Wesley Corpus

They prophesy lies in my name, saith the Lord. They say unto them that despise me, Ye shall have peace; and unto them that walk after the imagi nation of their own heart, No evil shall come upon you.” How great will your damnation be, who destroy souls, instead of saving them ! Where will you appear, or how will you stand, “in that great and terrible day of the Lord?” How will ye lift up your head, when the Lord “descends from heaven in flaming fire, to take vengeance on his adversaries;” more especially on those who have so betrayed his cause, and done Satan’s work under the banner of Christ? With what voice wilt thou say, “Behold me, Lord, and the sheep whom thou hadst given me, whom I gave to the devil, and told them they were in the way to heaven, till they dropped into hell!” Were they not just such shepherds of souls as you are, con cerning whom God spake by Jeremiah,-‘‘Many Pastors have destroyed my vineyard; they have trodden my portion under foot; they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilder mess?” by Ezekiel,--“There is a conspiracy of her Prophets; like a roaring lion ravening the prey, they have devoured souls?” and by Zechariah,-“Thus saith the Lord, Feed the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not?” 37. Is not this the real ground, the principal reason, of the present contempt of the Clergy? And long since was it assigned as such by Him who cannot lie. The same men of old, who “made the Lord’s people to transgress,” thereby “made themselves vile.” They were despised, both as the natural effect, and the judicial punishment, of their wickedness.