To Freeborn Garrettson

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best constituted national Church in the world) which I advise all the travelling preachers to use on the Lord's Day in all their congregations, reading the Litany only on Wednesdays and Fridays and praying extempore on all other days. I also advise the elders to administer the Supper of the Lord on every Lord's Day.

5. If any one will point out a more rational and scriptural way of feeding and guiding those poor sheep in the wilderness, I will gladly embrace it. At present I cannot see any better method than that I have taken.

6. It has, indeed, been proposed to desire the English bishops to ordain part of our preachers for America. But to this I object: (i) I desired the Bishop of London to ordain only one but could not prevail; (2) if they consented, we know the slowness of their proceedings; but the matter admits of no delay; (3) if they would ordain them now, they would likewise expect to govern them. And how grievously would this entangle us! (4) As our American brethren are now totally disentangled both from the state and from the English hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again either with the one or the other. They are now at full liberty simply to follow the Scriptures and the primitive church. And we judge it best that they should stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has so strangely made them free.

London, January 24, 1789 My Dear Brother, It signifies but little where we are, so we are but fully employed for our good Master. Whether you went, therefore, to the east, it is all one, i. Cf. Letters, VIII, 111-12. At eighty-six Wesley's prodigious vitality began finally to fail. His letters become shorter, his handwriting, barely legible, and something of a testy temper shows through upon occasion, as it does here. Garrettson was a pioneer Methodist preacher from Maryland, who had ranged up and down the Atlantic seaboard from North Carolina to Nova Scotia in an arduous, effective ministry. At Wesley's request, he had dispatched his manuscript journal to Wesley for possible inclusion in The Arminian Magazine — and it had been lost in shipwreck! His phrase,

"finding freedom" (i.e. in preaching), was in common American speech, denoting the preacher's experience of charismatic power in utterance. The man who here berates

Garrettson for walking by whim and not rule was the same one who had had to defend himself against charges of "enthusiasm." Despite its symptoms of senility, this letter serves as an occasion for Wesley to reaffirm yet once again his lifelong ideal:

"a scriptural, rational Christian."

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so you were labouring to promote his work. You are following the order of his providence wherever it appeared, as an holy man strongly expressed it, in a kind of holy disordered order. But there is one expression that occurs twice or thrice in yours which gives me some concern: you speak of finding "freedom" to do this or that. This is a word much liable to be abused. If I have plain Scripture or plain reason for doing a thing, well. These are my rules, and my only rules. I regard not whether I have freedom or no. This is an unscriptural expression and a very fallacious rule. I wish to be in every point, great and small, a scriptural, rational

Christian.

In one instance formerly you promised to send me your journal. Will you break your word because you do not find "freedom" to keep it? Is not this enthusiasm? O be not of this way of thinking! You know not whither it may lead you. You are called to Square your useful life below By reason and by grace.2

But whatever you do with regard to me you must do quickly, or you will no more in this world.

Balam, February 24, 1791 Dear Sir, Unless the divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra

2. A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780), DXII, st. 3. i. Cf. Letters, VIII, 265. This note, written just a week before Wesley's death, reechoes a long-standing moral concern, first expressed in his vigorous opposition to the introduction of slavery into the Georgia colony. Throughout his ministry he was active in the antislavery campaign in England and threw his weight behind the efforts of Wilberforce, Clarkson, Howard and others to ban it throughout the Empire. (Cf. Thomas Clarkson, History of ... the Abolition of the African SlaveTrade . . . [1808], I, 447 ff.) In America, it became a badge of virtue amongst the Methodists for a slaveholding convert to free his slaves. (Cf. Abel Stevens, A Compendious History of American Methodism [New York, n.d.], 125-26, 135.)

In 1774 Wesley published a tract entitled Thoughts Upon Slavery (Works, XI, 59-79), which was reprinted and widely distributed in England and America. It was represented to be his own production (cf. Letters, VIII, 6, 7, 276) — and its vivid

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mundum? I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villany 3 which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a "law" in all our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villany is this?

That he who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir,

Your affectionate servant, sentiments certainly are. Actually, however, it was an abridgment of Some Historical Account of Guinea, which had been published in Philadelphia in 1771 by Anthony Benezet, an American Quaker. In judging such a literary "borrowing," it is useful to realize that Wesley and his eighteenth-century colleagues generally understood this as a form of endorsement. When he found something that said what he wanted to say, he felt free to make it available to those who might not otherwise have seen it. This is the case, for example, with his Calm Address to Our American

Colonies (1775), borrowed from Samuel Johnson, Taxation No Tyranny; A Treatise on Baptism (see below, p. 317ff.), and A Roman Catechism (1756), abridged from a treatise of a similar title by Bishop John Williams of Chichester (1686), in Works,

2. "Athanasius arrayed against the world"; cf. R. Hooker, Of The Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie (1593-97), V, sec. 42.

3. Cf. Thoughts Upon Slavery; see also Wesley's correspondence with the other leaders of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, in Letters, VIII, 6, 17, 23, 194, 207,

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Editor's introduction. In his lifetime Wesley was best known as a preacher, and himself preferred to be known and judged by his sermons.

In the Model Deed, which he drew up in 1763 to govern the legal arrangements for the Methodist preaching houses, the principal stipulation is a doctrinal one: "Provided always that the persons [admitted to a given pulpit by the Trustees] preach no other doctrine than is contained in Mr. Wesley's Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and four volumes of sermons." l The sermons in these four volumes add up to forty-four. In the first four volumes of his Works (1771) Wesley included nine others, making a total of fifty-three. In the last collected edition of his sermons issued in his lifetime (in eight volumes, 1787-88), the first four volumes retain the original forty-four, and these have remained as doctrinal "standards" in Methodist law.2 Besides the Sermons on Several Occasions, Wesley published others in The Arminian Magazine and elsewhere, so that the inclusive number of his sermons in the Jackson edition runs to one hundred and fifty-one.3

Throughout Wesley's preaching the man and his message illuminate each other. As exemplars of this, the Preface to the first collection of Sermons and two of the actual sermons will suffice. "Catholic Spirit" is both a precis of Wesley's ecumenical design and an exhibition of his theological temper. "God's Vineyard" is an autobiographical rehearsal of the history of the Methodist movement, together with a summary appraisal of Methodist doctrine and discipline.

As he himself implies in the Preface, Wesley's published sermons were 1. I.e. Sermons on Several Occasions, I (1746); II (1748); III (1750); IV (1760).

For the text of the Model Deed, see Works, VIII, 330-31.

2. For a discussion of the historical and legal details of this question, see Sermons

(Sugden), I, 13-26; II, 331-40.

3. Works, V-VII.

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not identical with the ones he actually preached. For example, the sermon on "Christian Perfection" was probably never preached in the form in which it appears here; moreover, in his "sermon register" 4 we find the record of hundreds of sermons preached but never published. He usually preached without notes and sometimes for an hour or longer. After a text and theme had fully matured in his preaching of it, he would write out what might well be called a sermonic essay — thus putting his doctrine in this area or that on the record. Read in this light, the published sermons do expound "what these doctrines are which I embrace and teach as the essentials of true religion." 5

Preface to Sermons on Several Occasions1 1. The following Sermons contain the substance of what I have been preaching for between eight and nine years last past. During that time I have frequently spoken in public on every subject in the ensuing collection; and I am not conscious that there is any one point of doctrine on which I am accustomed to speak in public which is not here, incidentally if not professedly, laid before every Christian reader. Every serious man who peruses these will therefore see, in the clearest manner, what these doctrines are which I embrace and teach as the essentials of true religion.

2. But I am thoroughly sensible these are not proposed in such a manner as some may expect. Nothing here appears in an elaborate, elegant or oratorical dress. If it had been my desire or design to write thus, my leisure would not permit. But, in truth, I, at present, designed nothing less; for I now write, as I generally speak, ad populum ("to the bulk of mankind"), to those who neither relish nor understand the art of speaking, but who, notwithstanding, are competent judges of those truths which are necessary to present and future happiness. I mention this that •urious readers may spare themselves the labour of seeking for what they will not find.

3. I design plain truth for plain people. Therefore, of set purpose, I 4. See Journal, VIII, 171-252.

5. For comments and annotations on Sermons I-LIII, see Sermons (Sugden). i. Volume I; written in 1745; published in 1746.

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abstain from all nice and philosophical speculations, from all perplexed and intricate reasonings and, as far as possible, from even the show of learning, unless in sometimes citing the original Scriptures. I labour to avoid all words which are not easy to be understood, all which are not used in common life and, in particular, those kinds of technical terms that so frequently occur in bodies of divinity — those modes of speaking which men of reading are intimately acquainted with but which to common people are an unknown tongue. Yet I am not assured that I do not sometimes slide into them unawares; it is so extremely natural to imagine that a word which is familiar to ourselves is so to all the world.

4. Nay, my design is, in some sense, to forget all that ever I have read in my life. I mean to speak, in the general, as if I had never read one author, ancient or modern (always excepting the inspired). I am persuaded that, on the one hand, this may be a means of enabling me more clearly to express the sentiments of my heart while I simply follow the chain of my own thoughts, without entangling myself with those of other men; and that, on the other [hand], I shall come with fewer weights upon my mind, with less of prejudice and prepossession, either to search for myself or to deliver to others the naked truths of the gospel.

5. To candid, reasonable men I am not afraid to lay open what have been the inmost thoughts of my heart. I have thought: "I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God: just hovering over the great gulf till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen, I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing: the way to heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri?

Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone — only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book for this end, to find the way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read? Does anything appear dark and intricate? I lift up my heart to the Father of Lights: Lord, is it not thy word, 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God? Thou givest liberally and upbraidest not' [Jas. 1:5],

Thou hast said, 'If any be willing to do thy will, he shall know' [Jn. 7:17].

I am willing to do; let me know thy will." I then search after and consider parallel passages of Scripture, "comparing spiritual things with Copyright © 1980. Oxford University Press USA - OSO. All rights reserved.

2. "A man of only one book"; see above, p. 79; also below, p. 106.

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spiritual" [i Cor. 2:13], I meditate thereon with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable. If any doubt still remains, I consult those who are experienced in the things of God and then the writings whereby being dead they yet speak. And what I thus learn, that I teach.

6. I have accordingly set down in the following sermons what I find in the Bible concerning the way to heaven, with a view to distinguish this way of God from all those which are the inventions of men. I have endeavoured to describe the true, the scriptural, experimental religion, so as to omit nothing which is a real part thereof and to add nothing thereto which is not. And herein it is more especially my desire, first, to guard those who are just setting their faces toward heaven (and who, having little acquaintance with the things of God, are the more liable to be turned out of the way) from formality, from mere outside religion which has almost driven heart-religion out of the world; and, secondly, to warn those who know the religion of the heart, "the faith which worketh by love" [Gal. 5:6], lest at any time they make void the law through faith

[cf. Rom. 3:31] and so fall back into the snare of the devil.

7. By the advice and at the request of some of my friends, I have prefixed to the other sermons contained in this volume three sermons of my own and one of my brother's, preached before the University of Oxford.3

My design required some discourses on those heads, and I preferred these before any others, as being a stronger answer than any which can be drawn up now to those who have frequently asserted that we have changed our doctrine of late and do not preach now what we did some years ago. Any man of understanding may now judge for himself when he has compared the latter with the former sermons.

8. But some may say I have mistaken the way myself, although I take upon me to teach it to others. It is probable many will think this; and it is very possible that I have. But I trust, whereinsoever I have mistaken, my mind is open to conviction. I sincerely desire to be better informed. I say to God and man, "What I know not, teach thou me!"

9. Are you persuaded you see more clearly than me? It is not unlikely that you may. Then treat me as you would desire to be treated yourself upon a change of circumstances. Point me out a better way than I have yet known. Show me it is so by plain proof of Scripture. And if I linger

3. (i) "Salvation by Faith" (June n, 1738); (2) "The Almost Christian" (July 25, 1741); (3) "Scriptural Christianity" (August 24, 1744); (4) "Awake, Thou That Sleepest," by Charles Wesley (Apr. 14, 1742).

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in the path I have been accustomed to tread and therefore am unwilling to leave it, labour with me a little; take me by the hand and lead me as I am able to bear. But be not displeased if I entreat you not to beat me down in order to quicken my pace. I can go but feebly and slowly at best; then,

I should not be able to go at all. May I not request of you, further, not to give me hard names in order to bring me into the right way? Suppose

I was ever so much in the wrong, I doubt this would not set me right.

Rather, it would make me run so much the farther from you and so get more and more out of the way.

10. Nay, perhaps, if you are angry, so shall I be, too; and then there will be small hopes of finding the truth. If once anger arise, r/vre Kairvo? (as Homer somewhere expresses it),4 this smoke will so dim the eyes of my soul that I shall be able to see nothing clearly. For God's sake, if it be possible to avoid it, let us not provoke one another to wrath. Let us not kindle in each other this fire of hell, much less blow it up into a flame.

If we could discern truth by that dreadful light, would it not be loss rather than gain? For how far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself without love? We may die without the knowledge of many truths and yet be carried into Abraham's bosom.

But if we die without love, what will knowledge avail? Just as much as it avails the devil and his angels.

The God of love forbid we should ever make the trial! May he prepare us for the knowledge of all truth by rilling our hearts with all his love and "with all joy and peace in believing" [Rom. 15:13]Copyright © 1980. Oxford University Press USA - OSO. All rights reserved.

Catholic Spirit Editor's introduction. This sermon appears here as in Volume III of Sermons on Several Occasions (1750), collated with the text in Wesley's final revision of the collection in 1787-88 (III, 181-201). It was republished separately in 1755, together with Charles Wesley's hymn, "Catholic

Love." The "sermon register" records the text and theme as having been first developed at Newcastle (September 8, 1749), and again later in the same year at Bristol (November 3, 1749); it appears in Sermons (Sugden), II, 129-46, and Works, V, 492-504.

4. Cf. The Iliad, Bk. XVIII, 1. no: "wrath that, far sweeter than trickling honey, waxeth like smoke in the breasts of men."

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The distinction between "opinion" and essential truth points to the basic difference in Wesley's mind between the fact of faith and all the conceptualizations of faith. In The Character of a Methodist' he had laid down the rule that, "as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think." 2 In A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists 3 he had pushed the point to an extreme — "orthodoxy, or right opinions, is at best a slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part at all" — and this had been fiercely disputed by his critics.4 Ironically enough, some of his defenders have assumed that care for correct doctrine could be safely cast aside — and have suited their actions to this notion. Wesley's point, here and elsewhere, is that religious reality lies deeper than religious conceptuality — as evidenced by those simple but true believers whose "opinions" may be incompetent and those impeccably "orthodox" persons whose hearts nevertheless remain estranged from God and man. Opinions, then, are ways of comprehending (or miscomprehending) reality. The important thing is that reflection upon reality not be confused with reality itself. Wesley is quite specific and quite adamant about the essential doctrines of Christianity— and quite "orthodox"! Yet his "catholic spirit" seeks to find that community of Christians which is constituted by faith and love ("thy

'heart' as my 'heart' "), and which is a necessary precondition to the fruitful negotiation of legitimate differences of opinion and practice.

And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him, and he saluted him, and said to him,

Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand (2 Kings 10:15). i. It is allowed even by those who do not pay this great debt that love is due to all mankind — the royal law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" [Mt. 19:19, 22:39; cfLev. 19:18], carrying its own evidence to all that hear it — and that not according to the miserable construction put upon it by the zealots of old times: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour

(thy relation, acquaintance, friend) and hate thine enemy." Not so. "I i. Works, VIII, 340-47. i. Italics added.

3. Works, VIII, 249-68.

4. Cf. Works, VIII, 244-46, 340; IX, 57-58; X, 347-48; XIII, 215-16.

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say unto you," saith our Lord, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children (may appear so to all mankind) of your Father which is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" [Mt. 5:43-45].

2. But it is sure, there is a peculiar love which we owe to those that love God. So David: "All my delight is upon the saints that are in the earth and upon such as excel in virtue" [cf. Ps. 16:3, B.C.P.j. And so a greater than he: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another"

[Jn. 13:34-35]. This is that love on which the Apostle John so frequently and strongly insists: "This," saith he, "is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another" [i Jn. 3:11]. "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us," and we ought, if love should call us thereto, "to lay down our lives for the brethren" [i Jn. 3:16]. And again: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love"

[ i Jn. 4:7, 8]. "Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" [i Jn. 4: IO-H].

3. All men approve of this, but do all men practice it? Daily experience shows the contrary. Where are even the Christians who love one another as he hath given us commandment? How many hindrances lie in the way?

The two grand, general hindrances are, first, that they cannot all think alike; and, in consequence of this, secondly, they cannot all walk alike; but in several smaller points their practice must differ in proportion to the difference of their sentiments.

4. But although a difference in opinions or modes of worship may prevent an entire external union, yet need it prevent our union in affection?

Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences. These remaining as they are, they may forward one another in love and in good works.

5. Surely in this respect the example of Jehu himself, as mixed a character as he was of, is well worthy both the attention and imitation of every serious Christian. "And when he was departed thence, he lighted

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on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. And he saluted him and said to him, 'Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?'

And Jehonadab answered, 'It is.' 'If it be, give me thine hand.'"

The text naturally divides itself into two parts. First, a question proposed by Jehu to Jehonadab: "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?" Secondly, an offer made on Jehonadab's answering, "It is."

"If it be, give me thine hand."

1. i. And first, let us consider the question proposed by Jehu to Jehonadab, "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?"

The very first thing we may observe in these words is that here is no inquiry concerning Jehonadab's opinions. And yet it is certain he held some which were very uncommon, indeed quite peculiar to himself, and some which had a close influence upon [his] practice; on which, likewise, he laid so great a stress as to entail them upon his children's children, to their latest posterity. This is evident from the account given by Jeremiah, many years after his death:

I took Jaazaniah and his brethren and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites . . . and set before them pots full of wine and cups and said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab (or Jehonadab) the son of Rechab, our father 1 commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever. Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents.

. . . And we have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us [cf. Jer. 35:3-10].

2. And yet Jehu, although it seems to have been his manner, both in things secular and religious, to "drive furiously" [cf. ^ Kings 9:20], does not concern himself at all with any of these things, but lets Jehonadab abound in his own sense. And neither of them appears to have given the other the least disturbance touching the opinions which he maintained.

3. It is very possible that many good men now also may entertain peculiar opinions, and some of them may be as singular herein as even

Jehonadab was. And it is certain, so long as we know but "in part," that all men will not see all things alike. It is an unavoidable consequence of the present weakness and shortness of human understanding that several men will be of several minds, in religion as well as in common life. So it i. [Au.J "It would be less ambiguous if the words were placed thus: 'Jehonadab our father, the son of Rechab,' out of love and reverence to whom he probably desired his descendants might be called by that name."

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has been from the beginning of the world and so it will be "till the restitution of all things" [cf. Acts 3:21].

4. Nay, farther, although every man necessarily believes that every particular opinion which he holds is true (for to believe an opinion is not true is the same thing as not to hold it), yet can no man be assured that all his own opinions, taken together, are true. Nay, every thinking man is assured they are not, seeing humanum est errare et nescire — to be ignorant of many things, and to mistake in some, is the necessary condition of humanity.2 This, therefore, he is sensible is his own case. He knows in the general that he himself is mistaken; although in what particulars he mistakes he does not, perhaps he cannot, know.

5. I say, "perhaps he cannot know," for who can tell how far invincible ignorance may extend or (that comes to the same thing) invincible prejudice, which is often so fixed in tender minds that it is afterwards impossible to tear up what has taken so deep a root? And who can say unless he knew every circumstance attending it, how far any mistake is culpable, seeing all guilt must suppose some concurrence of the will, of which he only can judge who searcheth the heart?

6. Every wise man, therefore, will allow others the same liberty of thinking which he desires they should allow him; and will no more insist on their embracing his opinions than he would have them to insist on his embracing theirs. He bears with those who differ from him and only asks him with whom he desires to unite in love that single question, "Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?"

7. We may, secondly, observe that here is no inquiry made concerning Jehonadab's mode of worship, although it is highly probable there was, in this respect also, a very wide difference between them. For we may well believe Jehonadab, as well as his posterity, worshipped God at Jerusalem, whereas Jehu did not; he had more regard to state-policy than religion. And, therefore, although he slew the worshippers of Baal and "destroyed Baal out of Israel," yet from the convenient "sin of Jeroboam," the worship of "the golden calves, he departed not" [cf. 2 Kings

10:25-30].

8. But even among men of an upright heart, men who desire to "have a conscience void of offence" [Acts 24:16], it must needs be that as long as there are various opinions, there will be various ways of worshipping

God, seeing a variety of opinions necessarily implies a variety of practice.

And as in all ages men have differed in nothing more than in their opinj. Cf. Seneca, Quaestiones Naturales, Bk. IV, c. 2.

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ions concerning the Supreme Being, so in nothing have they more differed from each other than in the manner of worshipping him. Had this been only in the heathen world, it would not have been at all surprising, for we know these by their "wisdom knew not God" [cf. i Cor. 1:21].

Nor, therefore, could they know how to worship him. But is it not strange that even in the Christian world, although they all agree in the general — "God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" [Jn. 4:24]—yet the particular modes of worshipping God are almost as various as among the heathens?

9. And how shall we choose among so much variety? No man can choose for or prescribe to another, but every one must follow the dictates of his own conscience in simplicity and godly sincerity. He must be fully persuaded in his own mind, and then act according to the best light he has. Nor has any creature power to constrain another to walk by his own rule. God has given no right to any of the children of men thus to lord it over the conscience of his brethren. But every man must judge for himself, as every man must give an account of himself to God.

10. Although, therefore, every follower of Christ is obliged, by the very nature of the Christian institution, to be a member of some particular congregation or other (some church, as it is usually termed), which implies a particular manner of worshipping God — for "two cannot walk together unless they be agreed" [c~f. Amos 3:3] —yet none can be obliged by any power on earth but that of his own conscience to prefer this or that congregation to another, this or that particular manner of worship. I know it is commonly supposed that the place of our birth fixes the church to which we ought to belong; that one, for instance, who is born in England ought to be a member of that which is styled the Church of England and, consequently, to worship God in the particular manner which is prescribed by that church. I was once a zealous maintainer of this, but I find many reasons to abate of this zeal. I fear it is attended with such difficulties as no reasonable man can get over — not the least of Copyright © 1980. Oxford University Press USA - OSO. All rights reserved. which is that if this rule had took place, there could have been no reformation from popery, seeing it entirely destroys the right of private judgment on which that whole reformation stands.* u. I dare not, therefore, presume to impose my mode of worship on any other. I believe it is truly primitive and apostolical. But my belief is no rule for another. I ask not, therefore, of him with whom I would

3. Cf. Wesley's refutation of Richard Challoner's defense of Rome (The Grounds of the Old Religion [1742]) in his Journal, III, 72; see also ibid., 243, and An Earnest

Appeal, below, pp. 404-07.

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unite in love, "Are you of my church, of my congregation? Do you receive the same form of church government and allow the same church officers with me? Do you join in the same form of prayer wherein I worship God?" I inquire not, "Do you receive the Supper of the Lord in the same posture and manner that I do, nor whether, in the administration of baptism, you agree with me in admitting sureties for the baptized, in the manner of administering it, or the age of those to whom it should be administered?" Nay, I ask not of you (as clear as I am in my own mind) whether you allow baptism and the Lord's Supper at all. Let all these things stand by — we will talk of them, if need be, at a more convenient season. My only question at present is this, "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?"

12. But what is properly implied in the question? I do not mean what did Jehu imply therein, but what should a follower of Christ understand thereby when he proposes it to any of his brethren?

The first thing implied is this: Is thy heart right with God? Dost thou believe his being and his perfections, his eternity, immensity, wisdom, power, his justice, mercy and truth? Dost thou believe that he now "upholdeth all things by the word of his power" [cf. Heb. 1:3], and that he governs even the most minute, even the most noxious, to his own glory and the good of them that love him? Hast thou a divine evidence, a supernatural conviction, of the things of God? Dost thou "walk by faith, not by sight," looking not at temporal things but things eternal [cf. 2 Cor.

5:7,4:18]?

13. Dost thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, "God over all, blessed for ever" [cf. Rom. 9:5]? Is he revealed in thy soul? Dost thou "know

Jesus Christ and him crucified" [cf. i Cor. 2:2]? Does he "dwell in thee and thou in him" [cf. i Jn. 4:13, 15]? Is he "formed in thy heart by faith"

[cf. Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17]? Having absolutely disclaimed all thy own works, thy own righteousness, hast thou "submitted thyself unto the righteousness of God" [cf. Rom. 10:3], which is by faith in Christ

Jesus? Art thou "found in him, not having thy own righteousness, but the righteousness which is by faith" [cf. Phil. 3:9]? And art thou, through him, "fighting the good fight of faith, and laying hold of eternal life"

[cf. i Tim. 6:12]?

14. Is thy faith evepyoi^eVi? 81' dycwn/s, "filled with the energy of love"?4

Dost thou love God — I do not say "above all things," for it is both an 4. Cf. Gal. 5:6; A.V.: "faith which worketh by love." The Greek reads, iriVris Si' ayaww exepioivien). Wesley has reversed the word order to make a rather different point.

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unscriptural and an ambiguous expression, but — "with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength"

[Lk. 10:27]? Dost thou seek all thy happiness in him alone? And dost thou find what thou seekest? Does thy soul continually "magnify the Lord, and thy spirit rejoice in God thy Saviour" [Lk. 1:46, 47]? Having learned "in everything to give thanks" [i Thess. 5: 18], dost thou find "it is a joyful and pleasant thing to be thankful" [cf. Ps. 147:1, B.C.P.]? Is

God the centre of thy soul, the sum of all thy desires? Art thou accordingly "laying up" thy "treasure in heaven" [cf. Mt. 6:20] and "counting all things else dung" and dross [cf. Phil. 3:8]? Hath the love of God cast the love of the world out of thy soul? Then thou art "crucified to the world" [cf. Gal. 6:14]; thou art dead to all below and thy "life is hid with Christ in God" [Col. 3:3].

15. Art thou employed in doing "not thy own will but the will of him that sent thee" [cf. Jn. 7:16], of him that sent thee down to sojourn here awhile, to spend a few days in a strange land, till having finished the work he hath given thee to do, thou return to thy Father's house? Is it thy meat and drink "to do the will of thy Father which is in heaven"

[cf. Mt. 7:21]? Is "thine eye single" [Mt. 6:22] in all things? Always fixed on him? Always "looking unto Jesus" [Heb. 12:2]? Dost thou point at him in whatsoever thou doest, in all thy labour, thy business, thy conversation — aiming only at the glory of God in all "whatsoever thou doest, either in word or deed — doing it all in the name of the Lord

Jesus, giving thanks unto God, even the Father, through him" [cf. Col.

3:17]?

1 6. Does the love of God constrain thee to "serve" him "with fear" [cf.

Ps. 2: u], to "rejoice unto him with reverence"? Art thou more afraid of displeasing God than either of death or hell? Is nothing so terrible to thee as the thought of offending the eyes of his glory? Upon this ground, dost thou "hate all evil ways," every transgression of his holy and perfect law and herein "exercise thyself to have a conscience void of offence toward

God, and toward man" [cf. Acts 24: 16]?

17. Is thy heart right toward thy neighbour? Dost thou love as thyself all mankind without exception? "If you love those only that love you, what thank have you" [cf. Lk. 6:32]? Do you "love your enemies"

[cf. Lk. 6:27]? Is your soul full of good will, of tender affection, toward them? Do you love even the enemies of God? The unthankful and unholy? Do your bowels yearn over them? Could you "wish yourself" temporally "accursed" [cf. Rom. 9:3] for their sake? And do you show

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this by "blessing them that curse you and praying for those that despitefully use you and persecute you" [cf. Mt. 5:44]?

18. Do you show your love by your works? While you have time, as you have opportunity, do you in fact "do good to all men" [Gal.

6:10], neighbours or strangers, friends or enemies, good or bad? Do you do them all the good you can, endeavouring to supply all their wants, assisting them both in body and soul to the uttermost of your power? If thou art thus minded — may every Christian say, "Yea!" — if thou art but sincerely desirous of it and following on till thou attain, then "thy heart is right, as my heart is with thy heart."

II. i. "If it be, give me thy hand." I do not mean, "Be of my opinion."

You need not. I do not expect or desire it. Neither do I mean, "I will be of your opinion." I cannot; it does not depend on my choice. I can no more think than I can see or hear as I will. Keep you your opinion; I, mine, and that as steadily as ever. You need not even endeavour to come over to me or bring me over to you. I do not desire you to dispute those points or to hear or speak one word concerning them. Let all opinions alone on one side and the other: only, "give me thine hand."

2. I do not mean, "embrace my modes of worship" or "I will embrace yours." This also is a thing which does not depend either on your choice or mine. We must both act as each is fully persuaded in his own mind.

Hold you fast that which you believe is most acceptable to God and I will do the the same. I believe the episcopal form of church government to be scriptural and apostolical. If you think the presbyterian or independent is better, think so still and act accordingly. I believe infants ought to be baptized, and that this may be done either by dipping or sprinkling. If you are otherwise persuaded, be so still, and follow your own persuasion. It appears to me that forms of prayer are of excellent use, particularly in the great congregation. If you judge extemporary prayer to be of more use, act suitably to your own judgment. My sentiment is that I ought not to forbid water, wherein persons may be baptized, and that I ought to eat bread and drink wine, as a memorial of my dying master. However, if you are not convinced of this, act according to the light you have. I have no desire to dispute with you one moment upon any of the preceding heads. Let all these smaller points stand aside.

Let them never come into sight. "If thine heart is as my heart," if thou lovest God and all mankind, I ask no more: "Give me thine hand."

3. I mean, first, love me: and that not only as thou lovest all mankind, not only as thou lovest thine enemies or the enemies of God, those that Wesley, John. John Wesley, edited by A. C. Outler, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 1980. ProQuest

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IOO

THE THEOLOGIAN SELF-INTERPRETED

hate thee, that "despitefully use thee, and persecute thee" [Mt. 5:44], not only as a stranger, as one of whom thou knowest neither good nor evil.

I am not satisfied with this. No, "if thine heart be right, as mine with thy heart," then love me with a very tender affection, as a friend that is closer than a brother, as a brother in Christ, a fellow citizen of the New

Jerusalem, a fellow soldier engaged in the same warfare under the same captain of our salvation. Love me as a companion "in the kingdom and patience of Jesus" [Rev. 1:9] and a joint heir of his glory.

4. Love me (but in a higher degree than thou dost the bulk of mankind) with the love that is "long-suffering and kind," 5 that is patient — if I am ignorant or out of the way, bearing and not increasing my burden — and is tender, soft, and compassionate still; that "envieth not," if at any time it please God to prosper me in this work even more than thee. Love me with the love that "is not provoked," either at my follies or infirmities, or even at my acting (if it should sometimes so appear to thee) not according to the will of God. Love me so as to "think no evil" of me, to put away all jealousy and evil-surmising. Love me with the love that "covereth all things" (that never reveals either my faults or infirmities), that "believeth all things" (is always willing to think the best, to put the fairest construction on all my words and actions), that "hopeth all things," either that the thing related was never done, or not done with such circumstances as are related; or at least that it was done with a good intention, or in sudden stress of temptation. And hope to the end that whatever is amiss will, by the grace of God, be corrected, and whatever is wanting, supplied through the riches of his mercy in Christ Jesus.

5. I mean, secondly, commend me to God in all thy prayers, wrestle with him in my behalf that he would speedily correct what he sees amiss and supply what is wanting in me. In thy nearest access to the throne of grace, beg of him who is then very present with thee that my heart may be more as thy heart, more right both toward God and toward man, that I may have a fuller conviction of things not seen and a stronger view of the love of God in Christ Jesus, may more steadily walk by faith, not by sight [cf. 2 Cor. 5:7], and more earnestly grasp eternal life. Pray that the love of God and of all mankind may be more largely poured into my heart, that I may be more fervent and active in doing the will of my

Father which is in heaven, more zealous of good works and more careful to abstain from all appearance of evil.

5. Cf. in this paragraph echoes from i Cor. 13:4-7.

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IOI 6. I mean, thirdly, provoke me to love and to good works. Second thy prayer, as thou hast opportunity, by speaking to me in love whatsoever thou believest to be for my soul's health. Quicken me in the work which God has given me to do and instruct me how to do it more perfectly. Yea, "smite me friendly, and reprove me" [Ps. 141:5, B.C.P.], whereinsoever I appear to thee to be doing rather my own will than the will of him that sent me. O speak and spare not, whatever thou believest may conduce either to the amending my faults, the strengthening my weakness, the building me up in love, or the making me more fit, in any kind, for the Master's use.

7. I mean, lastly, love me not in word only but in deed and in truth.

So far as in conscience thou canst (retaining still thy own opinions and thy own manner of worshipping God), join with me in the work of God, and let us go on hand in hand. And thus far, it is certain, thou mayest go. Speak honourably, wherever thou art, of the work of God, by whomsoever he works, and kindly of his messengers. And, if it be in thy power, not only sympathize with them when they are in any difficulty or distress, but give them a cheerful and effectual assistance, that they may glorify God on thy behalf.6

8. Two things should be observed with regard to what has been spoken under this last head: the one, that whatsoever love, whatsoever offices of love, whatsoever spiritual or temporal assistance I claim from him whose heart is right as my heart is with his, the same I am ready, by the grace of God, according to my measure, to give him: the other, that I have not made this claim in behalf of myself only, but of all whose heart is right toward God and man, that we may all love one another as Christ hath loved us.

III. i. One inference we may make from what has been said: we may learn from hence what is a catholic spirit.

There is scarce any expression which has been more grossly misunderstood and more dangerously misapplied than this, but it will be easy for any who calmly consider the preceding observations to correct any such misapprehensions of it and to prevent any such misapplication.

For, from hence we may learn, first, that a catholic spirit is not speculative latitudinarianism.7 It is not an indifference to all opinions. This is the 6. Edition of 1786 reads: "my behalf."

7. Cf. Norman Sykes, From Sheldon to Seeker (Cambridge, 1959), 146-52, for a brief review of the contemporary latitudinarian controversies that lie back of this disavowal.

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IO2

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spawn of hell, not the offspring of heaven. This unsettledness of thought, this being "driven to and fro and tossed about with every wind of doctrine" [cf. Eph. 4:14], is a great curse, not a blessing; an irreconcilable enemy, not a friend, to true Catholicism. A man of a truly catholic spirit has not now his religion to seek. He is fixed as the sun in his judgment concerning the main branches of Christian doctrine. It is true he is always ready to hear and weigh whatsoever can be offered against his principles.

But as this does not show any wavering in his own mind, so neither does it occasion any. He does not halt between two opinions, nor vainly endeavour to blend them into one. Observe this, you who know not what spirit ye are of, who call yourselves men of a catholic spirit only because you are of a muddy understanding, because your mind is all in a mist, because you have no settled, consistent principles, but are for jumbling all opinions together. Be convinced that you have quite missed your way; you know not where you are. You think you are got into the very spirit of Christ when, in truth, you are nearer the spirit of antichrist. Go first and learn the first elements of the gospel of Christ, and then shall you learn to be of a truly catholic spirit.

2. From what has been said we may learn, secondly, that a catholic spirit is not any kind of practical latitudinarianism. It is not indifference as to public worship or as to the outward manner of performing it. This, likewise, would not be a blessing but a curse. Far from being an help thereto, it would, so long as it remained, be an unspeakable hindrance to the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth. But the man of a truly catholic spirit, having weighed all things in the balance of the sanctuary, has no doubt, no scruple at all, concerning that particular mode of worship wherein he joins. He is clearly convinced that this manner of worshipping God is both scriptural and rational. He knows none in the world which is more scriptural, none which is more rational. Therefore, without rambling hither and thither, he cleaves close thereto and praises God for the opportunity of so doing.

3. Hence we may, thirdly, learn that a catholic spirit is not indifference to all congregations. This is another sort of latitudinarianism, no less absurd and unscriptural than the former. But it is far from a man of a truly catholic spirit. He is fixed in his congregation as well as his principles. He is united to one, not only in spirit but by all the outward ties of Christian fellowship. There he partakes of all the ordinances of God. There he receives the Supper of the Lord. There he pours out his soul in public prayer, and joins in public praise and thanksgiving.

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There he rejoices to hear the word of reconciliation, the gospel of the grace of God. With these his nearest, his best-beloved brethren, on solemn occasions he seeks God by fasting. These particularly he watches over in love, as they do over his soul, admonishing, exhorting, comforting, reproving and every way building up each other in the faith. These he regards as his own household, and therefore, according to the ability

God has given him, naturally cares for them and provides that they may have all the things that are needful for life and godliness.

4. But while he is steadily fixed in his religious principles, in what he believes to be the truth as it is in Jesus, while he firmly adheres to that worship of God which he judges to be most acceptable in his sight, and while he is united by the tenderest and closest ties to one particular congregation, his heart is enlarged toward all mankind, those he knows and those he does not; he embraces with strong and cordial affection neighbours and strangers, friends and enemies. This is catholic or universal love. And he that has this is of a catholic spirit. For love alone gives the title to this character: catholic love is a catholic spirit.

5. But if we take this word in the strictest sense, a man of a catholic spirit is one who, in the manner above-mentioned, gives his hand to all whose hearts are right with his heart: one who knows how to value and praise God for all the advantages he enjoys with regard to the knowledge of the things of God, the true scriptural manner of worshipping him, and, above all, his union with a congregation fearing God and working righteousness; one who, retaining these blessings with the strictest care, keeping them as the apple of his eye, at the same time loves — as friends, as brethren in the Lord, as members of Christ and children of God, as joint partakers now of the present kingdom of God and fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom — all, of whatever opinion or worship or congregation, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who love God and man, who, rejoicing to please and fearing to offend God, are careful to abstain from evil and zealous of good works. He is the man of a truly catholic spirit who bears all these continually upon his heart; who, having an unspeakable tenderness for their persons and longing for their welfare, does not cease to commend them to God in prayer as well as to plead their cause before men; who speaks comfortably to them and labours by all his words to strengthen their hands in God. He assists them to the uttermost of his power in all things, spiritual and temporal. He is ready "to spend and be spent for them" [cf. 2 Cor. 12:15], yea, "to lay down his life for" their sake [Jn. 15:13].

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