specimen of the foundation hope, as expressed by Mr. Wesley, and adhered
to by thousands of his professed followers. What a mercy there are
others who are building on a firmer basis. I bless God that he was
pleased to open my mind to receive the complete perfect work of the dear
Redeemer; that he shewed me it was neither my works nor my faith, (as a
grace, nor as an act) that could justify me before God. I must have a
perfect law-fulfilling righteousness, wrought out by the holy nature and
holy life of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the surety of his church—as
God-man Mediator—to build on any thing_ less_, is building on the sand,
and the dreadful consequences must be—the curse, wrath, and eternal
death. Faith is the eye that sees the sufficiency of his
righteousness—faith is the hand that receives; the vessel, or mind, which
contains it when the Holy Spirit brings it near: but surely there is a
difference between the eye and the object it discovers; between the hand
of the beggar and the alms you put in it; or my coat and the hand that
puts it on me. The Lord brought my soul into liberty on this point, but
I had another struggle in my mind. Soon after this subject had been
clearly and sweetly settled, or rather my soul in the perception of it,
some of the same party harrassed my mind about persevering in holiness,
till I had gained a perfect sinless nature: this was the very thing I
wanted; to get rid of sin, to have it totally eradicated, that I should
never be overcome by sin, in thought, word, or deed. Oh happy state,
this side heaven!—how I did long for it; sin was, and is, my principal
trouble.
“Long time I fought, with groans and tears,
To drive this rebel from my home.”
I was told this was to be obtained; I was informed of many who really had
obtained it, and was already perfect; why not I, _if_ I did but
persevere. To work I went, and strove hard for it; not to gain the favor
of God, I was better taught than that; but, that sin might trouble me no
more, and that I might no more offend God by so much as a sinful glance
of the eye. To this rubbing off the spot of the leopard; to this washing
the black Moor white, I was encouraged by the above accounts of some _who
had obtained_ perfection.
Mr. Wesley, and some of his preachers and hearers could _prove_ that they
had known some who were perfect. I could not suppose these _holy_
creatures would tell lies. But then I wanted to know how far they might
be perfect, and how far not; and to satisfy my mind, I obtained Mr. J.
Wesley’s tract on Christian Perfection, a paragraph of which I will
quote:—
“And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; such liberty,
from the law of sin and death, as the children of this world will not
believe, though a man declare it unto them. The son hath made them
free who are thus born of God, from that great root of sin and
bitterness, pride. They feel that all their sufficiency is of God;
that it is he alone who is in all their thoughts, and worketh in them
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. They feel that it is
not they that speak, but the Spirit of their Father who speaketh in
them, and that whatsoever is done by their hands, the Father who is
in them, he doeth the works. So that God is to them all in all, and
they are nothing in his sight. They are freed from self-will, as
desiring nothing but the holy and perfect will of God: _Not_ supplies
in want, _not_ ease in pain, _nor_ life, or death, or any creature,
but continually crying in their inmost soul, ‘Father, thy will be
done.’ They are freed from evil thoughts, so that they cannot enter
into them; no not for a moment. A foretime, when an evil thought
came in, they looked up, and it vanished away. But now it does not
come in, there being no room for this, in a soul which is full of
God. They are free from wanderings in prayer. Whensoever they pour
out their hearts in a more immediate manner before God, they have no
thought of any thing past, or absent, or to come, but of God alone.
In times past they had wandering thoughts darted in, which yet fled
away like smoke: but now that smoke does not rise at all. They have
no fear or doubt, either as to their state in general, or as to any
particular action. The unction from the Holy One teacheth them every
hour, what they shall do, and what they shall speak. Nor therefore
have they any need to reason concerning it. They are, in one sense,
freed from temptations: for though numberless temptations fly about
them, yet they trouble them not. At all times their souls are even
and calm, their hearts are steadfast and unmoveable: their peace,
flowing as a river, passeth all understanding, and they rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory. For they are sealed by the Spirit
unto the day of redemption, having the witness in themselves, that
there is laid up for them a crown of righteousness, which the Lord
will give them in that day—” What a collection of lies!
The above pamphlet is full of such daring impudence; and in one of his
sublime hymns he thus sings—
“My cup it runs o’er, I have comfort and power,
I have pardon, and what can a sinner want more;
He can have a new heart, so as never to start
From thy ways, he may be in the world as _thou_ art;
He may be without sin, _all_ holy and clean;
He may be as his master, all glorious within,
Without blemish or blot, without wrinkle or spot,
_Without power_ to offend thee, in deed, word, or thought.”
This is the sublime poetry of Wesley, who has been classed with Dr. Watts
as a poet; yea, almost with the psalmist, David, in a recent publication
called “The Conference; or, Sketches of Wesleyan Methodism.” The author
of which very far exceeds the Wesleys, either John or Charles. But I beg
leave to say, the writers of the Evangelical Magazine, very highly
applaud the work. I think the following lines on Mr. Wesley, in the
above work, fulsome:—
“Thou, too, art gone, _sweet_ leader of the choir,
Thou soul of music with a seraph’s lyre;
When Royal David made his final will,
Sweet fancy added this last codicil—
I give to Solomon my crown and throne,
This sacred harp shall Watts and _Wesley_ own;
And _thou_ hast touch’d the strings with so much skill,
The Hebrew melodist enchant us still.”
The propriety of this classification I leave to your judgment, and
conclude with one remark more. Finding by all my strivings, _that_ that
which is born of the spirit is spirit, and can never alter; and that
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and can never become any thing else.
Reading the word of God it shewed me that _the cause_ of all the groans,
tears, complaints, sighs, distresses and afflictions, of all the old and
new testament saints was, _in-dwelling sin_; and by tracing the lives of
those eminent characters, I found they were sinners saved by grace
alone—sinners to the last moment, as it respects their sinful nature: but
_as_ they, and all the church of God, stand accepted in Christ, they are
perfect before God; and to that perfection they will arrive at the
glorious resurrection, and not before. Seeing this was the case, I gave
up all hopes of being perfect in the fleshly nature, and was enabled to
rejoice in my perfection in the love of God’s heart towards me; _in_ my
oneness in Christ, _in_ my complete justification _in_ his obedience, and
_in_ my perfect pardon, and cleansing from all sin in the sight of God,
as revealed in the law by the great atonement of the God-man Christ
Jesus. Herein is the perfection of the Christian, and it is the gracious
work of the Holy Spirit, to lead up the minds of his own people to know
and to enjoy these great privileges, and not to set them an utterly
impossible task, of gaining fleshly perfection, which is a _mere delusion
of the devil_. A great writer {229} observed to Mr. Wesley, on
Perfection—“You formed a scheme of collecting as many perfect ones as you
could, to live together in one house: a number of these flowers were
accordingly transplanted from some of your nursery beds to the hot-house,
and an hot-house it soon proved; for, would we believe it, the _sinless_
people quarrelled in a short time, at so violent a rate, that you found
yourself forced to disband this select regiment: had you kept them
together much longer, that line would have been literally verified in the
squabbling members of your church militant.”
“The males pulled noses, and the females caps.”
A very small house, I am persuaded, would hold the really perfect upon
earth; you might drive them all into a nut-shell. _Perfection_ and
_sincerity_, as mentioned in Scripture, are synonimous terms, and being
made sincere, may you go on to this perfection.
Yours, truly, J. C.
LETTER XXII.
“And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and
the profane, and cause them to discern between the clean and the
unclean; and in controversy they shall stand in judgment.”
To —
Amongst the many painful lessons which the Lord teaches his children,
perhaps there is none much more humiliating than the carnal enmity of the
human heart; all sin in men, or devils, has an enmity in it to God; every
man is by nature an enemy to God, to his holy law, to his holy gospel,
and to his holy ways and people; and, dying in that state, it is
impossible for him to be saved; for, “without holiness no man can see the
Lord; but, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” the
great atonement brought nigh to us in the gospel, _applied_, _revealed_
and _manifested_ to the conscience, purifies the conscience; the love of
God, shed abroad, purifies the affections; but the truth, as it is in
Christ, purges the understanding and the judgment from _error_, which is
spiritual uncleanness, and without being purged away, by the light of
truth in the soul, a person is not fit for the kingdom of light, because
he is not yet translated out of darkness; but, being in the dark about
the way of salvation, he is also in a state of _enmity_. Many such are
to be found in the church of God, whose proud hearts have never been
humbled to submit to God’s truth; and being men of talent, have
perverted, carnalized, and scoffed at the great leading doctrines of the
gospel; yet mighty sticklers for holiness, love, charity and good works
(falsely so called;) their conceptions of God are all carnal, dictated by
the flesh, and are opposite to the revealed character of God. Hence the
awful charge brought against them.—“Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee.” I was very much
astonished, in my younger days, at many persons, into whose company I
fell, as they passed for very _holy good_ people, when some of the
fundamental truths of God were spoken of, to see their very countenances
redden, and their rage and enmity boil at the very mention of some of the
most sweet and awful doctrines of the cross. With all their pretended,
delusive, supposed _meekness_, they hissed like serpents, particularly at
the very mention of the glorious doctrine of eternal election, and divine
predestination to eternal life. Here they lost all patience, like their
fathers of old, who listened, and wondered at the general discourse of
our Lord; but when he began to talk about God’s sovereignty, they hurried
him to the brow of the hill, with an intent to break his neck. _Luke_ 4.
And so it is now. I observed one thing, namely, that I could see no
difference between these great professors, who boasted they were
convinced here, converted there, justified here, and sanctified there. I
say I could see not the least difference between them, as it respects
their religious sentiments or views of God’s word, than the most profane,
wicked, worldling, or dead formalist. _This_ then, is an awful proof of
their blindness and enmity. Situated as I was in the world, I had often
opportunities of hearing carnal, wicked, worldlings talk about religion;
and generally observed, that they _brought_ up, _censured_ and
_ridiculed_ eternal election, and represented it as a most dreadful and
arbitrary act; adding, that those who held this sentiment, also believed
that God had, from eternity, reprobated and consigned over to hell, the
greatest part of mankind; yea, infants who had never sinned, which (they
argued) made out God to be a very unjust, and tyrannically wicked; being,
yea, worse than Molech. All these sentiments and ideas we expect from an
ungodly world; they know no better. God declares that they are blind,
and enemies; yea, _enmity_ itself. Such we can pity. _But_, _judge my
surprize_, when one of Mr. Wesley’s followers put a book into my hand,
entitled “Hymns on God’s Everlasting Love:” finding it contained the very
language that these profane and wicked worldlings had been constantly
using; where then, exclaimed I, is the difference between the author, the
admirers of this work, and the bitterest enemies of God: why, alas! in
point of truth, or light, or love, _none at all_; they are all upon a
footing; for, though they may differ in some things of an external
nature, I found they all agreed to ridicule the truth of God’s most holy
word. Here the _Heathen_, the _Papist_, the _Quaker_, the _Arminian_ and
the most _profane_, as well as the most _precise_ and _moral_ professor,
all unite. The above hymns, as they are called, are full of the most
deadly poison, and the most awful _misrepresentations_; and though but
consisting of little better than eighty pages, contain more than two
hundred palpable falsehoods: no Christian, as taught of God, can read
them without shuddering at the base, lying, wicked _declarations_,
_insinuations_, and wilful _misrepresentations_; and, while the author
professes so much seeming meekness and pity for the wicked world, and is
ridiculing the awful doctrine of reprobation, he himself has the daring
impudence to _reprobate_ all the real ministers of the gospel in the
following lines:—
“Hear the _old hellish murderers_ roar
For you Christ died, and not one more;
His _children_ listen to his call,
And shout Christ did not die for all.”
You will surely be surprised when I tell you that this was written by
_that_ candid, meek, _holy_ creature, against those who differ from him
in doctrine. The Calvinist preachers, and their hearers, surely owe Mr.
Wesley little thanks for his politeness and candour, as he has styled
them all hellish _murderers_, _monsters_, and the people in general who
receive the truth, the _children_ of such _monsters_ and _murderers_.
This is the man who is reprobating reprobation; and, at the same time, is
reprobating all who differ from him, as _reprobates_. I found, through
all his book, his awful enmity to the doctrines of the gospel.—Eternal
election, and scriptural reprobation he first scandalously misrepresents,
and then holds both up to ridicule, while he asserts God’s holy and awful
decrees to be horrible; and that if election and reprobation are true,
God is worse than Molech, if he has chosen some, and left others, _in_
the solemn display of his severity. Hear the language of Mr. Wesley.
“Oh, horrible decree! worthy of whence it _came_. Forgive their
_hellish blasphemy_, who charge it on the Lamb.”
“I could the _devil’s_ law receive,
Unless restrain’d by thee;
I could, good God, I could believe
The _horrible_ decree.
I could believe that God is hate,
The God of love and grace,
Did damn, pass by, and reprobate
The most of human race.
Farther than this I cannot go,
Till Tophet takes me in;
But oh, forbid that I should know
_This_ mystery of sin.”
And did these holy men, John and Charles, thus talk?—Yes; such were their
hearts, and out of that wicked abundance they thus spoke and wrote; and,
in these awful delusions, and dreadful enmity to truth, I suppose they
lived and died, for we never hear that either of them ever recanted or
repented of their awful errors; and I am informed that many Calvinist
preachers hung their pulpits in black when the above gentlemen died.—I
ask was it for _sorrow_, or to shew the _colour_ of their errors? The
man that dies in his errors _unrepented_ of, must be damned if God be
true; and he that errs from the truth must be converted from the errors
of his way, before his soul can be saved from death, or the multitude of
his sins be covered. I am thankful, however, it was my mercy to be
favoured with the sound of the pure gospel, and at times furnished with
some excellent books written in answer, and forming a complete refutation
of the system of Arminianism. Dr. Gill, Mr. Toplady and others very
masterly answered Wesley and his colleagues; and Sir Richard Hill and
others, refuted Fletcher; although the Wesleyan Methodists boldly assert
that Fletcher is invulnerable, and has never been answered or refuted.
This could easily be proved, if Sir Richard’s works were again revived.
Gurney likewise wrote many excellent pieces; especially the “Nature and
Fitness of Things,” and “The Perfection of God, a Standing Rule to try
all Doctrines and Experiences by;” in which the author says, upon a
review of the “Hymns (blasphemously so called) on God’s Everlasting
Love.”
“Blush, Wesley blush, be fill’d with shame,
Doom thy vile poem to the flame:
What tongue thy horrid crime can tell;
Put saints to sing the song of hell!”
Many, indeed, humbly hope that Mr. John and Charles are now in heaven,
singing the song of the Lamb, with all the blood-bought throng. I hope
they are; but they must both alter their singing there, to that strange
song they sung upon _earth_. In the hymns we have just noticed, no man
can learn _that_ song which the redeemed sing there; but the redeemed
themselves; and if not redeemed, they cannot sing; if they are the
redeemed they will sing of it. But millions dying in awful enmity to God
is no proof they were redeemed from hell; and all that are in heaven, or
ever will be, are redeemed _from among_ men. This is the world which he
died for. As God took a _nation_ from the midst of another nation, so he
takes a world _from the midst_ of the world. These are the _every men_
he died for; not devils, serpents, vipers, dogs and goats; “But ye my
flock are _men_, and the sheep of my pasture are _ye_, oh house of
Israel;” the price of their redemption is paid—God hath accepted it, and
the Holy Spirit has engaged to make it known to all who are interested in
it sooner or later; and, having began this work, he will never leave it
till it terminates in the glorification of the bodies and souls of all
his elect redeemed.
“For how would the power of darkness boast,
If but one praying soul was lost.”
But that cannot be, while Jesus lives to plead their cause; he _must_
deliver up his kingdom in the final consummation. For this is the
Father’s will, that of _all_ he hath given me I should lose _nothing_,
but shall raise it up again at the last day. This opposition to truth
was raised originally by Pelaquis, revived in Holland by Van Harmin,
Arminius, and brought over to this country in the sixteenth century;
propagated by the Wesley’s, and received by so many thousands, because it
is suited to the carnal world, the pride of the heart, and opposition to
God’s divine sovereignty and justice. This subject, I say, not only drew
forth the pens of great men in its defence, but also some sarcastic
writings, treating it with the contempt it deserves. Amongst many other
pieces, there was one which appeared in the Old Gospel Magazine, supposed
to be written by The Rev. R. H—, or Mr. M’Gowan, and signed
“Auscultator,” which, as it is printed, I here present it.
_The Serpent and the Fox_; _or an Interview between Old Nick and Old
John_.
There’s a Fox, who resideth hard by,
The most perfect, and holy, and sly.
That e’er turn’d a coat, or could pilfer or lye.
As this Reverend Reynard one day,
Sat thinking what game next to play;
Old Nick came a seas’nable visit to pay.
“O your servant, my friend,” quoth the priest;
“Tho’ you carry the mark of the beast,
I never shook paws with a welcomer guest.”
“Many thanks, holy man,” cry’d the fiend,
“’Twas because you’re my very good friend,
That I dropt in with you a few moments to spend.”
JOHN.
Your kindness requited shall be;
There’s the Calvinist-Methodists, see,
Who’re eternally troublous to you and to me.
Now I’ll stir up the hounds of the _whore_
That’s called _scarlet_, to worry them sore;
And then roast ’em in Smithfield, like BONNER of yore.
NICK.
O a meal of the Calvinist brood
Will do my old stomach more good,
Than a sheep to a wolf that is starving for food.
JOHN.
When America’s conquer’d, you know
(’Til then we must leave them to crow),
I’ll work up our rulers to strike an home blow.
NICK.
An excellent plan, could you do it;
But if all the internals too knew it,
They’d be puzzled, like me, to tell how you’ll go through it.
JOHN.
When they speak against vice in the great;
I’ll cry out that they aim’d at the _State_;
And the Ministry, King, and the Parliament hate.
Thus I’ll still act the part of a lyar;
Persecution’s blest spirit inspire;
And then “_Calmly Address_” ’em with faggot and fire.
NICK.
Ay, that’s the right way, I know well:
But how _lyes_ with _perfection_ can dwell,
Is a riddle, dear John, that would puzzle all hell.
JOHN.
Pish, you talk like a doating old elf:
Can’t you see now it brings in the pelf?
And all things are lawful that serve a man’s self.
As serpents we ought to be wise:
Is not self-preservation a prize?
For this did not _Abram_ the righteous tell lyes?
NICK.
I perceive you are subtle, tho’ small:
You have reason, and scripture, and all;
So stilted, you never can _finally fall_.
JOHN.
From the drift of your latter reflection,
I fear you maintain some connection
With the crocodile crew that believe in Election.
NICK.
By my troth, I abhor the whole troop;
With those heroes I never could cope:
I should chuckle to see them all swing in a rope.
JOHN.
Ah, could we but set the land free
From those bawlers about the _Decree_,
Who’re such torments to you, to my brother, and me!
As for _Whitefield_, I know it right well,
He has sent down his thousands to hell;
And, for aught that I know, he’s gone with ’em to dwell.
NICK.
I grant, my friend John, for ’tis true,
That he was not so _perfect_ as YOU:
Yet (confound him) I lost him, for all I could do.
JOHN.
Take comfort! he’s not gone to glory;
Or, at most, not above the _first_ story.
For none but the _perfect_ escape purgatory.
At best he’s in _limbo_, I am sure;
And must still a long purging endure,
Ere like _me_, he’s made sinless, quite holy, and pure.
NICK.
Such purging my Johnny needs none.
By your own mighty works it is done,
And the kingdom of glory your _merit_ has won.
Thus wrapt in your self-righteous plod,
And self-raised when you throw off this clod,
You shall mount, and demand your own seat like a god:
You shall not in Paradise wait,
But climb the _third_ story with state;
While your _Whitefields_ and _Hills_ are turn’d back from the gate.
Old John never dreamt that he jeer’d:
So Nick turn’d himself round, and he sneer’d;
And then shrugg’d up his shoulders, and straight disappear’d.
The priest, with a simpering face,
Shook his hair-locks and paused for a space:
Then sat down to forge lyes, with his usual grimace.
“ASCULTATOR.” {239}