20 February 1746

Anne Dutton, Great Gransden, to Howell Harris, 20 February 1746.

Great Gransden, Feb. 20, 1745-6.

My very Dear & Hond Brother,

         Last Friday Night I gladly rec’d yours of ye 17th of Janry last, & return hearty Thanks. – I did indeed think it long since I heard from you; but knowing ye greatness of yr Work, in ye Service of yr Royal Master, and my own Unworthiness of any Favour from his dear Servants, I did not once think it Ingratitude in you, yt you writ no sooner. – Indeed I love you for Jesus sake, bear you on my Heart before ye Lord, & rejoyce that you are still held as a Star in Christ’s Right Hand, to shine forth in his Light, to ye saving Benefit, Joy & Direction of many. Oh may He still establish you in Faith & Holiness, & preserve you blamelessly until yr Race is run, & yr Crown won! – It refresheth my Spirit, to hear you tell of ye Love of Christ, to us ye unworthy, sinful, ye pardon’d, happy Objects thereof. No love, but ye Love of CHRIST, could bear with the many, daily, & repeated Provocations that we are guilty of. None but HIM, whose Person & Love are Infinite, or could, or would continue to pardon, & pass in ye Services of such vile, ungrateful, Hell-deserving wretches as We! But oh, it’s well for us, that the love of Christ, passeth Knowledge! That it not only far surpasseth all yt ye most favour’d of imperfect Men know of it; but also all yt can be known, by perfect Saints & Angels to a blest Eternity, & will ever abide, to our Wonder, Joy & Praise, in its own Infinity, a Love that passeth KNOWLEDGE! Its Heights & Depths, its Lengths & Breadths, immeasurable & eternal! – There had been no such Thing as the Love of Christ, it had long since been exhausted, had He not been God by Nature, God in our Nature, Emanuel, God with us! Had not our JESUS been ye LORD, ye Self-existent, All-sufficient, ye unchangeable & eternal JEHOVAH; He could not have lov’d one Sinner, with the Love of a Saviour, with a Love great enough to save one single Man, nor have borne with the Provocations of one single Soul. How much less could He have lov’d such an innumerable Multitude of Adam’s fallen Race, as ye whole Election of Grace are! Or have borne with all their innumerable Provocations cast together into one huge Mass of complicated Wickedness, and unsearchable Abyss of all Unrighteousness! – Alas! I myself, for my single Self, must say, I am too great a Sinner, ever to hope for Salvation, from any Person, but one who is God by Nature; from any Love, that has not in it, all ye radical & essential Perfections of ye GODHEAD! I had been undone, I should yet perish; if ye Lord my Lover, had not been GOD my Maker, if his Name was not I AM! The same Yesterday, To-day, & Forever! But Oh! The Person I Love, ye Perfections & Glories of my JESUS, are Infinite! And therefore my Salvation by Him, & Happiness in Him, to endless Ages, are infinitely secured! – And here, my Brother, is Sea-Room enough, for all ye Vessels of Mercy; & hence they may take their Fill of Bliss & Glory, without Fear of Waste, thro’ Time & to Eternity! – How great & adorable then, is God ye Father’s Love, that He shd give so great a Person, as his own Son in our Nature, to be ye great Head of ye Church! How great & adorable is ye Love of ye Son in that He who thought it not Robbery to be equal with God, shd yet so humble Himself for us, as to take upon Him ye Form of a Servant, & Nature of Man, & therein as our Head, to obey & die; that we in & wth him, mt live & ever reign! And how great & adorable is ye Love of ye Holy Ghost, in his accepting of ye Office of Comforter for us, of an Applyer of all salvation to us; and that as such, sent from the Father & ye Son, He reveals unto us the Mystery of CHRIST; that believing in Him, we may be saved by Him, and rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory here, until we are call’d to enter into the Joy of Glory hereafter! The Love of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, & ye respective Displays thereof in our Salvation, are infinite & co-equal Wonders of Grace. And each of these infinite Lovers, for their own infinite Glories & Perfections, & for ye Glory of their infinite Love to us, are worthy of our highest Love, Praise & Adoration, both now & Forever. Amen! –

         I am glad, my dear Brother, yt yr Heart is so full of Love to yr Brethren yt withdrew from ye Tabernacle-Society, & are joined with ye Moravians. I trust they are lively Stones, built up on ye Foundation [of] Christ; and yt they still lay Him doctrinally, as ye only Foundation of a Sinner’s Salvation: And as such we ought to love & honour them.—But indeed, my dear Brother, their going over into ye Moravian-Tenets, is no light Thing: In yt it is manifest thereby, yt they have let go many of ye blessed Truths of ye glorious Gospel, are ceas’d from being Witnesses for ye Same, & are likely to be Instruments of leading many Souls into Error. The Errors yt are among ye Moravians, tho’ very bad, are attended with much less Guilt in ye Persons yt profess them, who never yet were better instructed. But for those yt have been taught ye Truths of Christ, to let go ye Things wch they have heard & receiv’d, to cast away ye precious Truth, as if it was nothing worth, to embrace & advance Error: This I humbly think, cannot be done without great Guilt; and yt in ye Persons where it is found, it ought to be esteem’d a great Fall; that for it there ought to be great Grief & Humiliation before God; and yt others who at present stand, ought to be warned, but they also fall from their own Stedfastness. – It is true, my Brother, that ye Apostle saith, “Who art thou yt judgest another Man’s Servant? To his own Master he standeth or falleth.” But this is spoke of Things indifferent in their own Nature; as ye eating, or not eating of certain Meats: And to restrain ye Saints judging & blaming of one another on acct of such little indifferent Things, wch where they are embrac’d, a Person is not ye better, & where rejected, he is not the worse. But as I humbly think, this ought in no wise to be apply’d to any of ye great Truths of ye Gospel, as if it was an indifferent Thing, whether they were embrac’d or rejected: Nor yet shd it be so constru’d, as to restrain ye Saints judging of Things as they are; of yt to be a great Fall, wch apparently is so, when a Person casts away ye Truth, & advanceth Error. – And as those yt hear ye Gospel, ought to be warned yt they abide in ye Truths they have receiv’d; so those yt preach ye Gospel, ought in a particular Manner to be warned, that they take Heed what they build (what doctrines they advance) upon the Foundation Christ. For it is in respect to these in ye first Place, yt ye Apostle wrote what we find I Cor. 3.12, &c. Some Builders (Preachers of ye Gospel) there are, it’s manifest from hence, who tho’ themselves true Believers in Christ, advance Doctrines wch are very disagreeable to Him ye Foundation. And as ys is much to our Lord’s Dishonour; so is it, & shall it be to every such Builder’s, in ye Day of Christ. for, tho’ Himself (being a Believer in Jesus, resting upon Him ye Foundation) shall be saved: yet so as by Fire, Ver. 15. Or, like as a Person yt just escaped wth his Life, when his House and Goods are consumed. Thus shall it be with those Believers, wth those Preachers of ye Gospel, yt do not advance its pure & precious Truths, in a brave Testimony for them. The Loss of all yt Praise, Honour & Glory, yt Crown of Righteousness, wch otherwise they would have received at our Lord’s Appearing, had they kept ye Faith, ye doctrinal Truths of ye Gospel of Christ, set for ye Defence of his glorious Gospel.

  By yr Letter of ye same Date with mine, to my honour’d friend Mr Erskine,1 an Extract of wch he was pleas’d to send me [letter incomplete] 

1  Reference above is to the Scottish MP James Erskine (1679-1754), who became active among the Evangelicals in England and Scotland during the 1740s. Dutton corresponded with Erskine at length, publishing three volumes of their correspondence: Letters Sent to an Honourable Gentleman, for the Encouragement of Faith. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious (London: printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743); Letters Sent to an Honourable Gentleman, for the Encouragement of Faith. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious.  Volume II. (London: Printed by J. Hart in Popping's Court, Fleet Street; And sold by J. Lewis in Paternoster Row, near Cheapside, 1749); the 1761 edition is no longer extant. 

Text: C. M. Archives, Trevecka MSS, Letters, 1374-1503, no. 1418, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.