Wesley Corpus

'Fanaticism, indeed, acts with greater violence, and, by influencing the will, frequently forces the manners from their bent, and sometimes effaces the strongest impressions of custom and nature. But this fervour, though violent, is rarely lasting; never so long as to establish the new system into an habit. So that when its rage subsides, as it very soon does (but where it drives into downright madness), the bias on the will keeps abating till all the former habitudes recover their relaxed tone.' (Page 92.) Never were reflections more just than these. And whoever applies them to the matters of fact which daily occur all over England, and particularly in London, will easily discern that the changes now wrought cannot be accounted for by natural causes;-- not by superstition, for the manners are changed, the whole life and conversation; not by fanaticism, for these changes are so lasting 'as to establish the new system into an habit'; not by mere reason, for they are sudden: therefore they can only be wrought by the Holy Spirit. As to Savonarola's being a fanatic or assuming the person of a prophet, I cannot take a Popish historian's word. And what a man says on the rack proves nothing, no more than his dying silent. Probably this might arise from shame and consciousness of having accused himself falsely under the torture. 'But how does the Spirit as Comforter abide with us for ever He abides with the Church for ever, as well personally in His office of Comforter, as virtually in His office of Enlightener.' (Page 96.) Does He not, then, abide with the Church personally in both these respects What is meant by abiding virtually And what is the difference between abiding virtually and abiding personally 'The question will be, Does He still exercise His office in the same extraordinary manner as in the Apostles' days' (page 97). I know none that affirms it. 'St. Paul has determined this question. "Charity," says he, "never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away" (I Cor. xiii. 8, &c.).'