Wesley Corpus

'But here the symptoms of grace and of perdition are interwoven and confounded with one another' (page 128). No. Though light followed darkness, yet they were not interwoven, much less confounded with each other. 7. 'But some imputed the work to the force of imagination, or even to the delusion of the devil' (ibid.). They did so; which made me say, 8. 'I fear we have grieved the Spirit of the jealous God by questioning His work' (ibid.). 9. 'Yet he says himself, " These symptoms I can no more impute to any natural cause than to the Spirit of God. I make no doubt it was Satan tearing them as they were coming to Christ."' (Page 129.) But these symptoms and the work mentioned before are wholly different things. The work spoken of is the conversion of sinners to God; these symptoms are cries and bodily pain. The very next instance makes this plain. 10. 'I visited a poor old woman. Her trials had been uncommon; inexpressible agonies of mind, joined with all sorts of bodily pain; not, it seemed, from any natural cause, but the direct operation of Satan.' (Page 130.) Neither do any of those quotations prove that I lay claim to any miraculous gift. 'Such was the evangelic state of things when Mr. Wesley first entered on this ministry; who, seeing himself surrounded with subjects so harmoniously disposed, thus triumphantly exults.' To illustrate this let us add the date: 'Such was the evangelic state of things, August 9, 1750' (on that day I preached that sermon), 'when Mr. Wesley first entered on this ministry.' Nay, that was in the year 1738. So I triumphed because I saw what would be twelve years after!