Wesley Corpus

17. Part of your thirty-ninth page runs thus: ‘With respect to all this patient enduring hardships, &c., it has been remarked by learned authors that “some persons by constitutional temper have been fond of bearing the worst that could befall them; that others from a sturdy humor and the force of education have made light of the most exquisite tortures; that when enthusiasm comes in, in aid of this natural or acquired sturdiness, and men fancy they are upon God's work and entitled to His rewards, they are immediately all on fire for rushing into sufferings and pain.”’ I take knowledge of your having faithfully abridged -- your own book, shall I say, or the learned Dr. Middleton’s But what is it you are endeavoring to prove Quorsum haec tam putida tendant [Horace's Satires, II. vii. 21: ‘Whither tends this putid stuff’] The paragraph seems to point at me. But the plain, natural tendency of it is to invalidate that great argument for Christianity which is drawn from the constancy of the martyrs. Have you not here also spoken a little too plain Had you not better have kept the mask on a little longer Indeed, you lamely add, 'The solid and just comforts which a true martyr receives from above are groundlessly applied to the counterfeit.' But this is not enough even to save appearances. 18. You subjoin a truly surprising thought: ‘It may, moreover, be observed that both ancient and modern enthusiasts always take care to secure some advantage by their sufferings’ (page 40). Oh rare enthusiasts! So they are not such fools neither, as they are vulgarly supposed to be. This is just of a piece with the ‘cunning epileptic demoniacs’ in your other performance. And do not you think (if you would but speak all that is in your heart, and let us into the whole secret) that there was a compact likewise between Bishop Hooper and his executioner, as well as between the ventriloquist and the exorcist [See letter of Jan. 4, 1749, IV. sect. III. to Dr. Conyers Middleton.]