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

by John Wesley

To be carnally minded, saith the apostle, is death, this is the one death that Christ is here said to abolish; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace; and this is the one life and immortality that Christ sets up in the stead of death, by making us spiritually minded, or as St. Peter words it, “partakers of the divine nature, by which we are made children of God, and if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.”

Farther, St. John saith, This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life; surely this is the one immortality brought to light by the gospel. But to shew us what, and wherein this immortal, or eternal life consists, the apostle adds, “and this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son; hath not life.”

* Therefore this immortality, or eternal life given unto us of God, not only has nothing in it concerning the natural immortality of souls, but is necessarily to be understood of quite another matter.

* For they only can have this eternal life given to them of God, who have the Son: therefore it has no relation to the natural immortality of souls, and they can only have the Son, of whom it can be truly said, “that Christ is of God become wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification to them.”

* As another full proof of all that has been said, it may be added, that the life and immortality brought to light by the gospel, is purely conditional and only offered to mankind, as a gift of God, upon certain terms. And therefore does not, cannot mean the immortality of the soul, or its perpetual natural duration in a future state.

Thus, “God gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed on him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.” Therefore the immortality of life revealed by the gospel, is purely conditional, and adventitious to the soul, such as may be received, or not received, and consequently cannot possibly be, or mean a natural immortality, for such immortality, it has no power of freely receiving, or not receiving upon terms.

That blessing of a heavenly immortality, freely given by God, is nothing else but a celestial holiness, purity and perfection brought forth in the soul, by its having the eternal WORD and SPIRIT of God again restored to, and united with it: called immortality, not because of its eternal duration, but because eternally free from all that, which is death, or the deadly evil of sin in the soul; called also so, in opposition to that natural immortality of devils, and damned souls, which tho’ never ceasing, is only an eternal death. So that no argument, from what is said of the life and immortality made known by the gospel, can be drawn into a proof, that the belief of a future state, was not the general belief of the world before. Because the immortality preached by the gospel, is a thing quite different from the natural, perpetual duration of the soul, and means neither more, nor less, than the glory and perfection of a divine life, to which Adam died the very day that he did eat of the forbidden tree, and which is quickened again, in and by the whole process of Christ in our nature.

I come now, to my second proposition, namely, to shew, that the doctrine of a future state, or the immortality of the soul, was not designedly secreted, or industriously hidden from the eyes of the people of God by the types and figures of the Mosaic dispensation.—My reasons for it are as follow. First, because it is highly unworthy of God, to suppose, that it was, the end of those types and figures, designedly to secrete, or hide from the people of God, the knowledge of any truth, much less the knowledge of a truth, absolutely necessary, to the very possibility of any spiritual relation, or religious communication between God and man, as that of the immortality of the soul, must be.—For though the Mosaic state, may be justly called a region of darkness, when compared to that light which has arisen from the process of Christ; yet so far as it went, and with regard to the people under it, it was a degree of light, and a degree of life: it was some progress in victory over death, it was some opening of divine light, an help to such kind of knowledge, as could be had in such a state, as was only formed to support, and keep up a faith, and hope, and expectation of such a redemption to come, as had been promised from the beginning of the world, but could have no open manifestation, till its own existence manifested itself.—It is therefore a gross mistaking the whole nature of the law, to consider its types and figures as designedly hiding any thing from man.—Their design was quite the contrary, namely, to convey new light and farther information. And though they may be said to be a shadowy, and imperfect representation, yet its whole intent is, to give some knowledge of the substance; and by its signs to make the things to come more expected, than they would have been without such types and figures.

Bishop Warburton, speaking of typical representation, saith, it necessarily implies the throwing a thing into shade, or secreting it from vulgar knowledge.

Typical representation, in the law, is not, cannot be the throwing a thing into shade, or secreting it from vulgar knowledge. For this supposes the thing typified to have been already in existence, or it could not be thrown into shade. But this hath no place in the Mosaic types and figures; they are not the putting any thing already existent, under a cover, but are a degree of light cast upon such a matter, as had never shewn itself, and which could therefore only be typically pointed at, till it came into actual existence.