Wesley Corpus

Actual preparation was here entirely out of the question. It might be absolutely and indispensably necessary, for anything I had either said or meant to the contrary; for it was not at all in my thoughts. And the habitual preparation which I had in terms declared to be indispensably necessary was ‘a willingness to know and to do the whole will of God’ and ‘earnest desires of universal holiness.’ Does your Lordship think this is ‘meant to set aside all repentance for sins past and resolutions of living better for the time to come’ 11. Your Lordship next falls with all your might upon that strange assertion, as you term it, ‘We come to His Table, not to give Him anything, but to receive whatsoever He sees best for us.’ ‘Whereas,’ says your Lordship, ‘in the exhortation at the time of receiving, the people are told that they must give most humble and hearty thanks . . . and immediately after receiving, both minister and people join in offering and presenting themselves before God’ (pages 20-1). O God! in what manner are the most sacred things here treated! the most venerable mysteries of our religion! What quibbling, what playing upon words, is here! ‘Not to give Him anything.’ ‘Yes, to give Him thanks.’ O my Lord, are these the words of a Father of the Church 12. Your Lordship goes on: ‘To the foregoing account of these modern principles and doctrines it may not be improper to subjoin a few observations upon the indirect practices of the same people in gaining proselytes’ (pages 23-4). I. ‘They persuade the people that the Established worship, with a regular attendance upon it, is not sufficient to answer the ends of devotion.’ Your Lordship mentioned this likewise in the Observations. In your fourth query it stood thus: ‘Whether a due and regular attendance on the public offices of religion, paid in a serious and composed way, does not answer the true ends of devotion.’ Suffer me to repeat part of the answer then given: