Wesley Corpus

Now, thus much cannot be denied, that these texts speak as if there were really such a place as hell, as if there were a real fire there, and as if it would remain for ever. I would then ask but one plain question: If the case is not so, why did God speak as if it was Say you, ‘To affright men from sin’ What, by guile, by dissimulation, by hanging out false colors Can you possibly ascribe this to the God of truth Can you believe it of Him Can you conceive the Most High dressing up a scarecrow, as we do to fright children Far be it from Him! If there be, then, any such fraud in the Bible, the Bible is not of God. And, indeed, this must be the result of all: If there be ‘no unquenchable fire, no everlasting burnings,’ there is no dependence on those writings wherein they are so expressly asserted, nor of the eternity of heaven any more than of hell. So that if we give up the one, we must give up the other. No hell, no heaven, no revelation! In vain you strive to supply the place of this by putting purgatory in its room, by saying, ‘These virtues must have their perfect work in you, if not before, yet certainly after death. Everything else must be taken from you by fire either here or hereafter.’ (Spirit of Love, Part II. p. 232.) Poor, broken reed! Nothing will ‘be taken from you’ by that fire which is ‘prepared for the devil and his angels,’ but all rest, all joy, all comfort, all hope. For ‘the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’ I have now, sir, delivered my own soul. And I have used great plainness of speech; such as I could not have prevailed on myself to use, to one whom I so much respect, on any other occasion.