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Doc. 259.] 513
HARTLEY’S LETTER TO CLOWES.
of which will ever be according to its governing principles,
and therefore it was that the essential Truth of God in the
person of Christ was to suffer persecution ; but wisdom is
justified of her children, even such as have their hearts turned
towards God ; and in respect to such, Truth carries in it
native evidence and conviction, so as to supersede the necessity
of argument, according to those words of our Lord, ’If any
man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether
it be of God.’
23. "Our author ever kept the Holy Scriptures in view ;
they were his light and guide, his shield and buckler on all
occasions ; his reasonings are grounded on their authority,
and he is abundantly copious in the proofs he draws from
them in support of whatever doctrine he advances. On this
foundation he builds, and a surer can no one lay ; he ex
pounds the lively oracles by their harmonizing sense in different
parts of them, and opens their spiritual meaning, like the
scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven; and of this he
has in particular given us satisfying evidence in his exposition
of the Apocalypse.
"And yet let it be remarked here, that however high he
stands in the character of the enlightened divine, however
zealous he appeared for Truth and the instruction of his
brethren ; and lastly, however self-denying in his own particular
case as to gratifications and indulgences, even within the bounds
.
ofmoderation, yet nothing severe, nothing of the precisian ap
peared in him; but, on the contrary, an inward serenity and
complacency of mind were manifest in the sweetness of his
looks and outward demeanour ; and in his writings so far is he
from affecting any stoical stiffness or severity, that in several
parts of them he allows to Christian liberty its full scope, and
nowhere censures social entertainments and amusements pro
perly conducted.
24. "This highly gifted man’s visions and communications
with the spiritual world, in a frequent visible intercourse
with angels and other spirits, will be looked upon by many
as an exceptionable part of his writings, owing to a general
disbelief of these things, helped on by the weak arguments
of some, who have a reputation for learning, in order to
33
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