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
But if God’s _will_ is as _essentially_ opposite to _humour_ and
_caprice_, as his _omnipotence_ is to _weakness and inability_; then
it is as absurd to suppose, that God must act according to humour and
caprice, because he acts according to his own will, as to suppose that
he must act with inability, because he acts by his omnipotence.
And if the will of God, _as such_, is in the highest state of
perfection, then we have the _highest reason_ to love and adore God,
because he is arbitrary, and acts according to his _own all-perfect
will_. And if it be asked, what it is that makes the will of God
_all-perfect_, it may as well be asked, what it is that makes him
omnipotent, or makes him to exist. For, as we have not found out a God,
till we have found a being that has no _cause_; so we have not found
the _will_ of God, till we have found a _will_, that has no _mover_, or
_director_, or _cause_ of its perfection. For that _will_ which never
began to be, can no more be any thing, but what it is in itself, than
it can begin to be.
That which makes people imagine, that _will alone_ is not so adorable,
is because they consider it as a blind imperfect faculty that wants to
be directed. But what has such a will as this to do with the _will_ of
God?
For if the will of God is as _perfect_ a _will_, as his omniscience
is a _perfect knowledge_, then we are as sure, that the will of God
cannot want any direction, or _will_ any thing amiss, as we are, that
his omniscience cannot need any information, or fall into any mistake.
And if the _will_ of God wanted any direction or government, it is
impossible it should have it; for having no superior, it could only be
so governed, because it _willed_ it, and therefore must be always under
its own government.
All the perfection therefore that can be ascribed to God, must be
ascribed to his _will_, not as if it was the production of his will,
(for nothing in God is produced) but as eternally inherent in it.
And as God’s will has thus all the perfection of the divine nature, and
has no rule, or reason, or motive to any goodness, that comes from it,
but its own _nature_ and _state_ in God: so this great will is the only
law of all creatures, and they are all to obey and conform to it, for
this reason, because it is the will of God.
* Nothing has a _moral_ reason, or fitness to be done, but because it
is the will of God that it should be done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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