Wesley Corpus

22. "But whatever learning they have, if they acquired it there, they cannot be ordained;" (you mean, Episcopally ordained; and indeed that ordination we prefer to any other, where it can be had;) "for the Bishops have all agreed together not to ordain any Methodist." O that they would all agree together not to ordain any drunkard, any Sabbath-breaker, any common swearer, any that makes the very name of religion stink in the nostrils of infidels, any that knows no more of the grounds of religion than he does of Greek or Hebrew! But I doubt that fact. I cannot easily believe that all the Bishops have made such an agreement. Could I be sure they had, I should think it my duty to return them my sincerest thanks. Pity they had not done it ten years ago, and I should not have lost some of my dearest friends. However, I am extremely obliged, if they have agreed to prevent my losing any more the same way; if they have blocked up the door through which several others were likely to run away from me. 23. I should not wonder if there was a general agreement against those who have been so often described as both knaves and madmen. Meantime, I can only say, as a much greater man said, Hier stehe ich: Gott hilffe mich! By His help I have stood for these forty years, among the children of men, whose tongues are set on fire, who shoot out their arrows, even bitter words, and think therein they do God service. Many of these are already gone to give an account to the Judge of quick and dead. I did not expect to have stayed so long behind them; but "good is the will of the Lord." If it were possible, I should be glad, for my few remaining days, to live peaceably with all men: I do as much as lieth in me, in order to this. I do not willingly provoke any man. I go as quietly on my way as I can. But, quietly or unquietly, I must go on; for a dispensation of the Gospel is committed to me; and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. I am convinced that I am a debtor to all men, and that it is my bounden duty "To rush through every open door,