Later English Reformers
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In answer to the claim that at the death of Christ the precepts of the
decalogue had been abolished with the ceremonial law, Wesley said:
“The moral law, contained in the ten commandments, and enforced
by the prophets, he did not take away. It was not the design of his
coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be
broken, which ‘stands fast as the faithful witness in Heaven.’ ... This
was from the beginning of the world, being ‘written not on tables of
stone,’ but on the hearts of all the children of men, when they came
out of the hands of the Creator. And, however the letters once written
by the finger of God are now in a great measure defaced by sin, yet
can they not wholly be blotted out, while we have any consciousness
of good and evil. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all
mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or
any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God,
and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.
“‘I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’ ... Without question his
meaning in this place is (consistently with all that goes before and
follows after),—I am come to establish it in its fullness, in spite of
all the glosses of men; I am come to place in a full and clear view
whatsoever was dark and obscure therein; I am come to declare the
true and full import of every part of it; to show the length and breadth,
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the entire extent, of every commandment contained therein, and the
height and depth, the inconceivable purity and spirituality of it in all
its branches.”
Wesley declared the perfect harmony of the law and the gospel
“There is, therefore, the closest connection that can be conceived,
between the law and the gospel. On the one hand, the law continually
makes way for and points us to, the gospel; on the other, the gospel
continually leads us to a more exact fulfilling of the law. The law, for
instance, requires us to love God, to love our neighbor, to be meek,
humble, or holy. We feel that we are not sufficient for these things;
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 to 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,