Wesley Corpus

But, to carry the matter a little farther, I am afraid it will hold, on the other hand, with regard to the soul as well as the body, Medicus non est qui non medetur. I am afraid reasonable men will be inclined to think, “he that saves no souls is no Minister of Christ.’ “12. ‘O but he is ordained, and therefore has authority.’ “Authority to do what? “To save all the souls that will put themselves under his care.’ True; but (to wave the case of them that will not; and would you desire that even those should perish 7) he does not, in fact, save them that are under his care: Therefore, what end does his authority serve? He that was a drunkard, is a drunkard still. The same is true of the Sabbath-breaker, the thief, the common swearer. This is the best of the case; for many have died in their iniquity, and their blood will God require at the watchman’s hand. “13. For surely he has no authority to murder souls; either by his neglect, by his smooth, if not false, doctrine, or by hindering another from plucking them out of the fire and bringing them to life everlasting. “14. If he either attempts or desires to hinder him, if he condemns or is displeased with him for it, how great reason is there to fear, that he regards his own profit more than the salvation of souls l’’ 11. “But why do you not prove your mission by miracles?” This likewise you repeat over and over. But I have not leisure to answer the same stale objection an hundred times. I there fore give this also the same answer which I gave many years ago : 12. “What is it you would have us prove by miracles? that the doctrines we preach are true? This is not the way to prove that: We prove the doctrines we preach by Scripture and reason. Is it, (1.) That A. B. was for many years without God in the world, a common swearer, a Sabbath-breaker, a drunkard? Or, (2.) That he is not so now? Or, (3.) That he continued so till he heard us preach, and from that time was another man? Not so; the proper way to prove these facts, is by the testimony of competent witnesses.