Wesley Corpus

All holiness must precede our entering into glory. But no holiness can exist, till, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 7. You next attempt to reconcile the writings of St. Paul with justification by works. In order to this you say, “In the three first chapters of his Epistle to the Romans, he proves that both Jews and Gentiles must have recourse to the gospel of Christ. To this end he convicts the whole world of sin; and having stopped every mouth, he makes his inference, ‘There fore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified. We conclude, them, says he, “a man is justified by faith, with out the deeds of the law. But here arise two questions: First, What are the works excluded from justifying? Secondly, What is the faith which justifies?” (Pages 20, 21, 22.) “The works excluded are heathem and Jewish works, set up as meritorious. This is evident from hence,--that Heathens and carnal Jews are the persons against whom he is arguing.” Not so : He is arguing against all mankind: He is convicting the whole world of sin. His concern is to stop every mouth, by proving that no flesh, none born of a woman, no child of man, can be justified by his own works. Consequently, he speaks of all the works of all mankind, antecedent to justifica tion, whether Jewish or any other, whether supposed meritori ous or not, of which the text says not one word. Therefore, all works antecedent to justification are excluded, and faith is set in flat opposition to them. “Unto him that worketh not, but believeth, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.” “But what is the faith to which he attributes justification? That ‘which worketh by love;’ which is the same with the ‘new creature, and implies in it the keeping the command ments of God.” It is undoubtedly true, that nothing avails for our final salva tion without catwm &tious, “a new creation,” and consequent thereon, a sincere, uniform keeping of the commandments of God. This St. Paul constantly declares. But where does he say, this is the condition of our justification?