Wesley Corpus

12. You add, ‘I shall give but one account more, and this is what you give of yourself.’ (Remarks, p. 72.) The sum whereof is, ‘At two several times, being ill and in violent pain, I prayed to God, and found immediate ease.’ I did so. I assert the fact still. ‘Now, if these,’ you say, ‘are not miraculous cures, all this is rank enthusiasm.’ I will put your argument in form: -- He that believes those are miraculous cures which are not so is a rank enthusiast: But you believe those to be miraculous cures which are not so: Therefore, you are a rank enthusiast. Before I answer, I must know what you mean by miraculous. If you term everything so, which is not strictly accountable for by the ordinary course of natural causes, then I deny the latter part of the minor proposition. And unless you can make this good, unless you can prove the effects in question are strictly accountable for by the ordinary course of natural causes, your argument is nothing worth. You conclude this head with, ‘Can you work miracles All your present pretences to the Spirit, till they are proved by miracles, cannot be excused, or acquitted from enthusiasm.’ (Page 73.) My short answer is this: I pretend to the Spirit just so far as is essential to a state of salvation. And cannot I be acquitted from enthusiasm till I prove by miracles that I am in a state of salvation 13. We now draw to a period: ‘The consequences of Methodism,’ you say, that is, of our preaching this doctrine, ‘which have hitherto appeared, are bad enough to induce you to leave it. It has, in fact, introduced many disorders; enthusiasm, Antinomianism, Calvinism, a neglect and contempt of God’s ordinances, and almost all other duties.’ (Page 75.)