Wesley Corpus

8. So far I have been pleading for others. But I am now called to answer for myself; for ‘Theophilus [A letter signed 'Theophilus' appeared in the Gentleman’s Magaxine, 1751, p. 115, affirming that Whitefield and others had taught ‘that man by nature is half brute and half devil.’ See Green's Anti-Methodist Publications, No. 228.] and John Wesley,’ say you, ‘seem to me the same individual person’ (page 4). They may seem so to you, but not to any who knows either my style or manner of writing. Besides, if it had been mine, it would have borne my name; for I do not love fighting in the dark. But were not ‘a great number’ of those books ‘brought from Dublin to be dispersed throughout the city’ Not by me, not by my order, nor to my knowledge. However, I thank you again for dispersing them. 9. But ‘while charity stands in the front of Christian graces, the author of such a book can have none of that grace; for you must allow the vulgar to think’ (page 16). Malapropos enough, a lively saying; but, for any use it is of, it may stand either in the front or rear of the sentence. The argument itself is something new. A man knocks me down; I cry, ‘Help I help I or I shall be murdered!’ He replies, ‘While charity stands in the front of Christian graces, the author of such a cry can have none of that grace.’ So now you have shown to all the world ‘the uncharitable and consequently unchristian spirit of Methodism.’ What l because the Methodists cry out for help before you have beat out their brains What grimace is this! His Majesty's quiet, loyal, Protestant subjects are abused, insulted, outraged, beaten, covered with dirt, rolled in the mire, bruised, wounded with swords and hangers, murdered, have their houses broke open, their goods destroyed, or carried away before their face; and all this in open day, in the face of the sun, yet without any remedy! And those who treat them thus are ‘charitable’ men! brimful of a Christian spirit ! But if they who are so treated appeal to the common sense and reason of mankind, you gravely cry, ‘See the uncharitable, the unchristian spirit of Methodism!’