Wesley Corpus

Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount XIII

AuthorJohn Wesley
Typesermon
Year1748
Passage IDjw-sermon-033-011
Words278
Communion Means of Grace Sanctifying Grace Scriptural Authority Works of Piety
2. You cannot, you dare not, rest here. Upon what next will you build your hope of salvation -- upon your innocence upon your doing no harm your not wronging or hurting anyone Well; allow this plea to be true. You are just in all your dealings; you are a downright honest man; you pay every man his own; you neither cheat nor extort; you act fairly with all mankind; and you have a conscience towards God; you do not live in any known sin. Thus far is well: But still it is not the thing. You may go thus far, and yet never come to heaven. When all this harmlessness flows from a right principle, it is the least part of the religion of Christ. But in you it does not flow from a right principle, and therefore is no part at all of religion. So that in grounding your hope of salvation on this, you are still building upon the sand. 3. Do you go farther yet Do you add to the doing no harm, the attending all the ordinances of God Do you, at all opportunities, partake of the Lord's supper use public and private prayer fast often hear and search the Scriptures, and meditate thereon These things, likewise, ought you to have done, from the time you first set your face towards heaven. Yet these things also are nothing, being alone. They are nothing without "the weightier matters of the law." And those you have forgotten: At least, you experience them not: -- Faith, mercy, and love of God; holiness of heart; heaven opened in the soul. Still, therefore, you build upon the sand.