Wesley Corpus

Away with opinions ! I care not what you are called. I ask not (it does not deserve a thought) what opinion you are of, so you are conscious to yourself, that you are the man whom I have been (however faintly) describing. Do not you know, you ought to be such? Is the Governor of the world well pleased that you are not? Do you (at least) desire it? I would to God that desire may penetrate your inmost soul; and that you may have no rest in your spirit till you are, not only almost, but altogether, a Christian | Section II. 1. The Second point to be considered is, What is real, genuine Christianity? whether we speak of it as a principle in the soul, or as a scheme or system of doctrine. Christianity, taken in the latter sense, is that system of doctrine which describes the character above recited, which promises, it shall be mine, (provided I will not rest till I attain,) and which tells me how I may attain it. 2. First. It describes this character in all its parts, and that in the most lively and affecting manner. The main lines of this picture are beautifully drawn in many passages of the Old Testament. These are filled up in the New, retouched and finished with all the art of God. The same we have in miniature more than once; particularly in the thirteenth chapter of the former Epistle to the Cor inthians, and in that discourse which St. Matthew records as delivered by our Lord at his entrance upon his public ministry. 3. Secondly. Christianity promises this character shall be mine, if I will not rest till I attain it. This is promised both in the Old Testament and the New. Indeed the New is, in effect, all a promise; seeing every description of the servants of God mentioned therein has the nature of a command; in consequence of those general injunctions: “Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ:” (1 Cor. xi. 1) “Be ye followers f them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Teb.