Wesley Corpus

At present I say, ‘Keep your own opinion’ (page 13); I mine. I do not desire you to dispute these points. Whether we shall dispute them hereafter is another question; perhaps we may, perhaps we may not. This will depend on a great variety of circumstances -- particularly on a probability of success; for I am determined never to dispute at all if I have no hopes of convincing my opponent. As to my own judgment, I still believe ‘the Episcopal form of Church government to be both scriptural and apostolical’: I mean, well agreeing with the practice and writings of the Apostles. But that it is prescribed in Scripture I do not believe. This opinion (which I once heartily espoused) I have been heartily ashamed of ever since I read Dr. Stillingfleet’s Irenicon. [See letters of July 16, 1755, and April 10, 1761.] I think he has unanswerably proved that neither Christ or His Apostles prescribed any particular form of Church government, and that the plea for the divine right of Episcopacy was never heard of in the primitive Church. But were it otherwise, I would still call these ‘smaller matters than the love of God and mankind’ (page 18). And could any man answer these questions, -- ‘Dost thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God over all, blessed for evermore’ (which, indeed, no Arian, semi-Arian, or Socinian can do); ‘Is God the center of thy soul Art thou more afraid of offending God than of death or hell’ (page 15) (which no wicked man can possibly do, none that is not a real child of God); -- if, I say, any man could answer these questions in the affirmative, I would gladly give him my hand. This is certainly a principle held by those that are in derision called Methodist, and to whom a Popish priest in Dublin gave the still more unmeaning title of Swaddlers. They all desire to be of a catholic spirit; meaning thereby, not an indifference to all opinions, not an indifference as to modes of worship: this they know to be quite another thing. ‘Love, they judge, alone gives a rifle to this character. Catholic love k a catholic spirit.’ (Page 25.)