Wesley Corpus

But you fell among thieves, and such as were peculiarly qualified to rob you of your God. Two of these in particular were sensible, learned, well-bred, well-natured, moral men. These did not assault you in a rough, abrupt, offensive manner. No; you would then have armed yourself against them, and have repelled all their attacks. But by soft, delicate, unobserved touches, by pleasing strokes of raillery, by insinuations rather than surly arguments, they by little and little sapped the foundation of your faith--perhaps not only of your living faith, your 'evidence of things not seen,' but even of your notional. It is well if they left you so much as an assent to the Bible or a belief that Christ is God over all I And what was the consequence of this Did not your love of God grow cold Did not you Measure back your steps to earth again Did not your love of the world revive even of those poor, low trifles, which in your very childhood you utterly despised Where are you now full of faith looking into the holiest, and seeing Him that is invisible Does your heart now glow with love to Him who is daily pouring His benefits upon you Do you now even desire it Do you now say (as you did almost twenty years ago),-- Keep me dead to all below, Only Christ resolved to know; Firm, and disengaged, and free, Seeking all my bliss in Thee Is your taste now for heavenly things Are not you a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God And oh what pleasure! What is the pleasure of visiting of modern conversation Is there any more reason than religion in it I wonder what rational appetite does it gratify Setting religion quite out of the question, I cannot conceive how a woman of sense can --relish, should I say no, but suffer so insipid an entertainment.