Preface to Sermons on Several Occasions

John Wesley shared these sermons in a printed format to be clear and explicit about the doctrines he teaches. This probably had several purposes, including at least the following: • Apologetic: Wesley wanted to defend his doctrine against various other viewpoints • Polemical: Wesley wanted to publicize criticisms of competing viewpoints • Formational: Wesley wanted people to encounter the transforming grace of Christ through these sermons • Instructional: Wesley used these for training his lay preachers for Methodist ministry, most of whom had little advanced education of any kind, let alone formal theological education. Wesley’s published sermons were their seminary!

Wesley lived in a contentious time and would have had to explain and defend his views and his actions to numerous opponents - most of whom he had a great deal in common with. His theological opponents would have included at different times: • Establishment churches (especially Anglicans, but also Presbyterians and others) were resistant to Wesley’s unconventional methods and sometimes worried about him competing with their own ministries. • Calvinists, whose position Wesley worried impugned the character of God and, more practically, encouraged antinomianism. • Moravians, who sometimes promoted quietism. • Catholics • Latitudinarians and Socinians

Plain Truth for Plain People

Wesley claims to write as he preaches, “to the bulk of mankind.” This seems to contradict, for instance, his occasional use of phrases in Latin and Greek, including here where he describes his aim as “ad populum.” On the one hand, it must have been hard to take his training and experience as an Oxford fellow and completely set it aside, as he himself readily acknowledges. It is perfectly understandable for someone of his education and background to occasionally forget his audience and their background.

On the other hand, Wesley is self-consciously situating his work as directed toward a non-academic audience, and this is not necessarily incompatible with his occasionally elevated mode of speaking and writing. In fact, his little shows of learning may be quite intentional - to lend him a sense of credibility with his audience. Notice that, in the case of his use of Latin and Greek, he nearly always provides a gloss in English. Moreover, in a British literary world only a hundred years removed from Shakespeare’s, Wesley’s style likely seems more elevated to us than it would have to his original audiences.

Nonetheless, his intention is to avoid excessive quotations of theological writers, except when it comes to Scripture. He hopes this will help him communicate more clearly, and he also hopes this will help him communicate the main thing he is after: “the naked truths of the gospel.”(par. 4)

The Naked Truths of the Gospel

In a poignant passage, Wesley compares his life to the journey of an arrow:

“I have thought, I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God: Just hovering over the great gulf; till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity!” (par. 5)

This provides the focus for what follows - the importance of his single-minded quest for heaven. Wesley wants to live his brief life with an eye toward eternity. And he thinks he has found the key to that quest in the Scriptures. Indeed, Wesley thinks this is the purpose of the Scriptures!

When it comes to the more opaque or confusing passages, Wesley has a few suggestions. For starters, he seems quite optimistic about his ability to understand the Bible in most cases. But when he doesn’t, he seems to have a three-step process:

1. Pray for illumination. Wesley thinks if he surrenders to God’s will, then God is more willing to make his will plain.
2. Scripture interprets scripture. Wesley here seems to be referring to an ancient idea that the more obscure passages of Scripture can be understood through recourse to the less obscure passages.
3. Consult those more experienced. If Wesley is still stumped, he suggests the next step should be to consult with a wise friend.

My Mind is Open to Conviction

Wesley closes his Preface by anticipating the charge that he has made some mistake on some point of substance. He is remarkably open to the thought that he has made some mistakes and sets forth a suggestion for how to provide feedback to him. First, Wesley asks for “a plain proof of Scripture.” (par. 9) Wesley, it seems will not be persuaded by some appeal to mere logic or experience or even tradition, as interested and engaged with all three of those as he clearly was. Nor, it seems, would he find a complex interpretive scheme to be compelling; he is happy to change his mind, but he wants to see the alternative in plainly articulated in Scripture.

Second, Wesley suggests that if someone wants to change his mind, they should attempt to do so in a spirit of gentleness and humility. What follows is a beautiful vision for how to disagree in the church, which concludes in this way:

“For God’s sake, if it be possible to avoid it, let us not provoke one another to wrath. Let us not kindle in each other this fire of hell; much less blow it up into a flame. If we could discern truth by that dreadful light, would it not be loss, rather than gain? For, how far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself without love! We may die without the knowledge of many truths and yet be carried into Abraham’s bosom. But, if we die without love, what will knowledge avail? Just as much as it avails the devil and his angels!” (par. 10)

Wesley is not soft on truth here. He was trained in the philosophical logic of his day, and if anything, he approached his life and circumstances in too logical a manner! But he believed fully, not that truth was so weak, but that God’s love was so strong. In this, he can claim good company:

“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1Cor. 13:2 NIV)

“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19 NIV)