Wesley Corpus

‘O! they who tell the story are his own people; most of whom, we may be sure, will say anything for him, and the rest will believe anything.” But if you at length allowed the fact, might you not find means to account for it by natural causes? ‘Great crowds, violent heats, with obstruc tions and irregularities of the blood and spirits, will do won ders. If you could not but allow it was more than natural, might not some plausible reason be found for ranking it among the lying wonders, for ascribing it to the devil rather than God? And if, after all, you was convinced it was the finger of God, must you not still bring every doctrine advanced ‘to the law and the testimony, the only sure and infallible test of all? What then is the use of this continual demand, “Show us a sign, and we will believe?” What will you believe? I hope no more than is written in the book of God: And thus far you might venture to believe, even without a miracle. “7. Let us consider this point a little farther: What is it you would have us prove by miracles? the doctrines we preach? We prove these by Scripture and reason; and, if need be, by antiquity. What else is it then we are to prove by miracles? At length we have a distinct reply: ‘Wise and sober men will not otherwise be convinced, (that is, unless you prove it by miracles,) that God is, by the means of such Teachers and such doctrines, working a great and extraordi nary work in the earth.” “So then the determinate point which you, in their name, call upon us to prove by miracles, is this,--that God is, by these Teachers, working a great and extraordinary work in the earth “What I mean by a great and extraordinary work is, the bringing multitudes of gross, notorious sinners, in a short space, to the fear, and love, and service of God, to an entire change of heart and life. “Now, then, let us take a nearer view of the proposition, and see which part of it we are to prove by miracles: “Is it, (1.) That A.B. was for many years without God in the world, a common swearer, a drunkard, or a Sabbath-breaker?