of religion; a real sense of the excellency of God and Jesus Christ,
and of the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God revealed
in the gospel. There is a divine and superlative glory in these
things; an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind, and more
sublime nature than in other things; a glory greatly distinguishing
them from all that is earthly and temporal. He that is spiritually
enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He
does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has
a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a
rational belief that is holy, and that holiness is a good thing, but
there is a sense of the loveliness of God's holiness. There is not
only a speculative judging that God is gracious, but a sense how
amiable God is upon that account, or a sense of the beauty of this
divine attribute.
There is a twofold understanding or knowledge of good that God has
made the mind of man capable of. The first, that which is merely
speculative and notional; as when a person only speculatively judges
that anything is, which, by the agreement of mankind, is called good
or excellent, viz., that which is most to general advantage, and
between which and a reward there is a suitableness, and the like. And
the other is, that which consists in the sense of the heart: as when
there is a sense of the beauty, amiableness, or sweetness of a thing;
so that the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence
of the idea of it. In the former is exercised merely the speculative
faculty, or the understanding, strictly so called, or as spoken of in
distinction from the will or disposition of the soul. In the latter,
the will, or inclination, or heart is mainly concerned.
Thus there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy
and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that
holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational
judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A
man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can
not have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in
his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is
beautiful and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained
by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. There is a
wide difference between mere speculative rational judging anything
to be excellent, and having a sense of its sweetness and beauty. The
former rests only in the head, speculation only is concerned in it;
but the heart is concerned in the latter. When the heart is sensible
of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels
pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person's being
heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is
sweet and pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from
having a rational opinion that it is excellent.
2. There arises from this sense of divine excellency of things
contained in the word of God a conviction of the truth and reality of
them; and that either directly or indirectly.
First, indirectly, and that two ways.
(1) As the prejudices that are in the heart, against the truth of
divine things, are hereby removed; so that the mind becomes susceptive
of the due force of rational arguments for their truth. The mind
of man is naturally full of prejudices against the truth of divine
things: it is full of enmity against the doctrines of the gospel;
which is a disadvantage to those arguments that prove their truth, and
causes them to lose their force upon the mind. But when a person has
discovered to him the divine excellency of Christian doctrines, this
destroys the enmity, removes those prejudices, and sanctifies the
reason, and causes it to lie open to the force of arguments for their
truth.
Hence was the different effect that Christ's miracles had to convince
the disciples from what they had to convince the scribes and
Pharisees. Not that they had a stronger reason, or had their reason
more improved; but their reason was sanctified, and those blinding
prejudices, that the scribes and Pharisees were under, were removed by
the sense they had of the excellency of Christ and His doctrine.
(2) It not only removes the hindrances of reason, but positively helps
reason. It makes even the speculative notions the more lively. It
engages the attention of the mind, with the more fixedness and
intenseness to that kind of objects; which causes it to have a
clearer view of them, and enables it more clearly to see their mutual
relations, and occasions it to take more notice of them. The ideas
themselves that otherwise are dim and obscure, are by this means
imprest with the greater strength, and have a light cast upon them, so
that the mind can better judge of them; as he that beholds the objects
on the face of the earth, when the light of the sun is cast upon them,
is under greater advantage to discern them in their true forms and
mutual relations, than he that sees them in a dim starlight or
twilight.
The mind having a sensibleness of the excellency of divine objects,
dwells upon them with delight; and the powers of the soul are more
awakened and enlivened to employ themselves in the contemplation of
them, and exert themselves more fully and much more to the purpose.
The beauty and sweetness of the objects draw on the faculties, and
draw forth their exercises; so that reason itself is under far greater
advantages for its proper and free exercises, and to attain its proper
end, free of darkness and delusion.
Secondly. A true sense of the divine excellency of these things is so
superlative as more directly and immediately to convince of the
truth of them; and that because the excellency of these things is so
superlative. There is a beauty in them that is so divine and godlike,
that it greatly and evidently distinguishes them from things merely
human, or that men are the inventors and authors of; a glory that is
so high and great, that when clearly seen, it commands assent to their
divinity and reality. When there is an actual and lively discovery of
this beauty and excellency, it will not allow of any such thought
as that it is a human work, or the fruit of men's invention. This
evidence that they who are spiritually enlightened have of the truth
of the things of religion, is a kind of intuitive and immediate
evidence. They believe the doctrines of God's word to be divine,
because they see divinity in them; _i.e._, they see a divine, and
transcendent, and most evidently distinguishing glory in them; such a
glory as, if clearly seen, does not leave room to doubt of their being
of God, and not of men.
Such a conviction of the truth of religion as this, arising, these
ways, from a sense of the divine excellency of them, is that true
spiritual conviction that there is in saving faith. And this original
of it, is that by which it is most essentially distinguished from that
common assent, which unregenerated men are capable of.
I proceed now to show how this light is immediately given by God, and
not obtained by natural means.
1. It is not intended that the natural faculties are not made use of
in it. The natural faculties are the subject of this light: and they
are the subject in such a manner that they are not merely passive,
but active in it; the acts and exercises of men's understanding are
concerned and made use of in it. God, in letting in this light into
the soul, deals with man according to his nature, or as a rational
creature; and makes use of his human faculties. But yet this light is
not the less immediately from God for that; tho the faculties are made
use of, it is as the subject and not as the cause; and that acting of
the faculties in it is not the cause, but is either implied in the
thing itself (in the light that is imparted) or is the consequence of
it; as the use that we make of our eyes in beholding various objects,
when the sun arises, is not the cause of the light that discovers
those objects to us.
2. It is not intended that outward means have no concern in this
affair. As I have observed already, it is not in this affair, as it is
in inspiration, where new truths are suggested: for here is by this
light only given a due apprehension of the same truths that are
revealed in the word of God; and therefore it is not given without
the word. The gospel is made use of in this affair: this light is the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ. (II Cor. iv., 4.) The gospel
is as a glass, by which this light is conveyed to us (I Cor. xiii.,
12). Now we see through a glass.
3. When it is said that this light is given immediately by God, and
not obtained by natural means, hereby is intended that it is given by
God without making use of any means that operate by their own power,
or a natural force. God makes use of means; but it is not as mediate
causes to produce this effect. There are not truly any second causes
of it; but it is produced by God immediately. The Word of God is no
proper cause of this effect: it does not operate by any natural force
in it. The Word of God is only made use of to convey to the mind the
subject matter of this saving instruction, and this indeed it doth
convey to us by natural force or influence. It conveys to our minds
these and those doctrines; it is the cause of the notion of them in
our heads, but not of the sense of the divine excellency of them in
our hearts. Indeed, a person can not have spiritual light without the
Word. But that does not argue that the Word properly causes the light
The mind can not see the excellency of any doctrine unless that
doctrine be first in the mind; but the seeing of the excellency of the
doctrine may be immediately from the Spirit of God; tho the conveying
of the doctrine or proposition itself may be by the Word. So that the
notions that are the subject-matter of this light are conveyed to the
mind by the Word of God; but that due sense of the heart, wherein this
light formally consists, is immediately by the Spirit of God. As for
instance, that notion that there is a Christ, and that Christ is holy
and gracious, is conveyed to the mind by the Word of God; but the
sense of the excellency of Christ by reason of that holiness and
grace, is nevertheless immediately the work of the Holy Spirit.
This is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is
capable of. It is more excellent than any human learning; it is far
more excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or
statesmen. Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of
Christ doth more exalt and ennoble the soul than all the knowledge of
those that have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity
without grace. This knowledge has the most noble object that is or
can be, viz., the divine glory or excellency of God and Christ. The
knowledge of these objects is that wherein consists the most excellent
knowledge of the angels, yea, of God himself.
This knowledge is that which is above all others sweet and joyful.
Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of
natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this
divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those
that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of
delighting the eye of the understanding. This spiritual light is
the dawning of the light of glory in the heart. There is nothing so
powerful as this to support persons in affliction, and to give the
mind peace and brightness in this stormy and dark world.
This light is such as effectually influences the inclination, and
changes the nature of the soul. It assimilates the human nature to the
divine nature, and changes the soul into an image of the same glory
that is beheld (II Cor. iii., 18), "But we all with open face,
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
This knowledge will wean from the world, and raise the inclination
to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of
good, and to choose him for the only portion. This light, and this
only, will bring the soul to a saving close with Christ. It conforms
the heart to the gospel, mortifies its enmity and opposition against
the schemes of salvation therein revealed: it causes the heart to
embrace the joyful tidings, and entirely to adhere to, and acquiesce
in the revelation of Christ as our Savior: it causes the whole soul
to accord and symphonize with it, admitting it with entire credit and
respect; cleaving to it with full inclination and affection; and it
effectually disposes the soul to give up itself entirely to Christ.
This light, and this only, has its fruit in a universal holiness of
life. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines
of religion will ever bring us to this. But this light, as it
reaches the bottom of the heart, and changes the nature, so it
will effectually dispose to a universal obedience. It shows God's
worthiness to be obeyed and served. It draws forth the heart in a
sincere love to God, which is the only principle of a true, gracious,
and universal obedience; and it convinces of the reality of those
glorious rewards that God has promised to them that obey him.
WESLEY
GOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
John Wesley was born at Epworth rectory in Lincolnshire, England,
in 1703. He was educated at Charterhouse school and in 1720 entered
Christ Church College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1724. He was
noted for his classical taste as well as for his religious fervor, and
on being ordained deacon by Bishop Potter, of Oxford, he became his
father's curate in 1727. Being recalled to Oxford to fulfil his duties
as fellow of Lincoln he became the head of the Oxford "Methodists," as
they were called. He had the characteristics of a great general, being
systematic in his work and a lover of discipline, and established
Methodism in London by his sermons at the Foundery. His speaking style
suggested power in repose. His voice was clear and resonant, his
countenance kindly, and his tone extremely moderate. His sermons wore
carefully written, altho not read in the pulpit. They moved others
because he was himself moved. At an advanced age he preached several
times a day, and traveled many miles on horseback. At seventy years
of age he had published thirty octavo volumes. He composed hymns on
horseback, and studied French and mathematics in spare hours, and was
never a moment idle until his death, in 1791.
WESLEY
1703--1791
GOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN
_Not as the transgression, so is the free gift_.--Romans v., 15.
How exceedingly common, and how bitter is the outcry against our first
parent, for the mischief which he not only brought upon himself, but
entailed upon his latest posterity! It was by his wilful rebellion
against God "that sin entered into the world." "By one man's
disobedience," as the apostle observes, the many, as many as were then
in the loins of their forefathers, were made, or constituted sinners:
not only deprived of the favor of God, but also of His image; of all
virtue, righteousness, and true holiness, and sunk partly into the
image of the devil, in pride, malice, and all other diabolical
tempers; partly into the image of the brute, being fallen under the
dominion of brutal passions and groveling appetites. Hence also death
entered into the world, with all his forerunners and attendants; pain,
sickness, and a whole train of uneasy as well as unholy passions and
tempers.
"For all this we may thank Adam," has been echoed down from generation
to generation. The self-same charge has been repeated in every age and
every nation where the oracles of God are known, in which alone this
grand and important event has been discovered to the children of men.
Has not your heart, and probably your lips too, joined in the general
charge? How few are there of those who believe the Scriptural relation
of the Fall of Man, and have not entertained the same thought
concerning our first parent? severely condemning him, that, through
wilful disobedience to the sole command of his Creator,
Brought death into the world and all our wo.
Nay, it were well if the charge rested here: but it is certain it does
not. It can not be denied that it frequently glances from Adam to his
Creator. Have not thousands, even of those that are called Christians,
taken the liberty to call His mercy, if not His justice also, into
question, on this very account? Some indeed have done this a little
more modestly, in an oblique and indirect manner: but others have
thrown aside the mask, and asked, "Did not God foresee that Adam would
abuse his liberty? And did He not know the baneful consequences which
this must naturally have on all his posterity? And why then did He
permit that disobedience? Was it not easy for the Almighty to have
prevented it?" He certainly did foresee the whole. This can not be
denied. "For known unto God are all His works from the beginning of
the world." And it was undoubtedly in His Power to prevent it; for He
hath all power both in heaven and earth. But it was known to Him at
the same time, that it was best upon the whole not to prevent it. He
knew that, "not as the transgression, so is the free gift"; that the
evil resulting from the former was not as the good resulting from the
latter, not worthy to be compared with it. He saw that to permit
the fall of the first man was far best for mankind in general; that
abundantly more good than evil would accrue to the posterity of Adam
by his fall; that if "sin abounded" thereby over all the earth, yet
grace "would much more abound"; yea, and that to every individual of
the human race, unless it was his own choice.
It is exceedingly strange that hardly anything has been written, or
at least published, on this subject: nay, that it has been so little
weighed or understood by the generality of Christians: especially
considering that it is not a matter of mere curiosity, but a truth of
the deepest importance; it being impossible, on any other principle,
To assert a gracious Providence,
And justify the ways of God with men:
and considering withal, how plain this important truth is, to all
sensible and candid inquirers. May the Lover of men open the eyes
of our understanding, to perceive clearly that by the fall of Adam
mankind in general have gained a capacity,
First, of being more holy and happy on earth, and,
Secondly, of being more happy in heaven than otherwise they could have
been.
And, first, mankind in general have gained by the fall of Adam a
capacity of attaining more holiness and happiness on earth than it
would have been possible for them to attain if Adam had not fallen.
For if Adam had not fallen, Christ had not died. Nothing can be more
clear than this: nothing more undeniable: the more thoroughly we
consider the point, the more deeply shall we be convinced of it.
Unless all the partakers of human nature had received that deadly
wound in Adam it would not have been needful for the Son of God to
take our nature upon Him. Do you not see that this was the very ground
of His coming into the world? "By one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin. And thus death passed upon all" through him, "in
whom all men sinned." (Rom. v., 12.) Was it not to remedy this very
thing that "the Word was made flesh"? that "as in Adam all died, so
in Christ all might be made alive"? Unless, then, many had been made
sinners by the disobedience of one, by the obedience of one many would
not have been made righteous (ver. 18); so there would have been no
room for that amazing display of the Son of God's love to mankind.
There would have been no occasion for His "being obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross." It would not then have been said, to the
astonishment of all the hosts of heaven, "God so loved the world,"
yea, the ungodly world, which had no thought or desire of returning to
Him, "that he gave his Son" out of His bosom, His only begotten Son,
to the end that "whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." Neither could we then have said, "God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself"; or that He "made him to be
sin," that is, a sin-offering "for us, who know no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God through him." There would have been
no such occasion for such "an advocate with the Father" as "Jesus
Christ the Righteous"; neither for His appearing "at the right hand of
God, to make intercession for us."
What is the necessary consequence of this? It is this: there could
then have been no such thing as faith in God, thus loving the world,
giving His only Son for us men, and for our salvation. There could
have been no such thing as faith in the Son of God, as loving us and
giving Himself for us. There could have been no faith in the Spirit of
God, as renewing the image of God in our hearts, as raising us from
the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. Indeed, the whole
privilege of justification by faith could have no existence; there
could have been no redemption in the blood of Christ: neither could
Christ have been "made of God unto us," "wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, or redemption."
And the same grand blank which was in our faith, must likewise have
been in our love. We might have loved the Author of our being, the
Father of angels and men, as our Creator and Preserver: we might have
said, "O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the
earth!" But we could not have loved Him under the nearest and dearest
relation, as delivering up His Son for us all. We might have loved
the Son of God, as being the "brightness of his Father's glory," the
express image of His person (altho this ground seems to belong rather
to the inhabitants of heaven than earth). But we could not have loved
Him as "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree," and "by
that one oblation of himself once offered, making a full oblation,
sacrifice, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." We would
not have been "made conformable to his death," nor have known "the
power of his resurrection." We could not have loved the Holy Ghost as
revealing to us the Father and the Son, as opening the eyes of our
understanding, bringing us out of darkness into His marvelous light,
renewing the image of God in our soul, and sealing us unto the day of
redemption. So that, in truth, what is now "in the sight of God, even
the Father," not of fallible men "pure religion and undefiled," would
then, have had no being: inasmuch as it wholly depends on those grand
principles, "By grace ye are saved through faith"; and "Jesus Christ
is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption."
We see then what unspeakable advantage we derive from the fall of our
first parent, with regard to faith: faith both in God the Father,
who spared not His own Son, His only Son, but wounded Him for our
transgressions and bruised Him for our iniquities; and in God the Son,
who poured out His soul for us transgressors, and washed us in His own
blood. We see what advantage we derive therefrom with regard to the
love of God, both of God the Father and God the Son. The chief ground
of this love, as long as we remain in the body, is plainly declared
by the apostle, "We love him, because he first loved us." But the
greatest instance of His love had never been given if Adam had not
fallen.