Wesley Corpus

Free Thoughts on the Present State of Public Affairs Source: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 11 (Zondervan) Author: John Wesley --- YoU desire me to give you my thoughts freely on the present state of public affairs. But do you consider? I am no politician; politics lie quite out of my province. Neither have I any acquaintance, at least no intimacy, with any that bear that character. And it is no easy matter to form any judgment concerning things of so complicated a nature. It is the more difficult, because, in order to form our judgment, such a multitude of facts should be known, few of which can be known with tolerable exactness by any but those who are eye-witnesses of them. And how few of these will relate what they have seen precisely as it was, without adding, omitting, or altering any circumstance, either with or with out design And may not a slight addition or alteration give a quite different colour to the whole? And as we cannot easily know, with any accuracy, the facts on which we are chiefly to form our judgment; so, much less can we expect to know the various springs of action which gave rise to those facts, and on which, more than on the bare actions themselves, the characters of the actors depend. It is on this account that an old writer advises us to judge * Thus translated by Francis : “You treat adventurous, and incautious tread On fires with faithless embers overspread.”--EDIT. nothing before the time; to abstain, as far as possible, from judging peremptorily, either of things or persons, till thc time comes, when “the hidden things of darkness,” the facts now concealed, “will be brought to light,” and the hidden springs of action will be discovered,--“the thoughts and intents of" every human “heart.” Perhaps you will say, “Nay, every Englishman is a politi cian; we suck in politics with our mother's milk. It is as natural for us to talk politics as to breathe; we can instruct both the King and his Council.