Mr Wesley on the P-word

I was reading some sermons (I still have to preach two more times this summer, all you boys (and Sarah Kerr sometimes, I think she has been the only female to post on here so I assume she is the only female who reads it. Prove me wrong) basking in vacations) by Wesley and I came across this line that I found amusing for a lot of different socratic club thought trains.


"I know it is commonly supposed that the place of our birth fixes the Church to which we ought to belong; that one, for instance, who is born in England, ought to be a member of that which is styled the Church of England; and consequently, to worship God in the particular manner which is prescribed by that Church. I was once a zeolous maintainer of this; but I find many reasons to abate of this zeal. I fear it is attended with such difficulties as no reasonable man can get over. Not the least of which is, that is this rule had took place, there could have been no Reformation from Popery; seeing it entirely destroys the right of private judgment, on which that whole Reformation stands." Sermon XXXIV

The title of the sermon is "Catholic Spirit." And I didn't know abate was a transitive verb. You learn new things every day.