Letters 1757
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | letter |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-letters-1757-012 |
| Words | 397 |
‘But they are his already by legal establishment.’ If they receive the sacrament from him thrice a year and attend his ministrations on the Lord’s Day, I see no more which the law requires. But (to go a little deeper into this matter of legal establishment) does Mr. Conon [Mr. Conon was the schoolmaster at Truro. Walker calls him ‘my friend and father.’ See Sidney’s Life of Walker, p. 200.] or you think that the King and Parliament have a right to prescribe to me what pastor I shall use If they prescribe one whom I know God never sent, am I obliged to receive him If he be sent of God, can I receive him with a clear conscience till I know he is And even when I do, if I believe my former pastor is more profitable to my soul, can I leave him without sin Or has any man lying a right to require this of me
I ‘extend this to every gospel minister in England.’ Before I could with a clear conscience leave a Methodist Society even to such an one, all these considerations must come in.
And with regard to the people: far from thinking that ‘the withdrawing our preachers’ from such a Society without their consent would ‘prevent a separation from the Church’ I think it would be the direct way to cause it. While we are with them, our advice has weight and keeps them to the Church; but were we totally to withdraw, it would be of little or no weight. Nay, perhaps resentment of our unkindness (as it would probably appear to them) would prompt them to act in flat opposition to it. ‘And will it not he the same at your death’ I believe not: for I believe there will be no resentment in this case; and the last advice of a dying friend is not likely to be so soon forgotten.
3. But ‘was there not inconsistency in your visiting Mr. Vowler as a gospel minister when you do not give up your people to him’ No: my receiving him as a gospel minister did not imply any obligation so to do.
4. ‘If that was not the design of your visit, you should not have visited him at all.’ Does that follow I visited him because he desired it as a brother and fellow laborer.