A Vision of Christian Virtue

A Vision of Christian Virtue

"THE MANNERS OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIANS"

ness Wesley believed to have characterized the church as a whole in its purer ages.

Moreover, the particular English translation of the Macarian Homilies which Wesley used (Primitive Morality) understood the import of the work to be its contribution to Christian sanctification and "morality." The prefatory material which Wesley took over from Primitive Morality makes clear what Wesley and the translator of the work took to be its essential message, What [Macarius] continually labours to cultivate in himself and others is, The real life of God in the heart and soul, that kingdom of God, which consists in righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

He is ever quickening and stirring up his audience, endeavouring to kindle in them a sturdy zeal, an earnest desire, and inflam'd ambition, to recover that divine image we were made in; to be made conformable to Christ our head; to be daily sensible more and more of our living union with Him as such; and discovering it, as occasion requires, in all the genuine fruits of an holy life and conversation, in such a victorious faith as overcomes the world, and working by love, is ever fulfilling the whole law of God. He seems indeed never to be easy, but either in the height, or breadth, or length of divine love, or at least in the depths of humility."

In the case of the Macarian Homilies, therefore, Wesley received an ancient Christian text already prepared to present the ideal of holiness to eighteenth-century English Christians.

A Vision of Christian Virtue John Wesley believed that the Christians of the first two to four centuries lived exemplary, virtuous lives, even though later in his life he seems to have recognized that certain corruptions had been a part of the church's experience from its very earliest years. The sources that informed his understanding of the virtues of the early Christians include chapters from the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria describing the "perfect Gnostic," which inspired Wesley's tract on the "Character of a Methodist." The works of Fleury, Cave and Horneck, which Wesley edited in the late 1740s and early 1750s, all extolled the virtuous lives of the ancient Christians. Mosheim's history, by contrast, presented a more cautious portrayal of the virtues of the early

Christians, and it either influenced Wesley's conceptions, or at least confirmed a notable shift in Wesley's emphasis, when in the 1770s and 1780s Wesley began to realize more of the corruptions of early Christianity.

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

Virtues of the Ancient Christians Wesley's writings and editions through the 1750s not only reflect the high estimate of the virtues of the ancient Christians that his sources gave, but even go beyond them in some respects. His editions of Cave, Fleury, and Horneck retain descriptions of early Christian virtues, but omit passages suggesting that some Christians had committed immoral acts. For instance, Wesley omitted passages from Cave's Primitive Christianity which detail charges of incest and adultery against certain ancient Christians, and which give the excuses made by some ancient Christians for wearing fine clothing. He even omitted passages from Cave describing the pagans' accusations against the early Christians." In Wesley's account, then, the virtues of the early Christians were magnified even beyond their portrayal in the accounts of his sources.

"Heavenly" Virtues. In the first place among the virtues Wesley ascribed to the ancient Christians is their love for God and their unity within the church. The early Christians loved God and despised the things of this world. To use Cave's term, they were "heavenlyminded," and had a continual sense of the presence of God." As a consequence, they were always ready to profess their faith in Christ, and exhibited exemplary patience in enduring the torments to which their persecutors put them. The martyrdoms of the early Christians vouched for the credibility of their message."* The early Christians found their true home, not in the world, but in the Christian community, where they lived in unity and regarded each other as equals."

Personal Virtues. In the second place were those virtues that describe the way in which the early Christians conducted their personal affairs. Wesley believed that the early Christians were happy in spite of their poverty." They were chaste in all their relations with others, were continent in marriage, and regarded second marriages as "little better than adultery." He consistently omitted from his edition of the Macarian homilies the erotic imagery, especially the imagery of the lover and the beloved, that punctuates the work," probably because of his desire to avoid characterizing the ancient Christians as overly concerned with sexual matters. The early Christians practiced temperance and abstinence (from meat and drink) in their regular meals and sobriety in their dress." These virtues followed from their humility and meekness, a further instance of which was the "true primitive simplicity" of the language in which they expressed themselves.™

Social Virtues. Finally, there were those virtues grounded in the ancient Christians' relationships with the world outside of their own community. Wesley believed that the ancient Christians loved their neighbors, and that this love expressed itself in acts of charity: provid-

"THE MANNERS OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIANS"

ing for the poor, visiting the sick, caring for those in captivity, looking after the welfare of children. The early Christians expressed this love to their fellow Christians and to non-Christians as well.® Wesley's edition of Cave stresses the early Christians' justice and honesty in their dealings with other persons. It claims, further, that the ancient

Christians were subject and obedient to civil government, although Wesley consistently omitted the term "subjection" in his edition of Cave.

Ancient Images of Virtue and the Methodist Movement Despite his acknowledgment of corruptions in the ancient church,

Wesley called upon Christian antiquity as a pattern for Christian virtue. This particular use of Christian antiquity is illustrated in two of Wesley's original works from the early 1740s. His 1742 tract on "The Character of a Methodist" depicts the ideal Christian by the dull but characteristically eighteenth-century practice of listing specific virtues, many of which are the same virtues listed by Clement of Alexandria in describing the Christian ideal: hope of immortality, constancy in prayer, love of neighbor, obedience to God's commandments, and freedom from worldly desires. Although Wesley's tract does not refer to some of the virtues stressed by Clement (passionlessness and contemplation of the divine, for example), Wesley acknowledged that a passage from Clement's Stromateis had inspired "The Character of a Methodist." Similarly, the poem entitled "Primitive Christianity" which concludes Wesley's Earnest Appeal (1743) holds up the model virtues of the ancient Christians, and describes in particular their simplicity, constancy in prayer, fellowship, unity, and love for each other."

This use of Christian antiquity as a vision of Christian virtue may be seen even more clearly in works Wesley produced in 1749 and in the early 1750s. His "Letter to Conyers Middleton" (1749) concludes with a description of "a Christian indeed" as one who abases himself before God, depends on God, confides in God, loves God and neighbor, seeks after the truth, is free from pride, accepts censure, and is happy in God. Wesley asserted in this work that ancient Christian writers from the second through the fourth centuries displayed this ideal, and these virtues.* Similarly, his "Letter to a Roman Catholic," composed during a visit to Ireland in the summer of 1749, includes a description of the moral and spiritual virtues of the Christian believer.

Following this description, Wesley wrote: "This, and this alone, is the old religion. This is true, primitive Christianity."" Similarly, his edi-

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

tion of Horneck's "Letter to a Person of Quality, concerning the Lives of the Primitive Christians" concludes with the following paragraph,

I am persuaded that you have chosen the better Part, and as I do not question your Belief of these Passages, so that these Saints may be your Pattern, and their Actions the great Rule of your Life, and the Spirit of God your Guide in these Ways of Holiness, is the hearty

Wish and Prayer of, Sir, Your affectionate Friend and Servant, Anthony Horneck."

This passage indicates the intent of the work as a whole, which, in this case, was to hold up "the Lives of the Primitive Christians" as models for the lives of virtue to which Wesley and Horneck (and Fronteau) believed their own contemporaries had been called.

Omissions from works Wesley edited also suggest his use of Christian antiquity as a vision of Christian virtue, especially where

Wesley omitted passages that might lead readers to question the moral purity of the early Christians. He omitted, for example, Clement of Rome's suggestion that the spies of Israel lodged with "Rahab the Harlot" in Jericho, and also omitted a passage from the Ignatian epistles asserting that Christians should not heed those who teach the necessity of following the "Jewish Law."*! Although the "Law" referred to in this case probably meant the ritual observances of Judaism, Wesley may have feared that readers would take the passage as indicating that Christians were not obliged to observe the moral commandments inculcated by scripture." In a similar manner, he omitted erotic imagery from his edition of the Spiritual Homilies, and omitted numerous references to (and suggestions of) the misdeeds of the early Christians in Cave's Primitive Christianity." These omissions have the effect of distorting the presentation of ancient Christianity that Wesley made to his readers, and indicate most clearly his concern that the readers should find in ancient Christianity models of moral purity.

Wesley's emphasis on the virtues of the early Christians appears to have changed sometime in the 1760s or 1770s. At least, in introducing his version of Mosheim's church history in 1781, Wesley warned his readers not to expect "an History of Saints, of men that walked worthy of their high calling" in Mosheim or any other church history, since "the mystery of iniquity" began to work in the church from quite an early age." The third chapter has noted how some of Wesley's later sermons stressed the corruptions which entered the church in the early centuries and overwhelmed the church in the fourth century.

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Nevertheless, Wesley had acknowledged the presence of some corruptions in the early church since at least the time of his "Letter to Conyers Middleton" (1749), and maintained that the presence of these corruptions did not detract from the general purity of the church in the pre-Constantinian period.

In the "way of salvation," Wesley and other Evangelical leaders had offered a kind of blueprint for life. A blueprint for life, however, is precisely what culture gives, in passing on from one generation to another patterns for belief and behavior, so that the Evangelicals' work in expounding the "way of salvation" was a clear attempt at the enterprise of culture change. The Evangelical pattern stressed religious experience as central to the religious life as a whole, developed a specific pattern of life focusing on repentance, faith, and holiness, and pointed to a specific set of virtues as characterizing the true Christian.

This chapter has delineated something of Wesley's particular vision of this blueprint for life, and has found that at critical points his vision for Christian individual life was informed and inspired by his vision of the lives of the ancient Christians.

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Chapter 5

"THE WHOLE CHURCH IN THE PUREST AGES":

CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

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VISION FOR CORPORATE LIFE

Eighteenth-century Evangelicals like Whitefield and Wesley offered not only a vision of the "way of salvation" as a blueprint for Christian life, but also a vision of Christian community that could

serve as a blueprint for the religious groups that they had formed. At first, the Evangelical groups existed within the Church of England as religious "societies" or associations, but by the end of the century many had become independent churches. Their needs for institutional structures, then, developed as their various movements developed, but in each case they needed a commonly-held vision of Christian community.

In this process of developing the Methodist community, John Wesley utilized ancient Christian teachings, customs and institutions as a vision of corporate Christian life. His intention to use ancient

Christian beliefs and practices as normative patterns for the corporate life of the Methodist movement appears in his "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists," although the wording of this statement is problematic:

But I must premise, that as [the early Methodists] had not the least expectation, at first, of anything like what has since followed, so they had no previous design or plan at all; but everything arose just as the occasion offered. They saw or felt some impending or pressing evil, or some good end necessary to be pursued. And many times they fell unawares on the very thing which secured the good, or removed the evil. At other times, they consulted the most probable means, following only common sense and Scripture: Though they generally found, in looking back, something in Christian antiquity likewise, very nearly parallel thereto.'

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

This suggests that Wesley's conceptions of Christian antiquity only confirmed Methodist institutions that had already developed, but not that they provided explicit models for the development of those institutions. But considering the particular institutions to which Wesley refers here, one must doubt whether the statement is uniformly accurate. It is true that in some cases he may not have recognized the parallels between ancient and Methodist institutions until he looked back and reflected upon them. For instance, he may not have recognized the parallel he drew between the ancient catechumenate and the Methodist societies until after the societies were functioning." But in other cases, he could scarcely have failed to recognize the parallels beforehand, and one suspects in these cases that his conceptions of Christian antiquity did indeed provide the patterns upon which the Methodist institutions were based. For example, he had known of ancient penitential practices and of the ancient order of deaconesses long before he segregated "penitent bands" from the rest of the Methodist societies or instituted the office of deaconess among the Methodists.'

In fact, one can demonstrate how, in numerous specific cases (including many in the "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists"), Wesley's conceptions of Christian antiquity served as normative patterns upon which Methodist teachings and practices were based.

This chapter examines specific instances of this utilization of Christian antiquity as a vision for the corporate life of the Christian community.

A Vision of Pure Christian Teaching The Apostolicity of Ancient Christian Teachings

John Wesley explicitly held up the writings of the ancient church as a pattern, subordinate only to scripture, for Christian teaching. "The esteeming the writings of the first three centuries, not equal with, but next to, the Scriptures," Wesley wrote to Middleton, "never carried any man yet into dangerous errors, nor probably ever will." Similarly, he wrote to Joseph Benson, "I regard no authority but those of the Ante-Nicene Fathers; nor any of them in opposition to Scripture."®

This use of the ante-Nicene writers as a subordinate pattern of Christian teaching was Wesley's consistent use after 1737, when he recognized his error in having regarded antiquity as a "coordinate" rule with scripture.® The special regard Wesley had for the Apostolic Fathers as presenting normative patterns of Christian teaching can be seen in the

"THE WHOLE CHURCH IN THE PUREST AGES"

prefatory materials which he gleaned from Wake and prefixed to his own version of the Apostolic Fathers in A Christian Library:

The authors of the following collection, were contemporaries of the holy Apostles. ... We cannot therefore doubt, but what they deliver to us is the pure Doctrine of the Gospel; what Christ and his Apostles taught, and what these holy men had themselves received from their own mouths.

And again, he stated, .

.. we cannot with any reason doubt of what they deliver to us as the gospel of Christ; but ought to receive it, tho' not with equal veneration, yet with only little less regard, than we do the sacred writings of those who were their masters and instructors.®

The latter passage places the Apostolic Fathers in a position of authority nearest to scripture, but also expresses Wesley's insistence on the subordination of Christian antiquity to scripture.

Wesley linked the ancient church's teachings with the teachings of Scripture, and with the use of reason as doctrinal authorities. "We prove the doctrines we preach," he wrote in the Farther Appeal, "by Scripture and reason; and, if need be, by antiquity." Similarly, in introducing the 1771 edition of his Works, Wesley wrote,

...in this edition I present to serious and candid men my last and maturest thoughts, agreeable, I hope, to Scripture, reason, and Christian antiquity.

Wesley also used the term "authority" in reference to Christian antiquity in his Farther Appeal." He thus regarded the writings of Christian antiquity as having authority for subsequent Christian teachings; not, indeed, the authority which he ascribed to scripture alone, but a "subordinate" authority which he found nonetheless helpful. It is critical to note that although his use of early Christian writings in this way generally corresponds to the uses of ancient texts by conservative

Anglicans, he nevertheless stressed a different set of particular texts, giving preference to earlier texts (such as the Apostolic Fathers) over later texts (such as Augustine and the Councils) stressed by the Caroline theologians.

Given this approval of the authority of the ancient Christian writings, Wesley could find them particularly useful in the interpretation of the New Testament. He thought that most of the New Testament books were read from the second-century "as a divine rule of faith and manners." He believed that the earliest Christian writers stood closest to the apostles, and were especially endowed with the Holy Spirit, so that they were "the most authentic commentators on Scripture.""

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

His edition of Fleury puts the case for the use of ancient Christian sources for interpretation in this manner:

In the writings therefore of [the earliest disciples of the Apostles], not of modern reasoners and disputers, are we to search for that sense of scriptures hard to be understood, which they received from the apostles, and the apostles from Christ."

Wesley did acknowledge that there were corruptions in second-century biblical manuscripts, and he held that Irenaeus had shown

"weakness" in relying upon oral traditions, as opposed to the written scriptures. He maintained, moreover, that some later authors went to extremes in their allegorical expositions of scripture, but he held that they did this because they were "afraid of too literal a way of expounding the scriptures.""* Wesley's "Address to the Clergy" recommends the study of the early Christian writers, whom Wesley called

"the most authentic commentators on Scripture,"** and amongst whom he especially valued the second-century writers. He often validated his own interpretations of biblical passages by citing patristic interpretations of them.""

Heresy, Ancient and Methodist As the leader of a controversial religious movement, Wesley frequently faced the charge that he was (or his followers were) teaching heretical doctrine. He responded by defending the Methodists against the charges, and by going on the offensive to identify heretical teachings among his opponents. Given his high approval of ancient Christian teachings, it was natural that he should turn to ancient Christian sources as a kind of arbiter for the accusations of heresy that flew in so many directions in his age.

Wesley believed that the ancient Christians, especially those of the first three centuries, faithfully followed the apostles' teachings, and strove to avoid heresy, which his edition of Horneck defines as "Doctrine ... unknown to the Apostles."'® He suspected that although heresies were more frequently mentioned in the earlier centuries than in later ages, nevertheless there may have been more heresies in later ages, against which the church did not protest as frequently as it had done against the earlier ones. He was aware of heretical literature in the early centuries, and maintained that, although some heretical books were forged in the name of apostles and other early Christians, others were "compiled by weak, well-meaning men, from what had been orally delivered down from the Apostles."

John Wesley held up the teachings of the ancient Christians in his protests against the revivals of ancient heresies in his age. At least ten

"THE WHOLE CHURCH IN THE PUREST AGES"

passages in Wesley's Sermons, Journal, letters, and doctrinal writings warn the Methodists against Arianism, which Wesley understood to be not only an ancient heresy, but also a modern one.2" He once reflected upon Swedenborg's "Account of Heaven and Hell," and warned against its Sabellianism and Anthropomorphitism." In his original works, he cited Augustine (sic!) and Chrysostom against predestinarianism, which he also regarded as a false teaching."

Wesley's opponents accused the Methodists of reviving ancient heresies, and this put him on the defensive. He sometimes responded by clarifying and defending Methodist teachings, as in his treatise on Arminianism, in which he clearly distinguished Arminianism from Arianism," but sometimes he merely pointed out the absurdity of his opponents' claims. Attempts to tag the Methodists with ancient heretical labels reached their pitch in John Downes's assertion that All ancient heresies have in a manner concentrated in the Methodists; particularly those of the Simonians, Gnostics, Antinomians, Valentinians, Donatists, and Montanists.

Wesley responded, While your hand was in, you might as well have added Carpocratians, Eutychians, Nestorians, Sabellians./If you say, 'I never heard of them,' no matter for that; you may find them, as well as the rest, in Bishop Pearson's index.

This was a way of saying that the heresies of which Downes had accused the Methodists were themselves so contradictory that Downes's arguments could not be seriously received.

Wesley's attitudes towards the ancient heresies provide an interesting test of his use of Christian antiquity in relation to his culture.

Whereas he assented to the fourth-century condemnations of Arianism and Sabellianism, and could give scriptural and ancient Christian evidence against both, he was at least uncertain about the heresies of the fifth century (Pelagianism, Nestorianism, and Eutychianism, in particular). In at least three cases, moreover (Montanism, Donatism, and Novatianism), he saw the ancient "heresies" as representing

"scriptural Christianity" in their ages."° In these instances, it is clear, he did not assent to the church's condemnations, and in fact he saw the so-called heretical groups as more faithfully representing the apostolic faith. This shows, above all, the seriousness with which his view of ancient authority had changed as indicated in his writings in 1737: no longer was the consensus of ancient teachings in itself a normative authority for Wesley, but instead, the ancient church's teachings held authority so far as they "well agreed with the practice and writings of the apostles" and thus reflected the purity of the New Testament church." Thus, his uses of Christian antiquity in clarifying accusations a7

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

of heresy conformed to the conservative Anglican patterns in some respects, but very clearly diverged in others.

Ancient Creeds and Councils As the second chapter has shown, Wesley assumed from late 1737 a critical attitude toward ancient Christian councils themselves, asserting on one occasion that the determinations of the ancient councils were "generally trifling, sometimes false, and frequently unintelligible or self-contradictory."" It is more difficult to assess his estimate of the creeds and other statements produced by the ancient councils, since many of them were used by Anglicans, and Wesley affirmed at least some of them. The evidence for Wesley's views of ancient creeds and conciliar statements is relatively scant. His edition of Mosheim includes the assertion that the Apostle's Creed was not of apostolic origin, but developed in postapostolic times to banish heresies. He indicated elsewhere his general subscription to the Nicene Creed

(including the filioque clause), the Chalcedonian doctrine of two natures in Christ, and the Trinitarian theology of the "Athanasian"

Creed. One would expect this of an Anglican, whose eighth Article of Religion asserted that the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds

"ought thoroughly to be received and believed; for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture."" Wesley's own version of the Anglican Articles included the first, second, and fourth articles, which reflect Nicene, Constantinopolitan, and Chalcedonian language; but the eighth Article, which explicitly affirmed the "Three

Creeds," was one of the Articles omitted in his Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America.*° One gains the impression that, although

Wesley found the ancient creeds generally faithful to the apostolic teaching, he did not find their precise formulations particularly helpful.

Given this relatively ambivalent attitude toward the ancient councils, it is interesting to note that when defending the Methodists

Wesley asserted that his followers did accept ancient, and even postNicene doctrinal formulations. "The fundamental doctrine of the people called Methodists," he wrote on two occasions to the editor of Lloyd's Evening Post, "is, Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the true [sic] faith."** Answering the charge that he had altered the text of the Athanasian Creed in this instance

(from "catholic" to "true"), Wesley wrote, "Sir, shall I tell you a secret?—It was for the readers of your class that I changed the hard word Catholic into an easier."** His Explanatory Notes on the New Testament attempts to show that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Son,

"THE WHOLE CHURCH IN THE PUREST AGES"

as well as the Father" on the basis of John 15:26, and thus indicates his subscription to the Western filioque clause of the Nicene Creed."

Ancient Trinitarian Theology and Christology Wesley regarded the ancient church's doctrine of the Trinity as consistent with the Apostolic faith, although he questioned later and more "philosophical" expressions of it. He accepted the authenticity of the "Johannine Comma" (I John 5:7; following Bengel) on the basis of the attestation of the verse in the first three centuries, in spite of what he believed were the Arians' attempts to expunge it. Beyond his general acceptance of the doctrine, however, he regarded all philosophical

"explications" of the Trinity as failures. Even the teaching of the Athanasian Creed, which he held to be the "best" explication he had encountered, could not be insisted upon as necessary doctrine, as he explained in his sermon "On the Trinity":

It was in an evil hour that these explainers began their fruitless work.

I insist upon no explication at all; no, not even the best I ever saw; I mean, that which is given us in the creed commonly ascribed to Athanasius. I am far from saying, he who does not assent to this

"shall without doubt perish everlastingly." For the sake of that and another clause, I, for some time, scrupled subscribing to that creed; till I considered, (1.) That these sentences only relate to wilful, not involuntary, unbelievers; to those who, having all the means of knowing the truth, nevertheless obstinately reject it: (2.) That they relate only to the substance of the doctrine there delivered; not the philosophical illustrations of it.™ In spite of the fact that he himself used a range of philosophical terms that had come into the Christian tradition from ancient, extra-biblical sources (terms such as "substance," "nature," and so forth), Wesley seems to have viewed the use of (Hellenistic) philosophical conceptions as a sign of the church's decline from its original simplicity. He carefully screened out references in the Macarian literature to obviously Platonic teachings (the ruling powers of the soul, the five senses of the soul, and so forth). Such omissions reflect his resistance to unhelpful elaborations on the church's primitive, and simple, teachings.

: As mentioned briefly above, Wesley knew Arianism not only as an ancient heresy, but also as a contemporary option in Christian thought, since William Whiston and others had attempted to revive

Arian teachings. Wesley had studied the fourth-century controversies over Arianism, and realized that Arianism had prevailed so widely that Athanasius contra mundum ("Athanasius against the world") became a byword, and the fourth century was later styled the saeculum

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

arianum ("Arian century" or "age").°* He frequently condemned Arianism hand-in-hand with Socianism, but he did distinguish between the two: "For, whereas [Socinians] deny Christ to be any God at all, [Arians] do not, they only deny him to be the great God.""" But, as Wesley saw it, the distinction was finally meaningless:

An Arian is one who denies the Godhead of Christ; we scarce need say, the supreme, eternal Godhead; because there can be no God but the supreme, eternal God, unless we make two Gods, a great God, and a little one.

Wesley condemned, in strong terms, contemporary attempts to reintroduce Arian teachings." On the other hand, Wesley also condemned what he understood as Swedenborg's Sabellianism in even harsher terms, condemning it along with Arianism and Socinianism." In this instance, Wesley's use of ancient Christian sources conforms to conservative Anglican uses, in which trinitarian orthodoxy was a principal concern.

Wesley knew of ancient Christological teachings also, but wrote on them on relatively few occasions. In commenting on a contemporary work entitled The Glory of Christ as God-Man Unveiled, Wesley wrote:

I will not, dare not move those subtle, metaphysical controversies.

Arianism is not in question; it is Eutychianism—or Nestorianism. But what are they? What neither I nor any one else understands. But they are what tore the Eastern and Western Churches asunder.*?

The last sentence is genuinely puzzling: Wesley may have been thinking of the title of the Nestorian communion as "the Church of the East." If he was confused, he may have been thinking of the conflict between Constantinople and Alexandria in the fifth century (hardly

East and West), or perhaps the medieval controversies over the filioque clause. The passage as a whole suggests that Wesley regarded later ancient developments in christology in much the same manner as he regarded the ancient church's elaboration of Trinitarian teaching, namely, as unhelpful additions of philosophical conceptions to the simply-expressed teachings of the apostolic, and the early post-apostolic, church. In these cases, Wesley may be seen as diverging somewhat from the more conservative Anglican patterns according to which subscription to ancient creeds and conciliar canons was stressed.

There is, moreover, one aspect of the earlier Christological tradition with which Wesley seems to have had some difficulty. He omitted, with remarkable consistency, passages from the Ignatian epistles which vividly assert Jesus' real humanity, especially passages stating that Jesus was born "of the Race of David according to the Flesh."

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There can be no question that Wesley accepted the authenticity of these passages. He must have feared that their inclusion would lead believers toward heterodox opinions—perhaps towards Arianism or Socinianism. The omission of these passages is consistent with a general pattern in Wesley's christology, according to which he emphasized the divine nature of Christ (although, of course, he did acknowledge Christ's human nature).

In summary, then, Wesley held up the teachings of the ancient Christians, so far as they represented the purity of the apostolic faith, as standards to be affirmed and followed by the Methodists. The quotation from the edition of Fleury (above) indicates his belief that there was an oral tradition from the apostles maintained in the early church which gave its interpretations of scriptural teachings a special authority. This may be confirmed to some extent by the distinction between a public kerygma and secret dogmata drawn in Wesley's edition of Cave."

In this respect Wesley could maintain that the ancient church's teachings offered a significant complement to the authority of scriptural teachings. He reflected both the conservative Anglican tradition of using ancient writings in defence of the church's received doctrinal traditions, and some significant departures in that he was willing to see a few "heretical" groups (like the Montanists and Donatists) as representing the true faith.

A Vision of Christian Evangelization The Gospel for Modern Pagans Wesley's ministry of teaching was part of his more general ministry of evangelization, and in this too he turned to the patterns of ancient Christian communities as guidelines for the Methodist movement. In contrast to Anglican leaders who understood themselves as administering the Christian religion in an essentially Christian culture,

Wesley understood himself as proclaiming the gospel to a largely pagan culture, as the ancient Christians had done. As he thought of the ancient Roman world in which Christianity arose as "the most enlightened that ever it was, as well as the most corrupted," so he thought of his own world as enlightened and corrupted. In the words of one modern interpreter, Wesley's was the age of "the rise of modern paganism," and Wesley was well aware of the new "pagan" or "heathen" environment in which the church's mission had to be carried on.

Wesley's Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, for instance, asserts that, although many persons in England called themselves

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

Christians, they were in fact as pagan as the American natives whom Wesley had known in Georgia." His treatise on "The Doctrine of Original Sin" considers modern heathenism, "Mahometanism," and Christianity, and concludes that modern Christians (so-called) are little better, if at all, than heathens or "Mahometans."* Similarly, his sermon on "The General Spread of the Gospel" concludes that modern

Christians (again, so-called) are little better than Muslims and heathens, then describes the origin of Methodism as a means used by God for reforming the nominally Christian people of England." Here the Methodists' conflict with contemporary culture becomes explicit.

Wesley thought of the early Christians as constantly engaged in the work of proclaiming the gospel in this pagan environment, and of drawing converts into their societies." It is significant that although his 1736 manuscript translation of Fleury's Moeurs des Chrétiens represented the ancient Christians as refusing to speak of the gospel to any but the most attentive listeners, Wesley omitted these passages in his

1749 published edition of the work, after the evangelistic work of the Revival was underway."

Extraordinary Ministry Wesley distinguished between "ordinary" and "extraordinary" ministries in the ancient church (the distinct ministries of administering previously-established congregations and preaching the gospel in order to bring in new converts) and believed that the Methodists had an "extraordinary" ministry of proclaiming the gospel, in contrast to the "ordinary" ministry of the Anglican clergy. This peculiar calling,

Wesley argued, justified the Methodists' itinerant preaching, and their utilization of lay preachers. He stressed that Methodist lay preachers did not claim the "ordinary" ministry of the administration of the sacraments." Consistent with this defense of lay ministry, he omitted passages from Fleury representing the ancient Christians as refusing to speak of the gospel to any but the most attentive and least quarrelsome listeners, perhaps because he wanted to avoid giving the impression that the early Christians did not engage in the sort of widespread preaching that by 1749 had come to characterize the Methodist movement." Fleury's vision of the ancient church is thus distorted or skewed in such a way that it bolsters Wesley's new evangelistic vision.

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Persecution Wesley liked to draw a parallel between the persecution that the ancient Christians faced in their evangelistic task, and the "persecution" of the Methodists. He suggested this in a letter to William Dodd when he wrote, What the Donatists were I do not know. But I suspect they were the real Christians of that age, and were therefore served by St. Augustine and his warm adherents as the Methodists are now by their zealous adversaries.

His Journal abounds in stories of the persecution of the Methodists as they carried on their evangelistic task, and (as the previous chapter shows) Wesley's editions of the Apostolic Fathers, Cave, Fleury, Horneck, and Mosheim all depict the patience of the ancient Christians during the persecutions." Where the parallels were not explicitly drawn (as they were in the letter to Dodd), readers were left to draw their own conclusions.

Attestation by Miraculous Signs Wesley extended this parallelism by claiming for the Methodists the attestation by miraculous signs that had accompanied the ancient

Christians' evangelization, according to many ancient writers. He believed that the ancient church had a "standing power" to perform miracles, which accompanied, and attested the truth of, their proclamation of the gospel. His long public letter to Conyers Middleton focuses on the persistence of the miraculous powers in the ancient church, and shows that his concern was also for their revival in the Methodist movement."

Wesley knew of a number of specific miraculous "powers" claimed by the ancient Christians. Some idea of the variety of these miraculous gifts appears in the following passage, in which he listed the charismata of the apostolic age:

Hence we may observe, that the chief charismata, spiritual gifts, conferred on the apostolical church, were 1. Casting out devils: 2. Speaking with new tongues: 3. Escaping dangers, in which otherwise they must have perished: 4. Healing the sick: 5. Prophecy, foretelling things to come: 6. Visions: 7. Divine dreams: And, 8. Discerning of Spirits.

It may be noted that Wesley understood "Speaking with new tongues" to denote the miraculous gift of understanding human languages in order to assist in the propagation of the faith.°* Wesley also included

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references to healings, revelations and prophecies in his edition of the Macarian Homilies."

As noted above in the discussion of ancient heresies, Wesley came to have a high appreciation for Montanism. He regarded Montanism as a second-century resurgence of the miraculous powers described in the New Testament. Even in the "Letter to Conyers Middleton," where one might expect him to be more circumspect, he expressed his belief that the miraculous powers claimed by the Montanists (especially visions and prophecies) were none other than those claimed in the New Testament." A very clear approval of Montanism came a year after the "Letter to Conyers Middleton," in 1750:

By reflecting on an odd book which I had read in this journey, The General Delusion of Christians with Regard to Prophecy, | was convinced of what I had long suspected: (1) That the Montanists, in the second and third centuries, were real, scriptural Christians; and (2) That the grand reason why the miraculous gifts were so soon withdrawn, was not only that faith and holiness were wellnigh lost, but that dry, formal, orthodox men began even then to ridicule whatever gifts they had not themselves, and to decry them all as either madness or imposture.

Except for a letter of 1761, which might be construed as meaning that Wesley placed some distance between himself and the practices of the Montanists, his comments on Montanism after 1750, including a note appended to his edition of Mosheim and a separate tract on "The Real

Character of Montanus," regard the movement as a revival of the moral virtues and the miraculous gifts that characterized Christianity in the apostolic age."

Despite his view of Montanism as an isolated resurgence of the miraculous powers, however, he believed that these powers subsisted in the church at large in the second and third centuries. Just as Christ

"shewed that he came from God by his miracles," and as the miraculous gifts of the apostolic age were needed in order to convince the heathen of the truth of Christianity, so he believed that the miraculous powers continued to be used in the second and third centuries in the church's evangelistic task. He suggested that, for all the saints who are known from the first three centuries, there were far more who remain unkown. These, Wesley speculated, may have held miraculous powers for which there is but little evidence in the writings which have come down to us from those centuries." Wesley's edition of Mosheim is somewhat more guarded, but notes that the miraculous powers were known to have continued in the church at least in the second century."

Wesley consistently associated the decline of the miraculous powers in the early church (as well as the decline of morals) with the age of

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Constantine. The "Letter to Conyers Middleton" states frequently his belief that it was because of the waning of faith and morals among the ancient Christians that the miraculous powers declined:

You will naturally ask, "Why do you stop there? What reason can you give for this? If you allow miracles before the empire became

Christian, why not afterwards too?" I answer, Because "after the empire became Christian," (they are your words,) "a general corruption both of faith and morals infected the Christian Church; which, by that revolution, as St. Jerome says, 'lost as much of her virtue, as it had gained of wealth and power." (Page 123).

Wesley argued throughout the "Letter to Conyer Middleton" that "the generality of the Protestant Doctors" held that the miraculous powers ceased with the age of Constantine, and defended this position." Consistent with this conviction, he omitted from his edition of Cave an assertion that the miraculous powers continued "some considerable time after Constantine." A 1787 sermon on "The More Excellent

Way" reiterates his view that after Constantine had heaped riches upon the church, especially upon the clergy, the church became mostly heathen, and the miraculous powers all but ceased.®

Wesley made the parallels between the ancient and Methodist miracles quite explicit. His Journal is filled with reports of answers to prayer and "providences" such as the following,

I met with a fresh proof that "whatsoever ye ask, believing, ye shall receive." A middle-aged woman desired me to return thanks for her to God, who, as many witnesses then present testified, was a day or two before really distracted, and as such tied down in her bed. But upon prayer made for her, she was instantly relieved and restored to a sound mind."

Similarly, the Journal recounts miraculous conversions, healings, and deliverances from diabolical powers, which Wesley attributed to the interposition of God in the natural order." He explained,

I acknowledge that I have seen with my eyes, and heard with my ears, several things, which, to the best of my judgment, cannot be accounted for by the ordinary course of natural causes, and which, I therefore believe, ought to be "ascribed to the extraordinary interposition of God." If any man choose to style these miracles, I reclaim not.

Such claims made by the Methodists were the reason why Wesley devoted so much energy to refuting Middleton's thesis that the miraculous powers were needed only in the apostolic age. Even though Wesley acknowledged that the miraculous powers had waned in the fourth century, he could write: "Sir, we do not pretend the revival of [the miraculous powers], seeing we shall believe they never were intermitted, till you can prove the contrary."

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In spite of his frequent references to miraculous events, however, he tempered his appeals to them in two respects. First, in response to the demands of "John Smith" and others that he should produce. publicly witnessed miracles in order to substantiate his claims to inward, divine inspiration, Wesley responded that the Methodists did not need miracles as "proofs," since they proved their claims by Scripture, reason, and Christian antiquity." Second, he denied that he himself had any miraculous power, but claimed only to have witnessed miraculous events that he believed had occurred as answers to prayers."

A Vision of Christian Fellowship Christian Societies The Methodists' work of evangelization led to the incorporation of women and men into distinctively Methodist structures for Christian fellowship. Here again, in almost every case, Wesley called on ancient

Christianity for precedents or confirmations for Methodist institutions.

He conceived of the early Christian communities as "societies," sharing at least some of their possessions in common, and committed to the common task of evangelization. He understood the term

"societies" (or "conventicles") as rendering the Greek term hetairiai, which appears transliterated as hetaeriae in Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the punishment of Christians. This letter represents the hetaeriae, which could denote a variety of "trade guilds and social or political clubs," as forbidden by decree of Trajan."* The term would have presented, to Wesley's age, a much more intense image of Christian fellowship than the term "churches," which might have suggested parishes whose memberships were determined more by ancestral association than by voluntary commitment. Indeed, the Methodist societies did not require a profession of Christian faith for membership, but only "a desire 'to flee from the wrath to come, and be saved from their sins.'""" Since the Methodist societies were organized for persons seeking Christian faith, Wesley could see a parallel between them and the catechetical institutions of the ancient church, a parallel which would not have been as apparent in the Anglican (and more broadly Western Christian) practice of catechizing children at the point of confirmation.

John Wesley believed that the Methodists' use of class tickets to identify members of the societies paralleled the ancient church's use of commendatory letters. The "Plain Account of the People Called

Methodists" states,

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Those who bore these tickets (these symbola or tesserae, as the ancients termed them, being of just the same force with the epistolai systatikai, commendatory letters, mentioned by the Apostle,) wherever they came, were acknowledged by their brethren, and received with all cheerfulness.

Wesley had been familiar with the ancient commendatory epistles since his Oxford reading in Cave's Primitive Christianity, and he would have encountered references to this institution in his Georgia reading in Fleury's Moeurs des Chrétiens. It is possible, then, that Wesley's knowledge of the ancient custom, as well as the practical needs of the Methodist societies, led him to develop the practice of issuing class tickets.

Segregation of Penitents Wesley held that the Methodists' segregation of penitents from other persons in the societies paralleled the penitential discipline of the ancient church. His edition of Cave's Primitive Christianity closes with a quotation from the Prayer Book commination which noted the ancient penitential discipline, and urged that this discipline "might be restored again."" Similarly, Nathaniel Marshall's Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church, with which he had been familiar since his

Georgia days, suggested a program for restoring the ancient discipline in the Church of England.*? Wesley understood the Methodist

"penitent bands" as a restoration of the ancient discipline:

In prescribing hair-shirts and bodily austerities, we durst not follow even the ancient church; although we had unawares, both in dividing hoi pistoi, the believers, from the rest of the society, and in separating the penitents from them, and appointing a peculiar service for them.

Given Wesley's familiarity with Cave, Marshall, and other writers who had described the ancient discipline (and given the fact that he used the term "penitents") it is difficult to believe that he was wholly unaware of the ancient pattern when he established the Methodist penitent bands (as the introduction to the "Plain Account of the People

Called Methodists" had suggested).

Community of Possessions Wesley's edition of Fleury represents Christ and the Apostles as living "in common, as one family." Whether he thought the idea originated with Christ, or with the Jerusalem church (Acts 2:44-45),

Wesley believed that a community of possessions characterized the

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Christian societies in their earliest centuries. His edition of Cave states that Constantine returned the possessions of the churches because he recognized that the Christians were known to have had other Possessions [besides their church buildings] which were not the Propriety of any single Person, but belong to the whole Body and Community.

His edition of Horneck represents the earliest Christians as sharing their possessions with each other, and depicts later Christians as giving at least the first fruits of their lands for the church's ministries to the sick, the poor, captives, and others in need. Similarly, Wesley thought of ancient "ecclesiastical revenues," even in later centuries, as "sacred to God and to the poor."™ He thus imagined the possessions held in common by the ancient Christians as declining through the early centuries.

John Wesley held up this distinctive ancient precedent as a pattern for the Methodists' common ownership of property. His intentions are revealed in a passage from John Bennett's copy of the Minutes of the Annual Conference of 1744. The question was posed, "What are the Rules of the Select Societies?" Wesley responded, according to Bennett's notes, that they are the same as the rules for the bands, with the addition of three rules, the third of which was, "Every member, till we can have all things common, will bring once a week, bona fide, all he can spare towards a common stock."® Just as Wesley conceived of the possessions held in common by the ancient Christians as dwindling through the years, so, this passage suggests, Wesley intended to build a "common stock" until at least the members of the select societies could "have all things common."

Common Works of Charity Wesley believed that the corporate charitable enterprises sponsored by the Methodists paralleled the charitable enterprises of the ancient Christian church. In particular, he saw the Methodist "Visitors of the Sick" as corresponding to the ancient deacons and deaconesses, and the "widows" who administered the Methodist Poor House as corresponding to the "widows" of the ancient church.

The institutions of the Methodist fellowship described here represent the most distinctive formal structures of the movement in its earliest decades. Considered innovative and threatening by many of his peers, the evangelist labored to justify their development. In doing so he linked them to the structures of the ancient church and in this way they were understood as embodying the religious ideal or vision of

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Christian community which he believed to have been realized in the earliest centuries.

A Vision of Christian Polity So long as the Methodists remained within the Anglican communion, Wesley did not have to deal directly with questions of church polity. He believed, evidently to the end of his life, that the Church of England was "the best constituted National Church in the world," and he forbade his followers in England from separating from the Established Church." When in 1784, however, he felt it necessary to constitute the American Methodists as a church distinct from the Anglican communion, he had to deal directly with the question of church polity.

The crucial issue that faced him was the issue that had faced the framers and defenders of Anglican polity from the time of the Reformation, through the age of Richard Hooker, up until Wesley's own day. The issue was that of episcopacy. And just as Anglicans such as Hooker and Ussher had scoured the resources of Christian antiquity in their attempts to define an episcopal polity, so Wesley turned to Christian antiquity to find a pattern for his own church polity.

Orders of Ministry In the first place, Wesley was aware of a variety of ministerial and religious orders in the ancient church. He distinguished the "extraordinary" ministry of those who preached and propagated the faith from the "ordinary" ministry of those who maintained the church's order and doctrine, and who administered the sacraments.

His edition of Mosheim includes a passage distinguishing the "Extraordinary Teachers" who were needed to establish the church, and whom Mosheim identified with the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples, from "ordinary ministers" who enforced and maintained the doctrine taught by the former.*® Wesley's sermon on "Prophets and Priests" (or "The Ministerial Office") suggests a similar distinction, although it does not limit the "extraordinary" ministers to the apostolic age, as Mosheim had done. In fact, "Prophets and Priests" makes a distinction between "extraordinary" and "ordinary" prophets in the Old Testament, then suggests that the early church reflected a similar distinction between the office of apostles and "evangelists," those authorized "to proclaim glad tidings to all the world," and the office of "Pastor or Bishop," consisting of those authorized "to build up in the faith the congregations that should be

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

He reckoned that the extraordinary ministry of "evangelists" continued in the church until the age of Constantine, when ministerial functions were consolidated in the office of bishop,

"in order to engross the whole pay."" Because he elsewhere included presbyters and deacons in the same general category with bishops, one must presume that he also thought of presbyters, deacons, and other subordinate clergy as falling under the "ordinary" ministry."

Episcopacy and the Power of Ordination Anglican studies of the ancient church had focused on the episcopacy, since Anglicans had to defend their own form of church polity against both Puritans and Roman Catholics. John Wesley reflected a similar, conservative attitude toward the ancient episcopate for many years. As late as 27 December 1745 he wrote to his brother-in-law

Westley Hall these words:

We believe it would not be right for us to administer either Baptism or the Lord's Supper unless we had a commission so to do from those bishops whom we apprehend to be in a succession from the apostles.

And yet we allow these bishops are the successors of those who were dependent on the Bishop of Rome."

Here Wesley affirmed his belief in the apostolic succession of bishops in such a manner as to question the validity of sacraments administered by clergy not ordained by bishops in that succession. He had expressed the same view in conversations with Spangenberg in Georgia." Up until this point, then, his view of episcopacy (and of the power of ordination) coincided with that of the conservative

"Caroline" theologians of the seventeenth century.

Soon after his letter to Westley Hall, however, Wesley's conceptions of the ancient episcopate began to change. His Journal for 20

January 1746 records the following:

I set out for Bristol. On the road I read over Lord King's Account of the Primitive Church. In spite of the vehement prejudice of my education,

I was ready to believe that this was a fair and impartial draught; but, if so, it would follow that bishops and presbyters are (essentially) of one order, and that originally every Christian congregation was a church independent on all others.

Lord Chancellor Peter King's Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church (1712) aimed at a church polity that would comprehend Dissenters as well as Anglicans. As Wesley's Journal states, King's work asserted that in the ancient church bishops and presbyters were of the same order (ordo), although bishops were a higher "degree" (gradus) of presbyters. King's treatise

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suggested that presbyters had the same inherent right to ordain as bishops did, although it maintained that the ancient presbyters did not exercise this right because of their subordination to the episcopacy."

Sometime within the decade following his reading of King (that is, sometime before 1756), Wesley read Edward Stillingfleet's Irenicum.

Stillingfleet also argued that presbyters had an inherent right to ordain, and went further than King in asserting that ancient presbyters did in fact exercise this right in cases of necessity. Stillingfleet cited the precedent of the ancient church of Alexandria, where (according to Jerome) bishops were elected and ordained by the presbyters, without the assistance of other bishops."

Wesley came to hold opinions on the ancient episcopate similar to the opinions of the Latitudinarians King and Stillingfleet. He continued to believe in a succession of Christian ministers from the apostles through the bishops of the church, but he denied that this was an "uninterrupted" succession. The apostles had chosen bishops to succeed them in various sees, including the see of Rome; but the Roman succession was interrupted at various points." He came to regard bishops and presbyters as being of the same order, as King and Stillingfleet argued they had been in antiquity. His edition of Mosheim includes a passage suggesting that "bishop" came to be used in the first century as a term to denote the presbyter chosen to lead the congregation."® Wesley continued to affirm the propriety of episcopal church polity, but not as a fundamental or necessary point of church order:

As to my own judgment, I still believe "the Episcopal form of church government to be scriptural and apostolical." I mean, well agreeing with the practice and the writings of the apostles. But that it is prescribed in Scripture, I do not believe. This opinion, which I once zealously espoused, I have been heartily ashamed of since I read Bishop

Stillingfleet's 'Trenicon.' I think he has unanswerably proved, that 'neither Christ nor his Apostles prescribed any particular form of church government'; and that the plea of divine right for diocesan

Episcopacy was never heard of in the primitive church.

As this and others of his writings show, Wesley's conceptions of the office of bishop in the ancient church had changed markedly in the 1740s and 1750s.

This change in Wesley's views of the early Christian episcopate led to a corresponding change in his conception of early Christian ordination. Whereas he had previously believed that only episcopal ordinations were valid, he came to believe that presbyters had the same right as bishops to ordain. He continued to believe that bishops usually performed ordinations in the ancient church, but he held that

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

presbyters could ordain in cases of necessity. Correspondingly, he came to recognize the ministerial orders of non-episcopal churches."

An implication of his new outlook was that Wesley himself had the right or power, as a presbyter, to ordain. Wesley wrote to his brother Charles in 1780, Read Bishop Stillingfleet's Irenicon or any impartial history of the ancient church, and I believe you will think as I do. I verily believe I have as good a right to ordain, as to administer the Lord's supper.

But I see abundance of reasons why I should not use that right, unless I was turned out of the Church. At present, we are just in our place.

But four years later, Wesley's hesitation was at an end. He justified his actions in ordaining Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as elders, and in consecrating Thomas Coke as "general superintendent," in the following paragraphs from his letter "to Our Brethren in America":

2. Lord King's Account of the Primitive Church convinced me many years ago that bishops and presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the same right to ordain. For many years I have been importuned from time to time to exercise this right by ordaining part of our traveling preachers. But I have still refused, not only for peace' sake, but because I was determined as little as possible to violate the established order of the National Church to which I belonged.

3. But the cause is widely different between England and North America. Here there are bishops who have a legal jurisdiction: in America there are none, neither any parish ministers. So that for some hundred miles together there is none either to baptize or to administer the Lord's supper. Here, therefore, my scruples are at an end; and I conceive myself at full liberty, as I violate no order and invade no man's right by appointing and sending labourers into the harvest.'?

Wesley found himself in an extraordinary position, an extraordinary position he believed to be like those positions in which the ancient presbyters would have exercised their right to ordain; and so Wesley ordained. The Methodists became committed thereby to their own form of "ordinary" ministry in addition to the "extraordinary" ministry which was their most distinctive note.

Wesley must have discussed with Thomas Coke his reasons for his decision to ordain. Coke and Francis Asbury published a version of the Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with notes defending Methodist beliefs and practices. In their defence of episcopal polity, they wrote:

St. Jerome, who was as strong an advacate for episcopacy as perhaps any in the primitive church, informs us, that in the church of Alexandria (which was, in ancient times, one of the most respectable of the churches) the college of presbyters not only elected a bishop, on the

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decease of the former, but consecrated him by the imposition of their own hands solely, from the time of St. Mark, their first bishop, to the time of Dionysius, which was a space of about two hundred years: and the College of presbyters in ancient times answered to our general conference.!%

The understanding of episcopacy given here (and the reverence to the Alexandrian precedent) corresponds to Wesley's understanding of the episcopate, especially to that understanding of the episcopate given by Stillingfleet, who also appealed to the Alexandrian precedent. Thus, shocking as Wesley's ordinations were to Anglicans (including his brother Charles), they were consistent with the vision of ancient

Christianity that he had come to hold.

Presbyters Wesley recognized the ancient office of presbyter or elder. He knew that the term "priest" could be used for this office, and did use it in his 1736 manuscript edition of Fleury, but his printed edition of the work omits the term or substitutes "minister" for it."* His edition of Cave describes the ancient presbyters as having the right to preach, to consecrate the eucharist, to baptize, and to assist the bishop, although it notes that presbyters did not usually administer the sacraments or preach without the authority of the bishop of the diocese.'™ As the preceding account has shown, he came to believe that the ancient presbyters were regarded as having an inherent power to ordain, even though they only performed ordinations in cases of necessity. His edition of Horneck's "Letter to a Person of Quality" states that the early

Christians regarded their ministers as their spiritual parents, expected their ministers to admonish and punish them, and had complete confidence in their ministers' use of the church's treasury in supporting the poor.'

One may distinguish some peculiarities in Wesley's treatment of various accounts describing the degree of respect and obedience paid to the clergy of the ancient church. He omitted, for example, passages from Cave elaborating upon the high honor in which bishops in particular and clergy in general were held in the ancient church.'" Even more notable is the consistent manner in which Wesley omitted passages from the Ignatian epistles which enjoin subjection to the presbyters or the bishops. Wesley omitted passages, for example, asserting that the faithful Christian "is subject unto his bishop as to the Grace of God, and to the Presbytery as to the Law of Jesus Christ" or asserting that to disobey the bishop means to disobey God. There are at least nineteen omissions of this kind of material in his edition of the Igna-

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

tian correspondence.'™ Because these passages appear so consistently in the ancient literature, Wesley can hardly have thought of them as incorrectly representing early Christian attitudes towards the clergy. It is more likely, then, that he feared that these passages might be misunderstood by his followers, or used to his disadvantage by his opponents (for example, by insisting that Wesley himself should be obedient to the bishops of his own age). In this case, as in others, Wesley's distortion (by omission) of the ancient text reflects the conditions of conflict between the Methodists and conservative Anglican culture.

Subordinate Ministerial Offices John Wesley was aware of a number of subordinate offices in the ancient church, among which were deacons, "widows" and deaconesses, and such auxiliary offices as door-keepers, acolytes, and subdeacons. He especially associated deacons with the duties of ministry to the poor and the sick, and distributing the eucharistic elements to them. The edition of Cave asserts that deacons were authorized to preach and to baptize under certain circumstances.'" He regarded the deaconesses or "widows" of the ancient church as having sirnilar functions, that is, to carry out the church's ministries to the sick and needy, and held up their model as a precedent for the Methodists'

"widows" who worked with the poor. He also believed that the ancient deaconesses were required to assist in the baptism of women."®

Wesley's editions of Mosheim and Cave agree in depicting the early Christian communities as employing the faithful in such roles as doorkeepers (ostiarii), subdeacons, acolytes, readers, and exorcists, from at least the third century."

A Vision of Christian Worship Both as a religious society within the Church of England and as an independent church, the Methodist discipline focused at many points on worship in the Christian community. Wesley insisted that the Methodists followed ancient Christian worship practices, and believed that they had been called to restore or revive some ancient practices, such as the love-feast and vigils.

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Baptism Wesley's editions of works concerning ancient Christianity tell more about ancient baptismal practices than about ancient beliefs conceming the nature or efficacy of the sacrament. His editions note that sprinkling might have been allowed in the early church, but uniformly represent trine immersion as the normative, ancient mode of baptism for adults and infants alike. These editions mention the use of deaconesses to assist in the baptism of women." Likewise, they represent infant baptism as having been the custom of the early church. Wesley regarded adult baptism as the sign of admission into the number of the faithful and the culmination of the catechetical process for adult believers. He believed that the ancient Christians appointed sponsors for infants who were to be baptized, and that the responsibilities of these sponsors were ".. . to watch over those souls in a peculiar manner, to instruct, admonish, exhort, and build them up in the faith once delivered to the saints."""

His version of Cave's and Mosheim's works on early Christianity suggest some further details that he may have associated with baptism in the ancient church. They note that baptisms were usually performed at Easter and Pentecost, and involved the use of the sign of the cross, anointing, and the imposition of the hands of the bishop and the presbytery. Cave elaborated on the white garments given to newly baptized persons as a sign of their new purity in Christ.' Wesley included a passage from Cave noting the persistence of the "Novatianist

Principle" of postponing baptism until the article of death, but also noted that early Christian writers did not approve of this practice. He omitted from Cave a passage asserting that some (heretical) early

Christian groups performed vicarious baptisms on the behalf of the dead.'

John Wesley's views of Christian antiquity appear to have influenced his own use of two practices associated with the rite of baptism: the use of baptismal sponsors, and the use of the sign of the cross in baptism. In his "Serious Thoughts concerning Godfathers and Godmothers," Wesley approved of the use of baptismal sponsors, citing his belief noted above that as the ancient baptismal sponsors were committed to the spiritual oversight of minors whom they sponsored, so godfathers and godmothers should concern themselves with the spiritual well-being of their godchildren."* As to the other practice, it is interesting to note that Wesley consistently omitted references to the sign of the cross (in his works after 1737), except in the case of baptism. Some copies of the first edition of Wesley's Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America (1784) have a rubric instructing the elder to make the sign of the cross on the forehead of persons immediately

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after their baptism, and gives a prayer to accompany the signing. The second edition of the work (1786), however, omits this rubric and the prayer accompanying it,""" but it is unclear whether Wesley himself or another early Methodist had come to question the practice.

The Eucharist Although Wesley, and the works he edited, give numerous details of ancient eucharistic practice, they indicate little of the ancient Christians' understandings of the significance of the eucharist."* Although his edition of Mosheim notes that there was considerable variety in the rituals of the early church, this and other works which Wesley edited describe a general pattern for the ancient eucharistic observation, based upon the description given in Justin Martyr's Apology and amplified from other sources. These depict the service as having two parts: a preliminary service of prayer, singing, and other acts of worship, which ended with the dismissal of the catechumens (hence this part of the service is referred to as the missa catechumenorum), and the eucharistic service proper, including exposition of the Old and New

Testament scriptures, episcopal consecration of the eucharistic elements, the distribution of the elements by the deacons, and the blessing or dismissal of the faithful (thus, this second part of the service is referred to as the missa fidelium)." Wesley acknowledged that water was mixed with wine in the ancient eucharistic observance, and that the consecrated elements were reserved so that they could be carried to the sick by the deacons."

The works Wesley edited, especially that of Cave, suggest more detailed nuances of his conceptions of ancient eucharistic practice. The edition of Cave asserts that in the earliest times the Christians received the sacrament daily, and in later times received it every Sunday."

This can be seen as enforcing the Methodist discipline, since according to the "General Rules" attendance at the eucharist was expected of all members of the societies.'* Although he included Cave's assertion that at first all Christians (including penitents and energumens) partook of the eucharist, he omitted Cave's statement that later only the faithful were admitted. His editions of both Cave and Mosheim represent the sacrament as having been administered to baptized infants.

Reflecting a fear of Catholic traditions, he omitted from Cave passages relating how the early Christians would carry about the eucharistic elements, or reserve consecrated elements in their homes, and Wesley omitted Cave's use of the expression "Sacrament of the Altar."

"THE WHOLE CHURCH IN THE PUREST AGES"

The Lord's Day and the Sabbath Wesley believed that the early Christians observed the first day of every week in honor of the resurrection as "the Lord's Day," the appointed day when the Christians gathered for prayer and worship.'

He omitted from Cave a reference to the early Christians' practice of praying standing on the Lord's Day; a practice which he had accepted while under the influence of the Separatist Non-Jurors.' He included from Mosheim, but omitted from Cave, passages asserting that the early Christians in some localities continued to observe the Sabbath as well as the Lord's Day.'"" Again, observance of the Lord's day was required by the "General Rules," so that the vision of the ancient observance enforced the Methodist discipline at this point.'¥

In the case of these observances—the Lord's Day, frequent communion, and the use of baptismal sponsors—Wesley may be seen as conforming to the more conventional Anglican culture of his day, however unusual frequent communion may have been (it had been stressed by the Caroline divines). The Anglican liturgy was in fact one of the points at which Wesley held his church to be most in harmony with the apostolic and primitive church. Thus his complex vision of ancient Christianity included certain points that would uphold elements of his own culture. In other points, Wesley's vision offered new and more challenging patterns.

Love Feasts John Wesley believed that the ancient Christians regularly held a communal meal either before or after the eucharist. At this common meal, termed the agape or "love-feast," rich and poor sat down at table together.'" His edition of Mosheim takes this as a special sign of the equality with which the early Christians regarded each other, and maintains that the love-feasts were suspended in the fifth century,

"amidst the decline of that piety which rendered them useful."""° Wesley saw the Methodists' celebration of the love-feast as a revival of this ancient Christian communal meal. His comment on the rite in the "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" is as follows,

I desired that, one evening in a quarter, all the men in band, on a second, all the women, would meet; and on a third, both men and women together; that we might together "eat bread," as the ancient

Christians did, "with gladness and singleness of heart." At these love-feasts (so we termed them, retaining the name, as well as the thing, which was in use from the beginning), our food is only a little plain cake and water.' a7

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

This particular passage is important, because it makes it explicit that in this case, at least, one of the institutions discussed in the "Plain Account" was intentionally patterned after the early church, and not merely confirmed after its institution by its conformity to ancient

Christian practice.

Vigils Wesley believed that the early Christians sometimes spent entire nights in prayer and celebration. His edition of Horneck refers to these occasions as vigils, and his own writings refer to them as "watchnights."'*? He held up the ancient practice of observing vigils as a ground for his approval of "watch-nights" among the Methodists. The practice of spending entire nights in prayer began among the Methodists at the Kingswood School. When someone asked Wesley to forbid the practice, he refused, since "upon weighing the thing thoroughly, and comparing it to the practice of the ancient Christians," he wrote, "I could see no cause to forbid it."

Fasts John Wesley recognized two types of corporate fasts in ancient Christianity. The ancient Christians, he believed, observed the Wednesday and Friday of every week as days of fasting and prayer.

This first sort of fasts could be referred to as "stations," "stationary fasts," or "half-fasts" (semijejuniae), since the weekly fasts were observed only until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.)™* The second type of fast

Wesley recognized in the ancient church was the annual, or Lenten, fast. Wesley believed that the ancient Christians observed the forty days of Lent by vigils, fasting until the twelfth hour (6:00 p.m.) every day, and prayer.'* Although Wesley included a passage from Horneck's "Letter to a Person of Quality" asserting that a Christian could be recognized by his lean visage, due to his frequent fasting, Wesley omitted from the same work a sentence describing how the early

Christians "emaciated" themselves by fasting and other austerities.!* Long after his experience in Oxford and Georgia, Wesley continued to hold up the ancient church's observation of Wednesday and Friday fasts as a practice to be followed by the Methodists. The "Large

Minutes" suggest observing a fast on Friday mornings, and John Bennett's copy of the minutes of the 1748 Annual Conference records an instruction to lay assistants, that they should fast every Friday until

3:00 p.m." The "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" notes

"THE WHOLE CHURCH IN THE PUREST AGES"

that the societies met every Friday during "the dinner hour,""8 and thus they probably omitted the noon meal on that day of the week.

His sermon on the "Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity," written in 1789 (two years before his death) recalls the Oxford Methodists' strict observance of the Wednesday and Friday fasts, and laments the waning of this discipline among the Methodists."

In the cases of the love feast, vigils, and stationary fasts, Wesley's appeals to Christian antiquity conform to the programmatic use of Christianity. These practices were not maintained in Wesley's culture

(that is, in his Anglican upbringing; the Moravians had reinstituted a love feast), and his vision of the early church inspired him and the early Methodists to reinstitute them.

Festivals Wesley also knew of the annual festivals observed by the ancient Christians, especially Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany. Although he was aware of ancient differences over the date of Easter, he did not think them significant, and suggested that the apostles themselves may have differed over the date of the paschal festival. His editions state that the Holy Week, or octave of Easter, was observed in ancient times as a period of particularly strict fasting. He omitted a passage from Cave representing the ancient Christians as holding a vigil through the night before Easter.'*° He editions recognize the earlyChristian observation of Epiphany as the annual festival of Christ's manifestation to the world; but although Wesley included a passage from Mosheim discussing ancient disputes over the date of Christ's nativity, Wesley omitted a similar passage from Cave."

Wesley believed that the early Christians also observed the anniversaries of Christian martyrdoms as days for public prayer. He acknowledged that in the second or third century the eucharist was offered up on behalf of the martyrs, but he felt that this was an abuse of the sacrament.'* His edition of Mosheim states that in the fourth century the commemorations of the Christian martyrs grew in extravagance and became an occasion for the "indulgence of sinful passions." He omitted from the "Martyrdoms" of Ignatius and Polycarp several passages relating how the early Christians venerated these saints as martyrs and observed the anniversaries of their martyrdoms.'#

Although there is no evidence that Wesley stressed the annual commemoration of the martyrs or confessors, two entries in his Journal in the 1770s indicate that he held up the annual festivals observed in

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

the ancient church as patterns to be emulated among the Methodists.

For Christmas Day, 1774, he wrote:

During the twelve festival days we had the Lord's Supper daily; a little emblem of the Primitive Church. May we be followers of them in all things, as they were of Christ!!"

Similarly, for the festival of the resurrection in 1777, he wrote:

Sun. 30.-Easter Day was a solemn and comfortable day, wherein God was remarkably present with His people. During the Octave I administered the Lord's Supper every morning, after the example of the Primitive Church."

These passages are important, since they indicate that Wesley's early interests in ancient liturgical practices had not completely died away in his later life.'"

Individual and Family Devotions Wesley believed that the early Christians worshipped as individuals and families. He thought that the Jerusalem church observed the third, sixth, and ninth hours of each day, according to Jewish custom, as times of prayer in the Temple, and that individual Christians continued to observe these hours through the third century." His edition of Horneck represents individuals in the early church (laity and clergy) as knowing the Scriptures by heart, even though they did not possess books.'"' His editions of Horneck and Cave agree in portraying early Christian families as gathering for prayer at meals and at other times.""° Although parallels may not have been explicitly drawn, readers of these editions would have found in their vision of early

Christianity support for the Methodists' stress on family and private prayer and scripture study.

In his attempt to link the nascent Methodist movement with "the whole Church in the purest ages," Wesley had followed an idealized vision of ancient Christianity which inspired his ministry of teaching, his practices of evangelization, the institutions he developed for the Methodist fellowship, the church polity which he eventually fostered, and the patterns of worship which he encouraged the Methodists to follow. There was in all of this a certain sense of discovery and excitement: something lost and precious had been found, and the glories of past ages were paralleled in the triumphs of the new evangelistic

"THE WHOLE CHURCH IN THE PUREST AGES"

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CONCLUSION

The cumulative force of the teachings and institutions supported by Wesley (discussed in the last two chapters) should not be missed.

Even in his more subtle changes, it is clear that a new cultural matrix was being formed: "priests" had become "elders" or "ministers," the sign of the cross was quietly omitted, and the discipline of the love feast replaced eucharistic discipline. Add to these the less subtle changes, and the force is very strong indeed: presbyters had the right to ordain without bishops, "societies" became central in communal life, religious experience became the focus of evangelistic outreach, and General Councils could be dismissed as "trivial." Altogether, these changes from the culture Wesley had inherited indicate a significant departure from the Catholic and Anglican past, and yet in his enterprise of culture change Wesley appealed to the vision of Christian antiquity.

Previous studies of Wesley's uses of ancient Christian sources have usually attempted to demonstrate his Catholic or Anglican leanings. To refer significantly to_ ancient doctrines or practices was in_ itself a reflection of the Catholic past.and_an indication of Wesley's

— alignment with conservative Anglicanism—at least, so the argument — "yan. The grain of truth in this claim is that when Wesley is compared to other Evangelicals of his age (like Howell Harris or George

Whitefield), and especially to later British and North American Evangelicals, he comes off appearing relatively "catholic" in comparison.

?And theré Wére, indeed, many cases in which which Wesley utilized "ancient Christian sources as Catholics and conservative Anglicans

| before him had done.

Held up against the broad background of options in his own age, however, Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity suggests quite a different perspective. In the first place, Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity itself diverged in significant respects from the image of the

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

ancient church handed down by Catholic and Anglican authors. In the second place, his uses of this vision as often challenged Catholic and Anglican beliefs and practices as they upheld them. If anything, this suggests that Wesley stands as a kind of bridge between the older medieval and Reformation traditions and the newer Evangelical traditions which were diverging from the older patterns in Wesley's day.

A Synopsis of Wesley's Uses of Christian Antiquity The two previous chapters have described and illustrated a variety of ways in which John Wesley expressed and tried to live out his vision of Christian antiquity. We may now consider Wesley's own uses of Christian antiquity in specific comparison to the uses (and configurations of uses) of Christian antiquity that were outlined in chapter two.

To recall the distinctions, "polemical" uses of Christian antiquity called upon early Christian customs or teachings in order to refute the practices or beliefs of the polemicist's opponents. Some Christians of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries (Thomas

Cartwright, Jean Daillé, the "Tew Circle" in England) used Christian antiquity solely in this manner.

"Conservative" uses of Christian antiquity called upon a vision of Christian antiquity in order to defend customs and teachings of an established church. Anglicans, Gallicans, and Ultramontane Catholics used Christian antiquity in this manner in order to defend institutions such as the episcopacy, and teachings such as the Constantinopolitan doctrine of the Trinity, which, though they did not have explicit warrants in scripture, were seen nevertheless as developments not contradictory to the biblical faith. Typically, those who used some aspects of Christian antiquity in an apologetic manner to defend their own customs and teachings would also use other aspects of Christian antiquity in a polemical manner to refute their opponents' practices and beliefs.

"Programmatic" uses of Christian antiquity called upon a vision of Christian antiquity to find patterns for customs, beliefs, or even virtues which some desired to see restored to the Christianity of their age. Non-Jurors, Latitudinarians, Deists, Pietists, and persons intent on moral reform appealed to Christianity in this manner in Wesley's age. Those who used Christian antiquity in a programmatic manner in order to restore ancient Christian customs, beliefs, or moral standards, also used Christian antiquity in an apologetic manner in order to defend what they perceived as rightly instituted beliefs and practices in

CONCLUSION

their own churches, and in a polemical manner in order to refute their opponents' beliefs and practices.

Our study of John Wesley's appeal to the vision of Christian antiquity shows that his uses conform to the third of our three typical configurations. He utilized his vision of Christian antiquity in a polemical manner in order to refute his opponents, in a conservative manner in order to defend certain Anglican customs and teachings, and in a distinctively programmatic manner in order to restore certain ancient customs, beliefs and moral standards which he felt to be desirable for the church in his age. Specific instances can be related of each of these characteristic uses.

Polemical Uses of Christian Antiquity. John Wesley did use Christian antiquity on several occasions in what could be termed a polemical manner. He published lengthy citations of patristic sources against Roman Catholic teachings and practices in the "Roman

Catechism," even though it was not his own composition. He cited Augustine and Chrysostom against the doctrine of predestination.

These citations must be considered polemical uses of Christian antiquity, since he did not defend his own, particular views by calling upon these sources, but used them only to refute his opponents' teachings. Similarly, many of his sporadic or incidental references to ancient Christian writers (tabulated in Appendix Two) reflect polemical uses of Christian antiquity.

Conservative Uses of Christian Antiquity. Wesley also used his vision of Christian antiquity in a culturally conservative manner, in order to defend certain Anglican teachings and practices. Just as conservative Anglicans of Wesley's age had defended their church's affirmation of the Nicene (or, more accurately, the Constantinopolitan) doctrine of the Trinity against the challenges of Neo-Arianism,

Socinianism, and Deism, so Wesley affirmed the Nicene Creed, including the filiogue clause, and the teachings of the Athanasian

Creed.

Similarly, Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity could serve to. uphold certain Anglican. practices as well as teachings. He defended the Anglican episcopacy, and what he supposed to be its succession from the apostles, by appeal te to patristi ic precedents; at | least, that is, until the 1740s, when his conceptions of the ancient episcopate changed. His general defence of Anglican liturgical traditions shows his affirmation of practices he believed to be consistent with ancient

Christian practices.

Programmatic Uses of Christian Antiquity. The distinction between culturally "conservative" and "programmatic" uses of Christian antiquity is not a dichotomy; it is, rather, a continuum

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

between two points. It is a continuum because patterns of belief and practice once accepted fall into desuetude, new patterns replace the old, and often the new patterns become culturally "orthodox" themselves. The use of Christian antiquity as a pattern for the episcopate provides an example of this complex of uses. Conservative

Anglicans prior to Wesley had called upon the resources of Christian antiquity, especially the Ignatian epistles, to defend the Anglican episcopate. John Wesley himself reflected this conservative use of "Christian antiquity in his discussions with Spangenberg in Georgia, and in his correspondence through the early 1740s. The shift in Wesley's vision of the ancient episcopate in 1744 led to a corresponding shift in his use of those conceptions. After 1744, Wesley used his vision of Christian antiquity in a programmatic manner that challenged Anglican views of the episcopacy. In 1784, he called upon his conceptions Of the anciént Christian episcopate to justify the bold step of his ordinations of Whatcoat and Vasey, and his consecration of Thomas Coke. By 1784, however, when Coke and Asbury appealed to the precedent of the Alexandrian church to defend the Methodist episcopate, the cycle had come full round, and their use of Christian antiquity was culturally conservative, in defense of an established church institution. Wesley, then, had a spectrum of uses of Christian antiquity, ranging from those in which conceptions of Christian antiquity were called upon to confirm certain aspects of the Methodist program, to those in which conceptions of Christian antiquity served as intentional patterns for Methodist beliefs and practices.

In some cases, Wesley used Christian antiquity in order to confirm beliefs or practices which the Methodists had espoused in addition to Anglican beliefs and practices. These uses may be considered

"programmatic" insofar as they uphold beliefs or practices differing from those of contemporary Anglican culture. Wesley explicitly stated this confirmatory use of Christian antiquity in the introduction to his

"Plain Account of the People Called Methodists," where he claimed that Methodist institutions developed in order to meet immediate needs, but were found later to conform to ancient Christian institutions. The Methodist societies and watchnights are depicted in this work as having been designed to meet particular needs, and then later having been found to correspond to the form of the ancient Christian hetaeriae and vigils. The account above shows how Wesley's assertion that the Methodist movement was attested by miraculous signs, his pointing out how the Methodists had been persecuted, and his defence of Montanism and Donatism (in the light of accusations that the Methodists had revived both of these ancient heresies) all tended to

CONCLUSION

confirm Wesley's belief that the Methodist movement represented a revival of primitive Christian religion.

A wider group of Wesley's uses of Christian antiquity can also be considered programmatic in that they uphold Methodist teachings or practices differing from Anglican teachings and practices, although in many of these cases Wesley did not give enough information in order to determine whether he merely called upon Christian antiquity to defend beliefs and practices already instituted among the Methodists, or whether he actually utilized these conceptions as a pattern to be followed by the Methodists, or both. An example would be Wesley's appeal to the ancient Christian practice of commendatory epistles (in the "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists") to justify the Methodists' use of class tickets. Although the introduction to the "Plain Account" asserts that the institutions depicted in the work were not designed to imitate ancient Christian practices, it is certain that Wesley was aware of the ancient practice of commendatory epistles from his reading in Cave and Fleury. Although Wesley did in fact design some of the institutions mentioned in the "Plain Account" after ancient Christian institutions (despite what he says in the introduction), there is not enough evidence to determine whether Wesley consciously designed the use of class tickets after the pattern of the ancient commendatory epistles, or only found the practice later to conform to the ancient practice.

Similarly, there is not sufficient evidence to determine the extent to which Wesley's conceptions of Christian antiquity actually n molded the views Wesley" advocated with respect to religious experience, faith as "assurance," "and sin in, and the repentance of, believers. In each of these cases, it is possible that Wesley's early studies in Christian antiquity may have formed the views he espoused. But in each of these cases it is also possible that Wesley came to his views by way of a number of different sources (Anglican devotionalism, Puritanism,

Catholic mysticism, Pietism, and others), and then later called upon ancient Christian views to defend those views.

In other cases, Wesley's uses of Christian antiquity can be demonstrated to have intentionally called upon ancient Christian customs and beliefs as patterns which Wesley wanted to see reinstituted by the Methodists. In these cases we may speak straightforwardly of the direct influence of ancient Christian beliefs and practices on Wesley. Wesley's decision to ordain, as mentioned above, stemmed from his acknowledgement that the ancient presbyters had the right to ordain. Several other Methodist institutions appear to derive, likewise, from Wesley's deliberate imitation of ancient Christian practices.

Among these institutions were the following: penitent bands

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

(imitating the ancient discipline of penitents by segregation from the community); visitors of the sick (following the ancient use of deacons and deaconesses to visit the sick); lovefeasts (following the ancient agapai); weekly fasts (following the ancient stationary fasts); and annual celebrations (following the ancient observances of Epiphany and Lent). Although the Moravians may have served as a medium for Wesley's knowledge of the lovefeast, he was familiar with the institution since his Oxford reading in Cave. One may also include in this category Wesley's intention to develop a common stock of goods among the Methodists, even though this intention did not come to fruition. In this category we should also place Wesley's understanding of the role of godfathers and godmothers (following the ancient baptismal sponsors as represented by Tertullian), since, although the Anglicans did use godfathers and godmothers, Wesley's understanding of their roles as spiritual counselors to the baptized stands in contrast to contemporary Anglican understandings of their role.

Most prominently, Wesley's uses of Christian antiquity as a vision for the individual Christian life must be seen as programmatic uses.

Wesley acknowledged, in his "Letter to Conyers Middleton," in his "Letter to a Roman Catholic," and in later letters explaining his intention in writing "The Character of a Methodist," that he held up the ancient Christians as patterns to be imitated by the women and men of his own age. For church practices, Christian antiquity might be invoked initially as a programmatic pattern, but after those practices were instituted, it would be invoked as an apologetic authority. For individuals, however, the ancient examples were constantly needed as models. Thus Wesley consistently used the resources of Christian antiquity in illustrating the nature and order of religious experience, and in describing the life of virtue to which he believed Christians were called.

In refuting his opponents, in upholding what he believed to be proper Anglican beliefs and practices, and in seeking to change particular aspects of the culture of his age, John Wesley's uses of Christian antiquity were complex indeed, and varied, but conform in general to the programmatic configuration of uses of Christian antiquity that others in his culture had espoused.

Wesley's Uses of Christian Antiquity as Religious Authority Wesley's conservative and programmatic appeals to the vision of Christian antiquity indicate tha ded Christian antiquity as having a certain degree of authority for Christian belief and ractice.

CONCLUSION

The authority of tradition had. become a critical cultural issue bythe | end of the seventeenth century! On _the one hand), the tendency of sci- "entific and rationalistic thought was to reject tradition as an insufficient ground of human knowledge, especially when compared with observation or reflection. On the other hand, even the most radical advocates of Enlightenment thought appealed, as we have seen, to their vision of classical antiquity.

A spectrum of views on the authority of Christian antiquity emerged in the late seventeenth century. More Radical Protestaiits tended to reject the use of Christian antiquity as an unnecessary ad-_ junct to scripture. Anglicans and Gallicans had appealed to the "objective" content of ancient Christian tradition against the "active" tradition represented by the Roman papacy, although they used Christian antiquity in support of the "active" traditions of their own communions.' A wide variety of persons and groups intent on Christian reform (Jansenists, Latitudinarians, persons intent on moral reform, and others) had called upon Christian antiquity in opposition to the established church orders of even Anglicanism and Gallicanism.

Wesley's own uses of Christian antiquity had a similar, programmatic concern, although Wesley did use his conceptions of Christian antiquity in some culturally conservative Ways. difit ts Wesley explicitly referred to Christian antiquity as "authority, and spoke of Christian antiquity in connection with other sources of religious authority. For instance, he appealed to "Scripture, reason, and Christian antiquity" in the preface to the collected edition of his

Works, and to scripture, the primitive church, and the Church of England in his sermon "On Laying the Foundation of the New Chapel, near the City Road, London."' Similarly, when pressed by those who wanted the Methodists to separate from the Church of England in 1789, Wesley wrote, 1. From a child I was taught to love and reverence the Scriptures, the oracles of God; and, next to these, to esteem the primitive Fathers, the writers of the first three centuries. Next after the primitive church, I esteemed our own, the Church of England, as the most scriptural national church in the world. I therefore not only assented to all the doctrines, but observed all the rubric in the Liturgy; and that with all possible exactness, even at the peril of my life.

2. In this judgement, and with this spirit, I went to America, strongly attached to the Bible, the primitive church, and the Church of England... .In this spirit I returned .. .*

The significance of Christian antiquity as a religious authority for John Wesley, then, should be seen in relation to his views of other sources of religious authority.

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

Wesley's personal memoir which is generally dated from early 1738 indicates his recognition that, prior to 1737, he had erred in regarding Christian antiquity as a" i /.__rather—than—a "subordinate" rule with scripture.' Wesley's writings after 1737 indicate that he regarded scripture as having a normative authority over _that of Christian antiquity and any other source of religious authority.

/ Scripture could correct even the consensus of ancient Christian opinion; and thus Wesley could regard Montanists and Donatists as representing "scriptural" Christianity in their ages, even though the consensus of ancient Christian teachings had condemned. them as heretics.® Given this view of scriptural authority, the critical questions

"with respect to Wesley's views of Christian antiquity are the questions why, if at all, Wesley ascribed a certain religious authority to ancient

Christianity, and just what authority he ascribed thereto.

Chapter Three above shows that, after 1737, Wesley's emphasis shifted from an emphasis upon the consensus of ancient Christian teaching and practice (so strikingly illustrated by the quotations from the extant parts of Wesley's "Essay upon the Stationary Fasts") to an emphasis upon the purity of ancient Christianity, especially its moral purity. It is true that Wesley appealed to the life of "the whole church in the purest ages"' (with particular reference to ancient Christianity), and so it must not be denied that he continued to regard the church's unity in antiquity as a particular sign of its virtue; but after 1737 it was often in the context of descriptions of the ancient church's virtue that Wesley mentioned its unity.® Wesley's "Letter to Conyers Middleton" states that it was the exceptional virtue of the ancient Christians that made them less susceptible to doctrinal errors.'

What effective authority, then, distinct from the authority of scripture, did John Wesley ascribe to Christian antiquity? Several instances may be noted. In the first place, he ascribed a special authority to ancient Christian authors as interpreters of scripture. As mentioned above, Wesley felt that their special authority was due to the exceptional merit of the ancient Christians, and perhaps due to a direct oral tradition of interpretation from the apostles." An example of this use

'of Christian antiquity would be Wesley's response to Bishop Smalbroke in the Farther Appeal, where Wesley cited Jerome, Augustine,

Chrysostom, and Athanasius in favor of his own interpretation of passages in Romans and I Corinthians."

A second manner in which Wesley called upon Christian antiquity as a religious authority in addition to the authority of scripture was by appealing to the life of the ancient church and the lives of ancient

Christians in order to illustrate what Wesley believed to be scriptural teachings, practices, and standards of morality. Thus Wesley's poem

CONCLUSION

"Primitive Christianity" depicts the life of the ancient church as illustrating scriptural virtues of unity and faithfulness, and Wesley's editions of Horneck and Fleury depict the essentially scriptural virtues of individual Christians in the ancient church."

A third instance of the authority Wesley ascribed to Christian antiquity is in the suggestions of Christian practices and teachings which Wesley held to be "well agreeing with" the scriptures, though

"not prescribed" in scripture.' In these cases, Wesley appealed to Christian antiquity not so much to interpret obscure passages of scripture as to authorize practices or teachings about which scripture was simply silent. Wesley could argue that, although these practices and teachings were not prescribed in scripture (and thus were not to be required of Christians), they were nevertheless shown to be truly

Christian by their use in the ancient church. Examples of this use of Christian antiquity as a religious authority would be Wesley's approval of episcopal church government and his suggestion of observing Wednesday and Friday fasts, both of which he held to accord with ancient Christian customs, but neither of which he held to be positively prescribed in the Bible."

A fourth respect in which Wesley ascribed a particular religious authority to Christian antiquity is in his appeal to ancient Christian teachings or practices to confirm teachings or practices the Methodists had taken up. Wesley's "Plain Account of the People Called

Methodists" provides the prime example of this appeal to the authority of Christian antiquity. In this document, he indicated that many of the distinctive Methodist institutions arose out of the circumstances in which the Methodists found themselves, and then were found (in retrospect) to conform to ancient Christian institutions. For example,

'Wesley stated in the "Plain Account" that the Methodist societies arose out of the desire of individual persons to follow divine grace, and were found later to conform to the catechetical institutions of the ancient church." He took this confirmation by ancient patterns as a special sign of the rightness of Methodist institutions and practices, especially in cases where those institutions had been called into question by Anglican leaders. In these cases, as noted above, what were at one time programmatic appeals to Christian antiquity eventually became conservative appeals, as practices once novel became customary among the Methodists.

In summary, then, Wesley did ascribe an authority to Christian antiquity, not as replacing in any sense the authority of scripture, but as faithfully interpreting and illustrating scriptural truths, and as faithfully suggesting and confirming Christian teachings and practices not specifically enjoined in scripture.

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

This authority, "subordinate" to Biblical authority, parallels in some respects the authority that Wesley ascribed to the Church of England. He spoke of "the whole Church in the purest ages" on one occasion, and then named "the primitive church" and "the Church of England" as instances thereof.'* Wesley maintained that the Church of England conformed to both scriptural and primitive Christian precedents: the Church of England was not only "the most scriptural national church in the world,""" but followed the primitive church "in most points.""* It would appear that by "the Church of England"

Wesley had in mind the affirmation of the constitutional documents (Articles, Homilies, Prayer Book) of the Church more than its present governors. It was the Church of England "as appears from all her authentic records, from the uniform tenor of her Liturgy, and from numberless passages in the Homilies,""" and elsewhere defined as that body of people, nominally united, which profess to uphold the doctrine contained in the Articles and Homilies, and to use Baptism, the Lord's Supper and Public Prayer, according to the Common

Prayer Book."

He expressed reservations, however, about adding a clause entailing submission to the present governors of the church to this definition."

In fact, Wesley could cite "the Church of England" against Anglican leaders of his own age, as he did (citing the Articles and Homilies) in his Farther Appeal, Part I. Wesley thus appealed to the "objective tradition" of the Church of England against the "active tradition" represented by contemporary Anglican church leadership. In this respect, especially, his appeal to the Anglican tradition bears a close parallel to his culturally programmatic appeal to Christian antiquity.

Seen from the perspective of his own culture's views of religious authority, then, Wesley's conceptions of the authority of Christian antiquity were delimited by the following criteria: a) on the one hand, he ascribed a certain authority to Christian antiquity in addition to the authority of scripture, and thus he should not be classed among those more radical Protestants who rejected the use of Christian antiquity as a religious authority; and b) on the other hand, he appealed to Christian antiquity as "objective tradition" often in contention with the "active tradition" represented by the Church of England in his age, and thus he should not be classed with those Catholics (both Gallican and Ultramontane) and Anglicans who in one way or another appealed to Christian antiquity most characteristically in defence of their own active traditions. Wesley's understanding of the authority of Christian antiquity conforms most nearly to that of late seventeeenthcentury and early eighteenth-century Christians intent on church re-

CONCLUSION

form and renewal who appealed to the ancient church as a model or paradigm for church renewal in their own age.

Some Broader Issues These conclusions are relevant to some of the broader issues in the field of Wesley studies. We may now observe how a study of Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity is relevant to the specific issues of Wesley's church-party loyalties, of Wesley's radicalism, and of Wesley's place within the Christian tradition.

Wesley's Church-Party Loyalties For the last century Wesley studies have been dominated by a concern to identify Wesley's loyalties among the various parties in the Christendom of his age. A series of monographic studies was initiated in the late nineteenth century over the question of Wesley's "HighChurch" as opposed to "Protestant" leanings. Interpreters who wanted to demonstrate Wesley's Anglican and Catholic loyalties tended to stress the years of Wesley's life in Epworth, London, and Oxford, as a formative period in which his church-party loyalties developed. Interpreters who wanted to show Wesley's connections with either Magisterial or Pietistic Protestantism tended to stress the Georgia encounter and the subsequent Aldersgate Street experience as the watershed from which Wesley's mature theological views developed.

Further studies explored Wesley's connections with Puritanism, Roman Catholic mysticism, and the Radical Reformation." Insofar as this work focuses on Wesley's relationship to a particular aspect of the Christian tradition (Christian antiquity), it follows the pattern of these earlier monographic studies. It does not, however, attempt to demonstrate that Wesley's principal loyalty lay with any one of these particular parties, but tries to show the complexities of Wesley's relationships to each of them, as indeed some more recent works in the field of Wesley studies have done."

Fidelity to Christian antiquity was a crucial religious issue in Wesley's age, and the various parties of Christendom held distinctive conceptions of Christian antiquity and employed those conceptions in distinctive manners. Neither Wesley's conceptions nor his uses of Christian antiquity conforms precisely to the patterns maintained by any one of these parties. While it is the case that Wesley's early conceptions and uses of Christian antiquity conform to those of the Manchester Non-Jurors to whom he was attached, this cannot of itself

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

identify him with "High Church" loyalties, as some nineteenth-century interpreters thought." Although the Non-Jurors were understood to be precursors of Oxford Movement High Churchmanship by these interpreters, the Non-Jurors to whom Wesley was attached were a peculiar sect (the Manchester group), as shown by their fondness for the Baptist William Whiston. Despite the Manchester Non-Jurors' keen interests in the ancient liturgies, they did not conform to nineteenthcentury conceptions of High Churchmanship. And most importantly,

Wesley repudiated their views in 1737.

On the other hand, what Wesley repudiated in 1737 was not the vision of Christian antiquity as a pattern for community or individual life, but certain particular conceptions of Christian antiquity, especially those grounded in the Apostolic Canons and Apostolic Constitutions, stressed by the Manchester Non-Jurors." Although his conceptions of Christian antiquity may have changed after 1737, his programmatic uses continued. In some respects, for instance in his use of the Macarian homilies, Wesley's conceptions and uses of Christian antiquity after 1737 conform to the Pietists' conceptions and uses of Christian antiquity. In other respects, for example in his continued stress on the stationary fasts and the observation of Lent and Easter according to ancient Christian precedents, his views and uses differed even from those of the Pietists.

Our study of Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity suggests more the particularity of Wesley's relationships to various church parties than his clear identification with any one of them. The conventional view that Wesley was "actually a High Churchman," and that his use of ancient Christian sources demonstrates his High-Church inclinations, comprehends neither the complexity of attitudes towards

Christian antiquity in Wesley's day, nor the significant shifts that occurred in Wesley's own vision of Christian antiquity. Wesley was, it should be argued, a very unique Evangelical who had an unusual commitment to Christian tradition (especially ancient tradition), and he therefore remains as a challenge (and hopefully a resource) to Evangelicals, who too often in the past have jettisoned Christian tradition as irrelevant to the on-going lives of individual Christians and to the life of the Christian community.

Wesley's Radicalism In recent decades, efforts have been made to appropriate certain aspects of Wesley's life and thought which have been found relevant to contemporary Christian movements for social and cultural transformation. Wesley has been examined by Liberation theologians, who

ee NY RUPRIWA Harts 0) (550 CONCLUSION have pointed out his identification with the poor, and his communalistic intentions." Theologically conservative Wesleyans have also found in John Wesley a precedent for Christian approaches to social and cultural reform." Making a case for Wesley's radicalism is not a uniformly easy task, however, given Wesley's conservative attitudes towards political events and towards the Enlightenment.

Our study of Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity, however, does show a sense in which Wesley can be considered a cultural

"radical." Wesley's was a radicalism that challenged his cultural inheritance by appeal to its own distinctively Christian roots (its radices).

Wesley's communalism, for instance, was grounded in his conviction that the "primitive" Christians had practiced a community of possessions that flowed from their love for one another. The challenge that Wesley's communalism lay before his own culture lay in his claim that his culture's attachment to possessions and commitment to surplus accumulation were a degradation of its own best roots. This is the case, not only with respect to Wesley's communialistic intentions, but with many of the ancient Christian beliefs and practices and ideals of virtue which he wanted to see restored to the church.

Wesley's Place in the Christian Tradition The issues of Wesley's church-party loyalties and of his radicalism are both embraced by a larger issue that is perhaps the constitutive issue, at least of the historical component, of Wesley studies, namely, the issue of Wesley's place in the Christian tradition." The issue of Wesley's church-party loyalties examines but one aspect of the larger issue, that is, Wesley's relationships to the various parties which represented various strands of the Christian tradition in Wesley's age and place. Where can we place Wesley within the scope of the Christian tradition in such a way as to account for his relationships to his own

Anglican tradition and to the other Christian traditions to which he was exposed? The issue of Wesley's radicalism also examines an aspect of the larger issue, namely, Wesley's radical challenge to the nominally Christian culture of his age. Where can we place Wesley within the Christian tradition in such a way as to account for both his conservative reaction against Enlightenment thought and his own radical critique of a nominally Christian society?

Consider other Christian leaders who have held idealistic visions of the Christian past and who have attempted to bring about reform or renewal in the church based on their visions. Early Christian monasticism, for example, appealed to the example of Jesus (as an ascetic) and to a vision of the church during the age of persecution in their efforts

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

to renew the Christian community." The early Franciscans appealed to their distinctive vision of the "poor Christ," and their vision of the poverty of the early Christian community, in their own efforts to follow a radical Christian lifestyle.' The Anabaptists of the sixteenth century (who may have indirectly influenced Wesley) held pre-Constantinian Christianity to be a heroic age in which believers held their possessions in common." Finally, the Pietists, who directly influenced

Wesley, developed a conception of ideal Christianity blended from the New Testament and the early post-apostolic church, as the second section of Spener's Pia Desideria shows."

Both Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity as an age in which an ideal of Christian corporate and individual life was realized and his uses of this vision to challenge the nominally Christian cultural patterns of his age place him within a genus that includes the leaders of other Christian renewal movements who held structurally similar conceptions of the Christian ideal as realized in a particular time in the past (the apostolic age, perhaps extending into the early Christian centuries), and who used their conceptions in order to challenge their own nominally Christian cultures. Seen from the perspective of the Christian tradition as a whole, and from the perspective of his own attitudes toward that tradition, Wesley "fits" in the genus of distinctively Christian renewal movements.

But within this genus Wesley's conceptions and uses of Christian antiquity suggest some differentiae specificae that distinguish his intentions for Christian renewal from the intentions of other leaders of renewal movements. The first and principal differentia specifica which distinguishes Christian renewal movements one from another is the particular cultural context within which, and, to some extent, against which, each has operated. Wesley's movement was distinguished by its development within the particular Anglican culture of the early eighteenth century in the context of which it arose. But beyond this principal differentia, Wesley's intentions for Christian renewal may be distinguished by some more particular differentiae, some of which the present study has pointed out. Wesley's conceptions of Christian antiquity, for example, are distinguished by his growing recognition of corruptions within the pre-Constantinian church, a recognition which I have yet to find in Anabaptist or Pietist descriptions of the pre-Constantinian church. Wesley's uses of Christian antiquity, to take a further example, are distinguished from others' uses of Christian antiquity by Wesley's conservative uses of Christian antiquity to defend such a traditional Anglican practice as the Friday fast. Our research has tentatively suggested that examinations of Wesley's conceptions and uses of scriptural Christianity and the faith of the English Refor-

CONCLUSION

mation might point to further evidence of both his identification within the genus of leaders of Christian renewal movements, and of the particular manners in which his intentions for church renewal differed from those of other leaders of Christian renewal movements.

Although conventional interpretations of John Wesley have focused on his relationships to the Christian parties of his age, some of Wesley's interpreters, especially those who have had the opportunity to see him from the perspective of the broad sweep of Christian history, have in fact placed Wesley's movement within the genus of Christian renewal movements. The Anglican historian Henry

Wakefield, in the context of a general history of the Church of England, referred to Wesley as "the St. Francis of the eighteenth century."* Similarly, Herbert Brook Workman, a Methodist historian whose principal area of research was ancient and medieval asceticism, drew a series of parallels between Wesley's movement and early monasticism, Franciscanism, and the Society of Jesus.* The Roman

Catholic scholar Maximin Piette concluded his study of John Wesley in the Evolution of Protestantism by pointing out parallels between Wesley and St. Benedict, St. Dominic, St. Francis, and Ignatius Loyola." Finally, the Lutheran historian Martin Schmidt summarized one chapter of his theological biography of Wesley in these terms,

John Wesley introduced into the main stream of history the attempt to make the spiritual impetus of primitive Christianity fruitful for the present by giving it an appropriate external form. This tradition extended from the coenobitic monasticism of the Eastern Church, through the whole of Western monasticism, to the Waldensians,

Hussites, Anabaptists, and from them to the Pietists and their precursors in the mystical spiritualists. In each case the ideal was understood somewhat differently, and so the attempts were always tackled in different ways."

Our research substantiates these observations by pointing to more particular parallels between Wesley's conceptions and uses of Christian antiquity and the manners in which leaders of other Christian renewal movements conceived of, and used their visions of, the Christian ideal.

This placement of Wesley within the Christian tradition may illuminate the issues of Wesley's church-party loyalties and of Wesley's radicalism. It suggests that Anglicanism provided for Wesley both the immediate cultural context out of which his movement arose, and a source for his conceptions of the Christian ideal. It suggests, further, that scripture (and, above all, Christ) provided the basis for Wesley's conception of the Christian ideal, and that ancient Christianity provided for Wesley powerful conceptions of that ideal as realized (and thus realizable!) in the church.

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

Our placement of Wesley within the general range of leaders of Christian renewal movements goes some way, in the second place, towards explaining Wesley's "radicalism." Wesley does fit a certain pattern of Christian radicalism. It is not the radicalism of Origen or of Immanuel Kant, whose radicalism lay in their attempts to test the credibility of Christianity in the light of cultural and ideological patterns external to Christianity (for Origen, the inheritance of Platonic thought; for Kant, the thought of the Enlightenment). Rather, Wesley's was more like the radicalism of Francis of Assisi or of Philipp Jakob

Spener, whose radicalism lay in their critique of contemporary Christianity by questioning its appropriateness to the apostolic faith itself.

Towards an Explanation Is it at all possible to explain why Wesley should have taken up an idealized vision of Christian antiquity, and why he should have appealed to this particular vision as the basis for his challenge to English religious culture? Historical explanations are always partial—always, if you will, educated guesses—but in this case some elements of an explanation can be offered.

Why John Wesley himself should have become a visionary in the first place will have to remain unexplained, at least here. Perhaps his genius grew out of the harsh contrast between the material poverty of his family's life and their rich educational, cultural, and religious heritage. Perhaps it grew more from his parents' own senses of religious vocation. For whatever reason, we must take it for granted that John

Wesley emerged early in life with a consistent sense of the failure of contemporary Christianity and with a correspondingly visionary sense of the possibilities for reform or renewal.

Taking it for granted, then, that John Wesley was to seek to change English religious culture, the question (one which we are far better qualified to answer) becomes, why did he take up the particular vision that guided him? In some respect, the answer must be that by certain historical accidents he encountered first the Manchester Non-Jurors, with their distinctive understanding of ancient Christianity, and then the Salzburger and Moravian Pietists who were in Georgia, whose vision of ancient Christianity forced him to rethink his vision of the primitive church. Wesley then took up his particular vision of Christian antiquity as a result of his encounters with these earlier views, and by his own further reflection on them.

But we may also seek a somewhat broader explanation than this.

The leader of a movement for culture change, religious or not, must

CONCLUSION

have a guiding vision, what anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace calls the "cultural mazeway" by which persons live, and which is reformulated by leaders of cultural revitalization movements.* Within the various alternative sources for a guiding vision (for example, Wallace mentions "cargo cults" which import cultural visions from another culture), only two appear with some regularity in Christian history, namely, the vision of an apocalyptic end to history seen as imminently arriving, or the vision of a golden age in the Christian past whose purity is to be renewed or revived. The apocalyptic vision, however, had been discredited in the sixteenth century by the activities of the Anabaptist groups associate with Thomas Miinzer and the Peasants Revolt, then by the tragic circumstances of the siege of Miinster. In seventeenth-century England, moreover, apocalyptic hopes had again been discredited by the failure of the Cromwellian Revolution and the plethora of millenarian sects it engendered. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, apocalyptic visions were not a serious option for culture change. Although Johann Albrecht Bengel and John Wesley speculated on the second advent of Christ, they agreed in placing their speculative date well beyond their own deaths.

The failure of apocalyptic vision, then, left eighteenth-century Christian visionaries with the quest for a golden age in the past, and this concurred well with what we have already described as the eighteenth century's passion for "classical revival" of various forms. For the most radical Protestants, this might mean return to the vision of the church in the New Testament age alone. But at this point Wesley's

Anglican heritage became critical, since most Anglicans had not perceived the stark break in Christian history at the end of the "apostolic age" that more radical Protestants had posited. What one might expect, then, of a distinctively Anglican visionary would be a vision of New Testament Christianity in continuity with the church of the earliest centuries, but a vision that nevertheless stood as a clear challenge to contemporary Anglicanism. Our researches into Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity have shown him to have held just such a vision.

John Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity, then, emerged not only as a result of his encounters with Manchester Non-Jurors and Continental Pietists, but also from the particular circumstances of his development as a visionary leader within a particular religious tradition that had stressed the continuity of ancient Christianity with the faith of the apostolic age. Wesley, we might say, was a distinctively

Anglican religious visionary.

JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

Not far from the magnificent structure of St. Paul's Cathedral, past Aldersgate Street and across Bunhill Fields, on City Road, there is a small chapel, the floor-plan of which resembles that of the most ancient Christian churches, even as they were conceived in the eighteenth century. It is nearly square, with two rows of columns running from front to back, dividing its area roughly into thirds. In the front of it is a semicircular apse within which an altar was located, and on whose wall the sanctus is inscribed.

Just outside this eighteenth-century basilica, past altar and apse, is a tomb, the beginning of whose inscription" reads as follows:

To the Memory of

THE VENERABLE JOHN WESLEY, A.M.

Late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.

This GREAT LIGHT arose (by the Singular Providence of God) To Enlighten THESE NATIONS and to revive, enforce, and defend The Pure Apostolical DOCTRINES and PRACTICES of

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH

Appendix 1 Transcript of Wesley's Manuscript "Of the Weekly Fasts of the Church" (ca. 1732-1734)

The following is a transcription of a manuscript found in Wesley's' third Georgia Diary (which covers the period from 12 February 1737 through 31 August 1737). This manuscript was begun in a book later reversed and used for the Georgia Diary. Its binding suggests that it was purchased and bound in 1732. A list of John Wesley's purchases of (blank) books shows that one of five volumes, numbered 11-15, was purchased for the writing of a "Genesis." Elsewhere Wesley indicated

(probably in 1732) that he intended to write a "Genesis on Fasting."

The third Georgia Diary has the number "11" in the inside back cover—where the present manuscript begins. This manuscript therefore most probably dates from the period 1732-1734, when Wesley was under the influence of the Separatist Non-Jurors, and was engaged in the writing of his "Essay on the Stationary Fasts," part of which Thomas Deacon included in A Compleat Collection of Devotions.

This manuscript is in all likelihood an earlier draft of that essay.

The essay which John Wesley began in this manuscript is incomplete. Judging from the outline he gave in its second paragraph, the manuscript contains only the first of two (or possibly three; the third is underlined, perhaps for omission) intended parts of the essay. The portion given bears relevance because Wesley's intention in it was to demonstrate that all particular Christian communions are obligated to follow the customs of the universal church, especially (as appears from the substance of the essay) its customs expressed by the church in its supposedly undivided, primitive state. Almost all of this manuscript after the first sentence of the third paragraph is a fairly direct translation from a Latin comment on I Corinthians 11:16 in Bishop William Beveridge's Thesaurus Theologicus (given in volume 10 of Beveridge's works in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology edition, pp. 473-489). The Thesaurus is a systematic treatment of theology

APPENDIX 1

rl ari based on selected scripture passages, and the passage treated in this comment falls under the heading "On Ecclesiastical Rites."

In this transcription I have followed as closely as possible Wesley's spelling and punctuation. The manuscript includes numerous revisions, which are given either in superscript characters or on the facing page and indicated by a carat. I have included the revisions in brackets, but I have not included portions which Wesley scored through. I have placed in italics some other passages that appear underlined in the manuscript, and it is unclear whether Wesley intended for them to be simply underlined or struck out; in fact the latter seems likely.

Of the Weekly Fasts of the Church By the Church I here mean, The Catholick Church, or, The Whole

Body of Christians, united in Christ their Head; By the Weekly Fasts of this Church, the Wednesday and Friday of each Week, which were

[antiently] observed as such by All its Members: What I propose to enquire concerning These, is Whether the observing them Now, be the Duty of its present Members or no.

In order to this, it will be abundantly sufficient to examine, First, Whether it be Our Duty to obey the Antient Injunctions of the Catholic

Church, Secondly, Whether the Church did injoin these Fasts, Thirdly, Whether this injunction binds Us.

First, We are to examine, Whether [it be Our Duty to obey] the Antient Injunctions of the Catholic Church bind its members now militant.* "The [one] Catholic Church, as we may observe, consist's of All the Particular Churches which have ever been constituted from the time of our Lord's Passion, and not of Those only which subsist together at Any One Period of Time. All those Churches which constitute the One Universal, have always agreed in the Articles of Faith;

But as for Rites, Some have been Peculiar to Particular Churches, Some Common to All. The Rites Peculiar to Any Particular Church may be either retained or abrogated by that Church: as they may either be admitted or rejected by Others. For they receive their whole Power of binding from That Church, by whose Authority they are established.

But the Rites of the Church Universal, ought to be observed by All Particular Churches. For it is not in the Power of Any Particular

Church, to reject what is establisht by the Church Universal. By so doing, it would become schismatical, disjoining itself from the Body of Christ."

np A "This may be [fully] prov'd [without going any further than] By [sic] those words of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 11.16, If any man be contentious, we have no such Custom, neither the Churches of GOD. (The Church, some copies have it, which is the same thing, seeing All the Churches put together make up the One.) When the Apostle writ This, Some men were endeavoring to introduce a New Rite into the Church of Corinth. Against the Admission of this he uses several Arguments, the last and Chief whereof is This; We have no Such Custom, neither the Churches of GOD; as if he had said, That which is contrary to the Custom of All Other Churches, Ought not to be received in that of Corinth. But That is contrary to the Custom of All Other Churches: Therefore This Ought not to be received in that of Corinth."

"If the Church of Corinth was not obliged to observe the Customs [How much more the Injunctions] of the Catholic Church, the Apostle's Argument is of no force. But that it is of force, there can be no question, seeing it was dictated to him by the Spirit of GOD: so that here is no possibility of Fallacy; and consequently, we have the Utmost Assurance, that every Particular Church, is obliged to conform to Every Custom, which is injoined by the Church Universal. If Any do's not, it may be convicted of Error and Schism, by this Infallible

Argument. Since GOD himself dictated this to the Apostle, it necessarily follow's, That it is the Will of GOD, That all Particular Churches observe the Customs [and much more the Injunctions] of the Universal Church; And that we should have this Argument taught by himself, ready upon all occasions, to determine Every Controversy."

"Accordingly, by This, the Christians of All, but especially the Earliest Ages, have determin'd Every Controversy. Whenever any

Dispute arose, concerning any Custom of a Particular Church, the Appeal was ever made to the Custom of the Church Universal, and according to That, sentence past. To bring only One Instance. The Primitive Church was long divided concerning the time of celebrating

Easter. The Church of Asia, observing it, like the Jews, on the 14th day of the Month, whether it were Sunday or no. But all the other

Churches kept it on the Sunday following that day. The Point was at length refer'd to the General Council at Nice, where it was prov'd, that All the Churches, beside that of Asia, had been accustom'd to celebrate the Feast on Sunday. And for this reason (foutou heneken) All the Fathers there assembled, determined, That the Asian Church should keep it on the same Day. Whence it appears that These Holy Men used the same Argument against the Church of Asia, which S. Paul had done against that of Corinth: Which S. Cyprian uses against Novatian,

S. Augustine against the Donatists, and Epiphanius against All

APPENDIX 1

Hereticks and Schismatics of all kinds; by which he proves All those to be without Excuse, who either in Doctrine or Discipline had departed from the Catholic Church."

follows on this head is translated from Bishop Beveridge.

Appendix 2 References to Ancient Christian Works In John Wesley's Works The following list of references to patristic authors and works in John Wesley's works is based principally on my own study of key works by John Wesley (such as his "Letter to Conyers Middleton") in which patristic references are likely to occur, and on a careful study of the indices to major editions of Wesley's works (Jackson, Telford,

Sugden, Curnock, etc.). The list is organized according to patristic author and patristic work. The second line of each entry gives the 'locus of the reference in John Wesley's works, with volume number and pagination in a printed edition given in parentheses. For the sake of space, I haved had to use the following abbreviations in this list for Wesley's works:

AC "An Address to the Clergy"

AF Wesley's edition of the Apostolic Fathers (preface) DPF "A Dialogue between a Predestinarian and his Friend"

FA A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion LCM "A Letter to the Reverend Dr. Conyers Middleton"

LRDH "A Letter to the Reverend Dr. Horne"

PPCC "Popery Calmly Considered"

RC "A Roman Catechism, with a Reply Thereto"

STGG "Serious Thoughts on Godfathers and Godmothers"

TN "Thoughts on Necessity"

Other abbreviations utilized in this list are explained in the list of abbreviations for the work as a whole.

Apostolic Constitutions (General Reference) LCM II:9 (Jackson 10:28)

APPENDIX 2

ee Arnobius Adversus Nationes LCM [C]:13 Jackson 10:13) LCM 1:14 (Jackson 10:23) Athanasian Creed Journal 1750/08/17 (Jackson 3:30, Curnock 3:491)

Sermons 55:3 (Jackson 6:200; Outler 2:377) Athanasius Contra Arianos FA:V:22 (Jackson 8:99) (General Reference) Letters 1738/01/02 (Telford 1:367) (unidentified) Sermons 55:5 (Jackson 6:201; Outler 2:379)

Athenagoras Legatio LCM IV:IV:12 (Jackson 10:51) Augustine Confessions Sermons 103:II:4 (Jackson 7:170; Outler 3:459)

Letters 1781/04/12 (Telford 7:58) Sermons 3:II:5 (Jackson 5:29, Sugden 1:76; Outler 1:148)

Sermons 37:28-29 (Jackson 5:475-476, Sugden 2:100; Outler 2:57) Sermons 67:26 (Jackson 6:323; Outler 2:548)

Sermons 51:1:5 (Jackson 6:138, Sugden 2:466; Outler 2:285) Letters 1745/12/30 (Jackson 12267, Telford 2:60)

Letters 1746/06/25 (Jackson 12:37, Telford 2:70-71) Contra Adamantium RC, Qu. 63 (Jackson 10:118-119) Contra Petil.

RC, QU 6 (Jackson 10:90-91) De Fide et Symbolo RC, Qu 47 (Jackson 10;111) De Sermone Domini in Monte RC, Qu. 12 (Jackson 10:93) De Unitate Ecclesiae RC, Qu. 13 (Jackson 10:94) Epistola ad Januarium

APPENDIX 2

RC, Qu. 52 (Jackson 10:113) Epistles RC, Qu. 63 (Jackson 10:113) Quaestiones Evangelicae RC, Qu. 25 (Jackson 10:100-101) Sermons Sermons 63:12 (Jackson 6:281; Outler 2:490)

Sermons 85:III:7 (Jackson 6:513; Outler 3:208) (General References) Journal 1746/03/09 (Jackson 2:9, Curnock 3:236)

AC I:2 (Jackson 10:256) DPF (Jackson 10:256) Letters 1729/12/19 (Jackson 12:1) Letters 1756/03/12 (Telford 3:170-171) Letters 1775/08/18 (Telford 6:175) LRDH 3 (Jackson 9:113, Telford 4:176, Cragg 454)

Sermons 68:9 (Jackson 6:328-329; Outler 2:556) TN IV:1 (Jackson 10:469) (Unidentified References) PPCC IV:1 (jackson 10:149) PPCC IV:10 (Jackson 10:154) Barnabas (Pseudo-) Epistle LCM I:06 (Jackson 10:19) Basil (General References) AC I:2 (Jackson 10:424) Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586)

Chrysostom In Epistolam ad Romanos FA-I V:16, 18 (Jackson 8:92, 94-95; Cragg 155-159)

In Joannem FA-I V:16, 18 (Jackson 8:92, 94-95; Cragg 155-159) (General References) AC I:2 (Jackson 10:484) Letters 1747/03/25 (Jackson 12:86; Telford 2:92)

Letters 1747/07/10 (Jackson 12:92; Telford 2:100) Letters 1747/07/10 (Jackson 12:97; Telford 2:105)

LRDH 3 (Jackson 9:113; Telford 4:176; Cragg 454) Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586)

APPENDIX 2

(Unidentified References) DPF (Jackson 10:256) LCM [A]:4 (JJackson 10:1-2) LCM [C]:3 (Jackson 10:9) Letters 1747/03/25 (Jackson 12:89) Sermons 40:11:16 (Jackson 6:12; Sugden 2:165; Outler 2:113)

Clement of Alexandria Stromateis RC, Qu. 13 (Jackson 10:94) LCM III:7 Jackson 10:31-32) Journal 1767/03/04 (Jackson 3:273; Curnock 5:197)

Letters 1774/11/30 (Jackson 12:297-298) (General Reference) AC II:1:6 (Jackson 10:492) Clement of Rome I Clement LCM I:7 (Jackson 10:20) (General References) AC II:1:6 (Jackson 10:492

AF (CL) Preface (Jackson 14:223-226) LCM VI:III:11 (Jackson 10:79) Letters 1755/07/25 (Jackson 12:468; Telford 3:137)

Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :III:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586) Cyprian Ad Demetrianum RC, Qu. 22 (Jackson 10:99) De Idolorum Vanitate LCM 1:14 (Jackson 10:23) De Immortalitate RC, Qu. 21 (Jackson 10:98) De Lapsis LCM IV:IV:15 (Jackson 10:52) Epistles LCM V:8 (Jackson 10:64) LCM 1:14 (Jackson 10:22-23) LCM IV:IV:4-8 (Jackson 10:48—49) (General References) AC II:1:6 (Jackson 10:492) Journal 1738/01/09 (Jackson 1:73; Curnock 1:416)

Journal 1754/08/05 (Jackson 3:314; Curnock 4:97)

APPENDIX 2

LCM II:2, 9 (Jackson 10:24, 27) LRDH 3 (Lackson 9:113; Telford 4:176) Sermons 61:25 (Jackson 6:261; Outler 2:461-462)

Sermons 104:14 (Jackson 7:178; Outler 3:469-470) Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586)

(Unidentified References) Journal 1739/08/27 (Jackson 1:220; Curnock 2:263) LCM [C]:3 (Jackson 10:9) Letters 1739/06/23 (Jackson 12:106) Letters 1755/06/20 (Jackson 12:117) Sermons 40:11:16 (Jackson 6:12; Sugden 2:165; Outler 2:113)

Sermons 54:10 (Jackson 6:193; Outler 2:364) Sermons 84:II1:13 (Jackson 6:504; Outler 3:196-197)

Sermons 102:17 (Jackson 7:164; Outler 3:450) Sermons 103:II:3 (Jackson 7:170; Outler 3:458-459)

Dionysius of Alexandria (General References) LCM II:4, 9 (Jackson 10:25, 27) LCM IV:IV:9 (Jackson 10:49-50) Dionysius the Areopagite (Pseudo-) Mystical Divinity Journal 1740/07/16 (Jackson 1:281; Curnock 2:365)

Ephraem Syrus Exhortations Journal 1736/10/12 (Jackson 1:42; Curnock 1:279) Journal 1747/04/04 (Jackson 2:47-48; Curnock 3:284)

(General References) AC I:2 (Jackson 10:484) Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586)

(Unidentified Reference) Journal 1761/05/21 (Jackson 3:56-59; Curnock 4:457-459)

Epiphanius Adversus Haereses LCM IV:IV:11 (Jackson 10:50) Sermons 27:1:6 (Jackson 5:347; Sugden 1:454; Outler 1:596-597)

Sermons 122 (116 in Jackson) :14 (Jackson 7:288; Outler 4:94) RC, Qu. 40 (Jackson 10:107) Contra Catharos RC, Qu., 23 (Jackson 10:99)

APPENDIX 2

Expositio Fidei Sermons 27:1:6 (Jackson 5:347; Sugden 1:454; Outler 1:596-597) Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica Journal 1741/11/19 (Jackson 1:347; Curnock 2:515)

Gregory of Nazianzen Orations RC, Qu. 21 (Jackson 10:99) Hermas Shepherd LCM I:10 (Jackson 10:21) Ignatius of Antioch Ephesians LCM I:3 Jackson 10:18) (General References) AC II:1:[6] (Jackson 10:492) LCM I:2 (Jackson 10:18) LCM I:6 (Jackson 10:19) LCM VI:III:11 Jackson 10:79) Letters 1755/07/25 (Unidentified References) Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586)

Journal 1743/01/24 (Jackson 1:412; Curnock 3:65) Irenaeus Adversus Haereses LCM [C]:3 (Jackson 10:8) LCM I:11 (Jackson 10:21—22) LCM III:11 (Jackson 10:33) LCM III:16 (Jackson 10:35) .LCM III:16 (Jackson 10:38) LCM IV:I:1 Jackson 10:39) LCM IV:VI:1-2 (Jackson 10:54) (General Reference) LCM III:22 (Jackson 10:38) Jerome Commentary on Galatians RC, Qu. 23 (Jackson 10:99-100)

APPENDIX 2

Commentary on Haggai RC, Qu. 7 (Jackson 10:91) Commentary on Joel RC, Qu. 23 (Jackson 10:100) (General References) AC 1:2 (Jackson 10:484) FA-I V:17 (Jackson 8:39; Cragg 156) (Unidentified References) LCM [C]:3 (Jackson 10:9) LCM [C]:11 Jackson 10:9) Sermons 40:11:16 (Jackson 6:12; Sugden 2:165; Outler 2:113)

Justin Martyr First Apology LCM III:14 (Jackson 10:33) LCM [C]:3 (Jackson 10:9) LCM III:7 Jackson 10:31-32) LCM III:9 Jackson 10:32) LCM III:14 (Jackson 10:34) LCM V:5 (Jackson 10:62) Letters 1789/06/12 (Telford 8:143) Second Apology LCM I:11 Jackson 10:21) LCM III:6 Jackson 10:31) Sermons 70:II:6 (Jackson 6:357; Outler 2:596)

Cohortatio ad Graecos LCM III:8 Jackson 10:32) LCM IV:IV:13 (jackson 10:51) Dialogus cum Tryphone Judaeo LCM I:11 (Jackson 10:21) LCM III:2 (Jackson 10:29-30) LCM III:5 (Jackson 10:30-31) LCM III:15 (Jackson 10:53) (General References) AC II:1:[6] Jackson 10:492) LCM II:2, 4, 9 (Jackson 10:24-25, 27) LCM III:22 (Jackson 10:38) LCM IV:IV:4 (Jackson 10:48) (Unidentified References) LCM III:4 Jackson 10:30) Lactantius Divinae Institutiones

APPENDIX 2

EN LCM I:14 (Jackson 10:23) Macarius (Pseudo-) Spiritual Homilies Sermons 43:1:7 (Jackson 6:45-46; Outler 2:159)

(General Reference) Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586)

Minucius Felix Octavius LCM I:12 (Jackson 10:22) Origen Contra Celsum FA-I V:21 (Jackson 8:97; Cragg 161); LCM [C]:3 (Jackson 10:13) LCM I:13 (Jackson 10:22) LCM II:6 (Jackson 10:25-26; Telford 2:336-337)

LCM II:9 (Jackson 10:27) RC, Qu. 37 (Jackson 10:105) Contra Marcionem RC, Qu. 63 (Jackson 10:118) De Oratione FA-I V:17 (Jackson 8:93; Cragg 156-157) FA-I V:20 (Jackson 8:96; Cragg 159-160) De Principiis FA-I V:16-17 (Jackson 8:93; Cragg 156-157)

In Exodum FA-I V:20 (Jackson 8:96; Cragg 159-160) In Librum Jesu Nave FA-I V:20 (Jackson 8:97; Cragg 156) (General References) AC II:1:[6] (Jackson 10:492) Letters 1747/03/25 (Telford 2:91) Letters 1747/03/25 (Telford 2:92) Letters 1747/07/10 (Telford 2:100) Letters 1747/07/25 (Telford 2:105) Letters 1755/07/25 (Jackson 12:468; Telford 3:137)

Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :1I:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586) (Indirect Reference) Sermons 5:II:2 (Jackson 5:56; Sugden 1:119-120; Outler 1:187188) (Unidentified Reference)

APPENDIX 2

LCM IV:III:7 (Jackson 10:43) Polycarp Martyrdom of Polycarp LCM I:9 Jackson 10:20) Phillipians LCM I:3 Jackson 10:18) (General References) AC II:1:[6] (Jackson 10:492) LCM I:8 (Jlackson 10:20) LCM VI:III:11 (Jackson 10:79) Letters 1755/07/25 (Jackson 12:468; Telford 3:137)

Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586) Tertullian Adversus Marcionem LCM IV:IV:13 Jackson 10:51) Apologeticus LCM I:12 (Jackson 10:22) Letters 1738/07/06 (Telford 1:250) Sermons 49:III:5 (Jackson 6:123-124; Outler 2:262)

Contra Hermogenem RC, Qu. 5 (Jackson 10:90) De Anima LCM IV:IV:2 (Jackson 10:47) De Ieiuniis Sermons 27:1:3 (Jackson 5:346; Sugden 1:452-453; Outler 1:595)

De Praescriptione Haereticorum LCM II:9 (Jackson 10:28) De Pudicitia Sermons 40:11:16 (Jackson 6:12; Sugden 2:165; Outler 2:113)

De Spectaculis LCM IV:II:5 (Jackson 10:42-43) (General References) AC II:1:[6] Iackson 10:492) Sermons 61:24 (Jackson 6:261; Outler 2:461)

Sermons 112 (132 in Jackson) :II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586) (Unidentified References) LCM [C]:3 (Jackson 10:9) STGG 1 (Jackson 10:506) Theodoret (Unidentified Reference)

APPENDIX 2

RC, Qu. 33 (Jackson 10:104) Theophilus of Antioch Ad Autolycum LCM I:11 (Jackson 10:22) LCM IV:I:4 (Jackson 10:39-40)

Notes The following abbreviations designating standard reference works and series are utilized in the notes:

ANF:

Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., The AnteNicene Fathers. 10 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1885-1887.

BMC:

Trustees of the British Museum, The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books.

CBTEL:

John McClintock and James Strong, eds., Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. 12 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1891.

Gr:

John Wesley, ed., A Christian Library. First edition. 50 vols. Bristol: Felix Farley,

1749-1755.

DNB:

Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., Dictionary of National Biography. 28 vols.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921-1922.

NSHERK:

Samuel MacAuley Jackson, ed., The New Shaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. 12 vols. New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1908-1912.

NUC:

National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints. 685 vols. London: Mansell, 19681980.

ODCC:

F, L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Second edition, revised. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Pi:

Jean-Paul Migne, ed., Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Latina. 221 vols.

Paris: 1878-1890.

Preface 1. My article "Is It Just Nostalgia? The Renewal of Wesleyan Studies" (Christian

Century 107:13 [18 April 1990], pp. 396-398) gives a sketch of contemporary work in Wesleyan Studies that grows out of a concern for renewal in the Wesleyan traditions.

2. Cf. Outler's introduction to John Wesley (A Library of Protestant Thought; New

York: Oxford University Press, 1964), pp. 9-10, and especially the lengthy footnote on p. 9.

Chapter 1 1. John Wesley, sermon "On Laying the Foundation of the New Chapel, near the City-Road, London" II:1-4 (in Thomas Jackson, ed., The Works of the Reverend John Wesley,

AM. [London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 14 volumes, 1872], hereafter cited as "Jackson," 7:423-424; and in Albert C. Outler, ed., Sermons [4 vols., The Bicentennial Edition of

NOT TORAH? 0g

the Works of John Wesley; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984-1987], hereafter cited as "Outler," 3:585).

2. John Wesley, Preface to Sermons on Several Occasions, par. 5 (Outler 1:105; Jackson

Ba); 3. On Wesley's views and uses of Scripture, cf. William Arnett, "John Wesley: Man of One Book" (Ph.D. dissertation, Drew University, 1954), Thowald Kaellstad, John Wesley and the Bible: A Psychological Study (Upsalla: Upsalla University, 1974), Wilbur H. Mullen,

"John Wesley's Method of Biblical Interpretation" (Religion in Life 47 [Spring 1978]: 99108), R. M. Casto, "Exegetical Method in John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the New Testament" (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1977), and George Allen Turner, The More

Excellent Way: The Scriptural Basis of the Wesleyan Message (Winona Lake, IN: Light and Life

Press, 1952). On Wesley and the Church of England, cf. David Baines-Griffiths, Wesley the Anglican (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1919), Frank Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970), and R. Denny Urlin, The Churchman' Life of Wesley (London: SPCK, 1880).

4,Sermon "On Laying the Foundation of the New Chapel," II:1 (jackson 7:423; Outler 3:585).

5. In Wesley's own time, something like this this appeared in the accusation that he was a Jesuit! From the late nineteenth century, cf. R. Denny Urlin, John Wesley's Place in Church History (London: Rivington's, 1870), pp. 59-86, and his Churchman's Life of Wesley;

William F. Slater, Methodism in the Light of the Early Church (London: T. Woolmer, 1885); and in the same vein, though from early in this century, David Baines-Griffiths, Wesley the Anglican (London: The MacMillan Co., Ltd., 1919).

6. Maximin Piette, John Wesley in the Evolution of Protestantism (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1937; originally published in 1925 as John Wesley: Sa Réaction dans I'Evolution du

Protestantisme); cf. the literature cited in the previous note, and Albert C. Outler, Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit (Nashville: Tidings, 1975), pp. 1-22. In a somewhat different vein are two more recent dissertations: Luke L. Keefer, "John Wesley, Disciple of Early Christianity" (Ph.D. dissertation, Temple University, 1982), and Arthur C. Meyers, "John Wesley and the Church Fathers" (Ph.D. dissertation, St. Louis University, 1985). The work by Meyers catalogs Wesley's patristic sources and seems to be inspired by the enterprise

(mentioned in the text) of linking Methodism to its Catholic roots; Keefer's work traces the general theme of revivalism—both of the New Testament Church and the Church of the first few centuries—in Wesley.

7. Victor Turner, "Metaphors of Anti-Structure in Religious Culture," in Alan W.

Fister, ed., Changing Perspectives in the Scientific Study of Religion (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974), pp. 63-84.

8. The critical term "Christian antiquity" denoted for Wesley and Christians of his age an historical period which might include the events described in the New Testament canon, but most characteristically included only events after the canonical age, roughly through the fifth century. "Christian antiquity," then, is in the first place a designation of an historical age or epoch, and in the second place a term for a particular source of religious authority. The definition of the later end of Christian antiquity (especially when considered as an authoritative period for Christian thought and practice) was much debated, but was often defined so as to include Augustine and the Council of Chalcedon, and so the term roughly denotes Christianity in the second through mid-fifth centuries.

9. See, for instance, the conclusion of Wesley's "Letter to Conyers Middleton" VI (Jackson 10:67-79).

10. "Culture" is understood as denoting the inheritance of humanly conceived structures (to which I may also refer as "patterns" or even "models") by which conduct and belief are guided.

NOTES TO PAGES 5-10

11.1 do not mean to imply that Wesley's own vision was determinative of the cultural shifts that Evangelicalism brought about, since there were numerous other leaders of the Evangelical Revival.

Chapter 2 1. The relationship of Wesley's thought, and that of English Evangelicals more broadly, to their contemporary culture, especially that of the Enlightenment, has been the subject of a number of recent studies: cf. Frederick Dreyer, "Faith and Experience in the Thought of John Wesley" (American Historical Review 88 [1983], pp. 12-30); Rex Dale

Matthews, "Religion and Reason Joined': A Study in the Theology of John Wesley"

(Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1986); Richard E. Brantley, Locke, Wesley, and the Method of English Romanticism (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1984); D. W.

Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (London:

Unwin Hyman, 1989), pp. 20-74; and Henry Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast (Philadelphia:

Trinity Press International, 1989).

2. Cf. Herbert Pothorn, Architectural Styles (New York: The Viking Press, 1971), pp.

88-90.

3. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1921-1922; 28 vols.; hereafter cited as "DNB"), s.v. "Temple,

William"; William Temple, The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart. (Edinburgh: G. Hamilton et al., 1754; 4 vols.), 2:141-181.

4. Temple, 2:181 (italicized in original).

5. Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, vol. 1: The Rise of Modern Paganism

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), pp. xi, 31-58; quotation is on p. 31.

6. Cf. Schmidt, 1:70-71; Bebbington, pp. 67-69; John Wesley's Latin and Greek grammars are given in the fourteenth volume of the Jackson edition of his Works.

7. John Pearson, An Exposition of the Creed (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1851), dedication (no pagination given).

8. Stanley Lawrence Greenslade, The English Reformers and the Fathers of the Church

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), pp. 9-10; William P. Haugaard, "Renaissance Patristic

Scholarship and Theology in Sixteenth-Century England," Sixteenth-Century Journal 10

(1979): 37-60; Norman Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1959), p. 107; Ted A. Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian

Antiquity (Ph.D. dissertation, Southern Methodist University, 1984), appendix 1, "Some

British Editions and Translations of the ante-Nicene Fathers Prior to 1800," pp. 317-320;

Sykes, pp. 106-107; Greenslade, p. 13; Norman Sykes, William Wake (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957; 2 vols.), 1:63; Peter Meinhold, Geschichte der kirchlichen

Historiographie (Munich: Verlag Karl Albert Freiburg, 1967; 2 vols.), 2:11-14.

9. On Cave, cf. DNB, s.v. "Cave, William"; William Cave, Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum

Historia Literaria (London: Richard Chiswell, 1688-1698; 2 vols.), passim.

10. Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker, pp. 107-111; DNB, s.v. "Pearson, John"; Sykes,

William Wake, 1:62-69.

11. Glanmor Williams, Reformation Views of Church History (Richmond, Virginia: John

Knox Press, 1970), pp. 7-21.

12, Yves M. J. Congar, Tradition and Traditions (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1967), pp. 139-145, 153-155.

13. See John Leith, ed., Creeds of the Churches, second edition (Atlanta: John Knox Press,

NOTES TO PAGES 11-17

14. John K. Luoma, "Who Owns the Fathers? Hooker and Cartwright on the Authority of the Primitive Church," Sixteenth-Century Journal 8 (1977): 48-53.

15. John [i.e., Jean] Daillé, A Treatise concerning the Right Use of the Fathers (London: John Martin, 1651; trans. Thomas Smith), passim; see especially the "Designe of the whole Work," pp. v-viii. This edition has a list of approbations from English divines Lucius Cary

(Viscount Falkland), George Digby, Jeremy Taylor, and Andrew Rivet (pp. ix-x); cf.

Henry R. McAdoo, The Spirit of Anglicanism (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965), p.

316; Paul A. Welsby, Lancelot Andrewes, 1555-1626 (London: SPCK, 1958), pp. 156-157.

16. Loc. not given; cited in Greenslade, pp. 8-9.

17. McAdoo, pp. 319-320; McAdoo refers to Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book 5, chs.

6-8; Luoma, pp. 53-58.

18. Lancelot Andrewes, Opuscula quaedam posthumata (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1852; Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology edition), p. 91; cited in McAdoo, p. 320; cf.

McAdoo, pp. 317-318; Welsby, pp. 154-157.

19. Cited in McAdoo, p. 318.

20. Luoma, pp. 49-50, n. 29; McAdoo, p. 320, 21. McAdoo, pp. v-vii and passim; Gerald R. Cragg, Freedom and Authority (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975), pp. 118-124.

22. Pearson, Exposition, dedication (no pagination given).

23. DNB, s.v. "Pearson, John"; Pearson, Exposition, dedication (no pagination given).

24. William Wake, trans., The Genuine Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers (London: Richard Sare, fourth edition, 1693), [1:]175. There are two sequences of pagination in this book, one for Wake's preliminary materials, the other for his translations. In this and subsequent references I have indicated the sequence by a "1" or "2" in square brackets.

25, William Reeves, trans., The Apologies of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Minucius

Felix in Defence of the Christian Religion (2 vols., London: A. and J. Churchill, 1709), pp. i-ii.

26. Ibid., pp. iii-iv.

27. John Pearson, Vindiciae Epistolarum S. Ignatii (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1852; 2 vols.), passim; Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker, pp. 107-111; DNB, s.v. "Pearson, John."

28. Reeves, pp. xxii-xxxiv; quotation is on p. xxxii.

29. Ibid., p. iii.

30. Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker, pp. 111-113.

31. Robert Nelson, A Companion to the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England

(London: SPCK, 1845), passim; DNB, s.v. "Nelson, Robert."

32. Reeves, pp. xvii-xviii.

33. George Bull, Defensio Fidei Nicaenae: A Defence of the Nicene Creed, out of the Extant

Writings of the Catholick Doctors, who Flourished during the First Three Centuries of the Christian Church (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1851; 2 vols.), 1:vi-vii, 5-12; idem, The Judgement of the Catholic Church on the Necessity of Believing that our Lord Jesus Christ is very

God (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1855), passim; DNB, s.v. "Bull, George"; Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker, pp. 140-142.

34. John Edward] Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down (New York:

Penguin Books, 1976), passim.

35. Meinhold, 1:357-363. The expression traditio quinsecularis is not from Calixtus himself, but is a later description of his teaching.

36. Edward Stillingfleet, The Irenicum: or, Pacificator (Philadelphia: M. Sorin, 1842), passim.

37. Peter King, An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church (New York: P. P. Sandford, 1841), pp. 13-14, 17-18.

38. Ibid., pp. 62-79.

39. Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker, p. 141.

NOTES TO PAGES 17-27

40. Duffy, p. 299; DNB, s.v. "Whiston, William"; Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker, pp. 165167; Cragg, pp. 136-137.

41. William Beveridge, ed., Synodikon, sive Pandectae Canonum Ss. Apostolorum et

Conciliorum Ecclesia Graeca Receptorum (Oxford: William Wells and Robert Scott, 1672; 2 vols.), passim; cf. ODCC2, s.v. "Apostolic Canons."

42. William Beveridge, Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Primitioae Vindicatus ac Ilustratus

(Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1847; 2 vols.), passim, esp. 1:xxviii-xxxvii.

43. Ibid., 1:xvi-xxv; quotation is 1:xxiv-xxv; Meinhold, 1:363-369.

44, Nathaniel Marshall, The Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church (Oxford: John

Henry Parker, 1844), passim; Duffy, pp. 296-297. Marshall was also known for a translation of Cyprian.

45. Congar, pp. 185-186.

46. William Cave, Primitive Christianity: or, the Religion of the Ancient Christians in the First Ages of the Gospel (London: Thomas Tegg, 1840), p. iii.

47. Ibid., p. iv.

48. Cited in DNB, s.v. "Cave, William."

49. Ihave had access to two English translations (both anonymous) of Fleury's work:

An Historical Account of the Manners and Behaviour of the Christians (London: Thomas Leigh,

1698) and The Manners of the Christians (Oxford: A. R. Mowbray, 1872); cf. ODCC2, s.v.

"Fleury."

50. Philipp Jakob Spener, Pia Desideria, trans. Theodore G. Tappert, (Philadelphia:

Fortress Press, 1964), pp. 39, 40-41, 44, 49, 81-85, 104, 111-112.

51. Ernst Benz, Die protestantische Thebais: Zur Nachwirkung Makarios des Agypters im

Protestantismus der 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in Europa und Amerika (Wiesbaden: Verlag der

Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz, 1963), passim and esp. pp. 129131; Johannes Quasten, Patrology (Westminster, Maryland: Newman Press, 1960; 3 vols.),

3:162.

52. Anthony Horneck, The Happy Ascetick: or, the Best Exercise (London: Henry Mortlock, 4th edn., 1699), "Epistle Dedicatory" (no pagination).

53. Ibid., pp. 553-603; list of early Christian writers is on p. 602.

Chapter 3 1. Samuel Wesley, Dissertationes in Librum Jobi (London: William Bowyer, 1736) passim.

Most editions of this work have a new title-page with the date 1736, although it was published in 1735; cf. BMC, s.v. "Wesley, Samuel," etc.

2. [Samuel Wesley,] The Young Student's Library (London: John Dunton, 1692), p. iv.

3. Samuel Wesley, Advice toa Young Clergyman, in a Letter to Him (London: C. Rivington,

6. Samuel Wesley, letters to John Wesley 1725/01/26 and 07/14 (in Baker 1:158, 171).

7. Diaries 1726/09/23 (Ms. Colman I [The first volume of the Oxford diaries is unnumbered in the Colman Collection. I shall refer to it as "Ms. Colman I]:78), 1726/11/

15 (Ms. Colman 1:91, 1726/12/12 (Ms. Colman 1:95), 1730/08/20-09/22 (Ms. Colman 3:54-58), 1730/09/10-10/25 (Ms. Colman 3:56-61).

8. Cited in Wesley, Letters 1733/06/13 (Baker 1:350-351).

9. The beginnings of the Wednesday and Friday fasts are reported in the following loci: 1) a letter to Richard Morgan, Sr., which appears as the introduction to published editions of Wesley's Journal under the title "The Rise and Design of Oxford Methodism"

NOTES TO PAGES 27-29

(Baker 1:343; Nehemiah Curnock, ed., The Journal of The Reverend John Wesley, A.M. [8 vols.;

New York: Eaton and Mains, 1938; hereafter cited as "Curnock"], 1:101; W. Reginald

Ward and Richard P. Heitzenrater, eds., Journals and Diaries [The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988ff.; hereafter cited as "Ward and Heitzenrater"], 1:131-132); 2) a review of Wesley's life which precedes the account of his Aldersgate Street experience in the Journal 1738:05:24 (Curnock 1:468; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:245); and 3) a sermon on the "Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity"

(Jackson 7:288; Outler 4:94).

10. Nelson, p. 362. There is a reference at this point to Tertullian, De Ieiuniis 2 (PL

2:1007). Wesley's readings in Nelson are noted in his diary for 1731/09/17 (Ms. Colman

3:100).

11. Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," p. 163, note 2; cf.

Wesley, diaries 1732/06 (Ms. Colman 3:100). Both John Wesley and Benjamin Ingham observed the sixteenth day of the month as a fast, apparently following an ancient

Christian institution reported in a pamphlet entitled The Penitential Office for the Sixteenth

Day of the Month. Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate an extant copy of this work, and the ancient origin of the fast on the sixteenth remains an unsolved mystery; cf.

Richard P. Heitzenrater, ed., Diary of an Oxford Methodist: Benjamin Ingham, 1733-1734

(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1985), p. 15 and note 17, and p. 198, note 128.

12. Letters 1733/06/13 (Baker 1:350-351), 1734/01/15 (Baker 1:367).

13. Fog's Weekly Journal 9 December 1732; cited in Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," pp. 189-190.

14. Diaries 1732/06/20-21 (Ms. Colman 9:1), 1733/08 (Ms. Colman 9b:9), 1732/08 /

09 (Ms. Colman 9:12), 1732/08/11 and 25 (Ms. Colman 9:13 and 15), 1733/06/13 (Ms.

Colman 9:137).

15. See the discussion of the Manchester Non-Jurors and their attachment to the Apostolic Canons and Constitutions in chapter one.

16. Diaries (Ms. Colman 2:166; cited in Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford

Methodists," p. 161, n. 2, pp. 429-430).

17. Journal 1732/08 (Curnock 1:101); diaries 1732/08/11 and 25 (Ms. Colman 9:13,

15).

18. ODCC2, s.v. "Non-Jurors."

19. Thomas Lathbury, A History of the Non-Jurors (London: William Pickering, 1845), pp. 309-361.

20. Charles Edward Mallet, A History of the University of Oxford (New York: Longmans,

Green, and Co., 1924; 3 vols.), 3:33-43.

21. Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, p.31; Green, The Young Mr. Wesley, pp.

81-82.

22. Lathbury, pp. 492-496; cf. Schmidt, 1:102-103. Schmidt distinguishes between the Non-Jurors who used the 1549 Prayer Book and those who used Deacon's work, but gives no evidence for this distinction, and cites Lathbury. Lathbury, by contrast, does distinguish the "Usagers" from other Non-Jurors, but does not distinguish between those

Usagers who preferred the 1549 Prayer Book and those who utilized Deacon's book. I suspect that Schmidt was simply confused on this point, and that the Usagers originally used the 1549 Prayer Book, then, with the publication of Deacon's Compleat Collection of Devotions, began to use the latter.

23. Wesley ms, cited in Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," pp.

160, 339; cf. Ward and Heitzenrater, 1:212

24. Lathbury, pp. 277-303.

25, Lathbury, pp. 496-501.

26. Letter from John Clayton to John Wesley, 1735/09 (given in Baker 1:433); cf.

Wesley's diary 1735/10/18 (Ward and Heitzenrater 1:313).

NOTES TO PAGES 29-35

27. Cited in Wesley, Letters 1733/07/[25] (Baker 1:352); on Wesley's visit to Manchester, cf. Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, p. 31.

28. Cited in Wesley, Letters 1733/09/10 (Baker 1:355-356).

29. Cited in Wesley, Letters 1733/08/02 (Baker 1:392).

30. Ibid.

31. Wesley ms. cited in Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, pp. 40-41; passages italicized are struck through in the original.

32. Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, pp. 350-354.

33. Diaries 1733/03 (Ms. Colman 9b:38), 1733/06/07 (Ms. Colman 9:80), 1733/09/25

(Ms. Colman 9b:50), 1733/10/04 (Ms. Colman 10:1), 1734/07 (Ms. Colman 10b:23); cf.

Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," pp. 508, 510, 512, 523; ODCC2, s.v.

"Vincent of Lérins."

34. Diaries 1734/03/08 (Ms. Colman 10:91), 1734/03/17 (Ms. Colman 10:100), 1734/

09/18 (Ms. Colman 16:12), 1734/12/02 (Ms. Colman 16:86), 1735/02/25 (Ms. Colman 16:170); cf. Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," pp. 497, 500, 507, 516.

35. Cited in Wesley, Letters 1733 /09/10 (Baker 1:355-356).

36. Diaries 1733/04/15, 18 (Ms. Colman 9:66-67); 1733/07/2, 5.

37. Wesley, ms. given in Appendix 1 of this book.

38. Deacon, title page.

39. Given in Deacon, pp. 72-74.

40. Wesley ms. cited in Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," p.

259.

41. Benjamin Ingham, diary for 1734/05/04 (Heitzenrater, ed., Diary of an Oxford

Methodist, p. 185; cf. Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," pp. 270271).

42. Benjamin Ingham, diary for 1734/04/25 (Heitzenrater, ed., Diary of an Oxford

Methodist, pp. 204-205; cf. "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," pp. 270-271).

43. Cited in Wesley, Letters 1735/09 (Baker 1:438).

44. Letters 1735/09/30 (Baker 1:438).

45. Cited in Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, p. 40.

46. Diaries 1735/10/25-28 (Ms. Colman 1:4—7; Curnock 1:114-115; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:315-316), and 1736/01/26 (Ms. Colman 1:93; Curnock 1:143; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:345).

47. Schmidt, 1:152.

48. Cited in Schmidt, 1:138, n. 6.

49. Norman Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

50. Cited in Schmidt, 1:138, n. 6.

51. Diaries 1736/03/16-04/02 (Ms. Colman 11:142-157; Curnock 1:183-191; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:369-374); cf. DNB, s.v. "Echard, Laurence"; Laurence Echard, A General Ecclesiastical History (London: W. Bowyer for Jacob Jonson, 1702), sig. "b," pp. 1-3, p.

183, and passim.

52. Diaries 1736/04/24 (Easter Eve, 1739; Ms. Colman 11:170; Curnock 1:198; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:379); 1736/09/19 (Emory University ms., p. 126; hereafter cited as Georgia Diary II; Curnock 1:276; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:424); 1736/10/05 (Georgia

Diary II:141; Curnock 1:279; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:428); 1736/10/10 and 16 (Georgia

Diary 11:146; Curnock 1:279; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:429, 432); cf. Journal 1736/10/16

(Curnock 1:283; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:172).

53. Diaries 1737/03/08 and 07/07 (Curnock 1:328; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:482); 1737/07/11 (Curnock 1:368; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:526); 1737/05/13 (Curnock 1:356;

Ward and Heitzenrater 1:507).

Nomsiopkemsed? ee 54. References to Wesley's study of Fleury are given in the diaries for the following dates: 1736/04/24, 28-29, 05/04, 09/13, 18, 10/25, 1737/03/13, 05/18, 07/18, 28-29

(Curnock 1:198, 202, 210, 275, 276, 288, 338, 343, 356-357, 370-371; Ward and Heitzenrater

1:379, 380, 382, 422, 423, 435, 488, 509, 529, 530), and in the Journal 1736/10/25, 1737/10/

23 (Curnock 1:289, 397; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:435, 567). The mss. of Wesley's abridgements of Fleury's Catéchisme historique and Moeurs des Chrétiens are in Ms. Colman

15, in the Methodist Archives, the John Rylands University Library, Manchester. I have utilized a photocopy of the mss., and I have compared them against both of the English translations of Fleury mentioned in chapter two, note 44.

55. Ms. Colman 15:1-54, passim.

56. Journal 1736/02/21 (Curnock 1:166-167; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:150).

57. Journal 1737/09/11, reflecting Wesley's actions on 1736/08/10 (Curnock 1:393;

Ward and Heitzenrater 1:563-564).

58. Journal 1736/02/28 (Curnock 1:170-171; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:151); cf. Schmidt,

1:156.

59. DNB, s.v. "Deacon, Thomas."

60. Journal 1736/09/13 (Curnock 1:274-275; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:171-172; bracketed portions deleted in one ms.).

61. Ibid., diary section.

62. Diaries 1736/09/21 (Curnock 1:277; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:425); perhaps Wesley's statement in the Journal account for 13 September mistakenly reflects his consideration of the Synodikon after 21 September.

63. Journal 1736/09/20 (Curnock 1:276-278; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:424; bracketed portions are omitted in one ms.).

64. Beveridge, Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Primitivae Vindicatus ac Illustratus (London:

Robert Scott, 1678; reprint by University Microfilms International), pp. 158-159 (cf. Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology edition, 1:205-207).

65. Journal 1736/09/21-10/04 (Curnock 1:277-279; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:425— 428).

66. Wesley ms. cited in Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, p. 357, n. 75.

67. Cited in Outler, John Wesley, p. 46; Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford

Methodists," p. 531.

68. Journal 1738/05/24 (Curnock 1:465-477; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:242—251); 1738 /

06/14-09/16 (Curnock 2:3-63; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:255-297 [the Ward and Heitzenrater edition leaves off at 14 August); 1738/11/12 (Curnock 2:101); 1739/04/02

(Curnock 2:172-173); and 1740/07/16, 20, 23 (Curnock 2:365-366, 369-371); cf. Baker, John

Wesley and the Church of England, pp. 52-57, 74-77.

69. Eamon Duffy asserts that in 1738 Wesley gave up his pursuit of "primitive Christianity": "Primitive Christianity Revived: Religious Renewal in Augustan England," in Derek Baker, ed., Renaissance and Renewal in Christian History (Studies in Church History, no. 14; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1977), pp. 299-300.

70. See Appendix 2, where I have listed references to these works.

71. See the material cited below in this chapter, as well as the next two chapters.

72. Cyprian: Journal 1738/01/09 (Jackson 1:73; Curnock 1:416; Ward and Heitzenrater

1:209); Pseudo-Dionysius: Journal 1741 /11/7-15 (Jackson 1:347; Curnock 2:515); 1741/11/

19 (Jackson 1:347; Curnock 2:515); on Turrettini, cf. NSHERK, s.v. "Turrettini" and NUC, s.v. "Turrettini."

73. Poem "On Clemens Alexandrinus's Description of a Perfect Christian," in John and Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), given in George Osborn, ed., The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley (13 vols.; London: Wesleyan Conference Office,

NOTES TO PAGES 42-46

74. A note in a biography of John Gambold indicates his fondness for ancient Christian mystical writers: in The Works of the Late Reverend John Gambold, A.M. (Bath: S.

Hazard, 1789), pp. iii-iv.

75. Journal 1767/03/05 (Jackson 3:273, Curnock 5:197), 76. Specific teachings common to the two are: hope of immortality, "Character of a Methodist" 7 Jackson 8:342-343) vs. Stromateis 7:13 (ANF 2:547a); prayer without ceasing,

"Character of a Methodist" 8 (Jackson 8:343) vs. Stromateis 7:12 (ANF 2:544a); love of neighbor, "Character of a Methodist" 9 (Jackson 8:343) vs. Stromateis 7:12 (ANF 2:544b-545a); obedience to God's commandments, "Character of a Methodist" 12 (Jackson 8:344) vs.

Stromateis 7:12 (ANF 2:546b); and freedom from worldly desires, "Character of a Methodist" 15 Jackson 8:345) vs. Stromateis 7:12 (ANF 2:545b).

77. Farther Appeal, Part I, V:15-23 (Cragg, pp. 154-166).

78. Cf. Frank Baker, note on Wesley, Letters 1745/05 (from "John Smith"; Baker, 2:138, n. 18); cf. Outler, John Wesley, p. 3. The following is the catena of five interchanges, noting the specific parts of the letters referring to the patristic period: "Smith," 1746/08/

11, par. 7 (Baker 2:211); Wesley, 1747/03/25, par. 7 (Baker 2:223-233); "Smith," 1747/04/

27, par. 7 (Baker 2:240); Wesley, 1747/07/10, par. 6-7 (Baker 2:246-248); "Smith," 1747/

08/21, par. 8 (Baker 2:260).

79. Journal 1746/01/20 (jackson 2:6-7, Curnock 2:232).

80. John Telford, introduction to "A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists"

(Telford 2:292).

81. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists," introduction, par. 2 (Jackson

8:248, Telford 2:292).

82. Ibid., I:10 Jackson 8:251, Telford 2:294—295), 83. Cf. Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, pp. 106-136.

84. Leslie Stephen, article in DNB, s.v., "Middleton, Conyers" (13:343-348); idem,

History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century (third edition, 1902; reprint edition of Harcourt Brace, and World, Inc., Harbinger Books, New York, 1962), 1:213-230; Conyers

Middleton, A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers, Which are Supposed to have Subsisted in the Christian Church from the Earliest Ages (London: R. Manby and H. S. Cox, 1749 [sic]; reprint edition, New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1976). Cf. Ted A.

Campbell, "John Wesley and Conyers Middleton on Divine Intervention in History,"

Church History 55:1 (March 1986): 39-49.

85. ODCC2, s.v. "Fleury, Claude" (p. 518); Wesley's manuscript is ms. Colman 15, cf. pp. 16, 20, 21, and 38-45. The ODCC7? article errs in its assertion that Wesley's edition of Fleury appeared in the Christian Library.

86. Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," pp.

118-121.

87. Christian Library! 1:i-iv.

88. Wesley had read in Macarius while in Georgia: Diaries 1736/07/30 (Curnock 1:254; Ward and Heitzenrater 1:405); on the translator of Primitive Morality, cf. Campbell,

"John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," pp. 121-124.

89. Anthony Horneck, The Happy Ascetick, or, the Best Exercise, pp. 553ff.; the 1660 Latin letter is that of Jean Fronteau, Epistola ad... Franc. de Harlay... in qua de Moribus et Vita

Christianorum in Primis Ecclesiae Saeculis Agitur (Paris: C. Savreux, 1660); cf. Campbell,

"John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," pp. 124-126.

90. Cave, Primitive Christianity', passim and [1:xiii]; Christian Library! 31:149-298.

91. ODCC2, s.v. "Mosheim, Johann Lorenz von,"; Wesley, ed., A Concise Ecclesiastical

History. Wesley adds paragraphs or notes in the first volume concerning Montanus (par.

XI, p. 114), the representation of Origen as a "mystic" theologian (note "a," p. 133),

Novatian (par. following par. XI, p. 145), Pelagius (note "a," p. 248), and Muhammad

(par. III, pp. 282-283).

NGTESTOPACESHC$9

92. "An Address to the Clergy" (jackson 10:480-500); Wesley's suggestions for reading in ancient Christian writers appear at I:2:[6] and II:[6] Jackson 10:484, 492).

93. "Letter to Conyers Middleton," [B]:12 Jackson 10:7); cf. ibid. [C]:15 Jackson

10:14).

94. Sermons 132:II:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586).

95. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 1:1 (1798 edn., p. 3); similarly, Wesley's edn. of Horneck's "Letter to a Person of Quality" describes early Christianity as having all of its perfections in its infancy (CL! 29:112-114).

96. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:10 (lackson 10:11); Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality" in Happy Ascetick4, p. 555 (cf. CL! 29:112).

97. "An Address to the Clergy" I:2 (jackson 10:484). For references to the persistence of miraculous powers in the pre-Constantinian church, see below under "Inspiration and Miraculous Gifts among the Early Christians." On the anonymous saints of the preConstantinian church, cf. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" IV:VI:3-6 (Jackson 10:54—55).

98. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:15 jackson 10:14); cf. ibid, II:9 Jackson 10:27) and IV:VI:15 (Jackson 10:59); Letters 1782 /02/22 (to J. Benson; Telford 7:105); "An Address to the Clergy" II:1:[7] iackson 10:493).

99. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 3:3 (1798 edn., p. 10).

100. Ibid. 2:3 (1798 edn., p. 8).

101. Ibid. 2:2, 2:6 (1798 edn., pp. 7, 9); [Mosheim], A Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed.

Wesley, I:II:III:3 (1781 edn., 1:64) and I:II:V:7 (1781 edn., 1:75-76).

102. "An Address to the Clergy" II:1:[6] (Jackson 10:492); on Wesley's inclusion of the Apostolic Fathers in the second century, see Wesley's Sermons 132:1I:3 Jackson 7:424;

Outler 3:586).

108. [Mosheim], A Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, I:II:II:9 (1781 ed., 1:6061). That Wesley was aware of corruptions in the biblical texts appears from his alteration of a passage in Ignatius' Epistle to the Philadelphians, ch. 8. Here Ignatius asserts that Jesus Christ is the principal monument to which Christians appeal, and argues against those who asserted that if something did not "appear" in the biblical texts, they would not believe it. Wake renders the expression "that it does not appear," and Wesley alters it to "what [did not] lay before them in their corrupt manuscripts," a fairly elaborate expansion, the intent of which seems to be to move the issue from that of scriptural authority to particular scriptural texts: Wake [2]: 183; C11 1:57; cf. the note on this difficult passage in the LCL edition of the Apostolic Fathers, 1:247. The passage from I Clement referred to in the text (using the legend of the Phoenix) is ch. 25; Wesley's comments on it come in his

"Letter to Conyers Middleton" I:7 Jackson 10:20).

104. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, 1:VI:3 (CL! 31:180).

105. Cf. the account of persecutions and martyrdoms in Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed.

Wesley, II:II:VII:1-12 (CL! 31:248-255); on the persistence of miraculous gifts to aid the church in persecutions and in propagating the faith, cf. "Letter to Conyers Middleton"

(B]:11-12 Jackson 10:6-7).

106. Horneck, "Letter toa Person of Quality" (Happy Ascetick4, p. 567; cf. CL! 29:119);

Ignatius, Romans 5 (Wake [2]:164; cf. CL! 1:52); "Martyrdom of Polycart" 7 (Wake [2]:237; cf. CL! 1:74); Cave, Primitive Christianity (1682 edn., II;192ff.; cf. CL! 31:259).

107. "An Address to the Clergy" II:I:[6] Jackson 10:492); Sermons 112:11:3 Jackson

7:424; Outler 3:586): cf. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" VI:VIII:II Jackson 10:79).

108. See references under these writers in Appendix Two.

109. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:11 (lackson 10:12); Sermons 102:17 (Jackson

7:164; Outler 3:450-451).

110. Journal 1754/08/05 (Jackson 2:314; Curnock 4:96-97); to this one may compare

Voltaire's ridicule of the councils under "Councils" (counciles) in the Encyclopédie philosophique.

NOTES TO PAGES 50-55

111. Sermons 104:14 (Jackson 7:178; Outler 3:469-470).

112. Sermons 102:15-16 (Jackson 7:163-164; Outler 3:449-450); cf. DNB, s.v. "Newton,

Thomas" (14:403-405).

113. Sermons 89:2 (Jackson 7:26-27; Outler 3:263-264); 102:15-16 (Jackson 7:163-164;

Outler 3:449-450); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 8:7 (1798 edn., p.

24).

114. [Mosheim], A Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, IV:1:1:4-5, IV:I:II:1 (1781 edn., 1:164—166).

115. Sermons 89:2 (Jackson 7:26-27; Outler 263-264), 115:7-8 (Jackson 7:275-276;

Outler 4:77-78); "The Origin of Image-Worship" (Jackson 10:175-177). On the cessation of miraculous powers in the fourth century, see under "Inspiration and Miraculous Powers among the Early Christians"; on the elaboration of rituals after the fourth century, see under "Customs of the Early Christians."

116. "Address to the Clergy" I:2"[6] (Jackson 10:484).

117. Sermons 132:I1:3 Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586); "Letter to Conyers Middleton"

VI:II:11 Jackson 10:79).

118. See the entries under Augustine and Jerome in Appendix Two; for Wesley's scathing criticisms of Augustine, see below under "Teachings and Heresies of the Early

Church."

119. Sermon 132, "On Laying the Foundation ..

.," II:1 (jackson 7:423; Outler 3:585).

120. Ibid., II:3 Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586).

121. Letters 1784/09/10, to "Our Brethren in America," par. 6 (Outler, John Wesley, p.

84).

122. Coke and Asbury, The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, with Explanatory Notes (Philadelphia: Henry Tuckniss, 1798), pp. 45-46.

123. Sermons 61 (Jackson 6:253-267; Outler 2:451-470), especially pars. 23-28 (Jackson

6:260-262; Outler 2:460-464).

124. Sermons 102 Jackson 7:157-166; Outler 3:440-453), especially pars. 15-17 (Jackson 7:163—164; Outler 3:449-451).

125. Sermons 115 (Jackson 7:273-281; Outler 4:72-84); cf. Journal 1789/03/30 and 04/

12 Jackson 4:449 and 451, Curnock 7:482-483 and 486).

Chapter 4 1. A critical presupposition of this and the next chapter is that it is possible to discern how Wesley utilized his conceptions of Christian antiquity, based on available sources.

The historical evidence for John Wesley's uses of Christian antiquity varies according to the explicitness with which he expressed his intentions for those uses. One might rank it in the following manner: (a) passages in which Wesley explicitly stated his intentions(s) in using conceptions of Christian antiquity (for example, a passage in which Wesley stated that the ancient Christians exhibited true Christianity, in contrast to the Christians of Wesley's own age); (b) passages in which Wesley cited ancient authorities in favor of his own beliefs and practices, or against beliefs and practices to which he was opposed (for example, a passage in which Wesley cited Epiphanius in favor of Wednesday and Friday fasts); (c) passages in which Wesley upheld particular beliefs and practices conformable to, but not specifically referenced to, his conceptions of Christian antiquity (for example, a passage in which Wesley suggests that the Methodists ought to work towards a community of possessions); and (d) passages from works which Wesley edited which either include references to ancient beliefs and practices to which Wesley's beliefs and practices conformed, or omits references to ancient beliefs or practices which Wesley opposed. All of

Notes rORACISSR62 these forms of evidence must be treated with caution, but especially the last two. In cases where Wesley did not refer explicitly to ancient Christian precedents, one must ask whether the beliefs and practices he advocated do not conform more directly to his conceptions of New Testament Christianity, or to precedent Anglican or other forms of Christianity.

2. See above under "A Vision of Christian Teaching"; "Letter to Conyers Middleton"

VI:II:1-12 (Jackson 10:72-75).

3. Wesley's understanding of the ordo salutis respecting the individual Christian life is discussed in standard works treating Wesley's thought: Outler, Theology in the Wesleyan

Spirit, passim; Williams, John Wesley's Theology Today, passim.

4, Letters 1771/04/14 (to Miss March; Telford 5:237).

5. Wesley, preface to [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, 6-7 (1781 edn., 1:v-vi).

6. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 2:1 (1798 edn., p. 7).

7. Ibid. 1:1 (1798 edn. p. 3).

8. Cave, Primitive Christianity, preface (1682 edn., p. xii).

9. Ibid.

10. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley, passim (CL! 29:109-138).

11. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" VI:III:12 Jackson 10:79).

12. "Character of a Methodist," inscription Jackson 8:339).

13. Ibid., preface, par. 4 (Jackson 8:339).

14. Earnest Appeal 6-7 (Cragg, pp. 46-47).

15. Sermons 18 (Jackson 5:212-223; Sugden 1:280-297; Outler 1:415430).

16. Letters 1745/12/30 (to "John Smith," par. 13; Telford 2:64; Baker 2:182).

17. "John Smith," letter to John Wesley, 1747/04/25, pars. 7-8 (Baker 2:240).

18. Letters 1747/07/10 (to "John Smith," par. 7; Baker 2:247).

19. Farther Appeal, Part I V:16-22 (Cragg, pp. 156-163).

20. Ibid. V:18 (Cragg, pp. 157-159).

21. Ibid. V:22 (Cragg, p. 163).

22. "John Smith," letter to John Wesley, 1746/08/11, par. 7 (Baker 2:211).

23. Idem, letter to John Wesley, 1747/04/25, pars. 7-8 (Baker 2:240).

24. Letters 1747/07/10 (to "John Smith," par. 11; Baker 2:251).

25. Ibid. (par. 7; Baker 2:247).

26. Sermons 110 and 113 (Jackson 7:231-238, 256-264; Outler 4:28-38, 48-59). In these two sermons Wesley laid out in some detail his views of faith as a "sense" of the soul, the epistemological ground of religious belief.

27. Farther Appeal, Part 1 V:1 (Cragg, p. 139).

28. Ibid. V:4 (Cragg, p. 141).

29. Ibid. V:15-23 (Cragg, pp. 154-166).

30. "John Smith," letter to John Wesley, 1747/074/25, pars. 7-8 (Baker 2:240).

31. Letters 1747/07/10 (to "John Smith," par. 11; Baker 2:251).

32. Cited in Cragg, p. 354.

33. "Letter to the Author of 'The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists Compar'd'"

17-18 (Jackson 9:6-8; Telford 3:264-265; Cragg, pp. 367-368).

34. The via or ordo salutis can be seen, in brief, in Wesley's sermon on "The Scripture

Way of Salvation" (Jackson 6:43-54; Sugden 2:442-460; Outler 2:152-169), but appears throughout the sermons, particular ones of which deal with specific stages of the ordo salutis

("Justification by Faith," "Christian Perfection," "The Wilderness State," etc.), Williams's

John Wesley's Theology Today and Outler's Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit describe Wesley's thought using the ordo salutis.

35. Cf. Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity,"

Appendix 4, Table 5.

NOTES TO PAGES 62-66

36. Cave, Primitive Christianity I1:11:1 (CL! 31:229), 37. Homily 2 (Primitive Morality, pp. 107-109; cf. CL! 1:91); 2 (Primitive Morality, p. 111; cf. CL! 1:92); 12 (Primitive Morality, pp. 193-205); and 16 (Primitive Morality, p. 255; cf. cL!

1:111).

38. Homily 19 (Primitive Morality, p. 286; CL! 1:120); other examples are tabulated in Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," Appendix 4.

39. Homily 4 (Primitive Morality, pp. 117-121; cf. CL! 1:93); Homily 14 (Primitive

Morality, pp. 209-211); other examples are tabulated in Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," Appendix 4.

40. I Clement 30 (CL! 1:13; cf. Wake [2]:43).

41. "Dialogue between a Predestinarian and His Friend" (Jackson 10:265).

42. My translation. The quotation is from Augustine, Sermon 169 xi (13). Wesley,

Sermons 85:III:7 Jackson 6:513; Outler 3:208).

43. The view that earlier Christian teachers maintained the freedom of humans to do good, and the Augustine himself espoused this view at least through the time of the writing of his Confessions, has been demonstrated by William S. Babcock, "Grace, Freedom, and Justice: Augustine and the Christian Tradition" (Perkins School of Theology Journal 27:1

[Summer 1973]: 1-15); although Wesley does not seem to have been aware of the nuance that it was freedom to do the good (not human freedom in general) that Augustine denied when he took up the notion of predestination.

44, Letters 1729/12/19 (to his father; Jackson 12:1; Telford 1:45; Baker 1:241).

45. "Thoughts on Necessity" I:2 and II:1 Jackson 10:457—458).

46. Letters 1744/06 (to John Bennet; Telford 2:23; Baker 2:107).

47. [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, V:II:V:18 (1781 edn., 1:248, note "a").

48. Letters 1761/07/07 (to Alexander Coates; Jackson 12:240; Telford 4:158), 49. Sermons 68:9 (Jackson 67:328-329; Outler 2:556).

50. Letters 1775/08/18 (to John Fletcher; Telford 6:175).

51. Letters 1755/08/18 (to John Fletcher; Telford 6:175).

52. Epistle of Polycarp 10 (Wake [2]:94; cf. CL! 1:30).

53. I Clement 11 (Wake [2]:21; cf. CL? 1:8).

54, E. H. Sugden, preface to Wesley, Sermons 10 (Sugden 1:199-202).; Williams, John

Wesley's Theology Today, pp. 102-114.

55, Homily 1 (CL! 1:90), 20 (CL! 1:123-124), 27 (CL! 1:137).

56. Letters 1755/07/25 (to R. Tompson; Jackson 12:468); 1756/02/05 (to R. Tompson;

Telford 3:159).

57. "On Clemens Alexandrinus's Description of a Perfect Christian," passim (Hymns and Sacred Poems [1739], pp. 37-38; Osborn 1:34-36).

58. See passages tabulated in Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," Appendix 4, Table 3.

59. Two examples are the following: a passage describing the Christian's warfare with Satan (Homily 26; Primitive Morality, p. 329; CL! 1:129-130); and a passage asserting that Christians can fall from grace (Homily 15; Primitive Morality, p. 225; CL! 1:109). Other passages asserting the teaching of sin in believer's are tabulated in Campbell, "John

Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," Appendix 4. The passage asserting the need for believer's repentance is from Homily 1 (Primitive Morality, p. 106; CL! 1:90).

60. Journal 1763 /03/28 (Jackson 3:130; Curnock 5:10).

61. Sermons 13:2 (Jackson 5:144-145; Sugden 2:361; Outler 1:317).

62. I Clement 32 (Wake [2]:45; CL! 1:14).

63. Ignatius, Ephesians 14 (Wake [2]:116; CL? 1:38).

NOTES TO PAGES 66-68

64. "Martyrdom of Ignatius 2 (Wake [2]:220; CL! 1:67); see also the assertion of Ignatius, that "I am not yet made perfect in Jesus Christ" Ephesians 3 (Wake [2]:108; cL!

1:34).

65. "On Clemens Alexandrinus' Description of a perfect Christian," I (Hymns and Sacred Poems [1739 edn.], p. 37; Osborn 1:34).

66. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:125).

67. Letters 1756/08/12 (to W. Dodd; Telford 3:170).

68. Wesley, "Thoughts on Christian Perfection," in Outler, John Wesley, p. 287.

69. Homily 26 (Primitive Morality, p. 321; cf. CL! 1:129); cf. ODCC2, s.v. "apotheosis"

70. Doing good by "violence": Homily 29 (Primitive Morality, p. 285; CL! 1:120);

"Degrees of Perfection": Homily 8 (Primitive Morality, p. 164; CL! 1:103).

71. Homily 10 (Primitive Morality, p. 178; CL! 1:107).

72. Homily 27 (Primitive Morality, p. 353; CL! 1:133).

73. Homily 43 (Primitive Morality, p. 431; CL! 1:140). It is interesting that Wesley let this passage stand, since he himself did not use the language of Spirit baptism to describe

(entire) sanctification (although John Fletcher did). The expression passed from Fletcher to Methodist Holiness circles, and thence to modern Pentecostalism. Cf. Laurence W.

Wood, Pentecostal Grace (Wilmore, Kentucky: Frances Asbury Press, 1980), pp. 198-239.

74. A tabulation of passages dealing with holiness and perfection included in Wesley's edition of the Macarian homilies is given in Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," Appendix 4. Benz, Wakefield, and Outler all point to the influence of the Macarian literature on Wesley's conceptions of holiness and perfection:

Benz, pp. 121-127; Outler, John Wesley, p. 9, and esp. n. 26; Wakefield, p. 165.

75. Preface to Macarian homilies, par. 7 in Wesley's edition (CL* 1:83; cf. Primitive

Morality, p. 33).

76. The examples mentioned are as follows: Cave, Primitive Christianity, (1682 edn.,

2:108-128, 2:55-63, 1:95-96; cf. CL1 31:243, 236, 174). Other examples are tabulated in Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," Appendix 4.

77. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:128-129); Cave,

Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, II:II:1-8 (CL! 31:230-234); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 8:5 (1798 edn., p. 23); cf. "Character of a Methodist" 5, 15

(Jackson 8:341, 345).

78. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, II:VI:1-6, 13-18 (CL! 31:244-247, 255-259);

"Letter to Conyers Middleton" V:6-10 (Jackson 10:63-65); "Letter to the Author of 'The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists Compared" 17-18 (Jackson 9:6-8; Telford 3:264—

265).

79. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, III:III:2-8 (CL! 31:279-283); Horneck,

"Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:114-115); Wesley's poem "Primitive

Christianity" I:5-, II:23 (Cragg, pp. 91, 93).

80. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:123-124); cf. Wesley,

"Letter to Conyers Middleton" V:14 (Jackson 10:66).

81. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, II:V:1-6 (CL! 31:240243); Horneck,

"Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:115).

82. For example, Wesley omits Macarius's use of the image of marital love to explain fidelity to Christ: Homily 4 (Primitive Morality, pp. 129-130; cf. CL! 1:94). Similar passages omitted are in Homilies 16, 18, and 28 (Primitive Morality, pp. 253-254, 280, 362; cf. CL!

83, Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, II:IV:1-4, II-III:1-5 (CL! 31:237-240, 234—

237); Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:127-128).

84. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, II:I:1-4 (CL! 31:226229); Wesley, Sermons 22:1:2 (Jackson 5:262; Sugden 1:335-336; Outler 1:489); preface to the Apostolic

NOTES TO PAGES 69-76

Fathers, par. 12 (CL! 1:[iv]). The latter is part of the paragraph which Wesley added to Cave's prefatory materials, and is therefore original to Wesley.

85. "Character of a Methodist" 9, 16 Jackson 8:343, 346); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, III:11:2-15 (CL! 31:266-277); Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed.

Wesley (CL! 29:119, 122124, 130).

86. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, III:I:1-7 (CL! 31:262-265); the following are omissions of references to the early Christians' "subjection" to the civil government:

1682 edn., 2:208, 321, 322-324, 327, 347 (cf. CL! 31:262, 284, 285, 286, 288); Wesley does not retain the term "subjection" in the title of Pt. III, ch. 4 (CL! 31:283) and does include passages asserting that the ancient Christians obeyed civil authorities.

87. Poem "Primitive Christianity" (Jackson 8:43-45; Cragg, pp. 90-94).

88. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" VI:I:1-15, VI:II:II Jackson 10:67-72, 79) 89. "Letter to a Roman Catholic" 15 (Jackson 10:84—-85; Telford 3:12).

90. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley, concluding paragraph (CL!

29:138).

91. I Clement 12 (Wake [2]:22-23; cf. CL! 1:9); Ignatius, Philadelphians 6 (Wake [2]:181; cf. CL! 1:56).

92. In fact, the term "Law" is not used in the Greek text, but appears in Wake's translation, where "the Jewish Law" renders Joudaismon.

93. Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," ch. 5 under "Virtues of the Early Christians," and the references tabulated in Appendix 4,

Tables 7 and 8.

94. Wesley, preface to Mosheim, Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, par. 10 (1781 edn., 1:vii-viii).

Chapter 5 1. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists," preface, par. 2 Jackson 8:248).

2. Ibid. I:10 Jackson 8:250-251).

3. Ibid. VII:3 and XI1:4 (Jackson 8:260, 263).

4, "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:15 jackson 10:14).

5. Letters 1782/02/22 (to Jos. Benson; Telford 7:105) 6. Wesley ms. cited in Outler, John Wesley, p. 50; cf. Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, p. 46; Heitzenrater, "John Wesley and the Oxford Methodists," p. 531.

7. Wake, prefatory material to the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Wesley (CL! 1:4).

8. Ibid.

9, Farther Appeal, Part III 28 (Cragg, p. 310; Jackson 8:233).

10. Preface to 1771 [Pine] edn. of Wesley's Works, par. 4 (given in Jackson 1:iv).

11. Farther Appeal, Part I V:15 (Cragg, p. 154) 12. The particular expression is from Wesley's edition of Mosheim, A Concise Ecclesiastical History I:II:II:9 (1781 edn., 1:60-61), and I would take it to be confirmed by Wesley's familiarity with, e.g., the epistles of Ignatius, in which New Testament writings are frequently cited as authoritative.

13. "Address to the Clergy" I:2 Jackson 10:484).

14, [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 2:2 (1798 edn.., p. 8).

15. On Irenaeus' reliance on oral tradition, see the "Letter to Conyers Middleton"

III:16 Jackson 10:35); on the ancient Christians' allegorical interpretations of scripture, ibid. IV:V:2 (Jackson 10:53).

16. "Address to the Clergy" I:2:[6] jackson 10:484).

NOTES TO PAGES 76-80

17. Farther Appeal, Part I V:15-23 (Jackson 8:91-101; Cragg, pp. 154-166); Letters

1756/03/12 (to Wm. Dodd; Telford 3:170) 18. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:15 (Jackson 10:14); Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:131-132).

19. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:11 Jlackson 10:12).

20. Arianism (see chapter two) had been revived, in various forms, by V William Whiston and Samuel Clarke. Sermons 20:II:14 (Jackson 5:242; Sugden 2:435; Outler 1:459460), 117:5 (Jackson 7:292; Outler 4:100); Journal 1756/01/14 (Jackson 2:352-353; Curnock

4:145-146); Letters 1756/07/08 (to the Rev. Mr. Clarke; Jackson 13:211; Telford 3:182),

1756/10/05 ("to the Monthly Reviewers"; Jackson 13:386), 1765/04/24 (to Dr. Erskine;

Telford 4:296), 1774/09/16 "to a Member of the Society"; Jackson 12:296; Telford 6:113),

1780/06/08 (to Chas. Wesley; Jackson 12:147; Telford 7:21-22), 1788/09/17 (to Jos. Benson;

Telford 8:89-90); "The Question, 'What is an Arminian?' Answered" 4 (Jackson 10:358359).

21. Journal 1779/04/22 (Jackson 4:149; Curnock 6:230-231).

22. Sermons 63:12 (Jackson 6:281; Outler 2:493), 85:III:7 (Jackson 6:513; Outler 3:208209); "Dialogue between a Predestinarian and his Friend" (Jackson 10:265).

23. "The Question, 'What is an Arminian:' Answered" 4 (Jackson 10:358-359).

24. John Downes, letter to John Wesley; cited in Wesley, Letters 1759/11/17 (to John

Downes: Telford 4:329).

25. Wesley, Letters 1759/11/17 (to John Downes; Telford 4:329).

26. Cf. [Mosheim,] Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, III:II:V:1 (1781 edn., 1:145);

Journal 1750/08/15 (Jackson 2:204; Curnock 3:490).

27. Letters 1756/07/03 (to the Rev. Mr. Clarke; Jackson 13:211; Telford 3:182).

28. Journal 1754/08/05 (Jackson 2:324; Curnock 4:96-97); cf. Wesley's comments on Eutychianism and Nestorianism in his Letters 1780/06/08 (to Chas. Wesley; Jackson

12:147; Telford 7:21-22).

29. [Mosheim], A Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, I:II:III:3 (1781 edn., 1:64); on Wesley's adherence to the Nicene Creed, Notes John 15:26 (1976 edn., p. 370); on Wesley's adherence to the Chalcedonian formula, see John Deschner, Wesley's Christology: An Interpretation (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1960), p. 15; on Wesley's general approval of the teaching of the Athanasian Creed, Journal 1760/12/20 (Jackson 3:30;

Curnock 4:424); Sermons 55:3 (Jackson 6:200). The eighth Article of Religion is cited from the Book of Common Prayer.

30. The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America (London: [Strahan], 1784, pp.

306-314).

31. Letters 1760/12/20 (given in Jackson 3:30; Curnock 4:424).

32. Ibid.

33. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" VI:II:1-12 jackson 10:72-75).

34. Sermons 55:3 (Jackson 6:200; Outler 2:376-377); 55:5 (Jackson 6:201; 2:378-379); cf

Notes I John 5:7 (1976 edn., p. 917), The Johannine Comma is now almost universally recognized as a later addition to the aces text of I John 5:7, possibly made under the pressure of Arian teachings; cf. ODCC2, s.v. "Johannine Comma" (pp. 741-742).

35. Wesley omits references to the "ruling powers of the soul" in Homily 1 (Primitive

Morality, p. 97; cf. CL! 1:86), and to the "Five Senses of the Soul" in Homily 4 (Wesley's number 2; Primitive Morality, pp. 122-129; cf. CL! 1:94). My research has identified:a dozen such omissions.

36. Sermons 55:5 (Jackson 6:201; Outler 2:378-379).

37. Sermons 117:5 (Jackson 7:292; Outler 4:100).

38. "The Question, 'What is an Arminian?' Answered" 4 (Jackson 10:358-359); cf Sermons 20:II:14 (Jackson 5:242; Sugden 2:435; Outler 1:459-460); Letters 1756/07/08 (to Mr. Clarke; Jackson 13:211; Telford 3:182); ibid. 1756/10/05 (to the Monthly Reviewers";

NOTES TO PAGES 80-84

Jackson 13:386). More recent research on Arianism has indeed identified the issue as "the doctrine of the relation between God and the divine in Christ" (Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, vol. 1, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) [Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1971], p.

195) as Wesley seems to have done; but more recent scholarship has stressed the Arians' continuity with earlier Christological motifs and with the thought of Origen and Dionysius of Alexandria, and has pointed out the Arians' worship of, and directing prayers to,

Christ (ibid., pp. 191-200).

39. Letters 1774/09/16 ("to a Member of the Society"; Jackson 12:296; Telford 6:113);

1765/04/24 (to Dr. Erskine; Telford 4:296); Journal 1756/01/14 (Jackson 2:352-353; Curnock

4:145-146).

40. Journal 1779 /04/22 Jackson 4:149; Curnock 6:230-231).

41. Letters 1780/06/08 (to Chas. Wesley; Jackson 12:147; Telford 7:21-22); cf. Letters

1788/09/17 (to Joseph Benson; Telford 8:89-90), where Wesley warns that the book in question might indeed lead a believer into Arianism, or Socinianism.

42. All of the following passages from Ignatius' epistles are omitted by Wesley:

Ephesians 20 (Wake [2]:120-121; cf. CL! 1:40); Trallians 9-10 (Wake [2]:151; cf. CL? 1:48);

Romans 7 (Wake [2]:166; cf. CL! 1:53); Smyrnaeans 2-3 (Wake [2]:194-195; cf. CL! 1:60);

Smyraneans 5 (Wake [2]:197; cf. CL! 1:60); and Smyrnaeans 7 (Wake [2]:198-199; cf. CL!

1:6061).

43. Deschner, pp. 14-44.

44. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, (CL! 31:193-194).

45. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 3:3 (1798 edn., p. 10).

46. The title of vol. 1 of Gay's The Enlightment.

47. Earnest Appeal 26-27 (Jackson 8:10-11; Cragg, pp. 54-55).

48. "Doctrine of Original Sin," Part I:II Jackson 9:208-238).

49. Sermons 63:1-7 (Jackson 6:277-279; Outler 2:485—488).

50. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" I:10 Jackson 10:250-251).

51. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians 3:4 (Ms. Colman 15:18; cf. 1798 edn., p.

10); 4:3 (Ms. Colman 15:22; cf. 1798 edn., p. 13).

52. Sermons 115:9-18 (Jackson 7:276-280; Outler 4:78-83); "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" I:10 Jackson 8:250-251); Letters 1789/ 06/12 (to the printer of the Dublin Chronicle; Telford 8:143).

53. These passages do appear in the (1736) ms. version of Fleury, Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 3:4 (Ms. Colman 15:18; cf. 1798 edn., p. 10), 4:3 (Ms. Colman

15:22; cf. 1798 edn., p. 13).

54. Letters 1756/03/12 (to Wm. Dodd; Telford 3:170-171).

55. See ch. 4, under "Virtues of the Ancient Christians."

56. Cf. Campbell, "John Wesley and Conyers Middleton," p. 46.

57. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [D] (Jackson 10:16).

58. Ibid. IV:VI Jackson 10:54—59).

59. Homilies 10 and 26 (CL! 1:107, 130); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed.

Wesley (1798 edn., p. 17).

60. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" IV:IV:3, 11-12 (Jackson 10:47, 50-51).

61. Journal 1750/08/15 (Jackson 2:204, Curnock 3:490). The book to which Wesley refers is The General Delusion of Christians, touching the way of God's revealing himself to and by prophets, evinc'd from Scripture and primitive antiquity (London: S. Keimer, 1713), supposed to have been the work of John Lacy (b. 1664, d. after 1737), one of the "French

Prophets." Cf. DNB, s.v. "Lacy, John" (1 1:382-383); CBTEL, s.v. "Lacy, John"

(5:190).

62. Letters 1761 /02/17 (to the editor of the London Magazine; Telford 4:133): Sermons

68:9 (Jackson 6:328; Outler 2:555); "Real Character of Montanus," passim (Jackson 11:485-

NOTES TO PAGES 84-90

486; Arminian Magazine 8 [1785]:35); [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley,

TI:1I:V:11 (1781 edn., 1:114).

63. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 1:3, 3:4 (1798 edn., pp. 3,

11); Wesley, "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [B]:11— 12 jackson 10:6-7).

64. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" IV:VI:3-6 (Jlackson 10:54-55).

65. [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, II:I:II:8-9.(1781 edn., 1:8081).

66. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [A]:3-4 (Jackson 10:1-2).

67. Ibid. [C]:6 (Jackson 10:10), Other references to the cessation of the miraculous powers in the age of Constantine are the following: [C]:3, [C]:15, IV:II:5, and IV:VI:10-11

(Jackson 10:8, 14, 41, 57).

68. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley (1682 edn., 1:51 [n.b., second occurrence of this page number]; cf. CL! 31:167).

69. Sermons 89:2 (Jackson 7:26-27; Outler 3:263-264).

70. Journal 1739/09 /28 (Curnock 2:283).

71. See the numerous instances catalogued in the index to Curnock, under "Prayer, notable answers to," and "Providence, interpositions of" (Curnock 8:442, 443).

72. "The Principles of a Methodist Farther Explained: V (jackson 8:460); repeated verbatim in "A Letter to the Lord Bishop of Gloucester: (Jackson 9:155).

73. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" II:9 (jackson 10:27).

74. "John Smith," letter to John Wesley, 1747/08/21, pars. 8-10 (Baker 2:260-261);

Wesley, Farther Appeal, Part III 28 Jackson 8:233-234; Cragg, p. 310); "Letter to the Lord

Bishop of Gloucester" (Jackson 9:155-163).

75. "Letter to the Lord Bishop of Gloucester': Jackson 9:118-125; Cragg, pp. 468—

475).

76. Wesley uses the term in his Farther Appeal, Part I VII:3 (Cragg 188-189); his edition of Cave's Primitive Christianity applies it to the early Christian communities on the authority of Pliny, II:IV:6 (CL! 31:288). For this reason I regard Pliny's letter as a more likely source for Wesley's use of the term than John of Damascus or later Greek writers, as Cragg suggested. Cf. A. N. Sherwin-White, ed., Fifty Letters of Pliny (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1969), pp. 70-177.

77. "The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies" 4 (Jackson 8:270).

78. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" IV:3 (Jackson 8:257).

79. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley III:V:13 (CL! 31:298).

80. See the comments and notes on Marshall's work in chapter 1.

81. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" VII:3 (Jackson 8:260).

82. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 1:9 (1798 edn., p. 6).

83. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VI:8 (CL! 31:184).

84. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:115, 126-127); cf.

[Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 2:4 (1798 edn., p. 8); Wesley, "Plain

Account of the People Called Methodists" XV:6 (Jackson 8:268).

85. Minutes 1744/06/28 (Publications of the Wesley Historical Society 1 [London,

1896]:14).

86. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" XI:4 and XIII:3 (jackson 8:263,

265).

87. Letters 1784/09/10 (to "Our Brethren in America"; Telford 7:239).

88. Mosheim, Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, I:II:II:1-3 (1781 edn., 1:55-56); but cf. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 1:10 (1798 edn., p. 6), where the apostles and the seventy are simply distinguished from the laity as those "set apart for ministry in public."

89. Sermons 115:6-7 (Jackson 7:275-276; Outler 4:76-77).

NOTES TO PAGES 89-93

90. Ibid., par. 8 Jackson 7:276; Outler 4:77-78).

91. Cave's Primitive Christianity distinguishes two groups of clergy: those appointed to acts of worship (bishops, priests, and deacons), and those appointed to "the more mean and common Services of the Church" (I:VIII:3; CL! 31:198). I may note at this point two interesting omissions: Wesley omitted the latter part of ch. 42 and all of ch. 43 from his version of I Clement. These chapters assert Christ's establishment of the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon, and draw a parallel between Christian clergy and the leaders of Israel

(Wake [2]:58-60; cf. CL! 1:18). Similarly, he omitted from his 1736 ms. of Fleury a chapter describing the orders of ministry in the ancient church (Ms. Colman 15:44—45). Nevertheless, that Wesley continued to affirm the antiquity and propriety of the orders of bishop, presbyter, and deacon is evident (cf. the text and notes following).

92. Letters 1745/12/27 (to Westley Hall; Telford 2:55; Baker 2:173; also given in Curnock 3:229-230).

93. Spangenberg's diary; cited in Schmidt, 1:138, n. 6.

94. Journal 1746/01/20 Jackson 2:6—7; Curnock 3:232).

95. King, pp. 62-79; cf. Edgar W. Thompson, Wesley: Apostolic Man (London: Epworth

Press, 1957), pp. 23-30.

96. The first indication of Wesley's reading in Stillingfleet comes in his Letters 1756/

07/08 Jackson 13:211; Telford 3:182); Stillingfleet, pp. 402-405 (ordination by presbyters), pp. 297-300 (precedent in Alexandrian church); cf. Thompson, pp. 31-33.

97. Letters 1761/02/19 (to the editor of the London Chronicle; Telford 4:139-141; also given in Curnock 4:438-439); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 2:2 (1798 edn., p. 7); cf. 1 Clement 44 (Wake [2]:60-61; CL! 1:18-19).

98. Letters 1784/09/10 (to "Our Brethren in America"; Telford 7:238); 1789/06/12

(to the printer of the Dublin Chronicle; Telford 8:143); [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical

History I:II:II:6-7 (1781 edn., 1:57-59). Wesley's edition of Cave does include a passage representing the ancient episcopate as an order distinct from that of presbyters, and omits

Cave's acknowledgement of contemporary questions about the ancient distinction of the orders: Cave, Primitive Christianity I:VIII:4 (1684 edn., 1:221; CL! 31:195-196).

99. Letters 1756/07/03 (to the Rev. Mr. Clarke; Jackson 13:21; Telford 3:182).

100. Letters 1761/04/10 ("to a friend"; Jackson 13:235-236; Telford 4:150); 1780/06/

08 (to Chas. Wesley; Jackson 12:147; Telford 7:21); 1784/09/10 (to "Our Brethren in America"; Jackson 13:251; Telford 7:238); 1785/04/19 (to an anonymous clergyman;

Jackson 13:253). Wesley's edition of Cave includes a discussion of ordination in the ancient church which holds that ordinations were performed by the imposition of hands, by all the bishops of a province, or at least by two of them, if all the rest gave their consent in writing: Primitive Christianity I:VII:9 (CL! 31:198-199). Wesley's acknowledgement of the ministerial orders of the European Reformed churches comes in the Minutes of the Annual Conference of 1747, as recorded in John Bennet's copy (Publications of the Wesley

Historical Society 1 (London, 1896): 48).

101. Letters 1780/06/08 (to Chas. Wesley; Jackson 12:147; Telford 7:21).

102. Letters 1784/09/10 (to "Our Brethren in America"; Telford 7:238).

103. Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist

Episcopal Church in America, with Explanatory Notes (Philadelphia: Henry Tuckniss, 1798),

. 45-46.

104. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 3:8 (Ms. Colman 15:19; cf.

1798 edn., p. 12); 8:4 (Ms. Colman 15:31; cf. 1798 edn., p. 23).

105. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VIII:5 (CL! 31:196).

106. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:125-126).

107. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley (1682 edn., I:222, 248-250; cf. CL! 31:195,

200).

NOTES TO PAGES 94-97

108. The two examples cited are from the Epistle to the Magnesians, chs. 2 and 3

(Wake [2]:128-129; cf. CL! 1:42). Other examples are tabulated in Campbell, "John Wesley's

Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity," Appendix 4.

109. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" IX:4 (Jackson 8:263); Cave,

Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I: VIII:6 (CL! 31:196197).

110. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" XI:4 and XIII:3 Jackson 8:263,

265); Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:115, 120); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VIII:11 (CL! 31:199-200).

111. [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, III:II:II:4 (1781 edn., 1:130131); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VIII:7-8 (CL! 31:197-198).

112. Ibid. I:X:6-7 (CL! 31:211-215); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed.

Wesley, 3:8 (1798 edn., p. 12); [(Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, I:II:IV:8

(1781 edn., 1:71).

113. "Serious Thoughts concerning Godfathers and Godmothers" 1 (Jackson 10:506);

Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:X:2 and 7 (CL! 31:203, 212); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 3:8 (1798 edn., p. 12). The authority generally given for the use of baptismal sponsors is Tertullian.

114. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:X:4 and 7 (CL! 31:209, 213-215);

[Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, II:II:III:9 (1781 edn., 1:106-107).

115. Cave, Primitive Christianity, (1682 edn., 1:310-311; cf. CL?! 31:210).

116. "Serious Thoughts concerning Godfathers and Godmothers," passim (Jackson 10:506-509).

117. Sunday Service (1784 edn., p. 142; 1788 edn., p. 145).

118. Wesley omitted from his edition of the Macarian homilies a passage explaining the spiritual presence of Christ in the eucharistic elements (Homily 27; Primitive Morality, p. 353), but this would appear too isolated to indicate much of how Wesley understood ancient beliefs about the eucharist.

119. [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, I:II:IV:4, I:ILII:8 (1781 edn.,

1:69, 106); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, 1:XI:1 (CL! 31:216-217).

120. Both of these observations are based upon Justin Martyr's account: "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:3, IV:IV:4 Jackson 10:8-9, 48); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed.

Wesley, I:X1:6 (CL! 31:223); Wesley, Letters 1789/06/12 (to the printer of the Dublin

Chronicle; Telford 8:143).

121. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:XI:2 (CL? 31:217).

122. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:134); [Mosheim],

Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, ILII:IIl:4 (1781 edn., 1:103); Cave, Primitive

Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VII:1-3 (CL! 31:185-187). The passage from Cave regards the observation of Lord's Day as being of apostolic origin.

123. Ibid. (1682 edn., 1:333-334; cf. CL! 31:216-217); [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical

History, ed. Wesley, II:II-III:8 (1781 edn., 1:106).

124. Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley (1682 edn., 1:335-337, 342; cf. CL131:217,

219).

125. Cf. Explanatory Notes on the New Testament, note on Rev. 1:10 (London: Epworth

Press, 1976; p. 939); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VII:1-3 (CL! 31:185-187).

126. Cave, Primitive Christianity (1682 edn., 1:163-164; cf. CL! 31:185), See comments on the practice in Chapter 3.

127. Ibid. (1682 edn., 1:173-179); [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley,

TL:04 (1781 edn., 1:103).

128. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" VI:5-6 (Jackson 8:258-259; Telford 2:302); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 2:6 (1798 edn., p. 9);

Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:130); Cave, Primitive Chris-

NOTES TO PAGES 97-108

tianity, ed. Wesley, I:XI:5 (CL! 31:219-220); [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed.

Wesley, I:IL:IV:7 (1781 edn., 1:71).

129, [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 2:6 (1798 edn., p. 9);

Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:130); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:XI:5 (CL! 31:219-220).

130. [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, L:II:II:5, V:ILIV:3 (1781 edn.,

131. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" VI:5 Jackson 8:258-259; Telford

2:302).

132. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" III:1 Jackson 8:255); Horneck,

"Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:134-135).

133. Ibid. IIT:1 Jackson 8:255).

134. Sermons 27:1:6

Jackson 5:347; Sugden 1:454; Outler 1:596-597); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 5:1 (1798 edn., p. 14); Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:134); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VII:4 (CL!

31:187); [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, I:II:IV:10 (1781 edn., 1:72).

Mosheim regarded the Wednesday and Friday fasts as being of first-century, if not apostolic, origin.

135. Sermons 27:1:6 Jackson 5:347; Sugden 1:454; Outler 1:596-597); [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 3:6 and 5:1 (1798 edn., pp. 11 and 14); Cave, Primitive

Christianity, ed. Wesley, 1:VII:5 (CL! 31:187-188).

136. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29:118, 130; cf. Happy

Ascetick4, p. 586).

137. "Large Minutes," Qu. 35 (Jackson 8:316-317); Minutes 1748/06/05 (Publications of the Wesley Historical Society 1[1896]:56).

138. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists: I:8 jackson 8:250).

139. Sermons 116:14 (Jackson 7:288-289; Outler 4:94).

140. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" I:8 (Jackson 10:20); [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, II:II:III:5 (1781 edn., 1:103-104); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed.

Wesley, I:VII:609 (CL! 31:188-191).

141. [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, IV:II:IV:5 (1781 edn., 1:186);

Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, 1:VII:7-9 (CL! 31:189-191; cf. 1682 edn., pp. 195197).

142. "Letter to Conyers Middleton" [C]:3, 5 Jackson 10:9-10); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, I:VII:10 (CL! 31:191); Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed.

Wesley (CL! 29:134).

143. [Mosheim], Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, IV:II:IV:5 (1781 edn., 1:186).

144. "Martyrdom of Ignatius" 13-15 (Wake [2]:228-229; cf. CL! 1:71); "Martyrdom of Polycarp" 17-19, 21 (Wake [2]:248-249, 251; cf. CL! 1:77, 78).

145. Journal 1774/03/30 Jackson 4:38; Curnock 6:54), 146. Ibid. 1777/03/30 (Jackson 4:95; Curnock 6:54).

147. R. Denny Urlin cited both passages as examples of Wesley's continuing interest in ancient Christian liturgy (John Wesley's Place in Church History, p. 68, n. 1).

148. [Fleury], Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, 2:5 (1798 edn., p. 9); Cave

Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, 1:VI:2 and I:IX:2 (CL! 31:180, 202); [Mosheim], Concise

Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, II:II:IV:4 (1781 edn., 1:137).

149. Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley (CL! 29;132).

150. Ibid. (29:117, 129-130); Cave, Primitive Christianity, ed. Wesley, 1:IX:1 (CL!

31:201).

NOTES TO PAGES 109-115

Chapter 6 1. The terms are those of Congar, p. 185.

2. Farther Appeal, Part I V:15 (Cragg, p. 154).

3. Preface to Pine edition of Works, par. 4 (given in Jackson 1:iv); Sermons 132:

II:14

(jackson 7:423-425; Outler 3:585).

4. "Farther Thoughts on Separation from the Church" 1-2 (Jackson 13:272-274).

5. Given in Outler, John Wesley, p. 46.

6. [Mosheim,] Concise Ecclesiastical History, ed. Wesley, III:II:V:1 (1781 edn., 1:145);

Journal 1750/08/15 (Jackson 2:204; Curnock 3:490).

7. Sermons 132:1I:3 (Jackson 7:424; Outler 3:586).

8. For example, in the poem "Primitive Christianity," I:9-10 (Cragg, p. 91).

9, "Letter to Conyers Middleton" C:10 (Jackson 10:11).

10. Preface to Apostolic Fathers in CL! 1:i.

11. Farther Appeal, Part I v:15-23 (Cragg, pp. 154-166).

12. [Fleury,] Manners of the Ancient Christians, ed. Wesley, passim; Horneck, "Letter to a Person of Quality," ed. Wesley, passim.

13. Letters 1756/07/03 (to the Rev. Mr. Clarke; Jackson 13:211; Telford 3:182).

14. Ibid., "Large Minutes," qu. 35 (Jackson 8:316-317); Minutes 1748/06/05 (Publications of the Wesley Historical Society 1 [1896]: 56); "Plain Account of the People Called

Methodists" I:8 (Jackson 8:250).

15. "Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" I:1-10 (jackson 8:249-250).

16. Sermons 132:11:3-4 (Jackson 7:424—425; Outler 3:586).

17. "Farther Thoughts on Separation from the Church" 1-2 (Jackson 13:272-274).

18. Sermons 13:1:3 (Jackson 5:145; Sugden 2:361; Outler 1:317-318).

19. Sermons 132:II:4 (Jackson 7:425; Outler 3:586).

20. Ms. "Ought We to Separate from the Church of England?" in Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England, p. 327.

21. Ibid., pp. 327-328.

22. Farther Appeal, Part I, I1:1-9, 1V:3-5, V:24-26 (Cragg, pp. 108-116, 133-137, 166—- 170).

23. Kenneth D. Rowe, "The Search for the Historical Wesley," in Kenneth D. Rowe, ed., The Place of Wesley in the Christian Tradition (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press,

1976), pp. 1-10. Albert C. Outler's plenary address at the 1982 Oxford Institute of Methodist

Theological Studies referred to the last century of monographic studies attempting to place Wesley with respect to particular aspects of the Christian tradition as "stage two"

Wesley studies ("stage one" was the period in the nineteenth century when Wesley was portrayed as a Methodist folk-hero): Outler, "A New Future for Wesley Studies: An Agenda for 'Phase III,'" in M. Douglas Meeks, ed., The Future of the Methodist Theological

Traditions (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985), pp. 34-52.

24. An example would be Frank Baker's study of John Wesley and the Church of England (1970).

25. Urlin, John Wesley's Place in Church History and Churchman's Life of Wesley, passim.

26. Eamon Duffy, for instance, asserted that in 1738 Wesley abandoned the ideal of "primitive" Christianity for that of "real" Christianity: pp. 299-300.

27. Theodore M. Runyon, ed., Sanctification and Liberation (Nashville: Abingdon Press,

1981); cf. especially the editor's introduction, pp. 9-48).

28. Howard A. Snyder, The Radical Wesley and Patterns for Church Renewal (Downer's

Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1980).

29. In his plenary address at the 1982 Oxford Institute for Methodist Theological

Studies (see note 67 above), Professor Outler proposed a "Phase III" of Wesley studies in

NOTES TO PAGES 116-120

which Wesley would be understood with respect to the Christian tradition as a whole;

Outler, "A New Future for Wesley Studies," passim.

30. Cf. Benedicta Ward, trans., Sayings of the Desert Fathers [Apothegmata Patrum]

(Oxford: Mowbrays, 1975), p. 24; Athanasius, The Life of Anthony and the Letter to Marcellinus

[the former work is the Vita Antonii referred to in the text], trans. Robert C. Gregg (New

York: Paulist Press, 1980); Jacques Lacarriére, Men Possessed by God: The Story of the Desert

Monks of Ancient Christendom (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1964).

31. M. D. Lambert, Franciscan Poverty: The Doctrine of the Absolute Poverty of Christ and the Apostles in the Franciscan Order, 1210-1323 (London: SPCK, 1961), esp. chs. 1 and 2.

32. Franklin H. Littell, The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism (New York: The Macmillan

Co., revised edition, 1964; originally published in 1952 as The Anabaptist View of the Church), pp. 46-78.

33. Spener, pp. 76-86.

34, Henry Offley Wakefield, An Introduction to the History of the Church of England

(London: Rivington's, 8th edn., 1919), pp. 438-440.

35. Herbert Brook Workman, The Place of Methodism in the Catholic Church, 2nd edn.

(London: Epworth Press, 1921), pp. 61-75.

36. Piette, p. 480.

37. Schmidt, John Wesley: A Theological Biography, 2/1:125-126.

38. Anthony F. C. Wallace, "Revitalization Movements," American Anthropologist 58

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Stoeffler, F. Ernest. German Pietism during the Eighteenth Century. Studies in the History of Religions, no. 24. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973.

. The Rise of Evangelical Pietism. Studies in the History of Religions, no. 9. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965.

. 'Tradition and Renewal in the Ecclesiology of John Wesley." In Bernd Jaspert, ed. Traditio, Krisis, Renovatio als theologischer Sicht: Festschrift

Winfried Zeller. Marburg, Elwert, 1976, pp. 298-316.

Sykes, Norman. From Sheldon to Secker: Aspects of English Church History, 1660— 1768. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959.

. William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1657-1737. 2 vols.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957.

Temple, Sir William. The Works of Sir William Temple, bart. 4 vols. Edinburgh:

G. Hamilton et al., 1754.

Thompson, Edgar W. Wesley: Apostolic Man: Some Reflections on Wesley's Consecration of Dr. Thomas Coke. London: The Epworth Press, 1957.

Turner, Victor. "Metaphors of Anti-Structure in Religious Culture." In Alan W. Eister, ed. Changing Perspectives in the Scientific Study of Religion (New

York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974), pp. 63-84.

Tyerman, Luke. The Life and Times of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, M. A. London:

Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1866.

Urlin, R. Denny. The Churchman's Life of Wesley. London: SPCK, revised edition, 1880.

. John Wesley's Place in Church History. London: Rivington's, 1870.

Vatro, Murvar. "Toward a Sociological Theory of Religious Movements."

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 14 (September 1975): 229-256.

Vogt, Evon Z. "Culture Change." In David L. Sills, ed. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: The Macmillan Co. and the Free Press, 1968, 3:554-558.

Wake, William, trans. The Genuine Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers. London:

Richard Sare, 1693.

Wakefield, Gordon S. "La Littérature du Désert chez John Wesley." Irenikon 51 (1978): 155-170.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wakefield, Henry Offley. An Introduction to the History of the Church in England.

London: Rivington's, revised edition, 1919.

Wallace, Anthony F. C. "Revitalization Movements." American Anthropologist 58 (1956): 264-281.

Ward, Benedicta, trans. Sayings of the Desert Fathers [Apothegmata Patruml.

Oxford: Mowbrays, 1975.

Weinlick, John R. Count Zinzendorf. New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1961.

Welsby, Paul A. Lancelot Andrewes, 1555-1626. London: SPCK, 1958.

Wesley, John, editor. A Christian Library: Consisting of Extracts from and Abridgements of the Choicest Pieces of Practical Divinity which have been

Published in the English Language. 50 vols. Bristol: Felix Farley, 1749-1755.

. 30 vols. London: 1819.

, and Charles Wesley. Hymns and Sacred Poems. London: William Strahan, 1739.

. John Wesley's Forty-Four Sermons. London: Epworth Press, 1944.

. The Journal of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M. Ed. Nehemiah Curnock.

8 vols. New York: Eaton and Mains, 1938.

. Journal and Diaries. Edited by W. Reginald Ward and Richard P.

Heitzenrater. The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley, vols.

18ff. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988.

. Letters. Edited by Frank Baker. The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley, vols. 25ff. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

. The Letters of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M. Edited by John Telford.

London: Epworth Press, 1931.

. ms. "Canons." A single sheet with 2 pages on each side, in the Methodist Archives, the John Rylands University Library, Manchester.

. ms. "Constitutions." A single sheet containing notes on the Apostolic Constitutions, in the Methodist Archives, the John Rylands

University Library, Manchester.

. ms. diaries. Wesley's diaries are largely included in the mss. of the Colman collection, in the Methodist Archives, the John Rylands

University Library, Manchester. I have cited the diaries in this work by date, then (in parentheses), by ms. name, volume, and page number(s).

BEBOTOGRAP HEY on nt se al ree _ms. "Different Views of Christianity." A 4-page ms. dated 25

January 1738 recounting the intellectual settings of Wesley's dig ing search, in the Wesley materials at Wesley College, Bristol.

"Of the Weekly Fasts of the Church." A ms. in the third Georgia diary (Ms. Colman 15), in the Methodist Archives, the John Rylands

University Library, Manchester.

. Sermons. Edited by Albert C. Outler. 4 vols. The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley, vols. 1-4. Nashville: Abingdon

Press, 1984-1987.

. The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America. London:

[Strahan,] 1784.

, and Charles Wesley. The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley.

Edited by George Osborn. 13 vols. London: Wesleyan Methodist Conference Office, 1868.

. Wesley's Standard Sermons. Edited by Edward H. Sugden. 2 vols.

London: Epworth Press, third edition, 1951.

. The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M. Edited by Thomas Jackson. 14 vols. London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1872.

Wesley, Samuel. Advice to a Young Clergyman, in a Letter to Him. London: C.

Rivington, 1735.

. Dissertationes in Librum Jobi. London: William Bowyer, 1736.

. The Young Student's Library. London: John Dunton, 1692.

Williams, Colin. John Wesley's Theology Today. New York and Nashville:

Abingdon Press, 1960.

Williams, George Huntston. The Radical Reformation. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1962.

Williams, Glanmor. Reformation Views of Church History. Ecumenical Studies in History, no. 11. Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1970.

Williams, John. A Catechism truly Representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome, with an Answer Thereunto. London: R. Chiswell, 1686; reprint ed., University Microfilms International, "Early English Books,

1641-1700" series, reel 951.

Wood, Laurence W. Pentecostal Grace. Wilmore, Kentucky: Francis Asbury Press, 1980.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Workman, Herbert B. The Place of Methodism in the Catholic Church. London:

Epworth Press, second edition, 1921.

. The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal. Boston: Beacon Press, 1962.

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Index Abstinence Alexandria, ancient church of Ambrose Apologists (second century) Apostles' Creed Apostolic Canons see "Fasting and abstinence"

52, 92-93, 106 beh) 13-14, 31 48,78

39, 40, 41, 114, 125 13, 24, 31, 35, 45, 48, 64, 74-75, 83 see "Episcopacy and ordination"

41,126 and Constitutions Apostolic Fathers Apostolic succession Arianism and Neo-Arianism Arminianism Arnobius Articles of Religion of the Church of England Asceticism in ancient 41,112 Christianity Assurance of pardon Athanasian Creed Athanasius Athenagoras Augustine of Hippo 36, 115-116 65, 107, 126 41, 78-79, 105 17, 24, 80, 110, 126 41,126 10, 19, 25, 26, 29, 32, 41, 49, 50, 59, 63, 75, 77, 83, 105, 110, 126-127 108-113 Authority of antiquity 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 95-96, 108 17127 19, 24, 41, 46-47, 50, 51, 127 60-61 18, 19, 24, 25, 31, 38, 121-122, 124 2,51, 75-76, 111, 116, 117 18, 29, 37, 51, 112 15, 24, 25, 26, 38 Baptism Barnabas (Pseudo-, epistle) Basil (the Great) Bernard of Clairvaux Beveridge, William Bible Book of Common Prayer Bull, George

INDEX 10-11, 12, 104 18, 36, 74, 86 Cartwright, Thomas Catechesis, catechumenate Catholicism Cave, William see "Roman Catholicism"

10, 19, 21, 25, 27, 35, 45, 48, 56, 67, 70, 83, 87, 94, 95, 96, 97, 100, 107, 108

Celibacy Chalcedon Charity Christ "Christian antiquity" (term) Chrismation and confirmation Christian perfection Christmas, observance of Chrysostom see "Holiness and Sanctification"

19, 24, 25, 29, 41, 46-47, 50, 51,59, 61, 77, 105, 110, 127-128 48,50, 120 2,51, 109, 112-113 7-9, 119 28, 29, 37 3, 17, 20, 29, 31, 41, 42, 46-47, 49,51, 57, 65, 66, 67, 69, 128 17, 27, 31, 35, 41, 46-47, 48, 51, 63, 64, 65, 70, 128 87-88 Church buildings Church of England Classical revival Clayton, John Clement of Alexandria Clement of Rome Community of possessions Confirmation Conservative uses of see "Chrismation and confirmation"

Christian antiquity Constantine Councils, ancient Cyprian 11-15, 21, 104, 105 47, 49-50, 52, 85, 88 24, 38, 49, 75, 78-79, 103 15, 17, 20, 29, 41, 46-47, 49,51, 128-129 Cyril of Alexandria _— > =" Kod NO eS) \o ~ = Daillé, Jean Deacon, Thomas Deaconesses Dead, prayers on behalf of Deism and Socinianism Dionysius of Alexandria Dionysius the Areopagite 2, 80, 81, 104, 105 41,129 (Pseudo-) Donatism 41,129 77, 80, 83, 106

INDEX Easter, observance of Eastern Christianity Elders Enlightenment Enthusiasm Ephraem Syrus Epiclesis Epiphanius Epiphany, observance of Episcopacy and ordination 30, 99-100, 114

see "Presbyters, priests"

8, 137 (n. 1) 42-43, 60-61 19, 27, 35, 41, 46-47, 50, 51, 129

29, 41, 129-130 99, 108 34-35, 36, 37, 43, 44, 50, 51-52, 89-93, 105, 107 36, 96 17, 19, 24, 41, 130 77, 80 81-86 58-62, 107 82, 89 Eucharist Eusebius of Caesarea Eutychianism Evangelism Experience, religious Extraordinary ministry Faith Fasting and abstinence

26, 30, 31-32, 33, 35, 36, 68, 98-99, 108, 111, 121-124 99-100, 108 79, 105 19, 35-36, 37, 44-45, 47, 56, 67, 76, 82, 83, 87, 107, 111

116, 118

Festivals of ancient church Filioque clause Fleury, Claude Footwashing Franciscans Fronteau, Jean 34-40 42, 66, 67,77 19, 130 Georgia Gnosticism Gregory of Nazianzen 10, 76-78 31, 130 Heresy, heretics Hermas (the "Shepherd" of) Homilies of the Church of England Hooker, Richard Holiness and sanctification Horneck, Anthony 41,112 11,12 45, 65-67 20, 30, 45, 56-57, 67, 70, 76, 83, 98, 100, 111 29, 36, 100 Hours of prayer

INDEX 10, 14, 17, 19, 20, 41, 46-47, 48, 51, 65, 66, 70, 80-81, 93-94, 99, 106, 130 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, 95 17, 29, 35, 130 Ignatius of Antioch Immersion Irenaeus 25, 41, 50, 59, 85, 92-93, 110, 130-131

13, 17, 19, 26, 29, 41, 48, 96, 131-132 Jerome Jewel, John Justin Martyr 16-17, 43, 52, 90-91 King, Peter 31, 131-132 16-17, 43, 52, 90-91, 104 30, 108, 114 30-31, 32, 39-40 see "Worship"

29, 96, 97 see "Eucharist"

97-98, 108 Lactantius Latitudinarianism Lent, observance of Lérins, Vincent of Liturgy Lord's Day and Sabbath Lord's Supper Love feasts 4, 19-20, 35, 41, 45, 46-47, 50, 51, 62-63, 65, 66-67, 70, 79, 132

18, 30, 87 see "Persecution and martyrdom"

44,45, 46, 48, 57,71, 74, 83-85, 108, 110 13, 17, 20, 132 44, 46, 50, 83-86 115-116 50, 68 see "Eutychianism"

77, 80, 84, 106 49-50, 52, 84-85 18-20 37-38, 99, 108, 118 45-46, 48, 50, 56, 67, 70-71, 78, 83, 84, 89, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97 Macarius of Egypt (Pseudo-) Manicheanism Marshall, Nathaniel Martyrdom Middleton, Conyers Minucius Felix Miracles Monasticism Money, wealth and poverty Monophysitism Montanism Moral decline Moral discipline Moravians Mosheim, Johann Lorenz von 15, 25, 26, 28, 34 77,80 Nelson, Robert Nestorianism

INDEX 24, 38, 39, 47, 49, 78, 105 28-33, 37, 40, 104, 113-114, 118

Nicea, creed and council of Non-Jurors Novatian see "Episcopacy and ordination" see "Way of salvation"

Ordination Ordo salutis Origen 17, 19, 20, 27, 41, 46-47, 49, 51,59, 61, 65, 118, 132-133 74-76 x 26-28 Orthodoxy, doctrinal Outler, Albert C.

Oxford, Oxford University Pearson, John Pelagianism, Pelagius Penance, penitence Pentecost, observance of Perfection Persecution and martyrdom Pietism, Pietists Pliny the Younger -Polemical uses of Christian 9, 10, 13, 14, 24, 25, 38 64,77 18, 36, 44, 74, 107-108

see "Holiness and sanctification"

36, 48-49, 83, 99 37-38, 104, 114, 116, 118 17, 19, 86 20-21, 104, 105 89-94 20, 35, 41, 46-47, 48, 51, 64, 65, 99, 133 see "Money, wealth, and poverty"

63-64, 77, 105 36, 51, 93-94 26-27 antiquity Polity, ecclesiastical Polycarp of Smyrna Poverty Predestination Presbyters, priests "Primitive Christianity"

Programmatic uses of Christian antiquity Puritanism, Puritans 15-20, 21, 33, 104-105, 105-108 10, 12, 90 114-115 13-15, 31 F012 14-15, 69-70, 90, 105 Radicalism Reeves, William Reformation Roman Catholicism 24,77, 80 see "Lord's Day"

36, 95-96 43,59, 109 43, 58-59, 60, 61 73,74, 86-87, 106 Sabellianism Sabbath Sign of the cross Smallbroke, Richard Smith, John (pseudonym) Societies

INDEX Socinianism Spangenberg, August Gottlieb Spener, Philipp Jakob Sponsors, baptismal Standing for prayer Stillingfleet, Edward see "Deism"

34, 35, 90, 106 19, 116, 118 95-96, 108 30, 33 16, 25, 35, 43, 52, 91-92

13,47, 19, 20,2944; 46-47, 49,51, 108, 133 11, 20, 104 133-134 41, 134 109, 115-118 79-81 Tatian Tertullian Tew Circle Theodoret Theophilus of Antioch Tradition Trinity 10, 14 Ussher, James Vigils Virtues, Christian 32-33, 98, 106 68-71 Wake, William Watches, watchnights Way of salvation Wesley, Charles Wesley, Samuel Whiston, William Worship 13, 26, 31, 45 see "Vigils"

55, 62 8-9, 42 23-26 17,79 17-18, 51, 94-100

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Campbell, Tede John Wesley and Christian antiquity : religious vision and cultural change / Ted Ae Campbelle -—- Nashville, Tenne :

Kingswood Books, c1991e X,

pe 5; 23 cme Revision of the author's thesis (Phe SES "Tis "a jeot sora ah eae University,

Includes bibliographical references (pe 159-169) and indexe

ISBN 0-687-204352-1

(alke paper ) le Wesley, John, 1703-1791. e Christianity—-Early church, cae 30-600.- | 3e Fathers of the churche 4e Wesley, John, 1703-1791-—Knowledge-——Early Christian Lit eraturee 5e Wesley, John, 1703-17 )91--Knowledge-—Fathers of the church ~~" e Ie Title 9h REAR AD 9232256416 CaTMwe O14 9712 Ao059573 onoen

JOHN WESLEY AND

CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY

RELIGIOUS VISION AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Ted A. Campbell This important study offers a new and critical way of understanding Wesley and the larger phenomenon of the eighteenth-century evangelical revival. Campbell argues that Christian antiquity functioned for Wesley as an alternative cultural vision for religious renewal, much in the same way that classical antiquity served as a cultural model for secular Enlightenment thinkers of the eighteenth century.

Campbell examines the thought of John Wesley against the background of classical and Christian revivalism in the eighteenth century and shows how "classical antiquity" had become a focus of controversy in British religious conflicts of the mid—seventeenth century, as well as a source of renewal for the Church in the later seventeenth century. After examining the influence on and development of Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity, Campbell outlines Wesley's conception of early

Christian history and examines Wesley's uses of Christian antiquity as a pattern for individual and communal life.

Avoiding conventional notions of cultural conservatism and radicalism, Campbell articulates a vision of Wesley as a complex figure who consciously sought for cultural change by appeal to his own culture's most distinctive roots.

TED A. CAMPBELL is Assistant Professor of Church History, The Divinity School, Duke University. er

KINGSWOOD BOOKS

ISBN

9 178068 I

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