diff --git a/data/sermons/tei/Sermon056 b/data/sermons/tei/Sermon056 new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0a6bd0fb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/sermons/tei/Sermon056 @@ -0,0 +1,692 @@ + + + + + + + Sermon 56: On God’s Approbation of His Works + Wesley, John + Van Buskirk, Gregory P. + Taylor, Michelle M. + + + The Wesley Works Digitzation Project + Tampa, FL + 2024-02-29 + + + + + + Sermon 56: On God’s Approbation of His Works + + + The Works of John Wesley, Volume II: Sermons II, + 34-70 + Outler, Albert + + Abingdon Press + Nashville, TN + 1985-11-01 + + + + + + The Works of John Wesley + Baker, Frank + + + + + + +

Greg Van Buskirk created Word docs for all of Wesley's sermons using a combination of + OCR software and manual proofing. Michelle Taylor converted these docx into XML + using Oxygen's DITA automatic transformation scenario, then touched them up + manually.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + An Introductory Comment + +

This sermon was written expressly for the Arminian + Magazine and appeared in its issues for July and August 1782 (V.341-46, + 397-403), as ‘Sermon X. On Genesis i:31’. There is no record of Wesley’s use of + this text elsewhere (a rare instance of a text for a written sermon not already + used in his oral preaching). It was then brought up to its present place in SOSO, V.41-56, and given its new title.

+ + God’s Approbation of His Works + +

Genesis 1:31

+

+ And God saw everything that he had made; and behold, it was + very good. +

+ +
+

1. When God created the heavens and the earth and all that is therein, at the + conclusion of each day’s work it is said, ‘And God saw that it was good.’ + Whatever was created was good in its kind, suited to the end for which it was + designed, adapted to promote the good of the whole and the glory of the great + Creator. This sentence it pleased God to pass with regard to each particular + creature. But there is a remarkable variation of the expression with regard to + all the parts of the universe taken in connexion with each other, and + constituting one system: ‘And God saw everything that he had made; and behold, + it was very good!’

+

2. How small a part of this great work of God is man + able to understand! But it is our duty to contemplate what he has wrought, and + to understand as much of it as we are able. For ‘The merciful Lord’, as the + Psalmist observes, ‘hath so done his marvellous works’, of creation as well as + of providence, ‘that they ought to be had in remembrance’

Cf. Ps. + 105:5.

by all that fear him, which they cannot well be unless + they are understood. Let us then by the assistance of that Spirit who giveth + unto man understanding, endeavour to take a general survey of the works which + God made in this lower world as they were before they were disordered and + depraved in consequence of the sin of man. We shall then easily see that as + every creature was ‘good’ in its primeval state, so, when all were compacted in + one general system, ‘behold, they were very good.’

An echo of Wesley’s earlier + project, A Survey of the Wisdom of God in + Creation.

 I do not remember to have seen any attempt + of this kind, unless in that truly excellent poem (termed by Mr. Hutchinson, + ‘that wicked farce’),

Hutchinson’s actual words: ‘that cursed farce of + Milton, where he…makes the Devil his her…]; cf. his Works (3rd edn., 1748-49), V.107; see also + XII.xx-xxii.

 Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Cf. Paradise Lost, vii.549-640. Wesley had already + published An Extract from Milton’s Paradise Lost + in 1763 (322 pp.) with a commendation ‘To the Reader’: ‘Of all the poems + which have hitherto appeared in the world, in whatever age or nation, + the preference has generally been given, by impartial judges, to + Milton’s Paradise Lost.’ In the sermons Wesley + quoted more than thirty-five different passages of Paradise Lost, many of them more than once. In an encomium on + Matthew Prior, Wesley says he was equal to or superior to ‘any English + poet, except Milton…’ (see AM, V.665).

+
+
+

[I.] 1. ‘In the beginning God created the matter of the heavens and the + earth.’

Cf. + Gen. 1:1.

(So the words, as a great man observes,

In No. 57, ‘On the + Fall of Man’, II.6, this ‘great man’ turns out to have been John + Hutchinson. The idea of creatio de nihilo is, of + course, patristic, as in Tertullian, Against + Hermogenes, ii-xxxviii (espec. xviii); and in Augustine’s Confessions, XI.vi-xxiii (espec. xx-xxii). Cf. + No. 15, The Great Assize, III.3 and n.

 + may properly be translated.) He first created the four elements out of which the + whole universe was composed: earth, water, air, and fire, all mingled together + in one common mass.

Cf. No. 57, ‘On the Fall of Man’, II.1.

 + The grossest parts of this, the earth and water, were utterly without form till + God infused a principle of motion, commanding the air to move ‘upon the face of + the waters’.

Gen. + 1:2.

 In the next place, ‘The Lord God said, Let there be + light: and there was light.’

Cf. Gen. 1:3.

 Here were the four + constituent parts of the universe: the true, original, simple elements. They + were all essentially distinct from each other, and yet so intimately mixed + together in all compound bodies that we cannot find any, be it ever so minute, + which does not contain them all.

+

2. ‘And God saw that’ every one of these ‘was good’,

Gen. + 1:10.

was perfect in its kind. The earth + was good: the whole surface of it was beautiful in a high degree. To make it + more agreeable,

+ + He clothed + The universal face with pleasant green. + +

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, + vii.313, 315-16.

+ + +

He adorned it with flowers of every hue, and with shrubs and trees of every kind. + And every part was fertile as well as beautiful: it was nowhere deformed by + rough or ragged rocks; it did not shock the view with horrid precipices, huge + chasms, or dreary caverns, with deep, impassable morasses, or deserts of barren + sand. But we have not any authority to say, with some learned and ingenious + authors, that there were no mountains on the original earth, no unevennesses on + its surface.

The + principal advocate of a world view such as this was Thomas Burnet, whom + Wesley would have known as a former Master of the Charterhouse. His Telluris Theoria Sacra appeared in 1681, and an + English revision, Sacred Theory of the Earth in + 1684. Addison and Steele reviewed it enthusiastically; William Whiston + countered with a different theory of a paradisiacal earth in his A Near Theory of the Earth. The whole speculation + was summarily dismissed by the scientists (e g., John Keill and John + Flamsteed, et al.) and remains as a sort of + theological curio.

It is not easy to reconcile this + hypothesis with those words of Moses, ‘The waters increased, …and all the high + hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upward + (above the highest) did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.’

Gen. + 7:[17,] 19-20.

 We have no reason to believe that + these mountains were produced by the deluge itself. Not the least intimation of + this is given: therefore we cannot doubt but they existed before it. Indeed they + answered many excellent purposes, besides greatly increasing the beauty of the + creation by a variety of prospects which had been totally lost had the earth + been one extended plain. Yet we need not suppose their sides were abrupt, or + difficult of ascent. It is highly probable that they rose and fell by almost + insensible degrees.

+

3. As to the internal parts of the earth, even to + this day we have scarce any knowledge of them. Many have supposed the centre of + the globe to be surrounded with an abyss of fire. Many others have imagined it + to be encompassed with an abyss of water, which they supposed to + be termed in Scripture ‘the great deep’,

Gen. 7:11.

all the + fountains of which were broken up in order to the general deluge. But however + this was, we are sure all things were disposed therein with the most perfect + order and harmony. Hence there were no agitations within the bowels of the + globe, no violent convulsions, no concussions of the earth, no earthquakes, but + all was unmoved as the pillars of heaven. There were then no such things as + eruptions of fire: there were no volcanoes, burning mountains. Neither Vesuvius, + Etna, nor Hekla, if they had any being, then poured out smoke and flame, but + were covered with a verdant mantle from the top to the bottom.

Cf. No. 15, The Great Assize, III.4 and n.

+

4. The element of water, it + is probable, was then mostly confined within the great abyss. In the new earth + (as we are informed by the Apostle) ‘there will be no more sea,’

[Cf.] Rev. + 21:1.

none covering as now the face of the earth, + and rendering so large a part of it uninhabitable by man. Hence it is probable + there was no external sea in the paradisiacal earth; none until the great deep + burst the barriers which were originally appointed for it. Indeed there was not + then that need of the ocean for navigation which there is now. For either (as + the poet supposes)

+ + Omnis tulit omnia tellus— + +

Cf. Virgil, Eclogues, iv.39: + ‘each land shall bear all fruits.’ See also, No. 64, ‘The New Creation’, + §12.

+ + +

every country produced whatever was requisite either for the necessity or comfort + of its inhabitants; or man being then (as he will be again at the resurrection) + equal to angels, was able to convey himself at his pleasure to any given + distance. Over and above that, those flaming messengers were always ready to + minister to the heirs of salvation. But whether there was sea or not, there were + rivers sufficient to water the earth and make it very plenteous. These answered + all the purposes of convenience and pleasure, by

+ liquid lapse of murmuring stream.

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, + viii.263; and see also Nos. 60, ‘The General Deliverance’, I.2; 64, ‘The + New Creation’, §12; 78, ‘Spiritual Idolatry’, I.8; and a letter to Ann + Granville, Aug. 14, 1731.

 +

To which were added gentle, genial showers, with salutary mists + and exhalations. But there were no putrid lakes, no turbid or stagnating waters; + but only such as

+ + bore impressed + Fair Nature’s image on their placid breast. + +

Cf. Thomas Parnell, ‘The Hermit’, ver. 2; see also + Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.268.

+ + +

5. The element of air was + then always serene, and always friendly to man. It contained no frightful + meteor, no unwholesome vapours, no poisonous exhalations. There were no + tempests, but only cool and gentle breezes,

+ + genitabilis aura favoni, + +

Cf. the whole of l.11 in Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), i.: + ‘and the breeze of the teeming southwind blows afresh.’

+ + +

fanning both man and beast, and wafting the fragrant odours on their silent + wings.

+

6. The sun, the fountain of fire,

+ of this great world both eye and soul,

Milton, Paradise Lost, + v.171; see also, I.10, below.

 +

was situated at the most exact distance from the earth, so as to yield a + sufficient quantity of heat (neither too little nor too much) to every part of + it. God had not yet

+ + bid his angels turn askance + […] this oblique globe. + +

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, + x.668-71; see also No. 64, ‘The New Creation’, §14.

+ + +

There was therefore then no country that groaned under

+ The rage of Arctos, and eternal frost

Cf. Prior, Solomon, I.265; + and Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.106. + Repeated in No. 64, ‘The New Creation’, §14; in a letter to Lawrence + Coughlan, Aug. 27, 1768; and in JWJ of the same date.

 +

There was no violent winter or sultry summer, no extreme either of heat or cold. + No soil was burnt up by the solar heat, none uninhabitable through the want of + it. Thus earth, water, air, and fire all conspired together to the welfare and + pleasure of man.

+

7. To the same purpose served the grateful + vicissitude of light and darkness, day and night. For as the human body, though + not liable to death or pain, yet needed continual sustenance by + food, so although it was not liable to weariness, yet it needed continual + reparation by sleep. By this the springs of the animal machine

Cf. No. 51, The Good Steward, I.4 and n.

were wound up from + time to time, and kept always fit for the pleasing labour for which man was + designed by his Creator. Accordingly ‘the evening and the morning were the first + day’

Gen. + 1:5b.

 before sin or pain was in + the world. The first natural day had one part dark for a season of repose, one + part light for a season of labour. And even in paradise Adam slept

[Gen.] 2:21.

 before he sinned; + sleep therefore belonged to innocent human nature. Yet I do not apprehend it can + be inferred from hence that there is either darkness or sleep in heaven.

Cf. No. 51, The Good Steward, II.10 and n.

 Surely + there is no darkness in that City of God. Is it not expressly said, ‘There shall + be no night there’? Indeed they have no light from the sun; but ‘the Lord giveth + them light.’

Rev. 22:5.

 So it is all day in + heaven, as it is all night in hell. On earth we have a mixture of both. Day and + night succeed each other till earth shall be turned to heaven. Neither can we at + all credit the account given by the ancient poet concerning sleep in heaven, + although he allows ‘cloud-compelling Jove’ to remain awake while the inferior + gods were sleeping.

This translation of Homer’s νεφεληγέρετα Ζεύς, as + in the Iliad, i.511-12 and 517-18, or xiv.312-13, + 341-42 (more conventionally, ‘cloud-gathering Zeus’), may be seen in + Edmund Waller, ‘Of the Danger of His Majesty…Escaped…’, l. 10, Works (1729), p. 2; and in Samuel Wesley, Jun., + ‘The Iliad in a Nutshell’, in Poems, p. 345. See + also Nicholas Rowe, Lucan’s Pharsalia, V.897; and + Pope, Iliad, xiv.388.

 ’Tis pity + therefore that our great poet should copy so servilely after the old heathen as + to tell us,

+ + Sleep had sealed + All but the unsleeping eyes of God himself. + +

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, + v.646-47; cf. also the Iliad, ii.3-4, 5-8.

+ + +

Not so: they that are ‘before the throne of God’ serve ‘him day and night’ + (speaking after the manner of men) ‘in his temple.’

Rev. 7:15.

+ That is, without any interval. As wicked spirits are tormented day and night, + without any intermission of their misery, so holy spirits enjoy God day and + night, without any intermission of their happiness.

+

8. On the second day God encompassed the terraqueous globe

Cf. I.10, below; + and No. 15, The Great Assize, I.1 and + n.

with that noble appendage the atmosphere, consisting chiefly + of air, but replete with earthly particles of various kinds, and with huge + volumes of water—sometimes invisible, sometimes visible—buoyed up with that + ethereal fire,

Cf. ibid, III.4 and n.

 a particle of + which cleaves to every particle of air. By this the water was divided into + innumerable drops, which descending watered the earth and made it very + plenteous, without incommoding any of its inhabitants. For there were then no + impetuous currents of air, no tempestuous winds; no furious hail, no torrents of + rain, no rolling thunders or forky

OED traces this usage much + further back (i.e., 1508) than ‘forked’ (1729).

 lightnings. + One perennial spring was perpetually smiling over the whole surface of the + earth.

+

9. On the third day God commanded all kind of + vegetables to spring out of the earth. It pleased him first to clothe

+ The universal face with pleasant green.

A repetition of I.2, above, omitted horn the + text of SOSO, V.

 +

And then to add thereto innumerable herbs, intermixed with flowers of all hues. + To these were added shrubs of every kind, together with tall and stately trees, + whether for shade, for timber, or for fruit, in endless variety. Some of these + were adapted to particular climates or particular exposures, while vegetables of + more general use (as wheat in particular) were not confined to one country, but + would flourish almost in every climate. But among all these there were no weeds, + no useless plants, none that encumbered the ground. Much less were there any + poisonous ones, tending to hurt any one creature, but everything was salutary in + its kind, suitable to the gracious design of its great Creator.

+

10. The Lord now created ‘the sun to rule the day, + and the moon to govern the night’.

Cf. Gen. 1:16; Ps. 136:8-9 (BCP).

The + sun was

+ Of this great world both eye and soul.

Milton. See above, I.6 and n.

 +

The eye, making all things visible, imparting light to every part of the system, + and thereby rejoicing both earth and sky; and the soul, the principle of all + life, whether to vegetables or animals. Some of + the uses of the moon we are acquainted with: her causing the + ebbing and flowing of the sea, and influencing in a greater or smaller degree + all the fluids in the terraqueous globe.

Cf. I.8, above; and No. 15, The Great Assize, I.1 and n.

And many other uses + she may have, unknown to us, but known to the wise Creator. But it is certain + she had no hurtful, no unwholesome influence on any living creature.

Cf. Chambers’s + denial of the moon’s causal influence on lunacy, in Cyclopaedia.

 ‘He made the stars also:’

Gen. + 1:16.

 both those that move round the sun, whether of the primary + or secondary order, or those that being at a far greater distance appear to us + as fixed in the firmament of heaven. Whether comets

Chambers’s Cyclopaedia has five columns for his entry on + stars: ‘The stars are distinguished, from the phenomena of their motion, + etc., into “fixed” and “erratic”…’ (i.e., planets and comets). His entry + on comets runs to seven columns. Wesley was fascinated by astronomy, as + most folk in the eighteenth century were (cf. No. 55, On the Trinity, §7 and n.). Cf. also his Survey, V.i.4, ‘Comets and Fixed Stars’ (III.272-73), and + VI.i.3-5, ‘Planets and Comets’ (IV.62-64). Cf. also Nos. 64, ‘The New + Creation’, §8; 68, ‘The Wisdom of God’s Counsels’, §3; 69, ‘The + Imperfection of Human Knowledge’, I.5; 103,’What is Man? Ps. 8:3-4’, + I.4-5; 132, ‘On Faith, Heb. 11:1’, §3. See also No. 15, The Great Assize, III.4 and n.; and Serious Thoughts on the Earthquake at + Lisbon.

 are to be numbered among the stars, and whether they + were parts of the original creation, is perhaps not so easy to determine, at + least with certainty, as we have nothing but probable conjecture either + concerning their nature or their use. We know not whether (as some ingenious men + have imagined) they are ruined worlds—worlds that have undergone a general + conflagration—or whether (as others not improbably suppose) they are immense + reservoirs of fluids, appointed to revolve at certain seasons, and to supply the + still decreasing moisture of the earth. But certain we are that they did not + either produce or portend any evil. They did not (as many have fancied + since)

+ + From their horrid hair + Shake pestilence and war. + +

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, + ii.710-11.

+ + +

11. The Lord God afterward peopled the earth with + animals of every kind. He first commanded the waters to bring forth abundantly: + to bring forth creatures which, as they inhabited a grosser element, so they + were in general of a more stupid nature, endowed with fewer senses and less + understanding than other animals. The bivalved shell-fish in particular seem to + have no sense but that of feeling, unless perhaps a low measure of taste, so that they are but one degree above vegetables. And even the king + of the waters (a title which some give the whale because of his enormous + magnitude), though he has sight added to taste and feeling, does not appear to + have an understanding proportioned to his bulk. Rather, he is inferior therein + not only to most birds and beasts but to the generality of even reptiles and + insects. However, none of these then attempted to devour or in any wise hurt one + another. All were peaceful and quiet, as were the watery fields wherein they + ranged at pleasure.

+

12. It seems the insect kinds were at least one + degree above the inhabitants of the waters. Almost all these too devour one + another and every other creature which they can conquer. Indeed, such is the + miserably disordered state of the world at present that innumerable creatures + can no otherwise preserve their own lives than by destroying others.

Cf. Nos. 60, ‘The + General Deliverance’, II.3; and 64, ‘The New Creation’, §17. This notion + of the predatory chain of the ladder of living things has a striking + parallel in Bishop Joseph Hall, Soliloquies, X, + Select Works, III.346: ‘I cannot but observe, + how universal it is, in all kinds, for one creature to prey upon + another: the greater fishes devour the less; the birds of rapine feed + upon the smaller fowls: the ravenous wild beasts sustain themselves with + the flesh of the weaker and tamer cattle: the dog pursues the hare; the + cat, the mouse: yea, the very mole, under the earth, hunts for the worm; + and the spider, in our window, for the fly. Whether it pleased God to + ordain this antipathy in nature, or whether man’s sin brought this + enmity upon the creature, I enquire not: this I am sure of, that both + God hath given unto man, the lord of this inferior world, leave and + power, to prey upon all these his fellow-creatures, and to make his use + of them both for his necessity and lawful pleasure; and that the God of + this world is only he, that hath stirred up men to prey upon one + another: some, to eat their flesh, as the savage Indians; others, to + destroy their lives, estates, good names: this proceeds only from him + that is a murderer from the beginning. O my soul, do thou mourn in + secret, to see the great enemy of mankind so woefully prevalent, as to + make the earth so bloody a shambles to the sons of men; and see + Christians so outrageously cruel to their own flesh. And O thou, that + art the Lord of Hosts and the God of Peace, restrain thou the violent + fury of those, which are called by thy name; and compose these unhappy + quarrels, amongst them that should be brethren. Let me, if it may stand + with thy blessed will, once again see peace smile over the earth, before + I come to see thy face in glory.’

But in the beginning it was + not so. The paradisiacal earth afforded a sufficiency of food for all its + inhabitants, so that none of them had any need of temptation to prey upon the + other. The spider was as harmless as the fly, and did not then lie in wait for + blood. The weakest of them crept securely over the earth, or spread their gilded + wings in the air, that waved in the breeze and glittered in the sun without any + to make them afraid. Meantime the reptiles of every kind were equally harmless, + and more intelligent than they. Yea, one species of them ‘was + more subtle’, or knowing, ‘than any of the’ brute creation ‘which God had + made’.

Cf. + Gen. 3:1.

+

13. But in general the birds, + created to fly in the open firmament of heaven, appear to have been of an order + far superior to either insects or reptiles, although still considerably inferior + to beasts (as we now restrain that word, to + quadrupeds—four-footed animals—which two hundred years ago included every kind + of living creatures).

Cf. OED’s citation of Miles + Coverdale’s usage of ‘beast’ (1535): ‘The Bey is but a small beast + amonge the foules, yet is his fruit exceedinge swete.’

Many + species of these are not only endowed with a large measure of natural + understanding, but are likewise capable of much improvement by art, such as one + would not readily conceive. But among all these there were no birds or beasts of + prey, none that destroyed or molested another; but all the creatures breathed in + their several kinds the benevolence of their great Creator.

+

14. Such was the state of the creation, according to + the scanty ideas which we can now form concerning it, when its great Author, + surveying the whole system at one view, pronounced it ‘very good’! It was good + in the highest degree whereof it was capable, and without any mixture of evil. + Every part was exactly suited to the others, and conducive to the good of the + whole. There was ‘a golden chain’ (to use the expression of Plato) ‘let down from the throne of God’

The ‘proof-text’ here is + Plato’s Thaeatetus, 153C, where Plato cites + Homer’s Iliad, viii.19, as a proof-text for the + phrase, ἡ σειρὰ χρυσείν (‘the golden chain’). The two texts are + metaphors for Plato’s pervasive and basic idea of ‘the great chain of + being’ (i.e., the interconnectedness of all things in a single coherent + whole). The classic survey of this idea is A. O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an + Idea (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Univ. Press, 1936). Long before + Wesley’s time, this monistic world view had become a philosophical + commonplace celebrated by the Cambridge Platonists and by poets like + Milton, Herbert, Pope, Thomson, et al. See, e.g., + Herbert’s The Temple, ‘Providence’, 133-36; or + Pope, Essay on Man, i.237-42:

+ Vast chain of being! which from God began + Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, + Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, + No glass can reach; from Infinite to thee, + From thee to nothing….

See also James + Thomson, The Seasons, ‘Summer’, ll. 333-36:

+ Has any seen + The mighty chain of being, lessening down + From Infinite Perfection to the brink + Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss!

This idea is everywhere presupposed in Wesley, and yet without ever + contradicting, in his mind, the premise of creatio de + nihilo. Cf., e.g., Nos. 42, ‘Satan’s Devices’, II.4; 60, ‘The + General Deliverance’, III.6; 68, ‘The Wisdom of God’s Counsels’, §2; 71, + ‘Of Good Angels’ (passim, for the place of angels + in the chain of being); 72, ‘Of Evil Angels’, §1. See also, Wesley’s Survey, IV.57-333.

—an exactly + connected series of beings, from + the highest to the lowest: from dead earth, through fossils, vegetables, + animals, to man, created in the image of God, and designed to know, to love, and + enjoy his Creator to all eternity.

+
+
+

[II.] 1. Here is a firm foundation laid on which we may stand and answer all the + cavils of minute philosophers;

See No. 15, The Great + Assize, II.4 and n.

all the objections which ‘vain men + who would be wise’

Cf. Job 11:12.

 make to the goodness or + wisdom of God in the creation. All these are grounded upon an entire mistake, + namely, that the world is now in the same state it was at the beginning. And + upon this supposition they plausibly build abundance of objections. But all + these objections fall to the ground when we observe this supposition cannot be + admitted. The world at the beginning was in a totally different state from that + wherein we find it now. Object therefore whatever you please to the present + state either of the animate or inanimate creation, whether in general or with + regard to any particular instances, and the answer is ready: these are not now + as they were in the beginning. Had you therefore heard that vain King of Castile + crying out with exquisite self-sufficiency, ‘If I had made the world I would + have made it better than God Almighty has made it,’

The ‘vain king’ was Alphonso + X, ‘El Sabio’ (1221-84), and his ironic aphorism + survives in many different versions. Cf. Clarke, A + Mirrour or Looking-Glasse (1654), p. 190, where Clarke cites + Justus Lipsius, De Cruce Libri Tres… (1637). It + surfaced as the motto for Dean Acheson’s autobiography, Present at the Creation (New York, Norton, 1969): + ‘Had I been present at the creation I would have given some useful hints + for the better ordering of the universe (Alphonso X, the Learned…King of + Spain).’ The original comment, however, seems not to have been aimed at + the universe in general but more specifically at the complexities of the + Ptolemaic astronomy. Cf. John Norris, ‘Sermon Preached Before the + University of Oxford, Mar. 29, 1685’, p. 2, where mention is made of + ‘that arrogant and peevish mathematician who charged the grand architect + with want of skill in the mechanism of the world’ saying he could have + done better. See also Pufendorf’s Introduction to the + History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe (rev. + edn., 1764), I.61, where it is also noted that ‘Alphonso X, surnamed + “The Wise,” was universally esteemed for his learning and particularly + for his skill in astronomy.’ Cf. No. 90, ‘An Israelite Indeed’, II.10 + and n.

 you might have replied: ‘No: God Almighty—whether you + know it or not—did not make it as it is now. He himself made it + better, unspeakably better than it is at present. He made it without any + blemish, yea, without any defect. He made no corruption, no destruction in the + inanimate creation. He made not death in the animal creation, neither its + harbingers, sin and pain. If you will not believe his own account, believe your + brother heathen. It was only

+ + + Post ignem aetheria domo + + + Subductum…, + + +

that is, in plain English, after man, in utter defiance of his Maker, had eaten + of the tree of knowledge, that

+ + + macies et nova febrium + + + Terris incubuit cohors— + + +

Cf. Horace, Odes, + I.iii.29-31: ‘after fire was stolen from its home in heaven [by + Prometheus], wasting disease and a new plague of fevers fell upon the + earth.’ See also No. 129, ‘Heavenly Treasure in Earthen Vessels’, + II.1.

+ + +

that a whole army of evils, totally new, totally unknown till then, broke in upon + rebel man, and all other creatures, and overspread the face of the earth.’

+

2. ‘Nay’ (says a bold man who has since personated a + Christian, and so well that many think him one!):

Mr. S___ J___s. [I.e., Soame + Jenyns (1704-87) in his Free Inquiry into the + Nature and Origin of Evil (first published anonymously in + 1757). Cf. p. 15: ‘The true solution of this incomprehensible + paradox must be this, that all evils owe their existence solely to + the necessity of their own natures, by which I mean they could not + possibly have been prevented without the loss of some Superior Good, + or the permission of some greater evil than themselves; or that many + (p. 16) evils will unavoidably insinuate themselves by the natural + relations and circumstances of things into the most perfect system + of created beings, even in opposition to the will of an almighty + Creator….’ P. 17: ‘All that infinite power and wisdom could do was + to make choice of that method which was attended with the least and + fewest (evils).’ P. 108: ‘If it be objected that this (general + argument) makes God the author of sin, I answer, God is and must be + the author of everything.’ P. 109: ‘If natural evil owes its + existence to necessity, why not moral (evil as well)? If misery + brings with it its utility, why not wickedness?’ This was promptly + denounced by Samuel Johnson (who readily recognized the author) in + The Literary Magazine, 1757, and by + others; cf. Richard Butterworth, ‘Soame Jenyns’, in WHS, XIII.3. See + also, Nos. 57, ‘On the Fall of Man’, §1; 59, ‘God’s Love to Fallen + Man’, II.15; 62, ‘The End of Christ’s Coming’, I.8. Cf. also + Wesley’s letter to his father, Dec. 19, 1729, where he refers to + Humphrey Ditton (1675-1715), Discourse on the + Resurrection of Christ (1714). And cf. Wesley’s Notes on Matt 13:28.]

‘God is + not to blame for either the natural or moral evils that are in the world. For he + made it as well as he could: seeing evil must exist, in the very nature of + things.’ It must, in the present nature of things, + supposing man to have rebelled against God. But evil did not + exist at all in the original nature of things. It was no more the necessary + result of matter than it was the necessary result of spirit. All things then, + without exception, were very good. And how should they be otherwise? There was + no defect at all in the power of God, any more than in his goodness or wisdom. + His goodness inclined him to make all things good: and this was executed by his + power and wisdom. Let every sensible infidel then be ashamed of making such + miserable excuses for his Creator! He needs none of us to + make apologies, either for him or for his creation! ‘As + for God, his way is perfect’

2 Sam. 22:31.

—and such originally were + all his works. And such they will be again, when ‘the Son of God’ shall have + ‘destroyed all the works of the devil’.

Cf. 1 John 3:8.

+

3. Upon this ground, then—that ‘God made man + upright’, and every creature perfect in its kind, but that man ‘found out to + himself many inventions’

Cf. Eccles. 7:29.

of happiness + independent on God, and that by his apostasy from God he threw not only himself + but likewise the whole creation, which was intimately connected with him, into + disorder, misery, death—upon this ground, I say, we do not find it difficult + to

+ Justify the ways of God with men.

Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, + i.26. See No. 15, The Great Assize, II.16 and + n.

 +

For although he left man in the hand of his own counsel, to choose good or evil, + life or death; although he did not take away the liberty he had given him, but + suffered him to choose death, in consequence of which the whole creation now + groaneth together;

See Rom. 8:22.

yet when we consider all + the evils introduced into the creation may work together for our good—yea, may + work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory

See 2 Cor. + 4:17.

—we may well praise God for permitting these temporary + evils in order to our eternal good. Yea, we may well cry out: ‘O the depth both + of the wisdom and of the goodness of God!

Cf. Rom. 11:33.

 He hath done all + things well.

Mark 7:37.

 Glory be unto God, and unto the Lamb for ever and + ever!’

Rev. + 5:13; for Wesley’s usage of ascriptions as endings for his sermons, see + No. 1, Salvation by Faith, III.9 and + n.

+
+ + +