John Wesley
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 56
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...and feel the former love. He marked the city of our God laid low, And wept in deep distress for Zion's woe: It pitied him to see her in the dust, Her lamp extinguished and her gospel lost; Lost to the rich, and great, and wise, and good, Poor guilty enemies to J esu's blood, Who quench the last faint spark of piety, Yet cry, "the temple of the Lord are we! " Pleaders for orders they who all confound, Pillars who bear our Zion to the ground, Her doctrines and her purity disclaim, Our church's ruin, and our nation's shame; Leaders who turn the lame out of the way; Shepherds, who watch to make the sheep their prey; Preachers, who dare their own report deny; Patrons of Arian or Socinian lie, Who scofi" the gospel truths as idle tales, Heathenish priests, and mitred infidels! Nor did he let his censure wildly fall, Or for the sake of some, reproach them all: He knew with wiser judgment to revere, And vindicate the sacred character; The sacred character remained the same, Untouched, and unimpeached by private blame; Though Deists blind, and Sectaries agree To brand the heaven-descended ministry; Nor God nor man the bold revilers spare, To accuse the followers with their Lord they dare, For Judas filled the apostolic chair. This duteous son his piety retained, Nor left his mother by her children stained, Dishonoured by her base degenerate sons, The pure and apostolic church he owns, Her sacred truths in righteousness he held, Her articles and creeds not yet repealed, Her homilies replete with truth divine, Where pure religion flows in every line: Those heavenly truths while two or three maintained, By them he vowed in life and death to stand: By them in life and death he nobly stood, Tenacious of the...
