Wesley Corpus

I have often replied: (1) It were better for me to die than not to preach the gospel of Christ; yea, and in the fields, either where I may not preach in the church or where the church will not contain the congregation. (2) That I use the Service of the Church every Lord's Day, and it has never yet appeared to me that any rule of the Church forbids my using extemporary prayer on other occasions. But methinks I would go deeper. I would inquire, What is the end of all ecclesiastical order Is it not to bring souls from the power of Satan to God, and to build them up in His fear and love Order, then, is so far valuable as it answers these ends; and if it answers them not, it is nothing worth. Now, I would fain know, where has order answered these ends Not in any place where I have been; -- not among the tinners in Cornwall, the keelmen at Newcastle, the colliers in Kingswood or Staffordshire; not among the drunkards, swearers, Sabbath-breakers of Moorfields, or the harlots of Drury Lane. They could not be built up in the fear and love of God while they were open, barefaced servants of the devil; and such they continued, notwithstanding the most orderly preaching both in St. Luke’s and St. Giles’s Church. [See letter of March 25, 1747, sect. 12.] One reason whereof was, they never came near the church, nor had any desire or design so to do, till, by what you term ‘breach of order,’ they were brought to fear God, to love Him, and keep His commandments. It was not, therefore, so much the want of order as of the knowledge and love of God which kept those poor souls for so many years in open bondage to an hard master. And, indeed, wherever the knowledge and love of God are, true order will not be wanting. But the most apostolical order, where these are not, is less than nothing and vanity.