John Wesley

“ I am, secondly, to shew the wisdom of him that doth them, that buildeth his house upon a rock. He indeed is wise, who doth the will of my Father which is in heaven. He is truly wise, whose righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. He is poor in spirit; knowing himself even as also he is known. He sees and feels all his sin, and all his guilt, till it is washed away by the atoning blood. He is conscious of his lost estate, of the wrath of God abiding on him, and of his utter inability to help himself, till he is filled with peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. ”

“ Art thou more afraid of displeasing God, than either of death or hell? Is nothing so terrible to thee as the thought of offending the eyes of his glory? Upon this ground dost thou hate all evil ways; every transgression of his holy and perfect law? And herein exercise thyself, to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man?
17. Is thy heart right toward thy neighbour? Dost thou love as thyself, all mankind without exception? If you love those only that love you, what thank have you? Do you love your enemies? Is your soul full of good-will, of tender affection toward them? ”

“ But beware of being intangled again with the yoke of sin, of any inward or outward transgression of the law. Abhor sin far more than death or hell; abhor sin itself, far more than the punishment of it. Beware of the bondage of pride, of desire, of anger; of every evil temper or word or work. Look unto Jesus, and in order thereto, look more and more into the perfect law, the law of liberty. And continue therein: so shalt thou daily grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ It is that great change which God works in the soul, when he brings it into life: when he raises it from the death of sin, to the life of righteousness. It is the change wrought in the whole soul by the almighty Spirit of God, when it is created anew in Christ Jesus, when it is renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness: when the love of the world is changed into the love of God, pride into humility, passion into meekness; hatred, envy, malice, into a sincere, tender, disinterested love for all mankind. ”

“ Now add to your seriousness, meekness of wisdom. Hold an even scale as to all your passions, but in particular, as to anger, sorrow and fear. Calmly acquiesce in whatsoever is the will of God. Learn in every state wherein you are, therewith to be content. Be mild to the good: be gentle toward all men; but especially toward the evil and the unthankful. Beware not only of outward expressions of anger, such as calling thy brother Raca, or thou fool! but of every inward emotion contrary to love, tho’ it go no farther than the heart. Be angry at sin, as an affront offered to the Majesty of heaven ”

“ Use every means which either reason or scripture recommends, as conducive (thro’ the free love of God in Christ) either to the obtaining, or increasing any of the gifts of God. Thus expect a daily growth in that pure and holy religion, which the world always did, and always will call Enthusiasm: but which, to all who are saved from real Enthusiasm, from merely nominal Christianity, is the wisdom of God and the power of God, the glorious image of the Most High: righteousness and peace: a fountain of living water, springing up into everlasting life! ”

“ He does not indeed worship an image, or bow down to the stock of a tree: yet is he sunk into equally damnable idolatry: he loves, that is, worships the world. He seeks happiness in the things that are seen, in the pleasures that perish in the using. Why is it that his thoughts are perpetually wandering from the very end of his being, the knowledge of God in Christ? Because he is an unbeliever; because he has no faith, or at least, no more than a devil. So all these wandering thoughts easily and naturally spring from that evil root of unbelief. ”

“ Do you preach the truth as it is in Jesus? And does the influence of his Spirit attend your word, and make it the power of God unto salvation? Does he enable you to bring sinners from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God? Then go and learn what thou hast so often taught, By grace ye are saved thro’ faith. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but of his own mercy he saveth us. Learn to hang naked upon the cross of Christ, counting all thou hast done but dung and dross. ”

“ He knows God, his Father and his Friend, the parent of all good, the center of the spirits of all flesh, the sole happiness of all intelligent beings. He sees, clearer than the light of the noon-day sun, that this is the end of man, To glorify him who made him for himself, and to love and enjoy him for ever. And with equal clearness he sees the means to that end, to the enjoyment of God in glory, even now to know, to love, to imitate God, and to believe in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. ”

“ To abhor themselves in dust and ashes, in the presence of God their Saviour? To be deeply and steadily serious, feeling their wants, and passing the time of their sojourning with fear? Truly meek and gentle, never overcome of evil, but overcoming evil with good? Throughly athirst for God, and continually panting after a renewal in his likeness? How thinly are they scattered over the earth, whose souls are inlarged in love to all mankind? And who love God with all their strength, who have given him their hearts, and desire nothing else in earth or heaven? ”

“ The force of those temptations which arise from within, will be exceedingly heightened, if we before thought too highly of ourselves, as if we had been cleansed from all sin. And how naturally do we imagine this, during the warmth of our first love? How ready are we to believe, That God has fulfilled in us the whole work of faith with power? That because we feel no sin, we have none in us, but the soul is all love? And well may a sharp attack from an enemy whom we supposed not only conquered but slain, throw us into much heaviness of soul, yea, sometimes into utter darkness. ”

“ Enjoy whatsoever brings glory to God, and promotes peace and good-will among men. In love cover all things; of the dead and the absent speaking nothing but good: believe all things, which may any way tend to clear your neighbour’s character: hope all things, in his favour, and endure all things, triumphing over all opposition. For true love never faileth, in time or in eternity.
11. Now be thou pure in heart; purified thro’ faith from every unholy affection, cleansing thyself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and perfecting holiness in the fear of God. ”

“ For from hence we may learn, first, That a Catholic spirit, is not speculative latitudinarianism. It is not an indifference to all opinions. This is the spawn of hell, not the offspring of heaven. This unsettledness of thought, this being driven to and fro and tost about with every wind of doctrine, is a great curse not a blessing; an irreconcileable enemy not a friend to true Catholicism. A man of a truly Catholic spirit, has not now his religion to seek. He is fixt as the sun in his judgment concerning the main branches of Christian doctrine. ”

“ Now then, strive to enter in at the strait gate, being penetrated with the deepest sense, of the inexpressible danger your soul is in, so long as you are in a broad way: so long as you are void of poverty of spirit, and all that inward religion, which the many, the rich, the wise account madness. Strive to enter in, being pierced with sorrow and shame, for having so long run on with the unthinking crowd, utterly neglecting if not despising that holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. ”

“ And that not only as thou lovest all mankind; not only as thou lovest thine enemies, or the enemies of God, those that hate thee, that despitefully use thee and persecute thee: not only as a stranger, as one of whom thou knowest neither good nor evil. I am not satisfied with this. No: If thine heart be right, as mine with thy heart, then love me with a very tender affection, as a friend that is closer than a brother: as a brother in Christ, a fellow-citizen of the new Jerusalem, a fellow-soldier engaged in the same warfare, under the same captain of our salvation. ”

“ He has bowels of love for all mankind, and is ready to lay down his life for his enemies. He loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his mind and soul and strength. He alone shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, who in this spirit doth good unto all men; and who being for this cause despised and rejected of men; being hated, reproached and persecuted, rejoices and is exceeding glad, knowing in whom he hath believed; and being assured, these light, momentary afflictions will work out for him an eternal weight and glory. ”

“ Make haste to strengthen the things that remain: then your soul shall live. To-day, if ye will hear his voice, by his grace supply what is lacking. When you hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way; walk thou in it: harden not your heart: be no more disobedient to the heavenly calling. Till the sin, whether of omission or commission, be removed, all comfort is false and deceitful. It is only skinning the wound over, which still festers and rankles beneath. Look for no peace within till you are at peace with God; which cannot be without fruits meet for repentance. ”

“ In stedfast faith, in calm tranquillity of spirit, in full assurance of hope, rejoicing evermore for what God hath done, press ye on unto perfection. Daily growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and going on from strength to strength, in resignation, in patience, in humble thankfulness for what ye have attained, and for what ye shall, run the race set before you, looking unto Jesus, ’till through perfect love ye enter into his glory! ”

“ Let the dead bury their dead: but follow thou after the image of God. And beware of quenching that blessed thirst, if it is already excited in thy soul, by what is vulgarly called religion, a poor, dull farce, a religion of form, of outside show, which leaves the heart still cleaving to the dust, as earthly and sensual as ever. Let nothing satisfy thee but the power of godliness, but a religion that is spirit and life ”

“ Then look unto the Lord, that you may renew your strength, that all this sharpness and coldness may be done away, that love and peace and joy may return together, and you may be invariably kind to each other and tender-hearted; forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Have not you given way to any foolish desire? To any kind or degree of inordinate affection? How then can the love of God have place in your heart, till you put away your idols? Be not deceived: God is not mocked: he will not dwell in a divided heart. ”

“ But perhaps you are not conscious of even any sin of omission, which impairs your peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Is there not then some inward sin, which as a root of bitterness springs up in your heart to trouble you? Is not your dryness and barrenness of soul occasioned by your hearts departing from the living God? Has not the foot of pride come against you? Have you not thought of yourself more highly than you ought to think? ”

“ And unless we love God, it is not possible that we should love our neighbour as ourselves: nor consequently, that we should have any right affections, either toward God or toward man. It evidently follows, that whatever weakens our faith, must in the same degree obstruct our holiness. And this is not only the most effectual, but also the most compendious way of destroying all holiness. Seeing it does not affect any one Christian temper, any single grace or fruit of the spirit, but so far as it succeeds, tears up the very root of the whole work of God. ”

“ Wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.
Wide indeed is the gate, and broad the way that leadeth to destruction. For sin is the gate of hell, and wickedness the way to destruction. And how wide a gate is that of sin? How broad is the way of wickedness! The commandment of God is exceeding broad, as extending not only to all our actions, but to every word which goeth out of our lips, yea, every thought that rises in our heart. And sin is equally broad with the commandment, seeing any breach of the commandment is sin. ”

“ God hath given this honour to love alone: love is the end of all the commandments of God. Love is the end, the sole end of every dispensation of God, from the beginning of the world, to the consummation of all things. And it will endure when heaven and earth flee away; for love alone never faileth. Faith will totally fail: it will be swallowed up in sight, in the everlasting vision of God. ”

“ When the ambassadors of God, turn agents for the devil? When they who are commissioned to teach men the way to heaven, do in fact teach them the way to hell? These are like the locusts of Egypt, which eat up the residue that had escaped, that had remained after the hail. They devour even the residue of men that had escaped, that were not destroyed by ill example. It is not therefore without cause that our wise and gracious Master, so solemnly cautions us against them: Beware, saith he, of false prophets, which come to you in sheeps cloathing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ”

“ But that he ever withdraws himself, because he will, merely because it is his good pleasure, I absolutely deny: there is no text in all the bible which gives any colour for such a supposition. Nay it is a supposition contrary not only to many particular texts, but to the whole tenor of scripture. It is repugnant to the very nature of God: it is utterly beneath his majesty and wisdom, (as an eminent writer strongly expresses it) “to play at bo-peep with his creatures.” It is inconsistent both with his justice and mercy, and with the sound experience of all his children. ”

“ We have a prospect of the invisible things of God: we see the spiritual world, which is all round about us, and yet no more discerned by our natural faculties, than if it had no being: and we see the eternal world, piercing through the veil which hangs between time and eternity. Clouds and darkness then rest upon it no more, but we already see the glory which shall be revealed. ”