Wesley Corpus

“For, 1. It has utterly destroyed. their faith, their inward ‘ evidence of things not seen; the deep conviction they once had, that the Lamb of God had taken away their sins. Those who before had the witness in themselves of redemptivun in the -lood of Christ, who had the Spirit of God clearly witnessing with their spirit, that they were the children of God, after hearing these but a few times, began to doubt; then reasoned themselves into utter darkness; and ina while, affirmed, First, that they had no faith now, (which was true,) and soon after, that they never had any. And this was not the accidental but natural effect of that doctrine, --that there are no degrees in faith, and that none has any faith who is liable at any time to any degree of doubt or fear; as well as of that dark unintelligible, unscriptural manner wherein they affect to speak of it. ee | ES Ui coe ye See ee eee ere 504 REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [ Nov. 175u. “T expect you will answer, ‘Nay, they are the most plain, simple preachers, of any in the whole world. Simplicity is their peculiar excel lence.’ I grant one sort of simplicity is; a single specimen whereof may suffice :--One of their eminent preachers, describing, at Fetter-lane, ‘ the childhood of the Lamb,’ observed, that ‘his mother might send him out one morning for a halfpenny worth of milk; that, making haste back, he - might fall and break the porringer ; and that he might work a miracle to make it whole again, and gather up the milk into it.’ Now, can you really admire this kind of simplicity? or think it does honour to ‘God manifest in the flesh ?’ “2. This preaching has destroyed the love of God in many souls; which was the natural effect of destroying their faith, as well as of teaching them to grieve the Holy Spirit of God by ascribing his gift to magination and animal spirits ; and of perplexing them with senseless, unscriptural cautions, against the selfish love of God; in which it is not easy to say whether nonsense or blasphemy be the chief ingredient.