The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 03 (of 32)Wesley, John
Religion
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 03 (of 32)
Wesley, John
Methodist Church; Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- 18th century
5. *When you was under conviction, you durst not indulge the lust of
the eye in any degree. You would not do any thing, great or small,
merely to gratify your curiosity. You regarded only cleanliness and
necessity, or at most very moderate convenience, either in furniture
or apparel; superfluity and finery of whatever kind, as well as
fashionable elegance, were both a terror and an abomination to you.
*Are they so still? Is your conscience as tender now in these things,
as it was then? Do you still follow the same rule both in furniture and
apparel, trampling all finery, all superfluity, every thing useless,
every thing merely ornamental; however fashionable, under foot? Rather,
have you not resumed what you had once laid aside, and what you could
not then use without wounding your conscience? And have you not learned
to say, “O, I am not _so scrupulous_ now.” I would to God you were!
Then you would not _sin_ thus, _because you are not under the law, but
under grace_.
6. *You was once scrupulous too of commending any to their face, and
still more, of suffering any to commend _you_. It was a stab to your
heart: you could not bear it: you sought the honour that cometh of
God only. You could not endure such conversation: nor any conversation
which was not good, to the use of edifying. All idle talk, all trifling
discourse you abhorred: you hated as well as feared it, being deeply
sensible of the value of time, of every precious, fleeting moment. In
like manner, you dreaded and abhorred idle expence; valuing your money
only less than your time, and trembling lest you should be found an
unfaithful steward even of the mammon of unrighteousness.
Do you now look upon praise as deadly poison, which you can neither
give nor receive but at the peril of your soul? Do you still dread and
abhor all conversation, which does not tend to the use of edifying; and
labour to improve every moment, that it may not pass without leaving
you better than it found you? Are not you less careful as to the
expence both of money and time? Cannot you now lay out either, as you
could not have done once? Alas! How has that _which should have been
for your health, proved to you an occasion of falling_? How have you
_sinned, because you was not under the law, but under grace_!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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