Wesley Corpus

I only propose (not maintain) the question. If there be such a wretch, I pray God to strike him to the heart, and to say, “Thou art the man!” Are there none of you, like them, “mighty to drink wine, men of strength to mingle strong drink?” Yea, are there none that “err through strong drink, that are swallowed up of wine?” Are there not found those who say, “I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant?” Alas, my brother, is this the voice of a “Minister of Christ, a steward of the mysteries of God?” Suppose you find at any time trouble and heaviness, “is there no help for you in your God?” Is not the God whom you serve able to deliver you from any plague or trouble? Is the being “drunk with wine” a better relief than the being “filled with his Spirit?” Do you not understand this? Do you “not know the Lord?” Take heed you do not destroy both your own soul and them that hear you ! O beware ! If you know not his love, fear his power! Make haste to flee from the wrath to come, lest he smite you with a curse great as your sin, and sweep you away from the face of the earth. 32. Can such as you be said to honour or fear God, any more than those spoken of by Malachi? May not God complain, “These priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things?” yea, whensoever you presume with those unhallowed hands to touch the mysteries of God; whensoever you utter his name or his word with those unhallowed lips ! But is it on this account only that God may say, “Both Prophet and Priest are profane?” May he not add, “They have put no difference between the holy and profane; therefore I am profaned among them?” For is it not so? Do you put a difference between the holy and profane; him that feareth God, and him that feareth him not? Do you put an effectual difference between them, even in the most solemn office of our religion?