Wesley Corpus

Then miracles are not ceased.” But if you should venture to ask, “Where was this, and who was the person that prayed?” and it was answered, “At the Foundery near Moor fields; the person who prayed was Mr. Wesley;” what a damp comes at once! What a weight falls on your mind, at the very first setting out! It is well if you have any heart or desire to move one step further. Or if you should, what a strong addi tional propensity do you now feel to deny the fact! And is there not a ready excuse for so doing?--“O, they who tell the story are doubtless his own people; most of whom, we may be sure, will say anything for him, and the rest will believe any thing.” But if you at length allowed the fact, might you not find means to account for it by natural causes? “Great crowds, violent heats, with obstructions and irregularities of the blood and spirits,” will do wonders. If you could not but allow it was more than natural, might not some plausible reason be found for ranking it among the lying wonders, for ascribing it to the devil rather than God? And if, after all, you was convinced it was the finger of God, must you not still bring every doctrine advanced to the law and to the testimony, the only sure and infallible test of all? What, then, is the use of this continual demand, “Show us a sign, and we will believe?” What will you believe? I hope, no more than is written in the book of God. And thus far you might venture to believe, even with out a miracle. 7. Let us consider this point yet a little farther. “What is it you would have us prove by miracles? the doctrines we preach?” We prove these by Scripture and reason; and, if need be, by antiquity. What else is it, then, that we are to prove by miracles? At length we have a distinct reply: “Wise and sober men will not otherwise be convinced,” (that is, un less you prove this by miracles,) “that God is, by the means of such Teachers, and such doctrines, working a great and extraordinary work in the earth.” (Preface, p.