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Franklin, Benjamin

"Philadelphia 1726-1757"

_ We are yours, _&c._ A.B.C.D.
_S._ Good Morrow! I am glad to find you well and abroad; for
not having seen you at Meeting lately, I concluded you were
indispos'd.
T. _Tis true I have not been much at Meeting lately, but that
was not occasion'd by any Indisposition. In short, I stay at home,
or else go to Church, because I do not like Mr._ H. _your new-fangled
Preacher._
_S._ I am sorry we should differ in Opinion upon any Account;
but let us reason the Point calmly; what Offence does Mr. _H._ give
you?
T. _Tis his Preaching disturbs me: He talks of nothing but the
Duties of Morality: I do not love to hear so much of Morality: I am
sure it will carry no Man to Heaven, and I do not think it fit to be
preached in a Christian Congregation_.
_S._ I suppose you think no Doctrine fit to be preached in a
Christian Congregation, but such as Christ and his Apostles used to
preach.
T. _To be sure I think so_.
_S._ I do not conceive then how you can dislike the Preaching
of Morality, when you consider, that Morality made the principal Part
of their Preaching as well as of Mr. _H_'s. What is Christ's Sermon
on the Mount but an excellent moral Discourse, towards the End of
which, (as foreseeing that People might in time come to depend more
upon their _Faith_ in him, than upon _Good Works_, for their
Salvation) he tells the Hearers plainly, that their saying to him,
_Lord, Lord_, (that is, professing themselves his Disciples or
_Christians_) should give them no Title to Salvation, but their
_Doing_ the Will of his Father; and that tho' they have prophesied in
his Name, yet he will declare to them, as Neglecters of Morality,
that he never knew them.


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