The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 06 (of 32)Wesley, John
Religion
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 06 (of 32)
Wesley, John
Methodist Church; Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- 18th century
When it shall please God to dispose the hearts of all Christian princes,
entirely to destroy this anti-christian beast, and leave all their
subjects in that religious freedom which they have from God; then the
light of the gospel, the power of its ministers, the usefulness of
its rites, the benediction of its sacraments will have proper time
and place to shew themselves; and that religion which has the most of
a divine power in it, whose offices and services do most good to the
heart, whose ministers are most devoted to God, and have the most proof
of the presence of Christ with them, will become, as it ought, the most
universal. All that I have said on this matter, has been occasioned by
the Doctor’s appeal to vulgar prejudice; and is only to intimate, that
the greatest evil which the division of the church brings forth, is a
sectarian, selfish spirit, which with the orthodoxy of the _old Jews_,
would have God to be only their God, and themselves only, his chosen
people. If therefore we would be true Christians of the Catholic church,
we must put off this partiality of the carnal _Jew_; we must enter
into a Catholic affection for all men, love the spirit of the gospel
wherever we see it; not work ourselves up into an abhorrence of a
_George Fox_, or an _Ignatius Loyola_; but be equally glad of the
light of the gospel wherever it shines, or from whatever quarter it
comes; and give the same praise to God for an eminent example of piety,
wherever it appears, either in Papist or Protestant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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