Wesley Corpus

7. I am accused, Secondly, of being self-sufficient, positive, magisterial. “Mr. Wesley, cased in his own self-sufficiency, esteems all these evidences as mere nothings. Reason, grammar, precedents are eclipsed by his bare negative.” (Page 246.) I know not which way this can be inferred from anything I have spoken to Mr. Hervey. “Mr. Wesley replies, with the solemnity of a censor, and the authority of a dictator, ‘No.’” (Page 90.) I am not conscious, that, in making that reply, I assumed any authority at all. “Here I see nothing but the usual argument, the master's ipse divit.” (Page 139.) Love might have seen the friend, not the master, taking the liberty which he had been entreated to take. “Strange | That a man of ordinary discernment should offer to obtrude upon the public such a multitude of naked, unsupported, magisterial assertions! should ever be able to persuade himself, that a positive air would pass for demon stration 1" (Page 240.) I thought nothing of the public when I wrote this Letter, but spoke freely and artlessly to a friend; and I spoke as a friend, (so far as I can judge,) not a censor or dictator. 8. I am accused, Thirdly, of reasoning loosely and wildly. “Is not this the loose way of arguing you blame in Mr. Wesley?” (Page 233.) “What wild reasoning is here ! Such premises and such an inference” (but they are none of mine) “will probably incline the reader to think of a sunbeam and a clod, connected with bands of smoke.” (Page 103.) When I write for the public, especially in controversy, J seek for connected arguments. Sed nunc non eral his locus.* The compass of a letter would hardly admit of them. 9. I am accused, in the Fourth place, of self-contradiction. “See how you are entangled in your own net; how, without being chased by an enemy, you run yourself aground. You avouch palpable inconsistencies.” (Page 195.) “Will Mr. Wesley never have done with self-contradiction? Why will he give me such repeated cause to complain, Quo teneam vultum mutantem Protea nodo?”t (Page 142.) “See, my friend, how thy own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; yea, thy own lips testify against thee!