Wesley Corpus

To Mr. Howell Harris, At Trevecca, Near Hay, Brecknockshire. Free-James Erskine. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1747) Author: John Wesley --- To ‘John Smith’ NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, March 25, 1747. SIR, -- I. In your last I do not find much reason to complain either of tartness or bitterness. But is it so serious as the cause requires If it be asked, Ridentem dicere verum, Quis vetat' [Horace’s Satires, I, i. 24: ‘Yet may not truth in laughing guise be dressed’] 1. I think the nature of the things whereof we speak should forbid it. For surely it is a very serious concern whether we dwell in the eternal glory of God or in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 2. If those who subscribe the Eleventh and following Articles do subscribe in what they believe from their hearts to be the plain, unforced, grammatical meaning of the words, then they are clear before God. I trust you can answer for yourself herein; but you cannot for all our brethren. 3. I am glad that our dispute concerning commutations in religion proves to be ‘entirely verbal’: as we both agree (1) that abundance of those who bear the name of Christians put a part of religion for the whole -- generally some outward work or form of worship; (2) that whatever is thus put for the whole of religion -- in particular, where it is used to supersede or commute for the religion of the heart--it is no longer a part of it; it is gross irreligion, it is mere mockery of God.