The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 06 (of 32)Wesley, John
Religion
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 06 (of 32)
Wesley, John
Methodist Church; Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- 18th century
I have made these large quotations from this author, containing all his
chief texts of scripture, and his comments upon them, in his own words,
that there might be no complaint of my robbing his arguments of any of
their force, for all that he farther says on this subject, is but mere
repetition.
I shall now shew, that all his reasoning upon these texts is false in
itself, and nothing at all to the purpose, as not touching the one
great point in question, which is the doctrine or belief of a future
state, or the immortality of the soul in a life after this.――And this
I shall do, by making it plain, that not one of these texts, nor any
other in all the New Testament, proves, or has the least tendency to
prove, that the doctrine or belief of the soul’s immortality, and a
future state, was not known in and thro’ every age of the world, before
the coming of Christ in the flesh.
This will be sufficiently done, by shewing, that the doctrine of
the immortality of the soul, or its future existence in some kind of
happiness or misery in another life, is a matter about which these
texts say not a syllable, but leave it as untouched as the doctrine of
the pre-existence of souls.
If it be asked then, What is the great discovery, new light and
knowledge, declared in these texts, as newly made known to the world
by the gospel? It is answered, that the one thing meant both by the
letter and spirit of all these, and every other the like passages of
scripture, speaking of that mystery, new light, or knowledge made known
by the gospel, and unknown before, is absolutely nothing else, points
at nothing else, and has nothing else implied in it, but the one
whole process of Christ in his personality, his birth, his life, his
sufferings, his death, his resurrection and ascension into heaven.
This, and this alone, namely, The whole process of Christ, in all these
important particulars, is the great salvation, the great mystery, the
hidden wisdom of God, kept secret from the foundation of the world, and
not manifested, nor possible to be manifested, but by Christ himself
entering into, and going thro’ all the parts of this process.――Of this
process alone it is, that the apostles speak, when they declare the
mystery opened in the gospel, to have been a mystery kept secret since
the world began: and the reason why it was so is plain, because it must
be a secret, and continue such, till what was contained in it came into
actual existence, and thereby manifested itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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