Wesley Corpus

I need only add a remark or two on the pleasantry of my censurer. “He had recourse, as usual, to his revelations. “I consulted my friends, whether God did not call me to England.” (Page 242.) Not by revelations; these were out of the question; but by clear, strong reasons. “The Magistrate soon quickened his pace, by declaring him an enemy to the public peace.” No; that sense less assertion of Mr. C. made me go neither sooner nor later. ‘The reader has seen him long languish for persecution.” What, before November, 1737? I never languished for it, either before or since. But I submit to what pleases God. “To hide his poltroonery in a bravado, he gave public notice of his apostolical intention.” (Page 243.) Kind and civil I may be excused from taking notice of what follows. It is equally serious and genteel. “Had his longings for persecution been without hypocrisy.” The same mistake throughout. I never longed or professed to long for it at all. But if I had professed it ever since I returned from Georgia, what was done before I returned could not prove that profession to be hypocrisy. So all this ribaldry serves no end; only to throw much dirt, if haply some may stick. Meantime, how many untruths are here in one page | (1.) “He made the path doubly perplexed for his followers. (2.) He left them to answer for his crimes. (3.) He longed for persecution. (4.) He went as far as Georgia for it. (5.) The truth of his mission was questioned by the Magistrate, and (6.) decried by the people, (7.) for his false morals. (8.) The gospel was wounded through the sides of its pretended Mission ary. (9.) The first Christian Preachers offered up themselves.” So did I. “Instead of this, our paltry mimic.” (Page 244.) Bona verbal Surely a writer should reverence himself, how much soever he despises his opponent. So, upon the whole, this proof of my hypocrisy is as lame as the three former. 5. “We have seen above, how he sets all prudence at defi ance.” None but false prudence. “But he uses a different language when his rivals are to be restrained.” No; always the same, both with regard to false prudence and true. “But take the affair from the beginning.