Wesley Corpus

Xxiii man is conscious to himself, after examining his life by the law of God, and weighing his own sincerity, that he is in a state of salvation and acceptable in his sight (a phrase used by our Church), I do not see how any good Christian can be without such an assurance." They replied, £ This is all for which we con tend ; but we have been accused ofantinomianism for preaching it in the words of the Eleventh Article of our Church (Justification by Faith). Indeed by delivering the doctrine without enjoining good works, many have been made antinomians in the reign of Charles I." They requested his Lordship not to receive an accusation against presbyters but at the mouth of two or three witnesses, which he promised not to do, and he dismissed them amicably. Their lives, as well as rules, were a sufficient proof that they were zealous ofgood works. They next visited the Archbishop of Can terbury who was not the least prejudiced against them. He cautioned them not to give XXiv more umbrage than was inevitable in the pro mulgation of our Church Articles, and avoid objectionable phrases. He avowed the doctrine they dwelt upon, as expressed therein, i.e. Justification by Faith, or, in other words, that the ground of man's salvation is the death of Christ alone, and good works the necessary fruits of it." He exhorted them to stand by the doctrines of the Church, which they assured him they would do (though they ex pected persecution) while her Articles and Homilies remained unrepealed. Some time after his Lordship manifested displeasure, not for the discourses they deli vered, but the irregularity oftheir zeal. Order is undoubtedly necessary in church and state government ; but when a system of laws purely human is so established in either as to become perpetual, whatever changes may take place in the state of a people, it must in many cases become defective rather than be neficial. The end of regularity in the Church is the propagation of knowledge and the in