Wesley Corpus

The same objection (in substance) has been made in most other parts of England. It therefore deserves a serious answer, which wil equally hold in all places. Whether then we speak of Hunslet, Leeds, Bristol, or London, it is allowed, 1. That our preaching has done some good; common swearers, Sabbath breakers, drunkards, thieves, fornicators, having been reclaimed from those outward sins. But it is Feb. 1747.] REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. 389 affirmed, 2. That it has done more harm; the persons so reclaimed only changing one wickedness for another ; and their neighbours being so provoked thereby, as to become worse than they were before. * Those who have left their outward sins,” you affirm, “have only changed drunkenness or Sabbath breaking, for backbiting and evil speaking.” I answer, [f you affirm this of them all, it is notoriously false. Many we can name who left cursing, swearing, and backbiting, drunkenness, and evil speaking, all together; and who are to this day just as fearful of slandering, as they are of cursing or swearing. And if some are not yet enough aware of this snare of the devil, we may hope they will be ere long. Meantime, see that you bless God for what he has done; and pray that he would deliver them from this death also. You affirm, further, that “their neighbours are provoked hereby to return evil for evil; and so, while the former are no better, the latter are worse, than they were before.” I answer, 1. These are worse than they were before. But why? Because they do fresh “ despite to the Spirit of grace ;” because they despise that long-suffering love of God, which would lead them (as it does their neighbours) to repentance. And in laying the blame of this on those who will no longer run with them to the same excess of riot, they only fulfil the Scriptures, and fill up the measure of their own iniquity. I answer, 2. There is still no proportion at all between the good on the one hand, and the harm on the other: for they who reject the goodness of God were servants of the devil before, and they are but servants of the devil still. But they who accept it, are brought from the power of Satan to serve the living and true God.