Wesley Corpus

Again : “They magnify their office beyond the truth, by high pretences to miraculous inspiration.” To this assertion, we have answered over and over, We pretend to no other inspi ration than that which, not only every true gospel Minister, but every real Christian, enjoys. Again: “The end of all impostors is some kind of worldly gain; and it is difficult for them to conceal their views entirely. The love of filthy lucre will appear, either by the use they make of it, or the means of getting it.” As to the use made of it, you are silent. But as to the means of getting it, you say, “Besides inhumanly wringing from the poor, the helpless widows, the weeping orphans,” (the proof! the proof!) “they creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with divers lusts.” It is easy to say this, and ten times more; but can you prove it? And ought you to say it, till you can? I shall not concern myself with anything in your Appendix, but what relates to me in particular. This premised, I observe on No. I. There are several instances in my Journals, of per sons that were in agonies of grief or fear, and roared for the qisquietness of their heart; of some that exceedingly trennbled before God, perhaps fell down to the ground; and of others whom God, in his adorable providence, suffered to be lunatic and sore vexed. The particular instances hereof, to which you refer, have been largely vindicated already, in the Two Letters to the Rev. Dr. Church, as well as that to the late Bishop of London. In the six following numbers I am not concerned. The Eighth contains those words from my Second Journal: “The rest of the day we spent in hearing the wonderful work which God is beginning to work all over the earth.” Of this likewise I have spoken at large to Dr. Church and Bishop Gibson. The sum is, it is a great work when one notorious sinner is thoroughly changed in heart and life. It is wonderfully great, when God works this entire change in a large number of people; particularly when it is done in a very short time: But so he hath wrought in Kingswood, Cornwall, Newcastle. It is therefore a truly wonderful work, which God hath now more than begun to work upon earth.