Wesley Corpus

37. Your next charge is that 'Methodism has a tendency to undermine morality and good works' (sect. xx. p. I46, &c.). To prove this-- You assert, first: ‘That the Methodists are trained up to wait in quietness for sudden conversion; whence they are naturally led to neglect the means of salvation.’ This is a mistake all over. For neither are they taught to wait in quietness (if you mean any more than patience by that term) for either sudden or gradual conversion; neither do they, in fact, neglect the means. So far from it, that they are eminently exact in the use of them. You assert, secondly: ‘The doctrine of assurance of pardon and salvation, present and future, causes a false security, to the neglect of future endeavors.’ Blunder upon blunder again. That all Christians have an assurance of future salvation is no Methodist doctrine; and an assurance of present pardon is so far from causing negligence, that it is of all others the strongest motive to vigorous endeavors after universal holiness. You assert, thirdly: ‘Impulses and impressions, being made the rule of duty, will lead into dangerous errors.’ Very true; but .the Methodists do not make impulses and impressions the rule of duty. They totally disclaim any other rule of duty than the written Word. You assert, fourthly: ‘A claim of unsinning perfection’ (I mean by perfection the loving God with all our heart) ‘drives some into frenzies, others into despair.’ Sir, I doubt the fact. You assert, fifthly: ‘The Moravian Methodists trample down morality, and multitudes of the Wesleyans have been infected.’ ‘The Moravian Methodists’! You may as well say the Presbyterian Papists. The Moravians have no connection with the Methodists. Therefore, whatever they do (though you slander them too), they and not we are to answer for. The Methodists at present, blessed be God, are as little infected with this plague (of condemning or neglecting good works) as any body of people in England or Ireland. 38. From these loose assertions you proceed to quotations from my writings, every one of which I shall consider, to show that, not in one or two, but in every one, you are a willful prevaricator and false accuser of your neighbor.