Wesley Corpus

Will you say, 'But if I had gone on in that way, I should have lost my friends and my reputation' This is partly true. You would have lost most of those friends who neither love nor fear God. Happy loss! These are the men who do you more hurt than all the world besides. These are the men whom, if ever you would be a real Christian, you must avoid as you would avoid hell-fire. 'But then they will censure me.' So they will. They will say you are a fool, a madman, and what not. But what are you the worse for this Why, the Spirit of glory and of Christ shall rest upon you. 'But it will hurt me in my business.' Suppose it should, the favour of God would make large amends. But very probably it would not. For the winds and the seas are in God's hands as well as the hearts of men. 'But it is inconsistent with my duty to the Church.' Can a man of understanding talk so and talk so in earnest Is it not rather a copy of his countenance Indeed, if you can mean 'inconsistent with my pleasing this or that clergyman,' I allow it. But let him be pleased or displeased, please thou God! But are these clergymen the Church Unless they are holy men, earnestly loving and serving God, they are not even members of the Church; they are no part of it. And unless they preach the doctrines of the Church contained in her Articles and Liturgy, they are no true ministers of the Church, but are eating her bread and tearing out her bowels.