Wesley Corpus

Is it a prohibition from the good Spirit, or a temptation from nature or the evil one?” Sir, I was in no doubt at all on the occasion. Nor did I intend to express any in these words; but to appeal to men’s conscience, whether what they call “a prohibition from the good Spirit,” be not a mere “temptation from nature or the evilone.” 19. In the next section you are to show “the art, cunning, and sophistry of the Methodists, who, when hard pressed by argument, run themselves into inconsistency and self-contradic tion; and occasionally either defend or give up some of their favourite notions and principal points.” (Section xii. p. 102.) I dare say, Sir, you will not put them to the trial. Argu ment lies out of the way of one, -Solutos Qui captat risus hominum famamque dicacis." But to the proof. “Mr. Wesley,” you say, “at one time declares for a disinterested love of God; at another, declares, There is no one caution in all the Bible against the selfish love of God.” Nay, Sir, I will tell you what is stranger still: Mr. Wesley holds, at one time, both sides of this contradiction. I now declare both that “all true love is disinterested, ‘seeketh not her own;' and that there is no one caution in all the Bible against the selfish love of God.” What, have I the art to slip out of your hands again? “Pardon me,” as your old friend says, “for being jocular.” 20. You add, altius insurgens : + “But it is a considerable * One that affects the droll, and loves to raise a horse-laugh. + Rising to more exalted strains.-EDIT. offence to charge another wrongfully, and contradict himself about the doctrine of assurance.” To prove this upon me, you bring my own words: “The assurance we preach is of quite another kind from that Mr. Bedford writes against. We speak of an assurance of our present pardon; not, as he does, of our final perseverance.” (Vol. I. p. 160.) “Mr. Wesley might have considered,” you say, “that when they talk of “assurance of pardon and salvation, the world will extend the meaning of the words to our eternal state.” I do consider it, Sir; and therefore I never use that phrase either in preaching or writing.