Wesley Corpus

We allow, it is the work of God alone to justify, to sanctify, and to glorify; which three comprehend the whole of salvation. Yet we cannot allow, that man can only resist, and not in any wise “work together with God;” or that God is so the whole worker of our salvation, as to exclude man’s working at all. This I dare not say; for I cannot prove it by Scripture; nay, it is flatly contrary thereto; for the Scripture is express, that (having received power from God) we are to “work out our own salvation;” and that (after the work of God is begun in our souls) we are “workers together with Him.” 48. Your objection, proposed in another form, is this: “It is not so much for the glory of God, to save man as a free agent, put into a capacity of either concurring with, or resisting, his grace; as to save him in the way of a necessary agent, by a power which he cannot possibly resist.” O that the Lord would answer for himself! that he would arise and maintain his own cause ! that he would no longer suffer his servants, few as they are, to weaken one another’s hands, and to be wearied not only with the “contradiction of sinners,” but even of those who are in a measure saved from sin “Woe is me, that I am constrained to dwell with Meshech! among them that are enemies to peace | I labour for peace; but when I speak thereof, they still make themselves ready for battle.” 49. If it must be, then, let us look one another in the face. How is it more for the glory of God to save man irresistibly, than to save him as a free agent, by such grace as he may either concur with or resist? I fear you have a confused, unscriptural notion of “the glory of God.” What do you mean by that expression? The glory of God, strictly speak ing, is his glorious essence and his attributes, which have been ever of old. And this glory admits of no increase, being the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.