Robert Hall, Bristol, to John Ryland, Jr., Northampton, 11 August 1789.

11th of August 1795

My dear Friend

  I have just received your letter & think it of so much importance, as to deserve an immediate answer.  Accordingly without the least delay I have set my self to reply to it.  I am exceedingly obliged to you for your friendly expostulation, because I know it is the effusion of a pious & benevolent heart that wishes me well.  With respect to the conversation that passed at Birmingham to which you refer, my remembrance of it may be supposed not to be very exact, however I shall conceal nothing.  I very well recollect to have expressed it as my sentiment that Dr Priestley was a good man in the strictest sense of the word.  This you will not wonder at when I inform you that it is my settled opinion that the essential article necessary to constitute a christian is a belief of the messiah of Christ.  Faith must necessarily admit of very different degrees of perfection.  For what is faith but knowledge.  But I suppose there never were two men who agreed in the same number of articles & it has often struck me that there must be some one ult. article which is the basis of all others.  Now upon the most attentive examination I can find no other of this description, but this, “that Jesus is the person pointed out by the Prophets as the true Sevt of God.  This applies to [illegible word] the faith which Peter & the rest of the Apostles possessed before the death of Christ.  It is evident that they had no conceptions of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ for they do not appear, to have realized the idea of his death.  In this sentiment I have many very worthy & calvinistical people.  I [illegible word] but in this my dear friend give me leave to say you are utterly mistaken.  Since I first began to reflect, I do not recollect a time when I was less inclined to that system than at present.  I can truly say it would remove from me all my salvation and all my desire, because I firmly believe none can be accepted of God but thro’ a mediator. 

  Yet I think there is a great distinction to be made betwix those things that are essential as a part of a system & those which are necessarily connected in our minds.  To the essentials of the first class belongs every thing, but thro’ the imperfection of our powers to the last, very few   Our Lord praying for his people says “sanctify them with thy truth.” Now as we know but little of each others hearts we cannot determine what portion of truth is essential to this purpose.  Different truths may produce sanctifying influences on different men.  Nor is the same light necessary to all, for the same is not given.  With respect to Dr P. from the candour & openness of his [illegible word], from the piety & integrity of his life & his [orderly?] attachment to truth wherever he meets with it, I am induced to believe that he possesses all those dispositions that are essential to the enjoyment of heaven & that had he an additional light with respect to the sacrifice of Christ he would cordially embrace it.  Thus much respecting the sentiment in hand.

  You seem to lay a great deal of stress on my declaring that I had no doubt that God would save Dr P. for that I thought if I were God I should.  You charge this expression with impiety & levity, an expression which I do not recollect to have dropt; but I will suppose I did & will beg your forbearance with me whilst I make an apology for it.  [illegible word] I have is wise & mercifull conduct to regulate my ideas of Gods providence in doubtful & uncertain cases Pray how is the idea of God formed but by uniting in our minds all the conceptions we have of excellent qualities & then applying these in an infinite degree to God And how can we think more honourably of God than by imagining he will in every instance act as we should wish to do in a cool & dispassionate moment.  If it appeared to me that Dr P. possesses the tempers of mind that fit him for the kingdom of heaven, it should seem a reflecting agent who seeks an end, would consider holy & intellectual happiness as his proper destiny, much more than would a being of consummate perfection & knowledge.  To bend the divine characer & conduct to our standard is certainly impious & shocking but to make use of the little knowledge we have of excllence & propriety in giving us large & comprehensive views of the divine disposals is laudable & inproving.  However allowing the expression to be improper or too strong, I can only say that it does not belong to all to speak equally temporately, that the crime of expressions can only be judged from the feelings, & that I am certain I did not utter it with any lightness of heart, but with deep impressions of earnestness & sincereity.  Your charge of imprudence I cordially admit, & see it with more clearness than I ever did that the imprudent should never come into company with the malicious.

  I am exceeding sorry to hear of my fathers late illness.  May God bless him & long preserve his life.  It gives me pleasure to hear things are agreeable betwix yours & the Church.  I had more things to say but there is no room.  Sincerely thank you for your letter, & shall always be extremely thankfull

Text: OSG.95B, Box A, Bristol Baptist College, Bristol. The bottom portion of this letter is clipped, possibly the result of someone's desire for a signature of Hall, a common practice at this time among autograph collectors.