Wesley Corpus

(The sermon Count Zinzendorf preached at Fetter Lane on John viii. 11 places this in a strong light. He roundly began: ‘Christ says, I came not to destroy the law. But He did destroy the law. The law condemned this woman to death; but He did not condemn her. And God Himself does not keep the law. The law forbids lying; but God said, Forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed; yet Nineveh was not destroyed.’) 4. That there is no such thing as degrees in faith or weak faith; since he has no faith who has any doubt or fear. (How to reconcile this with whith what I heard the Count assert at large, ‘that a man may have justifying faith and not know it,’ I cannot tell.) 5. That we are sanctified wholly the moment we are justified, and are neither more nor less holy to the day of our death. 6. That a believer has no holiness in himself at all; all his holiness being imputed, not inherent. 7. That a man may feel a peace that passeth all understanding may rejoice with joy fun of glory, and have the love of God and of all mankind, with dominion over all sin; and yet all this may be only nature, animal spirits, or the force of imagination. 8. That if a man regards prayer, or searching the Scriptures, or communicating as matter of duty; if he judges himself obliged to do these things, or is troubled when he neglects them, -- he is in bondage, he is under the law, he has no faith, but is still seeking salvation by works. 9. That, therefore, till we believe, we ought to be still - that is, not to pray, search the Scriptures, or communicate. 10. That their Church cannot err, and of consequence ought to be implicitly believed and obeyed. Thirdly. I approve many things in their practice; yet even this I cannot admire in the following instances: 1. I do not admire their conforming to the word by useless, trifling conversation; by suffering sin upon their brother, without reproving even that which is gross and open; by levity in the general tenor of their behavior, not walking as under the eye of the great God; and, lastly, by joining in the most trifling diversions in order to do good.