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Sermon 102: Of Former Times

   https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon102

03:440 An Introductory Comment

This sermon provides an interesting sample of Wesley as a ‘theologian of culture’, concerned with various correlations between the Christian world view and emergent current issues. One such issue had become popular and controversial by the 1780s: the idea of ‘progress’. Traditional philosophies of history (orthodox, Puritan, ‘primitivist’, ‘restorationist’, etc.) had premised some sort of ‘golden age of mankind’, long since decayed—or, alternatively, a pristine ‘apostolic age’ of authentic Christian faith and praxis, long since corrupted. As sophisticated a theologian as Robert South, in preaching from Eccles. 7:10,

1

Sermons (1823), No. XIV, Vol. V, pp. 233-49.

had argued that the ‘former times’ mentioned there were not really better than our own—which was to say that every age has its own characteristic defects. Much earlier, Jean Bodin, in his Methodus, ad facilem historiarum cognitionem (1566) had expounded a sort of ‘law of oscillations’, thus rejecting both extremes of pessimism and optimism. Louis Le Roy had followed with a variation on the same theme in De la Vicissitude ou varieté des choses en l’univers.
2

1st edn., 1576; Eng. trans, by Robert Ashley, 1594.

The emergence of ‘the idea of progress’ has been traced, credibly enough, by J. B. Bury in his essay under that title (1932), with typically scant interest in its theological aspects or development. But this was precisely where Wesley’s view of the problem found its focus. For example, he knew George Hakewill’s rambling but pioneering Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World… (1627, 1630, 1635), with its argument to the effect that Christianity had made a decisive contribution to human progress over pagan times (cf. Bury’s grudging praise of Hakewill’s interest in social progress, p. 92). Closer to Wesley’s time there had been Bishop Thomas Sprat’s vision in his History of the Royal Society (1667) of the foreseeable ‘absolute perfection of the true philosophy [of nature]’. Wesley also knew Joseph Glanvill’s short essay, Plus Ultra, or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since 03:441the Days of Aristotle (1668), which had celebrated the unprecedented progress in useful knowledge generated by the new sciences. What interested Wesley most in Glanvill was the extension of the idea to the newly discovered ‘Transatlantic World’; this had been one of his recurring visions, too.

But the idea as a general conversation-piece had been popularized in France and England by two widely discussed works of Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle: Dialogues of the Dead,

3

1st edn. in French, 1683; Eng. trans, by John Hughes, 1708.

and Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds.
4

1st edn. in French, 1686; Eng. trans, by Mrs. Aphra Lehn; four edns. from 1688 to 1760.

How closely Wesley had read Fontenelle can only be conjectured. What is clear is that by 1787 he was convinced that his people needed a written sermon to connect two points not always held together by the apostles of progress: (1) the actuality of ‘progress’ and (2) the radical dependence of all so-called ‘progress’ upon the design and scope of God’s providence. Here, then, is a secular idea embraced and transformed by an evangelical theologian. It is one of the earlier essays in this vein that one can point to.

The written sermon was produced in June 1787, in the midst of Wesley’s long stay in Ireland that year; it is dated ‘Dublin, June 27’, which would have been the day following Thomas Coke’s return from a missionary journey to America: ‘We were agreeably surprised with the arrival of Dr. Coke, who came from Philadelphia in nine-and-twenty days, and gave us a pleasing account of the work of God in America.’

5

JWJ, June 26, 1787.

It was published in the Arminian Magazine in the winter of that same year (November and December, X.566-72, 620-25); it had no title, but was numbered as ‘Sermon XLII’. It is interesting to note that Wesley had preached from Eccles. 7:10 only once before (in 1759). Even when the sermon appeared in the Arminian Magazine, Wesley must have been planning for its inclusion in SOSO, VIII, where it appears with its present neutral title, pp. 153-72.

03:442
Of Former Times

Ecclesiastes 7:10

Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days mere better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.

11. It is not easy to discern any connection between this text and the context, between these words and either those that go before or those that follow after. It seems to be a detached, independent sentence, like very many in the Proverbs of Solomon. And like them, it contains a weighty truth, which deserves a serious consideration. Is not the purport of the question this? It is not wise to inquire into the cause of a supposition unless the supposition itself be not only true but clearly proved so to be. Therefore it is not wise to inquire into the cause of this supposition that ‘the former days were better than these’, because, common as it is, it was never yet proved, nor indeed ever can be.

22. Perhaps there are few suppositions which have passed more currently in the world than this, that the former days were better than these; and that in several respects. It is generally supposed that we now live in the dregs of time,

6

Cf. No. 52, The Reformation of Manners, II.1 and n.

when the world is as it were grown old, and consequently that everything therein is in a declining state. It is supposed, in particular, that men were, some ages ago, of a far taller stature than now; that they likewise had far greater abilities, and enjoyed a deeper and stronger understanding, in consequence of which their writings of every kind are far preferable to those of later times. Above all it is supposed that the former generations of men excelled the present in virtue; that mankind in every age and in every nation have degenerated more and more, so that at length they have fallen from the golden into the iron age, and now justice is fled from the earth.
7

In the following month Wesley would be reading ‘Mr. [Francis] Dobbs’s [Summary of] Universal History’, and giving it a mixed appraisal. Dobbs, an Irish politician, was also an ardent millenarian and some parts of his History (4 vols., 1787-88) left Wesley sceptical: ‘It gave me a clearer view of ancient times than ever I had before, but I still doubt of many famous incidents which have passed current for many ages. To instance in one: I cannot believe there was ever such a nation as the Amazons in the world. The whole affair of the Argonauts I judge to be equally fabulous…’ (JWJ, July 26, 1787).

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33. Before we consider the truth of these suppositions, let us inquire into the rise of them. And as to the general supposition, that the world was once in a far more excellent state than it is, may we not easily believe that this arose (as did all the fabulous accounts of the golden age) from some confused traditions concerning our first parents and their paradisiacal state? To this refer many of the fragments of ancient writings which men of learning have gleaned up. Therefore we may allow that there is some truth in the supposition; seeing it is certain, the days which Adam and Eve spent in paradise were far better than any which have been spent by their descendants, or ever will be till Christ returns to reign upon earth.

44. But whence could that supposition arise that men were formerly of a larger stature than they are now? This has been a generally prevailing opinion, almost in all nations and in all ages. Hence near two thousand years ago the well-known line of Virgil,

Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus.
8

Virgil, Aeneid, xii.900: the context is Turnus’s discovery of a landmark stone that not even a dozen men could lift, ‘men of such frames as earth produces now’.

Hence near a thousand years before him, Homer tells us of one of his heroes throwing a stone which hardly ten men could lift, οἷοι νῦν βροτοί—‘such as men are now’.

9

An exaggeration of the interval between Virgil and Homer; and notice that in the Iliad, v.304, the stone is such as ‘not two men could bear, such as mortals are now’. See also Wesley’s letter to his brother Charles, July 9, 1766.

We allow indeed there have been giants in all ages, in various parts of the world.
10

Cf. Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, on ‘giants’, and his list of witnesses to them (Caesar, Tacitus, Florus, Saxo Grammaticus, et al.). Chambers’s main point is that giants are, and always have been, rarities and marvels; ‘antique examples’ may be matched by ‘modern examples’ (e.g., ‘porters and archers belonging to the emperor of China, fifteen foot high’, etc.).

Whether the antediluvians mentioned in Genesis were such or no (which many have questioned), we cannot doubt but Og the King of Bashan
11

Deut. 3:11.

was such, as well as Goliath of Gath.
12

1 Sam. 17:4.

Such also were many of the children (or descendants) of Anak.
13

Deut. 9:2.

But it does not appear that in any age or nation men in general were larger than they are now. We are very sure they were not for many centuries past, by the tombs and coffins that have been discovered, which are exactly of the same size with those that are now in use. And in the 03:444catacombs at Rome the niches for the dead bodies which were hewn in the rock sixteen hundred years ago are none of them six feet in length, and some a little under. Above all, the Pyramids of Egypt (that of King Cheops in particular) have beyond all reasonable doubt remained at least three thousand years; yet none of the mummies (embalmed bodies) brought therefrom are above five feet ten inches long.
14

Cf. William Derham, Physico-Theology (1716), pp. 291-92, where the evidence of the ancient pyramids, catacombs, monumental tombs, etc., is surveyed (from classical history and modern travel stories) and the conclusion drawn that ‘there is no decay in nature (though the question is as old as Homer); men of this age are of the same stature as they were near three thousand years ago….’ For example, the Emperor Augustus was five feet, seven inches, whereas Queen Elizabeth was five feet, nine inches. See also Samuel Clarke, A Mirrour or Looking-Glasse (1654), pp. 608-11 (a description of the Egyptian pyramids), ‘…whereby it appears that men’s bodies are now almost as big as they were three thousand years ago’. In his Survey, I.100 ff., Wesley reviews the same evidence and reasserts the same conclusion; e.g., p. 151: ‘Five feet and an half may be thought the ordinary height of man’—Wesley was five feet, three inches—and ‘seventy years the ordinary period of his life’—Wesley died at age eighty-seven. Cf. Joseph G. Wright, ‘Notes on Some Portraits of John Wesley’, WHS, III.189; see also No. 54, ‘On Eternity’, §8 and n.

55. But how then came this supposition to prevail so long and so generally in the world? I know not but it may be accounted

15

Both 1787 and 1788 read ‘recounted’, surely an unnoticed error.

for from hence. Great and little are relative terms, and all men judge of greatness and littleness by comparing things with themselves. Therefore it is not strange if we think men are larger now than they were when we were children. I remember a remarkable instance of this in my own case. After having left it seven years I had a great desire to see the school where I was brought up.
16

Wesley had grown up with historic landmarks on every side; e.g., the Charterhouse School in London was in sight of Smithfield and close to St. Andrew’s, Holborn. He had entered the school on Jan. 28, 1714 (aged ten) and left it in June 1720, just before his seventeenth birthday.

When I was there, I wondered that the boys were so much smaller than they used to be when I was at school. ‘Many of my schoolfellows ten years ago were taller by the head than me. And few of them that are at school now reach up to my shoulders.’ Very true; but what was the reason of this? Indeed a very plain one: it was not because they were smaller, but because I was bigger than I was ten years before. I verily believe this is the cause why men in general suppose the human race to decrease in stature. They remember the time when most of those round about them were both taller and bigger than themselves. Yea, and all men have done the same in their successive generations. Is it 03:445any wonder then that all should have run into the same mistake? When it has been transmitted unawares from father to son, and probably will be to the end of time.

66. But there is likewise a general supposition that the understanding of man and all his mental abilities were of a larger size in the ancient days than they are now; and that the ancient inhabitants of the earth had far greater talents than the present. Men of eminent learning have been of this mind, and have contended for it with the utmost vehemence. It is granted that many of the ancient writers, both philosophers, poets, and historians, will not easily be excelled, if equalled, by those of later ages. We may instance in Homer and Virgil as poets, Thucydides and Livy as historians. But this meantime is to be remarked concerning most of these writers—that each of them spent his whole life in composing and polishing one book. What wonder then if they were exquisitely finished, when so much labour was bestowed upon them! I doubt whether any man in Europe or in the world has taken so much pains in finishing any treatise. Otherwise it might possibly have equalled, if not excelled, any that went before.

17

Cf. R. W. Harris, Reason and Nature in Eighteenth Century Thought, pp. 237-38, citing Edward Young (‘the poet’) as having posed the same question with regard to the ancients, with a similar conclusion. John Dunton, editor of The Athenian Mercury, complained of his brother-in-law, Samuel Wesley, Sen., that ‘he usually wrote too fast to write well’; see Dunton’s Life and Errors (Westminster, J. Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1818), I.164.

77. But that the generality of men were not one jot wiser in ancient times than they are at the present time we may easily gather from the most authentic records. One of the most ancient nations concerning whom we have any certain account is the Egyptian. And what conception can we have of their understanding and learning when we reflect upon the objects of their worship? These were not only the vilest of animals, as dogs and cats, but the leeks and onions

18

Cf. Isaac Hawkins Browne, ‘Of the Immortality of the Soul’, translated from the Latin by Richard Grey, in English Poems, IX.12 (London, 1754):

Those [idols] their propitious deities they called;
As those unlucky, which would do them harm.
Nay, to such height at last the frenzy grew,
That little ugly beasts, nay even leeks
And onions, were by mad antiquity
Held sacred—and, as deities, adored.

See also John Hutchinson, Works, IV (‘G’).262, for a reference to ‘Egyptian religion’; cf. Works, I (‘B’).93-96.

that grew in their own gardens. 03:446Indeed I knew
19

Altered in SOSO to ‘we lately had’; if Wesley was personally acquainted with Hutchinson, he left no other record of this fact.

a great man (whose manner was to treat with the foulest abuse all that dared to differ from him: I do not mean Dr. Johnson—he was a mere courtier compared to Mr. Hutchinson
20

Cf. Spearman and Bate, Editors’ Preface to Hutchinson’s Works, I.xi: ‘[Hutchinson]…offended sometimes with his tongue, spoke sometimes with more warmth than is strictly justifiable, and [often allowed] unguarded expressions to drop….’

) who scurrilously abused all those who are so void of common sense as to believe any such thing concerning them. He peremptorily affirms (but without condescending to give us any proof) that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt had a deep hidden meaning in all this. Let him believe it who can. I cannot believe it, on any man’s bare assertion. I believe they had no deeper meaning in worshipping cats than our schoolboys have in baiting them. And I apprehend the common Egyptians were just as wise three thousand years ago as the common ploughmen in England and Wales are at this day. I suppose their natural understanding, like their stature, was on a level with ours, and their learning, their acquired knowledge, many degrees inferior to that of persons of the same rank either in France, Holland, or Germany.

88. ‘However, did not the people of former times greatly excel us in virtue?’ This is the point of greatest importance; the rest are but trifles in comparison of it. Now is it not universally allowed that every age grows worse and worse? Was it not observed by the old heathen poet, almost two thousand years ago,

Aetas parentum, peior avis, tulit
Nos nequiores, iam daturos
Progeniem vitiosiorem.
21

Cf. Horace, Odes, III.vi.46-48, orig., ‘mox daturos’. Wesley’s ‘plain prose’ is a very free translation, less subtle than Horace’s intended satire.

That is, in plain prose: ‘The age of our parents was more vicious than that of our grandfathers. Our age is more vicious than that of our fathers. We are worse than our fathers were, and our children will be worse than us.’

99. It is certain, this has been the common cry from generation to generation. And if it is not true, whence should it arise? How can we account for it? Perhaps another remark of the same poet may help us to an answer. May it not be extracted from the general character which he gives of old men?

03:447
Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti
Se puero, censor, castigatorque minorum.
22

Cf. Horace, Art of Poetry, ll. 173-74: ‘Hard to please, querulous, praising the times when they were boys, and censorious reprovers of those who are young now.’

Is it not the common practice of old men to praise the past and condemn the present time? And this may probably operate much farther than one would at first imagine. When those that have more experience than us—and therefore, we are apt to think, more wisdom—are almost continually harping upon this, the degeneracy of the world; [when] those who are accustomed from their infancy to hear how much better the world was formerly than it is now (and so it really seemed to them when they were young, and just come into the world, and when the cheerfulness of youth gave a pleasing air to all that was round about them), the idea of the world’s being worse and worse would naturally grow up with them. And so it will be till we, in our turn,

23

AM (1787), p. 571: ‘And so it would be till we, in our turn, grew peevish.’ In SOSO ‘would’ is changed to ‘will’, and although ‘grew’ remains, it seems clear that this should have been changed to ‘grow’.

grow peevish, fretful, discontented, and full of melancholy complaints, ‘How wicked the world is grown!’ How much better it was when we were young, in the golden days that we can remember!

1010. But let us endeavour, without prejudice or prepossession, to take a view of the whole affair. And upon cool and impartial consideration it will appear that the former days were not better than these; yea, on the contrary, that these are, in many respects, beyond comparison better than them. It will clearly appear that as the stature of men was nearly the same from the beginning of the world, so the understanding of men in similar circumstances has been much the same from the time of God’s bringing a flood upon the earth unto the present hour. We have no reason to believe that the uncivilized nations of Africa, America, or the South Sea Islands, had ever a better understanding, or were in a less barbarous state than they are now. Neither, on the other hand, have we any sufficient proof that the natural understanding of men in the most civilized countries, Babylon, Persia, Greece, or Italy, were stronger or more improved than those of the Germans, French, or English now alive. Nay, have we not reason to believe that by means of better instruments we have attained that knowledge of nature which few, if any, of the ancients ever 03:448attained? So that in this respect the advantage (and not a little one) is clearly on our side: and we ought to acknowledge, with deep thankfulness to the Giver of every good gift, that the former days were not to be compared to these wherein we live.

1111. But the principal inquiry still remains. Were not ‘the former days better than these’ with regard to virtue? Or to speak more properly, religion? This deserves a full consideration.

By religion I mean the love of God and man, filling the heart

24

Cf. No. 25, ‘Sermon on the Mount, V’, IV.13 and n.

and governing the life. The sure effect of this is the uniform practice of justice, mercy, and truth. This is the very essence of it, the height and depth of religion, detached from this or that opinion, and from all particular modes of worship. And I would calmly inquire, ‘Which of the former times were better than these with regard to this, to the religion experienced and practised by Archbishop Fénelon
25

Archbishop of Cambrai (1651-1715), a major figure in the development of mysticism in eighteenth-century France. Wesley had published some of his ‘Letters’ in the Christian Lib. (Vol. XXXVIII), and recommended his Télémaque for use in the Kingswood School. For other references to Fénelon, cf. Nos. 106, ‘ On Faith, Heb. 11:6’, II.3; and 123, ‘On Knowing Christ after the Flesh’, §14; see also Wesley’s letter to Ann Bolton, Sept. 27, 1777.

in France, Bishop Ken
26

Thomas Ken (1637-1711), teacher, hymn writer, Bishop of Bath and Wells, famed for his piety and Christian courage. He denied Nell Gwyn’s access to Charles II, he defied James II’s order to read the royal ‘Declaration of Indulgence’ (1687), but he also declined to take the oath of allegiance to William of Orange (1689). He carried his shroud with him on his travels and, like John Donne before him, put it on whenever he fell ill. His morning and evening hymns may be more familiar than his name (e.g., ‘Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,’ etc.). Wesley included some of these hymns in A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1738), and abridged Ken’s Exposition on the Church Catechism (1686) in the Christian Lib., Vol XXV.

in England, and Bishop Bedell
27

William Bedell (1571-1642), a remarkable Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, revered even by the Irish. He was fortunate to have Gilbert Burnet for his biographer; his Life appeared in 1685, and Wesley had abridged it for Vol. XXVII of the Christian Lib. Later he used excerpts from the abridgement for AM, 1778-79.

in Ireland?’

1212. We need not extend our inquiry beyond the period when life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel.

28

See 2 Tim. 1:10.

And it is allowed that the days immediately succeeding the pouring out of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost were better even in this respect, even with regard to religion, than any which have succeeded them.

But setting aside this short age of golden days, I must repeat the question: ‘Which of the former days were better than the present in every known part of the habitable world?’

03:449

1313. Was the former part of this century better either in these islands or any part of the continent? I know no reason at all to affirm this. I believe every part of Europe was full as void of religion in the reign of Queen Anne as it is at this day. It is true, luxury increases to a high degree in every part of Europe. And so does the scandal of England, profaneness, in every part of the kingdom. But it is also true that the most infernal of all vices, cruelty, does as swiftly decrease. And such instances of it as in times past continually occurred are now very seldom heard of. Even in war that savage barbarity which was everywhere practised has been discontinued for many years.

1414. Was the last century more religious than this? In the former part of it there was much of the form of religion. And some undoubtedly experienced the power thereof.

29

See 2 Tim. 3:5.

But how soon did the fine gold become dim!
30

See Lam. 4:1.

How soon was it so mingled with worldly design, and with a total contempt both of truth, justice, and mercy, as brought that scandal upon all religion which is hardly removed to this day.
31

A reflection of Wesley’s bitter criticism of the Erastian corruptions of religion in the Restoration and also during ‘the Whig Supremacy’ (1714-60).

Was there more true religion in the preceding century, the age of the Reformation? There was doubtless in many countries a considerable reformation of religious opinions; yea, and modes of worship, which were much changed for the better, both in Germany and several other places. But it is well known that Luther himself complained, almost with his dying breath, ‘The people that are called by my name (though I wish they were only called by the name of Christ) are reformed as to their opinions and modes of worship; but their tempers and lives are the same they were before.’
32

See No. 68, ‘The Wisdom of God’s Counsels’, §10 and n.; see also No. 14, The Repentance of Believers, I.9 and n.

Even then both justice and mercy were so shamelessly trodden under foot that an eminent writer computes the number of those that were slaughtered during those religious contests to have been no less than forty millions, within the compass of forty years!
33

Cf. Nos. 22, ‘Sermon on the Mount, II’, III.18 and n.; and 92, ‘On Zeal’, §1 and n.

1515. We may step back above a thousand years from this without finding any better time. No historian gives us the least intimation of any such till we come to the age of Constantine the Great. Of this period several writers have given us most magnificent 03:450accounts. Yea, one eminent author—no less a man than Dr. Newton,

34

Thomas Newton (1704-82); cf. No. 61, ‘The Mystery of Iniquity’, §27 and n.

the late Bishop of Bristol—has been at no small pains to show that the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, and the emoluments which he bestowed upon the church with an unsparing hand, were the event which is signified in the Revelation by ‘the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven’!
35

Rev. 21:2. Cf. Eusebius’s ecstatic account of the dinner given by the Emperor Constantine for the bishops at Nicea: ‘One might have thought that a picture of Christ’s kingdom was thus shadowed forth…’; Life of Constantine, III.15 (NPNF, II, I.524).

1616. But I cannot in any wise subscribe to the bishop’s opinion in this matter. So far from it that I have been long convinced from the whole tenor of ancient history that this very event—Constantine’s calling himself a Christian, and pouring in that flood of wealth and power on the Christian church, the clergy in particular—was productive of more evil to the church than all the ten persecutions put together. From the time that power, riches, and honour of all kinds were heaped upon the Christians, vice of all kinds came in like a flood, both on the clergy and laity. From the time that the church and state, the kingdoms of Christ and of the world, were so strangely and unnaturally blended together, Christianity and heathenism were so thoroughly incorporated with each other that they will hardly ever be divided till Christ comes to reign upon earth.

36

Note Wesley’s ambivalence toward this assumption that the church is a corpus mixtum (a mixed society) and will always continue to be; cf. No. 104, ‘On Attending the Church Service’, §13 and n.

So that instead of fancying that the glory of the new Jerusalem covered the earth at that period, we have terrible proof that it was then, and has ever since been, covered with the smoke of the bottomless pit.
37

Cf. Rev. 9:11; 20:1; cf. also No. 32, ‘Sermon on the Mount, XII’, I.7 and n.

1717. ‘However, were not the days antecedent to this, those of the third century, better beyond all comparison than any that followed them?’ This has been almost universally believed. Few doubt but in the age before Constantine the Christian church was in its glory, worshipping God in the beauty of holiness. But was it so indeed? What says St. Cyprian, who lived in the midst of that century, a witness above all exception, and one that sealed the truth with his blood? What account does he give of what he saw with his own eyes, and heard with his own ears? Such a one as would almost make one imagine he was painting to the life, not the ancient church of Carthage, but the modern church of Rome. 03:451According to his account, such abominations even then prevailed over all orders of men that it was not strange God poured out his fury upon them in blood, by the grievous persecutions which followed.

38

Cf. above, No. 61, ‘The Mystery of Iniquity’, §25 and n.

1818. Yea, and before this, even in the first century, even in the apostolic age, what account does St. John give of several of the churches which he himself had planted in Asia? How little were those congregations better than many in Europe at this day? Nay, forty or fifty years before that, within thirty years of the descent of the Holy Ghost, were there not such abominations in the church of Corinth as were ‘not even named among the heathen’?

39

Cf. 1 Cor. 5:1 (Notes).

So early did ‘the mystery of iniquity’
40

2 Thess. 2:7.

begin to work in the Christian church! So little reason have we to appeal to the former days, as though they were ‘better than these’!

1919. To affirm this, therefore, as commonly as it is done, is not only contrary to truth, but is an instance of black ingratitude

41

Cf. John Dryden’s drama, The Spanish Fryar; Or the Double Discovery, Act I, sc. 1: ‘You brand us all with black ingratitude.’ Wesley read this in Sept. 1729.

to God, and a grievous affront to his blessed Spirit. For whoever makes a fair and candid inquiry will easily perceive that true religion has in no wise decreased, but greatly increased, in the present century. To instance in one capital branch of religion, the love of our neighbour. Is not persecution wellnigh vanished from the face of the earth? In what age did Christians of various denominations show such forbearance toward each other?
42

SOSO, 1788, ‘of every denomination show such forbearance to each other?’ Cf. OED for ‘denomination’ as a new term in the eighteenth century.

When before was such lenity shown by governors toward their respective subjects? Not only in Great Britain and Ireland, but in France and Germany; yea, every part of Europe? Nothing like this has been seen since the time of Constantine; no, not since the time of the apostles.
43

An echo of the age-old history of religious persecutions and of the comparative triumph of toleration in late Georgian England; cf. Wilbur K. Jordan, The Development of Religious Toleration in England; Attainment of the Theory and Accommodations in Thought and Institutions (1664-60) (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1940). Wesley ignores the fact, however, that the Test and Corporation Acts against Dissenters still had the force of law; he also seems to have repressed his memories of the ‘Lord Gordon (anti-Catholic) riots’ of 1778, and his complicity in them.

2020. If it be said, ‘Why, this is the fruit of the general infidelity, 03:452the Deism which has overspread all Europe,’ I answer, Whatever be the cause, we have reason greatly to rejoice in the effect. And if the all-wise God has brought so great and universal a good out of this dreadful evil, so much the more should we magnify his astonishing power, wisdom, and goodness herein. Indeed, so far as we can judge, this was the most direct way whereby nominal Christians could be prepared, first, for tolerating, and, afterwards, for receiving, real Christianity. While the governors were themselves unacquainted with it, nothing but this could induce them to suffer it. O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

44

Rom. 11:33.

Causing a total disregard for all religion to pave the way for the revival of the only religion which was worthy of God! I am not assured whether this be the case or no in France and Germany. But it is so beyond all contradiction in North America: the total indifference of the government there whether there be any religion or none leaves room for the propagation of true scriptural religion without the least let or hindrance.
45

An interesting recognition of the positive effects of the principle of the separation of church and state. Wesley connects it here with Deism; it was also a belated triumph of one of the central ecclesial principles of the ‘Radical Reformation’; cf. G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation.

2121. But above all this, while luxury and profaneness have been increasing on the one hand, on the other benevolence and compassion toward all the forms of human woe have increased in a manner not known before, from the earliest ages of the world. In proof of this we see more hospitals, infirmaries, and other places of public charity have been erected, at least in and near London, within this century, than in five hundred years before.

46

Cf. George Rudi, Hanoverian London, 1714-1808, pp. 84-86, for a list of hospitals and infirmaries that were newly built or extensively rebuilt in the eighteenth century. See also No. 99, The Reward of Righteousness, for Wesley’s testimony to the sense of philanthropy in the latter half of the century.

And suppose this has been owing in part to vanity, desire of praise; yet have we cause to bless God that so much good has sprung even from this imperfect motive.

2222. I cannot forbear mentioning one instance more of the goodness of God to us in the present age. He has lifted up a standard in our islands both against luxury, profaneness, and vice of every kind. He caused near fifty years ago as it were a grain of mustard seed to be sown near London, and it has now grown and put forth great branches, reaching from sea to sea. Two or three 03:453poor people met together in order to help each other to be real Christians. They increased to hundreds, to thousands, to myriads, still pursuing their one point, real religion, the love of God and man ruling all their tempers, and words, and actions.

47

Another instance of Wesley’s effortless triumphalism with regard to the historic import of the Methodist Revival. Cf. Nos. 63, ‘The General Spread of the Gospel’, §18; 81, ‘In What Sense we are to Leave the World’, §19; 104, ‘On Attending the Church Service’, §17; 107, ‘On God’s Vineyard’, I.5; 112, On Laying the Foundation of the New Chapel, §4, II.11; and 122, ‘Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity’, §8. See also Wesley’s letters to John Fletcher Jan. 15, 1787; to Mrs. Woodhouse July 30, 1773; to a clergyman, June 18, 1787; and to James Barry, Sept. 26, 1787; and ‘A Plain Account of the Kingswood School’, in AM (1781), IV.381-84, 432-35, 486-93; ‘Thoughts Upon a Late Phenomenon’, §§7-10, in AM (1789), XII.46-49; and A Farther Appeal, Pt. III, I.4, 7 (11:274-76 in this edn.). For Wesley’s Anglican triumphalism, see Nos. 38, ‘A Caution against Bigotry’, II.4; and 33, ‘Sermon on the Mount, XIII’, III.1.

Now I will be bold to say such an event as this, considered in all its circumstances, has not been seen upon earth before, since the time that St. John went to Abraham’s bosom.

2323. Shall we now say, ‘The former days were better than these’? God forbid we should be so unwise and so unthankful. Nay, rather let us praise him all the day long; for he hath dealt bountifully with us. No ‘former time’ since the apostles left the earth has been ‘better than the present’. None has been comparable to it in several respects. We are not born out of due time,

48

1 Cor. 15:8.

but in the day of his power, a day of glorious salvation,
49

See Ps. 110:3; 2 Cor. 6:2; Col. 1:11.

wherein he is hastening to renew the whole race of mankind in righteousness and true holiness.
50

Eph. 4:24.

How bright hath the Sun of righteousness already shone on various parts of the earth! And how many gracious showers has he already poured down upon his inheritance! How many precious souls has he already gathered into his garner, as ripe shocks of corn! May we be always ready to follow them, crying in our hearts, ‘Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!’
51

Cf. Rev. 22:20.

Dublin, June 27, 1787

52

Place and date as in AM.


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Entry Title: Sermon 102: Of Former Times

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