Wesley Corpus

“O ye simple ones, how long will ye love simplicity?” How long will ye “seek death in the error of your life?” “Know ye not,” whoever teacheth you otherwise, “that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” “Be not deceived; ” although there are many lie in wait to deceive, and that under the fair pretence of exalting Christ; --a pretence which the more easily steals upon you, because “to you he is precious.” But as the Lord liveth, “neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” “Such” indeed “were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,” as well as “justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” You are really changed; you are not only accounted, but actually “made, righteous.” “The law”--the inward power--“of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made” you “free”--really, actually free--“from the law” or power “of sin and death.” This is liberty, true gospel liberty, experienced by every believer: Not freedom from the law of God, or the works of God, but from the law of sin and the works of the devil. See that ye “stand fast in” this real, not imaginary “liberty, wherewith Christ hath made you free.” And take heed ye “be not entangled again,” by means of these vain boasters, “in the yoke of ’’ that vile “bondage to sin,” from which ye are now clean escaped. I testify unto you, that if you still continue in sin, Christ shall profit you nothing; that Christ is no Saviour to you, unless he saves you from your sins; and that unless it purify your heart, faith shall profit you nothing. O when will ye understand, that to oppose either inward or out 368 A BLoW AT THE ROOT. ward holiness, under colour of exalting Christ, is directly to act the part of Judas, to “betray the Son of man with a kiss?” Repent, repent! lest he cut you in sunder with the two-edged sword that cometh out of his mouth ! It is you yourselves that, by opposing the very end of his coming into the world, are crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame.