Sermon 148: A Single Intention

04:371 An Introductory Comment

1This is a sermon written by John Wesley at sea, not only in the wake of a storm that had terrified him, but also, apparently, in anticipation of the Simmonds’s safe arrival in Georgia.

1

Cf. JWJ, and diary, Jan. 23-Feb. 6, 1736.

This was clearly intended as his inaugural sermon in Georgia, and he may have actually preached it shortly after their landing. The text survived in Charles Wesley’s handwriting on the rectos of ten duodecimo leaves; the first is an unnumbered title page, the second is also unnumbered and the remainder are numbered pp. 2-9. It is now included in the Colman Collection in the Methodist Archives, Manchester. The title page reads as follows:

Matt. 6:22-23. A Single Intention.

Preached at Frederica in the Island of St. Simons, Georgia, in the forenoon, March 14, 1736.

2

I.e., more than a month after the actual first landfall off the Georgia coast; cf. JWJ, Feb. 5-6.

Preached at Savannah in Georgia, May 23, 1736, in the morning.

Aston and Wickham, April 24, 1736; Castle in O[xford], May 1, 1737.

2There is a shorthand postscript on the last page in Charles Wesley’s hand: ‘From my brother’s copy, transcribed February 4, 1736, on board the Simmonds within sight of Carolina. D[eo] G[ratias].’ At the head of the manuscript Charles has placed a Puritan invocation, I[n] N[omine] D[ei], instead of the more conventional Anglican In nomine Patris, et Filius, et Spiritus Sancti.

3A revised version of the sermon appeared as No. VIII in Charles Wesley’s posthumous Sermons (1816). Meanwhile, John had published two other sermons on Matt. 6:22-25 (Nos. 28, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VIII’, and 125, ‘On a Single Eye’); they are related to this sermon only by their common biblical text and theme. In his oral preaching Wesley returned to Matt. 6:22-23 at least ten times.

4The notion of ‘a pure intention’ as the essence of holy living had come [04:372]to Wesley from all his mentors in Christian spirituality (Scougal, Kempis, Taylor, Law, et al.); it stayed with him all his life. Here (I.4), he defines it as the having ‘but one end in all thy thoughts, and words, and actions—to please God…’. In his application of this idea (in II.8), he can speak of God’s abundant providence in having brought the colonists safely ‘through the terrors of the great deep’ and in having ‘prepared a table for [them] in the way wherein [they] went’. Obviously, this principle has as many other applications as there are human circumstances. In this case, the concluding exhortation calls for a rededication of their lives, in gratitude and with a single intention to God’s glory in their hearts. There is no concluding ascription.

A Single Intention

Matthew 6:22-23

I.N.D.

5

In Nomine Dei; see No. 139, ‘On the Sabbath’, n. 1.

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall befall of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.

1. The good providence of God hath at length brought you all unto the haven where you would be.

This is the time which you have so long wished to find; this is the place you have so long desired to see. What then ought to be your thoughts, your designs, your resolutions, now God has given you your heart’s desire? Consider well what ye have to do; now choose, whether ye will serve God or not. But consider withal that if ye do serve him, ye must do it with all your might. Consider that no man can serve two masters; ye cannot serve God and mammon. Either therefore ye must give God your whole heart, or none at all; he cannot, will not, be served by halves. Either wholly lay aside the 04:373thoughts of pleasing him, and choose you another master, or let the pleasing him be your one view in all your thoughts, all your words, and all your actions. Believe our Lord, you can find no middle way. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be not single, but evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.

I am persuaded there is not one of you here, from the least even to the greatest, who will not earnestly attend while in the name of that God who hath hitherto defended us, and is now present with us, I first briefly explain these important words of our Lord, and secondly, apply them to your present circumstances.

[I.] 1. And, first, may the God who spoke them enable me so to explain them that the meaning thereof may sink deep into your hearts. ‘The light of the body is the eye;’ that is, the intention is to the soul what the eye is to the body.

As every part of the body is directed when and how to move by the eye, so every power of the soul is in all its motion directed by the intention. As every turn of the foot or hand depends on and is governed by the bodily eye, so on this eye of the mind depends every deliberate movement of the understanding and the affections, and consequently of whatever depends upon these, as do the very most both of our words and actions.

2. ‘If therefore thine eye be single’; that is, if thy intention be not divided between two ends; if in all thy thoughts, words, and works, thou hast one only view, namely, to serve and please God: ‘thy whole body shall be full of light.’ This single intention will be a light in all thy paths: all darkness and doubt will vanish before it. All will be plain before thy face. Thou wilt clearly see the way wherein thou shouldst go, and steadily walk in it

3. ‘But if thine eye be evil’, if thy intention be not single, if thou hast more ends than one in view; if, besides that of pleasing God, thou hast a design to please thyself, or to do thy own will; if thou aimest at anything beside the one thing needful,

namely, a recovery of the image of God: ‘thy whole body shall be full of darkness;’ thou wilt see no light, which way soever thou turnest. Thou wilt never be free from doubt and perplexity, never out of uncertainty and entanglement. As thou art continually aiming at what cannot be done, thou wilt be continually disappointed. The 04:374thick darkness of ignorance, guilt, and misery, will gather about thee more and more, nor wilt thou be able, while encompassed with such a cloud, ever to recover the way of light and peace.

4. The sum is this: as long as thou hast but one end in all thy thoughts, and words, and actions—to please God, or which is all one, to improve in holiness,

in the love of God and thy neighbour—so long thou shalt clearly see what conduces thereto. The God whom thou servest shall so watch over thee that light, and love, and peace shall guide all thy ways, and shine upon all thy paths. But no sooner shalt thou divide thy heart, and aim at anything beside holiness, than the light from which thou turnest away being withdrawn, thou shalt not know whither thou goest. Ignorance, sin, and misery shall overspread thee, till thou fall headlong into utter darkness.

II. 1. To apply these words to your present circumstances was the next thing I proposed. In order to do which the more effectually I shall, by the assistance of God, first, give you some directions concerning singleness of intention, and secondly, exhort you to practise them.

2. I would not willingly believe that any of you need to be directed to have a single eye in your religious exercises. To aim at the favour or praise of men, or indeed at anything beside the mere pleasing of God, in communicating,

prayer, or any other duty of the like nature, is such an affront both to God and man that we should be very cautious of charging anyone with it, yea, even in our heart. It may be enough therefore barely to mention to you that there is no name bad enough for the folly of those who in any of these solemn offices have any other view than to please God, and to save their own souls.

[3.] But you are not perhaps so well aware that the same singleness of intention is full as necessary in every part of your business as it is in your devotions; and yet this is the very truth. Unless your single view therein be to please God, and to be more holy, the most lawful business becomes unlawful to you, and is an abomination in his sight. For it is no more allowed a Christian to [04:375]work with any other intention than it is to pray. And a mixture of any other does as much pollute our work as it does our prayers. Everything that proceeds from and is suitable to this intention is holy, and just, and good,

and everything which does not proceed from this is so far wicked and unholy. This, therefore, is the second direction I would give, to keep a single intention in all your business, which indeed turns all business into religion, which ennobles every employment, and makes the meanest offices of life a reasonable sacrifice, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

[4.] Nor is a single eye less necessary in our refreshments than it is in our business and our devotions. As every creature of God is good if it be sanctified by the Spirit of God and by prayer,

so without this sort of prayer at least, an intention to please God by using it, no creature is good, nor can be used without hurt to the user. And lest we should fancy meat and drink were too little things for God to regard, he has been pleased to cut up this pretence by the roots by giving you this third direction in express terms: ‘Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.’

[5.] ‘Whatsoever ye do’? That plainly takes in our diversions as well as refreshments. A fourth direction therefore equally necessary is, Let the same singleness of intention be preserved in these, likewise: go through these too with a single view to the will of God, not your own. It is his will you should use them in such a manner and measure as they prepare you for business or devotion. So far therefore as your present weakness makes them necessary to this end you are to use them, but no farther. And you will clearly see how far they are necessary to this, if this be the single end for which you use them.

[6.] One direction more is very necessary to be given before we close this head; and that is, that you are above all concerned to keep a single eye in your conversations. Whether devotion or business be the subject thereof, or whether you converse for refreshment or diversion, in all these cases you are equally obliged to do all to the glory of God. Whatever conversation has [04:376]not this aim cometh from the evil one. That is, an ‘idle word’

—or conversation, rather, as the term should be translated. And of every such idle word, our Lord plainly tells us before, we shall give an account in the day of judgment

[7.] I have now given you the plainest directions I could wherein this singleness of intention is to be preserved. Nothing remains but to exhort you instantly, zealously, and diligently to practise them.

[8.] The God of your fathers hath lately given you full proof that he hath not forsaken you or your children. Your eyes have seen that his ears are not heavy that they should not hear, neither his hand shortened that it cannot save.

Ye have cried unto him in your trouble, and he hath delivered you out of your distress. He hath led you through the terrors of the great deep: he there made bare his mighty arm before you. At his word the stormy wind arose, and lifted up the waves thereof. We reeled to and fro, and staggered like drunken men, and were at our wit’s end. But he ‘made the storm to cease, so that the waves thereof were still’. ‘He hath prepared a table for you in the way wherein you went; even there with corn and wine hath he sustained you.’ Some of you he hath delivered out of sickness. To some he hath forbidden sickness to approach. To all of you who allowed them to be any blessings at all hath he given abundance of spiritual blessings. Yea, in these he hath been found of them that sought him not; he hath spoken to the heart even of those who asked not after him. And now, behold, to complete all, he hath brought you unto the haven where ye would be.

[9.] ‘What reward then will ye give unto the Lord, for all the benefits he hath done unto you?’

What? Why, give him your hearts; love him with all your souls; serve him with all your strength. Forget the things that are behind: riches, honour, 04:377power—in a word, whatever does not lead to God. Behold, all things about you are become new! Be ye likewise new creatures! From this hour at least let your eye be single: whatever ye speak, or think, or do, let God be your aim, and God only! Let your one end be to please and love God! In all your business, all your refreshments, all your diversions, all your conversations, as well as in all those which are commonly called religious duties, let your eye look straight forward to God. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear! Have one design, one desire, one hope! Even that the God whom we serve may be your God and your all, in time and in eternity! O be not of a double heart! Think of nothing else! Seek nothing else! To love God, and to be beloved by him, is enough. Be your eyes fixed on this one point, and your whole bodies shall be full of light God shall continually lift up, and that more and more, the light of his countenance upon you. His Holy Spirit shall dwell in you, and shine more and more upon your souls unto the perfect day. He shall purify your hearts by faith from every earthly thought, every unholy affection. He shall establish your souls with so lively a hope as already lays hold on the prize of your high calling. He shall fill you with peace, and joy, and love! Love, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person! Love which never rests, never faileth, but still spreads its flame, still goeth on conquering and to conquer, till what was but now a weak, foolish, wavering, sinful creature, be filled with all the fullness of God!