JULY 22
In like manner, if I could not continue united to any smaller Society, Church or body of Christians, without committing sin, without lying and hypocrisy, without preaching to others doctrines which I did not myself believe, I should be under an absolute necessity of separating from that Society. And in all these cases the sin of separation, with all the evils consequent upon it, would not lie upon me, but upon those who constrained me to make that separation, by requiring of me such terms of communion as I could not in conscience comply with. But setting aside this case, suppose the Church or Society to which I am now united, does not require me to do anything which the Scripture forbids, or to omit anything which the Scripture enjoins, it is then my indispensable duty to continue therein.
Schism
Envy will invent a thousand things, and with the most plausible circumstances.
Letter, 9th November, 1787
