Wesley Corpus

I desire, on the one hand, to “accept no man's person; ” and yet, on the other, to give “honour to whom honour is due.” If your Lordship should think it worth your while to spend any more words upon me, may I presume to request one thing of your Lordship,-to be more serious? It cannot injure your Lordship’s character or your cause. Truth is great, and will prevail. Wishing your Lordship all temporal and spiritual blessings, I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's dutiful son and servant, November 26, 1762. 1. THERE has lately appeared (as you cannot be ignorant) a set of men preaching up and down in several parts of this kingdom, who for ten or twelve years have been known in England by the title of Methodists. The vulgar in Ireland term them Swaddlers;--a name first given them in Dublin from one of them preaching on those words: “Ye shall find the young child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” 2. Extremely various have been the reports concerning them. Some persons have spoken favourably: But the gene rality of men treat them in a different manner,-with utter contempt, if not detestation; and relate abundance of things in order to prove that they are not fit to live upon the earth. 3. A question, then, which you may maturally ask, is this: “In what manner ought a man of religion, a man of reason, a lover of mankind, and a lover of his country, to act on this occasion?” 4. Before we can properly answer this, it should be inquired, 174 SHORT ADDRESS To concerning the persons in question, what they are; what they teach; and what are the effects which are generally observed to attend their teaching. 5. It should first be inquired, what they are. And in order to a speedy determination of this, we may set aside whatever will admit of any dispute; as, whether they are good men or bad, rich or poor, fools, madmen, and enthusiasts, or sober, rational men. Now, waving all this, one point is indisputa ble: It is allowed on all hands, they are men who spend all their time and strength in teaching those doctrines, the nature and consequences whereof are described in the following pages. 6.