Wesley Corpus

v. 17, &c.) Ant.--I tell you plainly, I will not reason. Friend.--That is as much as to say, “I will not be con vinced: I love darkness rather than light.” Ant.--No; it is you that are in darkness. I was so till a few weeks since. But now my eyes are opened. I see my liberty now. Now I am free. I was in bondage long enough. Friend.--What are you free from ? Ant.--From sin, and hell, and the devil, and the law. Friend.--You put the law of God in goodly company. But how came you to be free from the law 7 % % Ant.--Christ made me free from it. Friend.--What I from his own law? Pray, where is that written? Ant.--Here, Galatians iii. 13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Friend.--What is this to the purpose? This tells me, that “Christ hath redeemed us” (all that believe) “from the curse,” or punishment, justly due to our past transgressions of God’s law, But it speaks not a word of redeeming us from the law, any more than from love or heaven. But what do you mean by bondage? Ant--Why, the being bound to keep the law. Friend.--You have no tittle of Scripture for this. Bond age to fear and bondage to sin are mentioned there; and bondage to the ceremonial law of Moses: But, according to your sense of the word, all the angels in heaven are in bondage. , Ant.--Well, I am not bound. St. Paul himself says to believers, “Why are ye subject to ordinances?” (Col. ii. 20.) Friend.--True; that is, Why are you Christian believers subject to Jewish ordinances? such as those which are mentioned in the very next verse, “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” Ant.--Nay, that is not all. I say, “Outward things do nothing avail to salvation.” This is plain; for “if love to God, and love to our neighbour, and relieving the poor, be altogether unprofitable and unavailable either to justification or salvation; then these outward works, in submitting to outward ordinances, are much less available.” Friend.--Do you speak of the ordinances of Christ? Ant.--I do.