Wesley Corpus

2. But I must premise, that as they had not the least ex pectation, at first, of anything like what has since followed, so they had no previous design or plan at all; but every thing arose just as the occasion offered. They saw or felt some im pending or pressing evil, or some good end necessary to be pursued. And many times they fell unawares on the very thing which secured the good, or removed the evil. At other times, they consulted on the most probable means, following only common sense and Scripture: Though they generally found, in looking back, something in Christian antiquity like wise, very nearly parallel thereto. I. 1. About ten years ago, my brother and I were desired to preach in many parts of London. We had no view therein, but, so far as we were able, (and we knew God could work by whom soever it pleased him,) to convince those who would hear what true Christianity was, and to persuade them to embrace it. 2. The points we chiefly insisted upon were four: First, that orthodoxy, or right opinions, is, at best, but a very slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part of it at all; that neither does religion consist in negatives, in bare harmlessness of any kind; nor merely in externals, in doing good, or using the means of grace, in works of piety (so called) or of charity; that it is nothing short of, or different from, “the mind that was in Christ; ” the image of God stamped upon the heart; inward righteousness, attended with the peace of God; and “joy in the Holy Ghost.” Secondly, that the only way under heaven to this religion is, to “repent and believe the gospel; ” or, (as the Apostle words it,) “repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thirdly, that by this faith, “he that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, is justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ.” And, Lastly, that “being justified by faith,” we taste of the heaven to which we are going; we are holy and happy; we tread down sin and fear, and “sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.” 3.