Wesley Corpus

2. "Prepared for you from the foundation of the world:" -- But does this agree with the common supposition that God created man merely to supply the vacant thrones of the rebel angels Does it not rather seem to imply, that he would have created man, though the angels had never fallen inasmuch as he then prepared the kingdom for his human children, when he laid the foundation of the earth. 3. "Inherit the kingdom;" -- as being "heirs of God, and joint heirs" with his beloved Son. It is your right; seeing I have purchased eternal redemption for all them that obey me: And ye did obey me in the days of your flesh. Ye "believed in the Father, and also in me." Ye loved the Lord your God; and that love constrained you to love all mankind. Ye continued in the faith that wrought by love. Ye showed your faith by your works. "For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and in prison, and ye came unto me." 4. But in what sense are we to understand the words that follow "Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and gave thee meat or thirsty, and gave thee drink" They cannot be literally understood; they cannot answer in these very words; because it is not possible they should be ignorant that God had really wrought by them. Is it not then manifest, that these words are to be taken in a figurative sense And can they imply any more, than that all which they have done will appear as nothing to them; will, as it were, vanish away, in view of what God their Saviour had done and suffered for them