Abraham Booth, London, to John Webster Morris, Clipston, 1 January 1798.

Dear Sir,

         I now return the MS. you were so kind as to send for my perusal; &, for the opportunity of doing which, I am very much obliged to you. I have read it with care, but without being convinced of any material mistake. I perceive, indeed, that, in one or two places, I have not been accurate in representing Dr. H’s sense; but I am confident that he has grossly misunderstood & misrepresented me, in various places. With surprise I read, for instance, his animadversions & reasonings, p. 13 – 18, of MS.; for the notions with which he charges me never entered my head. My language to which he refers, proceeds on the same principle with that of Paul, If righteousness come by the law, Christ died in vain. I shall endeavour to guard, however, against a mistake of this kind in future, should there be a second Edition. I do not, notwithstanding, desire to obtain the American Doctor’s approbation, relative to the doctrine of justification, while he maintains the necessity of virtue, & the exercise of it, previous to justification; nor have I any objection to be implacated [sic] of Antinomianism by him. May the Spirit of truth guide both him & me into all the truth, as it is in Jesus!

         I thank you also for your Letter; but am by no means convinced by it, that my argument, against which it contends, is not valid. Yet, were I to abandon that single argument, I should consider the particular point for which it was produced perfectly safe, while I find ^hear^ Peter, & Paul, & Jesus, speak as they do, relative to regeneration. But, having neither time, nor inclination, to enlarge, I commend you to the God of all grace; & remain,

                     dear Sir,

                                 your Friend & Brother,

                                             A. Booth.

London, June 1, 1798.

Address: Mr. Morris, | Clipstone

Postmark: none

Endorsed: “Mr Booth’s Remarks on Dr Hopkins’s MS.” [in an unknown hand]

Text: Isaac Mann Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University, OSB MSS 46, Box 1, folder 4. After Abraham Booth’s publication of Glad Tidings to Perishing Sinners (London, 1796), its reception in America produced a sharp response by those who adhered to the New Divinity, especially Hopkins. Hopkins was severely attacked by Booth in his book, enough so that Hopkins felt compelled to defend himself in a long manuscript which he sent to John Ryland, Jr., in England and that circulated among many of the Particular Baptists, including Andrew Fuller and J. W. Morris. Surprisingly, Morris shared the MS. with Booth, who left his impressions of it in the above letter and a few other letters as well. Hopkins never published his manuscript. An account of the event can be found in the Memoir of Hopkins in The Works of Samuel Hopkins (3 vols) (Boston, 1852), vol. 1, pp. 222-23. Booth believed that Fuller, Ryland, and others were too attached to Hopkins and Edwards, and that by “importing their metaphysical refinements, there would be some danger of relaxing that muscular system of theology to which he himself was so ardently attached.” “In the progress of his inquiry, Mr. Booth did not fail to animadvert pretty severely on some of the American writers; whom he mentioned, rather in terms of contempt; and the sentiments of Dr. Hopkins in particular, on the subject of regeneration and justification, he considered as ‘pernicious’ and tending to ‘corrupt the Gospel.’ His pamphlet soon crossed the Atlantic, where it was attentively examined by Dr. Hopkins, who transmitted to a friend on this side the water a complete refutation of several of Mr. Booth’s positions, accompanied with some pointed strictures on the temper of his performance, and the inconclusive nature of his reasonings. The respect entertained for Mr. Booth, did not permit the printing of this valuable manuscript, and it obtained only a private circulation; for, whatever difference of opinion might exist on some speculative points, all parties were agreed in paying homage to his [Mr. B.’s] character. Mr. Fuller apologized to Dr. Hopkins for Mr. Booth’s manner of writing, and his seeming contempt for contemporary authors, in a letter dated March 17, 1798; while he, at the same time, expressed his own opinion of the manuscript in question. ‘I sincerely thank you,’ says he, [Mr. Fuller to Dr. Hopkins,] ‘for your remarks on Mr. Booth’s performance; which every person of judgment who has seen them, within my knowledge, considers as a decisive refutation.’” [The writer of Hopkin's Memoir has taken this from Morris’s Memoir of Fuller, chapter xi.]. For the letters by Ryland and Fuller to Hopkins, the former dated 13 March 1798 and the latter 17 March 1798, click here and here.