Treatise Letter To Mr Law
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-treatise-letter-to-mr-law-015 |
| Words | 399 |
Every animal has nothing
in its outward form or shape but that which is the form and
growth of its spirit. As no number can be anything else but
that which the units contained in it make it to be, so no body
can be anything else but the coagulation or sum total of those
properties of nature that are coagulated in it.” (Page 33.)
Astonishing! What a discovery is this, that a body is only
a curdled spirit ! that our bodies are only the sum total of our
spiritual properties! and that the form of every man’s body is
only the form of his spirit made visible ! “Every spirit manifests its own nature by that body which
proceeds from it as its own birth.” (Part II., p. 17.)
Does the body then grow out of the spirit, as the hair and
nails grow out of the body; and this in consequence of the
“powers of nature,” distinct from the power and will of God? To abridge God of his power, after creation, as well as before
it, you affirm, farther,
“This is an axiom that cannot be shaken, Nothing can rise
higher than its first created nature; and therefore an angel at
last must have been an angel at first. Do you think it possible
for an ox to be changed into a rational philosopher? Yet this
is as possible as for one who has only by creation the life of this
world to be changed into an angel of heaven. The life of this
world can reach no farther than this world; no omnipotence of
God can carry it farther: Therefore, if man is to be an angel at
last, he must have been created an angel; because no creature
can possibly have any other life, or higher degree of life, than
that which his creation brought forth in him.” (Spirit of
Prayer, Part II., p. 81.)
I have quoted this passage at some length, that the sense
of it may appear beyond dispute. But what divinity ! and
what reasoning to support it! Can God raise nothing higher
than its first created state? Is it not possible for him to
change an ox or a stone into a rational philosopher, or a child
of Abraham ? to change a man or a worm into an angel of
heaven? Poor omnipotence which cannot do this!