Wesley Corpus

But do you infer from thence, “therefore he has destroyed the law?” Our Lord’s arguing is the very reverse of yours. He mentions his coming to “fulfil the law,” as an evident proof that he did not come to “destroy” or “take it away.” But suppose you could get over the former verse, what can you do with the following?--“Verily I say unto you, One jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till heaven and earth pass;” or, which comes to the same thing, “till all be fulfilled.” The former evasion will do you no service with regard to this clause. For the word “all” in this does not refer to the law, but to heaven and earth and “all things” therein: The original sentence running thus: Ews ay wravia ysvara. Nor indeed is the word 'yevnrx well rendered by the ambiguous word “fulfilled,” which would easily induce an English reader to suppose it was the same word that was ren dered so just before; it should rather be translated accom plished, finished, or done; as they will be in the great and terrible day of the Lord, when the “earth and the heaven shall flee from his face, and there shall be no place found for them.” Ant.--But why did you say, my account of sanctification was crude and indigested? (First Dialogue, page 273.) Friend.--Let me. hear it again. If it be better digested than it was, I shall rejoice. Ant.--“Our minds are either defiled and impure, or pure and holy. The question is, Which way is a defiled and impure mind to be made a good one? You say, “By love, meekness, gentleness.’ I say, By believing in Christ. By this, my conscience becomes purged and clean, as though I had not committed sin. And such a purged conscience bears forth the fruit of love, meekness, gentleness, &c. It is therefore absurd to say, We are made good by goodness, meek by meekness, or gentle by gentleness. We are only denominated so from these fruits of the Spirit.” (Cudworth’s Dialogue, page 10.) Friend.--You have mended the matter a little, and not much. For, 1. “The question,” say you, “is, Which way is a defiled and impure mind to be made a good one?” Nothing less.