2. “Mr. Whitefield anathematizes Mr. Wesley.” Another shameless untruth. Let any one read what Mr. Whitefield wrote, even in the heat of controversy, and he will be convinced of the contrary. 3. “And Mr. Wesley anathematizes Mr. Whitefield.” This is equally false and scandalous. I reverence Mr. Whitefield, both as a child of God, and a true minister of Jesus Christ. 4. “And yet each pretends to be led by the Holy Ghost, by the infallible Spirit of God.” Not in our private opinions: nor does either of us pretend to be any farther led by the Spirit of God, than every Christian must pretend to be, unless he will deny the bible. For only as many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God. Therefore, if you do not pretend to be led by him too, yea, if it be not so in fact, you are none of his.
And now, what is become of your demonstration? Leave it to the car-men and porters, its just proprietors: to the zealous apple-women that cry after me in the street, “This is he that rails at the Whole Dutyful of Man.” But let every one that pretends to learning or reason, be ashamed to mention it any more.
30. The first inference, easily deduced from what has been said, is, “That we are not false prophets.” In one sense of the word, we are no prophets at all; for we do not foretel things to come. But in another (wherein every minister is a prophet) we are. For we do speak in the name of God. Now a false prophet (in this sense of the word) is one, who declares as the will of God, what is not so. But we declare (as has been shewn at large) nothing else as the will of God, but what is evidently contained in his written word, as explained by our own church. Therefore, unless you can prove the bible to be a false book, you cannot possibly prove us to be false prophets.
The text which is generally cited on this occasion, is Matthew vii. verse 15. But how unhappily chosen! In the preceeding chapters, our Lord had been describing, that righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, and without which we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven: Even the life of God in the soul; holiness of heart, producing all holiness of conversation. In this, he closes that rule which sums up the whole, with those solemn words, Enter ye in at the strait gate: (such indeed is that of universal holiness) For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. The gate of hell is wide as the whole earth; the way of unholiness is broad as the great deep. And many there be which go in thereat; yea, and excuse themselves in so doing, Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. It follows, Beware of false prophets; of those who speak as from God, what God hath not spoken; those who shew you any other way to life, than that which I have now shewn. So that the false prophets, here spoken of, are those who point out any other way to heaven than this; who teach men to find a wider gate, a broader way, than that described in the foregoing chapters. But it has been abundantly shewn, that we do not. Therefore (whatever we are beside) we are not false prophets.
Neither are we (as has been frequently and vehemently affirmed) deceivers of the people. If we teach the truth as it is in Jesus, if we speak as the oracles of God, it follows, that we do not deceive those that hear, though they should believe whatever we speak. Let God be true and every man a liar: every man that contradicts his truth. But he will be justified in his saying, and clear when he is judged.
One thing more I infer, “That we are not enthusiasts.” This accusation has been considered at large; and the main arguments hitherto brought to support it, have been weighed in the balance and found wanting: Particularly this, “That none but enthusiasts suppose either that promise of the Comforter[¹] or the witness of the Spirit[²], or that unutterable prayer[³], or the unction from the Holy One[⁴], to belong, in common, to all Christians.” O my Lord, how deeply have you condemned the generation of God’s children! Whom you have represented as rank, dreaming enthusiasts? As either deluded or designing men? Not only bishop Pearson, a man hitherto accounted both sound in heart, and of good understanding: but likewise archbishop Cranmer, bishop Ridley, bishop Latimer, bishop Hooper! and all the venerable compilers of our liturgy and homilies: All the members of both the houses of convocation, by whom they were revised and approved: Yea, king Edward, and all his lords and commons together, by whose authority they were established! And, with these modern enthusiasts, Origen, Chrysostom, and Athanasius are comprehended in the same censure!
[¹] John xiv. 16, 26. xvi. 13.
[²] Romans viii. 15, 16.
[³] Romans viii. 26, 27.
[⁴] 1 John ii. 20, 27.