Wesley Corpus

A fourth is, ‘They meet at midnight.’ (You should say, They sometimes continue till midnight praising God.) ‘They meet at five in the morning, winter and summer.’ Some of them do, and it conduces to bodily as well as spiritual health. ‘They meet twice or thrice more in every day of the year’ Sir, you know they do not. You know the bulk of the Methodists meet only twice on common days; and that most of them do not meet once a day, unless on Sunday. ‘Then their 1ovefeasts and confessing their sins to each other’ Sir you forget you are personating a Christian. You must not now condemn these things in the gross. If you do, the mask drops off. ‘All their other little tricks and rules,’ which you say none but a member can enumerate, are enumerated to your hand in a small tract entitled A Plain Account of the People called Methodists. [See letter in Dec. 1748 to Vincent Perronet.] 12. I am obliged to you for believing that I ‘have no sinister or lucrative views’ in what I do, and that ‘the collections made among us are applied justly to defray the necessary expenses of the Society.’ Yet I grant ‘this does not clear me of enthusiasm.’ But neither do you prove it upon me: no more than ‘the learned and honest Dr. Middleton [See letter of Jan. 4, 1749.] (as you style him) proves it upon ‘the Fathers of the primitive Church.’ How ‘learned’ he may be in other respects I know not. But this I take it upon me to say, either that he is not an ‘honest’ man or that he does not understand Greek. 13. A ‘virtuous and sober’ life (I mean an uniform practice of justice mercy, and truth) I allow is the ‘true test of a good conscience’ of the bring God and all mankind And in this practice I desire to be guided by right reason, under the influence of the Spirit of God. May He lead you and me into all truth! --I am, sir, Your humble servant. To John Bennet [1] LONDON January 23, 1750.