Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/103

 *venant of grace and not of works: that a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law; and that ''to him that worketh not but believeth, his faith is counted for righteousness:) or, thirdly, The doing this practically; the making void the law in practice tho' not in principle: the living or acting, as if faith was designed to excuse us from holiness: the allowing ourselves in sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace. It remains to enquire, how we may follow a better pattern, how we may be able to say with the apostle, Do we then make void the law thro' faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law.''

2. We do not indeed establish the old ceremonial law: we know that is abolished for ever. Much less do we establish the whole Mosaic dispensation. This, we know, our Lord has ''nailed to his cross''. Nor yet do we so establish the moral law (which it is to be feared, too many do) as if the fulfilling it, the keeping all the commandments, were the condition of our justification. If it were so, surely ''in his sight, should no man living be justified''. But all this being allowed, we still in the apostle's sense, establish the law, the moral law.

I. 1. We establish the law, first, By our doctrine: by endeavouring to preach it in its whole extent, to explain and inforce every part of it, in the same manner as our great Teacher did, while upon earth. We establish it, by following