Answer to an Important Question.

AN ANSWER

TO

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

———

DEAR SIR, ARMAGH, June 18, 1787.

YOU ask, “Why do not the Clergy, whether in England or Ireland, avail themselves of the Methodist Preachers?” You say, you wonder they do not thankfully accept of their assistance, who desire no pay for their service, in repressing error and wickedness of every kind, and propagating truth and religion. You inquire, “Upon what rational principles can this be accounted for?”

To give a complete answer to this question would require a whole treatise. I have not leisure for this; but I will give as full an answer as my time will permit.

Only, before I answer, I must observe, that many both of the English and Irish Clergy are entirely out of the question. They are not only learned, but truly religious men; and, as such, are an honor to their profession. I speak only of those that are of a different character, be they many or few. Let them wear the cap whom it fits. That is no concern of mine. This premised, I think it easy to be accounted for, even upon heathen principles. Horace observed long ago —

Oderunt hilarem tristes, tristemgue jocosi, etc.

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Accordingly, grave and solemn men (though too few are guilty of this fault) dislike many of the Methodist Preachers, for having nothing of that gravity or solemnity about them. Jocose Clergymen, on the other hand, cannot but dislike those who are steadily serious; and those that love to take a cheerful glass are not fond of such as are strictly temperate. You need go no farther than this consideration to have a clear answer to the question, “Why do many of the Clergy refuse to receive any assistance from the Methodist Preachers?”

But this may be more fully accounted for upon Christian principles. What says our Lord to the first Preachers of the Gospel, and in them to all their successors? — “If the world hate you, we know that it hated me, before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. These things will they do unto you, because they know not Him that sent me.” (John 15:18, et seq.)

Does not this give us sufficient reason to expect, that, if we are not of the world, all the world, all who know not God, whether Clergy or laity, will be so far from accepting our assistance, that they will sincerely hate us, and openly or privately persecute us, so far as God permits? We have, therefore, reason to wonder, not that they do not desire any union or coalition with us, but that they bear with, yea, and on many occasions treat us with courtesy and civility. This is a peculiar instance of the providence of God, causing, in some measure, the scandal of the cross to cease.

“But do not many Clergymen, who are not pious men, acknowledge that the Methodists do good, and encourage thence to persevere therein?” They do; but observe how far they would hare them go. They wish them to repress outward sin; to reclaim the people from cursing, and swearing, and drunkenness, and Sabbath-breaking, unless the Squire gains by it. They are well pleased, that their parishioners grow more diligent and honest, and are constant attendants on the church and sacrament. Nay, they are glad that they are brought to practice both justice and mercy; in a word, to be moral men.

But the truth is, the Methodists know and teach that all this is nothing before God; that whoever goes thus far and no farther is building upon the sand; that he who would worship God to any purpose, must worship him “in spirit and in truth;” that true religion is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;” even giving God our heart; the seeking and finding happiness in Him. Here, then, they divide from the Methodists, whom they judge to be going too far. They would have the parishioners moral men; that is, in plain terms, honest Heathens; but they would not have them pious men, men devoted to God, Bible Christians. If, therefore, the Methodist Preachers would stop here, would preach outward religion and no more, many Clergymen would not only encourage them therein, but likewise cordially join them. But when they persuade men, not to be almost, but altogether, Christians; to maintain a constant “fellowship with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ;” to be transformed into that “image of God wherein they were created,” and thenceforth to live that “life which is hid with Christ in God;” let them not expect that any will give them the right hand of fellowship, but those God hath “chosen out of the world.”

I am

Yours, etc.,

JOHN WESLEY.