Wesley Corpus

When I say, “I do not grant that works are meritorious, even when accompanied by faith,” I take that word in a proper sense. But others take it in an improper, as nearly equivalent with rewardable. Here, therefore, I no more contradict Mr. Fletcher than I do myself. Least of all do I plead, as Mr. H. roundly affirms, “for justification by the merit of my own good works.” (Page 52.) Of Marriage. 34. “Mr. W. says, his thoughts on a single life are just the same they have been these thirty years.” (I mean, with regard to the advantages which attend that state in general.) “Why then did he marry?” (Page 39.) I answered short, “For reasons best known to himself.” As much as to say, I judge it extremely impertinent for any but a superior to ask me the question. So the harmless raillery which Mr. H. pleases himself with upon this occasion may stand just as it is. Concerning Dress. 35. “Mr. W. advises his followers to ‘wear nothing of a glaring colour, nothing made in the height of the fashion,’ in order to “increase their reward, and brighten their crown in heaven.’ “Nevertheless, in his ‘Letter to a Quaker, he says, “To make it a point of conscience to differ from others, as to the shape and colour of their apparel, is mere superstition.’ “Yet he says, “So I advise; but I do not make it a point of conscience.’ It follows, that we are to increase our reward, and brighten our crown in heaven, by doing that which is mere superstition, and without acting from a point of conscience.” (Page 40.) I shall say more on this head than I otherwise would, in order to show every impartial reader, by one instance in a thousand, the manner wherein Mr. H. continually distorts and murders my words. In my “Advice to the People called Methodists,” I say, “I would not advise you to imitate the people called Quakers, in those particularities of dress which can answer no end but to distinguish you from all other people; but I advise you to imitate them in plainness. (1.) Let your apparel be cheap, not expensive. (2.) Let it be grave, not gay or showy; not in the point of the fashion. “Would you have a farther rule?