The Original, Nature, Property and Use of the Law · §40 · John Wesley

Not only outward acts

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

To explain this by a single instance. The law says, You shall not kill (Exodus 20:13), and hereby (as our Lord teaches) does not forbid only outward acts, but every unkind word or thought. Now the more I look into this perfect law, the more I feel how far I come short of it: and the more I feel this, the more I feel my need of his blood to atone for all my sin: and of his Spirit to purify my heart, and make me perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

1771 text

6. To explain this by a single instance. The law says, Thou shalt not kill, and hereby (as our Lord teaches) forbids not only outward acts, but every unkind word or thought. Now the more I look into this perfect law, the more I feel how far I come short of it: and the more I feel this, the more I feel my need of his blood to atone for all my sin: and of his Spirit to purify my heart, and make me perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

On Romans 7:12: where the moral law came from, why it is holy, just and good, and what it is for.

EditionPrinted in Wesley's 1771 Works, which do not say when he preached it

Wesley's own sermon in updated English wording. The 1771 panel is the text of the Works Wesley himself had printed in 1771. It is public domain.

Reference

Sermon 34 in the 1771 Works. Romans 7:12.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We put this English text into updated wording with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open the 1771 text under any part to compare.

Report a mistake