Two approaches dominate this chapter, the last set of entries in the first half of Susanna Wesley’s earliest journal. One might be styled theoretical (though the term is relative since the practical is never far, even from her speculative theology) and involves her engagement with current religious thought, primarily that of Blaise Pascal. The other, clearly practical, emerges in ruminations on her struggles with temptation.
Susanna Wesley’s fascination with Pascal was one she shared with numerous other Englishmen and Englishwomen. As is evident from meditations 131–135 and 138–139, she had access to Basil Kennett’s 1704 translation of the Pensees, which she pondered and plundered for her journal.1 See Blaise Pascal, Thoughts on Religion, and Other Subjects … (London: A. & J. Churchil, R. Sare, J. Tonson, 1704). In general she seems to have keyed into Pascal’s sense of paradox, typified in his analysis of humanity as both most excellent and most miserable (see 131) and as midway between infinity and nothing (135). Other Pascalian ideas claim her attention, as well—for instance, the insufficiency of metaphysical proofs of God’s existence for ordinary people (133); the usefulness of “the habit of believing” (134); the regulation of passions and amusements (139).
No other thinker receives such close and sustained attention in this section, but Locke is brought in (in support of Pascal, meditation 132), and another Frenchman, Malebranche (possibly read through the filter of John Norris), triggers some thoughts on “animal spirits,” life after death (142-144), and God’s infinite wisdom (147-150). An improving excerpt from Lewis Maimbourg, The History of the Crusade … , trans. John Nalson (London: Thomas Drink, 1685) (140) and a possible reference to theologian George Rust (155) round out Susanna’s clearly detectable connections with current theological discussion.
Her own trials and temptations figure significantly alongside her appropriations of contemporary thinkers and fill most of the section from entry 151 to the end. These entries reveal little of the nature of her sins; even her own diary is not trusted with such specifics—thus the blanks that are not easy to fill in and the initials that are difficult to decipher. Nevertheless, she is speaking the language of personal experience (as filtered through her brand of Enlightenment-evangelical Christianity) when she analyzes the way temptations come through the senses (151), the psychology of gradually yielding to them (1 S3–154), the means of turning away from them (156), and the mystery of God’s affliction as a check against them (160 and 164).
Several other issues surface briefly here. The sacraments appear in the first entry (130). In the midst of “bodily pain” and “distress of fortune,” not knowing which way to turn, she offers her whole being to Christ (145). Toward the end she advocates a balanced disposition, which would be distracted neither by intemperate joys nor griefs (162). In a similar entry, she recommends balanced thinking, avoiding the impairment brought on by both too much and too little study (163).
Only one of the entries in this chapter (158) carries a date, that of 28 November 1718. Near the end of the entries in MS A, it indicates a nine-year chronological run of meditations in this notebook.
[130. Sacraments duly administered.]
Morn[ing] 2
What is meant by the sacraments being duly administered?3 Does the word duly relate to time, matter, form or administration or persons to whom they are administered?
Answer: It relates to and may be applied to ‘em all. I shall begin with the last. As the sacraments are two, so are the persons capable of receiving them, viz. infants and adult persons.4
[131. Thoughts from Pascal.]
Pas[cal]: Thoughts with O R U. Morn[ing]5
“He who passeth days and nights in chagrin or despair for the loss of an employment or some imaginary blemish in his honour is the very same mortal who knows he must lose all by death and yet remains without resentment, disquiet or emotion.” 6
O: ’Tis absolutely necessary in order to know [or] understand our true happiness that we know what is our true nature—7
P: Religion teaches “to discern the greatness and meanness of [the] human condition with the cause and reason of both.” 8
O: Love of God and love of man, the foundation of all true religion—9
P: That religion that consists only in external appearances (heathen) is popular, but unfit for moving men of parts10 and genius. “Should religion altogether reside in the spirit, it might be fit to work on men [of] parts, but could have no influence on the gross of mankind. Christianity, alone [is] proportioned to all capacities, being duly composed and tempered of the internal and external way. It raises the ignorant to spiritual acts and abases the intelligent by pressing the obligation to outward performances.”—11
P: “No religion but the Christian has known man to be the most excellent of visible creatures and the same time most miserable.”—12
P: “That religion which teaches us to believe the fall of man from a state of glory and communication with God to a state of sorrow, humiliation and estrangement from God, together with his restoration by a Messiah, hath always been in the world.”—13
O: The gospel was first preached in paradise—14 As in that blessed place human nature received its fatal wound and was thereby plunged into an abyss of misery, so in the same place was God first manifested to man under the character of a saviour, a healer and repairer of that misery.
Pas[cal:] “The belief of the Messiah has been derived by a constant series and uninterrupted course. The tradition from Adam was fresh and lively in Noah and even in Moses. After them the prophets bore testimony to him.”—15
Pas[cal:] “Shall it be the religion of those philosophers who proposed no other good but what they would have us find in our own persons? Is this the true and sovereign good? Or have these men discovered the remedy of our evils? Was it a proper cure for man’s presumption thus to equal him with God? On the other hand, have they succeeded better in restraining our concupiscence who would level us with beasts and propose the gratification of our sensual appetites for our real and universal happiness?” 16
The Christian religion alone teaches us to correct our pride and our concupiscence.17
[132. Locke’s observation supports Pascal on human inattention to an “eternal state of happiness.”]
Even[ing]
’Tis incredible how much the things of this world retard our aspiring towards heaven. And did not daily experience prove the truth in fact, ‘twould be impossible to conceive our lapse into the powers of externals so easy as we find it, since we all acknowledge and profess to believe that there is an eternal state of happiness or misery attends the issue of this short uncertain life. Nor does the sense of perfect endless blessedness affect us in any proportion to its greatness.18
Mr. Locke well observes that there are not many whose happiness reaches so far as to afford them a constant train of moderate mean pleasures without any mixture of uneasiness; and yet they could be content to stay here for ever, though they cannot deny but that it is possible there may be a state of eternal durable joys after this life, far surpassing all the good [that] is to be found here. Nay, they cannot but see that it is more possible than the attainment and continuation of that pittance of honour, riches or pleasure which they pursue and for which they neglect that eternal state. But yet in full view of this difference, satisfied of the possibility of a perfect, secure and lasting happiness in a future state and under a clear conviction that it is not to be had here whilst they bound their happiness within some little enjoyment or aim of this life and exclude the joys of heaven from making any necessary part of it, their desires are not moved by this greater apparent good, nor their wills determined to any action or endeavour for its attainment.19
[133. Human self-centeredness adversely affects even the wisest heathen philosophers in their advocacy of virtue.]
Noon
Pas[cal:] “The metaphysical proofs of God are so intricate and so far removed from the common reasonings of men that they strike with little force, or at best their impressions continue but little time.”—20
O: ’Tis incident to all men, being indeed the original sin of human nature, to desire to be independent on21 God, thereby making ourselves the centre of our own happiness, which makes us regardless of the divine succours, as if we needed them not. This was the error of the wisest among the heathen philosophers, and those of them that spake the most eloquently in behalf of virtue and argued most strenuously against sensual pleasures did, in effect, only endeavour to raise men from the condition of brutes to place them in that of the apostate angels—22
[134. Pride and concupiscence implied by Christ’s call to self-denial; the usefulness of custom, “the habit of believing.”]
Even[ing]
O: Our blessed Lord frequently declared when on earth that, unless we deny ourselves and take up the cross,23 we cannot be his disciples. This injunction evidently proves that there is somewhat in us that contradicts the purity of his most holy religion and renders us uncapable of any union or communion with God. What this is a very little reflection on the natural state and temper of our minds will show us. That it is in truth our pride and concupiscence24 that impedes our salvation and makes us at once contemptible and miserable.
Pas[cal:] “I confess we ought not to begin with this in the search of truth: yet we ought to have recourse to it (custom) when we have once discovered the truth to refresh and invigorate our belief, which decays every moment, for that the regular method and train of arguments should be always present to our minds the business of life will not permit. We ought to acquire a more easy principle, such as is the habit of believing.”—25
[135. Pride and concupiscence; the Stoics and the inappropriateness of success as an action’s justification; humanity’s middling place in the universe.]
Even[ing]
Pride alienates us from God: concupiscence fastens us down to the earth—26 Pas[cal:] The Stoics “conclude that what has been done once may be done always, and because the desire of glory hath sometimes spurred on its votaries to great and worthy actions, all others may use it with like success. But these are the motions of fever and frenzy, which sound health and judgment can never imitate.”—27
O: There are many projects so wild and some actions so incongruous to all the reasonable and sober part of mankind that no success can justify ‘em. “lis sufficient for us if our intentions are good, our end such as is agreeable to our profession of Christianity, and the means we make use of the best that our scantling 28 of reason and prudence can suggest, and, if after all success crowns not our actions, we ought to rest satisfied as knowing that events belong to God, who disposes ‘em as he pleaseth. Nor ought we rashly to censure or condemn our own or others’ conduct or any particular action for want of that success which none but God can assure.
Pas[cal:] “The whole extent of visible things is but one line or stroke in the ample bosom of nature.”—29
Pas[cal:] “What is man amongst the natures that encompass him?” (Meaning the heavenly bodies and that vast circle described by the sun o’ the one hand and a mite in which he pretends to discover another world.) “In the one view he appears as unity to infinity, in another as all to nothing and must therefore be the medium between these extremes.”—30
Pas[cal:] “His understanding holds the same rank in the order of beings as his body in the material system, and all the knowledge he can reach is only to discern somewhat of the middle of things, under an eternal despair of comprehending either the beginning or end.” 31
[136. Peace and unity more important than the triumph of your opinion.]
Noon
Be very cautious in giving your judgment on kingdoms or states, neither charge the failings of particular persons on communities or parties. If we have the good fortune to find and embrace truth and do by the good providence of God avoid those errors which others fall into and preserve the principles of religion and loyalty untainted in a general defection, give God the glory, and be not solicitous that others should be of your opinion. But above all things be sure to preserve charity inviolable. These are some truths which, though as truths they partake of one common excellence, yet notwithstanding are of so little importance to the salvation of mankind and our own in particular, that they ought not to be contended for, nor ever asserted at the expense of peace and charity. Let, therefore, the general bent of your mind and conversation tend to peace and unity, and let not the passion, prejudice, or peevishness of any make you ever forget the blessing pronounced by the Saviour of the world on peace-makers.32
[137. Causing another to sin.]
Even[ing]
“’Tis impossible,” saith our Lord, “but offenses will come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.” Woe unto that man that doth by persuasion or example cause his brother to sin against God.33
[138. The misfortune stemming from the “roving and restless disposition” of people without faith.]
Morn[ing]
Pasfcal:] “I have often said that the universal cause of men’s misfortunes abroad34 was their not being able to live quietly in a chamber. A person who has enough for the uses of this world, did he know the art of dwelling with himself, would never quit that repose and security for a voyage or a siege; nor would take so much pains to hazard his life, had he no other aim than barely to live.
“But upon stricter examination I found this aversion from35 home, this roving and restless disposition proceeded from a cause no less powerful than universal, from the native unhappiness of our frail and mortal state, which is uncapable of comfort, if we have nothing to divert our thoughts and to call us out of ourselves.
“I speak only of those who survey their own nature without the views of faith and religion. ’Tis indeed one of the miracles of Christianity that,36 reconciling man to God, it restores him to his own good opinion, and37 makes him able to bear the sight of himself; and in some cases renders solitude and silence more agreeable than all the intercourse and action of mankind. Nor is it by fixing man in his own person that it produceth these wonderful effects; ’tis by carrying him to God and by supporting him under the sense of his miseries with the hopes of an assured and complete deliverance in a better life.” 38
[139. Attaining faith by regulating passions and banishing amusements that possess you.]
Noon
Pas[cal:] “You say you are incapable of believing. Endeavour to understand your incapacity, and find out what it is that hinders your faith when reason invites you to it. Labour in your own conviction, not by increasing the proofs of a deity, but by regulating your passions. […] Banish those amusements that have hitherto possessed you.”—39
“I should soon bid adieu to these pleasures, say you, were I master of faith—And I say, on the other hand, that you would soon be master of faith had you once bidden adieu to pleasure.”—40
[140. A story of faith from the Crusades.]
Even[ing]
A very memorable passage in Maimbourg’s History of the Crusades. In the crusade under St. Louis41 King of France, after the Saracens had entirely defeated the king’s army and had killed the greater part and taken the rest prisoners, “an old Saracen, that by his habit and the great number of his attendants seemed to be one of prime quality among them, came into a pavilion where many of the Christian lords were kept and demanded of them by an interpreter whether they really believed that their God was made man and that he had suffered death for them upon the cross and that he was raised from the dead after three days. All the lords, who believed they should instantly be made martyrs upon their frank confession of Jesus Christ, answered with one voice without the least hesitation that this was their firm belief. ‘If it be so, messieurs,’ replied the wise Saracen, ‘comfort yourselves in your affliction; you have not yet suffered death for your God as he hath done for you; and since he had the power to raise himself again, you ought also to believe that, having had so much kindness for you and having so much power, he will very speedily deliver you out of your captivity and misfortunes.’ And thereupon, without saying any more, he instantly withdrew.” 42
[141. “I am nothing”: A confession of sin and misery]
Noon
Lord, I am nothing! I have nothing! I can do nothing!
I am nothing in a moral sense, having no power to walk conformably to your laws by reason of my pride and concupiscence.
I have nothing that I can properly call my own but sin and misery. No moral or intellectual goodness but what is given from above.
[142. Speculation on the soul separated from the body after death.]
Morn[ing]
’Tis a pleasing and, I hope, not sinful speculation to consider what shall be the state of souls separate from their bodies in the region of spirits, and, though the most we can apprehend in this case is but guess and conjecture, yet while we reject all thoughts contrary to the analogy of faith,43 it may not be amiss sometimes for the soul to retire into itself and abstract its thoughts and affections from all material objects to contemplate its own nature and consider its existence in a state of separation from the body.
There are but two ways whereby the soul hath any ideas in this world, viz. sensation44 and reflection. What sensation (if any) she will carry with her into separate [d] state ’tis impossible to determine. It should seem as if all sense should be destroyed when the organs of sense are by death resolved into their first principles; yet I cannot but believe that the soul will after death be determined to some vehicle, it seeming to me peculiar to the Deity to be perfectly undetermined by all corporeity45
[143. “Animal spirits” as the continuing “vehicle of the soul.”]
Noon
It seems probable that the vehicle of the soul in its state of separation from the body will either be formed of purest ether, or the animal spirits,46 which were in its body in this life, will sustain the form of the body the soul informed here, and to that form the soul will be. determined in the region of spirits as it was to the grosser body here.
[144. The spirit’s recognizability after death.]
Even[ing]
And perhaps by that form each individual spirit will be distinguished and known to others as men are here by their colour, features, size, etc.
[145. Response to personal distress: offer “your whole being” to God.]
Morn[ing]
In great bodily pain, in much distress of fortune, under many contradictions in almost everything.
I know that God is power, wisdom and mercy, too! From which knowledge I infer that, if I were duly qualified for it, he would soon appoint some expedient for my relief, did he not foresee that ’tis better for the present I should be in the state I am.
What say I then, shall I pray for the continuance of these trials? Considering my impotence, that would be presumption. Shall I absolutely desire deliverance? By no means; the above mentioned reasons shows that unfit. What then? Renounce all choice and again offer up your whole being to him that is your way, your truth, your life.47
Saviour God, accept and bless—48
[146. Temptation: blame our own “irregular appetite,” not Providence.]
Even[ing]
“Let no man say when he is tempted he is tempted of God”49—Let no man, when he is under the power of any mortal sin, endeavour to lay the blame on the providence of God, that may seem to lead him into temptation, or on our holy religion, as if it afforded not sufficient light or strength to preserve from or deliver out of a sinful state, for he does certainly deceive himself in so doing and does at once reflect dishonourably on God and himself when he strives to transfer his guilt upon him and would make the violence of his lusts pass for the unkindness of providence or the impotence of religion. Whereas the powers of hell and men could not hurt us, if we did not tamely50 subject ourselves to them. ’Tis our own concupiscence betrays us, robs us of our liberty, and by giving way to the first motions thereof, we sink by insensible degrees into the powers of the “flesh, the world and the devil” 51 till we lose the very will to resist them; and then what wonder is it, if the divine succours are withdrawn and we are left to feel the weight of our natures, since we have unworthily preferred the satisfaction of an. irregular appetite before the favour of God, [and] chose the paths of vice before those of virtue, and a present pleasure rather than eternal happiness in reversion.52
[147. God’s infinite wisdom, a reflection in response to Malebranche.]
Morn[ing]
Male[branche,] Question:]53
Pray tell me if God’s wisdom be infinite?
Answer: To question whether God’s wisdom be infinite is in effect to question the infinity of his essence. For his wisdom is not a habit attained or superadded to his essence, but ’tis his very essence itself, as indeed are all his perfections. For God is one. And all those perfections that we attribute to him under various appellations is one and the same perfection in God, distinguished only by several operations on different subjects, all perfections being exerted in every act of the almighty mind. What is that we call wisdom in God but a power of directing, disposing and governing those creatures that he hath created or can create; for wisdom is a branch of intellectual power. And though we usually restrain our notion or sense of God’s power to that part or act of it that is manifested in the creation of a thing, yet is the appointing, directing, ordering or fitting that thing to some end as properly an act of power as its simple production.
If it be permitted to distinguish or define the perfections of God, in whom all perfection is one pure simple act, I would choose to say that the power of God exerted in creation is the power of his will; and the wisdom by which he ordered and guided the operations of his will, directing it to work for the most worthy end by the best and most proper means, is the power of his understanding.
[148. More on infinite wisdom: creation ex nihilo implies omnipotence.]
Even[ing]
Before I give a direct answer to your question, I would have you weigh the following particulars.
1. To produce anything out of nothing is such an act as necessarily infers omnipotence in the agent. For entity and nonentity are extremes so widely distant that they can never pass into each other without the efficiency of some almighty Power. But God hath actually created all things of nothing; therefore we acknowledge his power infinite or, to speak more properly, inexhaustible.
[149. More on infinite wisdom: displayed in both material and spiritual creation.]
Morn [ing]
2. That the divine Wisdom is manifestly displayed in the works of creation needs no proof. All the inanimate and brute creation, in working for ends unknown to themselves, clearly demonstrate that there is a superior power or wisdom which directs their operations. For when things act regularly by a rule they know not to an end they do not understand, and yet work together in the greatest harmony for that end, we cannot but acknowledge a wisdom in the supreme cause that ranges all these inferior causes in the order we see them and gives law to their several motions, according to their respective natures.
3. As God is the author of the material system, so likewise is he the origin of all spiritual beings, such as angels and souls of men, and consequently is the fountain of all the powers they have: understanding, will, etc. And he could not have imparted those powers to spiritual substances if he had not had them himself.
[150. More on infinite wisdom: God’s power inexhaustible, not limited to this world.]
Even[ing]
4.54 If the power of God be inexhaustible, as is evident by any single act of creation, then, if he pleaseth he can will the existence of another world, a third, a fourth, and so on ad infinitum, for his power can never be exhausted.
I proceed now to give a direct answer to your question, which I shall do in few words.
My first argument is this—
Either God hath power to create more worlds, more spiritual beings endued with wisdom or understanding and to order, dispose and govern them as those already created, or he hath not.
If he hath power to create more worlds, more spiritual beings endued with wisdom or understanding and to order, dispose and govern them as those already created, then is his wisdom or the power of his understanding equal to the power of his will, that is, infinite or inexhaustible.
If he hath not power to create more worlds, more spiritual beings endued with wisdom or understanding and to order, dispose and govern them as those already created, then his power is not infinite, seeing it is actually exhausted and can go no further. The consequence here is very plain: to limit any perfection in God is in effect to deny his being, for, if he be not infinite, he cannot be God—55
[151. The senses, “deceitful mediums” of temptation.]
Even[ing]
’Tis the misery of the soul to be determined to the body, that it lives in the senses and is consequently under a necessity of receiving all its ideas of external thing [s] through those deceitful mediums. Yet, considering the lapse of the human soul, it seems necessary it should be so, for otherwise we could be subject to no temptations from the world without us, and if no trial, no virtue; no virtue, no reward.
[152. Her foolish thoughts and amusements: a potentially dangerous precipice.]
Morn[ing]
You are strangely discouraged and complain because you find still an inclination and complacency in those foolish thoughts and amusements of*.56 Consider the dangerous lapse of the superior powers your voluntary indulging first motions upon a vain presumption of having it in your power at any time to suspend or lay aside such——at pleasure.57 In all irregular appetites or motions of the mind, every repeated act gives an accession of strength to the appetite till by insensible degrees we slide into a habit, which in a little time will be so confirmed that we shall not have it in our power to resist, much less to conquer it.
There is not a more groundless unreasonable presumption incident to man than that of venturing upon the utmost bounds of what is lawful. “lis like a person’s venturing to walk or look down from the extreme of a precipice. Is such a one sure that the prospect shall not prove fatal? Is he secure that his head shall not turn and put it out of his power to restrain himself from falling?
[153. Her own case of innocent amusement that leads astray]
Noon
If I mistake not, this is your case. At first you entertained these thoughts only as an amusement to be used or laid aside at pleasure. The matter appeared innocent, attended by no ill consequences to yourself or neighbour. You had some check from the remembrance of former experience, but you wisely resolved that they should never grow to a habit, and therefore could not be prejudicial. At first the delight was faint and transient, often strongly counter-poised by pain and want. But as the one decreased and the other was supplied, the pleasure increased till it gained an ascendant over your inclinations. By this means your soul, which in its pre-existent state was above all spirits most deeply lapsed into the powers of the flesh and the world and had by great conflicts and much difficulty in a good measure conquered both, by swift degrees declined in strength, grew less pleased with its former acquests,58 entertained kinder thoughts of present things. Ideas which seemed totally lost revived and were received with the same satisfaction which usually attends the meeting of friends that have been long separated from each other.
[154. More on her own experience of temptation: enjoyment induces habit.]
Even[ing]
Enjoyment begot sensual pleasure, that mortal enemy to the purity and tranquility of the soul. Pleasure excited to frequent enjoyment till repeated acts induced a habit which is now infinitely more uneasy59 than any instance of self-denial or penance could ha’ been in the beginning of the temptation.
[155. Self-evident truths and an enigmatic reflection on the mind and will.]
Morn[ing]
Self-evident truths can admit of no proof, because their evidence is included in themselves, and there is no medium that can make them appear clearer or more plain than they do at first sight.
He that hath the eternal laws of goodness and rectitude impressed upon his mind cannot set up an arbitrarious60 will for his rule and guide without doing violence to himself; liberty in the power or principle is nowhere a perfection where there is not an indifferency61 in the things or actions about which it is conversant.62
[156. Further reflection on the cause and cure of her temptation.]
Noon
Two thoughts occurred or possibly suggested by some good spirit. The first, that, instead of spending so much time in complaining of, or only opposing, this single temptation, the best way to conquer it is to bend the whole force of the mind in a serious use of the ways and means of religion. In prayer, reading, meditation, frequenting public worship, the sacrament, fasting, or at least abstinence, self-denial in other instances, etc., which will revive the spirit of piety, the sense of God, of good and evil, strengthen faith, encourage hope and perfect obedience.
[The second,] that whenever the evil spirit suggests any of those vain thoughts, take no further notice of them than immediately to turn the thoughts upon some useful subject and, by a vigorous application to what is good, you will effectually defeat his malice, turn his artillery upon himself, so what he designed for your destruction may be a means of preserving and increasing piety and virtue.
Quere: 63 Is there not some more than ordinary defects in other instances of duty, some other mortal sin indulged that offends God and provokes him to leave you to the insults of evil spirits?
[157. The difficulty—and seriousness—of vices renewed after a long time.]
Even[ing]
The conquest of these foolish T——64 was the intention of so many years V——65 and innumerable prayers have [?]ar[isen] on the same occasion.
A habit of thinking, speaking or action once broke and after a long course of time renewed again is seldom with, but never without, almost infinite pains conquered a second time. The same vice or irregular motion is not the same at thirty that it was at twenty, nor at forty66 that it was at thirty, though it agree in all other circumstances but that of time. That single article greatly changes67 the guilt, speaks the offender unprofitable in the highest degree and that he well deserves that most terrible sentence should pass upon him. “Let him that is filthy be filthy still.” 68 “Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?”69
[158. Welcome “the severest methods of providence” as means of “breaking an habitual vanity”]
Morn[ing], November] 28, [1]718
S. L D—70
Still, any suffering rather than sin—Trials of various kinds and degrees—Yet great reason to adore and praise—perhaps nothing less could have been so proper a mean[s] of breaking an habitual vanity, formed and strengthened by so many concurring circumstances. If by the severest methods of Providence the understanding is cleared, the will with its affection purified,71 strengthened and confirmed in the paths of virtue, complain not of the suffering, but adore the mercy, welcome want, sickness, reproach, loss of friends, welcome any penal evil how painful and uneasy soever it be to flesh and blood if it reclaim the wanderer and bring him back again to God—
[159. On mental and physical extremes.]
Even[ing]
Our make is such we cannot bear extremes in any case, in mind or body. Though we in this life know not the utmost bounds of happiness or misery, yet those lengths we are sometimes permitted to go in either path are equally destructive of our natures, nor could we suffer long what the mind or body is capable of feeling, either of pleasure or pain, in this world. Too much joy dissipates the spirits, too much grief consumes them, both enfeeble the body in a short space and render it altogether unfit for the use it was designed. Therefore the wise God of nature does usually by his providence so order and dispose events that we rarely suffer extremes, but through our own default.
[160. Affliction a “check to the first motions of evil.”]
Morn[ing]
You may observe of late that if but one of those vain thoughts come into the mind, though not consented to, but immediately rejected, there is some cross event or uneasy——72 presently follows, which I take to be a signal instance of the goodness of God in that he vouchsafes by this method to check the first motions of evil, to give warning of the approach of the Tempter and to call upon you to stand upon your guard. There is strong encouragement to faith and hope while God condescends to afflict and at the same time gives light into the cause of the affliction and excites by his Holy Spirit to repentance.
[161. Don’t be elated (or rattled) by the praise (or reproach) of men.]
Even[ing]
You are certainly too much in the power of man, when any man hath power to elate your mind or bias any passion by flattery or to rattle73 your temper and violate your peace by reproach or calumny. What, are you the better for the praise of men? Or wherein are you the worse, though all men should despise you, if men and devils should all conspire against you, if God be your friend and all be clear between you and heaven?
[162. Avoid “immoderate cares”; “preserve an equal temper.”]
Morn[ing]
You sinned last night in giving way to those unquiet thoughts about S. Drs74 and other seemingly severe dispensations of Providence. Would you be free from presumptuous sins, undefiled and innocent from the great offence, keep a strict guard against all immoderate cares, all anxious thought about anything of this world. If you desire to live under the continual government and direction of the Holy Spirit, preserve an equal temper. That small voice is never heard in storms and tempests,75 be they raised either by intemperate joys or griefs.
[163. Mental impairment by too much or too little study]
Noon
Thought is the proper action of the soul as local motion is of the body. And as the body is tired, the spirits exhausted and the whole fabric weakened by too long walking, etc., so is the strength of the mind impaired by too much and intense thinking; indeed too much or too little study renders it extravagant and unruly, the one by over straining its powers, the other too much relaxes them and thereby makes the mind impotent and good for nothing.
[164. Puzzlement at afflictions and trials not caused by intemperance or inadvertence.]
Even[ing]
“Happy is the man that endureth temptation,” saith St. James.76 With submission I would say “blessed is the person whom God by his providence preserves from too great or constant trials of——,”77 Though that merciful being never exposes men to, or leads them into, temptation with a design to ensnare or betray their virtue, yet oftentimes for reasons not always obvious he does permit ill men and evil angels to afflict his servants very severely. Sometimes [he] himself, as in the case of acute pains or more lingering distempers, which are not always the effects of intemperance or inadvertence[‘…]78
1. On the general popularity of Pascal in England during S. W’s lifetime, see John Barker, Strange Contrarieties: Pascal in England during the Age of Reason (Montreal and London: McGill—Queen’s University Press, 197S). On the Wesley family’s interest, see pp. 181–195; for women’s attraction to Pascal, see pp. 220–221.
2. This meditation is separated from the previous one by an entire blank page. It is further distinguished by an asterisk placed at the top left-hand corner of the page on the same line as the heading, “Morn.”
3. See Article XIX, Articles of Religion, BCP.
4. The meditation stops, leaving the remaining two-thirds of the page blank.
5. The initials are somewhat enigmatic: “O” and “R,” letters that precede various paragraphs in the text of the meditation, might stand for “Objection” and “Response,” but I have been unable plausibly to identify “U,” which does not serve as a paragraph tag. Further confusion: the “R” could also be interpreted as a “P” (for Pascal) in front of several of the paragraphs, though later S. W seems to indicate quotations by the clearer abbreviation: “Pas.” Her interest in Pascal has been discussed by Barker, Strange Contrarieties, pp. 182–187, 220ff., though he is not aware of these diary entries. Frequently in this entry S. W. ends lines with a dash, possibly an indication of a quotation.
6. Pascal, Thoughts on Religion, chap. 1 (“Against an Atheistical Indifference”), par. 1, p. 12; my quotation marks. The original is discussing the manner in which even the enemies of religion illustrate one of its two primary truths, namely, the corruption of nature. It is unnatural that “we find Persons indifferent to the Loss of their Being, and to the Danger of endless Misery” (p. 11). “They are quite other Men in all other Regards: they fear the smallest Inconveniences; they see them as they approach, and feel them if they arrive: and he who passeth Days and Nights in Chagrin or Despair, for the Loss of an Imployment, or for some imaginary Blemish in his Honour, is the very same Mortal who knows that he must lose all by Death, and yet remains without Disquiet, Resentment or Emotion.” S. W separates the quotation from her next paragraph with a short horizontal line.
7. Paraphrase of ibid., chap. 2 (“Marks of the True Religion”), par. 2, pp. 20–21: “To make out the Truth and Certainty of a Religion, ’tis necessary that it should have obtain’d the Knowledge of Human Nature. For our true Nature and true Happiness, true Virtue and true Religion, are things the knowledge of which is reciprocal and inseparable.”
8. Ibid., p. 21; my quotation marks continuing from above: “It should also be able to discern the Greatness and the Meanness of the Human Condition; together with the cause and reason of both.”
9. Ibid., p. 20. Pascal does not mention love of neighbor in the sentence that begins this chapter (“The True Religion ought chiefly to distinguish itself, by obliging Men to the Love of God”), but S. W supplies that need in her biblically sound paraphrase. Cf chap. 28, par. 11, p. 259: “Two Plain Laws might be more effectual in regulating the whole Christian Community, than all Political Institutions; the Love of God, and of our Neighbour.”
10. That is, abilities, capacities, talents.
11. Pascal, Thoughts on Religion, chap. 2, par. 3, p. 21; my quotation marks. S. W’s first sentence is a loose paraphrase. The original reads: “Other Religions, as those of the Heathens, are more Popular; as consisting only in External Appearance: But then, they are unqualified for moving the Judicious and Prudent. Again, should any Religion reside altogether in the inward Spirit, it might be fitter to work on Parts and Genius, but could hold no influence over the Gross of Mankind. Christianity alone is proportion’d to all Capacities; being duly composed and temper’d of the Internal and the External way. It raises the most Ignorant to inward and spiritual Acts, and at the same time abases the most Intelligent, by pressing the Obligation to outward Performances; and is never compleat, but when it joyns one of these Effects to the other.”
12. Ibid., par. S, p. 22; my quotation marks. The original reads: “No Religion, except the Christian has known Man to be the most excellent of Visible Creatures, and at the same time the most Miserable.”
13. Ibid., par. 8, p. 23; my quotation marks: “That Religion which consists in believing the Fall of Man from a state of Glory and Communication with God, to a state of Sorrow, Humiliation, and Estrangement from God; together with his Restoration by a Messiah; has always been in the World.”
14. A summary of Pascal’s more descriptive words (ibid., p. 24): “For immediately after the first Creation, Adam was the Witness and Depositary of the Promise concerning a Saviour, to be Born of the seed of the Woman.”
15. Ibid., par. 10, p. 25. Kennett’s sentence begins with “Thus”; otherwise this is an exact quotation.
16. Ibid., chap. 3 (“The true Religion proved by the Contrarieties which are discoverable in Man, and by the Doctrine of Original Sin”), par. 1, p. 34; my quotation marks, although some phrases are rather loosely paraphrased. Exact quotation until “Was it a proper Method for the Cure of Man’s Presumption thus to equal him with God? On the other hand, have those succeeded better in restraining our Earthly Desires, who would bring us down to the level of Beasts, and present us with sensual Gratifications for our real and universal Happiness?”
17. S. W answers one in a series of Pascal’s rhetorical questions: “What Religion shall instruct us to correct at once our Pride and our Concupiscence?” Ibid., p. 35.
18. Probably S. W.’s reflection on the theme of Pascal’s chapter; see ibid., pp. 37–38.
19. See An Essay concerning Human Understanding, ed. Peter H. Nidditch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), 2.21.38-42, 58–60 (pp. 255–259, 272–274).
20. Pascal, Thoughts on Religion, chap. 20 (“That God Is Not Known to Advantage, but thro’ JESUS CHRIST”), par. 2, p. 167; my quotation marks. Exact quotation until “the impression continues but a short Space.…”
21. Replaces the crossed-out original, “from.”
22. Pascal, Thoughts on Religion, chap. 3, par. 1, pp. 36–37. Pascal puts this passage in the mouth of “the Wisdom of God, speaking to us in the Christian Religion.” Much of S. W’s entry is summary, but there is a close paraphrase: “He [man] was dispos’d to make himself the Centre of his own Happiness, and altogether independent from the Divine Succours” (p. 37). Reference to the apostate angels is S. W’s own (perhaps Miltonic) gloss on Pascal’s passage.
23. For example, Luke 9:23.
24. A recurring theme in Pascal’s passage. See Thoughts on Religion, p. 35.
25. Ibid., chap. 7, par. 3, p. 66. An exact quotation with the exception of Kennett’s “when we have once discover’d where Truth is …” in place of S. W’s more succinct “when we have once discovered the truth.…” The parenthetical insertion “(custom)” is hers.
26. I have been unable to find this quotation in Pascal. It may be from another source or S. W’s own observation.
27. Pascal, Thoughts on Religion, chap. 21 (“The Strange Contrarieties Discoverable in Human Nature, with Regard to Truth, and Happiness, and Many Other Things”), par. 1, p. 182; nearly exact quotation; my quotation marks.
28. That is, small portion.
29. Pascal, Thoughts on Religion, chap. 22 (“The General Knowledge of Man”), par. 1, p. 187; exact quote; my quotation marks.
30. Ibid., par. 1, p. 190. Virtually exact quotation, which continues: “alike distant from that Nothing whence he was taken, and from that Infinity in which he is swallow’d up.” The parenthetical explanation is S. W’s.
31. Ibid., p. 190, exact quotation; my quotation marks.
32. Matthew 5:9. This entry is particularly interesting given S. W’s own earlier stand as a Nonjuror. A blank space of three or four lines is left at the bottom of the page.
33. Luke 17:1, slightly paraphrased; the second sentence is a much looser expansion on Luke 17:2.
34. This word is S. W’s insertion.
35. Pascal, Thoughts on Rdigion: “to.”
36. S. W removes “by” (ibid.).
37. S. W substitutes “and” for “that it” (ibid.).
38. Ibid., chap. 26 (“The Misery of Man”), par. 1, pp. 219–220; exact quotation except where noted in text.
39. Ibid., chap. 7 (“That There Is More Advantage in Believing Than in Disbelieving the Doctrines of Christianity”), par. 2, pp. 64–65; accurate, though somewhat digested paraphrase; my quotation marks. This is from Pascal’s famous extended passage on “the wager.” The original: “But you say, you are so made as to be incapable of believing. At least therefore, endeavour to understand this your incapacity; and to find what it is that debars you of Faith, when Reason so manifestly invites you to it. Labour, then, in your own Conviction: not by increasing the proofs of a deity, but by diminishing the power of your Passions … banish those Amusements which have hitherto entirely possess’d you.”
40. Ibid., p. 65; my quotation marks. “O! I should soon bid adieu to these Pleasures, say you, where [sic] I once but master of Faith. And I say, on the other hand, you would soon be master of Faith, had you once bidden adieu to these Pleasures.”
41. In MS: “Lewis.”
42. Maimbourg, History of the Crusade … part iv, bk. ii, p. 371; a nearly exact quotation; my quotation marks.
43. Possibly an allusion to the contemporary theological discussion of analogy, for example, the work of William King (1650-1729), archbishop of Dublin, Divine Predestination … Sermon preach’d at Christ-Church, Dublin, May 15 (Dublin and London: for A. Bell … and J. Baker, 1710). (1709). S. W. does not subscribe to King’s agnosticism (“If we know anything about Him at all, it must be by analogy and comparison, by resembling Him to something we do know and are acquainted with”), but she apparently does accept a more orthodox use of the term. See James Hastings, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons; Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1908–1926), 1:417, s.v. “Analogy.”
44. The meditation continues to the next page, though one notebook leaf has been torn out in between.
45. On “sensation and reflection” see Locke, Hssay 2.1.2-4, pp. 104–106. S. W. is struggling with the disjuncture between Lockean psychology and Christian belief in disembodied spirits. She might be reflecting on John Norris, Philosophical Discourse Concerning the Natural Immortality of the Soul (London: S. Manship, 1708).
46. See Nicolas Malebranche, Search after Truth. Or a Treatise of the Nature of the Humane Mind. Aid of Its Management for avoiding Error in the Sciences, 2 vols., trans. Richard Sault (London: J. Dunton, 1694–1695). Note the connections between this work and S. W: it is dedicated to the Marquess of Normanby Samuel Wesley’s sometime patron; J. Dunton was Susanna Wesley’s brother-in-law and Samuel’s literary associate in publishing the Athenian Mercury, which sometimes discussed the views of Malebranche (and Locke and Descartes) during its lifetime, 1690–1697; the translator, Sault, and the Platonist divine John Norris were also part of this circle. In fact, it is likely that S. W got her Malebranchean ideas through Norris, who was the French philosopher’s chief English disciple. See Charles J. McCracken, Malebranche and British Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 156–179.
Malebranche (1638-1715) synthesized Cartesian philosophy and Platonic-Augustinian theology. The theory of animal spirits, “the most subde and active parts of the blood” (bk. 2, chap. 2, par. 1, 1:122), which activate the imagination without any necessary external stimulus, is found in bk. 2, chaps. 1–2, 1:118–125. See also Henry Mores use of the term in The Immortality of the Soul, in A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More … , 2nd ed. (London: William Morden in Cambridge, 1662), bk. 2, chap. 17, par. 3; Flora Isabel MacKinnon, Philosophical Writings of Henry More (New York: Oxford University Press, 1925), p. 158: “the immediate Instrument of the Soul are those tenuous and Aereal particles which they ordinarily call the Spirits … these are they by which the Soul hears, sees, feels, imagines, remembers, reasons, and by moving which, or at least directing their motion, she moves likewise the Body; and by using them, or some subtile Matter like them, she either compleats, or at least contributes to the Bodies Organization.”
47. See John 14:6.
48. Three lines left blank at bottom of page.
49. James 2:13; exact, except for the subject and verb of the final clause, which S. W makes into an indirect quotation; my quotation marks.
50. That is, without resistance.
51. Litany, BCP, slightly rearranged; my quotation marks.
52. Legal term: the right of succeeding to the possession of something or obtaining it at some future time.
53. Malebranche’s Recherche de la verite was published in 1674–1675 and translated into English, as in note 46, by Samuel Wesley’s associate Richard Sault in 1694. In 169S Locke wrote a critical analysis, An Examination of Malebranche’s Opinion of Seeing All Things in God, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke (London: for A. and J. Churchill, 1706). John Norris accepted Malebranche’s approach in An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World, 1701–1704. See Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, 6 vols. (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, Image Books, 1963), 4:210.
54. In MS: “4thly.”
55. Two lines at the bottom of the page left blank.
56. S. W.’s asterisk, in lieu of a name.
57. S. W.’s line, again indicating her unwillingness to be more specific, even in her diary.
58. Acquisitions.
59. Troublesome.
60. Arbitrary, capricious, or (possibly) tyrannical.
61. Freedom of choice.
62. This last half of the sentence (beginning, “liberty in the power or principle …”) is preceded by the crossed-out phrase “for as Dr. Rust well observes.” George Rust (d. 1670), Cambridge Platonist and friend of Jeremy Taylor, whom he succeeded as bishop of Dromore, published, among other items, A Discourse of the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion, Showing That Christianity Contains Nothing Repugnant to Right Reason, Against Enthusiasts and Deists (London: for Walter Kettilby, 1683). S. W also refers to Rust (along with fellow Platonists Henry More and John Norris) in her “Religious Conference.” See part III of this volume.
63. Archaic form of “query.”
64. Probably an abbreviation: “thoughts” or possibly “temptations.”
65. Possibly “vows.”
66. Two pages torn from book at this point; meditation continues without interruption on the facing page.
67. In MS: “chanses.”
68. Close paraphrase of Revelation 22:11; my quotation marks substituted for S. W’s dashes before and behind the quotation.
69. Luke 13:7, parable of the fig tree that would not bare fruit; my quotation marks substituted for S. W’s dashes.
70. I have not been able to determine any special significance of the date and initials in the heading. November 28 was a Friday in 1718.
71. The meditation breaks off at the bottom of the page; an asterisk below the last line corresponds to another asterisk marking a continuation of the thought on MS p. 192 (six pages further on) following the last entry (164) in this section of her journal. That fragment has been added here.
72. Word omitted. I have inserted a line to indicate the blank space left by S. W
73. Assail.
74. Unclear reference; one possibility: “Samuel’s doctors,” implying a medical problem.
75. See 1 Kings 19:12.
76. James 1:12, though S. W has substituted “happy” for “blessed”; my quotation marks.
77. S. W. inserts a line rather than commit her specific “trial” to paper. I have added quotation marks.
78. Meditation breaks off; bottom two-thirds of the page left blank. On the facing page a fragment of a meditation takes up the top one-third of the page; an asterisk and the flow of the thought indicate the continuation of entry 158, and it has been added there. This is the final entry in the notebook from this direction; 18 spreads remain in the book, blank from this side. Upside down and reversed, however—that is, beginning from the “back”—there are more journal entries, which appear in the next chapter.