Wesley Corpus

2. Many years ago I found the truth of this by sad experience. After carefully heaping up the strongest arguments which I could find, either in ancient or modern authors, for the very being of a God, and (which is nearly connected with it) the existence of an invisible world, I have wandered up and down, musing with myself: "What, if all these things which I see around me, this earth and heaven, this universal frame, has existed from eternity What, if that melancholy supposition of the old Poet be the real case, -- oih per jullvn geneh, toih de kai andrvn; What, if `the generation of men be exactly parallel with the generation of leaves' if the earth drops its successive inhabitants, just as the tree drops its leaves What, if that saying of a great man be really true, -- Post mortem nihil est; ipsaque mors nihil Death is nothing, and nothing is after death How am I sure that this is not the case; that I have not followed cunningly devised fables" -- And I have pursued the thought, till there was no spirit in me, and I was ready to choose strangling rather than life. 3. But in a point of so unspeakable importance, do not depend upon the word of another; but retire for awhile from the busy world, and make the experiment yourself. Try whether your reason will give you a clear satisfactory evidence of the invisible world. After the prejudices of education are laid aside, produce your strong reasons for the existence of this. Set them all in array; silence all objections; and put all your doubts to flight alas! you cannot, with all your understanding. You may repress them for a season. But how quickly will they rally again, and attack you with redoubled violence! And what can poor reason do for your deliverance The more vehemently you struggle, the more deeply you are entangled in the toils; and you find no way to escape. 4. How was the case with that great admirer of reason, the author of the maxim above cited I mean the famous Mr. Hobbes. None will deny that he had a strong understanding. But did it produce in him a full and satisfactory conviction of an invisible world Did it open the eyes of his understanding, to see