Wesley Corpus

4. Over and above all this, are you zealous of good works Do you, as you have time, do good to all men Do you feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction Do you visit those that are sick relieve them that are in prison Is any a stranger, and you take him in Friend, come up higher! Do you "prophesy" in the "name" of Christ Do you preach the truth as it is in Jesus And does the influence of his Spirit attend your word, and make it the power of God unto salvation Does he enable you to bring sinners from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God Then go and learn what thou hast so often taught, "By grace ye are saved through faith:" "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but of his own mercy he saveth us." Learn to hang naked upon the cross of Christ, counting all thou hast done but dung and dross. Apply to him just in the spirit of the dying thief, of the harlot with her seven devils! else thou art still on the sand; and, after saving others, thou wilt lose thy own soul. 5. Lord, increase my faith, if I now believe! else, give me faith, though but as a grain of mustard-seed! -- But "what doth it profit, if a man say he hath faith, and have not works Can" that "faith save him" O no! That faith which hath not works, which doth not produce both inward and outward holiness, which does not stamp the whole image of God on the heart, and purify us as he is pure; that faith which does not produce the whole of the religion described in the foregoing chapters, is not the faith of the gospel, not the Christian faith, not the faith which leads to glory. O beware of this, above all other snares of the devil, -- of resting on unholy, unsaving faith! If thou layest stress on this, thou art lost for ever: Thou still buildest thy house upon the sand. When "the rain descends, and the floods come, it will surely fall, and great will be the fall of it."