Wesley Corpus

You say, first: ‘The Moravians.’ Hold, good sir! you are out of the way already. You well know the Moravians are to answer for themselves. Our present question concerns the Methodists only. You say, secondly: ‘A general temptation prevails among the Societies of Methodists of leaving off good works’ (Journal, ii. 349). Sir, you are wrong again. The Societies of Methodists are not there spoken of, but the single Society of Fetter Lane. Among these only that temptation then prevailed. You quote, thirdly, as my words: ‘The poor, confused, shattered Society had erred from the faith.’ My own words are: ‘I told the poor, confused, shattered Society wherein they had erred from the faith’ (ii. 351) -- namely, with regard to the ordinances; not in general, as your way of expressing it naturally imports. Nor had all the Society erred even in this point. Many of them were still unshaken. You quote, fourthly: ‘A woman of Deptford spoke great words and true. She ordered Mr. Humphreys to leave off doing good.’ Must not every reader suppose, as you have placed these words, that they were all spoke at one time and that the ‘great words and true’ were those whereby she ‘ordered Mr. Humphreys to leave off doing good’ What, then, must every honest man think of you, when he observes that one half of the sentence (which you thus artfully put together) stands in another page, and at a considerable distance from the other and that I immediately subjoin to the latter clause, ‘We talked largely with her, and she was humbled to the dust, under a deep sense of the advantage Satan had gained over her.’ You quote, fifthly, a part of the following sentence to prove that I ‘undermine morality and good works’: ‘His judgment concerning holiness is new. He no longer judges it to be an outward thing, to consist either in doing no harm, in doing good, or in using the ordinances of God.’ (And yet how strongly do I insist upon all these! Sir, do not you know this). ‘He sees it is the life of God in the soul, the image of God fresh stamped on the heart.’ It is so. Sir, can you deny it What, then, will you prove by this You quote, sixthly, part of these words: