Wesley Corpus

Before I conclude, permit me, sir, to give you one piece of advice. Be not so positive, especially with regard to things which are neither easy nor necessary to be determined. I ground this advice on my own experience. When I was young, I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to man. Upon the whole, an ingenious man may easily flourish on this head: 'How much more glorious is it for the great God to have created innumerable worlds than this little globe only!' But, after all, I would only ask this one plain question: Suppose there are more worlds than there are sands on the seashore, is not the universe finite still It must be, unless it be God. And if it be finite, it can still bear no proportion to Him that is infinite--no more than this ball of earth does. How large soever it be, still, compared to Him, it is as nothing, as the small dust of the balance. Do you ask, then, 'What is this spot to the great God' Why, as much as millions of systems. Great and little have place with regard to us; but before Him they vanish away. Enlarge the bounds of creation as much as you please; still it is as but a drop to the Creator; And still the power of His almighty hand Can form another world from every sand! [Broome's Ecclesiasticus, in Moral and Sacred Poems, ii. 99.] Yet, were this done, there would be no more proportion than there is now between Him and His creatures. In this respect, one world and millions of worlds are just the same thing. Is the Earth a cypher, a nothing, to the infinitely great, glorious, wise, and powerful God So is any number of worlds which can be conceived: so is all finite being to the infinite. To his Brother Charles [1] LONDON, January 11, 1765. DEAR BROTHER,--I believe Thomas Goodwin wrote that book. Pray hasten John's [Wesley's Extract of John Goodwin's Treatise on Justification, which William Pine, of Bristol, was printing. See letter of Dec. 31, 1764.] tract, and give Pine the Preface.