Wesley Corpus

(6.) This very difficulty occurred : “Will not my speaking of this be boasting ? at least, will it not be accounted so ?” They replied, “If you speak of it as your own work, it will be vanity and boasting all over; but if you ascribe it wholly to God, if you give him all the praise, it will not. And if, after this, some will account it so still, you must be content, and bear the burden.” (7.) I yielded, and transcribed my papers for the press; only labouring, as far as possible, to “render unto God the things which are 'God's;” to give him the praise of his own work. 2. But this very thing you improve into a fresh objection. If I ascribe anything to God, it is enthusiasm. If I do not (or if I do) it is vanity and boasting, supposing me to mention it at all. What then can I do to escape your censure? “Why, be silent; say nothing at all.” I cannot, I dare not. Were I thus to please men, I could not be the servant of Christ. You do not appear to have the least idea or conception of what is in the heart of one whom it pleases Him that worketh all in all to employ in a work of this kind. He is in nowise forward to be at all employed therein; he starts back, again and again; not only because he readily foresees what shame, care, sorrow, reproach, what loss of friends, and of all that the world accounts dear, will inevitably follow; but much more, because he (in some measure) knows himself. This chiefly it is which constrains him to cry out, (and that many times, in the bitter ness of his soul, when no human eye seeth him,) “O Lord, send by whom thou wilt send, only send not me! What am I? A worm ! A dead dog!