John Wesley’s Opinion of Unfaithful Ministers.
By E. G. R.
In the light of present truth upon the binding nature of all God’s commandments, the fourth not excepted, the following language from the pen of John Wesley places in a very unenviable position those professed ministers of Jesus Christ who openly and secretly oppose the work of God’s people in restoring the breach in his law, by making the Sabbath honorable. E. G. R. “But if those who thus break, and teach others to break, ‘one of the least of these commandments, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven, shall have no part in the kingdom of Christ and of God; if even these shall be cast into outer darkness, where is wailing and gnashing of teeth;’ then where will they appear whom our Lord chiefly and primarily intends in these words,—they who, bearing the character of teachers sent from God, do nevertheless themselves break his commandments; yea, and openly teach others so to do; being corrupt both in life and doctrine? “These are of several sort. Of the first sort are they who live in some wilful, habitual sin. Now if an ordinary sinner teaches by his example, how much more a sinful minister,—even if he does not attempt to defend, excuse, or extenuate, his sins. If he does, he is a murderer indeed; yea, the murderer general of his congregation. He peoples the regions of death. He is the choicest instrument of the prince of darkness. When he goes hence, ‘hell from beneath is moved to meet him at his coming.’ Nor can he sink into the bottomless pit without dragging a multitude after him. “Next to these are the good-natured, good sort of men, who live an easy, harmless life, neither troubling themselves with outward sin, nor with inward holiness; men who are remarkable neither one way nor the other,—neither for religion nor irreligion; who are very regular both in public and private, but do not pretend to be any stricter than their neighbors. A minister of this kind breaks, not one, or a few only, of the least commandments of God; but all the great and weighty branches of his law which relate to the power of godliness, and all that require us to ‘pass the time of our sojourning in fear,’ to ‘work out our salvation with fear and trembling,’ to have our ‘loins always girt, and our lights burning,’ to ‘strive,’ or agonize, ‘to enter in at the strait gate.’ And he teaches men so, by the whole form of his life, and the general tenor of his preaching, which uniformly tends to soothe those in their pleasing dream, who imagine themselves Christians, and are not; to persuade all, who attend upon his ministry, to sleep on and take their rest. No marvel, therefore, if both he, and they that follow him, wake together in ‘everlasting burnings!’ “But above all these, in the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ, are they who openly and explicitly ‘judge the law’ itself, and ‘speak evil of the law’; who teach men to break (λῦσαι, to dissolve, to loose, to untie the obligation of) not one only, whether of the least, or of the greatest, but all the commandments at a stroke; who teach, without any cover, in so many words, ‘What did our Lord do with the law? He abolished it. There is but one duty, which is that of believing. All commands are unfit for our times. From any demand of the law, no man is obliged now to go one step, or give away one farthing, to eat or omit one morsel.’ This is indeed carrying matters with a high hand; this is withstanding our Lord to the face, and telling him that he understood not how to deliver the message on which he was sent. O Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Father forgive them; for they know not what they do! “The most surprising of all the circumstances that attend this strong delusion is, that they who are given up to it, really believe that they honor Christ by overthrowing his law, and that they are magnifying his office, while they are destroying his doctrine! Yea, they honor him just as Judas did, when he said, ‘Hail, Master, and kissed him.’ And he may as justly say to every one of them, ‘Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’ It is no other than betraying him with a kiss, to talk of his blood, and take away his crown; to set light by any part of his law, under pretence of advancing his gospel. Nor indeed can any one escape this charge, who preaches faith in any such a manner as either directly or indirectly tends to set aside any branch of obedience; who preaches Christ so as to disannul, or weaken in any wise, the least of the commandments of God.”