Wesley Corpus

of which Robert Peacock is leader. I ask, ‘ Does this and this person in your class live in drunkenness or any outward sin? Does he go to church, and use the other means of grace? Does he meet you as often as he has opportunity?” Now, if Robert Peacock has common sense, he can answer these questions truly ; and if he has common honesty, he will. And if not, some other in the class has both, and can and will answer for him. Where is the difficulty then of finding out if there be any disorderly walker in this class, and, consequently, in any other? The question is not concerning the heart, but the life. And the general tenor of this, I do not say cannot be known, but cannot be hid without a miracle. Where then is the need of any miraculous discernment in order to purge one of those societies? Nay, where is the use of it? For if 1 had that discernment, I am to pass sentence only ez allegatis et probatis ; [from what is alleged and proved,] not according to what I miraculously discern, but according to what is proved in the face of the sun. The society, which the first year consisted of above eight hundred members, is now reduced to four hundred. But, according to the old proverb, the half is more than the whole. We shall not be ashamed of any of these, when we speak with our enemies in the gate.