Wesley Corpus

Two days ago I was reading a dispute between those celebrated masters of controversy, Bishop Atterbury and Bishop Hoadly [Atterbury preached a funeral sermon (on Thomas Bennet the bookseller) from 1 Cor. xv. 19, 'If in this life only . . .' He argued that, were there no life after this, men would be more miserable than beasts, and the best men often the most miserable. Hoadly disputed the interpretation of the text. Atterbury replied: Hoadly retorted. Atterbury preached another sermon on Charity (I Pet. iv. 8). Again Hoadly criticized at length. A concise account of the controversies may be read in the latest life of Atterbury by Canon Beeching, 1909, PP. 44-5. A fuller account is given in Hunt's Religious Thought in England, iii. 78-9. 'Coming from a High Churchman, at a time when most divines were eloquent on the natural rewards of virtue and religion, Atterbury's doctrine was startling.' For Wesley's interpretation, see his Notes upon the New Testament. See also previous letter.]; but must own I was so injudicious as to break off in the middle. I could not conceive that the dignity of the end was at all proportioned to the difficulty of attaining it. And I thought the labor of twenty or thirty hours, if I was sure of succeeding, which I was not, would be but ill rewarded by that important piece of knowledge whether Bishop Hoadly had misunderstood Bishop Atterbury or no.