Wesley Corpus

You cannot therefore deny, that every believer has holiness in, though not from, himself; else you deny, that he is holy at all; and if so, he cannot see the Lord. And indeed, if holiness in general be the mind which was in Christ, what can any one possibly mean by, “A believer is not holy in himself, but in Christ only? that the mind which was in Christ is in a believer also; but it is in Him,-- not in himself, but in Christ !” What a heap of palpable self-contradiction, what senseless jargon, is this! “7. If a man regards prayer, or searching the Scriptures, or communicating, as matter of duty; if he judges himself obliged to do these things, or is troubled when he does them not, he is ‘in bondage,’ he has no faith at all, but is seeking salvation by the works of the law.” Thus obedience with you is a proof of unbelief, and disobe dience a proof of faith ! What is it, to put darkness for light, and light for darkness, if this is not? THAT to the height of this great argument, I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God with man.-MILTON. 1. I AM inclined to believe, that many of those who enjoy the “faith which worketh by love,” may remember some time when the power of the Highest wrought upon them in an eminent manner; when the voice of the Lord laid the mountains low, brake all the rocks in pieces, and mightily shed abroad his love in their hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto them. And at that time it is certain they had no power to resist the grace of God. They were then no more able to stop the course of that torrent which carried all before it, than to stem the waves of the sea with their hand, or to stay the sun in the midst of heaven. 2. And the children of God may continually observe how his love leads them on from faith to faith; with what tenderness He watches over their souls; with what care He brings them back if they go astray, and then upholds their going in his path, that their footsteps may not slide.