PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 16 (of 32)
Wesley, John, 1703-1791 · 87,621 words · 110 reading sections
Part 1
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Transcriber’s Notes │ │ │ │ …
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Rev. JOHN WESLEY, M.A. Late Fellow of _Lincoln-College_, OXFORD.…
10 wordsSECTION 3VOLUME XVI.
BRISTOL: Printed by WILLIAM PINE, in _Wine-Street_. MDCCLXXII. THE CONTENTS Of the SIXTEENTH VOLUME. ⭘ _Advice to the people called_ Methodists ⭘ _The principles of a_ Methodist ⭘ _An answer to the Rev. Mr._ Church_’s remarks on the Rev. Mr._ John Wesley_’s last journal, in a letter to that gentleman_ ⭘ _The princ…
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One of these is, That you are a _new_ people, your _name_ is new, (at least, as used in a religious sense) not heard of, till a few years ago, either in our own, or any other nation. Your _principles_ are new, in this respect, that there is no other set of people among us (and, possibly, not in the Christian world) who…
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♦Considering these peculiar circumstances wherein you stand, you will see the propriety of a _second_ advice I would recommend to you, _Do not imagine you can avoid giving offence_: your very _name_ renders this impossible. Perhaps not one in a hundred of those who use the term _Methodist_, have any ideas of what it me…
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What further advice can be given to persons in such a situation? I cannot but advise you, _thirdly, consider deeply with yourself, is the God whom I serve able to deliver me_? I am not able to deliver myself out of these difficulties; much less am I able to bear them. I know not how to give up my reputation, my friends…
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Perhaps on this very account, I might advise you _fifthly_, _not to talk much of what you suffer_; “of the _persecution_ you endured at such a time, and the wickedness of your _persecutors_.” Nothing more tends to exasperate them than this: and therefore, (although there is a time when these things must be mentioned, y…
308 wordsSECTION 8OCTOBER 10, 1745.
The PRINCIPLES of a METHODIST. Written in 1740. Occasioned by a late pamphlet, intitled, A brief _history of the principles of_ METHODISM. _To the READER._ 1. I _HAVE often wrote on_ controverted points _before; but not with an eye to_ any _particular person. So that this is the first time I have appeared in_ contr…
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3. To express my meaning a little more at large. I believe, three things must go together in our justification: upon God’s part, his great mercy and grace; upon Christ’s part, the satisfaction of God’s justice, by the offering his body and shedding his blood, and upon our part, true and living faith in the merits of Je…
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10. This is what I believe (and have believed for some years) concerning _justification by faith alone_. I have chose to express it in the words of a little treatise, published several years ago; as being the most authentic proof, both of my past and present sentiments. If I err herein, let those who are better informe…
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18. (2) Yet it was not _Peter Bohler_, who convinced me that _conversion_ (I mean justification) _was_ an _instantaneous work_. On the contrary, when I was convinced of the nature and fruits of justifying faith, still “¹I could not comprehend what he spoke of _an instantaneous work_. I could not understand, how this fa…
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“I believe that Christ _formed in us_ subordinately to Christ _given for us_ (_i. e._ our own _inherent_ righteousness subordinate to Christ’s _merits_) ought to be insisted upon, as necessary to our justification. “And it is just and right that a man should be humble and penitent, and have a broken and contrite heart…
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“Yet I believe he may not know it till long after.” This also I utterly deny. 26. _Of the_ Conditions _of justification_. “I believe, that Christ _formed in us_ ought to be _insisted on, as necessary to our justification_.” I no more believe this than _Christian David_ does, whose words concerning it are these: “It…
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2. “After _justification_. The moment a man comes to Christ (by faith) he is justified, and born again; that is, he is born again in the _imperfect_ sense (for there are two, [if not more] degrees of regeneration) and he has _power over_ all the stirrings and motions of sin, but not a total _freedom from_ them. Therefo…
754 wordsSECTION 15AN ANSWER
TO THE Rev. Mr. _Church_’s REMARKS on the Rev. Mr. _John Wesley_’s last JOURNAL. In a LETTER to that GENTLEMAN. _Let not him that putteth on his harness, boast himself as he that putteth it off._ 1 Kings xx. 11. Reverend Sir, 1. MY first desire (and prayer to God) is, That I may live peaceably with all men. My ne…
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“Mr. _Bell_ earnestly defended this.” “At eight the society (at _Nottingham_) met; I could not but observe――――that not one who came in, used any prayer at all.――――I looked for one of our hymn books, but both that and the bible were vanished away, and in the room thereof lay, the _Moravian_ hymns and the _Count’s sermo…
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4. I am more concerned for their “¹Despising and decrying self-denial:” for their “²extending Christian liberty beyond all warrant of holy writ;” for their “³Want of zeal for good works;” and above all for their supposing, that “³we may, on some accounts use guile:” in consequence of which they do “⁴use guile or dissim…
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“These I have set down with all simplicity.――――Yet do I this, because I love them not? God knoweth: yea, and _in part_, I esteem them still: because I verily believe, they have a sincere desire to serve God; because many of them have tasted of his love, and some retain it in simplicity; because they love one another; b…
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8. You go on. _How could you so long and so intimately converse with――――such desperately wicked people, as the_ Moravians, _according to_ your own account, _were known by you to be_? O Sir, what another assertion is this? _The_ Moravians, _according to your_ own account, _were_ known _by you to be desperately wicked pe…
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_You praise them, for “using no diversions but such as become saints,” and for “not regarding outward adorning.” Yet you say, they “conform to the world in wearing gold and costly apparel: and by joining in worldly diversions, in order to do good._” _You call their discipline, “in most respects, truly excellent.” I wi…
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II. 1. Your second charge is, _That I hold, in common with them, principles from which their errors naturally follow_. You mean, justification by faith alone. To set things in the clearest light I can, I will, first, observe, what I hold, and what you object, and then enquire, what the consequences have been? First, A…
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“And yet I allow you this, That although both repentance and the fruits thereof are in _some sense_ necessary before justification, yet neither the one nor the other is necessary in the _same sense_, or in the _same degree_ with faith; for in whatever moment a man believes, (in the Christian sense of the word) he is ju…
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¹_In another place, after having observed, that “Sin does_ remain _in one that is justified, though it has not_ dominion _over him,” you go on, “But fear not, though you have an evil heart; yet a little while and you shall be endued with power from on high, whereby ye may purify yourselves, even as he is pure.”――――Sinn…
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You add, ¹_You write in other places so variously about this matter, that I despair to find any consistency. Once you held “a degree of justifying faith, short of_ the full assurance _of faith, the_ abiding witness _of the Spirit, or the clear perception that Christ abideth in him.”――――And yet you afterwards “warned al…
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11. You next give what you stile ¹_The_ Christian scheme of justification, and afterwards point out the consequences, which you apprehend to have attended the preaching justification by faith: the third point into which I was to inquire. ¹ Page 50. You open the cause thus: ¹_The denying the necessity of good works, a…
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13. Another consequence which you charge on my preaching justification by faith, is, the introducing the errors of the _Moravians_. ¹_Had the people, say you, gone on in a quiet and regular practice of their duty, as most of them did before you deluded them, it would have been impossible for the_ Moravian _tenets to ha…
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Page 38. “The attention of all was soon fixed, on poor _L―――― S――――_. One so violently and variously torn of the evil one, did I never see before. Sometimes, she laughed till almost strangled; and then broke out into cursing and blaspheming; then stamped and struggled with incredible strength, so that four or five coul…
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1. _Kingswood you call your own house._ So I do, that is, the school-house there. For I bought the ground where it stands, and paid for the building it, partly from the contribution of my friends (one of whom contributed fifty pounds) partly from the income of my own fellowship. No clergyman therefore can call his pari…
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* Consider now (I would not speak; but I dare not refrain) what have been the consequences of even my preaching the other doctrine? By the fruits shall we know those of whom I speak: even the cloud of witnesses, who at this hour experience the gospel I preach, to be the power of God unto salvation. The habitual drunkar…
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4. ¹_A stoical insensibility_, you add, _is the next error I have to charge you with. You say, “The servants of_ God _suffer nothing,” and suppose, that we ought to be here so free, as in the strongest pain, not once to desire to have a moment’s ease_. ¹ Remarks, page 58. _At the end of one of your hymns, you seem to…
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“Not even a word or look Do I approve or own, But by the model of thy book, Thy sacred book alone.” _Instead of judging of his spiritual estate by the improvement of his heart, he rests only on extacies_――――Neither is this my case. I rest not on them at all. Nor did I ever experience any. I do judge of my spiritual es…
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And first, _You give us one_ (these are your words) _of a private revelation, which you seem to pay great credit to_. You partly relate this, and then remark, _What enthusiasm is here? To represent the conjectures of a woman, whose brain appears to have been too much heated, as if they had been owing to a particular an…
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10. You proceed to what you account a 5th instance of enthusiasm. ¹_With regard to people’s falling in fits, it is plain, you look upon both the disorders and removals of them to be supernatural._ It is not quite plain. I look upon some of these cases as wholly natural: on the rest, as mixt; both the disorder and the r…
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Before I answer, I must know, what you mean by miraculous? If you term every thing so, which is not strictly accountable for, by the ordinary course of natural causes; then I deny the latter part of the minor proposition. And unless you can make this good, unless you can prove the effects in question are strictly accou…
490 wordsSECTION 35JOHN WESLEY.
_Bristol, February 2, 1744‒5_. The PRINCIPLES of a METHODIST Farther explained: Occasioned by the Rev. Mr. CHURCH’s _Second Letter_ to Mr. WESLEY. In a _Second Letter_ to that GENTLEMAN. Reverend Sir, * 1. AT the time that I was reading your former letter, I expected to hear from you again. And I was not displease…
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I. 1. This premised, I come to the letter itself. I begin, as before, with the case of the _Moravians_: of whom you say, ¹_I collected together the character which you had given of these men; the errors and vices which you had charged upon them, and the mischiefs――――they had done among your followers. And I proved, tha…
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Thirdly, _You “never knew but one of the_ Moravian church _affirm, that a believer does not grow in holiness.”――――But who was this? No less a person than Count_ Zinzendorf, _their great bishop and patron, whose authority is very high, all in all with them, and to whom you think they pay_ “too much _regard_.”――――Do you …
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_You “still think_, (page 81) _That next to some thousands in our own church, the body of the_ Moravian _church, however mistaken some of them are, are, in the main, the best Christians in the world.”_ I do; “of all whom I have seen;” (you should not omit these words.)――――_Those dreadful errors and crimes are here soft…
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_I imagined, that supposing your account of the_ Moravians _true, it would be impossible for any serious Christian to doubt of their being very wicked people_.――――I know many serious Christians who suppose it true, and yet believe they are, in the main, good men.――――_A much worse character, take the whole body together…
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You proceed. _You distinguish between the_ English _♦brethren and the_ Moravians. _These_ English _♠brethren, I presume, were your followers. Afterwards you represent them as perverted by the_ Moravians. _Before they had spoke these wicked things, you say, they had joined these men, and acted under their direction. If …
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4. _You “praise them for not regarding outward adorning.”_――――So I do, the bulk of the congregation.――――_And yet you say_ (I again recite the whole sentence) “_I have heard some of you affirm, that Christian salvation implies liberty to conform to the world, by putting on gold and costly apparel_.”――――I have so. And I …
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* You take the word _condition_ in the former sense only, as that without which we cannot be justified. In this sense of the word, I think we may allow, that there are several conditions of justification. * “Good works follow this faith, but cannot go before it. Much less can sanctification; which implies a continued …
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_Secondly, You make sinless perfection necessary after justification, in order to make us meet for glory._――――And who does not? Indeed men do not agree in the time. Some believe it is attained before death: some, in the article of death: some, in an after-state; in the _mystic_, or the _popish_ purgatory. But all write…
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_Your business was to shew, that the_ calvinistical _notions have not prevailed among the Methodists, or that they were no consequences of unconditioned justification_.――――No, Sir, It was not my business to shew this. It was not my business to prove the negative; but yours, to prove the affirmative. Mr. _Whitefield_ is…
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_It is not_ this _account which you had thus introduced; but another, and a very different one, of what happened a day or two before. Sunday, you mention her as being guilty of gross presumption,――――which you attribute to the power of the devil. But on Monday and Tuesday the opposite revelations happened, which――――you …
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Neither has this any resemblance of _stoical insensibility_. I never _supposed_, that this person did not _feel_ pain: (nor indeed that there is any state on earth, wherein we shall not feel it.) But that her soul was filled with the love of God, and thankfully resigned to his will. _Another instance is taken from one…
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I do not _slight or contemn the offices_ of the church. I esteem them very highly. And yet I do not, at all times, worship God, even in public, in the very terms of those offices. Nor yet do I knowingly _slight or contemn her rules_. For it is not clear to my apprehension, that she has any rule which forbids using exte…
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You reply, “I presume it was expected you should either continue at your college, or enter upon some regular cure.”――――Perhaps so; but I must still insist, that if my sacerdotal powers had been then _expresly limited_ to _that congregation_ whereunto I should be _appointed_, my ordination would have _signified nothing_…
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You are in some mistakes here. For, 1. _The bands_ are not called _the united society_. 2. The _united society_ was originally so called, not after the _Moravians_, but because it consisted of several smaller societies _united together_. 3. Neither the bands, nor the leaders of them, as such, are _set upon expounding s…
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You add, _I appeal to any reasonable man, whether you have not acted as an_ ordinary; _nay, a_ bishop _in_ Kingswood.――――If you mean, in “declaring those disorderly members were no longer of that society.” I admit your appeal, whether I therein acted as a _bishop_, or as any _steward_ of a society may. _Nay, you have g…
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2. You remark (page 60.) _Though you would be thought an enemy to enthusiasm and presumption,――――yet in both you are far from being inferior to the_ Moravians, _or indeed to any others_: [strong assertions! _not inferior to_ any others? Not to the _French_ prophets, or _John_ of _Leyden_?] 1. _Enthusiasm is, a false pe…
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You remark, 8. _Whoever opposes him will be charged with resisting or rejecting the Spirit._ I answered, “What! Whoever opposes me, John Wesley?――――Do I charge every such person with _rejecting the Spirit_? No more than I charge him with robbing on the highway.――――Do I charge _you_ with rejecting the Spirit?” You reply…
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As to the particular instances, I would observe, 1. That with regard to my first journey to _Bristol_, you should in any wise have set down those words, that preface the scriptures there recited. “I was intreated, in the most pressing manner, to come to _Bristol_ without delay. This I was not at all forward to do: and …
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So this you give as a genuine instance of my proceedings――――And, I suppose, of your own fairness and candour! “We agreed at length, to decide it by lot.” True; at _length_: after a debate of some hours; after carefully hearing and weighing coolly, all the reasons which could be alledged on either side; “Our brethren st…
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You go on. _Again, you mention “as an awful providence, the case of a poor wretch who was last week cursing and blaspheming, and had boasted to many, that he would come again on_ Sunday, _and no man should stop his mouth then――――But on_ Friday _God laid his hand upon him, and on_ Sunday _he was buried_.” (page 66.) I a…
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7. The account of people falling down in fits you cite as a fifth instance of my enthusiasm: it being _plain_, you say, that I _look upon both the disorders, and the removals of them to be supernatural_. (page 67.) I answered, “It is not quite plain. I look upon some of these cases, as wholly natural: on the rest, as m…
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I answered, “As to each of the rest, let it go as far as it can go. [Let it be supposed to have _some_ influence in _some_ cases; perhaps, _fully to account for_ one in a thousand.] But I require proof of the last way, whereby you would account for these disorders.”――――Why, _the instances_, you say, of _religious madne…
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_The next case_, you say, _relates to the spotted fever, which you represent as being extremely mortal; but――――you believe there was not one with whom you were but recovered. I allowed, that here is no intimation of any thing miraculous_ (_Remarks_ page 72.) _You ask_, (Answer, page 45.) “_Why then is this cited as an …
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To this clumsy syllogism I rejoin, 1. That the words, “if sincere,” are utterly impertinent: for if _insincerity_ be supposed, _enthusiasm_ will be out of the question. 2. That those words, “as the effects of his own prayers,” may likewise be pared off; for they are unnecessary and cumbersome, the argument being comple…
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* Yet I must desire you well to observe, thirdly, That my will, or choice, or desire, had no place either in this, or any case of this kind, that has ever fallen under my notice. Five minutes before I had no thought of this. I expected nothing less. I was willing to wait for a gradual recovery, in the ordinary use of o…
822 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.