Check, Fletcher said that he had produced nearly twenty scriptures, "'which declare, with one consent, that we shall be judged, not according to our faith, but according to our works...." °°
The Doctrine of Salvation In the year when Wesley ordained preachers for America, he recapitulated his views. "Undoubtedly faith is the work of God; and yet it is the duty of man to believe. And every man may believe if he will, though not when he will. If he seeks faith in the appointed ways, sooner or later the power of the Lord will be present, whereby (1) God works, and by His. power (2) man believes. In order of thinking God's working goes first; but not in order of time. Believing is the act of the human mind, strengthened by the power of God." ** Wesley could no longer speak as he once did concerning good works which do not proceed from faith. When he prepared the "Articles of Religion" for the American Methodists, he omitted
Article XIII, "Of Works before Justification." He could not endorse the statement of the Article, that "Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of the Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace.... for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin." Nor could he believe that good works after justification come without the effort of man. Therefore, from Article XII, "Of Good
Works," he omitted one word. From the statement that good works "do spring out necessarily of a true and living Faith," Wesley took out the word "'necessarily."
In this way Wesley conceived that he united doctrines which had been separated in Catholicism and in the Reformation. 'It has been very frequently
Jour Wesley and Modern Religion observed," he wrote in a sermon dated in 1787 and printed in the Arminian Magazine in 1789, "that very few were clear in their judgment both with regard to justification and sanctification. Many who have spoken and written admirably well concerning justification, had no clear conception, nay were totally ignorant, of the doctrine of sanctification. Who has wrote more ably than Martin Luther on justification by faith alone? And who was more ignorant of the doctrine of sanctification, or more confused in his conceptions of it?.... On the other hand, how many writers of the Romish Church (as Francis Sales and Juan de Castaniza, in particular) have wrote strongly and scripturally on sanctification, who, nevertheless, were entirely unacquainted with the nature of justification! insomuch that the whole body of their
Divines at the Council of Trent, in their Catechismus ad Parochos, (Catechism which every parish Priest is to teach his people,) totally confound sanctification and justification together. But it has pleased God to give the Methodists a full and clear knowledge of each, and the wide difference between them.' In a later paragraph, Wesley added: "'It is, then, a great blessing given to this people, that as they do not think or speak of justification so as to supersede sanctification, so neither do they think or speak of sanctification so as to supersede justification. They take care to keep each in its own place, laying equal stress on one and the other. They know God has joined these together, and it is not for man to put them asunder; Therefore they maintain, with equal zeal and diligence, the doctrine of free, full, present justification, on the one
The Doctrine of Salvation hand, and of entire sanctification, both of heart and life, on the other; being as tenacious of inward holiness as any mystic, and of outward, as any Pharisee."
In 1773, Wesley quoted the words of his High Church friend, John Byrom:
Nor steel nor flint alone produces fire, Nor spark arises till they both conspire; Nor faith alone, nor works without, is right; Salvation rises when they both unite.
CHAPTER VIII CHRISTIAN PERFECTION WESLEY's most distinctive doctrine is unquestionably that of Christian Perfection.1 This he believed and taught during not only his great ministry, but throughout his ministerial life. From 1725 on, he sought nothing less than perfection; and to understand what he meant by this is to come nearest to an appreciation of Wesley's religious thought.
To the eighteenth century the doctrine of the perfectibility of man rapidly became an axiom. The optimism of both the Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement was partly rooted in a belief that man, once he has the right environment and training, may go on to perfection. This belief was rooted, it is true, in certain conceptions of man's nature which were far removed from the traditional religious conception and, therefore, from Wesley's primary assumptions. The fact that Methodism held to a doctrine of Christian Perfection may, at first sight, suggest analogies and affinities which may be deceiving. To understand Wesley and his relation to the thought movements of his time, one must consider carefully what he believed and taught concerning ~ perfection, sanctification, the 'Great Salvation." This is the more important since his doctrine, involving as it does the goal of the Christian life, brings once more
174 : et Christian Perfection into the purview of the student Wesley's entire theology.
In considering Wesley's doctrine of Christian Perfection, one must trace out again the roots of his religious life and thought. Out of what did his conceptions of the Christian way stem? From his young manhood, not to say from his childhood, he had walked in the classical way, putting high value upon the imitation of Christ and upon the Church and its ministries. But upon his return from America Wesley had experienced vividly the love of God and had learned the value of a trust in that love as manifested in the life and work of Christ. This immediate experience, immediate both in the sense of direct and instantaneous, set for him a definite and difficult problem. Just as in his thinking of the relation of man to God Wesley had to consider the old, old problem of faith and works, so in his doctrine of Christian
Perfection Wesley had to work over again in his mind the relation of immediate experience to the traditional Christian discipline and means of grace. What is Christian Perfection? How does one receive it? Is it a status or a goal? Is it gradually or instantaneously reached? Is one a Christian who is not perfect?
These and other questions had to be answered; and, as in other matters, Wesley did not at once reach his final conclusions. One must follow his development of mind and of experience. In the doctrine of Christian Perfection, as in his other doctrines, his mature convictions are those which should be called "Wesleyan."
As to the origins and development of his doctrine Ls John Wesley and Modern Religion of Christian Perfection, Wesley had much to say. If it were possible, it would be better to reprint A Plain
Account of Christian Perfection, which he wrote in 1765 and printed the next year. In this work he reviews, step by step, the progress of his beliefs about the "Great Salvation." The work is not entirely consistent; for Wesley was, in many ways, a journalist rather than a theologian or a historian. But the account is Wesley's own deliberate summing up of his doctrine. Aside from this publication, the most succinct account of Wesley's thoughts on Perfection is in a letter which he wrote to John Newton, Cowper's friend. The relevant parts of this letter, written in 1765, should be quoted.
"But how came this opinion into my mind? I will tell you with all simplicity. In 1725 I met with Bishop Taylor's Rules of Holy Living and Dying. J was struck particularly with the chapter upon Intenee'tion, and felt a fixed intention to give myself up to God. In this I was much confirmed soon after by the ' Christian Pattern [a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ], and longed to give God all my heart. This is just what I mean by Perfection now: I sought after it from that hour.
"In 1727 I read Mr. Law's Christian Perfection and Serious Call, and more explicitly resolved to be all devoted to God in body, soul, and spirit. In 1730 I began to be homo unius libri, to study (comparatively) no book but the Bible. I then saw in a stronger light than ever before that only one thing is need ful, even faith which worketh by the love of God and man, all inward and outward holiness; and I groaned
Christian Perfection to love God with all my heart and to serve Him with all my strength.
"January 1, 1733, I preached the sermon on the Circumcision of the Heart, which contains all that I now teach concerning salvation from all sin and loving God with an undivided heart. Inthe same year
I printed (the first time I ventured to print anything) for the use of my pupils A collection of Forms of Prayer; and in this I spoke explicitly of giving 'the whole heart and the whole life to God.' This was then, as it is now, my idea of Perfection, though I should have started at the word.
"In 1735, I preached my farewell sermon at Epworth, in Lincolnshire. In this likewise I spoke with the utmost clearness of having one design, one desire, one love, and of pursuing the ove end of our life in all our words and actions.
"In January, 1738, I expressed my desire in thee words:
"O grant that nothing in my soul May dwell but Thy pure love alone!
O may Thy love possess me whole, My joy, my treasure, and my crown!
Strange flames far from my heart remove!
My every act, word, thought, be love!
"And I am still persuaded this is what the Lord Jesus hath bought for me with His own blood." "
The sources which Wesley mentioned deserve at least passing notice. They are Bishop Jeremy Taylor, the Imitation of Christ, William Law and the Bible.
Certainly, one cannot refer this aspect of Wesley's belief either to German Pietism or to Wesley's "non- — LAs John Wesley and Modern Religion conformist ancestors." 'Taylor was a royalist bishop, a protege of Archbishop Laud; the Imitation is a production of medieval monasticism;* and Law was, of course, a Nonjuror. As will be seen later, the ideal of Christian Perfection comes theologically and historically from the Catholic stream of Christian thought. The Church of England, in spite of such schisms as that in which the nonjuring High Churchmen were lost, managed to preserve much that distinguished the Catholic view of Christianity. And it was along this via media of pre-Tractarian Anglicanism that Wesley came to his final views.
What was the conception of Christian Perfection which Wesley learned from Taylor, from a Kempis, from Law, and from the Bible? In 1733, Wesley preached at Oxford, as he notes in the letter to Newton, on "The Circumcision of the Heart." * It is necessary to look again at this sermon, which—it will be remembered—was preached two years before Wesley went to America and five and a half years before the experience of Aldersgate Street.
Wesley began by assuming that one of the most essential facts of Christianity is, that "If Christ be risen, ye ought then to die unto the world, and to live wholly unto God." This, Wesley observed, was a hard doctrine if taken in the "plain and obvious meaning" of the words. Moreover, those whose circumcision is of the heart and spirit, not of the flesh, have as the "distinguishing mark" of a true follower of Christ "not either outward circumcision, or baptism, or any other outward form, but a right state of soul, a mind and spirit renewed after the image of Him
Christian Perfection that created it." To live wholly to God involves, then, "a right state of the soul." But Wesley goes on to define his meaning more carefully. 'Circumcision of the heart" is, in general, "that habitual disposition of soul which, in the sacred writings, is termed holiness; and which directly implies, the being cleansed from sin, 'from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit'; and, by consequence, the being endued with those virtues which were also in Christ Jesus; the being so 'renewed in the spirit of our mind,' as to be 'perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.' This renewal implies the possession of the virtues of humility, faith, hope, and charity. Not that these are achieved by man; for it is He alone who works in us, "it being as impossible for us even to think a good thought, without the supernatural assistance of His Spirit, as to create ourselves, or to renew our whole souls in righteousness and true holiness." But the Holy Spirit does work in man humility, faith, hope, and love. As to faith: there is no other foundation of good works than faith, or of faith than Christ; and the Spirit of God is the ''Inspirer and Perfecter, both of our faith and works." Moreover, "none is truly 'led by the Spirit,' unless that 'Spirit bear witness with his spirit, that he isaeenild of God.'."
Love, he added, is "the essence, the spirit, the life of all virtue. It is not only the first and great command, but it is all the commandments in one. " 'Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are amiable,' or honourable, 'if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,' they are all comprised in this one word,—love. In this is perfection, and 179 | John Wesley and Modern Religion glory, and happiness." But this love implies the love of man, as well as of God. Only, man's ultimate end is God.
Although holiness is of the heart, that is, of the inner life, it is also the outward obedience of man. A gift of God, holiness requires man's struggle. 'Vain hope!" he exclaims of any expectation to fulfil the commandments of God without effort, '"'that a child of Adam should expect to see the kingdom of God without striving, without agonizing, first, 'to enter in at the strait gate'; that one who was 'conceived and born in sin,' and whose 'inward parts are very wickedness,' should once entertain a thought of being 'purified as his Lord is pure,' unless he tread in His steps, and 'take up his cross daily,' unless he 'cut off his right hand,' and 'pluck out the right eye, and cast it from him'; that he should ever dream of shaking off his old
Opinions, passions, tempers, of being 'sanctified throughout in spirit, soul, and body,' without a constant and continued course of general self-denial!" °
This would seem to be a complete statement of Christian Perfection, and even the most cursory acquaintance with Wesley will cause the reader to recognize much that is characteristic of his later teaching. But is this truly a statement of the doctrine as Wesley held it after 1738? Dr. Sugden, in his comments on the sermon, thought that the section con- | cerning agonizing to enter in by the strait way and the necessity of self-denial to achieve sanctification, was a clear statement of holiness by works.®° But Wesley said to Newton that this sermon contained all that he later taught "'concerning salvation from all shea Christian Perfection sin, and loving God with an undivided heart." And in the light of the discussion of Wesley's doctrine of faith and works in the previous chapter, the section does not seem alien to Wesley's thought.
In one thing there was certainly need of correction in order that the statement of the sermon might be brought into line with Wesley's later belief. And in this instance, Wesley made the correction. In the original sermon, faith appeared as one of the virtues wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit, essentially an understanding of man's calling "to glorify God, who hath bought him at so great a price, in his body and in his spirit, which now are God's by redemption, as well as by creation"; and as an unshaken assent "'to all that God hath revealed in Scripture and in particular to those important truths, 'Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,' 'He bare our sins in His own body on the tree,' "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'" Now, by 1738, Wesley had come to think of faith as something more than this understanding and "'unshaken assent': faith is '"'the revelation of Christ in our hearts," by which Wesley meant a vivid conviction of God's love, ""His free unmerited love to me a sinner," a "sure confidence in His pardoning mercy, wrought in us by the Holy Ghost." 7
In other words, Wesley's early sermon did not need any emendation as to the goal of the Christian Life; but there was need to add to his former definition of faith that it is not merely a virtue of the soul but a vivid confidence and conviction which is in itself
John Wesley and Modern Religion powerful toward the creation of happiness and conquering love.
Such was the conception of Christian Perfection which Wesley held and which he had held from his Oxford days: a total devotion to God, which includes inner and outward holiness. This is the gift of God, but man's moral effort is assumed. It is assumed also that man's perfection means his happiness, and this implies perfect peace of mind. When Wesley went to Germany in 1738, after his experience of a strangely warmed heart, he met one, Arvid Gradin, who gave a definition of "'the full assurance of faith."
This was: "Repose in the blood of Christ; a firm confidence (firma fiducia) in God, and persuasion of his favour; the highest tranquility, serenity, and peace of mind, with a deliverance from every fleshly desire, and a cessation of all, even inward sins." 'This, said
Wesley, "was the first account I ever heard from any living man, of what IJ had before learned myself from the oracles of God, and had been praying for, (with the little company of my friends,) and expecting, for several years." ° The Holy Club, that is, had been praying for and expecting a full peace and assurance' which would lift them above, not only anxiety or fear, but evil desire also. This was doubtless what Wesley meant, in 1735, when he said that, after he "was fully converted," he would be able to turn others to Him.
When he realized the love of God in experience, he evidently expected too much. Apparently he thought that he was entering immediately into the longexpected state of perfection. So his early sermons,
"The Almost Christian," 'Circumcision of the Christian Perfection Heart," and 'The Witness of our own Spirit" seem to teach that the believer is "'entirely freed from sin at his conversion." Wesley's spiritual struggles were
Owing, in part, to the fact that he did not realize how long may be the pilgrim's journey. His talk about "being fully converted," and his statement that the little company had prayed for and expected such full assurance as Arvid Gradin described, would indicate that Wesley thought at first that perfection comes with the attainment of a sure trust and confidence that one is a child of God. To be converted is to be perfect.
It is frequently said that those who separate ee a fication and sanctification hold to a mechanical theory which minimizes the ethical character of justification.
This assumes that justification is a mechanical, forensic process with no moral meaning. It is not true of Wesley. He insisted upon separating the two terms because he himself had learned that the Christian life is a development, not an event. So important did a realization of the love of God in Christ seem to Wesley, after his experience of it, that he at first supposed this the status of full peace and victory which he had long associated with perfection. But when he understood that this was not the end, he adjusted his theory to the facts. In the preface to the Hymns published in 1740,° he spoke of the justified man in terms so high that he later substituted the word "sanctified." In the first edition of his Works (1771-74), he corrected his sermon on ""The Witness of our own Spirit," so it would be clear that he was talking about "adult"
Christians; and he added this note at the end: "It may John Wesley and Modern Religion easily be observed, that the preceding discourse describes the experience of those that are strong in faith." For those who might be discouraged by reading this sermon he advised the sermon on "Sin in Believers." *° Further evidence of the way in which Wesley had to modify his high expectations of the newly converted is in the other changes which he made in the preface to the 1740 hymnal.** According to the original preface, the justified Christian is freed from all darkness, having no fear, no doubt, either as to their state in general or as to any particular action. This, he decided later, is frequently the case, but only for a time: The Holy Spirit teaches them every hour what they shall do and what they shall speak. His later comment was: "For a time it may be so; but not always." Christians have no further need of reason concerning these matters.
Sometimes they have no need, was his later decision, but at other times they have. The converted Christian is not troubled by temptations. Later he added that they are sometimes troubled "and that grievously." The sum of the matter is, that Wesley was forced | by experience to the conclusion that a realization of the love of God and a sure trust and confidence that God has for Christ's sake pardoned his sins and that he is reconciled to God, does not mean that the convert has arrived at Christian perfection.
Further adjustments of Wesley's theory were made necessary by the facts of experience. In the sermon on Christian Perfection which he published in 1741,
Wesley stated that there is no such thing as "absolute _ perfection on earth." '* Man cannot control entirely Christian Perfection his wandering thoughts; and there are defects of understanding and opinions which prevent infallibility and frequently affect one's actions. Man may have defects of temper, although there can be no sin in those who are perfect in love.
To explain this gave Wesley no little trouble, for his inherited theology was hard to reconcile with the facts as he saw them. Man is corrupt. God forgives him and gives him a new heart. Theoretically, he ought not to sin thereafter; but he does. Evidently
there is sin remaining in him. Wesley believed that this remaining sin is inbred sin, the fallen nature inherited from Adam. There is, of course, more logic than anything else here. ~Wesley never got over thinking of sin as something substantial. "He would have been nearer the solution of his problem if he had remembered the words of William Law, in Christian
Perfection: "When by an inward Principle of Holiness we stand so disposed to all Degrees of Virtue, as the ambitious Man stands disposed to all Steps of Greatness, when we hate and avoid all Kinds of Sins, as the covetous Man hates and avoids all Sorts of Loss and Expense, then are we such Sons of God, as cannot commit Sin."1°_| The expulsive power of a new affection is a better psychological explanation of sinless perfection than Wesley's theological propositions concerning inbred and actual sin. There is no denying the truth of the statement which Dr. Flew quotes from Dr. Maltby: "Our [ze., the Methodist] theological coat was cut for the figure of Total Depravity, but when it was tried on, it was found not to fit any kind of human nature."
John Wesley and Modern Religion The curious may trace out the whole matter in Wesley's writings, especially in his sermons on 'Sin in Believers" and "Repentance in Believers," where
Wesley corrects a possible inference from some of his earlier sermons, that when a believer sins he must retrace the whole process of becoming a Christian. In all this, Wesley was perfecting his doctrine of growth in the Christian life.
. But, if inbred sin is left in the believer, this, too, must be rooted out before one can be finally saved, for without holiness no man can see the Lord. The root of sin must be taken out of the heart; man must be wholly conformed to the image of God, or, more exactly, the lost image of God in man must be restored by the grace of God. Wesley was too good a logician not to see that, when the root is gone, the fruit cannot again be produced. But he held to his point, attested by experience: wrong opinions, tempers, and actions may remain. His psychology helped him here. Man is a soul "in a shattered body." He lost his bodily perfection at the Fall, and "for want of better bodily organs, they must at times, think, speak, and act wrong; not indeed through a defect of love, but through a defect of knowledge." * _ If God removes the root of sin, it will be instantaneously, as justification is usually instantaneous.
This Wesley learned from those who claimed to have experienced it. Moreover, the man whose Diary shows that he was reading a work on logic when ~ he was almost tottering to the grave, had ground for his belief: "It is often difficult to perceive the instant when a man dies; yet there is an instant in which life
Christian Perfection ceases. And if ever sin ceases, there must be a last moment of its existence, and a first moment of our deliverance from it." *® On the assumption that sin is a material something the logic is impeccable.
A But Wesley was sure that sanctification is gradual as well as instantaneous. In his sermon on Christian ——Perfection, where he denied "absolute perfection" to be possible in this life, Wesley said that there is no perfection "which does not admit of a continual increase.
So that how much soever any man has attained, or in how high a degree soever he is perfect, he hath still need to 'grow in grace' and daily to advance in the knowledge and love of God his Saviour." ** In the moment one is justified, the seed of every virtue is then sown in the soul. From that time the believer
"sradually dies to sin, and grows in grace." '* This idea Wesley repeats over and over again. There is a gradual work of grace preceding and succeeding sanctification, just as a gradual work of grace precedes justification.
In this Charles differed somewhat from John, for Charles was much taken with the mystical doctrine of the "dark night of the soul." *® Only gradually does man go on to perfection, and that by way of manifold temptations, afflictions, and tribulations.
not a sudden stroke of grace Destroys at once the cursed race, When first to Christ we come But by degrees insensible The Lord shall all our sins expel, And utterly consume.
John Wesley and Modern Religion On the phrase, "by degrees insensible," John commented: "Both suddenly and gradually."
In 1767, John Wesley summed up his thoughts on Christian Perfection, saying of the matter of time:
"I believe this perfection is always wrought in the soul by a simple act of faith; consequently in an instant.
But I believe a gradual work, both preceding and following that instant. As to the time. I believe this instant generally is the instant of death, the moment before the soul leaves the body. But I believe it may be ten, twenty, or forty years before. I believe it is usually many years after justification; but that it may be within five years or five months after it, I know no conclusive argument to the contrary." "°
Some supposed that, when he began to declare, "By grace ye are saved through faith," he had retracted his former belief, that without holiness no man can see the Lord. "But it is an entire mistake:
These scriptures well consist with each other; the meaning of the former being plainly this,—By faith we are saved from sin, and made holy. The imagination that faith supersedes holiness, is the marrow of Antinomianism." 7' In even clearer language he set forth his idea in A Farther Appeal: "With regard to the condition of salvation, it may be remembered that I allow, not only faith, but likewise holiness or universal obedience, to be the ordinary condition of final salvation; and that when I say, Faith alone is the condition of present salvation, what I would assert is this:
(1) That without faith no man can be'saved from his sins; can be either inwardly or outwardly holy.
And, (2) That at what time soever faith is given, Christian Perfection holiness commences in the soul. For that instant 'the love of God' (which is the source of holiness) 'is shed abroad in the heart.'" ??_ Faith is both "the condition and the instrument" of sanctification. "When we begin to believe, then sanctification begins. And as faith increases, holiness increases, till we are created anew." *° | What Wesley is talking about is, in brief, this. Man lives by faith, for faith is necessary if one is to have that love in the heart which is the cause of holiness.
And holiness is necessary to final salvation, so necessary that, if man cannot have it otherwise, God will give it to him who has faith in the article of death.
And in order to hold to this last, that man must be sanctified before he is finally saved even if on his deathbed, Wesley must hold that faith alone, without works, may be the condition of sanctification. So he goes on torturously proving that, while works are in a sense necessary to sanctification, they are not necessary in the same degree as faith, not immediately and proximately.
Here we have the devious ways by which Wesley maintains his fundamental convictions. Holiness is essential—he will have no compromise with this. But since he admits that most do not reach the ideal in this life, then there must be provision for them to be sanctified by faith alone. Moreover—Wesley reasons by analogy, and he is sure that he is supported by Scripture and by the experience of those whose testimony he trusts—since justification is usually in a moment, by faith only, so also is sanctification.
Professor Cell has said that the "Wesleyan reconJohn Wesley and Modern Religion struction of the Christian ethic of life is an original and unique synthesis of the Protestant ethic of grace with the Catholic ethic of holiness." 7* This is a wise and a just observation. Holiness comes to man by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and man receives the Spirit by faith. Always Wesley thinks of man's growing spiritual nature as in dependence upon Christ. 'The holiest of men still need Christ, as their
Prophet, as 'the light of the world.' For he does not give them light but from moment to moment... .
They still need Christ as their Priest, to make atonement for their holy things. Even perfect holiness is acceptable only through Jesus Christ." Moreover, men need Christ as their "Priest, their Atonement, their Advocate with the Father, not only as the continuance of their every blessing depends on his death and intercession, but on account of their coming short of the law of love. Every man living does so." ®°
This is to say, in short, that man needs continuously the ever-present and ever-active love of God through Christ. It is this which energizes the Christian. He loves Christ because Christ first loved him; and from this love flows all inward and outward holiness. This simple truth lies at the heart of all Wesley's appeals to traditional theology, and more than once he reminded his readers and hearers that simple people who never . heard of the theological explanations could understand the fact.
When one comes to see what Wesley means by the faith whereby we are sanctified, it is evident how Wesley combines his general and his special definitions of faith. Faith as the evidence of things not seen, the Christian Perfection spiritual sense by which one discerns spiritual reality, is, in essence, intuitive knowledge of what one cannot prove by reason. A sure trust, on the other hand, is confidence, the belief that clings. The faith whereby we are sanctified is both, but mainly the first. It is first, according to the sermon, ""The Scripture Way of Salvation," a divine "evidence and conviction.... that God hath promised it in the holy Scripture"; secondly, 'ta divine evidence and conviction.... that what God hath promised He is able to perform"; thirdly, "ta divine evidence and conviction, that He is able and willing to do it now." To this there must be added something more, '"'a divine evidence and conviction that He doeth it." ?® This last Wesley himself never had.
In short, Wesley would have his people live in expectation of reaching their goal, and in certainty that they might come nearer and nearer to that love which expels sin and governs the heart and life. And they were to live by the grace of God, not as "given all at once, as if they had a stock laid up for many years; but from moment to moment." *" Here Wesley comes close to the heart of the matter. As he said in the conclusion of the Large Minutes, they talked too much about justified states and sanctified states; but they lived moment by moment. They were to live in the constant consciousness of the continual favor of God.
It might seem that his stress upon the necessity of the repentance of believers and upon their acknowledgment of their imperfect attainments would make for morbidness. In healthy minds it did not. As John Wesley and Modern Religion Professor Goodloe puts it: ""No one of us is ever so good but that we may not become better. Repentance is not alone an acknowledgment of one's sins, it is as truly a recognition that one has not yet achieved all that is possible for him to attain. So that in this very resolve to 'press forward' is ground sufficient for genuine joy. ... Further, repentance is necessary as a permanent attitude of mind because of the fact that no individual, with or without sin, is able at any moment in his experience to realize goodness in its fulness, but is able to increase his ability to do so. Hence as long as life exists there is opportunity for a deepening experience of grace and of the consciousness of —
But what of the "full assurance of faith," that "repose in the blood of Christ," that "firm confidence," that "highest tranquility, serenity, and peace. of mind" which he had sought long before he met
Arvid Gradin in far-away Germany? Wesley had considerable experience with enthusiasts who thought they had attained perfection, and he was obviously careful in guarding against excesses. Those who think themselves to have reached the goal should be reticent about it, and others should be tender with the claim-. ants. There was, indeed, a rule by which one may judge himself to have attained perfection. 'This is:
"a man is perfect when after having been fully convinced of inbred sin, by a far deeper and clearer conviction than that he experienced before justification, and after having experienced a gradual mortification of it, he experiences a total death to sin, and an entire renewal in the love and image of God, so as to rejoice
Christian Perfection evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks." *' But one is not so to judge because he feels 'tall love and no sin."» However, when one known to be veracious testifies that he is perfect, he ought not to be doubted without sufficient reason.
Not only the fruit but the witness of the Spirit is the attestation of a man's sanctification. But here Wesley was again cautious. "The witness of sanctification is not always clear at first.... neither is it afterward always the same, but, like that of justification, sometimes stronger and sometimes fainter. Yea, and sometimes it is withdrawn." *° It should be made clear, that "holiness" for Wesley is a strongly ethical term, but ethical because it is religious. There is no "natural" ethics so far as Wesley is concerned; and there is no understanding of his moral teaching unless the essential religiousness of his ethical thought is firmly grasped: but Wesley's ethical interest was real. Of the Standard Sermons a much larger proportion deal with morality than is generally recognized; perhaps Wesley's best treatise on Christian ethics is in his thirteen sermons on our Lord's
In these thirteen sermons, Wesley places the hunger of the soul '"'after the image of God" at the center.
This is the case of the soul "that truly hungers and thirsts after righteousness. He can find no comfort in anything but this: he can be satisfied with nothing else. Whatever you offer besides, it is lightly esteemed: whether it be riches, or honour, or pleasure, he still says, "This is not the thing which I want.'
Give me love, or else I die!" ** And this love is, as he John Wesley and Modern Religion phrases it again, "the image of God, the mind which was in Christ Jesus. It is every holy and heavenly temper in one; springing from, as well as terminating in, the love of God, as our Father and Redeemer, and the love of all men for His sake." °? Such a one cannot be satisfied with formal religion, with what
"the world accounts religion." In an intense passage, Wesley presses the claim for inward religion: 'The religion of the world implies three things: (1) The doing no harm, the abstaining from outward sin; at least from such as is scandalous, as robbery, theft, common swearing, drunkenness: (2) The doing good, the relieving the poor; the being charitable, as it is called: (3) The using the means of grace: at least the going to church and to the Lord's supper. He in whom these three marks are found is termed by the world 'a religious man.' But will this satisfy him who hungers after God? No: it is not food for his soul.
He wants a religion of a nobler kind, a religion higher — and deeper than this. He can no more feed on this poor, shallow, formal thing, than he can "fill his belly with the east wind.' 'True, he is careful to abstain from the very appearance of evil; he is zealous of good works; he attends all the ordinances of God: but all this is not what he longs for. This is only the outside of that religion which he insatiably hungers after.
The knowledge of God in Christ Jesus; 'the life which is hid with Christ in God'; the being 'joined unto the ~ Lord in one spirit'; the having 'fellowship with the Father and the Son'; the 'walking in the light as God is in the light'; the being 'purified even as He is pure,'
Christian Perfection —this is the religion, the righteousness he thirsts after; nor can he rest, till he thus rests in God." *°
The great hindrances to this inward religion are pride, levity, and thoughtlessness, anger, impatience, discontent. These are healed by poverty of spirit;
"holy mourning," which Wesley interprets as sorrow for our own and others' sin; and meekness. But Wesley anticipates modern psychology in his recognition that instinctive attitudes may be sublimated.
They who are truly meek "'do not desire to extinguish any of the passions which God has for wise ends implanted in their nature; but they have the mastery of all: they hold them in subjection, and employ them in subservience to those ends. And thus even the harsher and more unpleasing passions are applicable to the noblest purposes; even hatred, anger, and fear, when engaged against sin, and regulated by faith and love, are as walls and bulwarks to the soul, so that the wicked one cannot approach to hurt it." **
But insistent as Wesley is that true holiness is rooted in the inner life, this must in no way be taken as minimizing outward holiness. One must recall again his answer to those who object "that religion does not lie in outward things, but in the heart, the inmost soul; that it is the union of the soul with God, the life of God in the soul of man; that outside religion is nothing worth." His answer was: "It is most true, that the root of religion lies in the heart, in the inmost soul; that this is the union of the soul with God, the life of God in the soul of man. But if this root be really in the heart, it cannot but put forth branches. And these are the several instances of outJohn Wesley and Modern Religion ward obedience, which partake of the same nature with the root; and, consequently, are not only marks or signs, but substantial parts of religion."
He would not surrender his belief that ethical conduct is part of religion, not merely an outward sign of an inward work. As a true Englishman, he was interested in morality far more than in metaphysics; but he was sure that morality is truly rooted in the inner life and, therefore, would have nothing to do with morality completely divorced from religion.
Neither would he have anything to do with religion divorced from morality. He would not put asunder what he believed God Himself to have joined.
The ethical life, or rather the life of outward Christian conduct, is to be sought not only by enriching the inner life but also by ethical striving. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," he wrote, "not only by this agony of soul, of conviction, of sorrow, of shame, of desire, of fear, of unceasing prayer; but likewise by ordering thy conversation aright, by walking with all thy strength in all the ways of God, the way of innocence, of piety, and of mercy. Abstain from all appearance of evil; do all possible good to all men; deny thyself, thy own will, in all things, and take up thy cross daily. Be ready to cut off thy right hand, to pluck out thy right eye, and cast it from thee; to suffer the loss of goods, friends, health, all things on earth, so thou mayest enter into the kingdom of heaven." °* Thus again he defines "serving God"' as believing in him, loving him, imitating him, and obeying him.
But how does a man seek perfection in this world?
Christian Perfection Perfection, in the medieval Church, was sought in retreat from the world; and, while Luther and Calvin made much of man's "calling," his "'vocation" to live in the world, they never entirely freed themselves from a feeling that the worldly affairs are unimportant. A man's great business is to save his soul, and he lives in the ordinary calling of life because he has to: he seeks God in vocatione, not per vocationem.®* How was the quest of perfection related, in Wesley's mind, with the world of common affairs?
Professor Mecklin, in his Story of American Dissent, has seen the "'quintessence of Methodism" in a quotation from Wesley: 'Here is a short, a plain and infallible rule before you enter into particulars. In whatever profession you engage you must be singular or be damned! The way to hell has nothing singular in it; but the way to heaven is singularity all over. If you move but one step towards God, you are not as other men are." This, says Professor Mecklin, expresses "the dissenting, 'come-outer' spirit of Methodism. . . . This obviously harmonizes with the dissenting tradition, developed in opposition to the churchly tradition, of spiritual separation from the world and a secularized church." ** Professor Mecklin is here dealing with American Methodism and not with Wesley; but the spirit of which he speaks is in Wesley also, but not as an inheritance from "'the dissenting tradition." In him it was from that deep spiritual tradition which has existed in the Church at almost all times. From William Law, a High Churchman, Wesley had learned that "if the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, they would make a man
John Wesley and Modern Religion as different from other people as to all worldly tempers, sensual pleasures, and the pride of life, as a wise man is different from a natural [a fool]."*® And it will be recalled that Dr. Hayward, who examined
Wesley before he was ordained to priest's orders in 1728, said: '""Do you know what you are about? You are bidding defiance to all mankind. He that would live a Christian priest ought to know that, whether his hand be against every man or no, he must expect every man's hand should be against him." *° Whatever may have determined the Methodists in England or America, Wesley's "singularity" stemmed from that principle of renunciation which has been in Christianity from the beginning.
Christianity is a peculiar way of life. Just as truly as the medieval Church thought that the highest type of Christian must live a life separated from the world, so truly did Wesley, following the Imitation of Christ — and Christian asceticism, believe that one must be singular "or be damned."
It will be well to examine the asceticism in Wesley's teaching. In Sermon XLII, on "Self-Denial," there is much material. This sermon was written before the Aldersgate experience, but it was revised afterwards—Dr. Sugden thinks about 1744-45.*1
In the second paragraph, Wesley speaks of the duty of denying oneself: "The denying ourselves, and the taking up our cross, in the full extent of the expression, is not a thing of small concern: it is not expedient only, as are some of the circumstantials of religion; but it is absolutely, indispensably necessary, either to our becoming or continuing His disciples."
BS Christian Perfection This necessity arises from the fact that "the will of God is the supreme, unalterable rule for every intelligent creature; equally binding every angel in heaven, and every man upon earth." A second reason for the necessity of self-denial is that it is the will of God, that we resist and counteract the corruption of our nature. Indeed, in order to "the healing of that corruption, that evil disease, which every man brings with him into the world, it is often needful to pluck out, as it were, a right eye, to cut off a right hand,— so painful is either the thing itself which must be done, or the only means of doing it."
Such statements as the above represent Wesley's views after 1738 as well as before. "Without holiness no man can see the Lord" was Wesley's uncompromising slogan; and he made clear in his sermon on "'SelfDenial" just what he meant. The second division of his sermon was to show "'that it is always owing to the want either of self-denial, or taking up his cross, that any man does not thoroughly follow Him, is not fully a disciple of Christ." He illustrates this as follows:
"A man hears the word which is able to save his soul .... yet he remains 'dead in trespasses and sins,' senseless and unawakened. Why is this? Because he will not part with his bosom sin, though he now knows it is an abomination to the Lord." No deep impression is made upon him because of this. 'Suppose he begins to awake out of sleep, and his eyes are a little opened, why are they so quickly closed again? Why does he again sink into the sleep of death? Because he again yields to his bosom sin." In other instances, the impressions once received do not wear away.
John Wesley and Modern Religion "And yet, many of these have not found what they seek: they mourn, and yet are not comforted. Now, why is this? It is because they do not 'bring forth fruits meet for repentance.'"? Another receives the "heavenly gift"; "the peace which passeth all understanding" ruled in his heart, and "the love of God was shed abroad" therein. 'Yet he is now weak as another man... his love is waxed cold, and the peace of God no longer rules in his heart. And no marvel; for he has again given place to the devil... . Or he did not stir up the gift of God which was in him; he gave way to spiritual sloth, and would not be at the pains of 'praying always, and watching thereunto with all perseverance': that is, he made shipwreck of the faith, for want of self-denial, and taking up his cross daily."
Another does not make shipwreck of the faith, but he does not go on to perfection. "And why is he thus, but because he hath forgotten the word of God, 'By works is faith made perfect'? He does not use all diligence in working the works of God. He does not 'continue instant in prayer,' private as well as public; in communicating, hearing, meditation, fasting, and religious conference."
Toward the end of 1739, eight or ten persons "who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption," came to Wesley in London.
They desired his help and advice; and from this meeting developed the "United Societies"—that is, the Methodist Societies of the Methodist Revival. For | admittance to these societies nothing was required save ''a desire 'to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins' "; but this desire was expected
Christian Perfection to produce fruits. Consequently, certain rules were drawn up for these seekers, the famous "General
Rules." *? The first division of the rules sets forth the self-denial required of the Methodists.
Aside from the common evils which Methodists were to avoid, such as drunkenness, quarreling, using many words in buying or selling, the list includes "unprofitable conversation," "doing what we know is not for the glory of God, as the 'putting on of gold or costly apparel'; the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus; the singing those songs, or reading those books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God; softness, and needless self-indulgence; laying up treasures upon earth." Fasting is enjoined under the head of "'the ordinances of God." In Advice to the People Called
Methodists (1745), Wesley was more particular. He refers to the rule of the Methodists "to abstain from fashionable diversions, from reading plays, romances, or books of humour, from singing innocent songs, or talking in a merry, gay, diverting manner; your plainness of dress; your manner of dealing in trade; your exactness in observing the Lord's day; your scrupulosity as to things that have not paid custom; your total abstinence from spirituous liquors (unless in case of necessity); your rule, 'not to mention the fault of an absent person, in particular of Ministers or of those in authority.' " *° It may be noted, in passing, that Wesley was emphasizing what he deemed new in the Methodists; he did not think of his people as simply reviving Puritanism or Moravianism. He believed that he was reJohn Wesley and Modern Religion storing primitive Christianity, and that in the combination of different qualities the Methodists were new in the world of the eighteenth century.
In many things Wesley was scrupulous and required his followers to be so. He stressed plainness of dress, insisting that Methodists should wear clothes in accord with the times, but not fine clothes. To the answer that people must dress expensively if their stations required it, he replied sarcastically that he advised all
Lords of the Bedchamber and Maids of Honor at Court to do this, but not others.** But in many ways he required more of his Methodists than he thought absolutely necessary for all. He did not allow any belonging to his Societies to dance or play cards, but he would have his preachers say no more than: "Possibly you may be saved though you dance and play at cards. But I could not." He made allowance thus for those who were not Methodists; "else," he added,
"T might send my own father and mother to hell, though they not only lived many years, but died in the full assurance of faith." *° His mother would not allow her children to go to a dancing-school, but she had a dancing-master come to the house to instruct the children in her presence so far as she thought necessary. "To this," said Wesley, "I have no objection.
If I had convenience, I would be glad to have all our preachers taught, even by a dancing-master, to make a bow and to go in and out of a room." *® Wesley also gave instructions to his Methodists which he did not think necessary for a Fellow of Lincoln. He revised at least one novel for circulation, and his own reading was omnivorous. But he knew his people
Christian Perfection and their lack of discrimination. It was one of his own preachers who, after Wesley's death, burned the Shakespeare which the Methodist leader had read and annotated with his own hand.
There remained in Wesley also some traces of his former preference for celibacy. Although he agreed that clergymen might marry and although he himself finally married, yet Wesley congratulated those who became eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake, taking pains to explain that marriage is an honorable estate but that he who is unmarried may give all his time and money to the Lord without let or hindrance.*'? As late as 1745, the Conference seemed undecided whether one who had reached perfection would be "'capable of marriage." The answer to the questions was: ""We cannot well judge. But supposing he were not, the number of those in that state is so small it would produce no inconvenience." In John
Bennet's copy of the Minutes, Wesley added a note:
"Me is H in all"; a reference to Hebrews xiii. 4, ""Marriage is honourable in all." ** The preachers and assistants were examined more closely than were members as to their renunciations.
Among the questions asked them concerning their "prudential" means of grace were the following: "Do you deny yourself every useless pleasure of sense, imagination, honour? Are you temperate in all things? instance in food: Do you use only that kind and that degree which is best both for your body and soul?
Do you see the necessity of this? Do you eat no flesh suppers? No late suppers? Do you eat no more at each meal than is necessary? Are you not heavy or,
John Wesley and Modern Religion drowsy after dinner? Do you use only that kind and that degree of drink which is best both for your body and soul? Do you drink water? Why not? Did you ever? Why did you leave it off? If not for health, when will you begin again? today? How often do you drink wine or ale? every day? Do you want
[need] it? Wherein do you 'take up your cross dayne All this is in the line of Christian asceticism, although it is an asceticism lived in the world, not out of it. But how is this related to man's business, to man's vocation as a workman, as a master, a member of the professions? Professor Tawney has summed up the Puritan ideal as follows: "In their emphasis on the moral duty of untiring activity, on work as an end in itself, on the evils of luxury and extravagance, on foresight and thrift, on moderation and self-discipline and rational calculation, they had created an ideal of Christian conduct which canonized as an ethical principle the efficiency which economic theorists were preaching as a specific for social disorders." °° Wheras the axioms of Christian social ethics had been summed up for generations in the words to Timothy,
"Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. For the love of money is the root of all evil," the Puritans, according to Professor Tawney, raised a new standard. They exalted "not an easy-going and — open-handed charity, but a systematic and methodical accumulation."
At first blush this seems to be precisely what Wesley did. His followers were to seek earnestly after inward and outward holiness by faith and works, practicing
Christian Perfection self-discipline and self-denial. "It is the bounden duty of all who are engaged in worldly business," he wrote in his sermon on ""The Use of Money," "'to observe that first and great rule of Christian wisdom, with respect to money, 'Gain all you can.' Gain all you can by honest industry. Use all possible diligence in your calling. Lose no time. If you understand yourself, and your relation to God and man, you will have none to spare. If you understand your particular calling, as you ought, you will have no time that' hangs upon your hands. .. . And 'whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.' Do it as soon as possible: No delay! ... And do it as well as possible. . . . Gain all you can, by common sense, by using in your business all the understanding which God has given you. . . . You should be continually learning, from the experience of others, or from your own experience, reading, and reflection, to do everything you have to do better today than you did yesterday. . . . Having gained all you can, by honest wisdom, and unwearied diligence, the Second rule of Christian prudence is, 'Save all you can.' ... Expend no part of it merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life." *
Numerous quotations could be added, but the heart of the matter is here. Work, diligent, intelligent work, and careful, self-denying saving are the rules of the Christian man. If this were all, then there would be no alternative to listing Wesley with those who reinterpreted the Christian doctrine of money and work in line with the individualistic economic development of the eighteenth century. But Professor
John Wesley and Modern Religion Tawney himself recognized as exceptions to the general trend Wesley's sermon on "The Use of Money" and Law's reassertion of Christianity as a distinctive way of life.°?
In Wesley's sermon, he rules out employments that are hurtful to the worker in mind or body. He insists that a Christian must not engage in a business which hurts his neighbor. "We cannot devour the increase of his lands, and perhaps the lands and houses themselves, by gaming, by over-grown bills, (whether on account of physic, or law, or anything else,) or by requiring or taking such interest as even the laws of our country forbid... .°? We cannot, consistent with brotherly love, sell our goods below the marketprice; we cannot study to ruin our neighbour's trade, in order to advance our own; much less can we entice away, or receive, any of his servants, or workmen whom he has need of. None can gain by swallowing up his neighbour's substance, without gaining the damnation of hell!" For the same reason none can engage in selling liquor or anything which would injure his neighbor's health. And concern for his neighbor's soul will prevent any from keeping "taverns, victualling-houses, opera-houses, play-houses, or any other places of public, fashionable diversion."
Such are the cautions which must be used by those who work. But there is a third rule to be added.
"Gain all you can; save all you can"; but also "give all you can." The rule which Wesley lays down is short but explicit: "First, provide things needful for yourself; food to eat, raiment to put on, whatever nature moderately requires for preserving the body in health
206 , FY a'q Christian Perfection and strength. Secondly, provide these for your wife, your children, your servants, or any others who pertain to your household. If, when this is done, there be an overplus left, then, 'do good to them that are of the household of faith.' If there be an overplus still,
'as you have opportunity, do good unto all men.' "
This is not to be taken as an exhortation to "tithing" or to any other method of keeping books with the Almighty. "Render unto God, not a tenth, not a third, not half, but all that is God's, be it more or less; by employing all on yourself, your household, the household of faith, and all mankind, in such a manner that you may give a good account of your stewardship, when ye can be no longer stewards." At the Judgment, the Lord will inquire of man: "In what manner didst thou employ that comprehensive talent, money? ... first supplying thy reasonable wants, together with those of thy family, then restoring the remainder to Me, through the poor, whom I had appointed to receive it; looking upon thyself as only one of that number of poor, whose wants were to be supplied out of that part of My substance which I had placed in thy hands for this purpose; leaving thee the right of being supplied first, and the blessedness of giving rather than receiving." °* It is estimated that Wesley himself, during his life-time, gave away £30,- 000.
The point here is not Wesley's economic or social theory but his conception of the way in which the Christian man, who is going on to perfection, may follow his "vocation" in this world. Professor Cell has given an interesting analysis of Wesley's views
John Wesley and Modern Religion concerning riches and has speculated as to the influence of such religious ideals as thrift, diligence, selfdenial in economic history." 'The present concern is to show that Wesley was proposing, not a religious ideal which coincided with the dominant economic individualism of the times, but a conception of the Christian man's vocation as distinctive. Decidedly, if he were taken seriously, there could be no such thing as modern business. If surplus were turned back into social channels, instead of being applied to capital holdings, then the modern capitalistic economy would be destroyed.
It is well known that Wesley was very much afraid » of riches. Time and again, he pointed out with sorrow that his Methodists were becoming rich; and he was sure that, when they were rich, they would no longer be religious. In no sense was Wesley a social philosopher. In politics he was conservative; he had no social or economic outlook peculiar to him—save in his interpretation of the path of the Christian seeking perfection. Here he stands neither in the way of St. Francis nor of the Puritan—if the ordinary interpretation of the Puritan's economic morality is correct. Wesley did not believe in poverty as poverty; he would relieve all men from its thraldom.
Work is good, and business is to be encouraged. But the importance of Wesley's teaching is that, for the modern, industrial world, he preserved the traditional =ireasa+—_—=
Christian attitude. The man of God lives a distinceeeaMeooekanacliCeRE tive life, not in monasteries, but in the world of business. He has the virtues of the modern world; but — his aims are different. Each man owes all that he has Seat= =e eta4reet ——8
Christian Perfection to the God of all men, and he pays it to society. The first unit of society is the household of faith; next comes all mankind. For this society of God's poor brethren man must work all his days; to work for himself alone is to fatten his soul for hell.
The holiness of the inner life and the holiness of conduct, religion and ethics, Wesley joined together, not as two separate things but as different parts of the same. "In a word," he wrote in a passage which sums up his total belief, 'let thy religion be the religion of the heart. Let it lie deep in thy inmost soul. Be thou little, and base, and mean, and vile (beyond what words can express) in thy own eyes; amazed and humbled to the dust by the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Be serious. Let the whole stream of thy thoughts, words, and actions flow from the deepest conviction that thou standest on the edge of the great gulf, thou and all the children of men, just ready to drop in, either into everlasting glory or everlasting burning! Let thy soul be filled with mildness, gentleness, patience, long suffering towards all men; at the same time all which is in thee is athirst for God, the living God, longing to awake up after His likeness and to be satisfied with it! Be thou a lover of _ God and of all mankind! In this spirit do and suffer all things! Thus show thy faith by thy works; thus
"do the will of thy Father which is in heaven'! And, as sure as thou now walkest with God on earth, thou shalt also reign with Him in glory!" °° This was the ideal. Men should be filled with a great passion for God, and, living in constant awareness of the criticalness of life, should be possessed of John Wesley and Modern Religion the Christian virtues and of the outward goodness and obedience which are substantial parts of religion.
But as Wesley grew older he grew in comprehension: all men are not the same, nor do all men attain unto the same. Sometimes he had been too exacting, too rigid. In April, 1788, Wesley the aged looked back with regret upon his earlier narrower views. "Nearly fifty years ago, when the Preachers, commonly called
Methodists, began to preach that grand scriptural doctrine, salvation by faith, they were not sufficiently apprized of the difference between a servant and a child of God. They did not clearly understand, that even one 'who feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him.' In consequence of this, they were apt to make sad the hearts of those whom God had not made sad. For they frequently asked those who feared God, 'Do you know that your sins are forgiven?' And upon their answering, 'No,' imme- — diately replied, 'Then you are a child of the devil.'
No; that does not follow. It might have been said, (and it is all that can be said with propriety,) 'Hitherto you are only a servant, you are not a child of God.
You have already great reason to praise God that he has called you to his honourable service.'"°? The path toward perfection stretches not only a long way forward, but a long way back, and along the way any ~ who walks forward is of the good company. |
Even among those who had felt justifying faith, there are two kinds of Christians; there have been two — kinds from the beginning. 'The one lived an innocent life, conforming in all things, not sinful, to the — customs and fashions of the world; doing many good ©
Christian Perfection works, abstaining from gross evils, and attending the ordinances of God. They endeavoured, in general, to have a conscience void of offence in their behaviour, but did not aim at any particular strictness, being in most things like their neighbours." °° From long experience, Wesley had decided that justified Christians had the choice of walking in this way or in "the more excellent way." But those who chose the lower path, while he would not say that they were in the way to hell, "'will not have so high a place in heaven as they would have had if they had chosen the better part."
The ideal is an ideal, but one must look to the height. "Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing more, but more of that love described in the thirteenth of the Corinthians. You can go no higher than this, till you are carried into Abraham's bosom." ®° " He believed in man's natural depravity, but also in man's opportunity, by the grace of God, for infinite growth. His doctrine of perfectibility was not that of the optimists of the Enlightenment, nor was it at one with the naturalistic optimism of the Romantic Movement; but Wesley saw that man's reach exceeds his grasp, and that he may go on hopefully in his pilgrimage toward the City of God.! The sum of the whole matter he might have stated in a quotation from his father's friend, high-priest of eighteenth-century Classicism, "that excellent poet,"
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, All end, in love of God, and love of man.
Zz11 CHAPTER IX THE DISCIPLINE, OF Tike Ir has already been made plain that Wesley did not, either in practice or teaching, rely upon "'feelings." He would have subscribed to Augustine's aphorism, "Love God and do as you please," but only on the presupposition of a disciplined character.
Fully to understand Wesley's religion, one must consider at greater length the place which discipline and control played in his scheme for himself and others.
According to Wesley, the name of Methodist was given to the little group at Oxford because of "the exact regularity of their lives as well as their studies."
He further said, that "the one charge then advanced against them was, that they were 'righteous overmuch'; that they were abundantly too scrupulous, and too strict, carrying things to great extremes: In particular, that they laid too much stress upon the Rubrics and Canons of the Church; that they insisted too much upon the Statutes of the University; and that they took the Scriptures in too strict and literal a © sense; so that if they were right, few indeed could be © saved." if? It will be well to examine in more detail the practices of Wesley and the Oxford Methodists — during the early stages and then to follow the older
Wesley in the matter of "exact regularity."
ZizZ The Discipline of Life Certainly Wesley was by nature and training fitted for a regular way of life. No man with any natural predisposition in this direction could have escaped a bent toward some form of methodism as a result of Susannah Wesley's training and teaching. Exactly how much in Wesley's character was owing to his natural tendencies and how much to training cannot, of course, be determined; but that he was from his youth up precise in his habits, as well as rationalistic of mind, is plain to all who know his story. In his childhood he seems to have taken kindly to the barrack-like discipline of his mother; at Charterhouse he ran thrice around the yard every morning, read the Scriptures and said his prayers twice a day; in 1721, as a young collegian he budgeted his time, allowing portions for study, for correspondence and the like; in his old age his "habit of body" was expressive "'of strict temperance and continual exercise. .. . In dress he was a pattern of neatness." "