Wesley Corpus

Or who among them is more ready to be offered up for their flock “upon the sacrifice and service of their faith ?” 74. Will ye say, (as the historian of Catiline,) Si sic pro patrid “If this were done in defence of the Church, and not in order to undermine and destroy it !” That is the very pro position I undertake to prove,--that we are now defending the Church, even the Church of England, in opposition to all those who either secretly undermine or more openly attempt to destroy it. 75. That we are Papists, (we who are daily and hourly preach ing that very doctrine which is so solemnly anathematized by the whole Church of Rome,) is such a charge that I dare not waste my time in industriously confuting it. Let any man of common sense only look on the title-pages of the sermons we have lately preached at Oxford, and he will need nothing moreto show him the weight of this senseless, shameless accusation;- unless he can suppose the Governors both of Christ Church and Lincoln College, nay, and all the University, to be Papists too. 76. You yourself can easily acquit us of this; but not of the other part of the charge. You still think we are secretly undermining, if not openly destroying, the Church. What do you mean by the Church? A visible Church (as our article defines it) is a company of faithful or believing people;--coetus credentium. This is the essence of a Church; and the propertiesthereofare, (as they are described in the words that follow,) “among whom the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered.” Now then, (according to this authentic account,) what is the Church of England? What is it indeed, but the faithful people, the true believers in England? It is true, if these are scattered abroad, they come under another consideration: But when they are visibly joined, by assembling together to hear the pure word of God preached, and to eat of one bread, and drink of one coup, they are then properly the visible Church of England. 77. It were well if this were a little more considered by those who so vehemently cry out, “The Church ! the Church !” (as those of old, “The temple of the Lord!