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Sermon 78: Spiritual Idolatry

   https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon078

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.

1

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.
2

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.

03:103 Spiritual Idolatry

1 John 5:21

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

11. There are two words that occur several times in this epistle, παιδία

1

1 John 2:13, 18.

and τεκνία,
2

1 John 3:10; 5:2.

both of which our translators render by the same expression, ‘little children’. But their meaning is very different. The former is very properly rendered ‘little children’; for it means ‘babes in Christ’—those that have lately tasted of his love and are as yet weak and unestablished therein. The latter might with more propriety be rendered ‘beloved children’; as it does not denote any more than the affection of the speaker to those whom he had begotten in the Lord.
3

But consult the lexicons (cf., e.g., Arndt and Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon, and Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon); Wesley’s translation is barely possible, but certainly not obvious.

22. An ancient historian relates that when the Apostle was so enfeebled by age as not to be able to preach he was frequently brought into the congregation in his chair, and just uttered, ‘Beloved children, love one another.’

4

Cf. Jerome, Commentary on Galatians (6:10), in Migne, PL, XXVI.462.

He could not have given a more important advice. And equally important is this which lies before us—equally necessary for every part of the Church of Christ: ‘Beloved children, keep yourselves from idols.’

33. Indeed there is a close connection between them: one cannot subsist without the other. As there is no firm foundation for the love of our brethren except the love of God, so there is no possibility of loving God except we ‘keep ourselves from idols’.

But what are the idols of which the Apostle speaks? This is the first thing to be considered. We may then, in the second place, inquire how shall we keep ourselves from them.

1I. 1. We are first to consider, What are the idols of which the Apostle speaks? I do not conceive him to mean, at least not principally, 03:104the idols that were worshipped by the heathens. They to whom he was writing, whether they had been Jews or heathens, were not in much danger from these. There is no probability that the Jews now converted had ever been guilty of worshipping them. As deeply given to this gross idolatry as the Israelites had been for many ages, they were hardly ever entangled therein after their return from the Babylonish Captivity. From that period the whole body of Jews had shown a constant, deep abhorrence of it. And the heathens, after they had once turned to the living God, had their former idols in the utmost detestation. They abhorred to touch the unclean thing; yea, they chose to lay down their lives rather than return to the worship of those gods whom they now knew to be devils.

22. Neither can we reasonably suppose that he speaks of those idols that are now worshipped in the Church of Rome; whether angels, or the souls of departed saints, or images of gold, silver, wood, or stone. None of these idols were known in the Christian Church till some centuries after the time of the apostles. Once, indeed, St. John himself ‘fell down to worship before the face of an angel’

5

Cf. Rev. 22:8.

that spake unto him, probably mistaking him, from his glorious appearance, for the great angel of the covenant.
6

I.e., St. Michael.

But the strong reproof of the angel, which immediately followed, secured the Christians from imitating that bad example. ‘See thou do it not:’ as glorious as I may appear, I am not thy Master. ‘I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets: worship God.’

Rev. 22:9.

33. Setting then pagan and Romish idols aside, what are those of which we are here warned by the Apostle? The preceding words show us the meaning of these. ‘This is the true God’—the end of all the souls he has made, the centre of all created spirits—‘and eternal life,’

7

1 John 5:20.

the only foundation of present as well as eternal happiness. To him therefore alone our heart is due. And he cannot, he will not quit his claim, or consent to its being given to any other. He is continually saying to every child of man, ‘My son, give me thy heart!’
8

Prov. 23:26.

And to give our heart to any other is plain idolatry. Accordingly, whatever takes our heart from him, or 03:105shares it with him, is an idol; or, in other words, whatever we seek happiness in, independent of God.

44. Take an instance that occurs almost every day: a person who has been long involved in the world, surrounded and fatigued with abundance of business, having at length acquired an easy fortune, disengages himself from all business and retires into the country—to be happy. Happy in what? Why, in taking his ease. For he intends now,

Somno et inertibus horis
Ducere sollicitae jucunda oblivia vitae.
9

Horace, Satires, II.vi.61-62: ‘now with sleep and idle hours, to quaff sweet forgetfulness of life’s cares’. Cf. also An Earnest Appeal, §41 (11:60 in this edn.), and An Estimate of the Manners of the Present Times, §1 (Bibliog, No. 426, Vol. 15 of this edn.).

To sleep, and pass away,
In gentle inactivity the day!

Happy in eating and drinking whatever his heart desires: perhaps more elegant fare than that of the old Roman who feasted his imagination

10

Cf. below, I.7, 8, 12; also No. 44, ‘Original Sin’, II.10 and n.

before the treat was served up, who before he left the town consoled himself with the thought of ‘fat bacon and cabbage too’!

Uncta satis pingui ponentur oluscula lardo!
11

Horace, Satires, II.vi.63-64: ‘O quando faba, Pythagorae, cognata simulque uncta satis pingui ponentur oluscula lardo!’ ‘O when shall beans, brethren of Pythagoras, be served me and, with them, greens [cabbage?] well larded with fat bacon!’ Cf. Wesley’s translation in JWJ, Nov. 5, 1766.

Happy—in altering, enlarging, rebuilding, or at least decorating, the old mansion-house he has purchased; and likewise in improving everything about it, the stables, outhouses, grounds. But meantime where does God come in? Nowhere at all. He did not think about him. He no more thought of the King of heaven than of the King of France. God is not in his plan. The knowledge and love of God are entirely out of the question. Therefore this whole scheme of happiness in retirement is idolatry from beginning to end.

55. If we descend to particulars, the first species of this idolatry is what St. John terms ‘the desire of the flesh’.

12

The triplex concupiscentia again; see No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, II.2 and n.

We are apt to take this in too narrow a meaning, as if it related to one of the senses 03:106only. Not so: this expression equally refers to all the outward senses. It means the seeking happiness in the gratification of any or all of the external senses; although more particularly of the three lower senses, tasting, smelling, and feeling. It means the seeking happiness herein, if not in a gross, indelicate manner, by open intemperance, by gluttony, or drunkenness, or shameless debauchery; yet in a regular kind of epicurism,
13

For Epicurus as a sort of eponym, cf. No. 9,‘The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption’, I.2 and n.

in a genteel sensuality, in such an elegant course of self-indulgence as does not disorder either the head or the stomach, as does not at all impair our health or blemish our reputation.

66. But we must not imagine this species of idolatry is confined to the rich and great. In this also ‘the toe of the peasant’ (as our poet speaks) ‘treads upon the heel of the courtier.’

14

Cf. Shakespeare, Hamlet, V.i.153: ‘The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.’ For other variations on this quotation, see Wesley’s letter to the Editor of Lloyd’s Evening Post, Dec. 9, 1772, and also his Thoughts on the Present Scarcity of Provisions, I.6 (Bibliog, No. 344, Vol. 15 of this edn).

Thousands in low as well as in high life sacrifice to this idol; seeking their happiness (though in a more humble manner) in gratifying their outward senses. It is true, their meat, their drink, and the objects that gratify their other senses, are of a coarser kind. But still they make up all the happiness they either have or seek, and usurp the hearts which are due to God.

6. The second species of idolatry mentioned by the Apostle is ‘the desire of the eye’;

15

1 John 2:16; see I.5, above.

that is, the seeking happiness in gratifying the imagination
16

Cf. above, I.4 and n.

(chiefly by means of the eyes)—that internal sense which is as natural to men as either sight or hearing. This is gratified by such objects as are either grand, or beautiful, or uncommon. But as to grand objects, it seems they do not please any longer than they are new.
17

For a continuing discussion of novelty, cf. the following paragraphs as well as No. 25, ‘Sermon on the Mount, V’, §1 and n.

Were we to survey the pyramids of Egypt
18

Cf. No. 54, ‘On Eternity’, §8 and n.

daily for a year, what pleasure would they then give? Nay, what pleasure does a far grander object than these,

The ocean rolling on the shelly shore,
19

Cf. Prior, Solomon, iii.160, ‘The ocean rolling, and the shelly shore’; see also Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.169.

03:107give to one who has been long accustomed to it? Yea, what pleasure do we generally receive from the grandest object in the universe,

Yon ample, azure sky,
Terribly large, and wonderfully bright,
With stars unnumbered, and unmeasured light?
20

Cf. Prior, Solomon, i.638-40, beginning ‘This fair half-round, this ample azure sky’. See also Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.115; and No. 103,‘What is Man? Ps. 8:3-4’, §2.

88. Beautiful objects are the next general source of the pleasures of the imagination—the works of nature in particular. So persons in all ages have been delighted

With sylvan scenes, and hill and dale,
And liquid lapse of murmuring streams.
21

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, iv.140 (‘a sylvan scene’), and viii.262-63:

Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
And liquid lapse of murmuring streams….

See No. 56, ‘God’s Approbation of His Works’, I.4 and n.

Others are pleased with adding art to nature, as in gardens with their various ornaments; others with mere works of art, as buildings and representations of nature, whether in statues or paintings. Many likewise find pleasure in beautiful apparel or furniture of various kinds. But novelty must be added to beauty, as well as grandeur, or it soon palls upon the sense.

99. Are we to refer to the head of beauty the pleasure which many take in a favourite animal—suppose a sparrow, a parrot, a cat, a lap-dog? Sometimes it may be owing to this. At other times none but the person pleased can find any beauty at all in the favourite. Nay, perchance it is in the eye of all other persons superlatively ugly. In this case the pleasure seems to arise from mere whim or caprice—that is, madness.

1010. Must we not refer to the head of novelty, chiefly, the pleasure found in most diversions and amusements; which, were we to repeat them daily but a few months would be utterly flat and insipid? To the same head we may refer the pleasure that is taken in collecting curiosities;

22

An echo from a recent Journal entry (for Dec. 22, 1780): ‘At the desire of some of my friends, I accompanied them to the British Museum. What an immense field is here for curiosity to range! One large room is filled from top to bottom with things brought from Otaheite [Tahiti]; two or three more with things dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum [first excavated in 1738]. Seven huge apartments are filled with curious books, five with manuscripts, two with fossils of all sorts, and the rest with various animals. But what account will a man give to the Judge of the quick and dead for a life spent in collecting all these?’

whether they are natural or artificial, 03:108whether old or new. This sweetens the labour of the virtuoso, and makes all his labour light.

1111. But it is not chiefly to novelty that we are to impute the pleasure we receive from music. Certainly this has an intrinsic beauty, as well as frequently an intrinsic grandeur. This is a beauty and grandeur of a peculiar kind, not easy to be expressed; nearly related to the sublime and the beautiful in poetry, which give an exquisite pleasure.

23

An echo from Edmund Burke’s famous Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1756), which Wesley had read.

And yet it may be allowed that novelty heightens the pleasure which arises from any of these sources.

1212. From the study of languages, from criticism, and from history, we receive a pleasure of a mixed nature. In all these there is always something new; frequently something beautiful or sublime. And history not only gratifies the imagination

24

Cf. above, I.4 and n.

in all these respects, but likewise pleases us by touching our passions, our love, desire, joy, pity. The last of these gives us a strong pleasure, though strangely mixed with a kind of pain. So that one need not wonder at the exclamation of a fine poet,

What is all mirth but turbulence unholy,
When to the charms compared of heavenly melancholy?
25

Cf. James Beattie, ‘The Minstrel’, I.lv.8-9:

Ah! what is mirth but turbulence unholy
When with the charm compared of heavenly melancholy?

In JWJ, Dec. 16, 1775, Wesley adjudges Beattie (1735-1803) as ‘certainly one of the best poets of the age. He wants only the ease and simplicity of Mr. Pope. I know one, and only one, that has it.’ This one, presumably, would have been his brother Charles. Beattie’s ‘Retirement’ and ‘Hermit’ appeared in AM, Dec. 1778 and Oct. 1786.

1313. The love of novelty is immeasurably gratified by experimental philosophy; and, indeed, by every branch of natural philosophy, which opens an immense field for still new discoveries. But is there not likewise a pleasure therein, as well as in mathematical and metaphysical studies, which does not result from the imagination, but from the exercise of the understanding? Unless we will say that the newness of the discoveries which we make by mathematical or metaphysical researches is one reason 03:109at least, if not the chief, of the pleasure we receive therefrom.

1414. I dwell the longer on these things because so very few see them in the true point of view. The generality of men, and more particularly men of sense and learning, are so far from suspecting that there is, or can be, the least harm in them, that they seriously believe it is matter of great praise to ‘give ourselves wholly to them’.

26

1 Tim. 4:15.

Who of them, for instance, would not admire and commend the indefatigable industry of that great philosopher
27

William Derham (1657-1735), rector of Upminster in Essex (1689-1735), Fellow of the Royal Society, Canon of Windsor (1716-35). His Physico-Theology (1713) and Astro-Theology (1715) greatly influenced William Paley, and Wesley claimed to have included the substance of Derham’s work in his own Survey; cf. his letter to Miss M. Lewen in AM (1780), pp. 602-4. Wesley’s quotation from Derham may have come to him from oral tradition since it does not appear in Derham’s published writings, or in Leslie Stephen’s life of Derham in the DNB, or in Eleazar Albin’s Natural History of English Insects (1724), to which Derham contributed notes. Incidentally, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Essex (1903-56), I.136-43, lists fifty-four species of butterflies as having been identified in Essex, at the turn of the twentieth century.

who says: ‘I have been now eight and thirty years at my parish of Upminster. And I have made it clear that there are no less than three and fifty species of butterflies therein. But if God should spare my life a few years longer, I do not doubt but I should demonstrate there are five and fifty!’ I allow that most of these studies have their use, and that it is possible to use without abusing
28

Cf. No. 20, The Lord Our Righteousness, II.20 and n.

them. But if we seek our happiness in any of these things, then it commences an idol. And the enjoyment of it, however it may be admired and applauded by the world, is condemned of God as neither better nor worse than damnable idolatry.

1515. The third kind of ‘love of the world’ the Apostle speaks of under that uncommon expression, ἡ ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου.

29

1 John 2:16; see I.5, above.

This is rendered by our translators, ‘the pride of life’. It is usually supposed to mean the pomp and splendour of those that are in high life. But has it not a more extensive sense? Does it not rather mean the seeking happiness in the praise of men, which above all things engenders pride? When this is pursued in a more pompous way, by kings or illustrious men, we call it thirst for glory; when it is sought in a lower way, by ordinary men, it is styled, taking care of our reputation. In plain terms, it is seeking the honour that cometh of men instead of that which ‘cometh of God only’.
30

John 5:44.

1603:11016. But what creates a difficulty here is this: we are required, not only to ‘give no offence to anyone’,

31

Cf. 2 Cor. 6:3.

and to ‘provide things honest in the sight of all men’,
32

Rom. 12:17.

but to ‘please all men for their good to edification’.
33

Cf. Rom. 15:2.

But how difficult is it to do this with a single eye to God! We ought to do all that in us lies to prevent ‘the good that is in us from being evil spoken of’.
34

Cf. Rom. 14:16.

Yea, we ought to value a clear reputation, if it be given us, only less than a good conscience. But yet, if we seek our happiness therein, we are liable to perish in our idolatry.

1717. To which of the preceding heads is ‘the love of money’

35

1 Tim. 6:10.

to be referred? Perhaps sometimes to one and sometimes to another, as it is a means of procuring gratifications either for ‘the desire of the flesh’, for ‘the desire of the eyes’, or for ‘the pride of life’. In any of these cases money is only pursued in order to a farther end. But it is sometimes pursued for its own sake, without any farther view. One who is properly a miser loves and seeks money for its own sake. He looks no farther, but places his happiness in the acquiring or the possessing of it. And this is a species of idolatry distant
36

The texts in AM and in SOSO, VI, read ‘distant’, and no alteration is made in the printed errata or Wesley’s own copy of the former. Jackson (1825) altered it to read ‘distinct’, however, and this may have come from Wesley’s revised copy of SOSO, VI, now missing. The original text does read ‘distinct’ in the opening sentence of I.18.

from all the preceding and, indeed, the lowest, basest idolatry of which the human soul is capable. To seek happiness either in gratifying this or any other of the desires above mentioned is effectually to renounce the true God, and to set up an idol in his place. In a word, so many objects as there are in the world wherein men seek happiness instead of seeking it in God, so many idols they set up in their hearts; so many species of idolatry they practise.

18. I would take notice of only one more, which, though it in some measure falls in with several of the preceding, yet in many respects is distinct from them all, I mean the idolizing any human creature. Undoubtedly it is the will of God that we should all love one another. It is his will that we should love our relations and our Christian brethren with a peculiar love; and those in particular whom he has made particularly profitable to our souls. These we are commanded to ‘love fervently’—yet still ‘with a pure heart’.

37

Cf. 1 Pet. 1:22.

03:111But is not this ‘impossible with man’?
38

Cf. Matt. 19:26.

To retain the strength and tenderness of affection, and yet without any stain to the soul, with unspotted purity? I do not mean only unspotted by lust. I know this is possible. I know a person may have an unutterable affection for another without any desire of this kind. But is it without idolatry? Is it not loving the creature more than the Creator?
39

See Rom. 1:25.

Is it not putting a man or woman in the place of God? Giving them your heart? Let this be carefully considered, even by those whom God has joined together
40

Matt. 19:6.

—by husbands and wives, parents and children. It cannot be denied that these ought to love one another tenderly: they are commanded so to do. But they are neither commanded nor permitted to love one another idolatrously! Yet how common is this! How frequently is a husband, a wife, a child, put in the place of God! How many that are accounted good Christians fix their affections on each other so as to leave no place for God! They seek their happiness in the creature, not in the Creator. One may truly say to the other,

“I view thee, lord and end of my desires.
41

Cf. Prior, ‘Henry and Emma’, 710. Wesley had published this poem in the Sept. issue of AM (1779), II.481-96. Some of his readers complained that it ‘was not strictly religious’. Wesley’s extended response to such a criticism is an interesting reflection of his own theology of culture (see ‘To the Reader’, AM, 1780, III.iv-v).

That is: ‘I desire nothing more but thee! Thou art the thing that I long for! All my desire is unto thee, and unto the remembrance of thy name.’ Now if this is not flat idolatry I cannot tell what is!

II. Having largely considered what those idols are of which the Apostle speaks, I will come now to inquire (which may be done more briefly) how we may ‘keep ourselves from them’.

1. In order to this I would advise you, first, be deeply convinced that none of them bring happiness; that no thing, no person under the sun—no, nor the amassment of all together—can give any solid, satisfactory happiness to any child of man. The world itself, the giddy, thoughtless world, acknowledge this unawares, while they allow, nay, vehemently maintain, ‘No man upon earth is contented.’ The very same observation was made near two thousand years ago.

03:112
Nemo quam sibi sortem
Seu ratio dederit, seu fort, objecerit, illa
Contentus vivat:
42

Horace, Satires, I.i.1-3. Is the translation here Wesley’s own? It is neither Pope’s nor Dryden’s. Loeb translates: ‘No man living is content with the lot which either his choice has given him or chance has thrown in his way.’

Let fortune, or let choice the station give
To man, yet none on earth contented live.

And if no man upon earth is contented, it is certain no man is happy. For whatever station we are in, discontent is incompatible with happiness.

22. Indeed not only the giddy but the thinking part of the world allow that no man is contented, the melancholy proofs of which we see on every side, in high and low, rich and poor. And generally, the more understanding they have, the more discontented they are. For,

They know with more distinction to complain,
And have superior sense in feeling pain.
43

Matthew Prior, Solomon, iii.345-46, beginning ‘To know’; cf. Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.174. See also, Sermon 125, ‘On a Single Eye’, II.5, where Wesley again quotes these lines as well as the two preceding.

It is true, everyone has (to use the cant term of the day—and an excellent one it is) his ‘hobby-horse’!

44

I.e., a child’s plaything; cf. Horace, Satires, II.iii.247-49, and Erasmus, In Praise of Folly (‘Epistle to More’), p. xviii. But Wesley also uses the term to mean ‘a chamber horse’ for exercise: ‘If you have no other [horse] you should daily ride a wooden horse, which is only a double plank nine or ten feet long, properly placed upon two vessels. This has removed many distempers and saved abundance of lives’ (cf. letters to Mrs. Christian, July 17, 1785; Samuel Bradburn, Mar. 13, 1788; and Sarah Wesley, Aug. 18, 1790).

Something that pleases the great boy for a few hours or days, and wherein he hopes to be happy! But though

Hope blooms eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest.
45

Cf. Pope, Essay on Man, i.95-96. Cf. also Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.305, with the footnote added: ‘Yes, blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and his sin covered’ (cf. Ps. 32:1).

Still he is walking in a vain shadow which will soon vanish away!

46

See Ps. 39:7.

So that universal experience, both our own and that of all our friends and acquaintance, clearly proves that as God made our hearts for himself, so they cannot rest till they rest in him;
47

See Augustine, Confessions, I.i; cf. also No. 3, ‘Awake, Thou That Steepest’, II.5 and n.

03:113that till we acquaint ourselves with him we cannot be at peace. As ‘a scorner’ of the wisdom of God ‘seeketh wisdom and findeth it not,’
48

Prov. 14:6.

so a scorner of happiness in God seeketh happiness but findeth none.

3. When you are thoroughly convinced of this I advise you, secondly, stand and consider what you are about. Will you be a fool and a madman all your days? Is it not high time to come to your senses? At length awake out of sleep, and shake yourself from the dust! Break loose from this miserable idolatry, and ‘choose the better part.’

49

Cf. Luke 10:42.

Steadily resolve to seek happiness where it may be found—where it cannot be sought in vain. Resolve to seek it in the true God, the fountain of all blessedness! And cut off all delay. Straightway put in execution what you have resolved! Seeing ‘all things are ready,’
50

Matt. 22:4.

‘acquaint thyself now with him, and be at peace.’
51

Cf. Job 22:21.

4. But do not either resolve or attempt to execute your resolution trusting in your own strength. If you do you will be utterly foiled. You are not able to contend with the evil world, much less with your own evil heart, and least of all with the powers of darkness. Cry therefore to the Strong for strength.

52

See No. 48, ‘Self-denial’, III.4 and n.

Under a deep sense of your own weakness and helplessness, ‘trust thou in the Lord Jehovah, in whom is everlasting strength.’
53

Cf. Isa. 26:4.

I advise you to cry to him for repentance in particular, not only for a full consciousness of your own impotence, but for a piercing sense of the exceeding guilt, baseness, and madness of the idolatry that has long swallowed you up. Cry for a thorough knowledge of yourself, of all your sinfulness and guiltiness. Pray that you may be fully discovered to yourself, that you may know yourself as also you are known.
54

See 1 Cor. 13:12. For Wesley’s notion of repentance as self-knowledge, cf. No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, II.1 and n.

When once you are possessed of this genuine conviction, all your idols will lose their charms. And you will wonder how you could so long lean upon those broken reeds which had so often sunk under you.

55. What should you ask for next?

Jesus, now I have lost my all,
Let me upon thy bosom fall!
55

Cf. John and Charles Wesley, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’, st. 9, ll. 3-4, in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), p. 205 (Poet. Wks., II.259). See also, A Collection of Hymns (1780), No. 157 (7:277 of this edn.).

03:114
Now let me see thee in thy vesture dipped in blood!
Now stand in all thy wounds confest,
And wrap me in thy crimson vest!
56

Cf. Charles Wesley, Hymn 161, in Hymns for a Family (1767), p. 171 (Poet. Wks., VII.194). Wesley has conflated lines from two verses:

Come then, and to my soul reveal
The heights and depths of grace,
Those wounds which all my sorrows heal,
That dear disfigured face.
Before my eyes of faith confessed
Stand forth a slaughter’d Lamb,
And wrap me in thy crimson vest,
And tell me all thy name.

Hast thou not said, ‘If thou canst believe’,

57

Mark 9:23.

‘thou shalt see the glory of God’?
58

Cf. John 11:40.

‘Lord, I would believe! Help thou mine unbelief!’
59

Cf. Mark 9:24.

And help me now! Help me now to enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of God!
60

See Heb. 4:9.

For those who give thee their heart, their whole heart! Who receive thee as their God and their all! O thou that art fairer than the children of men, full of grace are thy lips!
61

See Ps. 45:2 (BCP).

Speak, that I may see thee! And as the shadows flee before the sun, so let all my idols vanish at thy presence!

66. From the moment that you begin to experience this, fight the good fight of faith;

62

1 Tim. 6:12.

take the kingdom of heaven by violence!
63

See Matt. 11:12.

Take it as it were by storm. Deny yourself every pleasure that you are not divinely conscious brings you nearer to God. Take up your cross daily.
64

See Luke 9:23.

Regard no pain if it lies in your way to him. If you are called thereto, scruple not to pluck out the right eye and to cast it from you.
65

See Matt. 5:29.

Nothing is impossible to him that believeth:
66

See Mark 9:23.

you can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth you.
67

See Phil. 4:13.

Do valiantly, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.
68

See Gal. 5:1.

Yea, go on in his name and in the power of his might,
69

Eph. 6:10.

till you ‘know all that love of God that passeth knowledge’.
70

Eph. 3:19.

And then you have only to wait till he shall call you into his everlasting kingdom.

London, Jan. 5, 1781

71

The date and place are added only in AM.


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Entry Title: Sermon 78: Spiritual Idolatry

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