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

by John Wesley

But now, though Abraham’s rejoicing at the sight of that day, was a sufficient proof, that his faith was in the Messiah, yet the implicit faith of the more antient, patriarchal world in that, which they had not seen, as Abraham had, was as right a faith in the Messiah, as Abraham’s was. This point is determined, in the following words of Christ. Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they, which have not seen, and yet have believed.

This, and this alone, is the only real difference between the religion of the faithful before, and after Christ. Before Christ, the living faith, was in a Messiah to come in some wonderful, but unknown way. By this faith, they stood under the blessed power of the seed of the woman, and from generation to generation were kept in the one true covenant of life, and union with God.

After Christ, the same living faith, rejoiced in a Messiah made known by a miraculous birth, in the fallen human nature, redeeming it out of every evil of life, of death, of sin and hell, till it was placed, as God and man in one person, at the right hand of God in heaven.

Now when in process of time, the covenant of life between God and man, had lost much of its effect, and the people of God had greatly fallen away from the faith and piety of the first patriarchs, (perhaps not more remarkably than the Christian world is fallen from the truth and faith of the apostolic ages) it pleased God by Moses, to introduce the descendents of the patriarchs into a new covenant of care, and protection over them.

Which covenant was not a new progressive state of that first one true religion, that alone unites God and fallen man, nor given for its own sake, or because of any intrinsic goodness in its washings and purifications, but granted to the hardness of their hearts, as a temporal means of keeping a fallen people from falling farther under the blindness and vanity of their earthly minds.

The first covenant was so perfect that nothing could be added to it, but the manifestations of that which was promised in it. It was a promise of life and redemption to mankind, to be fulfilled in and by the seed of the woman. Now the promise, and the fulfilling of it, are not (as in human matters) two distant, separate things, that begin at different times, nor can the one ever be without the other. They both began together, and must exist together. The end, that is, the fulfilling, grows out of the beginning, goes along with it, and has all its efficacy from it; and the beginning, that is, the promise, is only so much of the end.

That which Christ did, suffered, and obtained in our flesh, calling all to turn to God, to deny themselves, to enter into the strictest union with him, giving all divine graces, and yet only according to their faith in him; that very same, the seed of the woman from the beginning was always doing, yet solely according to their faith in it.

* The loss of this faith in the first ages of mankind, gave birth to that which is called the heathen, or rational world; for they both began together, and brought forth a race of people, full of blindness, wickedness, and idolatry. For so far as they departed from faith, so far they fell from God, under the dominion and government of their reason, passions, and appetites. And thence began the kingdom of this world, and the wisdom of this world, which ever must have full power over every man, as soon as he ceases to live by faith.

* Reasoning instead of faith, brought about the first dreadful change in human nature, no less than a real death to God. And nothing but faith instead of reasoning, can give any one fallen man power to become again a son of God. Now to the end of the world, this will be the unalterable difference between faith in God, and reasoning about the things of God: they can never change their place, or effects; that which they did to the first man, that they will do to the last.

* It matters not, how much the revelations and precepts of God are increased, since the first single command given to Adam; for no more is offered to our reasoning faculty by the whole bible, than by that single precept. And the benefit of the whole bible is lost to us, as soon as we reason about the nature and necessity of its commands, just as the benefit of that first precept was lost in the same way.