Iii.

Faith alone, therefore, justifies; which repentance alone does not, much less any outward work. And, consequently, none of these are necessary to justification, in the same degree with faith.

Nor in the same sense. For none of these has so direct, immediate a relation to justification as faith. This is proximately necessary thereto; repentance, remotely, as it is necessary to the increase or continuance of faith. And even in this sense these are only necessary on supposition, — if there be time and opportunity for them; for in many instances there is not; but God cuts short his work, and faith prevents the fruits of repentance. So that the general proposition is not overthrown, but clearly established by these concessions; and we conclude still, both on the authority of Scripture and the Church, that faith alone is the proximate condition of justification.

III.

1. I was once inclined to believe that none would openly object against what I had anywhere said of the nature of salvation. How greatly then was I surprised some months ago, when I was shown a kind of circular letter, which one of those whom “the Holy Ghost hath made overseers” of his Church, f8 I was informed, had sent to all the Clergy of his diocese! Part of it ran (nearly, if not exactly) thus: —

“There is great indiscretion in preaching up a sort of religion, as the true and only Christianity, which, in their own account of it, consists in an enthusiastic ardor, to be understood or attained by very few, and not to be practiced without breaking in upon the common duties of life.”

O, my Lord, what manner of words are these! Supposing candor and love out of the question, are they the words of truth? I dare stake my life upon it, there is not one true clause in all this paragraph. The propositions contained therein are these: —

(1.) That the religion I preach consists in enthusiastic ardor.

(2.) That it can be attained by very few.

(3.) That it can be understood by very few.

(4.) That it cannot be practiced without breaking in upon the common duties of life.

(5.) And that all this may be proved by my own account of it. I earnestly entreat your Grace to review my own account of it, as it stands in any of my former writings; or to consider the short account which is given in this; and if you can thence make good any one of those propositions, I do hereby promise, before God and the world, that I will never preach more.

At present I do not well understand what your Grace means by “an enthusiastic ardor.” Surely you do not mean the love of God! No, not though a poor, pardoned sinner should carry it so far as to love the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength! But this alone is the ardor which I preach up as the foundation of the true and only Christianity. I pray God so to fill your whole heart therewith, that you may praise him for ever and ever.

But why should your Grace believe that the love of God can be attained by very few; or, that it can be understood by very few? All who attain it understand it well. And did not He who is loving to every man design that every man should attain true love? “O that all would know, in this their day, the things that make for their peace!”

And cannot the love both of God and our neighbor be practiced, without breaking in upon the common duties of life? Nay, can any of the common duties of life be rightly practiced without them? I apprehend not. I apprehend I am then laying the true, the only foundation for all those duties, when I preach, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.”

2. With this letter was sent (I believe to every Clergyman in the diocese) the pamphlet, entitled, “Observations on the Conduct and Behavior of a certain Sect, usually distinguished by the name of Methodists.” It has been generally supposed to be wrote by a person who is every way my superior. Perhaps one reason why he did not inscribe his name was, that his greatness might not make me afraid; and that I might have liberty to stand as it were on even ground, while I answer for myself. In considering, therefore, such parts of these “Observations” as fall in my way, I will take that method which I believe the author desires, using no ceremony at all; but speaking as to an equal, that it may the more easily be discerned where the truth lies.

The first query relating to doctrine is this: —

“Whether notions in religion may not be heightened to such extremes, as to lead some into a disregard of religion itself, through despair of attaining such exalted heights: And whether others who have imbibed those notions may not be led by them into a disregard and disesteem of the common duties and offices of life; to such a degree, at least, as is inconsistent with that attention to them, and that diligence in them, which Providence has made necessary to the well-being of private families and public societies, and which Christianity does not only require in all stations, and in all conditions, but declares at the same time, that the performance even of the lowest offices in life, as unto God, (whose providence has placed people in their several stations,) is truly a serving of Christ, and will not fail of its reward in the next world.” You have interwoven so many particulars in this general question, that I must divide and answer them one by one.

Query 1. Whether notions in religion may not be heightened to such extremes, as to lead some into a disregard of religion itself. Answer. They may. But that I have so heightened them, it lies upon you to prove.

Q. 2. Whether others may not be led into a disregard of religion, through despair of attaining such exalted heights.

A. What heights? the loving God with all our heart? I believe this is the most exalted height in man or angel. But I have not heard that any have been led into a disregard of religion through despair of attaining this. Q. 3. Whether others who have imbibed these notions may not be led by them into a disregard and disesteem of the common duties and offices of life.

A. My notions are, True religion is the loving God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves; and in that love abstaining from all evil, and doing all possible good to all men. Now, it is not possible, in the nature of things, that any should be led by these notions into either a disregard or disesteem of the common duties and offices of life.

Q. 4. But may they not be led by them into such a degree, at least, of disregard for the common duties of life as is inconsistent with that attention to them, and diligence in them, which Providence has made necessary?

A. No; quite the reverse. They lead men to discharge all those duties with the strictest diligence and closest attention.

Q. 5. Does not Christianity require this attention and diligence in all stations and in all conditions?

A. Yes.

Q. 6. Does it not declare that the performance even of the lowest offices of life, as unto God, is truly “a serving of Christ;” and will not fail of its reward in the next world?

A. It does. But whom are you confuting? Not me; for this is the doctrine I preach continually.

3. Query the Second: — “Whether the enemy of Christianity may not find his account in carrying Christianity, which was designed for a rule to all stations and all conditions, to such heights as make it practicable by a very few, in comparison, or rather, by none.”

I answer,

(1.) The height to which we carry Christianity (as was but now observed) is this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.”

(2.) The enemy of Christianity cannot find his account in our carrying it to this height.

(3.) You will not say, on reflection, that Christianity, even in this height, is practicable by very few, or rather, by none: You yourself will confess this is a rule (as God designed it should) for all stations and all conditions.

Query the Third: — “Whether, in particular, the carrying the doctrine of justification by faith alone to such a height as not to allow that a sincere and careful observance of moral duties is so much as a condition of our acceptance with God, and of our being justified in his sight: Whether this, I say, does not naturally lead people to a disregard of those duties, and a low esteem of them; or, rather, to think them no part of the Christian religion.”

I trust justification by faith alone has been so explained above, as to secure not only a high esteem but also a careful and sincere observance of all moral duties.

4. Query the Fourth: — “Whether a due and regular attendance on the public offices of religion, paid by good men in a serious and composed way, does not answer the true ends of devotion, and is not a better evidence of the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, than those sudden agonies, roarings, screamings, tremblings, droppings down, ravings, and madnesses, into which their hearers have been cast.”

I must answer this query likewise part by part.

Query 1. Whether a due and regular attendance on the public offices of religion, paid in a serious and composed way, by good (that is, well-meaning) men, does not answer the true ends of devotion. Answer. I suppose, by devotion, you mean public worship; by the true ends of it, the love of God and man; and by a due and regular attendance on the public offices of religion, paid in a serious and composed way, the going as often as we have opportunity to our parish church, and to the sacrament there administered. If so, the question is, whether this attendance on those offices does not produce the love of God and man. I answer, Sometimes it does; and sometimes it does not. I myself thus attended them for many years; and yet am conscious to myself that during that whole time I had no more of the love of God than a stone. And I know many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of serious persons, who are ready to testify the same thing.

Q. 2. But is not this a better evidence of the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, than those sudden agonies?

A. All these persons, as well as I, can testify also that this is no evidence at all of the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. For some years I attended these public offices, because I would not be punished for non-attendance. And many of these attended them, because their parents did before them, or because they would not lose their character: Many more, because they confounded the means with the end, and fancied this opus operatum would bring them to heaven. How many thousands are now under this strong delusion! Beware, you bring not their blood on your own head! Q. 3. However, does not this attendance better answer those ends, than those roarings, screaming? etc.

A. I suppose you mean, better than an attendance on that preaching, which has often been accompanied with these.

I answer,

(1.) There is no manner of need to set the one in opposition to the other; seeing we continually exhort all who attend on our preaching to attend the offices of the Church. And they do pay a more regular attendance there than ever they did before.

(2.) Their attending the Church did not, in fact, answer those ends at all till they attended this preaching also.

(3.) It is the preaching of remission of sins through Jesus Christ, which alone answers the true ends of devotion. And this will always be accompanied with the co-operation of the Holy Spirit; though not always with sudden agonies, roarings, screaming, tremblings, or droppings down. Indeed, if God is pleased at any time to permit any of these, I cannot hinder it. Neither can this hinder the work of his Spirit in the soul; which may be carried on either with or without them. But,

(4.) I cannot apprehend it to be any reasonable proof, that “this is not the work of God,” that a convinced sinner should “fall into an extreme agony, both of body and soul;” (Journal III;) that another should “roar for the disquietness of her heart;” that others should scream or “cry with a loud and bitter cry, ‘What must we do to be saved?’” that others should “exceedingly tremble and quake;” and others, in a deep sense of the majesty of God, “should fall prostrate upon the ground.” Indeed, by picking out one single word from a sentence, and then putting together what you had gleaned in sixty or seventy pages, you have drawn a terrible group for them who look no farther than those two lines in the “Observations.” But the bare addition of half a line to each word, just as it stands in the place from which you quoted it, reconciles all both to Scripture and reason; and the spectre-form vanishes away. You have taken into your account ravings and madnesses too. As instances of the former, you refer to the case of John Haydon, and of Thomas Maxfield. I wish you would calmly consider his reasoning on that head, who is not prejudiced in my favor: “What influence sudden and sharp awakenings may have upon the body, I pretend not to explain. But I make no question, Satan, so far as he gets power, may exert himself on such occasions, partly to hinder the good work in the persons who are thus touched with the sharp arrows of conviction, and partly to disparage the work of God, as if it tended to lead people to distraction.” For instances of madness you refer to pages 88, 90, 91, 92, 93. The words in page 88 are these: —

“I could not but be under some concern, with regard to one or two persons, who were tormented in an unaccountable manner, and seemed to be indeed lunatic as well as ‘sore vexed.’ Soon after I was sent for to one of these, who was so strangely ‘torn of the devil,’ that I almost wondered her relations did not say, Much religion ‘hath made thee mad.’ We prayed God to bruise Satan under her feet. Immediately ‘we had the petition we asked of him.’ She cried out vehemently, ‘He is gone! he is gone!’ and was filled with the Spirit of ‘love, and of a sound mind.’ I have seen her many times since strong in the Lord. When I asked, abruptly, ‘What do you desire now?’ she answered, ‘Heaven.’ I asked, ‘What is in your heart?’ She replied, ‘God.’ I asked, ‘But how is your heart when anything provokes you?’ She said, ‘By the grace of God, I am not provoked at anything. All the things of this world pass by me as shadows.’” Are these the words of one that is beside herself? Let any man of reason judge!

Your next instance (p. 90) stands thus: —

“About noon I came to Usk, where I preached to a small company of poor people, on, ‘The Son of man is come to save that which is lost.’ One gray-headed man wept and trembled exceedingly; and another who was there, (I have since heard,) as well as two or three who were at the Devauden, are gone quite distracted; that is, (my express words, that immediately follow, specify what it was which some accounted distraction,) ‘they mourn and refuse to be comforted, until they have redemption through his blood.’” If you think the case mentioned pp. 92, 93, to be another instance of madness, I contend not. It was because I did not understand that uncommon case that I prefaced it with this reflection: “The fact I nakedly relate, and leave every man to his own judgment upon it.” Only be pleased to observe, that this madness, if such it was, is no more chargeable upon me than upon you. For the subject of it had no relation to, or commerce with, me; nor had I ever seen her before that hour.

5. Query the Fifth: — “Whether those exalted strains in religion, and an imagination of being already in a state of perfection, are not apt to lead men to spiritual pride, and to a contempt of their fellow-Christians; while they consider them as only going on in what they call the low and imperfect way, (that is, as growing in grace and goodness only by degrees,) even though it appear by the lives of those who are considered by them as in that low and imperfect way, that they are persons who are gradually working out their salvation by their own honest endeavors, and through the ordinary assistances of God’s grace; with an humble reliance upon the merits of Christ for the pardon of their sins, and the acceptance of their sincere though imperfect services.”

I must divide this query too; but first permit me to ask, What do you mean by “those exalted strains in religion?” I have said again and again, I know of no more exalted strain than, “I will love thee, O Lord my God:” Especially according to the propriety of David’s expression, hwhy ˚mjra: Ex intimis visceribus diligam te, Domine. f9 This premised, let us go on step by step.

Query 1. Whether the preaching of “loving God from our inmost bowels,” is not apt to lead men to spiritual pride, and to a contempt of their fellow-Christians.

Answer. No: But, so far as it takes place, it will humble them to the dust. Q. 2. Whether an imagination of being already in a state of perfection is not apt to lead men into spiritual pride.

A.

(1.) If it be a false imagination, it is spiritual pride.

(2.) But true Christian perfection is no other than humble love. Q. 3. Do not men who imagine they have attained this despise others, as only going on in what they account the low and imperfect way, that is, as growing in grace and goodness by degrees?

A.

(1.) Men who only imagine they have attained this may probably despise those that are going on in any way.

(2.) But the growing in grace and goodness by degrees is no mark of a low and imperfect way. Those who are fathers in Christ grow in grace by degrees, as well as the new-born babes.

Q. 4. Do they not despise those who are working out their salvation with an humble reliance upon the merits of Christ for the pardon of their sins, and the acceptance of their sincere though imperfect services?

A.

(1.) They who really love God despise no man. But,

(2.) They grieve to hear many talk of thus relying on Christ, who, though perhaps they are grave, honest, moral men, yet by their own words appear not to love God at all; whose souls cleave to the dust; who love the world; who have no part of the mind that was in Christ.

6. Query the Sixth: — “Whether the same exalted strains and notions do not tend to weaken the natural and civil relations among men, by leading the interiors, into whose heads those notions are infused, to a disesteem of their superiors; while they consider them as in a much lower dispensation than themselves; though those superiors are otherwise sober and good men, and regular attendants on the ordinances of religion.” I have mentioned before what those exalted notions are. These do not tend to weaken either the natural or civil relations among men; or to lead inferiors to a disesteem of their superiors, even where those superiors are neither good nor sober men.

Query the Seventh: — “Whether a gradual improvement in grace and goodness is not a better foundation of comfort, and of an assurance of a gospel new-birth, than that which is founded on the doctrine of a sudden and instantaneous change; which if there be any such thing, is not easily distinguished from fancy and imagination; the workings whereof we may well suppose to be more strong and powerful, while the person considers himself in the state of one who is admitted as a candidate for such a change, and is taught in due time to expect it.”

Let us go one step at a time.

Query 1. Whether a gradual improvement in grace and goodness is not a good foundation of comfort.

Answer. Doubtless it is, if by grace and goodness be meant the knowledge and love of God through Christ.

Q. 2. Whether it be not a good foundation of an assurance of a gospel new-birth.

A. If we daily grow in this knowledge and love, it is a good proof that we are born of the Spirit. But this does in nowise supersede the previous witness of God’s Spirit with ours, that we are the children of God. And this is properly the foundation of the assurance of faith. Q. 3. Whether this improvement is not a better foundation of comfort, and of an assurance of a gospel new-birth, than that which is founded on the doctrine of a sudden and instantaneous change. A. A better foundation than that. That! What? To what substantive does this refer? According to the rules of grammar, (for all the substantives are in the genitive case, and, consequently, to be considered as only parts of that which governs them,) you must mean a better foundation than that foundation which is founded on this doctrine. As soon as I understand the question, I will endeavor to answer it.

Q. 4. Can that sudden and instantaneous change be easily distinguished from fancy and imagination?

A. Just as easily as light from darkness; seeing it brings with it a peace that passeth all understanding, a joy unspeakable, full of glory, the love of God and all mankind filling the heart, and power over all sin. Q. 5. May we not well suppose the workings of imagination to be more strong and powerful in one who is taught to expect such a change?

A. Perhaps we may; but still the tree is known by its fruits. And such fruits as those above-mentioned imagination was never yet strong enough to produce, nor any power, save that of the Almighty.

7. There is only one clause in the Eighth Query which falls under our present inquiry.

“They make it their principal employ, wherever they go, to instill into people a few favorite tenets of their own; and this with such diligence and zeal as if the whole of Christianity depended upon them, and all efforts toward the true Christian life, without a belief of those tenets, were vain and ineffectual.”

I plead guilty to this charge. I do make it my principal, nay, my whole employ, and that wherever I go, to instill into the people a few favorite tenets; — only, be it observed, they are not my own, but His that sent me. And it is undoubtedly true that this I do, (though deeply conscious of my want both of zeal and diligence,) as if the whole of Christianity depended upon them, and all efforts without them were void and vain. I frequently sum them all up in one: “In Christ Jesus” (that is, according to his gospel) “neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.” But many times I instill them one by one, under these or the like expressions: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;” as thy own soul; as Christ loved us. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. While we have time, let us do good unto all men; especially unto them that are of the household of faith. Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them.”

These are my favorite tenets, and have been for many years. O that I could instill them into every soul throughout the land! Ought they not to be instilled with such diligence and zeal, as if the whole of Christianity depended upon them? For who can deny, that all efforts toward a Christian life, without more than a bare belief, without a thorough experience and practice of these, are utterly vain and ineffectual?

8. Part of your Ninth query is to the same effect: —

“A few young heads set up their own schemes as the great standard of Christianity; and indulge their own notions to such a degree, as to perplex, unhinge, terrify, and distract the minds of multitudes of people, who have lived from their infancy under a gospel ministry, and in the regular exercise of a gospel worship. And all this, by persuading them that they neither are nor can be true Christians, but by adhering to their doctrines.”

What do you mean by their own schemes, their own notions, their doctrines? Are they not yours too? Are they not the schemes, the notions, the doctrines of Jesus Christ; the great fundamental truths of his gospel? Can you deny one of them without denying the Bible? It is hard for you to kick against the pricks!

“They persuade,” you say, “multitudes of people, that they cannot be true Christians but by adhering to their doctrines.” Why, who says they can? Whosoever he be, I will prove him to be an infidel. Do you say that any man can be a true Christian without loving God and his neighbor? Surely you have not so learned Christ! It is your doctrine as well as mine, and St. Paul’s: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels; though I have all knowledge, and all faith; though I give all my goods to feed the poor, yea, my body to be burned, and have not love, I am nothing.”

Whatever public worship, therefore, people may have attended, or whatever ministry they have lived under from their infancy, they must at all hazards be convinced of this, or they perish for ever; yea, though that conviction at first unhinge them ever so much; though it should in a manner distract them for a season. For it is better they should be perplexed and terrified now, than that they should sleep on and awake in hell.

9. In the Tenth, Twelfth, and Thirteenth queries I am not concerned. But you include me also when you say, in the Eleventh, “They absolutely deny that recreations of any kind, considered as such, are or can be innocent.”

I cannot find any such assertion of mine either in the place you refer to, or any other. But what kinds of recreation are innocent it is easy to determine by that plain rule: “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

I am now to take my leave of you for the present. But first I would earnestly entreat you to acquaint yourself what our doctrines are, before you make any farther observations upon them. Surely, touching the nature of salvation we agree, — that “pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,” — to do all possible good, from a principle of love to God and man; “and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world,” — inwardly and outwardly to abstain from all evil.

10. 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, holiness commences in the soul. For that instant “the love of God” (which is the source of holiness) “is shed abroad in the heart.”

But it is objected by the author of “The Notions of the Methodists disproved,” “St. James says, ‘Can faith save him?’” I answer, Such a faith as is without works cannot “bring a man to heaven.” But this is quite beside the present question.

You object,

(2.) “St. Paul says that ‘faith made perfect by love,’ St. James, that ‘faith made perfect by works,’ is the condition of salvation.” You mean final salvation. I say so too: But this also is beside the question. You object,

(3.) “That the belief of the gospel is called the obedience of faith.” (Romans 1:5.) And,

(4.) that what Isaiah terms believing, St. Paul terms obeying. Suppose I grant you both the one and the other, what will you infer? You object,

(5.) That in one scripture our Lord is styled, “The Savior of them that believe;” and in another, “The Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.”

(6.) That to the Galatians St. Paul writes, “Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love;” and to the Corinthians, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping the commandments of God.” And hence you conclude, “There are several texts of Scripture wherein unbelief and disobedience are equivalently used.” Very true; but can you conclude from thence that we are not “saved by faith alone?”

11. You proceed to answer some texts which I had quoted. The first is Ephesians 2:8: “By grace ye are saved through faith.” “But,” say you, “faith does not mean here that grace especially so called, but includes also obedience.” But how do you prove this? That circumstance you had forgot, and so run off with a comment upon the context; to which I have no other objection, than that it is nothing at all to the question. Indeed, some time after, you add, “It is plain then that good works are always, in St. Paul’s judgment, joined with faith;” (so undoubtedly they are; that is, as an effect is always joined with its cause;) “and therefore we are not saved by faith alone.” I cannot possibly allow the consequence. You afterwards cite two more texts, and add, “You see, mere faith cannot be a condition of justification.” You are out of your way. We are no more talking now of justification than of final salvation.

In considering Acts 16:31. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved,” you say again, “Here the word believe does not signify faith only. Faith necessarily produces charity and repentance; therefore, these are expressed by the word believe;” that is, faith necessarily produces holiness; therefore holiness is a condition of holiness. I want farther proof. That “Paul and Silas spake unto him the word of the Lord,” and that his faith did “in the same hour” work by love, I take to be no proof at all. You then undertake to show, that confessing our sins is a condition of justification, and that a confidence in the love of God is not a condition. Some of your words are: “This, good Sir, give me leave to say, is the greatest nonsense and contradiction possible. It is impossible you can understand this jargon yourself; and therefore you labor in vain to make it intelligible to others. You soar aloft on eagles’ wings, and leave the poor people to gape and stare after you.”

This is very pretty, and very lively. But it is nothing to the purpose. For we are not now speaking of justification; neither have I said one word of the condition of justification in the whole tract to which you here refer.