Wesley Corpus

“19. With regard to contempt, then, (under which word I include ali the passions that border upon it, as hate, envy, &c; and all the fruits that spring from it, such as calumny and persecution in all its forms,) my first position, in defiance of worldly wisdom, is, every true Christian is contemned, wherever he lives, by those who are not so, and who know him to be such; that is, in effect, by all with whom he converses ; since it is impossible for light not to shine. This position I prove, both from the example of our Lord, and from his express assertion. First, from his example: If ‘the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord,’ then as our Master was ‘despised and rejected of men,’ so will every one of his true disciples. But ‘ the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord: therefore, the consequence will not fail him a hair’s breadth. I prove this secondly, from his own express assertion of this consequence: ‘If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household? Remember’ (ye that would fain forget or evade this) ‘the word which I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord: If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.’ And as for that vain hope, that this belongs only to the first followers of Christ, hear ye him: ‘ All these things they will do unto you, because they know not him that sent me.’ And again, ‘ Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.’ Both the persons who are hated, the persons who hate them, and the cause of their hating them, are here set down. The hated are all that are not of the world, that know and love God: the haters are all that are of the world, that knew not, love not God: the cause of their hatred is the entive, irreconcilable difference between their designs, judgments, and affections; because these know not God, and those are determined to know and pursue nothing beside him: these esteem and love the world 5 and those count it dung and dross, and singly desire the love of Christ.