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Sermon 77: Spiritual Worship

https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon077

03:088 An Introductory Comment [to Sermons 77-78]

This is another pair of sermons that belong together. They were written in the same fortnight and on the same text, 1 John 5:20-21; they were then quickly published in sequence in the Arminian Magazine as ‘Sermons II and III’. Their shared theme is the very fundament of all Wesley’s theology: the valid worship of the one true God incarnate in the Son, and the folly of ‘spiritual idolatry’, which is to say, any other focus of human devotion than God in Christ. Together, they add up to a single essay in a Christocentric doctrine of spirituality. What is not so clear, however, is their placement (along with their sequel ‘On Dissipation’) in SOSO, VI, very far past the point where they could have served a schematic purpose as an essay in fundamental theology.

‘Spiritual Worship’, without that title, is dated in London on December 22, 1780. This, of course, would have been in the still tense aftermath of the tragic Gordon Riots of the previous June.

See John Paul De Castro, The Gordon Riots (Oxford Univ. Press, 1926); George Rudé, Hanoverian London, 1714-1808, pp. 178-79, 221-26; and Leslie Stephen’s article on Lord George Gordon [‘agitator’] in DNB.

Wesley had been absent from London at the time of the riots, but his sympathies with Gordon and the Protestant Association are hard to reconcile with his repeated disavowals of any intention to persecute Catholics, since there is no denying that the riots themselves were savagely anti-Catholic.

Cf. JWJ, entries for Nov. 5 through Dec. 29, 1780, espec. Dec. 16, and his letter of Mar. 23, 1780, to Freeman’s Journal, reprinted in AM, IV.295-300.

The sermon itself, however, is a sermonic essay in theology proper, the reality of God in trinitarian terms, ‘the essence of true religion’ understood as ‘our happy knowledge of God’, with knowledge being defined less as acquaintance than as communion. There is a special stress on divine prevenience and many an echo from his earlier Oxford sermon, ‘The Circumcision of the Heart’.

‘Spiritual Idolatry’ was dated January 5, 1781, also in London, and is clearly a sequel to ‘Spiritual Worship’. It was also as clearly written for the Arminian Magazine as one of two parts of a basic theme. This 03:089impression is reinforced by the fact that there is only a single reference to 1 John 5:21 as a preaching text before 1780 (and only two to 1 John 5:20). It moves beyond conventional notions to the classical view of idolatry as the ‘idolizing of any human creature’ or anything like supreme devotion to any other good than God. Then it focuses on Wesley’s favourite text about sin: the famous triplex concupiscentia of 1 John 2:16, and the folly of life on any other terms than wholehearted piety to God. For other references to idolatry, cf. Nos. 44, Original Sin, II.7; 127, ‘On the Wedding Garment’, §12; and 128, ‘The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart’, I.4; see also Wesley’s letter to Samuel, Jun., for a comment on an early sermon on the idolatry of the Samaritans (December 5, 1726); and A Word to a Protestant (Bibliog, No. 113; Vol. 14 of this edn.).

The two sermons were published in succession, without titles, in the first volume of the Arminian Magazine to introduce Wesley’s original sermons, 1781: in March and April for ‘Spiritual Worship’ (IV.129-36, 184-89), and May and June for ‘Spiritual Idolatry’ (IV.242-50, 300-3). Titles were supplied for their republication in SOSO, VI—‘Spiritual Worship’, pp. 239-60, and ‘Spiritual Idolatry’ pp. 261-80. There is no record of any other editions of them during Wesley’s lifetime.

Spiritual Worship

1 John 5:20

This is the true God, and eternal life.

11. In this epistle St. John speaks, not to any particular church, but to all the Christians of that age; although more especially to them among whom he then resided. And in them he speaks to the whole Christian church in all succeeding ages.

22. In this letter, or rather tract (for he was present with those to whom it was more immediately directed, probably being not able to preach to them any longer, because of his extreme old age) he does not treat directly of faith, which St. Paul had done; neither of inward and outward holiness, concerning which both St. Paul, St. James, and St. Peter had spoken; but of the foundation of all, the 03:090happy and holy communion which the faithful have with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

33. In the preface he describes the authority by which he wrote and spoke, and expressly points out the design of his present writing.

[1 John] Chap. 1, ver. 1-4.

To the preface exactly answers the conclusion of the Epistle, more largely explaining the same design, and recapitulating the marks of our communion with God, by ‘we know’, thrice repeated.

Chap. 5, ver. 18-20.

44. The tract itself treats,

First, severally, of communion with the Father, chapter one, verses 5-10; of communion with the Son, chapters two and three; of communion with the Spirit, chapter four.

Secondly, conjointly, of the testimony of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, on which faith in Christ, the being born of God, love to God and his children, the keeping his commandments, and victory over the world, are founded, chapter five, verses 1-12.

55. The recapitulation begins, chapter five, verse 18: ‘We know that he who is born of God’, who sees and loves God, ‘sinneth not,’ so long as this loving faith abideth in him. ‘We know that we are of God’, children of God, by the witness and the fruit of the Spirit; ‘and the whole world’, all who have not the Spirit, ‘lieth in the wicked one.’ They are, and live, and dwell in him, as the children of God do in the Holy One. ‘We know that the Son of God is come; and hath given us a’ spiritual ‘understanding, that we may know the true one’, the faithful and true witness. ‘And we are in the true one’, as branches in the vine. ‘This is the true God, and eternal life.’

In considering these important words we may inquire,

First, how is he the true God?

Secondly, how is he eternal life?

I shall then, in the third place, add a few inferences.

1I. [1.] And first we may inquire, how is he the true God?

Cf. John Deschner, Wesley’s Christology, ch. I.

He is ‘God over all, blessed for ever’.

Cf. Rom. 9:5.

‘He was with God’, with God the Father, ‘from the beginning’, from eternity, ‘and was God.’

Cf. John 1:1-2.

‘He and the Father are one;’

Cf. John 10:30.

and consequently he ‘thought it not robbery to be equal with God’.

Phil. 2:6.

Accordingly the inspired writers 03:091give him all the titles of the most high God. They call him over and over by the incommunicable name, Jehovah, never given to any creature. They ascribe to him all the attributes and all the works of God. So that we need not scruple to pronounce him God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God:

From ‘the Creed Commonly Called Nicene’, BCP, Communion.

in glory equal with the Father, in majesty coeternal.

A paraphrase from the Quicunque Vult (‘commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius’), BCP (for Morning Prayer on thirteen special holy days). Orig.: ‘But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.’

22. He is ‘the true God’, the only Cause, the sole Creator of all things. ‘By him’, saith the Apostle Paul, ‘were created all things that are in heaven, and that are on earth’—yea, earth and heaven themselves; but the inhabitants are named, because more noble than the house—‘visible and invisible’. The several species of which are subjoined: ‘Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.’

Col. 1:16.

So St. John, ‘All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.’

John 1:3.

And accordingly St. Paul applies to him those strong words of the Psalmist, ‘Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands.’

Ps. 102:25 (BCP).

33. And as ‘the true God’ he is also the Supporter of all the things that he hath made. He ‘beareth’, upholdeth, sustaineth, ‘all’ created ‘things by the word of his power’,

Cf. Heb. 1:3.

by the same powerful word which brought them out of nothing. As this was absolutely necessary for the beginning of their existence, it is equally so for the continuance of it: were his almighty influence withdrawn they could not subsist a moment longer. Hold up a stone in the air, the moment you withdraw your hand it naturally falls to the ground. In like manner, were he to withdraw his hand for a moment the creation would fall into nothing.

44. As ‘the true God’ he is likewise the Preserver of all things. He not only keeps them in being, but preserves them in that degree of well-being which is suitable to their several natures. He preserves them in their several relations, connections, and dependences, so as to compose one system of beings, to form one entire universe, according to the counsel of his will. How strongly and beautifully 03:092is this expressed! Τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ, συνέστηκεν

Col. 1:17. Wesley’s translation of συνέστηκεν (from συνιστάνειν) is not ‘more literal’; actually it is a paraphrase.

—‘By him all things consist;’ or, more literally, ‘By and in him are all things compacted into one system.’ He is not only the support but also the cement of the whole universe.

Cf. Charles Wesley, ‘Hymns on the Four Gospels’, No. 1949, ver. 5, ll. 7-8:

Cemented by thy blood alone,

And one with unity divine.

rend="footnote text">(Poet. Wks., XI.461.) Cf. also Johnson’s definition (Dictionary, 1755) of ‘cement’ as ‘the bond of union’, and his quotation from Robert South: ‘Look over the whole creation and you shall see that the cement that holds together all the parts of this great and glorious fabrick is gratitude.’

55. I would particularly remark (what perhaps has not been sufficiently observed) that he is the true ‘Author of all’ the motion that is in the universe. To spirits, indeed, he has given a small degree of self-moving power, but not to matter. All matter, of whatever kind it be, is absolutely and totally inert.

A view consistently repeated; cf. No. 15, The Great Assize, III.3 and n.

It does not, cannot in any case move itself; and whenever any part of it seems to move it is in reality moved by something else. See that log which, vulgarly speaking, moves on the sea! It is in reality moved by the water. The water is moved by the wind, that is, a current of air. And the air itself owes all its motion to the ethereal fire,

Another favourite notion, as also in the same sermon passage and n.

a particle of which is attached to every particle of it. Deprive it of that fire and it moves no longer: it is fixed; it is as inert as sand. Remove fluidity (owing to the ethereal fire intermixed with it) from water, and it has no more motion than the log. Impact fire into iron by hammering it when red hot, and it has no more motion than fixed air, or frozen water. But when it is unfixed, when it is in its most active state, what gives motion to fire? The very heathen will tell you. It is,

“ Magnam mens agitans molem, et vasto se corpore miscens.

Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, vi.726-27:

totamque infusa per artus

Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.

The all-informing soul

That fills, pervades, and actuates the whole.

See No. 74, ‘Of the Church’, §13 and n.

”

66. To pursue this a little farther: we say the moon moves round 03:093the earth, the earth and the other planets move round the sun, the sun moves round its own axis. But these are only vulgar expressions. For if we speak the truth of [them], neither the sun, moon, nor stars move. None of these move themselves. They are all moved every moment by the almighty hand that made them.

‘Yes’, says Sir Isaac, ‘the sun, moon, and all the heavenly bodies do move, do gravitate toward each other.’

Sir Isaac Newton; cf. Opticks (1721), p. 351, and elsewhere as one of Newton’s prime hypotheses. Cf. No. 55, On the Trinity, §10 and n.

Gravitate! What is that? ‘Why, they all attract each other, in proportion to the quantity of matter they contain.’ ‘Nonsense all over’, says Mr. Hutchinson,

John Hutchinson; see No. 57, ‘On the Fall of Man’, II.6 and n. Wesley has his own theological reasons for stressing the conflict between the views of the several natural philosophers. This quoted expostulation from Hutchinson is not exact; it does, however, reflect Hutchinson’s indignant rejection of Newton’s theory of gravitation; cf. A Treatise of Power, in Works (3rd edn., 1748-49), V.142, 145-46, 206-7; see also Moses’ Principia (1724), Pt. I. On the other hand Wesley suggests in his Address to the Clergy, II.2(5), that all well-furnished ministers would have mastered Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687), and it was prescribed reading at Kingswood School, so listed in the Library Catalogue of 1789.

‘Jargon! self-contradiction! Can anything act, where it is not? No, they are continually impelled toward each other.’ Impelled, by what? ‘By the subtle matter, the ether, or electric fire.’ But remember! Be it ever so subtle, it is matter still. Consequently it is as inert in itself as either sand or marble. It cannot therefore move itself; but probably it is the first material mover, the main spring whereby the Creator and Preserver of all things is pleased to move the universe.

77. ‘The true God’ is also the Redeemer of all the children of men. It pleased the Father to ‘lay upon him the iniquities of us all’,

Cf. Isa. 53:6.

that by the one oblation of himself once offered, when he tasted death for every man, he might make a full and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.

A paraphrase from the ‘Prayer of Consecration’, BCP, Communion.

88. Again: the true God is the Governor of all things; ‘his kingdom ruleth over all.’

Ps. 103:19.

‘The government’ rests ‘upon his shoulder’,

Cf. Isa. 9:6.

throughout all ages. He is the Lord and Disposer of the whole creation, and every part of it. And in how astonishing a manner does he govern the world! How far are his ways above human thought! How little do we know of his methods of government! Only this we know, Ita praesides singulis sicut 03:094universis, et universis sicut singulis!

Cf. Augustine, Confessions, III.xi.19; see No. 37, ‘The Nature of Enthusiasm’, §28 and n.

—thou presidest over each creature as if it were the universe, and over the universe as over each individual creature. Dwell a little upon this sentiment. What a glorious mystery does it contain! It is paraphrased in the words recited above.

This sentence is added to the text in SOSO (1788).

Father, how wide thy glories shine!

Lord of the universe—and mine:

Thy goodness watches o’er the whole,

As all the world were but one soul:

Yet keeps my ev’ry sacred hair,

As I remained thy single care!

Charles Wesley, Scripture Hymns, II.158; see No. 54, ‘On Eternity’, §20 and n.

99. And yet there is a difference, as was said before, in his providential government over the children of men. A pious writer

Thomas Crane, Isagoge ad Dei Providentiam, Or a Prospect of Divine Providence (1672); see No. 67, ‘On Divine Providence’, §16 and n.

observes, there is a threefold circle of divine providence. The outermost circle includes all the sons of men—heathens, Mahometans, Jews, and Christians. He causeth his sun to rise upon all. He giveth them rain and fruitful seasons. He pours ten thousand benefits upon them, and fills their hearts with food and gladness. With an interior circle he encompasses the whole visible Christian church, all that name the name of Christ.

See 2 Tim. 2:19.

He has an additional regard to these, and a nearer attention to their welfare. But the innermost circle of his providence encloses only the invisible church of Christ—all real Christians, wherever dispersed in all corners of the earth; all that worship God (whatever denomination they are of) in spirit and in truth.

See John 4:23.

He keeps these as the apple of an eye: he hides them under the shadow of his wings.

Ps. 17:8.

And it is to these in particular that our Lord says, ‘Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.’

Luke 12:7.

1010. Lastly, being the true God he is the End of all things, according to that solemn declaration of the Apostle: ‘Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things’

Rom. 11:36.

—of him as the Creator; 03:095through him as the Sustainer and Preserver; and to him as the ultimate End of all.

II. In all these senses Jesus Christ is ‘the true God’. But how is he ‘eternal life’?

11. The thing directly intended in this expression is not that he will be eternal life—although this is a great and important truth, and never to be forgotten. ‘He is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.’

Cf. Heb. 5:9.

He is the purchaser of that ‘crown of life’ which will be given to all that are ‘faithful unto death’.

Rev. 2:10.

And he will be the soul of all their joys to all the saints in glory.

The flame of angelical love

Is kindled at Jesus’s face;

And all the enjoyment above

Consists in the rapturous gaze!

Charles Wesley, Hymn VIII, st. 5, last quatrain, in Funeral Hymns (1746), p. 12 (Poet. Wks., VI.199), reading ‘their enjoyment’.

22. The thing directly intended is not that he is the resurrection; although this also is true, according to his own declaration, ‘I am the resurrection and the life:’

John 11:25.

agreeable to which are St. Paul’s words, ‘As in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’

Cf. 1 Cor. 15:22.

So that we may well say, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.’

1 Pet. 1:3-4.

33. But waiving what he will be hereafter, we are here called to consider what he is now. He is now the life of everything that lives in any kind or degree. He is the source of the lowest species of life, that of vegetables; as being the source of all the motion on which vegetation depends. He is the fountain of the life of animals, the power by which the heart beats, and the circulating juices flow. He is the fountain of all the life which man possesses in common with other animals. And if we distinguish the rational from the animal life, he is the source of this also.

A more conventional (i.e., Aristotelian) schema here than that in the Survey.

44. But how infinitely short does all this fall of the life which is here directly intended! And of which the Apostle speaks so explicitly in the preceding verses: ‘This is the testimony, that God 03:096hath given us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life’ (the eternal life here spoken of), ‘and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not this life.’

[1 John 5:] Ver. 11, 12.

As if he had said, ‘This is’ the sum of ‘the testimony which God hath’ testified ‘of his Son, that God hath given us’, not only a title to but the real beginning of ‘eternal life. And this life is’ purchased by, and treasured up ‘in his Son’, who has all the springs and the fullness of it in himself, to communicate to his body, the church.

55. This eternal life then commences when it pleases the Father to reveal his Son in our hearts; when we first know Christ, being enabled to ‘call him Lord by the Holy Ghost’;

Cf. 1 Cor. 12:3.

when we can testify, our conscience bearing us witness in the Holy Ghost, ‘the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

Cf. Gal. 2:20.

And then it is that happiness begins—happiness real, solid, substantial. Then it is that heaven is opened in the soul, that the proper, heavenly state commences, while the love of God, as loving us, is shed abroad in the heart,

See Rom. 5:5.

instantly producing love to all mankind: general, pure benevolence, together with its genuine fruits, lowliness, meekness, patience, contentedness in every state; an entire, clear, full acquiescence in the whole will of God, enabling us to ‘rejoice evermore, and in everything to give thanks’.

1 Thess. 5:16, 18.

66. As our knowledge and our love of him increase by the same degrees, and in the same proportion, the kingdom of an inward heaven must necessarily increase also; while we ‘grow up in all things into him who is our head’.

Eph. 4:15.

And when we are ἐν αὐτῷ πεπληρωμένοι,

Col. 2:10.

‘complete in him’, as our translators render it—but more properly when we are ‘filled with him’; when ‘Christ in us, the hope of glory’,

Cf. Col. 1:27.

is our God and our all; when he has taken the full possession of our heart; when he reigns therein, without a rival, the Lord of every motion there;

See John Wesley, ‘Divine Love. From the German’ [of Gerhard Tersteegen], Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), p. 79 (Poet Wks., I.72):

Is there a thing beneath the sun

That strives with thee my heart to share?

Ah, tear it thence, and reign alone,

The Lord of every motion there.

In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1766), §7, Wesley reports that he wrote this quatrain in Savannah. Actually, as first published in A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1738), p. 52, the couplet ran:

Ah, tear it thence, that thou alone

May’st reign unrivall’d monarch there.

(See also Collection, 1780, No. 335—7:493 of this edn.)

when we dwell in 03:097Christ, and Christ in us, we are one with Christ, and Christ with us; then we are completely happy, then we live all ‘the life that is hid with Christ in God’.

Cf. Col. 3:3.

Then, and not till then, we properly experience what that word meaneth, ‘God is love; and whosoever dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.’

Cf. 1 John 4:16.

III. I have now only to add a few inferences from the preceding observations.

11. And we may learn from hence, first, that as there is but one God in heaven above and in the earth beneath, so there is only one happiness for created spirits, either in heaven or earth. This one God made our heart for himself; and it cannot rest till it resteth in him.

Yet another repetition of Augustine, Confessions, I.i; see No. 3, ‘Awake, Thou That Sleepest’, II.5 and n.

It is true that while we are in the vigour of youth and health while our blood dances in our veins; while the world smiles upon us and we have all the conveniences, yea, and superfluities of life—we frequently have pleasing dreams and enjoy a kind of happiness. But it cannot continue; it flies away like a shadow:

See Job 14:2.

and even while it lasts it is not solid or substantial; it does not satisfy the soul. We still pant after something else, something which we have not. Give a man everything that this world can give, still, as Horace observed near two thousand years ago,

“ Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.

Horace, Odes, III.xxiv.64: ‘…something is always lacking to make one’s fortune incomplete.’

”

Still

Amidst our plenty something still

To me, to thee, to him is wanting!

Matthew Prior, ‘The Ladle’, ll. 162, 164; see No. 28, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VIII’, §20 and n.

That something is neither more nor less than the knowledge and 03:098love of God—without which no spirit

The AM text here reads ‘creature’.

can be happy either in heaven or earth.

22. Permit me to cite my own experience in confirmation of this. I distinctly remember that even in my childhood, even when I was at school, I have often said: ‘They say the life of a schoolboy is the happiest in the world, but I am sure I am not happy. For I always want something which I have not; therefore I am not content, and so cannot be happy.’ When I had lived a few years longer, being in the vigour of youth, a stranger to pain and sickness, and particularly to lowness of spirits (which I do not remember to have felt one quarter of an hour since I was born),

A blurred memory; cf. his letter to his brother Charles, June 27, 1766, about his fear of ‘falling into nothing’. Perhaps he was still focusing on his ‘happy’ youth and childhood.

having plenty of all things, in the midst of sensible and amiable friends who loved me, and I loved them; and being in the way of life which of all others suited my inclinations; still I was not happy! I wondered why I was not, and could not imagine what the reason was. The reason certainly was: I did not know God, the source of present as well as eternal happiness. What is a clear proof that I was not then happy is that, upon the coolest reflection, I knew not one week which I would have thought it worthwhile to have lived over again; taking it with every inward and outward sensation, without any variation at all.

33. But a pious man affirms, ‘When I was young I was happy, though I was utterly without God in the world.’

π; —but cf. Eph. 2:12.

I do not believe you; though I doubt not but you believe yourself. But you are deceived, as I have been over and over. Such is the condition of human life!

Flowerets and myrtles fragrant seem to rise;

All is at distance fair; but near at hand,

The gay deceit mocks the desiring eyes

With thorns, and desert heath, and barren sand.

Cf. Samuel Wesley, Jun., ‘The Battle of the Sexes’, in Poems on Several Occasions (1736), p. 22; see also, John Wesley, Moral and Sacred Poems, III.20.

Look forward on any distant prospect: how beautiful does it appear! Come up to it; and the beauty vanishes away, and it is rough and disagreeable. Just so is life! But when the scene is past it resumes its former appearance; and we seriously believe that we 03:099were then very happy, though in reality we were far otherwise. For as none is now, so none ever was happy without the loving knowledge of the true God.

44. We may learn hence, secondly, that this happy knowledge of the true God is only another name for religion; I mean Christian religion, which indeed is the only one that deserves the name. Religion, as to the nature or essence of it, does not lie in this or that set of notions, vulgarly called ‘faith’; nor in a round of duties, however carefully ‘reformed’ from error and superstition. It does not consist in any number of outward actions. No; it properly and directly consists in the knowledge and love of God, as manifested in the Son of his love, through the eternal Spirit. And this naturally leads to every heavenly temper, and to every good word and work.

2 Thess. 2:17; cf. No. 24, ‘Sermon on the Mount, IV’, III.1 and n.

55. We learn hence, thirdly, that none but a Christian is happy; none but a real, inward Christian. A glutton, a drunkard, a gamester may be ‘merry’; but he cannot be happy. The beau, the belle, may eat and drink, and rise up to play;

See Exod. 32:6.

but still they feel they are not happy. Men or women may adorn their own dear persons with all the colours of the rainbow. They may dance and sing, and hurry to and fro, and flutter hither and thither. They may roll up and down in their splendid carriages and talk insipidly to each other. They may hasten from one diversion to another; but happiness is not there. They are still ‘walking in a vain shadow, and disquieting themselves in vain’.

Cf. Ps. 39:7 (BCP).

One of their own poets has truly pronounced concerning the whole life of these sons of pleasure:

’Tis a dull farce, and empty show:

Powder, and pocketglass, and beau.

Matthew Prior, ‘An English Padlock’, ll. 60-61. Prior was one of Wesley’s favourites; see his ‘Thoughts on the Character and Writings of Mr. Prior’, in AM, V.600-3, 660-65 (Nov., Dec. 1782), where he ranks him above Pope and singles out Solomon for especial praise, as he does in this sermon. Both John and Charles had memorized the entire poem, and Charles required his children to commit it to memory; cf. his letter to his daughter, Sally, Oct. 1, 1773, in The Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A., ed. by Thomas Jackson (London, 1849), II.278, 280.

I cannot but observe of that fine writer that he came near the mark, and yet fell short of it. In his Solomon (one of the noblest poems in the English tongue) he clearly shows where happiness is 03:100not; that it is not to be found in natural knowledge, in power, or in the pleasures of sense or imagination. But he does not show where it is to be found. He could not, for he did not know it himself. Yet he came near it when he said,

Restore, great Father, thy instructed son;

And in my act may thy great will be done!

Prior, Solomon, iii.889-90 (the poem’s closing lines). See also, Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.192.

66. We learn hence, fourthly, that every Christian is happy, and that he who is not happy is not a Christian. If (as was observed above) religion is happiness, everyone that has it must be happy. This appears from the very nature of the thing; for if religion and happiness are in fact the same, it is impossible that any man can possess the former without possessing the latter also. He cannot have religion without having happiness, seeing they are utterly inseparable.

And it is equally certain, on the other hand, that he who is not happy is not a Christian; seeing if he was a real Christian he could not but be happy. But I allow an exception here in favour of those who are under violent temptation; yea, and of those who are under deep nervous disorders, which are indeed a species of insanity. The clouds and darkness which then overwhelm the soul suspend its happiness; especially if Satan is permitted to second those disorders by pouring in his fiery darts.

See Eph. 6:16.

But excepting these cases the observation will hold, and it should be well attended to: whoever is not happy, yea, happy in God, is not a Christian.

77. Are not you a living proof of this? Do not you still wander to and fro, seeking rest, but finding none?

See Luke 11:24.

Pursuing happiness, but never overtaking it? And who can blame you for pursuing it? It is the very end of your being. The great Creator made nothing to be miserable, but every creature to be happy in its kind.

Gen. 1:31.

And upon a general review of the works of his hands he pronounced them all ‘very good’; which they would not have been had not every intelligent creature—yea, everyone capable of pleasure and pain—been happy in answering the end of its creation. If you are now unhappy, it is because you are in an unnatural state: and shall 03:101you not sigh for deliverance from it? ‘The whole creation’, being now ‘subject to vanity’, ‘groaneth and travaileth in pain together.’

Cf. Rom. 8:20, 22.

I blame you only, or pity you, rather, for taking a wrong way to a right end: for seeking happiness where it never was and never can be found. You seek happiness in your fellow-creatures instead of your Creator. But these can no more make you happy than they can make you immortal. If you have ears to hear, every creature cries aloud, ‘Happiness is not in me.’

Cf. Augustine, Confessions, XI.iv, and see No. 125, ‘On a Single Eye’, II.4. In the Survey, V.233, there is a comment on Job 28:14: ‘The depth saith, it [i.e., wisdom] is not in me, and the sea saith, it is not in me.’

All these are, in truth, ‘broken cisterns, that can hold no water’.

Jer. 2:13.

O turn unto your rest! Turn to him in whom are hid all the treasures of happiness! Turn unto him ‘who giveth liberally unto all men’,

Cf. Jas. 1:5.

and he will give you ‘to drink of the water of life freely’.

Cf. Rev. 21:6; 22:17.

88. You cannot find your long sought happiness in all the pleasures of the world. Are they not ‘deceitful upon the weights’? Are they not ‘lighter than vanity itself?

Ps. 62:9 (BCP).

How long will ye ‘feed upon that which is not bread’,

Cf Isa. 55:2.

which may amuse, but cannot satisfy? You cannot find it in the religion of the world, either in opinions or a mere round of outward duties. Vain labour! Is not ‘God a spirit’? And therefore to be ‘worshipped in spirit and in truth’?

Cf. John 4:23-24.

In this alone can you find the happiness you seek—in the union of your spirit with the Father of spirits; in the knowledge and love of him who is the fountain of happiness, sufficient for all the souls he has made.

99. But where is he to be found? Shall we ‘go up into heaven’ or ‘down into hell’ to seek him? Shall we ‘take the wings of the morning’ and search for him ‘in the uttermost parts of the sea’?

Cf. Ps. 139:8-9.

Nay,

“ Quod petis, hic est!

Horace, Epistles, I.xi.29.

”

What a strange word to fall from the pen of a heathen—‘What you seek is here!’ He is ‘about your bed’! He is ‘about your path’.

Cf. Ps. 139:2 (BCP).

He 03:102‘besets you behind and before’. He ‘lays his hand upon you’.

Cf. Ps. 139:5 (AV).

Lo! God is here! Not afar off!

See Jer. 23:23.

Now, believe and feel him near! May he now reveal himself in your heart! Know him! Love him! And you are happy.

1010. Are you already happy in him? Then see that you ‘hold fast’

1 Thess. 5:21.

‘whereunto you have attained’!

Cf. 1 Tim. 4:6.

‘Watch and pray,’

Matt. 26:41.

that you may never be ‘moved from your steadfastness’.

Cf. 2 Pet. 3:17.

‘Look unto yourselves, that ye lose not what you have gained, but that ye receive a full reward.’

Cf. 2 John 8.

In so doing, expect a continual growth in grace, in the loving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

See 2 Pet. 3:18.

Expect that the power of the Highest shall suddenly overshadow you,

See Luke 1:35.

that all sin may be destroyed, and nothing may remain in your heart but holiness unto the Lord.

Exod. 28:36, etc.

And this moment, and every moment, ‘present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,’

Cf. Rom. 12:1.

and ‘glorify him with your body, and with your spirit, which are God’s.’

Cf. 1 Cor. 6:20.

London,

Dec. 22, 1780

Place and date as in AM.

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Entry Title: Sermon 77: Spiritual Worship

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