Wesley Corpus

If it be objected (from our heathenish poet), ‘This conscience will make cowards of us all,’ [Hamlet, III. i. 83] I answer, Let us judge by matter of fact. Let either friends or enemies speak. Did those who feared God behave as cowards at Fontenoy Did John Haime the dragoon betray any cowardice before or after his horse sunk under him [See Wesley's Veterans, i. 34.] Or did William Clements when he received the first ball in his left and the second in his right arm Or John Evans, when the cannonball took off both his legs Did he not call all about him, as long as he could speak, to praise and fear God and honor the King as one who feared nothing but lest his last breath should be spent in vain.[When William Clements had his arm broken by a musket-ball on May 11, 1745 (see Journal,iii. 226), they would have carried him out of the battle; but he said, ‘No; I have an arm left to hold my sword: I will not go yet.’ When a second shot broke his other arm, he said, ‘I am as happy as I can be out of Paradise.’ John Evans had both his legs taken off by a cannonball. He ‘was laid across a cannon to die; where, as long as he could speak, he was praising God with joyful lips.’ See Wesley's Veterans, i. 33.] If it were objected that I should only fill their heads with peculiar whims and notions, that might easily be known. Only let the officers hear with their own ears; and they may judge whether I do not preach the plain principles of manly, rational religion.