Wesley Corpus

“Indeed I was.” In what? In the knowledge and love of God. 5. And if you have now the same knowledge and love of God, does it not answer the same end? Will not the same cause still produce the same effect? If, therefore, you are not happy now, is it not because you have not that intercourse with God which you then had? And are you seeking to supply the want of that intercourse by the enjoyment of a creature? You imagine that near connexion with a woman will make amends for distance from God! Have you so learned Christ? Has your expe rience taught you no better than this? 6. You were happy once; you knew you were; happy in God, without being beholden to any creature. You did not need Love's all-sufficient sea to raise With drops of creature-happiness. And is it wise to seek it now anywhere else than where you found it before? You have not the same excuse with those who never were happy in God. And how little is the seeking it in any creature better than idolatry ! Is it not, in effect, loving the creature more than the Creator? Does it not imply that you are “a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God?” 7. O return to Him that made you happy before, and He will make you happy again. Repeat your prayer, “Keep me dead to all below; Only Christ resolved to know : Firm, and disengaged, and free; Seeking all my bliss in thee!” Seek, accept of nothing in the room of, God. Let all the springs of your happiness be in him. “Seek first,” just as you did before, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness;” the knowledge and love of God; “fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ;” “and all other things shall be added unto you;” particularly joy in the Holy Ghost. Again,-- Know God, and teach thy soul to know The joys that from religion flow : Then every grace shall be thy guest, And peace be there to crown the rest. L1s BURN, June 11, 1785.