Very witty and well written piece, easy to read ..

"If this be true, and I only state my conviction as a fallible man, I must think they have gone far on the downward course. I do not judge them. I do not condemn them as a lifeless mass. I do not say they are possessed by a seducing spirit, but I do say that the course of conduct which would merely stamp a political party as devoid of principle is intolerable in a sect making such professions as I have refered to.

For a sect thus cradled in fanaticism and fostered in hypocrisy, the appropriate end would seem to be to fall into strong delusion. The white flag of separation from evil is too neutral, and has moreover been dragged already too often through the mire, to serve their purpose long. They require something more exciting and more attractive. The Lord
keep them from " receiving another spirit which they have not received, or another gospel which they have not accepted!"


"Mr. Wigram, in writing to a friend at the time, said, " The delusion is so strong here, and the spirit of misapprehension, that if you meet a friend in the town and say, ' I am glad to
see you,' you will be heard and reported as having said, ' I wish you were dead.' The observing this increased my natural taciturnity.''

If he had left this astounding statement in the obscurity of a private letter, it might simply have convinced his correspondent that his friend's mind was disturbed, for to say that people at Plymouth were so mesmerised as to mis-hear the Queen's English in the manner described, might certainly bear out such a suspicion; but when deliberately brought forward and printed more than twelve months after, with a purpose to frighten weak-minded readers, it leads to a far more serious enquiry, viz., How far such a writer can be trusted as either a careful observer or an accurate recorder of the facts which fell under his own immediate observation?"

http://www.brethrenarchive.org/archive/exclusive-section/histories-and-defences/a-caution-to-the-readers-of-a-caution-against-the-darbyites-with-a-few-words-on-the-close-of-twenty-eight-years-association-with-j-n-d/
should be read in connection with the tract of Howard. Penstone shows that Howard's assertions are sometimes not based on facts but on mere imaginations.
Martin