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yea, that ‘with man this is impossible;’ but we see a promise of God to
give us that love, and to make us humble, meek, and holy: we lay hold
of this gospel, of these glad tidings; it is done unto us according to our
faith; and ‘the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us,’ through faith
which is in Christ Jesus....
“In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ,” said
Wesley, “are they who openly and explicitly ‘judge the law’ itself,
and ‘speak evil of the law;’ who teach men to break (to dissolve, to
loose, to untie the obligation of) not one only, whether of the least
or of the greatest, but all the commandments at a stroke.... The most
surprising of all the circumstances that attend this strong delusion, is
that they who are given up to it, really believe that they honor Christ by
overthrowing His law, and that they are magnifying His office while
they are destroying His doctrine! Yea, they honor Him just as Judas did
when he said, ‘Hail, Master, and kissed Him.’ And He may as justly
say to every one of them, ‘Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’
It is no other than betraying Him with a kiss, to talk of His blood, and
take away His crown; to set light by any part of His law, under pretense
of advancing His gospel. Nor indeed can anyone escape this charge,
who preaches faith in any such a manner as either directly or indirectly
tends to set aside any branch of obedience: who preaches Christ so as
to disannul, or weaken in any wise, the least of the commandments of
God.”—Ibid.
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To those who urged that “the preaching of the gospel answers all
the ends of the law,” Wesley replied: “This we utterly deny. It does
not answer the very first end of the law, namely, the convincing men
of sin, the awakening those who are still asleep on the brink of hell.”
The apostle Paul declares that “by the law is the knowledge of sin;”
“and not until man is convicted of sin, will he truly feel his need of the
atoning blood of Christ.... ‘They that be whole,’ as our Lord Himself
observes, ‘need not a physician, but they that are sick.’ It is absurd,
therefore, to offer a physician to them that are whole, or that at least
imagine themselves so to be. You are first to convince them that they
are sick; otherwise they will not thank you for your labor. It is equally
absurd to offer Christ to them whose heart is whole, having never yet
been broken.”—Ibid., sermon 35.
Thus while preaching the gospel of the grace of God, Wesley,
like his Master, sought to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.”