Quotes from John Wesley
On Preaching and Love:
- I observed, "Love is the fulfilling of the law,
the end of the commandment." It is not only "the first and great"
command, but all the commandments in one. "Whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, if there be any virtue, if there be any
praise," they are all comprised in this one word, love.
- Wesley quoting his own sermon on "The Circumsicion of
the Heart" (January 1, 1733) in the work A Plain Account Of
Christian Perfection (Edition of 1777)
- Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An
ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.
- Catch on fire with
enthusiasm and people will come for
miles to watch you burn.
- I look on all the world as my parish;
thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet,
right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to
hear, the glad tidings of salvation.
On Slavery:
- In returning I
read a
very different book, published by an honest Quaker, on that execrable
sum of all villanies, commonly called the Slave-trade.
- Journal (12 February 1772) after reading Some
historical accounts of Guinea by Anthony Benezet.
- Are you a man?
Then you should have an
human heart. But have you indeed? What is your
heart made of? Is there no such principle as Compassion there? Do you
never feel another's pain? Have you no Sympathy? No
sense of human woe? No pity for the miserable? When you saw the flowing
eyes, the heaving breasts, or the bleeding sides and tortured limbs of
your fellow-creatures, was you a stone, or a brute? Did you look upon
them with the eyes of a tiger? When you squeezed the agonizing
creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor mangled
remains into the sea, had you no relenting? Did not one tear drop from
your eye, one sigh escape from your breast? Do you feel no relenting now?
If you do not, you must go on, till the measure of your iniquities is
full. Then will the Great GOD deal with You, as you
have dealt with them, and require all their blood
at your hands.
- Thoughts Upon Slavery (1774)
- No
circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst
in sunder all the ties of humanity.
On Money:
- Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly
saved all
you can, Then give all you can.
- Sermon 50 The Use of Money
Popularly summarised as:
Make all you can,
Save all you can,
Give all you can.
- When I have
money, I get
rid of it quickly, lest it find a
way into my heart.
On Dress:
- Let it be
observed, that
slovenliness is no part of
religion; that neither this, nor any text of Scripture, condemns
neatness of apparel. Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. Cleanliness
is indeed next to godliness.
- As
to
matters of dress, I would recommend one never to be
first in the fashion nor the last out of it.
On the Church:
- In all cases, the Church is to be judged
by the
Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church.
- Popery Calmly Considered
(1779)
- The Church recruited people who had
been
starched and ironed before they were washed.
- You may be as orthodox as the devil and
as
wicked.
On Respecting Others:
- The longer I live, the larger
allowances I make
for human infirmities.
- When I was young I was sure of
everything; in a
few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so
sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of
anything but what God has revealed to me.
-
Every one,
though born of God in an instant, yet
undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.
- The best of it is, God is
with us.
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