JULY 23
I am now, and have been from my youth, a member and minister of the Church of England. And I have no desire to separate from it till my soul separates from my body. Yet if I were not permitted to remain therein without omitting what God requires me to do, it would then become meet and right and my bounden duty to separate from it without delay. To be more particular, I know God has committed me a dispensation of the Gospel. Yea, and my own salvation depends upon preaching it. “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.” If then I could not remain in the Church without omitting this, without desisting from preaching the Gospel, I should be under the necessity of separating from it or losing my own soul.
Schism
Blessed be God, I do not slack my labour; I can preach and write still.
Journal, 1st January, 1790
