Wesley Corpus

‘Faith is a persuasion that Christ has shed His blood for me and fulfilled all righteousness in my stead’ (page 285). I can by no means subscribe to this definition. There are hundreds, yea thousands of true believers who never once thought one way or the other of Christ’s fulfilling all righteousness in their stead. I personally know many who to this very hour have no idea of it, and yet have each of them a divine evidence and conviction, ‘Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ This is St. Paul's account of faith; and it is sufficient. He that thus believes is justified. ‘It is a sure means of purifying the heart, and never fails to work by love’ (page 287). It surely purifies the heart -- if we abide in it; but not if we ‘draw back to perdition.’ It never fails to work by love while it continues; but if itself fail, farewell both love and good works. ‘Faith is the hand which receives all that is laid up in Christ.’ Consequently, if we make ‘shipwreck of the faith,’ how much soever is laid up in Christ, from that hour we receive nothing. ‘Faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ is a fundamental principle in the gospel’ (Letter 11, p. 288). If so, what becomes of all those who think nothing about imputed righteousness How many who are full of faith and love, if this be true, must perish everlastingly! ‘Thy hands must urge the way of the deadly weapon through the shivering flesh till it be plunged in the throbbing heart’ (page 297). Are not these descriptions far too strong May they not occasion unprofitable reasonings in many readers Ne pueros coram populo Medea trucidet. [Horace’s Ars Poetlea, l. 185: ‘Medea must not slay her children in the presence of the people.’] ‘How can he justify it to the world’ (Page 298.) Not at all. Can this, then, justify his faith to the world ‘You take the certain way to obtain comfort - the righteousness of Jesus Christ’ (page 304). What, without the atonement Strange fondness for an unscriptural, dangerous mode of expression! ‘So the merits of Christ are derived to all the faithful’ (page 306). Rather the fruits of the Spirit, which are likewise plainly typified by the oil in Zechariah's vision.