Wesley Corpus

A Dialogue between a Predestinarian and His Friend Source: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 10 (Zondervan) Author: John Wesley --- 1. I AM informed, some of you have said, that the following quotations are false; that these words were not spoken by these authors; others, that they were not spoken in this sense; and others, that neither you yourself, nor any true Predestinarian, ever did, or ever would, speak so. 2. My friends, the authors here quoted are well known, in whom you may read the words with your own eyes. And you who have read them know in your own conscience, they were spoken in this sense, and no other; nay, that this sense of them is professedly defended throughout the whole treatises whence they are taken. 3. But, be this as it may, do you indeed say, “No true Predestinarian ever did or would speak so?” Why, every true Predestinarian must speak so, and so must you yourself too, if you dare speak out, unless they and you renounce your fundamental principle. 4. Your fundamental principle is this: “God from eternity ordained whatsoever should come to pass.” But from this single position undeniably follows every assertion hereafter mentioned. It remains therefore only that you choose which you please (for one you must choose) of these three things: Either, (1.) To equivocate, evade the question, and prevaricate without end; or, (2.) To swallow all these assertions together, and honestly to avow them; or, (3.) To renounce them all together, and believe in Christ, the Saviour of all. FRIEND.--SIR, I have heard that you make God the author of all sin, and the destroyer of the greater part of mankind without mercy. PREDESTINARIAN.--I deny it; I only say, “God did from all eternity unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” (Assembly’s Catechism, chap. 3.) Friend.--Do you make no exception ? Pred.--No, surely; for “nothing is more absurd than to think anything at all is done but by the ordination of God.” (Calvin’s Institutes, book I., chap. 16, sect. 3.) Friend.--Do you extend this to the actions of men? Pred.--Without doubt: “Every action and motion of every creature is so governed by the hidden counsel of God, that nothing can come to pass, but what was ordained by him.” (Ibid., sect. 3.) Friend.--But what then becomes of the wills of men?