Wesley Corpus

I would just remind you of only one instance more: ‘There sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speak; who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.’ Here was so undoubted a miracle that the people ‘lifted up their voices, saying, The gods are come down in the likeness of men.’ But how long were even these convinced of the truth of his presences Only till ‘there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium’; and then they stoned him (as they supposed) to death! (Acts xiv. 8-19.) So certain it is that no miracles whatever which were ever yet wrought in the world were effectual to prove the most glaring truth to those that hardened their hearts against it. 4. And it will equally hold in every age and nation. ‘If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be’ convinced of what they desire not to believe, ‘though one rose from the dead.’ Without a miracle, without one rising from the dead, t T t Ta at pe, ‘if any man be willing to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God’; but if he is not willing to do His will, he will never want an excuse, a plausible reason, for rejecting it -- yea, though ever so many miracles were wrought to confirm it. For, let ever so much ‘light come into the world,’ it will have no effect (such is the wise and just will of God) on those who ‘love darkness rather than light.’ It will not convince those who do not simply desire to do the will of their Father which is in heaven; those who mind earthly things-who, if they do not continue in any gross outward sin, yet love pleasure or ease, yet seek profit or power, preferment or reputation. Nothing will ever be an effectual proof to these of the holy and acceptable will of God, unless first their proud hearts be humbled, their stubborn wills bowed down, and their desires brought, at least in some degree, into obedience to the law of Christ.