quently in his chapels and sometimes in my church; I have familiarly conversed and corresponded with him, and have often perused his numerous works in verse and prose : And I can truly say, that, during all that time, I have heard him, upon every proper occasion, steadily maintain the total Fall of Man in Adam, and his utter inability to recover himself, or take any one step towards his recovery, "without the grace of God preventing him that he may have a good will, and working with him when he has that good will." The deepest expressions that ever struck my ears, on the melancholy subject of our natural depravity and helplessness, are those which dropped from his lips: And I have ever observed that he constantly ascribes to divine grace, not only the good works and holy tempers of believers, but all the good thoughts of upright Heathens, and the good desires of those professors whom he sees begin in the spirit and end in the flesh :' When, to my great surprise, some of those who accuse him of "robbing God of the glory of his grace, and ascribing too much to man's power," directly or indirectly maintain, that Demas and his fellow-apostates never had any grace; and that if once they went on far in the ways of God, it was merely by the force of fallen nature; a sentiment which Mr. W. looks upon as diametrically opposite to the humbling assertion of our Lord, 'Without me ye can do nothing;' and which he can no more admit than the rankest Pelagianism. 2. I must likewise testify, that he faithfully points out Christ as the only Way of Salvation; and strongly recommends faith as the only mean of receiving him, and all the benefits of his righteous life and meritorious death : And truth obliges me to declare, that he frequently expresses his detestation of the errors of modern Pharisees who laugh at Original Sin, set up the powers of fallen man, cry down the operation of God's Spirit, deny the absolute necessity of the blood and righteousness of Christ, and refuse him the glory of all the good that may be found in Jew or Gentile. And you will not without difficulty, Sir, find in England, and perhaps in 6 all the world, a minister who hath borne more frequent testimonies, either from the pulpit or the press, against those dangerous errors. All his works confirm my assertion, especially his sermons on Original Sin, and Salvation by Faith, and his masterly Refutation of Dr. Taylor, the wisest Pelagian and Socinian of our age. Nor am I afraid to have this testimony confronted with his Minutes, being fully persuaded that, when they are candidly explained, they rather confirm than overthrow it. His manner of preaching the Fall and the Recovery of man, is attended with a peculiar advantage; it is close and experimental: He not only points out the truth of those doctrines, but presses his hearers to cry to God that they may feel their weight upon their hearts. Some open those great truths very clearly, but let their congregations rest, like the stony-ground hearers, in the first emotions of sorrow and joy which the word frequently excites. Not so Mr. Wesley: He will have true penitents "feel the plague of their own hearts, travail, be heavy laden," and receive the sentence of death in themselves,' according to the glorious 'ministration of condemnation :' And according to the ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit which exceeds in glory,' he insists upon true believers knowing for themselves, that Jesus hath power on earth to forgive sins;' and asserts, that they taste the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,' and that they are made partakers of the Holy Ghost and the divine nature; the Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God.' 6 6 3. The next fundamental doctrine in Christianity, is that of Holiness of Heart and Life, and no one can here accuse Mr. W. of leaning to the Antinomian delusion, which makes void the law through' a speculative, and barren faith:' On the contrary, he appears to be peculiarly set for the defence of practical religion: For, instead of representing Christ as the minister of sin,' with Ranters, to the great grief and offence of many, he sets him forth as a complete Saviour from sin. Not satisfied to preach holiness begun, he preaches finished holiness, and calls believers to such a degree of heartpurifying faith, as may enable them to triumph in Christ, as being made to them of God, sanctification as well as righteousness.' It is, I grant, his misfortune, (if indeed it be one,) to preach a fuller salvation than most professors expect to enjoy here; for he asserts that Jesus can 'make clean' the inside as well as the outside, of his vessels unto honour; that he hath power on earth 'to save his people from their sins;' and that his blood cleanses from all sin,' from the guilt and defilement both of original and actual corruption. He is bold enough to declare with St. John, that if we say we have no sin, either by nature or practice, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' He is legal enough not to be ashamed of these words of Moses, The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.' And he dares to believe, that the Lord can perform the words which he spoke by Ezekiel: 'I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean; from ALL your filthiness, and from ALL your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you; I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh; and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses.' Hence it is, that he constantly exhorts his hearers to grow in grace, and in the know. ledge of our Saviour;' till by a strong and lively faith, they can continually reckon themselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord' He tells them, that he who committeth sin, is the servant of sin;'-that 'our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin ;'-that, if the Son shall make us free, we shall be free indeed ;-and that, although the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' will not deliver us from the innocent infirmities incident to flesh and blood, it will nevertheless make us free from the law of sin and death,' and enable us to say with holy triumph, How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?' In a word, he thinks, that God can so shed abroad his love in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto us,' as to 'sanctify us wholly, sonl, body, and spirit;' and enable us to rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks.' And he is persuaded, that he who can do far exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think,' is able to fill us with the perfect love which casts out fear; that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies,' may have the mind which was in Christ,' be righteous as the man Jesus was righteous, walk as He also walked,' and be in our measure, as He was in the world:' He as the stock of the tree of righteousness; and we as the branches, having our fruit' from Him unto holiness,' and serving God without fear in true holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.' This he sometimes calls Full Sanctification, the state of fathers in Christ,' or the 'glorious liberty of the children of God;' sometimes, a being strengthened, stablished, and settled,' or 'being rooted and grounded in love;' but most commonly he calls it Christian Perfection: A word which, though used by the apostles in the same sense, cannot be used by him without raising the pity or indignation of one half of the religious world; some making it the subject of their pious sneers and godly lampoons; while others tell you roundly, "They abhor it above every thing in the creation." Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ! On account of this doctrine it is, that he is traduced as a Pharisee, a Papist, an Anti-christ; some of his opposers taking it for granted, that he makes void the priestly office of Christ by affirming, that his blood can so completely wash us here from our sins, that at death we shall be found of Him in peace, without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing;' while others, to colour their opposition to the many scriptures which he brings to support this unfashionable doctrine, give it out, that he only wants the old man to be so refined in all his tempers, and regulated in all his outward behaviour, as to appear perfect in the flesh; or, in other terms, that he sets up Pharisaic SELF, instead of Christ completely formed in us as the full hope of glory.' But I must (for one) do him the justice to say, he is misapprehended, and that what he calls perfection, is nothing but the rich cluster of all the spiritual blessings promised to believers in the gospel; and, among the rest, a continual sense of the virtue of Christ's atoning and purifying blood, preventing, both old guilt from returning, and new guilt from fastening, upon the conscience; together with the deepest consciousness of our helplessness and nothingness in our best estate, the most endearing discoveries of the Redeemer's love, and the most humbling and yet ravishing views of his glorious fulness Witness one of his favourite hymns on that subject: : Confound, o'erpower me with thy grace; I would be by myself abhorr❜d: And feel that Christ is all in all. 4. But this is not all: He holds also General Redemption, and its necessary consequences, which some account dreadful heresies. He asserts with St. Paul, that Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man ;' and this grace he calls free, as extending itself freely to all. Nor can he help expressing his surprise at those pious ministers who maintain, that the Saviour keeps His grace, as they suppose he kept His blood, from the greatest part of mankind, and yet engross to themselves the title of preachers of FREE grace! |