Wesley Corpus

A Word to a Condemned Malefactor Source: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 11 (Zondervan) Author: John Wesley --- WHAT a condition are you in The sentence is passed; you are condemned to die; and this sentence is to be executed shortly | You have no way to escape; these fetters, these walls, these gates and bars, these keepers, cut of all hope: Therefore, die you must. But must you die like a beast, without thinking what it is to die? You need not; you will not; you will think a little first; you will consider, “What is death?” It is leaving this world, these houses, lands, and all things under the sun; leaving all these things, never to return; your place will know you no more. It is leaving these pleasures; for there is no eating, drinking, gaming, mo merriment in the grave. It is leaving your acquaintance, companions, friends; your father, mother, wife, children. You cannot stay with them, nor can they go with you; you must part; perhaps for ever. It is leaving a part of yourself; leaving this body which has accompanied you so long. Your soul must now drop its old companion, to rot and möulder into dust. It must cnter upon a new, strange, unbodied state. It must stand naked before God! 2. But, O, how will you stand before God; the great, the holy, the just, the terrible God? Is it not his own word, “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord?” No man shall see him with joy; rather, he will call for the mountains to fall upon him, and the rocks to cover him. And what do you think holiness is? It is purity both of heart and life. It is the mind that was in Christ, enabling us to walk as he also walked. It is the loving God with all our heart; the loving our neighbour, every man, as ourselves; and the doing to all men, in every point, as we would they should do unto us. The least part of holiness is to do good to all men, and to do no evil either in word or work. This is only the outside of it. But this is more than you have. You are far from it; far as darkness from light.