Copy of a letter dictated by Abraham Booth and copied by Benjamin Tomkins of the PBF and sent to the Rev. Thomas Linford, 13 December 1798 (date recorded by Tomkins).

 Dear Sir,

         The Managers of the Particular Baptist Fund having heard a report, That you deny the moral Law to be the rule of a believer’s moral conduct; I was, at their last Meeting, directed to enquire into the truth of that report.

         Now, Sir, my enquiry is not, Whether you believe that the moral law should be regarded by real Christians, as prescribing the condition of obtaining everlasting life? Or, whether you consider their imperfect obedience to it, as at all concerned in their justification before God? for these things are entirely out of the question, with every one that knows any thing of the genuine gospel. Nor is it, Whether you believe that every particular contained in the ten Commands, as recorded by the pen of Moses, ought to be considered as constituting a part of the Christian’s rule of moral conduct: for it must be allowed by all, that some few things contained in those commands, as they stand in the Pentateuch, respected the Hebrew nation, & the Mosaic Oeconomy, only. But the question is, Whether you believe that the moral law, as briefly expressed in those words, Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, & thy neighbour as thyself, is the rule of a Christian’s moral conduct? Or, Whether, on the contrary, you consider a true believer as having nothing at all to do with the moral law? – Requesting an explicit Answer, in the course of this month, & hoping it will be, not only sincere, but also satisfactory, I remain,

                                             yours, &c

         [Benjamin Tomkins]    B. T. Secret[ary]

Address: none

Postmark: none

Text: Issac Mann Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University, OSB MSS 46, Box 1, folder 71. At the time of the above letter, Thomas Linford was minister to the Baptist congregation at Bottesford, Leicestershire, where he remained into the 1820s. The question Booth is raising concerns Antinomianism, a doctrinal issue that plagued many congregations among the Particular Baptists during the last quarter of the 18th century, largely a result of the popular ministry of William Huntington in London, although the issue existed prior to his rise to prominence.