Wesley Corpus

Shall He not cast out by the finger of God that anxiety which they have instilled in His servant shall He not avenge her that cries to Him day and night, [though] (for wise reasons) He bear long with her enemies I trust He shall avenge her speedily. At last, if she ceases not to cry unto Him to deliver her from her weakness, then let her be assured it shall not be in vain: for ' God is in the cry, but not in the weakness. I do not say that she shall immediately be delivered: nor yet are her good dispositions lost; seeing there is a reward for suffering as well as for acting, and blessed are they that endure temptation. God has given them a means of improving their good dispositions, which is not given to the rest of the world; a means which supplies the want of activity and gives them all the advantage of a busy life without the dangers. This is the surest, it is the shortest way, as to all virtue, so particularly to humility, the distinguishing virtue of Christians, the sole inlet to all virtue. Neither do I believe that she will ever be wholly freed either from wandering thoughts in prayer, or perhaps from such as would be wicked were they chosen or voluntarily indulged, but which, when they are not voluntary, are no more voluntary than the beating of the heart or of the arteries. I never heard or read of more than one living person (Mr. De Renty) [Wesley published An Extract of the Life of Monsieur De Renty in1741. He died at Paris on April 24, 1649, aged thirty-seven.] who had quite shook off the weight, and much doubt if of the sons of men now alive there be one who is so highly favored. And perhaps we have scarce another instance of an embodied soul who always did the work of God with cheerfulness. The common lot of humanity seems to be, to be various, more particularly in the things that pertain to God, from whom we are so far estranged by nature. With regard to these even David could sometimes say, 'Why go I so heavily while the enemy oppresses me' His rule it was therefore, as it is ours, to judge of us not by what we feel but by what we do.