"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. You, my friend, once professed the true faith of the gospel--have you kept it? I think not. I fear you have fallen from it. You are now preaching a doctrine which pleases the world, but it makes against you according to scripture. The apostle John says in his 1st epistle 4th chapter 5th and 6th verses, They are of the world; therefore the world heareth them; we are of God; he that knoweth God, heareth us, he that is not of God, heareth not us; hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." I would not, dear sir, knowingly misapply your words, nor make a use of the above quotation contrary to their most plain and evident sense which I conceive is as follows: 1st. The doctrine which I believed before I believed as I do now, is the true gospel according to the testimony of the apostle John, in his 1st epistle, 4th chapter 5th and 6th verses. 2d. That in believing as I now do, I have fallen from that faith, and turned unto fables. 3d. My now preaching a doctrine which pleases the world is good proof that my doctrine is not of God, and that those who hear me are justly described by the apostle as heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears. In the first place I shall agree with you in the supposition that when I first made a profession of religion, I believed the true gospel. In the second place I shall endeavour to show that I have not fallen from that faith. In the third place I will attempt to show that the evidence, which you think makes against me, is by no means sufficient to prove that the doctrine I now believe and preach is consistent with the _lusts_ of the _world_ or contrary to the true faith of the gospel. 1st. The true faith of the gospel as expressed in 1 John, 4th, &c. is as follows--see verse 2, 3, "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." The apostle here states in the most simple terms the true Christian faith, and brings it into such a short compass that none can mistake him. The belief that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is the true faith, and a denial of that fact is a false faith. When I first professed religion I professed to believe that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh;" and this I am willing to say now is the true faith of the gospel, and the only article of faith which constituted a Christian believer in the opinion of the apostles; restricting this belief, at the same time, to Jesus of Nazareth, that he was the Christ.