Treatise Second Letter On Enthusiasm Of Methodists And Papists
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-treatise-second-letter-on-enthusiasm-of-methodists-and-papists-015 |
| Words | 388 |
I am persuaded you have. And yet surely your brain is always cool and temperate! never
“intoxicated with the heated fumes of spirituous particles !”
13. If you quote not incoherent scraps, (by which you may
make anything out of anything,) but entire connected sen
tences, it will appear that the rest of your quotations make no
more for your purpose than the foregoing. Thus, although I
allow, that on May 24, “I was much buffeted with tempta
tions; but I cried to God, and they fled away; that they re
turned again and again; I as often lifted up my eyes, and he
sent me help from his holy place;” (Vol. I. p. 103;) it will
only prove the very observation I make myself: “I was fight
ing both under the law and under grace. But then I was some
times, if not often, conquered; now I was always conqueror.”
That sometime after, I “was strongly assaulted again, and
after recovering peace and joy, was thrown into perplexity
afresh by a letter, asserting that no doubt or fear could con
sist with true faith; that my weak mind could not then bear
to be thus sawn asunder,” will not appear strange to any who
are not utter novices in experimental religion. No more than
that, one night the next year, “I had no life or spirit in me,
and was much in doubt, whether God would not lay me aside,
and send other labourers into his harvest.”
14. You add, “He owns his frequent relapses into sin, for
near twice ten years. Such is the case of a person who tells us
that he carefully considered every step he took; one of inti
mate communication with the Deity l’” Sir, I did not tell you
that; though, according to custom, you mark the words as mine. It is well for you, that forging quotations is not felony. My words are, “O what an hypocrite have I been (if this
be so) for near twice ten years! But I know it is not so. I
know every one under the law is even as I was;” namely, from
the time I was twelve years old, till considerably above thirty. “And is it strange,” you say, “that such a one should be
destitute of means to resolve his scruples?