AN EXTRACT OF THE REV. MR. JOHN WESLEY'S JOURNAL, FROM FEBRUARY 1, 1737-8, TO HIS RETURN FROM GERMANY. PREFACE. 1. THAT men revile me and say all manner of evil against me, that I am become as it were a monster unto many, that the zealous of almost every denomination cry out, "Away with such a fellow from the earth;" this gives me, with regard to myself, no degree of uneasiness; for I know the Scripture must be fulfilled, "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household ?”. 76 PREFACE. 4. If any should ask, "But do you think even this Church is perfect, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing?" I answer plainly, "No; though I trust it will be, when patience has had its perfect work." But neither do I think it right to entertain the world with the spots of God's children. 5. It has been further asked, no means. "Whether I imagine God is to be found only among them?" I reply, "By I know there is a God in England, and we need not go to seek him in strange lands." I know that in our own, he is very nigh unto all that call upon him; and therefore I think those unwise (to say no more) who run to inquire after him in Holland or Germany. 6. When I went, the case was widely different. God before us es fe 77 8. But about September, 1739, while my brother and I were absent, certain men crept in unawares, greatly troubling and subverting their souls; them among telling them, "They were in a delusion; that they had deceived themselves, and had no true faith at all. For (said they) none has any justifying faith, who has ever any doubt or fear, (which you know you have,) or who has not a clean heart, which you know you have not; nor will you ever have it, till you leave off using the means of grace, (so called,) till you leave off running to Church and Sacrament, and praying, and singing, and reading either the Bible, or any other book; for you cannot use these things without trusting in them. Therefore, till you leave them off, you can never have true faith; you can never till then trust in the blood of Christ." 9. And this doctrine from the hocinning. to this i |