Wesley Corpus

A Letter to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Gloucester Source: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 9 (Zondervan) Author: John Wesley --- My Lord, YoUR Lordship well observes, “To employ buffoonery in the service of religion is to violate the majesty of truth, and to deprive it of a fair hearing. To examine, men must be serious.” * Such as escaped my notice; or such as may be placed to the account of human infirmity. (Preface, p. 11.) I will endeavour to be so in all the following pages; and the rather, not only because I am writing to a person who is so far, and in so many respects, my superior, but also because of the importance of the subject: For is the question only, What I am? a madman, or a man in his senses? a knave, or an honest man? No; this is only brought in by way of illustration. The question is, of the office and opera tion of the Holy Spirit; with which the doctrine of the new birth, and indeed the whole of real religion, is connected. On a subject of so deep concern, I desire to be serious as death. But, at the same time, your Lordship will permit me to use great plainness. And this I am the more emboldened to do, because by naming my name, your Lordship, as it were, condescends to meet me on even ground. I shall consider, First, what your Lordship advances con cerning me: and, Then, what is advanced concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit. I. First. Concerning me. It is true I am here dealing in crambe repetita,” reciting objections which have been urged and answered a hundred times. But as your Lordship is pleased to repeat them again, I am obliged to repeat the answers. Your Lordship begins: “If the false prophet pretend to some extraordinary measure of the Spirit, we are directed to try that spirit by James iii. 17.” (Page 117.) I answer, 1. (as I have done many times before,) I do not pretend to any extraordinary measure of the Spirit. I pretend to no other measure of it than may be claimed by every Christian Minis ter. 2. Where are we directed to “try Prophets” by this text? How does it appear that it was given for any such purpose?