Wesley Corpus

2. Yet it is not wholly for their sake, but for your own also that I now write. It may be, the “ Father of lights,” the giver of “ every good gift,” may even by a mean instrument speak to your hearts. My continual desire and prayer to God is, that you may clearly see “ what is that good and perfect will” of the Lord; and fully discern how to separate that which is precious among you from the vile. 3. Ihave delayed thus long, because I loved you, and was therefore, unwilling to prieve you in any thing; anc likewise because I was afraid of creating another obstacle to that union which (if I know my own heart in any degree) I desire above all things under heaven. But I dare no longer delay, lest my silence should be a snare to any others of the children of God ; and lest you yourselves should be more confirmed in what I cannot reconcile to the Law and the Testimony. This would strengthen the bar which I long to remove; and were that once taken out of the way, I should rejoice to be a door keeper in the house of God, a hewer of wood or drawer of water, among you. Surely I would follow you to the ends of the earth, or remain with you in the uttermost parts of the sea. * So called by themselves, though improperly, 4, What unites my heart to you is, the excellency (in many respects) of the ductrine taught among you: your laying the true foundation, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself ;” your declaring the free grace of God the cause, and faith the condition, of justification ; your bearing witness to those great fruits of faith, “‘ righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ;” and that sure mark thereof, “He that is born of God doth not commit sin.”