Wesley Corpus

‘(3) The life and death of our Lord is the sole meritorious cause of this mercy, which must be firmly believed and trusted in by us. Our faith therefore in Him, though not more meritorious than any other of our actions, yet has a nearer relation to the promises of pardon through Him, and is the mean and instrument whereby we embrace and receive them. ‘(4) True faith must be lively and productive of good works, which are its proper fruits, the marks whereby it is known. ‘(5) Works really good are such as are commanded by God (springing from faith), done by the aid of His Holy Spirit, with good designs and to good ends. These may be considered as internal or external. ‘(6) The inward ones, such as hope, trust, fear, and love of God and our neighbor -- which may be more properly termed “good dispositions” and (are branches of) sanctification -- must always be joined with faith, and consequently be conditions present in justification, though they are not the means or instruments of receiving it. ‘(7) The outward’ (which are more properly termed good works), 'though there be no immediate opportunity of practicing them, and therefore a sincere desire and resolution to perform them be sufficient for the present, yet must follow after as soon as occasion offers, and will then be necessary conditions of preserving our justification. ‘(8) There is a justification conveyed to us in our baptism; or, properly, this state is then begun. But, should we fall into sins, we cannot regain it without true faith and repentance, which implies (as its fruits) a forsaking of our sins and amendment of our whole life.’ I have only one circumstance farther to add -- namely, that I am not newly convinced of these things. For this is the doctrine which I have continually taught for eight or nine years last past; only I abstained from the word ‘condition’ perhaps more scrupulously than was needful.