All are punish'd...

I am going to go ahead and level with what a lot of people have been discussing whether on the blog or in person; class got a little off track and heavily focused on suffering the other day. But frankly, it furthered a lot of what Wesley was getting at with his discourse over the trouble with the colonies. It was not a sermon on suffering as it was looking to America and seeing what England had done as a nation. Take into consideration the scripture Wesley references in the opening portion of his sermon. "We have lately extended the British empire almost over the globe. We have carried our laurels into Africa, into Asia, in the burning and the frozen climes of American. And what have we brought thence? All of the elegance of vice which either the eastern or western world could afford." Wesley also acknowledges problems on both shores: "arbitrary power on one hand, and of anarchy on the other." Wesley sees the problems abroad as a result of the problems right in front of him. That is what Wesley was getting at. America was in turmoil because England was in turmoil. Consider why people left England to begin with. Clearly, there was a problem. And instead of cultivating the garden where they were, they chose to plant anew and with them came the scars of problems unresolved.

I cannot say it enough that Wesley's entire sermon is wrapped up in the following: "Reason is lost in rage; its small still voice is drowned by popular clamour. Wisdom is fallen in the streets. And where is the place of understand? It is hardly to be found in these provinces."

Concluding that both England and her American colonies are simultaneously suffering, I am going to end with what kept ringing in my ears, courtesy of William Shakespeare, perhaps you will find it applicable as well:

"Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd."

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene III

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