Wesley Corpus

02 To Thomas Church

AuthorJohn Wesley
Typeletter
YearNone
Passage IDjw-letter-1746-02-to-thomas-church-060
Words246
Reign of God Trinity Free Will
Yet I must desire you well to observe (3) that my will, or choice, or desire had no place either in this or any case of this kind that has ever fallen under my notice. Five minutes before, I had no thought of this. I expected nothing less. I was willing to wait for a gradual recovery in the ordinary use of outward means. I did not look for any other cure till the moment before I found it. And it is my belief that the case was always the same with regard to the most ‘real and undoubted miracles.’ I believe God never interposed His miraculous power but according to His own sovereign will; not according to the will of man--neither of him by whom He wrought, nor of any other man whatsoever. The wisdom as well as the power are His; nor can I find that ever, from the beginning of the world, He lodged this power in any mere man, to be used whenever that man saw good. Suppose, therefore, there was a man now on earth who did work ‘real and undoubted miracles,’ I would ask, By whose power cloth he work these and at whose pleasure -- his own, or God’s Not his own, but God’s. But if so, then your demand is not made on man, but on God. I cannot say it is modest thus to challenge God, or well suiting the relation of a creature to his Creator.