Wesley Corpus

To Certain Proprietors of East India Stock Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1773) Author: John Wesley --- [End of September 1773.] TO ALL WHO HAVE HAD EAST INDIA STOCK LATELY TRANSFERRED TO THEM, IN ORDER TO QUALIFY THEM FOR VOTING AT THE ELECTION FOR DIRECTORS ON WEDNESDAY NEXT. GENTLEMEN AND LADIES,--Do you know what the oath is which you are to take before you will be admitted to vote It is as follows: ‘ I, A B, do swear that the sum of five hundred pound, or more, of the capital stock of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies doth at this time belong to me in my own right, and not in trust for any other person or persons whatsoever. So help me God.’ Do not you hereby call upon God either to help you or to send down His curse upon you as your oath is true or false If you consider this, can you take a false oath can you call God to witness to lie Are you not doing this if the stock standing in your name is not your real and true property Have you not given a note of your hand for it, which is to be returned upon your retransferring the stock Are you either benefited or hurt by the rise or fall of the stock If not, can you say you are proprietor at all Does it alter the case, though a third person lend you the money to pay for that stock which you are so to retransfer Still you nether gain nor lose by the rise or fall of the stock: a plain proof that you have no property therein. Weigh this in time; and do not, to oblige a friend, bring the guilt of perjury on your own soul.