Wesley Corpus

Neither will anything like this follow from the Apostle's. saying to the Corinthians, “Though I had all faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” This only proves that miracle-working faith may be where saving faith is not. 8. To the argument, “St. Paul says, “Abraham was justified by faith,’” you answer, “St. James says, “Abraham was justi fied by works.’” (Page 24.) True: But he neither speaks of the same justification, nor the same faith, nor the same works. Not of the same justification; for St. Paul speaks of that justi fication which was five-and-twenty years before Isaac was born; (Genesis;) St. James, of that wherewith he was justified when he offered up Isaac on the altar. It is living faith whereby St. Paul affirms we are justified: It is dead faith whereby St. James affirms we are not justified. St. Paul speaks of works antecedent to justification; St. James, of works consequent upon it. This is the plain, easy, natural way of reconciling the two Apostles. The fact was manifestly this: (1.) When Abraham dwelt in Haran, being then seventy-five years old, God called him thence: He “believed God,” and He “counted it to him for righteousness; ” that is, “he was justified by faith,” as St. Paul strenuously asserts. (2.) Many years after Isaac was born, (some of the ancients thought three-and-thirty,) Abraham, showing his faith by his works, offered him up upon the altar. (3.) Here the “faith” by which, in St. Paul's sense, he was justified long before, “wrought together with his works;” and he was justified in St. James’s sense, that is, (as the Apostle explains his own meaning,) “by works his faith was made perfect.” God confirmed, increased, and perfected the principle from which those works sprang. 9.