The Original, Nature, Property and Use of the Law · §13 · John Wesley

Not the ceremonial law

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The nature of that law which was originally given to angels in heaven and man in paradise, and which God has so mercifully promised to write afresh, in the hearts of all true believers, was the second thing I proposed to show. In order to which I would first observe, that although the law and the commandment are sometimes differently taken, (the commandment meaning but a part of the law) yet in the text they are used as equivalent terms, implying one and the same thing. But we cannot understand here, either by one or the other, the ceremonial law. It is not the ceremonial law, of which the apostle says, in the words above recited, I had not known sin but by the law: this is too plain to need a proof. Neither is it the ceremonial law which says, in the words immediately subjoined, You shall not covet. Therefore the ceremonial law, has no place in the present question.

1771 text

II. 1. The nature of that law which was originally given to angels in heaven and man in paradise, and which God has so mercifully promised to write afresh, in the hearts of all true believers, was the second thing I proposed to shew. In order to which I would first observe, that altho’ the law and the commandment are sometimes differently taken, (the commandment meaning but a part of the law) yet in the text they are used as equivalent terms, implying one and the same thing. But we cannot understand here, either by one or the other, the ceremonial law. ’Tis not the ceremonial law, whereof the apostle says, in the words above recited, I had not known sin but by the law: this is too plain to need a proof. Neither is it the ceremonial law which saith, in the words immediately subjoined, Thou shalt not covet. Therefore the ceremonial law, has no place in the present question.

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