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Sermon 63: The General Spread of the Gospel

https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon063

02:485 An Introductory Comment

This sermon is a study in shadow and light. Wesley’s survey of the ‘condition of the world at present’ yields a dismal picture. It is, of course, drawn from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sources and reflects their general estimates of non-European lands and peoples. But Wesley’s hopes for the universal redemption of even such a world remain as high as ever, and he takes the Methodist Revival both as a sign of hope and a model of God’s final design for ‘the general spread of the Gospel’. He had preached from Isa. 11:9 seven times before (from 1747 to 1755); this sermon was written in Dublin in April 1783, and then promptly printed in the Arminian Magazine for July and August of that year (numbered XVI), without a title and with the text given mistakenly as ‘Isaiah ix.11’. Its present title appears in the reprint in SOSO, V.189-207. These were its only two editions in Wesley’s lifetime.

The General Spread of the Gospel

Isaiah 11:9

The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters caver the sea.

11. In what a condition is the world at present! How does darkness, intellectual darkness, ignorance, with vice and misery attendant upon it, cover the face of the earth! From the accurate inquiry made with indefatigable pains by our ingenious countryman, Mr. Brerewood

Brerewood, Enquiries touching the Diversities of Languages and Religions Through the Chief Parts of the Earth; see No. 15, The Great Assize, II.4 and n.

(who travelled himself over a great part of the known world in order to form the more exact judgment), supposing the world to be divided into thirty parts, 02:486nineteen of them are professed heathens, altogether as ignorant of Christ as if he had never come into the world. Six of the remaining parts are professed Mahometans: so that only five in thirty are so much as nominally Christians!

22. And let it be remembered that since this computation was made many new nations have been discovered—numberless islands, particularly in the South Seas, large and well inhabited. But by whom? By heathens of the basest sort, many of them inferior to the beasts of the field. Whether they eat men or no (which indeed I cannot find any sufficient ground to believe) they certainly kill all that fall into their hands. They are therefore more savage than lions, who kill no more creatures than are necessary to satisfy their present hunger. See the real dignity of human nature!

The deists generally insisted on the inborn dignity of human nature; see James Burgh, The Dignity of Human Nature (1745), in particular. Wesley vigorously rejected this view, espec. in his Doctrine of Original Sin. In 1762, he reprinted Pt. I of this as a separate pamphlet, and gave it Burgh’s title as a touch of sarcasm; see also No. 128, ‘The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart’, §2.

Here it appears in its genuine purity; not polluted either by those ‘general corrupters, kings’,

A sentiment widely shared by the French lumières and anti-monarchists; cf. Diderot’s ‘kings’ and ‘tyranny’ in the Encyclopédie (‘roi’ in Vol. XIV; ‘tyrannie’ in Vol. XVI). See also Abbé G. T. F. Raynal’s anti-monarchist sentiments in his Histoire philosophique et politique des éstablishments et du commerce da Européens dan la deux India (1770); Eng. tr. by J. Justamond (1776); cf. Vol. IV, V.397-445, ‘On Government’.

or by the least tincture of religion! What will Abbé Raynal

Orig., ‘Resnal’.

(that determined enemy to monarchy and revelation) say to this?

33. A little, and but a little, above the heathens in religion are the Mahometans. But how far and wide has this miserable delusion spread over the face of the earth! Insomuch that the Mahometans are considerably more in number (as six to five) than Christians. And by all the accounts which have any pretence to authenticity these are also in general as utter strangers to all true religion as their four-footed brethren. As void of mercy as lions and tigers, as much given up to brutal lusts as bulls or goats; so that they are in truth a disgrace to human nature, and a plague to all that are under their iron yoke.

44. It is true, a celebrated writer (Lady Mary Wortley M[ontagu]),

1689-1762. She spent some eighteen months in Turkey (1717-18) with her husband, who was England’s ambassador to the Turkish Porte. She travelled extensively and recounts her enthusiasm for the Turkish people and Turkish culture in her Letters, published posthumously in 1763.

gives a very different character of them. With the 02:487finest flow of words, in the most elegant language, she labours to wash the Ethiop white. She represents them as many degrees above the Christians, as some of the most amiable people in the world, as possessed of all the social virtues, as some of the most accomplished of men. But I can in no wise receive her report: I cannot rely upon her authority. I believe those round about her had just as much religion as their admirer had when she was admitted into the interior parts of the Grand Signior’s seraglio.

This is described in detail in Letter 39 (Mar. 10, 1718).

Notwithstanding therefore all that such a witness does or can say in their favour, I believe the Turks in general are little, if at all, better than the generality of the heathens.

55. And little, if at all, better than the Turks are the Christians in the Turkish dominions, even the best of them, those that live in the Morea,

I.e., the Peloponnesus. Morea (‘mulberry-leaf) was the old designation for the peninsula south of the isthmus of Corinth.

or are scattered up and down in Asia. The more numerous bodies of Georgian, Circassian, Mingrelian

These were regions within ‘Transcaucasia’ on the eastern extremity of the Black Sea; they passed from Turkish to Russian possession in 1804. In Wesley’s time the majority of the inhabitants were Greek Orthodox; see No. 122, ‘Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity’, §4.

Christians, are a proverb of reproach to the Turks themselves; not only for their deplorable ignorance, but for their total, stupid, barbarous irreligion.

66. From the most authentic accounts we can obtain of the southern Christians, those in Abyssinia, and of the northern churches, under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow, we have reason to fear they are much in the same condition, both with regard to knowledge and religion, as those in Turkey. Or if those in Abyssinia

I.e., Ethiopia, where the state religion was ‘Coptic’ (i.e., Monophysite).

are more civilized and have a larger share of knowledge, yet they do not appear to have any more religion than either the Mahometans or pagans.

77. The western churches seem to have the pre-eminence over all these in many respects. They have abundantly more knowledge; they have more scriptural and more rational modes of worship. Yet two-thirds of them are still involved in the corruptions of the Church of Rome;

Cf. No. 61, ‘The Mystery of Iniquity’, §29 and n.

and most of these are entirely unacquainted with either the theory or practice of religion. And as to those who are called Protestants or Reformed, 02:488what acquaintance with it have they? Put Papists and Protestants, French and English together, the bulk of one and of the other nation; and what manner of Christians are they? Are they ‘holy, as he that hath called them is holy’?

Cf. 1 Pet. 1:15.

Are they filled with ‘righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost’?

Rom. 14:17.

Is there ‘that mind in them which was also in Christ Jesus’?

Cf. Phil. 2:5.

And do they ‘walk as Christ also walked’?

Cf. 1 John 2:6.

Nay, they are as far from it as hell is from heaven.

88. Such is the present state of mankind in all parts of the world! But how astonishing is this, if there is a God in heaven!

See Dan. 2:28.

And if his eyes are over all the earth! Can he despise the work of his own hand?

See Job 10:3.

Surely this is one of the greatest mysteries under heaven! How is it possible to reconcile this with either the wisdom or goodness of God? And what can give ease to a thoughtful mind under so melancholy a prospect? What but the consideration that things will not always be so; that another scene will soon be opened. God will be jealous of his honour: he will arise and maintain his own cause.

See Ps. 74:23 (BCP).

He will judge the prince of this world, and spoil him of his usurped dominion. He will ‘give’ his Son ‘the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession’.

Cf. Ps. 2:8.

‘The earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’

Hab. 2:14.

The loving knowledge of God, producing uniform, uninterrupted holiness and happiness, shall cover the earth, shall fill every soul of man.

99. ‘Impossible!’ will some men say. ‘Yea, the greatest of all impossibilities! That we should see a Christian world! Yea, a Christian nation, or city! “How can these things be?”’

John 3:9.

On one supposition, indeed, not only all impossibility but all difficulty vanishes away. Only suppose the Almighty to act irresistibly, and the thing is done; yea, with just the same ease as when ‘God said, Let there be light; and there was light.’

Gen. 1:3.

But then man would be man no longer; his inmost nature would be changed.

Cf. No. 60, ‘The General Deliverance’, I.4 and n.

He would no longer be a moral agent, any more than the sun or the wind, as 02:489he would no longer be endued with liberty, a power of choosing or self-determination. Consequently he would no longer be capable of virtue or vice, of reward or punishment.

1010. But setting aside this clumsy way of cutting the knot which we are not able to untie, how can all men be made holy and happy

Cf. No. 5, ‘Justification by Faith’, I.4 and n.

while they continue men? While they still enjoy both the understanding, the affections, and the liberty which are essential to a moral agent? There seems to be a plain, simple way of removing this difficulty without entangling ourselves in any subtle, metaphysical disquisitions. As God is one, so the work of God is uniform in all ages. May we not then conceive how he will work on the souls of men in times to come by considering how he does work now? And how he has wrought in times past?

1111. Take one instance of this, and such an instance as you cannot easily be deceived in. You know how God wrought in your own soul when he first enabled you to say, ‘The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

Gal. 2:20.

He did not take away your understanding, but enlightened and strengthened it. He did not destroy any of your affections; rather they were more vigorous than before. Least of all did he take away your liberty, your power of choosing good or evil; he did not force you; but being assisted by his grace you, like Mary, chose the better part.

Luke 10:42.

Just so has he assisted five in one house to make that happy choice, fifty or five hundred in one city, and many thousands in a nation, without depriving any of them of that liberty which is essential to a moral agent.

This, of course, is the work of prevenient grace, not unaided human initiative. Cf. No. 43, The Scripture Way of Salvation, I.2 and n.; see also, No. 85, ‘On Working Out Our Own Salvation’, I.2-3, II.1, III.3-4.

1212. Not that I deny that there are exempt cases wherein

“The o’erwhelming power of saving grace

Charles Wesley, ‘The Invitation’, st. 10, in Hymns on the Great Festivals (1746), p. 46; reprinted in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), I.260 (Poet. Wks., V.64); and as No. 9 in the Collection, Vol. 7 of this edn. This was one of Wesley’s favourite expressions during his later years; cf. JWJ, June 20, 1769; Apr. 6, 1785; July 8, 1786; June 7, 1788; and June 21, 1789. Cf. also his letter to Mary Cooke, Oct. 30, 1785.

”

does, for a time, work as irresistibly as lightning falling from heaven.

See Luke 10:18.

But I speak of God’s general manner of working, of 02:490which I have known innumerable instances; perhaps more within fifty years last past than anyone in England or in Europe. And with regard even to these exempt cases: although God does work irresistibly for the time, yet I do not believe there is any human soul in which God works irresistibly at all times.

Cf. Predestination Calmly Considered, §§1-4. Note the echoes here of the crucial distinction, emphasized by the Second Council of Orange (529; cf. Seeberg, Doctrines, I.379-82) between the irresistibility of the sovereign grace of the Father and the resistibility of the prevenient grace of the Holy Spirit. This is a linch-pin in Wesley’s doctrine of grace; see below, No. 68, ‘The Wisdom of God’s Counsels’, §4.

Nay, I am fully persuaded there is not. I am persuaded there are no men living that have not many times ‘resisted the Holy Ghost’,

Cf. Acts 7:51.

and ‘made void the counsel of God against themselves’.

Luke 7:30 (Notes).

Yea, I am persuaded every child of God has at some time ‘life and death set before him’,

Cf. Deut. 30:19.

eternal life and eternal death, and has in himself the casting voice. So true is that well-known saying of St. Austin (one of the noblest he ever uttered), Qui fecit nos sine nobis, non salvabit nos sine nobis—he that made us without ourselves will not save us without ourselves.

Cf. Augustine, Sermon 169, on Phil. 3:3-16, xi (13): ‘Qui ergo fecit te sine te, non te justificat sine te’ (Migne, PL, XXXVIII.923). Cf. Wesley, No. 85, ‘On Working Out Our Own Salvation’, II.7. See also Peter Heylyn, Historia Quinquarticularis, Pt. II, ch. i, §10, 509; and Richard Baxter, Aphorisms, Prop. XII, p. 13, which Wesley abridged in 1745.

Now in the same manner as God has converted so many to himself without destroying their liberty, he can undoubtedly convert whole nations, or the whole world. And it is as easy to him to convert a world as one individual soul.

1313. Let us observe what God has done already.

Between fifty and sixty years ago God raised up a few young men in the University of Oxford, to testify those grand truths which were then little attended to:

A retrospective summary of the essence of Wesley’s early ‘gospel’; note his inclusion of sola fide and the evangelical emphasis on justification as antecedent to sanctification. It is, however, doubtful that Wesley had come to this view of the ordo salutis before 1738. This does, however, contradict Wesley’s claim that he had not even heard of the sola fide before his contact with the Moravians (cf. his letters to William Law, May 14 and May 20, 1738). Cf. also No. 53, On the Death of George Whitefield, III.2 and n.

That without holiness no man shall see the Lord;

See Heb. 12:14.

That this holiness is the work of God, who worketh in us both to will and to do;

See Phil. 2:13.

That he doth it of his own good pleasure, merely for the merits of Christ;

02:491That this holiness is the mind that was in Christ,

See Phil. 2:5.

enabling us to walk as Christ also walked;

See 1 John 2:6.

That no man can be thus sanctified till he is justified; and

That we are justified by faith alone. These great truths they declared on all occasions in private and in public; having no design but to promote the glory of God, and no desire but to save souls from death.

1414. From Oxford, where it first appeared,

Note this reinvention of the history of the Revival. However, see Sermons 1-4 and their dissociation of the Holy Club from the general religious life of the university. Wesley’s old age has mellowed these memories.

the little leaven spread wider and wider. More and more saw the truth as it is in Jesus, and received it in the love thereof. More and more ‘found redemption through the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins’.

Cf. Col. 1:14.

They were born again of his Spirit, and filled with righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Rom. 14:17.

It afterwards spread to every part of the land, and a little one became a thousand.

See Isa. 60:22.

It then spread into north Britain

A reference both to the northern half of England and also to Scotland (a usage developed after the coronation of James VI of Scotland as James I of England [1604]). John Wilkes’s newspaper, The North Briton, was published in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland.

and Ireland, and, a few years after, into New York, Pennsylvania, and many other provinces in America, even as high as Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. So that although at first this ‘grain of mustard seed’ was ‘the least of all the seeds’, yet in a few years it grew into a ‘large tree, and put forth great branches’.

Cf. Matt. 13:31-32.

1515. Generally when these truths—justification by faith in particular—were declared in any large town, after a few days or weeks there came suddenly on the great congregation, not in a corner (at London, Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne in particular) a violent and impetuous power, which

Like mighty wind or torrent fierce,

Did then opposers all o’errun.

Cf. Henry More, ‘An Hymn Upon the Descent of the Holy Ghost at the Day of Pentecost’, st. 12, in Theological Works (London, 1708), p. 826:

Like mighty wind and torrent fierce,

Let it withstanders all o’errun.

It was altered by John Wesley and published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), p. 187 (Poet. Wks., I.167):

Like mighty wind, or torrent fierce

Let it opposers all o’er-run.

Cf. also, JWJ, July 11, 1779.

And this frequently continued, with shorter or longer intervals, for several weeks or months. But it gradually subsided, and then 02:492the work of God was carried on by gentle degrees; while that Spirit, in watering the seed that had been sown, in confirming and strengthening them that had believed,

deigned his influence to infuse,

Secret, refreshing as the silent dews.

Cf. Mark Le Pla, The Song of the Three Children Paraphrased, st. 16, last 2 lines:

Bless God, who deigns his influence to infuse,

Secret, refreshing, as the silent dews.

Cf. Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), II.116. See also, JWJ, Mar. 3, 1740.

And this difference in his usual manner of working was observable not only in Great Britain and Ireland, but in every part of America, from south to north, wherever the word of God came with power.

1616. Is it not then highly probable that God will carry on his work in the same manner as he has begun? That he will carry it on I cannot doubt; however Luther may affirm that a revival of religion never lasts above a generation, that is, thirty years

‘So it is the case that in no one spot in the world hath the Gospel stayed clean and pure beyond one man’s memory…. [After a generation] there followed at once thereon a pack of rabble spirits and false teachers.’ Cf. Luther, Fastenpostillen, 1525 (Weimar Edn., 17/2:179, ll. 28-29; see also, Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, I/1:53). For other references to this effect, cf. Nos. 94, ‘On Family Religion’, §3; and 122, ‘Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity’, §17. See also Wesley’s letter to Elizabeth Ritchie, Feb. 12, 1779; and his ‘Thoughts Upon a Late Phenomenon’, §4, in AM (1789), XII.47.

Jonathan Edwards, in his Faithful Narrative (1736), refers to the revival of religion in Saxony which began by the labours of the famous Professor Francke and had then been carried on for more than thirty years. For Wesley’s extract from Edwards’s Narrative see Bibliog, No. 85.

It is interesting that Horace Walpole would presently make the same prediction about the Methodists; see his letter to Mary Berry, June 23, 1791: ‘The patriarchess of the Methodists, Lady Huntingdon, is dead. Now that she and Whitefield and Wesley are gone, the sect will probably decline: a second crop of apostles seldom acquire the influence of the founders.’ See also The Gospel Magazine (1774), p. 350: ‘An attentive observer of men and things will notice that almost every revival of true religion has subsided soon after the death of its original promoters.’

(whereas the present revival has already continued above fifty);

I.e., prior to 1739. For other examples where Wesley dates the Revival from 1729 and the Holy Club, cf. Nos. 94, ‘On Family Religion’, §3; and 107, ‘On God’s Vineyard’, proem, I.1. See also his letter to William Black, Nov. 26, 1786.

or however prophets of evil may say, ‘All will be at an end when 02:493the first instruments are removed.’ There will then very probably be a great shaking;

Ezek. 38:19.

but I cannot induce myself to think that God has wrought so glorious a work to let it sink and die away in a few years. No; I trust this is only the beginning of a far greater work—the dawn of ‘the latter day glory’.

Cf. Job 19:25.

1717. And is it not probable, I say, that he will carry it on in the same manner as he has begun? At the first breaking out of his work in this or that place there may be a shower, a torrent of grace; and so at some other particular seasons which ‘the Father has reserved in his own power’.

Cf. Acts 1:7.

But in general it seems the kingdom of God will not ‘come with observation’,

Cf. Luke 17:20.

but will silently increase wherever it is set up, and spread from heart to heart, from house to house, from town to town, from one kingdom to another. May it not thus spread, first through the remaining provinces, then through the isles of North America?

Is this an indirect reference to Thomas Coke’s plans for a missionary venture to North America, especially to the West Indies? Cf. John Vickers, Thomas Coke (New York, Abingdon, 1969), chs. 9-10.

And at the same time from England to Holland, where there is already a blessed work in Utrecht, Harlem, and many other cities? Probably it will spread from these to the Protestants in France, to those in Germany, and those in Switzerland. Then to Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and all the other Protestant nations in Europe.

1818. May we not suppose that the same leaven of pure and undefiled religion, of experimental knowledge and love of God, of inward and outward holiness, will afterwards spread to the Roman Catholics, in Great Britain, Ireland, Holland; in Germany, France, Switzerland; and in all other countries where Romanists and Protestants live intermixed and familiarly converse with each other? Will it not then be easy for the wisdom of God to make a way for religion, in the life and power thereof, into those countries that are merely

I.e., exclusively; cf. Johnson’s Dictionary.

popish, as Italy, Spain, Portugal? And may it not be gradually diffused from thence to all that name the name of Christ in the various provinces of Turkey, in Abyssinia, yea, and in the remotest parts, not only of Europe, but of Asia, Africa, and America?

1919. And in every nation under heaven we may reasonably believe God will observe the same order which he hath done 02:494from the beginning of Christianity. ‘They shall all know me,’ saith the Lord, not from the greatest to the least (this is that wisdom of the world which is foolishness with God) but ‘from the least to the greatest,’

Heb. 8:11.

that the praise may not be of men, but of God.

See Rom. 2:29.

Before the end even the rich shall enter into the kingdom of God. Together with them will enter in the great, the noble, the honourable; yea, the rulers, the princes, the kings of the earth. Last of all the wise and learned, the men of genius, the philosophers, will be convinced that they are fools; will ‘be converted and become as little children, and enter into the kingdom of God’.

Cf. Matt. 18:3.

2020. Then shall be fully accomplished to ‘the house of Israel’,

Heb. 8:10.

the spiritual Israel, of whatever people or nation, that gracious promise: ‘I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.’

Heb. 8:10-12.

Then shall ‘the times of’ universal ‘refreshment come from the presence of the Lord’.

Cf. Acts 3:19.

The grand Pentecost shall ‘fully come’, and ‘devout men in every nation under heaven’, however distant in place from each other, shall ‘all be filled with the Holy Ghost’.

Cf. Acts 2:1, 4, 5.

And they will ‘continue steadfast in the apostles’ doctrine and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers’.

Cf. Acts 2:42.

They will ‘eat their meat’, and do all that they have to do, ‘with gladness and singleness of heart’.

Acts 2:46.

‘Great grace’ will be ‘upon them all’; and they will be all ‘of one heart and of one soul’.

Acts 4:32-33.

The natural, necessary consequence of this will be the same as it was in the beginning of the Christian church. ‘None of them will say that ought of the things which he possesses is his own, but they will have all things common. Neither will there be any among them that want; for as many as are possessed of lands or houses will sell them, and distribution will be made to every man, according as he has need.’

Cf. Acts 4:32, 34-35.

All their desires, meantime, and passions, and tempers will be cast in one 02:495mould, while all are doing the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven.

See Matt. 6:10.

All their ‘conversation will be seasoned with salt’,

Cf. Col. 4:6.

and will ‘minister grace to the hearers’;

Eph. 4:29.

seeing it will not be so much they that speak ‘as the Spirit of their Father that speaketh in them’.

Cf. Matt. 10:20.

And there will be no ‘root of bitterness springing up’, either to ‘defile’ or trouble them.

See Heb. 12:15.

There will be no Ananias or Sapphira, to bring back the cursed love of money

Cf. intro. to No. 50, ‘The Use of Money’.

among them. There will be no partiality; no ‘widows neglected in the daily ministration’.

Acts 6:1.

Consequently there will be no temptation to any murmuring thought or unkind word of one against another, while

They all are of one heart and soul,

And only love informs the whole.

Cf. Charles Wesley, ‘Primitive Christianity’, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), II.333 (Poet. Wks., V.480):

They all were of one heart and soul,

And only love inspired the whole.

This poem was first published as an appendix to the 2nd edn. of An Earnest Appeal, 1743 (11:90-101 in this edn.); cf. also Nos. 68, ‘The Wisdom of God’s Counsels’, §7; and 109, The Trouble and Rest of Good Men, II.3; where Wesley uses the same thought though not in verse. In No. 4, Scriptural Christianity, IV.2, Wesley uses part of the first line.

2121. The grand stumbling-block being thus happily removed out of the way, namely, the lives of the Christians, the Mahometans will look upon them with other eyes, and begin to give attention to their words. And as their words will be clothed with divine energy, attended with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, those of them that fear God will soon take knowledge of the Spirit whereby the Christians speak. They will ‘receive with meekness the engrafted word’,

Jas. 1:21.

and will bring forth fruit with patience.

Luke 8:15.

From them the leaven will soon spread to those who till then had no fear of God before their eyes.

Rom. 3:18.

Observing ‘the Christian dogs’, as they used to term them, to have changed their nature, to be sober, temperate, just, benevolent—and that in spite of all provocations to the contrary—from admiring their lives they will surely be led to consider and embrace their doctrine. And then the Saviour of sinners will say: ‘The hour is come. I will glorify my Father. I will seek and save 02:496the sheep that were wandering on the dark mountains. Now will I avenge myself of my enemy, and pluck the prey out of the lion’s teeth. I will resume my own for ages lost: I will claim the purchase of my blood.’ So he will go forth in the greatness of his strength,

Isa. 63:1.

and all his enemies shall flee before him. All the prophets of lies shall vanish away, and all the nations that had followed them shall acknowledge the great Prophet of the Lord, ‘mighty in word and deed’;

Cf. Luke 24:19.

and ‘shall honour the Son, even as they honour the Father’.

Cf. John 5:23.

2222. And then the grand stumbling-block being removed from the heathen nations also, the same spirit will be poured out upon them, even those that remain in the uttermost parts of the sea.

Ps. 139:9 (AV).

The poor American savage will no more ask, ‘What, are the Christians better than us?’

Cf. No. 61, ‘The Mystery of Iniquity’, §32.

when they see their steady practice of universal temperance, and of justice, mercy, and truth. The Malabarian heathen will have no more room to say: ‘Christian man take my wife; Christian man much drunk; Christian man kill man! Devil-Christian! Me no Christian.’

For the Malabarians Wesley was dependent on a book which greatly influenced his mother, by Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, The Propagation of the Gospel in the East; being an Account of the Success of two Danish Missionaries, lately sent to the East Indies for the Conversion of the Heathens in Malabar (tr. by A. W. Boehme, edn. of 1718): ‘One of [their] most obstinate prejudices is the abominable, wicked life of the Christians here’ (p. 57); the spread of the Gospel is greatly hampered ‘by the scandalous life of our Christians’ (p. 51). For the actual quotation, however, Wesley’s memory was surely filling out what he had reported in a similar context about his experiences in Georgia and South Carolina: ‘[Immoral “Christians”] cause the very savages in the Indian woods to cry out, “Christian much drunk, Christian beat men, Christian tell lies, devil Christian. Me no Christian.”’ (A Farther Appeal, Pt. I, VII.4 (11:189 in this edn.); cf. Frank Baker, From Wesley to Asbury, Durham, N.C., Duke Univ. Press, 1976, pp. 8-9).

Rather, seeing how far the Christians exceed their own countrymen in whatsoever things are lovely and of good report,

See Phil. 4:8.

they will adopt a very different language, and say, ‘Angel-Christian!’ The holy lives of the Christians will be an argument they will not know how to resist; seeing the Christians steadily and uniformly practise what is agreeable to the law written in their own hearts,

See Rom. 2:15.

their prejudices will quickly die away, and they will gladly receive ‘the truth as it is in Jesus’.

Cf. Eph. 4:21.

2323. We may reasonably believe that the heathen nations which are mingled with the Christians, and those that bordering upon 02:497Christian nations have constant and familiar intercourse with them, will be some of the first who learn to worship God in spirit and in truth;

See John 4:23, 24.

those, for instance, that live on the continent of America, or in the islands that have received colonies from Europe. Such are likewise all those inhabitants of the East Indies that adjoin to any of the Christian settlements. To these may be added numerous tribes of Tartars, the heathen parts of the Russias, and the inhabitants of Norway, Finland, and Lapland. Probably these will be followed by those more distant nations with whom the Christians trade; to whom they will impart what is of infinitely more value than earthly pearls, or gold and silver. The God of love will then prepare his messengers and make a way into the polar regions, into the deepest recesses of America, and into the interior parts of Africa; yea, into the heart of China and Japan, with the countries adjoining to them. And ‘their sound’ will then ‘go forth into all lands, and their voice to the ends of the earth’.

Cf. Rom. 10:18.

2424. But one considerable difficulty still remains. There are very many heathen nations in the world that have no intercourse either by trade or any other means with Christians of any kind. Such are the inhabitants of the numerous islands in the South Sea, and probably in all large branches of the ocean. Now what shall be done for these poor outcasts of men? ‘How shall they believe’, saith the Apostle, ‘in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?’ You may add, ‘And how shall they preach, unless they be sent?’

Rom. 10:14-15.

Yea, but is not God able to send them? Cannot he raise them up, as it were, out of the stones?

See Matt. 3:9.

And can he ever want means of sending them? No: were there no other means, he ‘can take them by his Spirit’ (as he did Ezekiel),

Ezek. 11:24.

or by ‘his angel’, as he did Philip,

Acts 8[:26].

and set them down wheresoever it pleaseth him. Yea, he can find out a thousand ways, to foolish man unknown. And he surely will: for heaven and earth may pass away; but his word shall not pass away.

See Matt. 24:35, etc.

He will ‘give his Son the uttermost part of the earth for his possession’.

Cf. Ps. 2:8.

2525. ‘And so all Israel’ too ‘shall be saved.’ For ‘blindness has happened to Israel’ (as the great Apostle observes) ‘till the 02:498fullness of the Gentiles be come in.’ Then ‘the Deliverer that cometh out of Zion shall turn away iniquity from Jacob. […] God hath’ now ‘concluded them all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all.’

Rom. 11:25-26, 32.

Yea, and he will so have mercy upon all Israel as to give them all temporal with all spiritual blessings. For this is the promise: ‘For the Lord thy God will gather thee from all nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. […] And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.’

Deut. 30:3, 5-6.

Again: ‘I will gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. […] And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever. I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. And I will plant them in this land assuredly, with all my heart, and with all my soul.’

Jer. 32:37, 39-41.

Yet again: ‘I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. […] And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.’

Ezek. 36:24-25, 28.

2626. At that time will be accomplished all those glorious promises made to the Christian church, which will not then be confined to this or that nation, but will include all the inhabitants of the earth. ‘They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.’

Isa. 11:9.

‘Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls, Salvation, and thy gates, Praise.’

Isa. 60:18.

Thou shalt be encompassed on every side with salvation, and all that go through thy gates shall praise God. ‘The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.’

Isa. 60:19.

The light of the sun and moon shall be swallowed up in the light of his countenance shining upon thee. ‘Thy people also shall be all

Only in Wesley’s own errata to Sermons, V, p. 206, in MA, is ‘all’ added.

02:499righteous, […] the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.’

Isa. 60:21.

‘As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.’

Isa. 61:11.

2727. This I apprehend to be the answer, yea, the only full and satisfactory answer that can be given, to the objection against the wisdom and goodness of God, taken from the present state of the world. It will not always be thus: these things are only permitted for a season by the great Governor of the world, that he may draw immense, eternal good out of this temporary evil. This is the very key which the Apostle himself gives us in the words above recited, ‘God hath concluded them all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all!’

Cf. Rom. 11:32. See §25 above.

In view of this glorious event how well may we cry out, ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!’ Although for a season ‘his judgments were unsearchable, and his ways past finding out.’

Rom. 11:33.

It is enough we are assured of this one point, that all these transient evils will issue well, will have a happy conclusion, and that ‘Mercy first and last will reign.’

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, iii.132-34:

In mercy and justice both,

Through heaven and earth, so shall my glory excel;

But mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine.

All unprejudiced persons may see with their eyes that he is already renewing the face of the earth.

See Ps. 104:30.

And we have strong reason to hope that the work he hath begun he will carry on unto the day of his Lord Jesus;

1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14.

that he will never intermit this blessed work of his Spirit until he has fulfilled all his promises; until he hath put a period to sin and misery, and infirmity, and death; and re-established universal holiness and happiness, and caused all the inhabitants of the earth to sing together, ‘Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth!’

100

Cf. Rev. 19:6.

‘Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever!’

Rev. 7:12. [Note the ascription; cf. No. 1, Salvation by Faith, III.9 and n.]

Dublin, April 22, 1783

101

This note omitted from the 2nd edn.

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Entry Title: Sermon 63: The General Spread of the Gospel

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