Notes
Notes
1Most of which were first inserted in the Arminian magazine, and afterwards revised, and published in four volumes, Duodecimo, in the year 1788.
2Consisting of eighteen discourses, which were written for insertion in the Arminian magazine, but which were never revised by Mr. Wesley after their publication.
3Consisting of seven discourses which were published by Mr. Wesley only in a separate form, and were never, by him, embodied in any collection of his sermons.
4Consisting of eight discourses which were published from Mr. Wesley’s manuscripts after his death, but never designed by him for publication.
5Preached at St. Mary’s, Oxford, before the University, on June 18, 1738.
6(text from the 1872 edition) 7Preached at St. Mary’s, Oxford, before the University, on July 25, 1741.
8(text from the 1872 edition)
9Preached on Sunday April 4, 1742, before the University of Oxford, by the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A. Student of Christ-Church.
10(text of the 1872 edition)
11[This Sermon was originally published in a separate pamphlet, accompanied by the following address “to the reader,” to which was affixed the author’s signature: “It was not my design, when I wrote, ever to print the latter part of the following Sermon: But the false and scurrilous accounts of it which have been published, almost in every corner of the nation, constrain me to publish the whole, just as it was preached; that men of reason may judge for themselves.—EDIT] 12Preached at St. Mary’s, Oxford, before the University, August 24, 1744.
13(text from the 1872 edition) 14[text from the 1872 edition] 15[text from the 1872 edition] 16(text of the 1872 edition) 17(text from the 1872 edition) 18[text from the 1872 edition] 19[text of the 1872 edition] 20(text of the 1872 edition)
21Preached at the Assizes held before the Honorable Sir Edward Clive, Knight, one of the Judges of His Majesty’s Court of Common Pleas, in St. Paul’s Church, Bedford, on Friday, March 10, 1758; published at the request of William Cole, Esq., High Sheriff of the county, and others.
22[text of the 1872 edition] 23(text from the 1872 edition) 24Preached at St. Mary’s, Oxford, before the University, on January 1, 1733.
25N.B. The following part of this paragraph is now added to the Sermon formerly preached.
26N. B. The following part of this paragraph is now added to the Sermon formerly preached.
27[text of the 1872 edition] 28[text from the 1872 edition] 29(Preached at the chapel in West-Street, Seven Dials, on Sunday, Nov. 24, 1765) 30[text of the 1872 edition] 31[text of the 1872 edition] 32[text of the 1872 edition] 33[text of the 1872 ed.] 34[text of the 1872 edition] 35[text of the 1872 ed.] 36[text of the 1872 ed.] 37[text of the 1872 edition] 38[text of the 1872 edition] 39[text of the 1872 edition] 40[text from the 1872 edition] 41[text of the 1872 edition] 42[text from the 1872 edition] 43(text from the 1872 edition) 44[text from the 1872 edition] 45(text from the 1872 edition) 46[text of the 1872 edition] 47[text from the 1872 edition] 48[text from the 1872 edition] 49[text from the 1872 edition] 50(text of the 1872 ed.) 51(text from the 1872 edition) 52[text from the 1872 edition] 53[text from the 1872 edition] 54[text of the 1872 edition] 55[text from the 1872 edition]
56Preached before the Society for Reformation of Manners on Sunday, January 30, 1763 at the Chapel in West-Street, Seven-Dials 57(text of the 1872 edition) 58(text from the 1872 edition) 59(text from the 1872 edition)
60Some days since I was desired to preach on this text. I did so yesterday morning. In the afternoon I was pressed to write down and print my sermon, if possible, before I left Cork. I have wrote it this morning; but I must beg the reader to make allowance for the disadvantages I am under; as I have not here any books to consult, nor indeed any time to consult them. —Cork, May 8, 1775.
61[text from the 1872 edition] 62[text from the 1872 edition] 63[text from the 1872 edition] 64[text of the 1872 edition] 65[text of the 1872 edition] 66[text of the 1872 edition] 67[text of the 1872 edition] 68[text from the 1872 edition] 69[text of the 1872 edition] 70(text from the 1872 edition) 71[text from the 1872 edition] 72(text from the 1872 edition) 73(text from the 1872 edition) 74[text from the 1872 edition] 75[text from the 1872 edition] 76[text of the 1872 edition] 77[text from the 1872 edition] 78(text from the 1872 edition) 79[text of the 1872 edition] 80[text from the 1872 edition] 81[text from the 1872 edition] 82[text from the 1872 edition] 83[text of the 1872 edition] 84[text from the 1872 edition] 85[text of the 1872 edition] 86[text of the 1872 ed.] 87[text from the 1872 edition] 88[text from the 1872 edition] 89[text from the 1872 edition] 90[text from the 1872 edition] 91(text from 1872 edition) 92[text from the 1872 edition] 93[text from the 1872 edition] 94(text from the 1872 edition) 95[text from the 1872 edition] 96[text from the 1872 edition] 97[text from the 1872 edition] 98[text from the 1872 edition] 99[text of the 1872 edition] 100[text of the 1872 ed.] 101[text of the 1872 ed.] 102[text from the 1872 edition] 103[text of the 1872 ed.]
104The following discourse was written above five-and-fifty years ago, for the use of my pupils at Oxford. I have added very little, but retrenched much; as I then used more words than I do now. But, I thank God, I have not yet seen cause to alter my sentiments in any point which is therein delivered. —1788 105[text from the 1872 Edition] 106[text from the 1872 edition] 107(text from the 1872 edition) 108(text from the 1872 edition) 109(text from the 1872 edition) 110[text from the 1872 edition] 111[text from the 1872 edition] 112[text from the 1872 edition] 113[text of the 1872 ed.] 114[text of the 1872 ed.] 115(text from the 1872 edition) 116[text of the 1872 Edition] 117[a.k.a. Prophets and Priests (Sermon 121 in the Bicentennial Edition)]
118[Respecting this Sermon the following information is given by Mr. Moore, in his “Life of Mr. Wesley,” vol. ii., p. 339: — “I was with Mr. Wesley in London when he published that Sermon. He had encouraged me to be a man of one book; and he had repeatedly invited me to speak fully whatever objection I had to any thing which he published. I thought that some things in that discourse were not to be found in THE BOOK; and I resolved to tell him so the first opportunity. It soon occurred. I respectfully observed that I agreed with him, that the Lord had always sent by whom He would send, instruction, reproof, and correction in righteousness, to mankind; and that there was a real distinction between the prophetic and priestly office in the Old Testament, and the prophetic and pastoral office in the New; (where no priesthood is mentioned but that of our Lord;) but I could not think that what he had said concerning the Evangelists and the Pastors, or Bishops, was agreeable to what we read there; viz., that the latter had a right to administer the sacraments, which the former did not possess. I observed, ‘Sir, you know that the Evangelists Timothy and Titus were ordered by the Apostle to ordain Bishops in every place; and surely they could not impart to them an authority which they did not themselves possess.’ He looked earnestly at me for some time, but not with displeasure. He made no reply, and soon introduced another subject. I said no more. The man of one book would not dispute against it. I believe, he saw, his love to the Church, from which he never deviated unnecessarily, had, in this instance, led him a little too far.” — EDIT.] 119[text from the 1872 edition] 120[text from the 1872 edition] 121[text of the 1872 ed.] 122[text from the 1872 edition] 123[text of the 1872 ed.] 124[text from the 1872 edition] 125[text from the 1872 edition] 126[text from the 1872 edition] 127[text from the 1872 edition] 128[text from the 1872 edition] 129[text from the 1872 edition] 130Preached at St. Mary’s in Oxford, on Sunday, Sept. 21, 1735 131Published at the request of several of the hearers
132[This appears to have been the first Sermon that Mr. Wesley ever committed to the press. It was preached about a month before he sailed for Georgia; and published the same year by C. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard. After remaining out of print upwards of ninety years, it is here republished as an authentic, and not uninteresting, specimen of his preaching at the time when he left his native country to convert Heathens; and, as he states, learned in the ends of the earth, what he least suspected, that he had never been converted himself. The reader will observe that while the Sermon displays great seriousness and zeal, it exhibits a very inadequate view of real Christianity. The Preacher attributes the sanctification of human nature, in a great measure, to personal sufferings; assumes that the body is the seat of moral evil; and that sin exists in the best of Christians till they obtain deliverance by the hand of death. With what ability and success he afterwards opposed these unevangelical principles, and taught the doctrine of present salvation from all sin, by faith in Jesus Christ, is well known to all who are conversant with his Works, and especially with his Journal and Sermons. Viewed in connexion with his subsequent writings, this Sermon is of considerable importance, as it serves very strikingly to illustrate the change which took place in his religious sentiments previously to his entrance upon that astonishing career of ministerial labour and usefulness, by which he was so eminently distinguished. As a perfect antidote to the doctrinal mistakes which it contains, the reader is referred to the admirable Sermon, entitled, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” [43] (Sermons, vol. 2, p. 43.) — Edit.] 133(text from the 1872 edition) 134Preached at Bristol, in the year 1740 135[text from the 1872 edition] 136[First published in the year 1750.] 137[text from the 1872 edition]
138Preached at St. Matthew’s, Bethnal-Green, on Sunday, November 12, 1775, for the benefit of the Widows and Orphans of the Soldiers who lately fell, near Boston, in New-England 139[text from the 1872 edition] 140[text of the 1872 ed.] 141[text from the 1872 edition]
142To the Reader: It was a consciousness of my own inability to describe in a manner worthy of the subject such a person as Mr. Fletcher, which was one great reason of my not writing this sooner. I judged only an Apelles was proper to paint an Alexander. But I at length submitted to importunity, and hastily put together some memorials of this great man; intending, if God permit, when I have more leisure and more materials, to write a fuller account of his life (London, Nov. 9, 1785, John Wesley).
143[text from the 1872 edition]
144[The following Sermon was found in a mutilated manuscript among Mr. Wesley’s papers. It is dated June 24, 1741. A Latin copy of the same Discourse has also been discovered. Mr. Pawson, with great care, copied the former, and I have supplied the deficiencies out of the latter. On collating both Sermons, I find several variations, and though not of any great importance, yet sufficient, in my judgment, to vindicate the propriety of translating and publishing the Latin one, not merely as a matter of curiosity, but of utility. The Sermon, no doubt, was written with the design of being preached before the University of Oxford; but whether it ever were preached there, cannot be determined. A. Clarke.] 145[text from the 1872 edition] 146Preached at Epworth, January 11, 1726, at the Funeral of John Griffith: A Hopeful Young Man.
147[text from the 1872 edition] 148Preached about the year 1728 149[text from the 1872 edition] 150Written in the year 1732
151[This Sermon was originally written by Benjamin Calamy, D.D., Vicar of St. Lawrence, Jewry, London. It occurs, p. 275, in a volume of Sermons which bears his name, published in 1704; and is here abridged and revised by Mr. Wesley. — EDIT.] 152(Written in the year 1733) 153[text from the 1872 edition] 154Preached at Savannah, February 20, 1736 155[text from the 1872 edition] 156[text from the 1872 edition] 157Preached at St. Mary’s, Oxford, on Whitsunday, 1736.
158
“Our gracious Sovereign” is George II. Wesley was always intensely loyal. In 1744 he wrote an Address from his Societies to the King in which he says, “we are ready to obey your Majesty to the uttermost, in all things which we conceive to be agreeable [to the Word of God]. And we earnestly exhort all with whom we converse, as they fear God to honor the King.” The Address was not sent, mainly because it might have been taken to imply that the Methodists were “a body distinct from the National Church.” in 1745, the year of the Young Pretenders’s invasion of England, he wrote to the Mayor of Newcastle, “All I can do for his Majesty, whom I honor and love — I think not less than I did my own father — is this: I cry unto God, day by day, to put all his enemies to confusion,” etc. When George II died in October 1760 he records in his Journal (October 25), “King George was gathered to his fathers. When will England have a better Prince?” One thinks of Carlyle (Sartor 1.9). “Has not your Red hanging-individual a horsehair wig, squirrel-skins, and a plush-gown, whereby all mortals know that he is a JUDGE. Society, which the more I think of it astonishes me the more, is founded upon Cloth.” Wesley never despised form and ceremonial; he robed himself even for his Bible studies with his Societies in London and Bristol and for his open-air services.
159
This paragraph, finely and impressively composed as it is, is a defiance of all sound exegesis. Some of the passages quoted refer to the invasion of Judah by the Assyrians, some to the coming of the Holy Ghost, some to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, some to the downfall of Rome herself. All these were is a sense “days of Jehovah;” but there is no warrant for transferring all these signs to the final day of judgement, nor for their literal interpretation.This just remark on the difference between the present and the resurrection bodies is worked out in detail in Sermon 138, originally written by Benjamin Calamy and revised and abridged by Wesley in 1732. “Substance” and “properties” are here used in their philosophical sense” the body will be the same in essence (not composed of the same material particles), but it properties, i.e. its characteristics and qualities will be entirely changed. Above all, it will be a “pneumatical” and not a “physical” body, i.e. it will be well adapted for the use and manifestation of the spirit, as the present body is adapted for the use and manifestation of the psyche or animal soul.“Hades” is a very properly substituted for the A.V. “hell,” which is here, and indeed in all passages where is the translation of Sheol, or Hades, most misleading to the English reader. It is the world of departed spirits, not the place of punishment of the Devil and his angels.
160
“All nations” — more exactly “all the Gentiles.” This account of the judgement refers only to the judgement of the heathen nations, who have not heard of Christ; and the standard of judgement is according not their relation to Him, but their fulfillment of the common human duties of kindliness and charity there set out. It is a supplement to the three preceding parables of the Steward, the Virgins, and the Talents; the first describing the judgement of the Christian minister, the second and third the two sides of the judgment of those who have heard the gospel; first from the point of view of faith, second from the point of view of works.“The beloved disciple.” Wesley of course accepts the Johannine authorship of the Apocalypse.
161
“Outbeaming,” more exact than the A.V. “brightness.” The Son is to the Father as the rays of light are to the sun. “Thought it not robbery:” better, “thought it not an object to be grasped at” to be equal with God. He laid aside for the time His equality with the Father, which was therefore restored to Him when God gave Him the name that is above every name.
162
Pole quotes from Joseph Mede, “Quod jam dixi diem judicii, non intelligi velim de die brevi, sive paucarum horarum; sed de spatio mile annorum quibus dies illa durabit,; i.e. The day of judgement is not to understood as a short day of a few hours, but as the space of a thousand years, during which that day will last.”
163
The “eminent writer” is Edward Young, the author of Night Thoughts. The quotation is from his poem, “The Last Day” (1721), 2.19. The original runs: To smooth and lengthen out th’ unbounded space. Twice a planetary height. Young, 2:282 says: Now the descending triumph stops its flight From earth full twice a planetary height. Presumably he means twice as far from the earth as the farthest planet. All this seems rather solemn trifling.
164
“Four hundred millions;” it is now estimated as, more or less, fifteen hundred millions. But a few millions more or less are not worth considering in such an altogether indeterminate calculation as this.The quotation is again from Young, 2.193. Wesley protest vigorously against any one altering his own or his brother’s verse; but he never hesitates to do the same thing to other people’s; the original passage in Young runs —
Great Xerxes’ world in arms, proud Cannae’s field.
Where Carthage taught victorious Rome to yield,
Immortal Blenheim, fam’d Ramillia’s host.
They all are here, and here they are lost.
Their millions sell to be discerned in vain,
Lost as a billow in th’ unbounded main.
165
The quotation is from Virgil’s Aeneid, 6.567. The subject of the verbs is Rhadamanthus, the mythical judge of the dead. No translation is furnished in the 1771 ed. Modern editions give Dryden’s version. The meaning is “Rhadamanthus of Gnosus here holds his iron sway, and scourges them and hears their guile, and compels each man to confess the expiations put off till death (alas! too late!) which were due for the crimes he committed on earth, rejoicing in the vain hope that they might be concealed.”
166
“To justify the way of God to man:” from Milton’s Paradise Lost, 1.26. In the original the last line is “men.”
167
“The third heaven” Paul (2 Corinthians 12:2) tells how he was caught up into the third heave, or paradise, and heard unutterable words which it is not in the power of man to speak, It is doubtful where he thought of three heavens only — viz. the heaven of the atmosphere and clouds, the heaven of the sun and stars, and the heaven of the blessed dead — or accepted the Jewish belief in seven heavens, of which Paradise was the third in order from below. Wesley admits of no hope for the finally impenitent, and interprets literally these passages which speak of their doom. In the first, however, Hell is Sheol, and all that the Psalmist says is that all the nations (no the people) that forget God will depart in to the world of the dead. In the Sermon 73, on Hell, he is quite explicit as to his belief in the endless torment of the wicked in material fire. Neither of these sermons are, however, part of the standard Methodist doctrine.
168
The finale destruction of the earth by means of fires is quite within the bounds of possibility. The impact of some wandering star would generate heat enough for the purpose; of it may be that gravitation will at last overcome the centrifugal force and the arch will fall into the sun. But such speculations are as fruitless as they are uncertain; and the idea in the next paragraph of the origin of the sea of glass is merely grotesque.
169
Cicero is the author of the phrase “minute philosophers.” He speaks in de Senect= 23 of “Quidam minuti philosophi,” meaning trifling, insignificant. In English use it rather means meticulous, over-precise, speculators. All this discussion as to quantity of fire is absurd: fire is not a thing , but a state of violent chemical combination; a match is quite enough to kindle a conflagration if there be fuel enough. Wesley was keenly interested in electrical phenomena, and was the first man in England to make use of it as a curative agent. His pamphlet called The Desideratum; or, Electricity made Plain, and Useful, published in 1760, details many of Franklin’s experiments, such as drawing sparks out of the human body or from the fur of a cat. This is what he is thinking of when he says that our bodies are full of fire.“Freethinker” was a name claimed by the Deists and other rejecters of the Christian revelation at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Here Wesley uses it of Ovid, the Roman poet, with a kind of suggestion that the modern freethinkers were akin to him in their religious views. The quotation is from the Metamorphoses, 1.256, where Jupiter, preparing to hurl his thunderbolts, hesitates to do so lest he should set the ether aflame, “for he remembers that it is amongst the decrees of the Fates that a time will come when the sea, the earth, and the palace of heaven shall catch fire and blaze, and the mass of the world, so laboriously constructed, shall be imperilled.”
170
“Your in conscience;” so the author of the old Kentish Poema Morale says: Elch man sceal him then biclupien and ecach sceal him demen; His aye weorc and his ithanc to witnesse he sceal temen, which is, being interpreted. Every man shall accuse himself there, and every man shall judge himself; His own work and his conscience he shall bring to witness.“See! See! He cometh!” One of Wesley’s finest and most impassioned perorations.