Wesley Corpus

e may, nay, he must, destroy, for his own subsistence, multitudes of beings that have done him no wrong. He has none of that heavenly power to restore life: and can he be fond of the permission to take it away? One who, like me, is subject to the tender passions, will never be proud of this. No dying brute I view in anguish here, But from my melting eye descends a tear. The very beasts are entitled to my compassion: but who can express the anxieties I feel for the afflictions sustained by virtuous men, and my abhorrence of the cruel? Yet in Deism I can discern no reward for the one, or punishment for the other. On this view of things, the Castilian king might well say, he could have directed God to amend his creation. ‘“‘T think, upon the whole, the God of wisdom would not have made a world so much in want of a Redeemer as this, and not give it one; therefore, at present, Iam again a Christian. O that the Son of God would confirm me his! As yet my soul is like a weather-beaten bird, that hovers over the great ocean, tired and afraid of dropping: death and eternity are ready to receive it; the pleasant land is out of sight, hid by fogs and mists ; and the way unknown, to gain the happy groves. “T was formerly apt to mention my skepticism, both to clergymen and laymen, with a view of lessening the evil; but they rather increased it. Fewclergymencared to discourse on the subject; and if they did, they generally expected that a few weak reasons should eradicate at once strong and deep-rooted prejudices: and most laymen discovered an utter ignorance of the religion they pretended to believe; and looked upon meas if I had the plague, for owning I did not believe it. What method could Ff take? I long avoided speaking of religion to any but its Great Author; who, I hope, has at last led me to one that is capable of removing my spiritual darkness. May the Giver of all goodness reward you in that day, when (according to the prophet Daniel) ‘ the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever!”