Wesley Corpus

Tuesday and Wednesday. Four-and-thirty persons, I found, had been put out of, or left, the society : But, notwithstanding, as there were last quarter four hundred and fifty-eightmembers, so there are just four hundred and fifty-eight still. At the desire of the members lately excluded, I now drew up the short state of the case; but I could in nowise pacify them : They were all civil, nay, it seemed, affectionate to me ; but they could never forgive the Preachers that had expelled them : So that I could not desire them to return into the society ; they could only remain friends at a distance. -I was desired by some of our friends to clear up the point of Imputed Righteousness : Idid so, by preaching on, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righte- ousness." In opening these words, I showed what that faith was, which was imputed to him for righteousness, viz. , faith in Oct.1777-1 God's promise to give him the land of Canaan; faith in the promise that Sarah should conceive ason; and the faith whereby he offered up Isaac on the altar. But Christ is not in any of these instances the direct or immediate object of Abraham's faith; whereas he is the direct, immediate object of that faith which is imputed to us for righteousness. I visited many,sick and well, and endeavoured to confirm them in their love towards each other. I was more and more convinced that God had sent me at this time to heal the breach of his people. We had alovely congregation in the morning, to whom I closely applied St. Peter's words : " I exhort you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly desires which war against the soul." To the mixed multitude in the evening, I applied our Lord's words : "All things are ready ; come unto the marriage." I then took a solemn and affectionate leave of the society, and cheerfully commended them to the Great Shep- herd ; more in number, and, I am persuaded, more established in grace, than they had been for twenty years . In the morning we went onboard ; but the wind being right a-head, and blowing hard, we made but little way, till night; and the sea was so rough, that I could not sleep till