Source, in full
Attributed to 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; it has also attributed to Charles Wesley, and sometimes his brother John, as well as William Booth, who popularized it as an addage in promoting his The Salvation Army.