Ib. pp. 75-79.
He will preface it with the solemn and woful communication of the Evangelist John, in order to show how exactly they accord, how clearly the doctrines of the one are deduced from the Revelation of the other, and how justly, therefore, it assumes the exclusive title of evangelical. And I saw the dead * * * and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead * * and they were judged every man according to his works. Rev. xx. 12, 13. Let us recall to mind the urgent caution conveyed in the writings of Paul * * Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And let us further add * * the confirmation * * of the Saviour himself:—When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, * * * but the righteous into life eternal. Matt. xxv. 31, ad finem. Let us now attend to the Evangelical preacher, (Toplady). "The Religion of Jesus Christ stands eminently distinguished, and essentially differenced, from every other religion that was ever proposed to human reception, by this remarkable peculiarity; that, look abroad in the world, and you will find that every religion, except one, puts you upon doing something, in order to recommend yourself to God. A Mahometan * * A Papist * * * It is only the religion of Jesus Christ that runs counter to all the rest, by affirming—that we are 'saved' and called with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to the Father's own purpose and grace, which was not sold to us on certain conditions to be fulfilled by ourselves, but was given us in Christ before the world began." Toplady's Works: Sermon on James ii. 18.
Si sic omnia!
All this is just and forcible; and surely nothing can be easier than to confute the Methodist by shewing that his very 'no-doing', when he comes to explain it, is not only an act, a work, but even a very severe and perseverant energy of the will. He is therefore to be arraigned of nonsense and abuse of words rather than of immoral doctrines.
Ib. p. 84.
The sacred volume of Holy Writ declares that true (pure?) religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James i. 27
This is now at least, whatever might have been the meaning of the word
religion