A Dialogue Between an Antinomian and His Friend
[FROM JOHN WESLEY'S MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.]
# A DIALOGUE
## BETWEEN AN ANTINOMIAN AND HIS FRIEND. ANTINOMIAN.—Well met, my friend. I am glad to see you. But I am sorry to hear you have changed your religion. FRIEND.—Changed my religion! I do not know what you mean. Ant.—Why, you once believed that we are saved by faith. F.—Undoubtedly; and so I do still. Ant.—Do you believe, then, that the "whole work of man's salvation was accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross?" F.—I believe, that, by that one offering, he made a full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. Ant.—But do you believe that "Christ's blood and our sins went away together"? F.—To say the truth I do not understand it. Ant.—No! Why, did not Christ, "when he was upon the cross, take away, put an end to, blot out, and utterly destroy all our sins forever?" F.—He did then pay the price, for the sake of which, all who truly believe in him are now saved from their sins; and, if they endure to the end, shall be saved everlastingly. Is this what you mean? Ant.—I mean, "He did then heal, take away, put an end to, and utterly destroy, all our sins." F.—Did he then heal the wound before it was made, and put an end to our sins before they had a beginning? This is so glaring, palpable an absurdity, that I cannot conceive how you can swallow it. Ant.—I thought you would come to your "carnal reasoning." What has faith to do with reasoning? F.—Do you ever read the Bible? Does not God himself say to sinners, "Come now and let us reason together"? Isaiah 1:18. Does not our Lord reason continually with the Scribes and Pharisees; St. Peter with the Jews; (Acts 2:14.) and St. Paul, both with the Jews and Gentiles? Nay, is not a great part of his Epistles, both to the Romans and to the Galatians, and the far greatest part of that to the Hebrews, one entire chain of reasoning? Ant.—You may do what you please. But I do not reason; I believe. (The words printed as quotations are transcribed from late authors. I am not willing to name them.) F.—Now, I believe and reason too; for I find no inconsistency between them. And I would just as soon, put out my eyes to secure my faith, as lay aside my reason. Ant.—But do not men abuse their reason continually? Therefore it is best to have nothing to do with it. F.—So, now you are doing the very thing you condemn! You are reasoning against reasoning. And no wonder; for it is impossible, without reasoning, either to prove or disprove anything. Ant.—But can you deny the fact? Do not men abuse their reason continually? F.—They do. The fact I deny not. But I deny the inference drawn from it. For if we must lay aside whatever men abuse continually, we must lay aside the Bible; nay, and meat and drink too. Ant.—Well, but come to the point. In what do you trust for justification and salvation? F.—In the alone merits of Christ, which are mine, if I truly believe that he loved me, and gave himself for me. Ant.—If! So you make salvation conditional! F.—And do not you? Else you make God a liar; for his express words are, "He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned."
What is this but to say, If thou believest, (there is the condition) thou shalt be saved? Ant.—But I do not like that word, condition. F.—Then find a better, and we will lay it aside. Ant.—However, I insist upon it, "nothing else beside faith is required" in order to justification and salvation. F.—What do you mean by nothing else is required? Ant.—I mean, there is but one duty, which is that of believing. One must do nothing, but quietly attend the voice of the Lord. The gates of Heaven are shut upon workers, and open to believers. If we do nothing for Heaven, "we do as much as God requires." F.—Do you really mean, we are to do nothing, in order to present or final salvation but "only to believe"? Ant.—Do not I tell you so? "To believe certainly, that Christ suffered death for us, is enough; we want no more. We are justified by our submitting in our judgments to the truth of God's grace in Christ Jesus. It is not necessary that a man do any works, that he may be justified and saved. God doth not require thee to do anything, that thou mayest be saved or justified. The law sets thee to work; but the gospel binds thee to do nothing at all. Nay, the works are not only not required, but forbidden. God forbids us to work for justification. And when the Apostle Paul presseth men to believe, it is as much as if he had bid them not to work." F.—Let Paul be permitted to answer for himself. In the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, he relates how our Lord sent him "to open the eyes of the Gentiles,—that they might receive remission of sins." Verses 17, 18. "Whereupon," saith he, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision; but showed to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." Observe: He "obeyed the heavenly vision," "by teaching the Gentiles, before they were justified, before they had received forgiveness of sins," to "repent and do works meet for repentance." So far was he from "bidding them not to work," while he was "pressing them to believe." Ant.—You are got to your "carnal reasoning" again. F.—Carnal reasoning, I perceive is a cant term, which you use when you know not what else to say. But I have not done with this instance yet. Did St. Paul, in deed, preach to those Heathens according to the instruction given him from heaven, or did he not? Ant.—Without doubt, he did; otherwise he would have been "disobedient unto the heavenly vision." F.—How then say you that a minister of Christ ought to preach nothing but "Believe, believe?" and, that to tell men of doing anything, is "preaching the law?" Do you not herein condemn, not only the great Apostle, but also Him that sent and commanded him "thus to preach"? Ant.—Why, surely, you would not have us to be "under the law"? F.—I fear you know not what that expression means. St. Paul uses it thrice in his Epistle to the Romans, five times in that to the Galatians, and in one passage of his former Epistle to the Corinthians; where he declares in what sense he was himself "under the law," and in what sense he was not. "Unto them that are under the law," (that still adhere to the whole Jewish dispensation,) "I became as under the law," (I conformed to their ceremonies,) "that I might gain them that are under the law: But unto them that are without law," (unto the Gentiles, or Heathens,) "as without the law; being," meantime, "not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." 1 Cor. 9:20, 21. It is plain, therefore, the Apostle was "under the law" of Christ, though he was not under the law of ceremonies. Ant.—But does not St. Paul say to the believers at Rome, "Ye are not under the law, but under grace"? F.—He does; and his meaning is, "Ye are not under the Jewish, but the gracious Christian, dispensation." As also in the next verse, where he says, "we are not under the law, but under grace." Ant.—But what does he mean, when he says to the Galatians, "Before faith came, we were kept under the law"? F.—Doubtless he means we were kept under the Jewish dispensation, till we believed in Christ. 3:19. And so we read in the next chapter. "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made under the law," (the Jewish dispensation,) "to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons;" verses 4, 5; might serve God, without fear, in righteousness and holiness, with a free, loving, childlike spirit. Ant.—You cannot persuade me to this; I know better. The law of works (the moral law, as you call it) is nothing to me. "From any demand of the law, no man is obliged to go one step, to give away one farthing, to eat, or omit one morsel. For what did our Lord do with the law? He abolished it." F.—However, ought not we, after we believe in him, to obey all the commandments of Christ? Ant.—Obey! law! works! commandments! O, what "legalness is in your spirit!" So, I suppose, your comforts vanish away when you are not assured you obey all Christ's commandments!" On the contrary, "a spiritual man beholdeth justifying grace in believing, without his obedience to commands for external worship and good works." F.—But how does this agree with numberless texts of Scripture? In particular, with those words of our Lord, "Think not that I am come to destroy" (or abolish) "the law: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:17, etc. Ant.—I tell you plainly, I will not reason. F.—That is as much as to say, "I will not be convinced; I love darkness rather than light." Ant.—No; it is you that are in darkness. I was so till a few weeks since. But now my eyes are opened. I see my liberty now. Now I am free. I was in bondage long enough. F.—What are you free from. Ant.—From sin, and hell, and the devil, and the law. F.—You put the law of God in goodly company. But how came you to be free from the law? Ant.—Christ made me free from it. F.—What! from his own law? Pray, where is that written? Ant.—Here, Galatians 3:13: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." F.—What is this to the purpose? This tells me that "Christ hath redeemed us" (all that believe) "from the curse," or punishment, justly due to our past transgressions of God's law. But it speaks not a word of redeeming from the law, any more than from love or heaven. But what do you mean by bondage? Ant.—Why, the being bound to the law. F.—You have no tittle of Scripture for this. Bondage to fear and bondage to sin are mentioned there; and bondage to the ceremonial law of Moses. But according to your sense of the word, all the angels in heaven are in bondage.
(To be Continued.)