Journal Vol1 3
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | journal |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-journal-vol1-3-961 |
| Words | 384 |
“3. This preaching has greatly impaired, if not destroyed, the love of
their neighbour in many souls. They no longer burn with love to all
mankind, with desire to do good to all.. They are straitened in their own
bowels’; their love is confined to narrower and narrewer bounds; till, at
length, they have no desire or thought of doing good to any but those of
their own community. If aman was before a zealous member of our
Church, groaning for the prosperity of our Zion, it is past; all that zeal
is at an end; he regards the Church of England no more than the
Church of Rome: his tears no longer fall, his prayers no longer ascend,
that God may shine upon her desolations. The friends that were once as
his own soul, are now no more to him than other men. All the bands
of that formerly endeared affection are as threads of tow that have
touched the fire. Even the ties of filial tenderness are dissolved: the
child regards not his own parent; he no longer regards the womb that
bare or the paps that gave him suck.. Recent instances of this also are
not wanting. I will particularize, if required. Yea, the son leaves his
aged father, the daughter her mother, in want of the necessaries of life.
I know the persons; I have myself relieved them more than once ; for
that was ‘ corban’ whereby they should have been profited.
“4, These humble preachers utterly destroy the humility of their hearers, who are quickly wiser than all their former teachers; not because
they ‘keep thy commandments,’ (as the poor man under the Law said,)
but because they allow no commandments at all. In a few days they are
‘wiser in their own eyes, than seven men that can render a reason.’
“ Render a reason! Ay, there it is. Your carnal reason destroys you.
You are for reason: I am for faith.’ Iam for both: for faith to perfect
my reason, that by the Spirit of God not putting out the eyes of my understanding, but enlightening them more and more, I may ‘be ready to give’
a clear scriptural ‘ answer to every man that asketh’ me ‘a reason of the
hope that is in’ me.