Wesley Corpus

And a whole army of you joins together, and with one consent, in the face of the sun, “runs upon the thick bosses of his buckler.” 16. It is oncementioned in the Prophets, “In thee” (Jeru salem) “they have set light by father and mother.” But fre quent mention is made of their setting light by their civil parents, of their murmurings and rebellions against their governors. Yet surely our boasting against them is excluded, even in this respect. For do not all our histories witness such a series of mutinies, seditions, factions, and rebellions, as are scarce to be paralleled in any other kingdom since the world began? And has not the wild, turbulent, ungovernable spirit of our countrymen been continually acknowledged and lamented (as abundance of their writings testify to this day) by the cool, rational part of the nation? Terrible effects whereof have been seen and felt, more or less, in every generation. But did this spirit exist only in times past? Blessed be God, it is now restrained, it does not break out; but the traces thereof are still easy to be found. For, whence springs this continual “speaking evil of dignities 7 ° of all who are at the helm of public affairs? Whence this “speak ing evil of the ruler of our people,” so common among all orders of men? I do not include those whose province it is to inspect all the public administrations. But is not almost every private gentleman in the land, every Clergyman, every tradesman, yea, every man or woman that has a tongue, a politician, a settler of the state? Is not every carman and porter abundantly more knowing than the King, Lords, and Commons together? able to tell you all their foibles, to point out their faults and mistakes, and how they ought to proceed, if they will save the nation? Now all this has a natural, undeniable tendency to mutiny and rebellion. O what need have we, above any nation upon earth, of His continual care and protection, who alone is able to “rule the raging of the sea, and still the madness of the people!” 17. But to proceed: Were there “drunkards in Ephraim, mighty to drink wine, men of strength to mingle strong drink?” And are there not in England?