If Antinomianism kept John Wesley up at night, it seems the covenant of works and original sin kept George Whitefield up at night. Original sin only comes up by name in "The Method of Grace" but its influence appears in "Christ, the Believer's Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption" and "The Lord Our Righteousness." Whitefield is deeply bothered by the covenant of works and any sort of idea that any (good) work a person does earns them any type of righteousness, justification, or sanctification. It seems the key to this understanding for Whitefield is his belief in original sin. Because humans are so tainted and separated from God from the start there is no way works righteousness could work- the cavern is too big. Even after conversion the affect of original sin means a person is still incapable of doing good works on their own. Good works, for Whitefield, come from God alone; even after being justified and counted as righteous a person cannot perform good works on their own. The fruits of the Spirit are God moving in/ through the believer (God is the agent and the believer is a vessel).
Given John Wesley's love of methods and of participating in the ordinances of the church (including good works) even before conversion, how do the two points of view blend? While Wesley agrees works do not gain one righteousness or salvation, he does still seem to think a person can perform good works themselves (they are the primary agent) and that good works are efficacious for the soul and conversion. My understanding is that this (Wesley's) view dominated the Methodist movement at this time. If that's correct, how did Whitefield's position on works fit in with the Methodist movement as whole?
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