Wesley Corpus

or do we lessen the number of those that hear the pure word of God? Are then the hearers thereof (whether read or preached) fewer than they were in times past? Are the usual places of pub lic worship less frequented by means of our preaching? Wheresoever our lot has been cast for any time, are the churches emptier than they were before? Surely, none that has any regard left either for truth or modesty will say that in this point we are enemies to, or destroyers of, the Church. The Third thing requisite (if not to the being, at least) to the well-being of a Church, is the due administration of the sacraments, particularly that of the Lord’s supper. And are we, in this respect, underminers or destroyers of the Church? Do we, either by our example or advice, draw men away from the Lord’s table? Where we have laboured most, are there the fewest communicants? How does the fact stand in London, Bristol, Newcastle? Othat you would no longer shut your eyes against the broad light which encompasses you on every side 79. I believe you are sensible, by this time, not only how weak this objection is, but likewise how easy it would be terribly to retort every branch of it upon most of those that make it; whether we speak of true living faith, of preaching the pure word of God, or of the due administration of the sacraments, both of baptism and the Lord’s supper. But I spare you. It sufficeth that our God knoweth, and will make manifest in that day, whether it be by reason of us or you that “men abhor the offering of the Lord.” 80. Others object that we do not observe the laws of the Church, and thereby undermine it. What laws? the Rubrics or Canons? In every parish where I have been Curate yet, I have observed the Rubrics with a scrupulous exactness, not for wrath, but for conscience’ sake. And this, so far as belongs to an unbeneficed Minister, or to a private member of the Church, I do now. I will just mention a few of them, and leave you to consider which of us has observed, or does observe, them most.