"He is one who lives by the altar, and turns his back upon it; one, who catches at the preferments of the church, but hates the discipline and orders of it; one, who practises conformity, as Papists take oaths and tests, that is, with an inward abhorrence of what he does for the present, and a resolution to act quite contrary, when occasion serves; one who, during his conformity, will be sure to be known by such a distinguishing badge, as shall point him out to, and secure his credit with, the dissenting brotherhood; one who still declines reading the churchservice, himself, leaving that work to curates or readers, thereby to keep up a profitable interest with thriving s ditious tradesmen, and groaning, ignorant, but rich widows; one who, in the midst of his conformity, thinks of a turn of state, which may draw on one the church too; and accordingly is very careful to behave himself so as not to over-shoot his game, but to stand right and fair in case a wished for change should bring fanaticism again into fashion; which it is more than possible that he secretly desires, and does the utmost he can to promote and bring about. "These, and the like, are the principles which act and govern the conforming Puritan; who in a word is nothing else but ambition, avarice, and hypocrisy, serving all the real interests of schism and faction in the church's livery. And therefore if there be any one who has the front to own himself a minister of our church, to whom the foregoing character may be justly applied, (as I fear there are but too many,) howsoever such an one may for some time sooth up and flatter himself in his detestable dissimu lation; yet when he shall hear of such and such of his neighbours, his parishioners, or acquaintance, gone over from the church to conventicles, of several turned Quakers, and of others fallen off to Popery; and lastly, when the noise of those national dangers and disturbances, which are every day threatening us, shall ring about his ears, let him then lay his hand upon his false heart, and with all seriousness of remorse accusing himself to God and bis in own conscience, say, I am the person, who by my conforming by halves, and by my treacherous prevaricating with the duty of my profession, so sacredly promised, and so solemnly sworn to, have brought a reproach upon the purest and best constituted church in the Christian world; it is I, who by slighting and slumbering over her holy service and sacraments, have scandalized and cast a stumbling-block before all the neighbourhood, to the great danger of their souls; I who have been the occasion of this man's faction, that man's Quakerism, and another's Popery; and thereby, to the utmost of my power, contributed to those dismal convulsions which have so terribly shook and weakened both church and state. Let such a mocker of God and man, I say, take his share of all this horrid guilt; for both heaven and earth will lay it at his door, as the general result of his actions; it is all absolutely his own, and will stick faster and closer to him, than to be thrown off, and laid aside by him, as easily as his surplice.". - Vol. v. p. 486. NOTE XXXVI. Page 345. These effects were public and undeniable. "O!" says good old Thomas Adams, "how hard and obdurate is the heart of man, till the rain of the Gospel falls on it! Is the heart covetous? no tears from distressed eyes can melt a penny out of it. Is it malicious? no supplications can beg forbearance of the least wrong. Is it given to drunkenness? you may melt his body into a dropsy, before his heart into sobriety. Is it ambitious? you may as well treat with Lucifer about humiliation. Is it factious? a quire of angels cannot sing him into peace. No means on earth can soften the heart; whether you anoint it with the supple balms of entreaties; or thunder against it the bolts of menaces; or beat it with the hammer of mortal blows. Behold God showers this rain of the Gospel from Heaven, and it is suddenly softened. One sermon may prick him to the heart. One drop of a Saviour's blood, distilled on it by the Spirit, in the preaching of the word, melts him like wax. The drunkard is made sober, the adulterer chaste; Zaccheus merciful, and raging Paul as tame as a lamb." Adams's Divine Herball, p. 16. NOTE XXXVII. Page 353. Dialogue between Wesley and Zinzendorf. THIS Curious dialogue must be given in the original. W. Nescio me religionem meam mutásse. Cur id sentis? Quis hoc tibi retulit? Z. Planè tu. Id ex epistola tua ad nos video. Ibi, religione, quam apud nos professus es, relictá, novam profiteris. W. Qui sic? Non intelligo. Z. Imò, istic dicis, verè Christianos non esse miseros peccatores. Falsissimum. Optimi hominum ad mortem usque miserabilissimi sunt peccatores. Siqui aliud dicunt, vel penitùs impostores sunt, vel diabolicè seducti. Nostros fratres meliora docentes impugnásti. Et pacem volentibus, eam denegásti. W. Nondum intelligo quid velis. Z. Ego, cum ex Georgia ad me scripsisti, te dilexi plurimum. Tum corde simplicem, te agnovi. Iterum scripsisti. Agnovi corde simplicem, sed turbatis ideis. Ad nos venisti. Ideæ tuæ tum magis turbatæ erant et confusæ. In Angliam rediisti. Aliquandiu post, audivi fratres nostros tecum pugnare. Spangenbergium misi ad pacem inter vos conciliandam. Scripsit mihi, fratres tibi injuriam intulisse. Rescripsi, ne pergerent, sed et veniam à te peterent. Spangenberg scripsit iterum, eos petiisse: sed te, gloriari de iis, pacem nolle. Jam adveniens, idem audio. W. Res in eo cardine minimè vertitur. Fratres tui (verum hoc) me male tractárunt. Posteà veniam petierunt. Respondi, id supervacaneum ; me nunquam iis, succensuisse sed vereri, 1. Ne falsa docerent, 2. Ne prave viverent. Ista unica, est, et fuit, inter nos quæstio. Z. Apertius loquaris. W. Veritus sum, ne falsa docerent, 1. De fine fidei nostræ (in hac vitá) scil. Christianá perfectione, 2. De Mediis gratiæ, sic ab Ecclesiá nostrá dictis. Z. Nullam inhærentem perfectionem in hac vitá agnosco. Est hic error errorum. Eam per totum orbem igne et gladio persequor, conculco, ad internecionem do. Christus est sola perfectio nostra. Qui perfectionem inhærentem sequitur, Christum denegat. W. Ego vero credo, Spiritum Christi operari perfectionem in verè Christianis. Z. Nullimodo. Omnis nostra perfectio est in Christo. Omnis Christiana perfectio est, fides in sanguine Christi. Est tota Christiana perfectio, imputata, non inhærens. Perfecti sumus in Christo, in nobismet nunquam perfecti. Nonne omnis verè W. Pugnamus, opinor, de verbis. credens sanctus est? Z. Maximè. Sed sanctus in Christo, non in se. W. Sed, nonne sanctè vivit ? Z. Imò, sanctè in omnibus vivit. W. Nonne et cor sanctum habet? Z. Certissimè. W. Nonne ex consequenti, sanctus est in se ? Z. Non, non. In Christo tantúm. Non sanctus in se. Nullam omnino habet sanctitatem in se. W. Nonne habet in corde suo amorem Dei et proximi, quin et totam imaginem Dei? Z. Habet. Sed hæc sunt sanctitas legalis, non evangelica. Sanctitas evangelica est fides. W. Omnino lis est de verbis. Concedis, credentis cor totum esse sanctum et vitam totam: eum amare Deum toto corde, eique servire totis viribus. Nihil ultrà peto. Nil aliud volo per perfectio vel sanctitas Christiana. Z. Sed hæc non est sanctitas ejus. Non magis sanctus est, si magis amat, neque minas sanctus, si minus amat. W. Quid? Nonne credens, dum crescit in amore, crescit pariter in sanctitate? Z. Nequaquam. Er momento quo justificatur, sanclif catur penitùs. Exin, neque magis sanctus est, neque minùs sanctus, ad mortem usque. W. Nonne igitur pater in Christo sanctior est infante recens nato? Z. Non. Sanctificatio totalis ac justificatio in eodum sunt instanti; et neutra recipit magis aut minùs. W. Nonne verò credens crescit indies amore Dei? Num perfectus est amore simulac justificatur ? Z. Est. Non unquam crescit in amore Dei. Totaliter amat eo momento, sicut totalitèr sanctificatur. W. Quid itaque vult Apostolus Paulus, per "renovamur de die in diem ?" Z. Dicam. Plumbum si in aurum mutetur, est aurum primo die et secundo et tertio. Et sic renovatur de die in diem. Sed nunquam est magis aurum, quam primo die. W. Putavi, crescendum esse in gratiá! Z. Certè. Sed non in sanctitate. Simulac justificatur quis, Pater, Filius et Spiritus sanctus habitant in ipsius corde. Et cor ejus eo momento æquè purum est ac unquam erit. Infans in Christo tam purus corde est quam pater in Christo. Nulla est discrepantia. W. Nonne justificati erant Apostoli ante Christi mortem? Z. Erant. W. Nonne vero sanctiores erant post diem Pentecostes, quàm ante Christi mortem ? Z. Neutiquam. W. Nonne eo die impleti sunt Spiritu Sancto? Z. Sunt. Sed istud donum spiritus, sanctitatem ipsorum non respexit. Fuit donum miraculorum tantùm. W. Fortasse te non capio. Nonne nos ipsos abneganies, magis magisque mundo morimur, ac Deo vivimus? Z. Abnegationem omnem respuimus, conculcamus. Facimus credentes omne quod volumus et nihil ultrà. Mortificationem omnem ridemus. Nulla purificatio præcedit perfectum amorem. W. Qua dixisti Deo adjuvante perpendam. |