Add to this, (I recite the whole passages in order; not as you had mangled, and then jumbled them together:) “_Wednesday, December 19._ I came to _London_, though with a heavy heart. Here I found every day the dreadful effects of our brethrens reasoning and disputing with each other. Scarce one in ten retained his first love: and most of the rest were in the utmost confusion” (they were so more or less, for several months) “biting and devouring one another.”
This also proves so much, neither more nor less, that _some_ of the _Methodists_ were then in confusion. And just so much is proved by your sixth quotation. ¹“Many were wholly unsettled (by the _Moravians_, taking advantage of my absence) and lost in vain reasonings and doubtful disputations:――――Not likely to come to any true foundation.”
¹ 4 Journal, pages 21, 22.
Your seventh quotation (I recite the whole sentence) runs thus. “_April 19._ I received a letter――――informing me, that our poor brethren at _Fetter-lane_, were again in great confusion.” This quotation proves just as much as the preceding: or as the following. ¹The plague (of false stillness) was now spread to them also――――namely to the “little society at _Islington_.”
¹ 4 Journal, page 34.
Your ninth is this. “¹I went to the society, but I found their hearts were quite estranged. _Friday 4._ I met a little handful of them, who still stand in the old paths.”
¹ Ibid. page 36.
Thus far you have been speaking of the _Methodists_ in _London_. And what have you proved concerning them? Only that the _Moravians_ mixing with them _twelve years_ ago, while they were young and unexperienced, set them a disputing with each other, and thereby occasioned much confusion for _several months_. But you have not proved, That “the _Methodists in general_, were even _then, all_ together by the ears”: and much less, that they have been so _ever since_, and that they are so _now_.
35. I now attend you to _Kingswood_. Not to “_Bristol_ and _Kingswood_,” which you artfully join together. The society at _Bristol_ was no more concerned with the disputes in _Kingswood_, than with those in _London_.
Here the first quotation, though containing but two lines, is extracted from three different paragraphs; in one of which I say, ¹“I had many unpleasing accounts (in _December, 1740_) concerning our little society in _Kingswood_”: in the second, “I went to _Kingswood_, if haply I might repair the breaches which had been made” (by the predestinarian preachers:) in the third, “I laboured to heal the jealousies and misunderstandings which had arisen.”
¹ 4 Journal, page 62.
The second passage, part of which you quote, is this: ¹“I returned early in the morning to _Kingswood_. But my congregation was gone to hear Mr. _C._ So that I had not above two or three men and as many women.”
¹ Ibid. page 64.
The third is, ¹“_January 1._ I explained, _If any man be in Christ he is a new creature_. But many of our brethren had no ears to hear, having disputed away both their faith and love.”
¹ Ibid. page 65.
The fourth: ¹“_February 21._ I inquired concerning the divisions and offences which began afresh to break out in _Kingswood_. In the afternoon I met a few of the bands; but it was a cold, uncomfortable meeting.”
¹ 4 Journal, page 70.
You have picked out here and there a word from several pages, in order to furnish out a fifth quotation. The most material part of it is this: _Saturday 28._ ¹I read the following paper at _Kingswood_; “For their scoffing at the word and ministers of God, for their backbiting and evil-speaking, I――――declare the persons above-mentioned, to be no longer members of this society.”――――
¹ Ibid. page 73.
“And ¹we had great reason to bless God, that after fifty-two were withdrawn, we had still upwards of ninety left.”
¹ Page 74.
Who those other “forty were that, you say, left them,” I know not. Perhaps you may inform me.
Upon the whole, all these quotations prove only this: that about eleven years ago, Mr. _C._ falling into predestination, set the society in _Kingswood_ a disputing with each other, and occasioned much confusion for some months. But still you have not gone one step toward proving (which is the one point in question) “That the _Methodists_ in general were even then, _all_ together by the ears;” and much less, “that they have been so ever since, and that they _are_ so _now_.”
However you fail not to triumph (like _Louis le Grand_, after his victory at _Blenheim_,) “What shall we say now? Are these the fruits of _Methodism_?” No, Sir. They are the fruits of opposing it. They are the tares sown among the wheat. You may hear of instances of the same kind, both in earlier and later ages.