87. But perhaps you have heard, that “we in truth regard no church at all: that gain is the true spring of all our actions: that I, in particular, am well paid for my work, having thirteen hundred pounds a year (as a reverend author accurately computes it) at the _Foundery_ alone, over and above what I receive from _Bristol_, _Kingswood_, _Newcastle_, and other places: and that whoever survives me, will see I have made good use of my time; for I shall not die a beggar.” 88. I freely own, this is one of the best devised objections, which has ever yet been made; because it not only puts us upon proving a negative, (which is seldom an easy task) but also one of such a kind as scarce admits of any demonstrative proof at all. But for such proof as the nature of the thing allows, I appeal to my manner of life which hath been from the beginning. Ye who have seen it (and not with a friendly eye) for these twelve or fourteen years last past, or for any part of that time, Have ye ever seen any thing like the love of gain therein? Did I not continually remember the words of the Lord Jesus, “_It is more blessed to give than to receive_?” Ye of _Oxford_, Do ye not know these things are so? What gain did I seek among you? Of whom did I take any thing? From whom did I covet silver, or gold, or apparel? To whom did I deny any thing which I had, even to the hour that I departed from you?――Ye of _Epworth_ and _Wroote_, among whom I ministered for (nearly) the space of three years, what gain did I seek among you? Or of whom did I take or covet any thing?――Ye of _Savannah_ and _Frederica_, among whom God afterwards proved me, and shewed me what was in my heart, what gain did I seek among you? Of whom did I take any thing? Or whose food or apparel did I covet (for silver or gold had ye none, no more than I myself for many months) even when I was in hunger and nakedness? Ye yourselves, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, know that I lie not. 89. “But (it is said) things are fairly altered now. Now I can’t complain of wanting any thing; having the yearly income of a bishop in _London_, over and above what I gain at other places.” At what other places, my friend? Inform yourself a little better, and you will find, that both at _Newcastle_, _Bristol_, and _Kingswood_, and all other places, where any collection is made) the money collected is both received and expended by the stewards of those several societies, and never comes into my hands at all, neither first nor last. And you, or any who desire it, shall read over the accounts kept by any of those stewards, and see with your own eyes, that by all these societies I gain just as much as you do.