Wesley Corpus

I did not readily see where the stress of this objection (so frequently started) lay. But upon a little reflection, I saw it plain. The real state of the case is this :--Religion is commonly thought to consist of three things,--harmlessness, using the means of grace, and doing good, as it is called; that is, helping our neighbours, chiefly by giving alms. Accordingly, by a religious man is commonly meant, one that is honest, just and fair in his dealings ; that is constantly at church and sacrament; and that gives much alms, or (as it is usually termed) does much good. Now, in explaining those words of the Apostle, “ The kingdom of God” (or true religion, the consequenve of God’s dwelling and reigning in the soul) “‘is not meat and drink,” I was necessarily led to show, that religion does not properly consist in any or all of these three things ; but that a man might both be harmless, use the means of grace, and do much good, and yet have no true religion at all. And sure it is, had God then impressed this great truth on any who before was ignorant of it, that impression would have occasioned such heaviness in his soul as the world always terms despair. Again, in explaining those words, ‘“* The kingdom of God” (or true religion) “is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,” I insisted, that every follower of Christ ought to expect and pray for that “ peace of God which passeth all understanding,” that “ rejoicing in hope of the glory of God,” which is even now “ unspeakable and full of glory ;” and above all, (as being the.very life and soul of religion, without which it is all dead show,) “ the love of God, shed abroad in” his “ heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him.” But all this is * enthusiasm from end to. end,” to those who have the form of godliness, but not the power. I know indeed there is a way of explaining these > _ =e” i asl ai «2 i < Tr. ss) ‘ ‘ 170 REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [Nov. 1739.