Wesley Corpus

(3.) It is the preaching of remission of sins through Jesus Christ, which alone answers the true ends of devotion. And this will always be accompanied with the co-operation of the Holy Spirit; though not always with sudden agonies, roarings, screamings, tremblings, or droppings down. Indeed, if God is pleased at any time to permit any of these, I cannot hinder it. Neither can this hinder the work of his Spirit in the soul; which may be carried on either with or without them. But, (4.) I cannot apprehend it to be any reasonable proof, that “this is not the work of God,” that a convinced sinner should “fall into an extreme agony, both of body and soul; ” (Journal III., p.26;) that another should “roar for the disquietness of her heart; ” (p. 40;) that others should scream or “cry with a loud and bitter cry, ‘What must we do to be saved?’” (p. 50;) that others should “exceedingly tremble and quake; ” (p. 58;) and others, in a deep sense of the majesty of God, “should fall prostrate upon the ground.” (P. 59.) Indeed, by picking out one single word from a sentence, and then putting together what you had gleaned in sixty or seventy pages, you have drawn a terrible group for them who look no farther than those two lines in the “Observations.” But the bare addition of half a line to each word, just as it stands in the place from which you quoted it, reconciles all both to Scripture and reason; and the spectre-form vanishes away. You have taken into your account ravings and madnesses too. As instances of the former, you refer to the case of John Hay don, (p. 44,) and of Thomas Maxfield. (P. 50.) I wish you would calmly consider his reasoning on that head, who is not prejudiced in my favour: “What influence sudden and sharp awakenings may have upon the body, I pretend not to explain. But I make no question, Satan, so far as he gets power, may exert himself on such occasions, partly to hinder the good work in the persons who are thus touched with the sharp arrows of conviction, and partly to disparage the work of God, as if it tended to lead people to distraction.” For instances of madness you refer to pages 88,90, 91, 92, 93.