Wesley Corpus

“On this principle it was that I made one of your audience, October 23, at Bradford. And because I thought I could form the best judgment of you and your doctrines from your sermon, I resolved to hear that first ; which was the reason, that although, by accident, I was at the same house, and walked two miles with you, to the place you preached at, I spoke little or nothing to you. I must confess, sir, that the discourse you made that day, wherein you pressed your hearers in the closest manner, and with the authority of a true minister of the Gospel, not to stop at faith ony, but to add to it all virtues, and to show forth their faith by every kind of good works, convinced me of the great wrong done you by a public report, common in people’s mouths, that you preach faith without works , for that is the only ground of prejudice which any true Christian can have; and is the sense in which your adversaries would take your words when they censure them. For that we are justified by faith only is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of his apostles, and the doctrine of the Church of England. I am ashamed, that after having lived twentynine years, since my baptism into this faith, I should speak of it in the lame, unfaithful, I may say false manner I have done in the paper above mentioned !--What mere darkness is man when truth hideth her face from him!