SERMON 145:
In Earth as in Heaven (A Fragment)

An Introductory Comment
This appears to have been a sketch of, or a set of notes for, a sermon on Matt. 6:10. Wesley's diary records that he was working on such a project, April 19 and 20, 1734, and his sermon list has a numbering for such a text, '62'.1 There are, however, no other indications as to whether or not the sermon was ever finished, or if it was ever actually preached.
The fragment consists of a single sheet folded into four duodecimo-sized pages. The text, written in Wesley's abbreviated longhand, covers most of these four pages but with many false starts and erasures. These, together with the creases in the pages and the wear and tear of two and a half centuries, make the manuscript difficult to edit and necessitate one or two conjectural readings. These, however, do not blur Wesley's general intention. The sheet is preserved in the Colman Miscellany in the Methodist Archives in Manchester. It is published here for the first time.
What makes such a fragment noteworthy is its evidence, here in the early sermons, of a fairly explicit doctrine of angelism. The thesis here is that, since humans are created 'to be angels', true religion consists in the actual imitation of the angels in our lives on earth, especially on the point of 'angelical obedience'. This implies a very high doctrine of the human potential and a rather different one from what is to be found in his later sermons or even in No. 17, 'The Circumcision of the Heart' (1733). The plain assumption here is that Christians, being so nearly like the angels in potentia, actually have the ability 'to do nothing but what is the will of God' and 'to do all that is the will of God'.
What is missing is any reference to the residues of sin in the human heart. There is no apparent sense of the paradox of Romans 7:1. Instead, we find a fairly confident moralizing subjunctive: if only Christians would do God's will on earth as it is done in heaven, 'earth would be heaven'. In his application, however, Wesley seems to shift to an emphasis on the idea of complete self-renunciation as the moral consequence of the analogy between angelic and human natures. The good angels obey God as he commands; God commands us to do his will, 'because he commands it'. Christian obedience must, and therefore can be, wholly disinterested. The religious question in any case is what would 'be pleasing to God'?
Here, then, we come as close to an explicit perfectionism as one can find anywhere in Wesley; and it just may be that, on further reflection on the difficulties involved in any such full-fledged angelism, he quietly abandoned the project. In that case, however, what would need explaining is Wesley's choice to preserve this sheet among his other papers for nearly six decades. We have already seen the later Wesley's mature ideas about 'good' and 'evil' angels (in Nos. 71 and 72). It would be equally instructive to compare the ideas in this fragment with Dean Edward Young's sermon on 'The Heavenly Pattern', on Matt. 6:10, in Sermons on Several Occasions (1703), an abridgement of which Wesley would later publish in the Christian Library (1755).2 There is, however, no evidence, external or internal, that Wesley had the Dean's sermon before him as a source at this stage of his career.
The diary records Wesley's preaching in the Castle prison on the day following the composition of these notes; would that have been fertile ground for such a message? Or were the notes intended for use in 'extempore preaching' elsewhere, as he already had done on at least one occasion, in Epworth in 1733?3
In Earth as in Heaven (A Fragment)
Matthew 6:10
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Preface.
1. If a prayer, this 'will' [is] then a duty, the true foundation of all duty. The Potter;1 none else is. This goes far enough, and not too far. None need go beyond, nor may stop short of it.
2. This the heathens knew. But the measure of doing his will was not known till Christ revealed it. 'As in heaven', i.e., by angels; for we are to be angels.
3. Many have explained this. But not fully. They explain not the p[erfect] whole of angelical obedience, but a part only. Not the genus, or difference of it, but only some of the properties. E.g., 'cheerfully, readily'. Very true. But not deep enough, nor wide enough.
G[eneral] D[ivisions.]2 I shall therefore consider,
I. How the angels do his will, and
II. How we are to imitate them therein.
I.1. Angels do all that is the will of God, and that only.
2. They do all this, as is his will, and so only.
3. They do all this thus, because it is his will, and therefore only.3
[II.] Accordingly we are here commanded, in imitation of them,
[1.] (1) Negatively, to do nothing but what is the will of God. They do this only.
(2) Positively, to do all that is the will of God: i.e., contained in the Scriptures, interpreted by An[cients?],
Whether directly and particularly, or
Directly, though not particularly, or
Indirectly, i.e., contained in the laws of the church or state.
2. Negatively, to do nothing in any other manner or measure than is his will; for so only do the angels.
Positively, to do all which is his will, as [it] is his will, (1) in such a measure, (2) with such affection. That is the body, this the spirit. So alms.4
3. Negatively謡hich may coincide, but for distinctness葉o do nothing but because it is his will. For, therefore only, do the angels act. Therefore to make anything we do right, it is not only necessary, (1) that we do what God wills, and that only, (2) as he wills it, in that measure and with that affection only, but also, (3) that to the right matter and manner we add the right motive, i.e., that we do all, and do all thus, only because he wills it.
This the hardest of all. If we could do this perfectly, we should be angels; if this perfectly done on earth, earth would be heaven.
But without idly disputing whether we can do thus or no, let us do what we can. And we can, if we will, make his will at least the sine qua non in all our actions. And if we do this, we shall in time do more. And this shall be accepted, till we can do more, if we continually labour to do more.5
[III. Inferences.] Hence I infer the true ground and right measure of self-renunciation: everyone that cometh after Christ, to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, must first say, 'Not my will', before he can say, 'but thine be done.'6 And the same extent, for all the negative must precede the positive; so they must be co-extended. This can go no farther than that. So far only as self goes out, God can [come in?].
But query? May we not do any[thing to] please ourselves? Answer: This is no motive to an angel; therefore, not to you. You may and must do many things which please yourself. But not to please yourself, but to please God. He commands you to do a thousand things that please yourself; but you do them because he commands. Nay, he commands nothing but what will please you, when you do it perfectly, i.e., as he wills, because he wills. Therefore, whenever you have wholly renounced yourself, i.e., when you do nothing as or because you will, then you will be perfectly happy. When once you seek your own pleasure in nothing, you shall find it in everything. Therefore think not at all, what is or is not pleasing to yourself: this is wide [of the mark]. But simply whether this be pleasing to God.