Wesley Corpus

* “A religion,” you say, “anda Church, are not all one: a religion is an assembly whereir. the Holy Scriptures are aught after a prescribed rule.” This is too narrow adefinition. For there are many Pagan (as well as Mohammedan) religions. Rather, a religion is, a method of worshipping God, whether in a right or a wrong manner. «¢The Lord has such a peculiar hand in the several constitutions of religion, that one ought to respect every one of them.” I cannot possibly: I cannot respect, either the Jewish (as it is now) or the Romish religion. You add, “ A Church (I will no: examine whether there are any in this present age, or whether there is no other beside ours) is a congregat'wn of sinners who have obtained forgiveness ofsins. That such a congregation should be in an error, cannot easily happen.” _I find no reason, therefore, to retract any thing which is advanced on this or any of the following heads. sept. 1741.] REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. 225 upvn them at once, by their agreement or disagreement with your Church. Some of you have said, that there is no true Church on earth but yours; yea, that there are no true Christians out of it. And your own members you require to have implicit faith in her decisions, and to pay implicit obedience to her directions. 12. Fifthly, You receive not the ancient, but. the modern Mystics, as the best interpreters of Scripture: and in conformity to these, you mix much of man’s wisdom with the wisdom of God: you greatly refine the plain religion taught by the letter of Holy Writ, and philosophize on almost every part of it, to accommodate it to the Mystic theory. Hence you talk much, in a manner wholly unsupported by Scripture, against mixing nature with grace, against imagination, and concerning the animal spirits, mimicking the power of the Holy Ghest. Hence your , brethren zealously caution us against animal joy, against natural love of one another, and against selfish love of God; against which (or any of them) there is no one caution in all the Bible. And they have, in truth, greatly lessened, and had well nigh destroyed, brotherly love from among us.