Wandering Thoughts: A Sermon on 2 Cor. x. 4

Wandering Thoughts: A Sermon on 2 Cor. x. 4
Wandering Thoughts: A Sermon on 2 Cor. x. 4
1994/2445

1750-1800 / John Wesley / Methodism / Pamphlet / Paper / Printing & Publishing / Publication
Printed on paper
Printed by Paramore, Worship Street, London, 1798

Sometime in the early 1760s, Wesley preached a sermon on 'Wandering Thoughts'. In it, he dismissed the idea that Christians might be delivered from wandering thoughts as "impossible" and "absurd". Such thoughts came about due to an exposure to assaults by evil spirits, provocations by hostile people and the natural operation of the senses on the mind.

The idea of 'wandering thoughts' occupied Wesley. He wrote about it in the Arminian Magazine years later and published letters he had received from readers in relation to his sermon. It appears he was never quite able to make up his mind whether or not there could be freedom from a distracted mind and total communion with God.

This edition of his sermon dates to 1798.