Wesley Corpus

‘It will endear the blood and intercession of Christ’ (page 49). Nay; these can never be so dear to any as to those who experience their full virtue, who are ‘filled with the fullness’ of God. Nor can any ‘feel their continual need’ of Christ or ‘rely on Him’ in the manner which these do. ‘The claims of the law are all answered’ (Dialogue 14, p. 57). If so, Count Zinzendorf is absolutely in the right: neither God nor man can claim my obedience to it. Is not this Antinomianism without a mask ‘Your sins are expiated through the death of Christ, and a righteousness given you by which you have free access to God’ (page 59). This is not scriptural language. I would simply say, ‘By Him we have access to the Father.’ There are many other expressions in this Dialogue to which I have the same objection -- namely (1) that they are unscriptural; (2) that they directly lead to Antinomianism. The First Letter contains some very useful heads of self-examination. In the Second I read, ‘There is a righteousness which supplies all that the creature needs. To prove this momentous point is the design of the following sheets.’ (Page 91.) I have seen such terrible effects of this unscriptural way of speaking, even on those ‘who had once clean escaped from the pollutions of the world,’ that I cannot but earnestly wish you would speak no otherwise than do the oracles of God. Certainly this mode of expression is not momentous. It is always dangerous, often fatal. ‘Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin had reigned unto death, so might grace,’ the free love of God, ‘reign through righteousness,’ through our justification and sanctification, ‘unto eternal life’ (Rom. v. 20-1). This is the plain, natural meaning of the words. It does not appear that one word is spoken here about imputed righteousness; neither in the passages cited in the next page from the Common Prayer and the Articles. In the Homily likewise that phrase is not found at all, and the main stress is laid on Christ's shedding His blood. Nor is the phrase (concerning the thing there is no question) found in any part of the Homilies. (Letter 3, P. 93.)