Wesley Corpus

Both Adam’s Sun and Christ’s Righteousness are imputed. They are; the question is only, In what sense? Of Merit.* 33. In the Minutes I say, “We are rewarded according to our works, yea, because of our works. (Genesis xxii. 16, 17.) How differs this from for the sake of our works? And how differs this from secundum merita operum, or ‘as our works deserve?” Can you split this hair? I doubt I cannot.” I say so still. Let Mr. Hill, if he can. “And yet I still maintain,” (so I added in the “Remarks;” so I firmly believe,) “there is no merit, taking the word strictly, but in the blood of Christ; that salvation is not by the merit of works; and that there is nothing we are, or have, or do, which can, strictly speaking, deserve the least thing at God’s hand. “And all this is no more than to say, Take the word merit in a strict sense, and I utterly renounce it; take it in a looser sense, and though I never use it, (I mean, I never ascribe it to any man,) yet I do not condemn it. Therefore, with regard to the word merit, I do not contradict myself at all.” “You never use the word l’” says Mr. H.: “What have we then been disputing about?” (Farrago, p. 36.) Why, about a straw; namely, whether there be a sense in which others may use that word without blame. - * Page 35. But can Mr. Hill, or any one living, suppose me to mean, I do not use the word in the present question? What Mr. H. adds, is a mere play upon words: “Does Mr. W., by this looser merit, mean a merit that does not merit?” Yes; by terming a work meritorious in this improper sense, I do not mean, that it merits or deserves a reward in the proper sense of the word. Instances of the word taken in this improper sense occur all over the Bible. “This is shamefully evasive.” No more than it is Greek. It is a plain, rational, solid distinction; and it holds with regard to numberless words in all languages, which may be taken cither in a proper or improper sense. When I say, “I do not grant that works are meritorious, even when accompanied by faith,” I take that word in a proper sense.