Wesley Corpus

True it is, your Lordship gives them several advices; but all in order to this end. You direct them to ‘inculcate the excellency of our Liturgy as a wise, grave, and serious service’; to ‘show their people that a diligent attendance on their business is a serving of God’; ‘punctually to perform both the public offices of the Church and all other pastoral duties’; and to ‘engage the esteem of their parishioners by a constant regularity of life.’ But all these your Lordship recommends eo nomine as means to that great end--the arming and fortifying their people against the Moravians or Methodists and their doctrines. Is it possible Could your Lordship discern no other enemies of the gospel of Christ Are there no other heretics or schismatics on earth, or even within the four seas Are there no Papists, no Deists in the land Or are their errors of less importance Or are their numbers in England less considerable or less likely to increase Does it appear, then, that they have lost their zeal for making proselytes Or are all the people so guarded against them already that their labor is in vain Can your Lordship answer these few plain questions to the satisfaction of your own conscience Have the Methodists (so called) already monopolized all the sins as well as errors in the nation Is Methodism the only sin, or the only fatal or spreading sin, to be found within the Bills of Mortality Have two thousand (or more) ‘ambassadors of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God’ no other business than to guard, warn, arm, and fortify their people against this O my Lord, if this engrosses their time and strength (as it must, if they follow your Lordship's instructions), they will not give an account with joy, either of themselves or of their flock, in that day!