Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/88

 not: I know not any. I believe you can't produce one, either from the four Evangelists, or the Acts of the Apostles. Neither can you prove this to have been the practice of any of the apostles, from any passage in all their writings.

5. "Nay, does not the apostle Paul say, in his former Epistle to the Corinthians, We preach Christ crucified? ch. i. ver. 23. And in his latter, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord? ch. v. ver. 4."

We consent to rest the cause on this issue: to tread in his steps, to follow his example. Only preach you, just as Paul preached, and the dispute is at an end.

For altho' we are certain he preached Christ, in as perfect a manner as the very chief of the apostles, yet who preached the law more than St. Paul? Therefore he did not think the gospel answered the same end.

6. The very first sermon of St. Paul's, which is recorded, concludes in these words. ''By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets, Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no wise believe, tho' a man declare it unto you'', Acts xiii. 39, &c. Now it is manifest, all this is preaching the law, in the sense wherein you understand the term: even altho' great part of, if not all his hearers,