Source, in full
Attributed to Wesley in America Over the Water (2004) by Shirley Collins, p. 113, it is earlier attributed to his brother John, in The English Poets: Addison to Blake (1880) by Thomas Humphry Ward, and even earlier to George Whitefield, in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 49 (June 1773 - January 1774), p. 430; this has also been reported as a remark made by Rowland Hill, when he arranged an Easter hymn to the tune of "Pretty, Pretty Polly Hopkins, in The Rambler, Vol. 9 (1858), p. 191; as well as to William Booth, who popularized it as an addage in promoting The Salvation Army.