Wesley Corpus

It follows, “They are not condemned for sins of infirmity, as they are usually called. Perhaps it were advisable rather to call them infirmities, that we may not seem to give any countenance to sin, or to extenuate it in any degree, by thus coupling it with infirmity. But, if we must use such an ambiguous and dangerous expression, by sins of infirmity I would mean, such involuntary failings as the saying a thing we believe true, though in fact it prove to be false; or the hurting our neighbour without knowing or designing it, perhaps when we designed to do him good.” (Ibid., p. 92.) What pretence has Mr. H. from these words to flourish away upon my “strange divinity;” and to represent me as giving men a handle to term gross sins innocent infirmities? But now comes the main point: “It is more difficult to determine concerning those which are usually styled sins of surprise: As when one who commonly in his patience possesses his soul, on a sudden or violent temptation, speaks or acts in a manner not consistent with the royal law of love.” (For instance: You have the gout. A careless man treads on your foot. You violently push him away, and, it may be, cry out, “Get away! Get you out of my sight!”) “Perhaps it is not easy to fix a general rule concerning transgressions of this nature. We can not say either that men are, or that they are not, condemned for sins of surprise in general.” (Pages 152, 153.) “Reader,” says Mr. H., “let me beg thee to weigh well the foregoing words.” I say so too. I go on : “But it seems, whenever a believer is overtaken in a fault, there is more or less condemnation, as there is more or less concur rence of his will. Therefore, some sins of surprise bring much guilt and condemnation. For in some instances our being surprised may be owing to some culpable neglect, or to a sleepiness of soul, which might have been prevented or shaken off before the temptation came. The falling even by surprise, in such an instance, exposes the sinner to condemnation, both from God and his own conscience.