Wesley Corpus

4. When I say, ‘The Apostles themselves were to prove their assertions by the written Word,’ I mean the word written before their time, the Law and the Prophets; and so they did. I do not believe the case of Averel Spenser [See for this paragraph the letter of Sept. 28, sect. 4, where Wesley says the Apostles ‘were to prove their assertions by the written Word. You and I are to do the same.’ ‘John Smith’ refers to a teacher who ‘gives out that the Spirit of God gives visible attestations to his ministry by miraculous works (for surely the casting out of devils may be called so, if anything can)’ (see Journal, ii. 291). Charles Wesley says on Oct. 6, 1739 (Journal, i. 186), Averel Spenser of Bristol, ‘one that received faith last night, came to day and declared it.’] was natural; yet, when I kneeled down by her bedside, I had no thought at all of God's then giving any ‘attestation to my ministry.’ But I asked of God to deliver an afflicted soul; and He did deliver her. Nevertheless, I desire none to receive my words, unless they are confirmed by Scripture and reason. And if they are, they ought to be received, though Averel Spenser had never been born. 5. That we ought not to relate a purely natural case in the Scripture terms that express our Lord's miracles, that low and common things are generally improper to be told in Scripture phrase, that scriptural words which are obsolete or which have changed their signification are not to be used familiarly, as neither those technical terms which were peculiar to the controversies of those days, I can easily apprehend. But I cannot apprehend that 'salvation’ or ‘justification’ is a term of this sort; and much less that ‘faith’ and ‘works,’ or ‘spirit’ and ‘flesh,’ are synonymous terms with ‘Christianity’ and ‘Judaism.’ I know this has frequently been affirmed; but I do not know that it has been proved.