Wesley Corpus

This is half true (which is something uncommon with you), and only half false. It is true that for thirty years last past I have ‘gradually put on a more catholic spirit,’ finding more and more tenderness for those who differed from me either in opinions or modes of worship. But it is not true that I ‘reject any design of converting others from any communion.’ I have, by the blessing of God, converted several from Popery, who are now alive and ready to testify it. Your fourth argument is that in a Collection of Prayers I cite the words of an ancient Liturgy - ‘For the faithful departed.’ Sir, whenever I use those words in the Burial Service, I pray to the same effect: ‘That we, with all those who are departed in Thy faith and fear, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul’: yea, and whenever I say, ‘Thy kingdom come’; for I mean both the kingdom of grace and glory. In this kind of general prayer, therefore, ‘for the faithful departed,’ I conceive myself to be clearly justified, both by the earliest antiquity, by the Church of England, and by the Lord’s Prayer; although the Papists have corrupted this scriptural practice into praying for those who die in their sins. 45. Your fifth argument is: ‘That they use private confession, in which every one is to speak the state of his heart, with his several temptations and deliverances, and answer as many searching questions as may be. And what a scene,’ say you, ‘is hereby disclosed! What a filthy jakes opened, when the most searching questions are answered without reserve!’ Hold, sir, unless you are answering for yourself: this undoubtedly you have a right to do. You can tell best what is in your own heart. And I cannot deny what you say: it may be a very ‘filthy jakes,’ for aught I know. But pray do not measure others by yourself. The hearts of believers ‘are purified through faith.’ When these open their hearts one to another, there is no such scene disclosed. Yet temptations to pride in various kinds, to self-will, to unbelief in many instances, they often feel in themselves (whether they give any place to them or no), and occasionally disclose to their brethren.