Wesley Corpus

“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 funda mental 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 coran populo Medea trucidet.* “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. “Has the law any demand? It must go to him for satis faction.” (Page 310.) Suppose, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;” then I am not obliged to love my * The following is Lord Roscommon's translation of this verse from Horace : “Medea must not draw her murdering knife, Nor spill her children's blood, upon the stage.”--EDIT. neighbour: Christ has satisfied the demand of the law for me. Is not this the very quintessence of Antinomianism? “The righteousness wrought out by Jesus Christ is wrought out for all his people, to be the cause of their justification, and the purchase of their salvation. The righteousness is the cause, and the purchase.” (Page 311.) So the death of Christ is not so much as named !