Wesley Corpus

You grant all that I desire. If you allow that “faith is necessary in order to receive forgiveness or salvation,” this is the whole of what I mean by terming it a condition. A procuring or meritorious cause is quite another thing. Ant.--But you say that “faith is not true faith, unless it be furnished with love.” (Ibid., page 6.) Friend.--Furnished with love! Where did you pick up that awkward phrase? I never used it in my life. But I say, you have not true faith, unless your faith “worketh by iove;” and that though “I have all faith, so that I could even remove mountains, yet if I have no love I am nothing.” Ant.--Will you answer me one question more? Is not a believer free from the law P Friend.--He is free from the Jewish ceremonial law; that is, he does not, and need not, observe it. And he is free from the curse of the moral law; but he is not free from observing it. He still walks according to this rule, and so much the more, because God has written it in his heart. 280 SECON to DIALOGUE BETWEEN Ant.--But St. Paul says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Ibid., page 8.) Friend.--He is so. He put an end to the Mosaic dispen sation, and established a better covenant, in virtue whereof “faith is counted for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Ant.--But still “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,” (Gal. iii. 10,) are they not? Friend.--They are; as many as still “seek to be justified by the works of the law;” that is, by any works antecedent to, or independent on, faith in Christ. Ant.--“But does not the Apostle say farther, ‘Ye are become dead to the law?’ (Rom. vii. 4.)” (Ibid.) Friend.--You are so, as to its condemning power, if you truly believe in Christ. For “there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” But not as to its directing power; for you “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” You “love him, and keep his commandments.” Ant.--That is not all. I maintain, “a believer is entirely free from the law.” (Ibid.) Friend.--By what scripture do you prove that? Ant.--By Gal. iv.