Wesley Corpus

We are here to set religion out of the question. You do not suppose I have anything to do with that. Why, if so, I should rather leave you the honor, and myself sleep in an whole skin. On that supposition I quite agree with the epigrammatist: Virgihi in tumulo, divini praemia vatis, Explicat en viridem laurea laeta comam. Quid te defunctum juvat haec Felicior olim Sub patulae fagi tegmine vivus eras. [‘See, the green laurel rears her graceful head O'er Virgil's tomb! But can this cheer the dead Happier by far thou wast of old, when laid Beneath thy spreading beech’s ample shade!’] 20. Your last charge is that ‘I profess myself to be a member of the Established Church, and yet act contrary to the commands of my spiritual governors and stab the Church to the very vitals’ (page 27). I answer: (1) What ‘spiritual governor’ has commanded me not to preach in any part of His Majesty's dominions I know not one to this very day, either in England or Ireland. (2) What is it to ‘stab the Church to the very vitals’ Why, to deny her fundamental doctrines. And do I or you do this Let any one who has read her Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies judge which of us two denies that ‘we are justified by faith alone’; that every believer has ‘the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit’; that all who are strong in faith do ‘perfectly love Him and worthily magnify His holy name’: he that denies this is ‘the treacherous son who stabs this affectionate and tender mother.’ If you deny it, you have already disowned the Church. But, as for me, I neither can nor will; though I know you sincerely desire I should. Hoc Ithacus velit, et magno mercentur Atridae. [Virgil's Aeneid, ii. 104: ‘This Ithacus desires, And Atreus’ sons with vast rewards shall buy.’] But I choose to stay in the Church, were it only to reprove those who ‘betray’ her ‘with a kiss.’