Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/17

 spend their whole strength in doing good unto all men? and are ready to suffer all things, yea, death itself, to save one soul from eternal death?

5. But while so few are found in the way of life, and so many in the way of destruction, there is great danger, lest the torrent of examples, should bear us away with them. Even as a single example, if it be always in our sight, is apt to make much impression upon us: especially when it has nature on its side; when it falls in with our own inclinations. How great then must be the force of so numerous examples, continually before our eyes; and all conspiring together with our own hearts, to carry us down the stream of nature? How difficult must it be, to stem the tide, and to keep ourselves ''unspotted in the world''?

6. What heightens the difficulty still more is, that they are not the rude and senseless part of mankind, at least not these alone, who set us the example, who throng the downward way: but the polite, the well-bread, the genteel, the wise, the men who understand the world: the men of knowledge, of deep and various learning, the rational, the eloquent! These are all, or nearly all, against us. And how shall we stand against these? Does not their tongues, drop manna? And have they not learned all the arts of soft persuasion? And of reasoning too: for these are versed in all controversies and strife