Treatise Letter To The Bishop Of London
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-treatise-letter-to-the-bishop-of-london-008 |
| Words | 368 |
Your Lordship next falls with all your might upon that
strange assertion, as you term it, “We come to his table, not
to give him anything, but to receive whatsoever he sees best for
us.” “Whereas,” says your Lordship, “in the exhortation at
the time of receiving, the people are told that they must give
most humble and hearty thanks,--and immediately after re
ceiving, both Minister and people join in offering and present
ing themselves before God.” (Ibid. pp. 20, 21.) O God! in
what manner are the most sacred things here treated! the most
venerable mysteries of our religion | What quibbling, what
playing upon words, is here! Not to give him anything. “Yes,
to give him thanks.” O my Lord, are these the words of a
Father of the Church ! 12. Your Lordship goes on : “To the foregoing account of
these modern principles and doctrines, it may not be improper
to subjoin a few observations upon the indirect practices of
the same people in gaining proselytes.” (Ibid. pp. 23, 24.)
“I. They persuade the people, that the established worship,
with a regular attendance upon it, is not sufficient to answer
the ends of devotion.”
Your Lordship mentioned this likewise in the Observations. In your fourth query it stood thus: “Whether a due and
regular attendance on the public offices of religion, paid in a
serious and composed way, does not answer the true ends of
devotion.” Suffer me to repeat part of the answer then given:--
“I suppose by ‘devotion’ you mean public worship; by the
‘true ends’ of it, the love of God and man; and by “a due and
regular attendance on the public offices of religion, paid in a
serious and composed way, the going as often as we can to our
parish church, and to the sacrament there administered. If so,
the question is, Whether this attendance on those offices does
not produce the love of God and man. I answer, Sometimes it
does, and sometimes it does not. I myself thus attended them
for many years; and yet am conscious to myself, that, during
that whole time, I had no more of the love of God than a stone.