I want to start a thread on the best John Wesley quotes. I am working on a project and would like for everyone here on the site to help. Please place them here.
I will start...
"Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergyman or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.”
-John Wesley
This brother is becoming one of my favorites for a number of reasons. Here's some brief thoughts by John Wesley on Christian perfection (i.e. entire sanctification).
BRIEF THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIAN PERFECTION by John Wesley
SOME thoughts occurred to my mind this morning concerning Christian perfection, and the manner and time of receiving it, which I believe may be useful to set down.
1. By perfection I mean the humble, gentle, patient love of God, and our neighbour, ruling our tempers, words, and actions.
I do not include an impossibility of falling from it, either in part or in whole. Therefore, I retract several expressions in our Hymns, which partly express, partly imply, such an impossibility.
And I do not contend for the term sinless, though I do not object against it.
2. As to the manner. I believe this perfection is always wrought in the soul by a simple act of faith; consequently, in an instant.
But I believe a gradual work, both preceding and following that instant.
3. As to the time. I believe this instant generally is the instant of death, the moment before the soul leaves the body. But I believe it may be ten, twenty, or forty years before.
I believe it is usually many years after justification; but that it may be within five years or five months after it, I know no conclusive argument to the contrary.
If it must be many years after justification, I would be glad to know how many. Pretium quotus arroget annus? [This quotation from Horace is thus translated by Boscawen: -- "How many years give sanction to our lines?" -- Edit.]
And how many days or months, or even years, can any one allow to be between perfection and death? How far from justification must it be; and how near to death?
LONDON, Jan. 27, 1767.
"Christianity is essentially a social religion and that to turn it into a solitary religion is indeed to destroy it." John Wesley
"My ground is the Bible. Yea, I am a Bible-bigot. I follow it in all things, both great and small." John Wesley
"Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago." John Wesley
"Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as you ever can." John Wesley
You have nothing to do but save souls, spend and be spent in this work.
John Wesley
When his brother Charles strongly disagreed with him and threaten to leave if he didn't get his way John was reported to have said "Someone get my brothers hat".
Hi brother,
There was similar thread, three months ago, maybe you can check some quotes from there and put it in order here.
"When we have received any favour from God, we ought to retire, if not into our closets, into our hearts, and say, 'I come, Lord, to restore to thee what thou hast given; and I freely relinquish it, to enter again into my own nothingness. For what is the most perfect creature in heaven or earth in thy presence, but a void capable of being filled with thee and by thee; as the air, which is void and dark, is capable of being filled with the light of the sun, who withdraws it every day to restore it the next, there being nothing in the air that either appropriates this light or resists it? O give me the same facility of receiving and restoring thy grace and good works! I say, thine; for I acknowledge the root from which they spring is in thee, and not in me."
-John Wesley
"Fire is the symbol of love; and the love of God is the principle and the end of all our good works. But truth surpasses figure; and the fire of divine love has this advantage over material fire, that it can re- ascend to its source, and raise thither with it all the good works which it produces. And by this means it prevents their being corrupted by pride, vanity, or any evil mixture. But this cannot be done otherwise than by making these good works in a spiritual manner die in God, by a deep gratitude, which plunges the soul in him as in an abyss, with all that it is, and all the grace and works for which it is indebted to him; a gratitude, whereby the soul seems to empty itself of them, that they may return to their source, as rivers seem willing to empty themselves, when they pour themselves with all their waters into the sea.”
-John Wesley
"Fire is the symbol of love; and the love of God is the principle and the end of all our good works. But truth surpasses figure; and the fire of divine love has this advantage over material fire, that it can re- ascend to its source, and raise thither with it all the good works which it produces. And by this means it prevents their being corrupted by pride, vanity, or any evil mixture. But this cannot be done otherwise than by making these good works in a spiritual manner die in God, by a deep gratitude, which plunges the soul in him as in an abyss, with all that it is, and all the grace and works for which it is indebted to him; a gratitude, whereby the soul seems to empty itself of them, that they may return to their source, as rivers seem willing to empty themselves, when they pour themselves with all their waters into the sea.”
-John Wesley
"God frequently conceals the part which his children have in the conversion of other souls. Yet one may boldly say, that person who long groans before him for the conversion of another, whenever that soul is converted to God, is one of the chief causes of it.”
-John Wesley
"God is so great, that he communicates greatness to the least thing that is done for his service."
-John Wesley
"Love fasts when it can, and as much as it can. It leads to all the ordinances of God, and employs itself in all the outward works whereof it is capable. It flies, as it were, like Elijah over the plain, to find God upon his holy mountain.”
-John Wesley
"A constant attention to the work which God entrusts us with is a mark of solid piety.”
-John Wesley
"God does not love men that are inconstant, nor good works that are intermitted. Nothing is pleasing to him, but what has a resemblance of his own immutability.”
-John Wesley
"One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbour; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us.”
-John Wesley
"To continual watchfulness and prayer ought to be added continual employment. For grace flies a vacuum as well as nature; and the devil fills whatever God does not fill.”
-John Wesley
"It is good to renew ourselves, from time to time, by closely examining the state of our souls, as if we had never done it before; for nothing tends more to the full assurance of faith, than to keep ourselves by this means in humility, and the exercise of all good works."
-John Wesley
"As the most dangerous winds may enter at little openings, so the devil never enters more dangerously than by little unobserved incidents, which seem to be nothing, yet insensibly open the heart to great temptations.”
-John Wesley
"To lay up treasure on earth is as plainly forbidden by our Master as adultery and murder"
-John Wesley
Evil communications corrupt good manners...Evil communications - Discourse contrary to faith, hope, or love, naturally tends to destroy all holiness.
You guys better watch what u post about John Wesley......people are starting to see him as a demon.....
The apostasy has run soo deep today....that someone called Spurgeon "a tool". John Wesley as "dumb".
People tell me that "his doctrine was wrong", i then follow by asking "show me fault in his life"? He was the Paul of the early 19th Century.
Do you know why though? Its because the "prosperous christians" are coming through, and they dont like how Welsey spoke against the rich, how wesley hated money....u see he shows them up.
Like Leonard Ravenhill shares about when Jimmy Swaggart critisizes Finney, for only saving "thousands".
There is an attack on those who are righteous, bold and believe that the Lord can perfect us.....
Well sorry for breaking the quotes.....just something that was on my heart..
"Why are we not more holy? Asked John Wesley, addressing his preachers. "Chiefly because we are enthusiasts, looking for the end without the means."
-John Wesley
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