Later English Reformers
217
The spiritual declension which had been manifest in England just
before the time of Wesley was in great degree the result of antinomian
teaching. Many affirmed that Christ had abolished the moral law and
that Christians are therefore under no obligation to observe it; that a
believer is freed from the “bondage of good works.” Others, though
admitting the perpetuity of the law, declared that it was unnecessary
[261]
for ministers to exhort the people to obedience of its precepts, since
those whom God had elected to salvation would, “by the irresistible
impulse of divine grace, be led to the practice of piety and virtue,”
while those who were doomed to eternal reprobation “did not have
power to obey the divine law.”
Others, also holding that “the elect cannot fall from grace nor
forfeit the divine favor,” arrived at the still more hideous conclusion
that “the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor to be
considered as instances of their violation of the divine law, and that,
consequently, they have no occasion either to confess their sins or to
break them off by repentance.”—McClintock and Strong, Cyclopedia,
art. “Antinomians.” Therefore, they declared that even one of the vilest
of sins, “considered universally an enormous violation of the divine
law, is not a sin in the sight of God,” if committed by one of the elect,
“because it is one of the essential and distinctive characteristics of the
elect, that they cannot do anything that is either displeasing to God or
prohibited by the law.”
These monstrous doctrines are essentially the same as the later
teaching of popular educators and theologians—that there is no un-
changeable divine law as the standard of right, but that the standard of
morality is indicated by society itself, and has constantly been subject
to change. All these ideas are inspired by the same master spirit—by
him who, even among the sinless inhabitants of heaven, began his
work of seeking to break down the righteous restraints of the law of
God.
The doctrine of the divine decrees, unalterably fixing the character
of men, had led many to a virtual rejection of the law of God. Wesley
steadfastly opposed the errors of the antinomian teachers and showed
that this doctrine which led to antinomianism was contrary to the
Scriptures. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to
[262]
all men.” “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of