Wesley Corpus

For that equally lies against both, against any free-will of any kind; your assertion being thus, “If man has any free-will, God cannot have the whole glory of his salvation;” or, “It is not so much for the glory of God, to save man as a free agent, put into a capacity of concurring with his grace on the one hand, and of resist ing it on the other; as to save him in the way of a necessary agent, by a power which he cannot possibly resist.” 46. With regard to the former of these assertions, “If man has any free-will, then God cannot have the whole glory of his salvation,” is your meaning this: “If man has any power to ‘work out his own salvation, then God cannot have the whole glory?” If it be, I must ask again, What do you mean by God’s “having the whole glory?” Do you mean, “His doing the whole work, without any concurrence on man’s part?” If so, your assertion is, “If man do at all ‘work together with God,” in ‘working out his own salva tion, then God does not do the whole work, without man’s ‘working together with Him.’” Most true, most sure: But cannot you see, how God nevertheless may have all the glory? Why, the very power to “work together with Him” was from God. There'ore to Him is all the glory. Has not even experience taught you this? Have you not often felt, in a particular temptation, power either to resist or yield to the grace of God? And when you have yielded to “work together with Him,” did you not find it very possible, not withstanding, to give him all the glory? So that both experience and Scripture are against you here, and make it clear to every impartial inquirer, that though man has free dom to work or not “work together with God,” yet may God have the whole glory of his salvation. 47. If then you say, “We ascribe to God alone the whole glory of our salvation;” I answer, So do we too. If you add, “Nay, but we affirm, that God alone does the whole work, without man’s working at all;” in one sense, we allow this also. We allow, it is the work of God alone to justify, to sanctify, and to glorify; which three comprehend the whole of salvation.