receive the full import of such passages as the following, ‘Come unto me,
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ ‘I am
come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ ‘He that confesseth me
before men, him will I confess before my Father in heaven.’ ‘Whosoever
shall be ashamed of me before men, of him shall the Son of Man be
ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.’
‘In my Father’s house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for
you;’ I say, when I can succeed in realizing the import of such passages,
I feel myself listening to a being, such as never before and never since
spoke in human language. I am awed by the consciousness of greatness
which these simple words express; and when I connect this greatness with
the proofs of Christ’s miracles which I gave you in a former discourse, I
am compelled to speak with the Centurion, ‘Truly this was the Son of
God.’ {50a}
“In reading the Gospels I feel myself in the presence of one who speaks
as man never spake; whose voice is not of the earth; who speaks with a
tone of reality and authority altogether his own; who speaks of God, as
conscious of his immediate presence, as enjoying with him the intimacy of
an only Son; and who speaks of heaven, as most familiar with the higher
states of being.” {50b}
“Go to Jesus Christ for guidance, inspiration, and strength in your
office.” * * * “The privilege of communing with such a spirit is so
great, and the duty of going from man to Christ is so solemn, that you
must spare no effort to place yourself nearer and nearer to the Divine
Master.” “My brother, go forth to your labours with the spirit and power
of Him who first preached the Gospel to the poor.” {50c}
“To Jesus the conqueror of death we owe the sure hope of immortality.” *
* * “Is that teacher to be scorned, who in the language of conscious
greatness says to us, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’?” {51a}
“What are we to understand by the Divinity of Christ? In the sense in
which many Christians, and perhaps a majority interpret it, we do not
deny it, but believe it as firmly as themselves. We believe firmly in
the Divinity of Christ’s mission and office, that he spoke with Divine
authority, and was a bright image of the Divine perfections. We believe
that God dwelt in him, manifested himself through him, taught men by him,
and communicated to him his spirit without measure. We believe that
Jesus Christ was the most glorious display, expression, and
representative of God to mankind, so that in seeing and knowing him, we
see and know the invisible Father; so that when Christ came, God visited
the world and dwelt with men more conspicuously than at any former
period. In Christ’s words, we hear God speaking; in his miracles, we
behold God acting; in his character and life, we see an unsullied image
of God’s purity and love.” {51b}
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LETTER IV.
WESLEYAN METHODISTS.
Towards the beginning of the last century, two young men at Oxford, the
one a fellow of Lincoln College, struck by the thoughtlessness or
lukewarmness of those about them, resolved to devote themselves to closer
and more profitable study. They were brothers, by name John and Charles
Wesley; and two other students joined them in their evening readings of
the New Testament in the Greek: the elder of the brothers was at this
time about twenty-six. {52} After a year of this kind of life, they
admitted two or three of the pupils of the elder brother, and one of
those of the younger, to their meetings; and the following year, being
joined by yet more of the students, the regularity of their lives
obtained for them the title of _Methodists_ from those who were not
inclined to follow their example.
In 1735 another name was added to their number, which has also become
celebrated: this was George Whitfield of Pembroke College, then in his
eighteenth year; but of him I shall have occasion to speak by and by. I
shall therefore confine myself to the Wesleys. A difference of opinion
on the subjects of Freewill and Predestination separated them from their
younger coadjutor in 1741, and their respective friends, adopting
strongly the distinctive opinions of the two, the grand division of the
sect, which sprung up from their preaching, into Wesleyan or Arminian,
and Whitfieldian or Calvinistic Methodists, ensued. All three received
holy orders according to the ceremonial of the Church of England, and
Wesley never ceased to hold his spiritual mother in high estimation.
“The Church of England,” he says in one place, “is the purest in
Christendom.” But the singularity of their proceedings raised suspicion,
and though both brothers continued to profess the fullest assent to the
articles and liturgy of the established church, yet their manner of
preaching and form of worship had something in it which led the bishops
and clergy in general to consider them as verging on Sectarianism. In
many places they were refused the use of the pulpit; and then, in the
perhaps enthusiastic belief that they were the appointed instruments of
rekindling religion in hearts where it had been dead hitherto, they began
a system of field preaching.
There were at that time large districts slumbering in utter darkness and
ignorance of the saving truths of the Gospel: and it was to these that
the Wesleys especially directed their attention, with a success
proportioned to their zeal; and had the then heads of the church availed
themselves of the assistance of these earnest men in the way they might
have done, by sanctioning their missionary labours among the poor and the
uninstructed, the benefit would have been incalculable. But the harsh
treatment {54} they met with, drove John Wesley at last into complete
schism: and then the ambition, which had perhaps animated his first
exertions almost unknown to himself, assumed a bolder flight, and he
aspired to the distinction of being the head and leader of a sect which
grew so rapidly, that at the time of his death in 1791, “the number of
members in connexion with him in Europe, America, and the West Indian
Islands, was 80,000. And at the last conference in 1831 the numbers
returned were, in Great Britain, 249,119; in Ireland, 22,470; in the
Foreign Missions, 42,743. Total 314,332. Exclusive of more than half a
million of persons in the Societies in the States of America.” {55}
You are probably aware that, besides the public preaching, Wesley
instituted among his people several kinds of private meetings. To the
public prayer meetings, which were generally held in private houses,
persons not of this sect were often invited, and on these occasions a
hymn was first sung, then they all knelt, and the first who felt “moved”
made an extempore prayer: when he had finished, another commenced, and so
on for about two hours. These prayer meetings were held in such high
esteem among the Methodists, that they asserted more were “born again”
and “made free,” as they termed it, “from all the remains of sin” than at
any other meetings, public preachings, &c.
There was much in this kind of meeting which was likely to lead to
enthusiasm, which is universally found to be most easily awakened where
numbers are congregated; and according to an author formerly of their
persuasion, {56} the consequence was such as might have been expected.
“It is impossible,” says he, “to form any just idea of those assemblies
except you had been present at them. One coaxes the Divine Being,
another is amorous, and a third will tell the Deity, ‘He must be a liar
if he does not grant all they ask.’ They thus go on working up each
other’s imagination until they become as it were spiritually intoxicated,
and while in this state they sometimes recollect a text or two of
Scripture, such as ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’—‘Go and sin no more’—‘Go
in peace,’ &c. and then declare themselves to be ‘born again’ or
‘sanctified.’”
The love feast is also a private meeting of as many members of the
community as choose to attend; and they generally assemble from all parts
within several miles of the place where the feast is held. They then
alternately sing and pray, and some among them, who think that their
experience, as they term it, is remarkable, stand up, and narrate all the
transactions which they say have taken place between God, the devil, and
their souls.
There is a curious propensity to egotism in human nature which frequently
shews itself in religious matters. Men love to talk of themselves: and
the Romanist finds pleasure in the power of pouring forth all his
feelings and thoughts to his father confessor, whenever he is strongly
excited by passion: of this I have become aware from personal knowledge.
Other enthusiasts enjoy no less satisfaction in talking of the interior
conflicts they have sustained; for all ungoverned feeling loves to vent
itself in speech, and the lover who talks of his mistress, or the
penitent who talks of his sins, is for the time being in the same state
of restless excitement. _Governed_ feeling, on the contrary, as far as
my experience goes, is silent.
In these Love Feasts those present have buns to eat, which are mutually
broken between each “Brother and Sister,” and water to drink, which they
hand from one to another. These meetings commence about seven o’clock,
and last till nine or ten.
Each society is divided into smaller companies called “classes” according
to their respective places of abode. There are about twelve persons in
every class, one of whom is styled “the Leader,” whose business it is to
see each person in his class, at least once a week, to advise, comfort,
or exhort, as occasion may require, and to receive what each is willing
to give towards the support of the Gospel.
It is expected that every member should continue to evince his desire of
salvation by abstaining from “the taking of the name of the Lord in
vain”; “the profaning of the Lord’s day, either by ordinary work thereon,
or by buying and selling”; “drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous
liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity;
fighting, quarreling, brawling; going to law with a brother; returning
evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or
selling. {59a} The buying or selling uncustomed goods; the giving or
taking things on usury, i.e. unlawful interest; the putting on of gold or
costly apparel; the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ; the singing those songs or reading those books,
that do not tend to the knowledge or love of God;—softness and needless
self-indulgence, &c. {59b}
Among the duties expected and required of the members are all kinds of
beneficence, diligence, frugality, {59c} self-denial, and attendance on
all the ordinances of God, among which is specifically mentioned fasting.
If any member habitually break any of these rules he is admonished; and
if he do not then repent, expulsion follows. “Marrying with
unbelievers,” and bankruptcy, if the party has not kept fair accounts,
are also followed by expulsion.
No one I think can doubt that much good was effected by the first
preaching of Wesley and his disciples, for at that time our church was in
a lethargic state, and the lower orders shamefully neglected in spiritual
matters in many parts of England. Yet there are some things which excite
one’s regret in their practices, and of these none displeases me more
than the familiar use of Scripture language, which when properly and
judiciously applied is striking and solemn; but to hear every notion of
enthusiastic ignorance, every rise and fall of the animal spirits,
expressed in the language of the Apostles and Evangelists, and even of
our Lord himself; to witness their familiarity with the Almighty, their
full trust and confidence in the reality of small miracles wrought at
their request;—must always be painful to a soberly religious mind. In a
book entitled “The Bank of Faith,” the author asserts, that a dog brought
him mutton to eat, that fish died at night in a pond on purpose to be
eaten by him in the morning, and that money, clothes, &c. in short every
thing he could desire he attained by prayer. {61}
An old woman of Wesley’s society, named Mary Hubbard, would often wash
her linen, hang it out to dry, and go away to work in the fields or to
Taunton Market four miles from her house, and when blamed for thus
leaving her linen unprotected, she would reply that “the Lord watched
over her and all that she had, and that he would prevent any person from
stealing her two old smocks, or if He permitted them to be stolen, He
would send her two new ones in their stead.” I seriously assure you,
says the author who relates this tale, and who at one time went even
greater lengths {62} than this old woman, “that there are many thousand
Mary Hubbards among the Methodists.”
It may be added, that their strict abstinence from the common amusements
of the world, even where innocent in themselves, has its evils, as I have
already noticed when speaking of the Quakers; for the mind cannot always
be kept in a state of tension, and if we refuse ourselves recreation
altogether, there is danger that we shall find the yoke of Christ a
wearisome instead of an easy one, and cast it off in disgust; nay, I am
afraid that if we were to inquire closely, we should find instances
enough of this result to demonstrate, what indeed wants but little proof,
i.e. that God knows better than we do “whereof we are made,” and that it
is not wisdom to bind a heavy burthen on our shoulders when Christ
himself has declared that his is light. Still, though tinged with a
degree of enthusiasm which we may regret, the doctrine of the Wesleyan
Methodists retains the fundamental parts of Christianity, and after
reading the following extracts from Wesley’s Sermons, I think you will
hardly forbear asking, Why is this a separate sect?
“Justifying Faith implies not only a Divine ελεγχος, evidence or
conviction, that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,’
but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for _my_ sins, that he
loved _me_, and gave himself for me; and the moment a penitent sinner
believes this, God pardons and absolves him.” {64a} “Christian
perfection does not imply, as some men seem to have imagined, an
exemption either from ignorance, or mistake, or infirmities, or
temptations; indeed it is only another term for holiness: thus every one
that is holy, is in the Scripture sense ‘perfect.’ We may yet observe
that neither in this respect is there absolute perfection on earth.”
{64b} “If the Scriptures are true, those who are holy or religious in
the judgment of God himself, those who are endued with the faith that
purifies the heart, that produces a good conscience; those who live by
faith in the Son of God; those who are sanctified by the blood of the
Covenant may nevertheless so fall from God as to perish everlastingly,
therefore let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” “In
strictness neither our faith nor our works justify us, i.e. _deserve_ the
remission of our sins, but God himself justifies us of his own mercy
through the merits of his Son only.” {65}
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LETTER V.
GENERAL BAPTISTS, MORAVIANS, SWEDENBORGIANS, PLYMOUTH BRETHREN.
Among the sects which arose about the period of the Reformation of the
church in the sixteenth century, we find the Anabaptists {66} playing
rather a conspicuous part, by exciting political tumults in Saxony and
the adjacent countries. For this, Munzer, their leader, after the defeat
of his forces, was put to death, and the sect generally was proscribed,
and the profession of its doctrines punished capitally. What those
doctrines were is not easy, nor is it essential now, to state, since the
modern sect, which we now term Baptists, retain only so much of them as
relates to baptism by immersion, and of adults only, and the rejection of
episcopal church government.
The more modern sect is subdivided into General and Particular Baptists.
The General or Arminian Baptists admit “much latitude in their system of
religious doctrine, which consists in such general principles, that their
communion is accessible to Christians of almost all denominations, and
accordingly they tolerate in fact, and receive among them persons of
every sect, who profess themselves Christians, and receive the Holy
Scriptures as the source of truth, and the rule of faith.” {67} They
agree with the PARTICULAR BAPTISTS in this, that they admit to baptism
adults only, and administer that sacrament either by dipping or total
immersion; but they differ from them in another respect, for they repeat
the administration of baptism to those who had received it, either in a
state of infancy, or by aspersion instead of dipping: for if the common
accounts may be believed, the Particular Baptists do not carry matters so
far.
The General Baptists consider their sect as the only true church; in
baptism they dip only once and not three times as was the practice in the
primitive church: and they consider it a matter of indifference whether
that sacrament be administered in the name of Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, or in that of Christ alone: {68a} they adopt the doctrine of Menno
with regard to the Millennium; many of them also embrace his particular
opinion concerning the origin of Christ’s body. {68b} They look upon the
precept of the Apostles prohibiting the use of blood and of things
strangled, as a law that was designed to be in force in all ages and
periods of the church: they believe that the soul, from the moment that
the body dies until its resurrection at the last day, remains in a state
of perfect insensibility: they use the ceremony of extreme unction, and
finally, to omit matters of a more trifling nature, several of them
observe the Jewish as well as the Christian Sabbath. {68c} In some of
their churches they have three distinct orders separately ordained, i.e.
messengers, elders, and deacons; and their general assembly (where a
minister preaches, and the churches are taken into consideration), is
held annually in London on the Tuesday in Whitsun week, and they
afterwards dine together. They have met thus for upwards of a century.
The propriety of the exclusive application of the term “Baptists” to
those who baptize adults by immersion, has been questioned; and for this
reason they are by many styled Antipædobaptists, {69} namely, opposers of
infant baptism; but the term Anabaptist should not be applied to them, it
being a term of reproach.
The old General Baptists have been on the decline for many years; their
churches are principally in Kent and Sussex. The English and most
foreign Baptists consider a personal profession of faith, and immersion
in water, essential to baptism: this profession is generally made before
the church at a church meeting. Some have a creed, and expect the
candidate for baptism to assent to it, and give a circumstantial account
of his conversion: others only require him to profess himself a
Christian. The former generally consider baptism as an ordinance which
initiates persons into a particular church, and they say, that without
breach of Christian liberty, they have a right to expect an agreement in
articles of faith in their own societies. The latter think that baptism
initiates into the Christian religion generally, and therefore think that
they have no right to require an assent to their creed from such as do
not join their churches. They quote the baptism of the Eunuch in Acts
viii. in proof.
The first mention of the Baptists in English History is as the subject of
persecution in the reign of Henry VIII. During that of Edward VI. a
commission was issued to bishops and other persons “to try all
Anabaptists, heretics, and despisers of the common prayer,” and they were
empowered, in the event of their contumacy, to commit them to the flames.
The same inhuman policy was persisted in under Elizabeth. The last
Baptist martyr burned in England was Edward Wightman; he was condemned by
the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, {70a} and burned at Lichfield April
11, 1612. {70b}
The celebrated Whiston became a Baptist towards the close of his life,
retaining nevertheless his Arian belief.
* * * * *
The MORAVIANS are supposed to have derived their origin from Nicholas
Lewis, Count Zinzendorf, a German nobleman, who died in 1760. The
society however assert that they are descended from the old Moravian and
Bohemian Brethren, who existed as a distinct sect sixty years prior to
the Reformation. No sooner had these Moravian Brethren heard of Luther’s
bold testimony to the truth, and of the success which attended his
labours, than they sent in the year 1522 two deputies to assure him of
“the deep interest which they took in his work;” giving him, at the same
time, an account of their own doctrine and constitution. They were most
kindly received; and both Luther, and his colleague Bucer, recognised the
Moravians as holding the same faith; and bore honourable testimony to the
purity of their doctrine, and the excellence of their discipline. The
chief doctrine of the Moravian society is, that “by the sacrifice for sin
made by Jesus Christ, and by that alone, grace and deliverance from sin
are to be obtained for all mankind:” and they stedfastly maintain the
following points:
1. The divinity of Christ.
2. The atonement and satisfaction made for us by Jesus Christ; and that
by his merits alone we receive freely the forgiveness of sin, and
sanctification in soul and body.
3. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the operations of his grace.
That it is he who worketh in us conviction of sin, faith in Christ, and
pureness of heart.
4. That faith must evidence itself by willing obedience to the
commandments of God from love and gratitude.
The internal constitution of the ancient church of the Moravians, which
is still substantially adhered to, was originally adopted in 1457, and
more definitely settled in 1616 by the Synod of Zerawitz. Its principal
peculiarities are,
1. Every church is divided into three classes, i.e. 1. _Beginners_ or
_Catechumens_. 2. _The more advanced_ or _communicants_, who are
considered as members of the church. 3. _The perfect_, consisting of
such as have persevered for some time in a course of true piety. From
this last class are chosen in every church _the Elders_, from three to
eight in number.
2. Every congregation is directed by a board of elders, whose province
it is to have a watchful eye over its members with respect to the
doctrine and deportment. Once in three months these elders are bound to
visit the houses of the brethren, in order to observe their conduct, and
to ascertain whether every one is labouring diligently in his calling,
&c. of which they make a report to the pastor. They also are required to
visit the sick, and assist the poorer brethren with money, contributed by
the members of the church, and deposited in an alms box.