Wesley Corpus

6. What farther proof of hypocrisy Why, 'he had given innumerable flirts of contempt in his Journals against human learning' (pages 252-3). Where I do not know. Let the passages be cited; else, let me speak for it ever so much, it will prove nothing. 'At last he was forced to have recourse to what he had so much scorned; I mean prudence' (page 255). All a mistake. I hope never to have recourse to false prudence; and true prudence I never scorned. 'He might have met Mr. Whitefield half-way; but he was too formidable a rival. With a less formidable one he pursues this way. "I laboured," says he, "to convince Mr. Green"' (my assistant, not rival) '"that he had not done well in confuting, as he termed it, the sermon I preached the Sunday before. I asked, Will you meet me half-way"' (The words following put my meaning beyond all dispute.) '"I will never publicly preach against you: will not you against me'' [ See Journal, iv. 94; and for a letter to William Green, October 25, 1789. ] Here we see a fair invitation to Mr. Green to play the hypocrite with him.' (Ibid.) Not in the least. Each might simply deliver his own sentiments without preaching against the other. 'We conclude that Mr. Wesley, amidst his warmest exclamations against all prudence, had still a succedaneum, which indeed he calls prudence; but its true name is craft' (page 257). Craft is an essential part of worldly prudence. This I detest and abhor. And let him prove it upon me that can. But it must be by better arguments than the foregoing. Truly Christian prudence, such as was recommended by our Lord and practiced by Him and His Apostles, I reverence and desire to learn, being convinced of its abundant usefulness. I know nothing material in the argument which I have left untouched. And I must now refer it to all the world whether, for all that has been brought to the contrary, I may not still have a measure of the 'wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.'