Wesley Corpus

“Your sins are expiated through the death of Christ, and a righteousness given you by which you have free access to God.” (Page 59.) This is not scriptural language. I would simply say, “By him we have access to the Father.” There are many other expressions in this Dialogue to which I have the same objection; namely, 1. That they are unscrip tural; 2. That they directly lead to Antinomianism. The First Letter contains some very useful heads of self examination. In the Second, I read, “There is a righteous ness which supplies all that the creature needs. To prove this momentous point is the design of the following sheets.” (Page 91.) I have seen such terrible effects of this unscriptural way of speaking, even on those “who had once clean escaped from the pollutions of the world,” that I cannot but earnestly wish you would speak no otherwise than do the oracles of God. Certainly this mode of expression is not momentous. It is always dangerous, often fatal. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin had reigned unto death, so might grace,” the free love of God, “reign through righteousness,” through our justifi cation and sanctification, “unto eternal life.” (Rom. v. 20, 21.) This is the plain, natural meaning of the words. It does not appear that one word is spoken here about imputed righteousness; neither in the passages cited in the next page from the Common Prayer and the Articles. In the Homily likewise that phrase is not found at all, and the main stress is laid on Christ's shedding his blood. Nor is the phrase (concerning the thing there is no question) found in any part of the Homilies. (Letter 3, page 93.) “If the Fathers are not explicit with regard to the imputa tion of active righteousness, they abound in passages which evince the substitution of Christ in our stead; passages which disclaim all dependence on any duties of our own, and fix our hopes wholly on the merits of our Saviour. When this is the case, I am very little solicitous about any particular forms of expression.” (Page 101.) O lay aside then those questionable, dangerous forms, and keep closely to the scriptural ! “The authority of our Church, and of those eminent Divines,” (Letter 4, p.