Wesley Corpus

Methodist.” (Page 17.) I wish you do not squint at the honest countenance of Mr. Venn, who is indeed as far from fear as he is from guile. But if it is somewhat “bloated,” that is not his fault; sickness may have the same effect on yours or mine. But to come closer to the point: “They have darkened re ligion with many ridiculous fancies, tending to confound the head, and to corrupt the heart.” (Page 13.) “A thorough knowledge of them would work, in every rightly-disposed mind, an abhorrence of those doctrines which directly tend to distract the head, and to debauch the heart, by turning faith into frenzy, and the grace of God into wantonness.” (Pages 101, 102.) “These doctrines are unreasonable and ridiculous, clashing with our natural ideas of the divine perfections, with the end of religion, with the honour of God, and man’s both present and future happiness. Therefore we pronounce them ‘filthy dreamers, turning faith into fancy, the gospel into farce; thus adding blasphemy to enthusiasm.” (Pages 66,68.) Take breath, Sir; there is a long paragraph behind. “The abettors of these wild and whimsical notions are, (1.) Close friends to the Church of Rome, agreeing with her in almost everything but the doctrine of merit: (2.) They are no less kind to infidelity, by making the Christian religion a mere creature of the imagination : (3.) They cut up Christianity by the roots, frustrating the very end for which Christ died, which was, that by holiness we might be ‘made meet for the inheritance of the saints: (4.) They are enemies not only to Christianity, but to “every religion whatsoever, by labouring to subvert or overturn the whole system of morality: (5.) Consequently, they must be enemies of society, dissolving the band by which it is united and knit together.” In a word: “All ancient heresies have in a manner concentred in the Methodists; particularly those of the Simonians, Gnos tics, Antinomians,” (as widely distant from each other as Pre destinarians from Calvinists 1) “Valentinians, Donatists, and Montanists.” (Pages 101, 102.) While your hand was in, you might as well have added, Carpocratians, Eutychians, Nesto rians, Sabellians. If you say, “I never heard of them; ” no matter for that; you may find them, as well as the rest, in Bishop Pearson’s index.