Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/47

 own: for your heart was not right toward God. Ye were not yourselves meek and lowly, ye were not lovers of God and of all mankind: ye were not renewed in the image of God. Ye were not holy as I am holy. Depart from me, ye who notwithstanding all this, are workers of iniquity; [Greek: anomia]. Ye are transgressors of my law, my law of holy and perfect love.

6. It is to put this beyond all possibility of contradiction, that our Lord confirms it by that apposite comparison. Every one, saith he, ''who heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand''. ''And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house'': as they will surely do, sooner or later, upon every soul of man; even the floods of outward affliction, or inward temptation; the storms of pride, anger, fear or desire. ''And it fell and great was the fall of it'': so that it perished for ever and ever. Such must be the portion of all, who rest in any thing short of that religion which is above described. And the greater will their fall be, because ''they heard those sayings, and yet did them not''.

II. 1. I am, secondly, to shew the wisdom of him that doth them, that ''buildeth his house upon a rock''. He indeed is wise, who doth the will of my Father which is in heaven. He is truly wise, whose righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the