Wesley Corpus

ii. 9.) “There shall be false teachers among you, who shall privately bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruc tion.” (2 Peter ii. 1.) You see he bought or redeemed even those that perish, that bring upon themselves swift destruction. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins” (who are elect, according to the knowledge of God,) “ and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John ii. 1, 2.) You are sensible, these are but a very small part of the scriptures which might be brought on each of these heads. But they are enough; and they require no comment: Taken in their plain, easy, and obvious sense, they abundantly prove, that there is not, cannot be, any such thing as unconditional reprobation. 22. But to be a little more particular: How can you possibly reconcile reprobation with those scriptures that declare the justice of God? To cite one for all: “What mean ye that ye use this proverb, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine;” (and how ever I may temporally visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, yet this visitation extends no farther; but) “the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” for its own sin, and not another's. “But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. If he beget a son which is a robber, shall he then live? He shall not live,--he shall surely die. Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father?” (Temporally he doth, as in the case of Achan, Korah, and a thousand others; but not eternally.) “When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, it shall die; ” shall die the second death.