Wesley Corpus

Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I caused him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me,” saith the Prophet, speaking in the person of Israel, “saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel.” (xxxi. 1-4.) Suffer me here to observe, once for all, a fallacy which is constantly used by almost all writers on this point. They perpetually beg the question, by applying to particular persons assertions, or prophecies, which relate only to the Church in general; and some of them only to the Jewish Church and nation, as distinguished from all other people. If you say, “But it was particularly revealed to me, that God had loved me with an everlasting love;” I answer, Suppose it was, (which might bear a dispute,) it proves no more, at the most, than that you in particular shall persevere; but does not affect the general question, whether others shall, or shall not. 9. Secondly. One who is endued with the faith that purifies the heart, that produces a good conscience, may nevertheless so fall from God as to perish everlastingly. For thus saith the inspired Apostle, “War a good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.” (1 Tim. i. 18, 19.) Observe, (1.) These men (such as Hymeneus and Alex ander) had once the faith that purifies the heart, that produces a good conscience; which they once had, or they could not have “put it away.” Observe, (2.) They “made shipwreck” of the faith, which necessarily implies the total and final loss of it. For a vessel once wrecked can never be recovered. It is totally and finally lost. And the Apostle himself, in his Second Epistle to Timothy, mentions one of these two as irrecoverably lost. “Alexander,” says he, “did me much evil: The Lord shall reward him according to his works.” (2 Tim. iv. 14.) Therefore one who is endued with the faith that purifies the heart, that produces a good conscience, may nevertheless so fall from God as to perish everlastingly. 10.