Wesley Corpus

'Spiritual cures are all the good fruits he pretends to' (pages 204-5). Not quite all, says William Kirkman with some others. 'A few of his spiritual cures we will set in a fair light: "The first time I preached at Swalwell"' (chiefly to colliers and workers in the ironwork) '"none seemed to be convinced, only stunned."' I mean amazed at what they heard, though they were the first principles of religion. 'But he brings them to their senses with a vengeance.' No, not them. These were different persons. Are they lumped together in order to set things in 'a fair light' The whole paragraph runs thus: 'I carefully examined those who had lately cried out in the congregation. Some of these, I found, could give no account at all how or wherefore they had done so; only that of a sudden they dropped down, they knew not how; and what they afterward said or did they knew not. Others could just remember they were in fear, but could not tell what they were in fear of. Several said they were afraid of the devil, and this was all they knew. But a few gave a more intelligible account of the piercing sense they then had of their sins, both inward and outward, which were set in array against them round about; of the dread they were in of the wrath of God, and the punishment they had deserved, into which they seemed to be just falling without any way to escape. One of them told me, "I was as if I was just falling down from the highest place I had ever seen. I thought the devil was pushing me off, and that God had forsaken me." Another said, "I felt the very fire of hell already kindled in my breast; and all my body was in as much pain as if I had been in a burning fiery furnace." What wisdom is this which rebuketh these, that they should hold their peace Nay, let such an one cry after Jesus of Nazareth till He saith, "Thy faith hath made thee whole."' (Journal, iii. 59-60.)