Wesley Corpus

10. The law, then, is right and just concerning all things. And it is good as well as just. This we may easily infer from the fountain whence it flowed. For what was this, but the goodness of God What but goodness alone inclined him to impart that divine copy of himself to the holy angels To what else can we impute his bestowing upon man the same transcript of his own nature And what but tender love constrained him afresh to manifest his will to fallen man -- either to Adam, or any of his seed, who like him were "come short of the glory of God" Was it not mere love that moved him to publish his law after the understandings of men were darkened and to send his prophets to declare that law to the blind, thoughtless children of men Doubtless his goodness it was which raised up Enoch and Noah to be preachers of righteousness; which caused Abraham, his friend, and Isaac, and Jacob, to bear witness to his truth. It was his goodness alone, which, when "darkness had covered the earth, and thick darkness the people," gave a written law to Moses, and, through him, to the nation whom he had chosen. It was love which explained these living oracles by David and all the prophets that followed; until, when the fullness of time was come, he sent his only-begotten Son, "not to destroy the law, but to fulfil," confirm every jot and title thereof; till, having wrote it in the hearts of all his children, and put all his enemies under his feet, "He shall deliver up" his mediatorial "kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all." [1 Cor. 15:28] 11. And this law, which the goodness of God gave at first, and has preserved through all ages, is, like the fountain from whence it springs, full of goodness and benignity; it is mild and kind; it is, as the Psalmist expresses it, "sweeter than honey and the honey-comb." It is winning and amiable. It includes "whatsoever things are lovely or of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise" before God and his holy angels, they are all comprised in this; wherein are hid all the treasures of the divine wisdom, and knowledge, and love.