The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 06 (of 32)

by John Wesley

The scriptures abound with proof of this. What can be more decisive than the following words? If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. If Christ be not in you, ye are reprobates. And must not this be equally true of every man in the world? As true of all men in the patriarchal as in the gospel ages? If any man, says the apostle; therefore no regard is had to time or place, but where there is any man, there this truth is affirmed of him by the apostle, that unless he hath the Spirit of Christ he is none of his, but is a reprobate. But if none can be Christ’s, but because they have his Spirit living in them, and none can be God’s, but because they are Christ’s, it follows that if Christ was not the Spirit and power of that first, universal covenant made by God with fallen Adam, if he was not that which was meant by the seed of the woman, if his Spirit was not from that time the real bruiser of the serpent’s head, both Adam, and all his posterity, for much more than three thousand years lived and died mere reprobates, and that, by an unavoidable necessity, because they had not the Spirit of Christ living in them.

And now, my Lord, I think I have sufficiently proved not only my two propositions, but also that the first covenant with Adam, by the seed of the woman, was the one Christian means of salvation, so wonderfully manifested by the whole process of Christ revealed in the gospel. Therefore it is a truth of the utmost certainty, that from the beginning of the world to the end of it, there never was, nor ever will be any more, or any other, but one and the same true religion of the gospel, which began with Adam and Eve thro’ Jesus Christ, the one mediator and reconciler of God to man, who was as certainly the life, strength, and salvation of the faithful in the old world, as he was in after-times, when the Son of the Virgin Mary, the way, the truth, and the life, to all that have faith in him.

And indeed a plurality of religions, or means of salvation, is as gross an imagination as a plurality of gods, and can subsist upon no other foundation.

A better religion necessarily supposes a better God, and a change in religion a change in that God that makes it. A partial God, with-holding the one true power of salvation, till the last ages of the world, is as atheistical as Epicurus’s god.

In sundry times, and in divers manners, it may please the wisdom of God, to vary that which is only an outward help to the truth of religion; but the inward spirit and truth of salvation, is as unvariable as God himself.

The law therefore of Moses, as consisting of carnal ordinances, not only makes nothing perfect, but brings nothing new into the one covenant of redemption, but was only a temporary, provisional help, added because of transgressions, till the promised seed should come; that is, till the whole process of Christ, should in its last and highest degree of evidence manifest itself in all its parts.

* This law then no more belonged to the true religion of the Old Testament, than of the New, neither did it ever stand between these two dispensations, as in their stead. No: it was merely on the outside of both, had only a temporary relation to the true religion, either before or after Christ, but was no more a part, or instead of them for a time, than the hand that stands by the road, directing the traveller, is itself a part of the road, or instead of it.

Now, tho’ the reason of man ought not to pretend to fathom all the depths of divine wisdom, in the whole of this additional covenant, yet two ends of it are apparent.

First, To bring this corrupted people of Israel into a new state of such observances, as might preserve them from the gross superstitions and idolatries to which they were too much inclined. And this, by a ritual of such condescensions to their carnal minds, as might nevertheless be a school of restraints and discipline, full of such purifications, types, and figures, as gave much spiritual light and instruction, both backwards and forwards. Backwards, as truly significative of their fallen state, daily memorials of their lost purity and perfection: forwards, as variously pointing at that promised victory over the serpent, which had been the constant faith and hope of their forefathers.

Secondly, That by a theocracy added to this ritual, which shewed itself in a covenant of continual care and protection, openly blessing their obedience, and punishing their rebellion, and working all kinds of miracles in the overthrow of their enemies, not only they themselves, but all the rest of the world, might be forced to see and know, that there was no God, that had all power in heaven and on earth, but the one God of Israel.