Wesley Corpus

I must hire another to defend my right, it being against all rules of law that a man should speak for him self. In pleading, they do not dwell on the merits of the cause, but upon circumstances foreign thereto. For instance: They do not take the shortest method to know what title my adver sary has to my cow; but whether the cow be red or black, her horns long or short; whether the field she grazes in be round or square, and the like. After which, they adjourn the cause from time to time; and in ten or twenty years' time they come to an issue. This society, likewise, has a peculiar cant and jargon of their own, in which all their laws are written. And these they take special care to multiply; whereby they have so confounded truth and falsehood, right and wrong, that it will take twelve years to decide, whether the field, left me by my ancestors for six generations, belong to me or to one three hundred miles off.” Is it in Popish countries only that it can be said, “It does not appear that any one perfection is required towards the procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that Priests are advanced for their piety or learning, Judges for their inte grity, Senators for the love of their country, or Counsellors for their wisdom ?” 10. But there is a still greater and more undeniable proof that the very foundations of all things, civil and religious, are utterly out of course in the Christian as well as the hea then world. There is a still more horrid reproach to the Christian name, yea, to the name of man, to all reason and humanity. There is war in the world ! war between men I war between Christians ! I mean, between those that bear the name of Christ, and profess to “walk as he also walked.” Now, who can reconcile war, I will not say to religion, but to any degree of reason or common sense? But is there not a cause ? O yes: “The causes of war,” as the same writer observes, “are innumerable.