Wesley Corpus

Shall I not be avenged on such a nation as this?” Let us be wise in time ! Let us be as wise, at least, as the inhabitants of Nineveh ; let us make our peace with God, and then we may defy all the men upon earth ! A nation God delights to bless, Can all our raging foes distress, Or hurt whom they surround? Hid from the general scourge we are, Nor see the bloody waste of war, Nor hear the trumpet's sound. O might we, Lord, the grace improve, By labouring for the rest of love, The soul-composing power ! Bless us with that internal peace, And all the fruits of righteousness, Till time shall be no more ! LoNDoN, Feb. 20, 1778. To LIMERICK, May 10, 1778. 1. BEFoRE I left London (two or three months ago) a general panic prevailed there. Some vehemently affirmed, and others potently believed, that the nation was in a most desperate state; that it was upon the very brink of ruin, past all hopes of recovery. Soon after, I found that the same panic had spread throughout the city of Bristol. I traced it likewise wherever I went, in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire. When I crossed the Channel, I was surprised to find it had got before me to Ireland; and that it was not only spread through Dublin first, and thence to every part of Leinster, but had found its way into Munster too, into Cork, Bandon, and Limerick: In all which places people were terrifying themselves and their neighbours, just as they did in London. 2. “How is it possible,” say they, “that we should contend with so many enemies together? If General Washington has (as Mr. Franklin of Limerick computes) sixty-five thousand men; if the powerful fleet and numerous armies of France are added to these; if Spain, in consequence of the family compact, declares war at the same time; and if Portugal join in confederacy with them, what will become of us? Add to these the enemies of our own household, ready to start up on every side; and when France invades us from without, and these from within, what can follow but ruin and destruction ?” 3. I would fain speak a word of comfort to my poor neigh bours, that they may not be frightened to death.