Wesley Corpus

“7. That if a man regards prayer, or searching the Scrip tures, or communicating, as matter of duty; if he judges himself obliged to do these things, or is troubled when he does them not; he is in bondage; he has no faith at all, but is seeking salvation by the works of the law.” We believe that the first of these propositions is ambiguous, and all the rest utterly false. “1. Christ has done all that was necessary for the salvation of all mankind.” This is ambiguous. Christ has not done all which was neces sary for the absolute salvation of all mankind. For notwith standing all that Christ has done, he that believeth not shall be damned. But he has done all which was necessary for the conditional salvation of all mankind; that is, if they believe; for through his merits all that believe to the end, with the faith that worketh by love, shall be saved. “2. We are to do nothing as necessary to salvation, but simply to believe in Him.” If we allow the Count’s definition of faith, namely, “the historical knowledge of this truth, that Christ has been a man and suffered death for us,” (Sixteen Discourses, p. 57) then is this proposition directly subversive of the whole revelation of Jesus Christ. “3. There is but one duty now, but one command, viz., to believe in Christ.” Almost every page in the New Testament proves the false hood of this assertion. “4. Christ has taken away all other commands and duties, having wholly abolished the law.” How absolutely contrary is this to his own solemn declara tion l--“Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. One jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till heaven and earth pass.” “Therefore a believer is free from the law.” That he is “free from the curse of the law,” we know ; and that he is “free from the law,” or power, “ of sin and death: ” But where is it written that he is free from the law of God?