Wesley Corpus

I do make use (so far as I know) of all the means of grace God has ordained exactly as God has ordained them. But here is your grand mistake: you think my design is ‘to form a Church.’ No: I have no such design. It is not my deign or desire that any who accept of my help should leave the Church of which they are now member. Were I converting Indians, I would take every step St. Paul took: but I am not; therefore some of those steps I am not to take. Therefore I still join with the Church of England so far, as I can; at the same time that I and my friends use several prudential helps which our Church neither enjoins nor forbids, as being in themselves of a purely indifferent nature. What I affirm of the generality both of teachers and people in the Church of England, I affirm of teaches and people of every other denomination -- I mean so far as I have known them; and I have known not a few both in Europe and America. I never saw an unmixed communion yet, unless perhaps among the Moravian Brethren or the Methodists. Yet that God does bless us even when we receive the Lord's Supper at St. Paul's, I can prove by numberless instances. If I were in the Church of Rome, I would conform to all her doctrines and practices as far as they were not contrary to plain Scripture. And, according to the best of my judgment, I conform so far only to those of the Church of England. I have largely explained myself in the third volume of Sermons touching the stress which I judge is to be laid on opinions. This likewise I have learned by dear experience. However, I thank God that I have learned it at any price. I am not conscious of embracing any opinion or practice which is not agreeable to the Word of God and I do believe the doctrine, worship, and discipline (so far as it goes) of the Church of England to be agreeable thereto. I wish your zeal was better employed than in persuading men to be either dipped or sprinkled. I will employ mine by the grace of God in persuading them to love God with all their hearts and their neighbor as themselves.