Wesley Corpus

Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost.--And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field. Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.” I conjure you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, who hath bought them and us with his own blood, apply this each to his own soul. Let every man look unto God, and say, “Lord, is it I? Am I one of these idle, careless, indolent shepherds, that feed myself, not the fock? Am I one that cannot bark, slothful, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber? one of those who have not strength ened that which was diseased, neither healed that which was sick? “Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins :and my heart. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ 36. “Have I not, at least, “healed the hurt of thy people slightly?’ Have I not said, “Peace, peace, when there was no peace?’”--How many are they also that do this? who do not study to speak what is true, especially to the rich and great, so much as what is pleasing? who flatter honourable sinners, in stead of telling them plain, “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?” O, what an account have you to make, if there be a God that judgeth the earth? Will he not require at your hands the blood of all these souls, of whom “ye are the betrayers and murderers?” Well spake the Prophets of your fathers, in whose steps ye now tread: “They have seduced my people; and one built up a wall, and another daubed it with untempered mortar. They strengthen the hands of the evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They prophesy lies in my name, saith the Lord.