Wesley Collected Works Vol 8
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-wesley-collected-works-vol-8-565 |
| Words | 394 |
I expressly specify whom I design: “Ye who tell the
mourners in Zion, Much religion hath made you mad.” You
say, (5) (with a N. B.,) “All the Clergy who differ from you,
you style so, page 225; in which, and the foregoing page,
you causelessly slander them as speaking of their own holiness
as that for the sake of which, on account of which, we are justi
fied before God.”-
Let any serious person read over those pages. I therein
slander no man: I speak what I know; what I have both heard
and read. The men are alive, and the books are extant. And
the same conclusion I now defend, touching that part of the
Clergy who preach or write thus; viz., if they preach the truth
as it is in Jesus, I am found a false witness before God. But if
I preach the way of God in truth, then they are blind leaders
of the blind. (6.) You quote those words, “Nor can I be said
to intrude into the labours of those who do not labour at all,
but suffer thousands of those for whom Christ died to perish
for lack of knowledge.” (Vol. I. p. 214.) I wrote that letter
near Kingswood. I would to God the observation were not
terribly true! (7.) The first passage you cite from the “Earn
est Appeal,” (pages 25, 26) evidently relates to a few only
among the Clergy; and if the charge be true but of one in
five hundred, it abundantly supports my reasoning. (8.) In
the next, (Ibid. page 30,) I address all those, and those only,
who affirm that I preach for gain. You conclude: “The reader has now before him the manner
in which you have been pleased to treat the Clergy; and your
late sermon is too fresh an instance of the like usage of the
Universities.” (Second Letter, p. 107.) It is an instance of
speaking the truth in love. So I desire all mankind may use
me. Nor could I have said less either to the University or
the Clergy without sinning against God and my own soul. 11. But I must explain myself a little on that practice which
you so often term “abusing the Clergy.” I have many times
great sorrow and heaviness in my heart on account of these my
brethren.