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Sermon 74: Of the Church

https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon074

03:045 An Introductory Comment [to Sermon 74]

Wesley spent the month of September 1785 in and around Bristol. This was the year after the Deed of Declaration and after Wesley’s ‘ordinations’ of Coke, Whatcoat, and Vasey for their ministries in America. The Deed and the ordinations had been widely taken, not without reason, as portents of separation from the Church of England,

Cf. Frank Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, chs. 13-16.

despite Wesley’s oft-repeated disavowals of all such intentions. Indeed, the Journal entry for Sunday, September 4, tells us of his reaction to this continuing suspicion: ‘Finding a report had been spread abroad that I was going to leave the Church, to satisfy those that were grieved concerning it, I openly declared in the evening that I had now no more thought of separating from the Church than I had forty years ago.’

JWJ, Sept. 4-30, 1785.

He went beyond the ‘open declaration’; he began to write this sermon, ‘Of the Church,’ the first written summary of his ecclesiology. It was finished on September 28, and published in the Arminian Magazine for the following January and February (1786), IX.8-15, 71-75, without a title but numbered as ‘Sermon XXXI.’ Tyerman omits it from his list of Wesley’s ‘original sermons [for the year 1785] which are well worth reading’ (Life of Wesley, III.470). Wesley’s reasons for its particular placement in SOSO, VI.171-90, can only be conjectured. It was not reprinted in his lifetime.

One is bound to be impressed by Wesley’s wholly unselfconscious assumption that, even after all he had done that would inevitably lead to separation, he was, and always had been, a devoted and loyal Anglican. He speaks quite naturally of ‘our [Anglican] liturgy’, as when he cites the eucharistic prayer ‘for the whole state of Christ’s church militant here on earth’ (§5). His personal definition of church (§14) is, or so he claims, ‘exactly agreeable to the nineteenth article of our church’ (§16), although he feels free to interpret this article more comprehensively than its authors had ever intended.

So as, e.g., §§17-19, to include in ‘the church’ all true believers among the Dissenting churches, and even those in the Church of Rome.

However, his final conclusions are 03:046neither Anglican, Lutheran, nor Calvinist. The essence of the church, for Wesley, need not be sought in its visible institutions, not even some invisible numerus electorum. The church as Body of Christ is the company of all true believers, ‘holy’ because its members are themselves holy (§28). This is, therefore, an unstable blend of Anglican and Anabaptist ecclesiologies; it is also one of Wesley’s more daring syntheses. Its outworkings in the subsequent histories of Methodist and Anglican ecclesiology have yet to be probed as deeply as they deserve, which is also to say that its ecumenical significance has yet to be fully appreciated.

Of the Church

Ephesians 4:1-6

I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

11. How much do we almost continually hear about the Church! With many it is matter of daily conversation. And yet how few understand what they talk of! How few know what the term means! A more ambiguous word than this, the ‘church’, is scarce to be found in the English language. It is sometimes taken for a building set apart for public worship, sometimes for a congregation or body of people united together in the service of God. It is only in the latter sense that it is taken in the ensuing discourse.

22. It may be taken indifferently for any number of people, how small or great soever. As ‘where two or three are met together in his name’,

Cf. Matt. 18:20.

there is Christ; so (to speak with St. Cyprian) ‘where two or three believers are met together, there is a church.’

Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church, xii (Fathers of the Church, New York, 1947, XXXVI.107; cf. also Ancient Christian Writers, London, 1957, 25:54-55).

Thus 03:047it is that St. Paul, writing to Philemon, mentions ‘the church which is in his house’;

Philem. 2; cf. Col. 4:15.

plainly signifying that even a Christian family may be termed a church.

33. Several of those whom God had ‘called out’ of the world (so the original word properly signifies),

Wesley here assumes the lexical kinship of κλήσεως ἐκλήθητε (Eph. 4:1) and ἐκκλησία with their common verbal root, καλέω. But see K. L. Schmidt, ‘ἐκκλησία’ in Gerhard Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament; cf. ‘καλέω’, ibid.

united together in one congregation, formed a larger church: as the church at Jerusalem, that is, all those in Jerusalem whom God had so called. But considering how swiftly these were multiplied after the day of Pentecost, it cannot be supposed that they could continue to assemble in one place; especially as they had not then any large place, neither would they have been permitted to build one. In consequence they must have divided themselves, even at Jerusalem, into several distinct congregations. In like manner, when St. Paul several years after wrote to the church in Rome (directing his letter ‘to all that are in Rome, called to be saints’)

Rom. 1:7.

it cannot be supposed that they had any one building capable of containing them all; but they were divided into several congregations, assembling in several parts of the city.

44. The first time that the Apostle uses the word ‘church’ is in his preface to the former Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, unto the church of God which is at Corinth’; the meaning of which expression is fixed by the following words, ‘to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, with all that in every place’ (not Corinth only; so it was a kind of circular letter) ‘call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both yours and ours’.

Cf. 1 Cor. 1:1-2.

In the inscription of his second letter to the Corinthians he speaks still more explicitly: ‘Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints that are in all Achaia’.

2 Cor. 1:1.

Here he plainly includes all the churches or Christian congregations which were in the whole province.

55. He frequently uses the word in the plural number. So Gal. 1:2:’Paul, an apostle, …unto the churches of Galatia’—that is, the Christian congregations dispersed throughout that country. In all these places (and abundantly more might be cited) the word church or churches means, not the buildings where the 03:048Christians assembled (as it frequently does in the English tongue) but the people that used to assemble there—one or more Christian congregations. But sometimes the word ‘church’ is taken in Scripture in a still more extensive meaning, as including all the Christian congregations that are upon the face of the earth. And in this sense we understand it in our liturgy

Note this unselfconscious citation of the BCP as ‘our’.

when we say, ‘Let us pray for the whole state of Christ’s church militant here on earth.’

‘The Prayer for the Church’ in the BCP, Communion.

In this sense it is unquestionably taken by St. Paul in his exhortation to the elders of Ephesus, ‘Take heed to the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.’

Acts 20:28.

The ‘church’ here undoubtedly means the catholic or universal church, that is, all the Christians under heaven.

66. Who those are that are properly ‘the church of God’ the Apostle shows at large, and that in the clearest and most decisive manner, in the passage above cited; wherein he likewise instructs all the members of the church how to ‘walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called’.

Cf. Eph. 4:1.

7[I.]

Wesley’s basic division of this sermon is by consecutively numbered sections, but he apparently intended to introduce a parallel numbering of three major divisions, prefixing ‘II’ to §20, which would imply an omitted ‘I’ at this point and ‘III’ at §27.

7. Let us consider, first, who are properly ‘the church of God’? What is the true meaning of that term? ‘The church at Ephesus’, as the Apostle himself explains it, means, ‘the saints’, the holy persons, ‘that are in Ephesus’,

Eph. 1:1.

and there assemble themselves together to worship God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ—whether they did this in one, or (as we may probably suppose) in several places. But it is the church in general, the catholic or universal church, which the Apostle here considers as ‘one body’; comprehending not only the Christians ‘in the house of Philemon’,

Cf. Philem 2.

or any one family; not only the Christians of one congregation, of one city, of one province or nation; but all the persons upon the face of the earth who answer the character here given. The several particulars contained therein we may now more distinctly consider.

88. ‘There is one Spirit’ who animates all these, all the living 03:049members of the church of God. Some understand hereby the Holy Spirit himself, the fountain of all spiritual life. And it is certain, ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.’

Rom. 8:9.

Others understand it of those spiritual gifts and holy dispositions which are afterward mentioned.

99. ‘There is’, in all those that have received this Spirit, ‘one hope’, a hope full of immortality.

Wisd. 3:4; cf. No. 72, ‘Of Evil Angels’, II.4 and n. Also note the echoes here of the older debates between the Quakers and the Anglicans.

They know, to die is not to be lost: their prospect extends beyond the grave. They can cheerfully say, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.’

1 Pet. 1:3-4.

1010. ‘There is one Lord’ who has now dominion over them, who has set up his kingdom in their hearts, and reigns over all those that are partakers of this hope. To obey him, to run the way of his commandments, is their glory and joy. And while they are doing this with a willing mind they, as it were, ‘sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus’.

Cf. Eph. 2:6.

1111. ‘There is one faith,’ which is the free gift of God, and is the ground of their hope. This is not barely the faith of a heathen;

For Wesley’s categories of faith, see No. 1, Salvation by Faith, I.2 and n.

namely, a belief that ‘there is a God’, and that he is gracious and just, and consequently ‘a rewarder of them that diligently seek him’.

Heb. 11:6.

Neither is it barely the faith of a devil; though this goes much farther than the former. For the devil believes, and cannot but believe, all that is written both in the Old and New Testament to be true. But it is the faith of St. Thomas, teaching him to say with holy boldness, ‘My Lord and my God.’

John 20:28.

It is the faith which enables every true Christian believer to testify with St. Paul, ‘The life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’

Cf. Gal. 2:20.

1212. ‘There is one baptism,’ which is the outward sign our one Lord has been pleased to appoint of all that inward and spiritual grace which he is continually bestowing upon his church. It is likewise a precious means whereby this faith and hope are given to those that diligently seek him. Some indeed have been inclined 03:050to interpret this in a figurative sense, as if it referred to that baptism of the Holy Ghost which the apostles received at the day of Pentecost, and which in a lower degree is given to all believers.

An allusion to the views of Quakers and pentecostalists who had either rejected sacramental baptism or had claimed that ‘the baptism of the Spirit’ superseded it.

But it is a stated rule in interpreting Scripture never to depart from the plain, literal sense, unless it implies an absurdity.

For an earlier version of this basic hermeneutical principle, see No. 21, ‘Sermon on the Mount, I’, §6 and n.

And beside, if we thus understood it, it would be a needless repetition, as being included in, ‘There is one spirit.’

1313. ‘There is one God and Father of all’ that have the Spirit of adoption, which ‘crieth in their hearts, Abba, Father’;

Cf. Gal. 4:6.

which ‘witnesseth’ continually ‘with their spirits’

Cf. Rom. 8:16.

that they are the children of God; ‘who is above all’—the Most High, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Governor of the whole universe. ‘And through all’—pervading all space, filling heaven and earth:

Totam

Mens agitans molem, et magno se corpore miscens.

Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, vi.726-27:

Totamque infusa per artus

Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.

The all-informing soul,

That fills, pervades, and actuates the whole.

Cf. also Nos. 77, ‘Spiritual Worship’, I.6; 118, ‘On the Omnipresence of God’, II.1; An Earnest Appeal, §19 (11:51 in this edn.); and The Doctrine of Original Sin, Pt. I, I.13.

‘And in you all’—in a peculiar manner living in you that are one body by one spirit:

Making your souls his loved abode,

The temples of indwelling God.

Cf. Charles Wesley, ‘Groaning for the Spirit of Adoption’, in John and Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), p. 132 (Poet. Wks., I.308).

1414. Here then is a clear unexceptionable answer to that question, What is the church? The catholic or universal church is all the persons in the universe whom God hath so called out of the world as to entitle them to the preceding character; as to be ‘one body’, united by ‘one spirit’; having ‘one faith, one hope, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in them all.’

15 03:05115. That part of this great body, of the universal church, which inhabits any one kingdom or nation, we may properly term a ‘national’ church, as the Church of France, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland. A smaller part of the universal church are the Christians that inhabit one city or town, as the church of Ephesus, and the rest of the seven churches mentioned in the Revelation. Two or three Christian believers united together are a church in the narrowest sense of the word. Such was the church in the house of Philemon, and that in the house of Nymphas, mentioned Col. 4:15. A particular church may therefore consist of any number of members, whether two or three, or two or three millions. But still, whether it be larger or smaller, the same idea is to be preserved. They are one body, and have one Spirit, one Lord, one hope, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

1616. This account is exactly agreeable to the nineteenth Article of our Church, the Church of England—only the Article includes a little more than the Apostle has expressed.

“Of the Church
The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered.”

The first half of the first sentence of Art. XIX which, in turn, had been borrowed from Art. VIII of the Augsburg Confession (1530).

It may be observed that at the same time our Thirty-nine Articles were compiled and published a Latin translation of them was published by the same authority. In this the words were coetus credentium,

An interesting conflation here. The Latin text of the Article (1517) reads coetus fidelium; but in Art. VIII of the Augsburg Confession the church is defined as a congregatio sanctorum et vere credentium. For evidence that Wesley preferred his conflated phrase, see An Earnest Appeal, §76 (11:77 in this edn.); see also his letter to his brother Charles, Aug. 19, 1785. For the official texts of the Confession and of the Articles, see Philip Schaff, Creeds, III.3-73, 486-516.

‘a congregation of believers’, plainly showing that by ‘faithful men’

This is English for fidelium. Thus, it would seem that Wesley had both the Anglican Article and the Lutheran Confession somehow conflated in his mind.

the compilers meant men endued with ‘living faith’.

The official texts (as in Arts. XII and XXIX) read ‘lively’ for ‘living’, as does ‘A Catechism’ in the BCP. ‘The Prayer for the Church’ in the Order of Holy Communion refers to God’s ‘true and lively Word’.

This brings the Article to a still nearer agreement to the account given by the Apostle.

But it may be doubted whether the Article speaks of a 03:052particular church or of the church universal. The title, ‘Of the Church’, seems to have reference to the catholic church. But the second clause of the Article mentions the particular churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. Perhaps it was intended to take in both—so to define the universal church as to keep in view the several particular churches of which it is composed.

1717. These things being considered, it is easy to answer that question, What is ‘the Church of England’? It is that part, those members, of the universal church, who are inhabitants of England. The Church of England is that ‘body’ of men in England in whom ‘there is one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith’, which have ‘one baptism’, and ‘one God and Father of all’. This and this alone is the Church of England, according to the doctrine of the Apostle.

1818. But the definition of a church laid down in the Article includes not only this but much more, by that remarkable addition, ‘in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered’. According to this definition those congregations in which the pure Word of God (a strong expression) is not preached are no parts either of the Church of England or the church catholic. As neither are those in which the sacraments are not duly administered.

1919. I will not undertake to defend the accuracy of this definition. I dare not exclude from the church catholic all those congregations in which any unscriptural doctrines which cannot be affirmed to be ‘the pure Word of God’ are sometimes, yea, frequently preached. Neither all those congregations in which the sacraments are not ‘duly administered’. Certainly if these things are so the Church of Rome is not so much as a part of the catholic church; seeing therein neither is ‘the pure Word of God’ preached nor the sacraments ‘duly administered’. Whoever they are that have ‘one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of all’, I can easily bear with their holding wrong opinions, yea, and superstitious modes of worship. Nor would I on these accounts scruple still to include them within the pale of the catholic church. Neither would I have any objection to receive them, if they desired it, as members of the Church of England.

An echo of the same point about theological opinions already made in No. 39, ‘Catholic Spirit’, passim. For Wesley’s pluralism and vision of ‘comprehension’ cf. No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, I.6 and n.

20 03:053II.

See §7 above n. 11, p. 48.

20. We proceed now to the second point. What is it to ‘walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called’?

It should always be remembered that the word ‘walk’ in the language of the Apostle is of a very extensive signification. It includes all our inward and outward motions, all our thoughts, and words, and actions. It takes in not only everything we do, but everything we either speak or think. It is therefore no small thing to walk, in this sense of the word, ‘worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called’—to think, speak, and act, in every instance in a manner worthy of our Christian calling.

2121. We are called to walk, first, ‘with all lowliness’; to have that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus,

See Phil. 2:5.

not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think,

See Rom. 12:3.

to be little, and poor, and mean, and vile in our own eyes; to know ourselves as also we are known

See 1 Cor. 13:12.

by him to whom all hearts are open;

BCP, Communion, Collect for Purity.

to be deeply sensible of our own unworthiness, of the universal depravity of our nature (in which dwelleth no good thing

Rom. 7:18.

), prone to all evil, averse to all good, insomuch that we are not only sick but dead in trespasses and sins,

Eph. 2:1.

till God breathes upon the dry bones,

See Ezek. 37:1-10.

and creates life by the fruit of his lips.

See Isa. 57:19.

And suppose this is done, suppose he has now quickened us, infusing life into our dead souls; yet how much of the carnal mind remains! How prone is our heart still to depart from the living God! What a tendency to sin remains in our heart, although we know our past sins are forgiven!

An echo of the problem of the residue of sin in believers; cf. No. 13, On Sin in Believers, intro., I.6, III. 1-9, and n.

And how much sin, in spite of all our endeavours, cleaves both to our words and actions! Who can be duly sensible how much remains in him of his natural enmity to God? Or how far he is still alienated from God by the ignorance that is in him?

See Eph. 4:18.

2222. Yea, suppose God has now thoroughly cleansed our heart, and scattered the last remains of sin; yet how can we be sensible enough of our own helplessness, our utter inability to all good, unless we are every hour, yea, every moment, endued with power from on high? Who is able to think one good thought, or to form one good desire, unless by that Almighty power which worketh in 03:054us both to will and to do of his good pleasure?

See Phil. 2:13.

We have need even in this state of grace to be thoroughly and continually penetrated with a sense of this. Otherwise we shall be in a perpetual danger of robbing God of his honour, by glorying in something we have received as though we had not received it.

2323. When our inmost soul is thoroughly tinctured therewith, it remains that we be ‘clothed with humility’.

1 Pet. 5:5.

The word used by St. Peter seems to imply that we be covered with it as with a surtout;

A French loanword already defined by Johnson, Dictionary, as ‘a large coat worn over all the rest’—which is to say, a mantle, as here.

that we be all humility, both within and without, tincturing all we think, speak, and do. Let all our actions spring from this fountain; let all our words breathe this spirit; that all men may know we have been with Jesus, and have learned of him to be lowly in heart.

2424. And being taught of him who was meek as well as lowly in heart,

See Matt. 11:29.

we shall then be enabled to ‘walk with all meekness’, being taught of him who teacheth as never man taught,

See John 7:46.

to be meek as well as lowly in heart. This implies not only a power over anger, but over all violent and turbulent passions. It implies the having all our passions in due proportion; none of them either too strong or too weak, but all duly balanced with each other, all subordinate to reason; and reason directed by the Spirit of God. Let this equanimity govern your whole souls, that your thoughts may all flow in an even stream, and the uniform tenor of your words and actions be suitable thereto. In this patience you will then ‘possess your souls’,

Cf. Luke 21:19.

which are not our own while we are tossed by unruly passions. And by this all men may know that we are indeed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus.

2525. Walk with all long-suffering. This is nearly related to meekness, but implies something more. It carries on the victory already gained over all your turbulent passions, notwithstanding all the powers of darkness, all the assaults of evil men or evil spirits. It is patiently triumphant over all opposition, and unmoved though all the waves and storms thereof go over you. Though provoked ever so often, it is still the same, quiet and unshaken; never being ‘overcome of evil, but overcoming evil with good’.

Cf. Rom. 12:21.

26 03:05526. The ‘forbearing one another in love’ seems to mean not only the not resenting anything, and the not avenging yourselves; not only the not injuring, hurting, or grieving each other, either by word or deed; but also the bearing one another’s burdens;

See Gal. 6:2.

yea, and lessening them by every means in our power. It implies the sympathizing with them in their sorrows, afflictions, and infirmities; the bearing them up when without our help they would be liable to sink under their burdens; the endeavouring to lift their sinking heads, and to strengthen their feeble knees.

See Job 4:4.

27[III.]

See §7, above.

27. Lastly: the true members of the church of Christ ‘endeavour’, with all possible diligence, with all care and pains, with unwearied patience (and all will be little enough), ‘to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’; to preserve inviolate the same spirit of lowliness and meekness, of long-suffering, mutual forbearance and love; and all these cemented and knit together by that sacred tie, the peace of God filling the heart. Thus only can we be and continue living members of that church which is the body of Christ.

2828. Does it not clearly appear from this whole account why, in the ancient Creed commonly called the Apostles’, we term the universal or catholic church, ‘the holy catholic church’? How many wonderful reasons have been found out for giving it this appellation! One learned man informs us, ‘The church is called holy because Christ the head of it is holy.’ Another eminent author affirms, ‘It is so called because all its ordinances are designed to promote holiness;’ and yet another, ‘Because our Lord intended that all the members of the church should be holy.’

A drastic oversimplification of a complex question about the holiness of the church that runs back at least to Novatian and Cyprian, to the Donatists and Augustine, and which had become focused in the debate about ‘the marks of the church’: i.e., ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic’. Cf. Heinrich Schmid, Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, p. 588; and Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, pp. 662-63. From his own time and tradition, Wesley is echoing the discussion of ‘The Holy Catholick Church’ in John Pearson’s magisterial An Exposition of the Creed (1659), Art. IX, 343-45. Wesley’s own conclusion is closer to the Donatists and Anabaptists than to most of his fellow Anglicans; cf. Edmund Gibson, Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani (1713), Title I, chs. i, vi.

Nay, the shortest and the plainest reason that can be given, and the only true one, is: the church is called ‘holy’ because it is holy; because every member thereof is holy, though in different [03:056]degrees, as he that called them is holy.

See 1 Pet. 1:15.

How clear is this! If the church, as to the very essence of it, is a body of believers, no man that is not a Christian believer can be a member of it. If this whole body be animated by one spirit, and endued with one faith and one hope of their calling; then he who has not that spirit, and faith, and hope, is no member of this body. It follows that not only no common swearer, no sabbath-breaker, no drunkard, no whoremonger, no thief, no liar, none that lives in any outward sin; but none that is under the power of anger or pride, no lover of the world—in a word, none that is dead to God—can be a member of his church.

2929. Can anything then be more absurd than for men to cry out, ‘the Church! the Church!’

Cf. Wesley’s Notes on Matt. 22:14: ‘Many hear [the Gospel], few believe. Yea, many are members of the visible but few of the invisible church.’ In CWJ, Oct. 27, 1739, there is a complaint against ‘our modern Pharisees’ who keep only to a minimum of outward observances. ‘And yet these men cry out, “The Church! The Church!” when they themselves will not hear the church….’ This phrase (‘The Church! The Church!’) had been a popular mob outcry, as in the Sacheverell riots of 1709; cf. Thomas Hearne, Reliquiae Hernianae, I.187-88 (Mar. 4, 1710), and in the Lord Gordon riots of 1780. Addison mentions the cry in The Spectator, No. 567, July 14, 1714: ‘These people may cry, “Church, Church”, as long as they please, …but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.’

and to pretend to be very zealous for it, and violent defenders of it; while they themselves have neither part nor lot therein,

See Acts 8:21.

nor indeed know what the church is? And yet the hand of God is in this very thing! Even in this his wonderful wisdom appears, directing their mistake to his own glory, and causing ‘the earth to help the woman’.

Cf. Rev. 12:16.

Imagining that they are members of it themselves, the men of the world frequently defend the church. Otherwise the wolves that surround the little flock on every side would in a short time tear them in pieces. And for this very reason it is not wise to provoke them more than is unavoidable. Even on this ground let us, if it be possible, as much as lieth in us, live peaceably with all men.

See Rom. 12:18.

Especially as we know not how soon God may call them too out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of his dear Son.

Col. 1:13.

3030. In the meantime let all those who are real members of the church see that they walk holy and unblameable in all things. ‘Ye are the light of the world!’ Ye are ‘a city set upon a hill, and cannot 03:057be hid. O let your light shine before men!’

Cf. Matt. 5:14, 16.

Show them your faith by your works.

See Jas. 2:18.

Let them see by the whole tenor of your conversation that your hope is all laid up above! Let all your words and actions evidence the spirit whereby you are animated! Above all things, let your love abound.

See Phil. 1:9.

Let it extend to every child of man; let it overflow to every child of God. By this let all men know whose disciples ye are, because you love one another.

See John 13:35.

Bristol, Sept. 28, 1785

Place and date as in AM.

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