The first of three theological volumes, the present volume is devoted to four of John Wesley's foundational treatises on soteriology.
These treatises include, first, Wesley's extract from the Homilies of the Church of England, which he published to convince his fellow Anglican clergy that the 'evangelical' emphasis on believers experiencing a conscious ness of assurance of God's pardoning love was consistent with this standard of Anglican doctrine.
Next come's Wesley's extract of Richard Baxter's Aphorism's of Justification, aimed more at those who shared his evangelical emphasis, invoking this honored moderate Puritan to challenge antinomian conceptions of the doctrine of justification by faith. This is followed by Wesley's abridgement of the Shorter Catechism issued by the Westminster Assembly in his Christian library, where he affirms broad agreements with this standard of Reformed doctrine-while quietly removing items with which he disagreed. The fourth item is Wesley's extended response to dissenter John Taylor on the doctrine of original sin, which highlights differences within the broad 'Arminian' camp, with Wesley resisting a drift toward naively optimistic views of human nature that he discerned in Taylor.
