Wesley Corpus

I doubt you will sometimes be in danger by a snare you are not aware of: you will often meet with persons who labor till they are delivered of all they know, and who (perhaps ‘with very good intent, but little wit’) will tell you abundance of things, good or bad, of the Society, or any member of it. Now, all this is poison to your soul. You have only to give an account of yourself to God. Oh may you do it with joy, and not with grief! -- I am, dear sir, Your very affectionate servant. To Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London [3] Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person; neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away.--Job xxxii. 21-2. LONDON, June 11, 1747. MY LORD, -- 1. When abundance of persons have for several years laid to my charge things that I knew not, I have generally thought it my duty to pass it over in silence, to be 'as one that heard not.' But the case is different when a person of your Lordship's character calls me forth to answer for myself. Silence now might be interpreted contempt. It might appear like a sullen disregard, a withholding honor from him to whom honor is due, were it only on account of his high office in the Church, more especially when I apprehend so eminent a person as this to be under considerable mistakes concerning me. Were I now to be silent, were I not to do what was in my power for the removal of those mistakes, I could not ‘have a conscience void of offence,’ either ‘towards God or towards man.’