Wesley Corpus

9. A Second charge which you advance is, that “we suppose every man’s final doom to depend on God’s sovereign will and pleasure;” (I presume you mean, on his absolute, unconditional decree;) that we “consider man as a mere machine;” that we THE REW. M. R. Down ES. 103 suppose believers “cannot fall from grace.” (Page 31.) Nay, I suppose none of these things. Let those who do, answer for themselves. I suppose just the contrary in “Predestination Calmly Considered,” a tract published ten years ago. 10. A Third charge is, “They represent faith as a super natural principle, altogether precluding the judgment and understanding, and discerned by some internal signs; not as a firm persuasion founded on the evidence of reason, and discernible only by a conformity of life and manners to such a persuasion.” (Page 11.) We do not represent faith “as altogether precluding,” or at all “precluding, the judgment and understanding;” rather as enlightening and strengthening the understanding, as clear ing and improving the judgment. But we do represent it as the gift of God, yea, and a “supernatural gift; ” yet it does not preclude “the evidence of reason; ” though neither is this its whole foundation. “A conformity of life and manners” to that persuasion, “Christ loved me, and gave himself for me,” is doubtless one mark by which it is discerned; but not the only one. It is likewise discerned by internal signs,--both by the witness of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit; namely, “love, peace, joy, meekness, gentleness; ” by all “the mind which was in Christ Jesus.” 11.