A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Wesley, John, 1703-1791 • SECTION 110

Part 110

← The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 16 (of 32)

⁴ Section 6.

⁵ Section 9.

⁶ Section 11.

⁷ Section 12.

⁸ Section 13.

⁹ Section 14.

¹⁰ Section 15, &c.

¹¹ Section 18.

¹² Section 19, &c.

¹³ Section 20.

¹⁴ Section 21.

50. These things being so, what must all unprejudiced men think of you and your whole performance? You have advanced a charge, not against one or two persons only, but indiscriminately against a whole _body of people_, of his Majesty’s subjects, _Englishmen_, protestants, members I suppose, of your own church: a charge containing abundance of articles, and most of them of the highest and blackest nature. You have prosecuted this with unparalleled bitterness of spirit and acrimony of language; using sometimes the most coarse, rude, scurrilous terms, sometimes the keenest sarcasms you could devise. The point you have steadily pursued in _thus_ prosecuting _this_ charge, is, first, To expose the whole people to the hatred and scorn of all mankind; and next, to stir up the _civil powers_ against them. And when this charge comes to be fairly weighed, there is not a single article of it true! The passages you cite to make it good, are one and all such, as prove nothing less than the points in question: most of them such as you have palpably maimed, corrupted, and strained to a sense never thought of by the writer: many of them such as are flat against you, and overthrow the very point they are brought to support. What can they think, but that this is the most shocking violation of the Christian rule, _Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself_; the most open affront to all justice, and even common humanity, the most glaring insult upon the common sense and reason of mankind, which has lately appeared in the world.

If you say, “But I have proved the charge upon Mr. _Whitefield_:” admit you have (which I do not allow) Mr. _Whitefield_ is not _the Methodists_; no, nor the societies under his care; they are not a third, perhaps not a tenth part of the _Methodists_. What then can excuse your ascribing _their_ faults (were they proved) to the _whole body_? You indict ten men. Suppose you prove the indictment upon one, will you _therefore_ condemn the other nine? Nay, let every man bear his own burden, since every man must give an account of himself to God.

I had occasion once before to say to an opponent, you know not to shew mercy. Yet that gentleman did regard truth and justice. But you regard neither mercy, justice nor truth. To vilify, to blacken is your one point. I pray God, it may not be laid to your charge! May he shew you mercy, though you shew none!

_I am, Sir_, _Your friend and well-wisher_, JOHN WESLEY.

_The End of the_ Sixteenth Volume.

ERRATA, Volume XVI.

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