“To conclude upon this point: so work with that earnestness, constancy, and unweariedness in well doing, as if thy works alone were able to justify and save thee: and so absolutely depend and rely upon the merits of Christ for justification and salvation, as if thou never hadst performed one act of obedience in all thy life.
This is the right Gospel frame of obedience, so to work, as if we were only to be saved by our own merits; and withal so to rest on the merits of Christ, as if we had never wrought any thing. It is a difficult thing to give to each of these its due in our practice.
When we work, we are too apt to neglect Christ; and when we rely on Christ, we are too apt to neglect working. But that Christian has got the right art of obedience who can mingle these two together; who can with one hand work the works of God, and yet, at the same time, lay fast hold on the merits of Jesus Christ.”
John Fletcher (1729-1785) a contemporary of John Wesley and a key interpreter of Wesleyan Theology in the 18th century in The Works of the Reverend John Fletcher, volume 1 (New York: Waugh and Mason) 114.