_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 so I hold still, and have done for some years.
_And yet you afterwards warned all, not to think they were justified,
before they had a clear assurance that God had forgiven their
sins_――――I did so――――_What difference there is between this_ clear
assurance, _and that_ full assurance and clear perception, _I know
not_――――Sir, I will tell you. The one is, an _assurance_ that _my_ sins
are forgiven, _clear_ at first, but soon clouded with doubt or fear.
The other is, such a plerophory, or full assurance, that I am forgiven,
and so clear a perception, that Christ abideth in me, as utterly
excludes all doubt and fear, and leaves them no place, no not for an
hour. So that the difference between them is as great as the difference
between the light of the morning and that of the mid-day sun.
9. On the second proposition you remark, 1. That ¹_I ought to have
said, the merits of_ Christ, _are (not the_ sole _cause, but) the_ sole
meritorious _cause of this our justification_. 2. _That_ St. _Paul and
the church, by justifying_ faith _mean, faith in the gospel and merits
of_ Christ. The very thing; so I contend, in flat opposition to those,
who say they mean, only the object of this faith.
¹ Remarks, page 41.
Upon the third proposition, “By our being justified by faith only, both
St. _Paul_ and the church mean, that the condition of our justification,
is _faith alone_ and not good works:” You say, ¹_Neither of them mean
any such thing. You greatly wrong them, in ascribing so mischievous a
sentiment to them._ Let me beg you, Sir, to have patience, and calmly
to consider, 1. What I mean by this proposition. Why should you any
longer run as uncertainly, and fight as one that beateth the air? 2.
What is advanced touching the sentiments of the church, in the tract
referred to above. Till you have done this, it would be mere loss of
time to dispute with you on this head.
¹ Ibid.
I wave therefore, for the present, the consideration of some of your
following pages. Only I cannot quite pass over that (I believe, new)
assertion, ¹_That the 13th article, intitled_,
“_Of Works done before justification_”
_does not speak of works done_ before justification, _but of works_
before grace, _which is a very different thing_! I beseech you, Sir,
to consider the 11th, 12th, and 13th articles, just as they lie, in one
view. And you cannot but see, that it is as absolutely impossible to
maintain that proposition, as it is to prove, that the 11th and 12th
articles _speak not of justification_, but of some _very different
thing_.
¹ Page 45.
10. Against that part of the 4th proposition, “faith is a sure trust
which a man hath, that Christ loved _him_ and died for _him_:” you
object, ¹_This definition is absurd; as it supposes that such a sure
trust can be in one who does not repent of his sins._――――I suppose
quite the contrary, as I have declared over and over: nor therefore is
there any such _danger_ as you apprehend.
¹ Page 48.
But you say, ¹_There is nothing distinguishing enough in this, to point
out the true justifying faith._ I grant it: supposing a man were to
write a book, and say this of it, and no more. But did you ever see any
treatise of mine, wherein I said this of faith, and no more? Nothing
whereby to distinguish _true_ faith from _false_? Touching this journal,
your own quotations prove the contrary. Yea, and I every where insist,
that we are to distinguish them by _their_ fruits, by inward and
outward _righteousness_, by the _peace_ of God filling and ruling the
heart, and by patient, active _joy_ in the Holy Ghost.
¹ Ibid.
You conclude this point; ¹_I have now, Sir, examined at large your
account of justification; and I hope fully refuted the several articles
in which you have comprized it_.――――We differ in our judgment. I do not
apprehend, you have _refuted_ any one proposition of the four. You have
indeed amended the second, by adding the word _meritorious_; for which
I give you thanks.
¹ Page 49.
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,
as the condition of justification, directly draws after it, or
rather includes in it, all manner of impiety and vice――――It has often
perplexed and disturbed the minds of men, and in the last century
occasioned great confusions in this nation――――These are points which
are ever liable to misconstructions, and have ever yet been more or
less attended with them. And it appears from what you have lately
published, that since you have preached the doctrine, it has had its
old consequences, or rather worse ones: it has been more misunderstood,
more perverted and abused than ever._
¹ Pages 1, 2.
_The denying the necessity of good works, as the condition of
justification, draws after it, or rather includes in it, all manner of
impiety and vice._ Here stands the proposition: but where is the proof?
Till that appears, I simply say, _It does not_.
_It has often perplexed and disturbed the minds of men._ And so have
many other points in St. _Paul_’s epistles.
But _these are points which are ever liable to misconstructions, and
have ever yet, more or less, been attended with them_――――And what
points of revealed religion are those, which are not ever liable to
misconstructions? Or of what material point can we say, that it has not
ever yet, more or less, been attended with them?
_In the last century it occasioned great confusions in this
nation_――――It occasioned! No; in no wise. It is demonstrable, the
occasions of those confusions were quite of another kind.
_And it appears――――That since you have preached the doctrine, it
has had its old consequences, or rather worse. It has been more
misunderstood, more perverted and abused than ever_――――What! Worse
consequences than regicide, (which you say, was the old one) and making
our whole land a field of blood? Or has it been more perverted and
abused, than when (in your account) it overturned the whole frame both
of church and state?
12. You go on. ¹_The terms of the gospel are, repentance toward God,
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.――――But when we undervalue
either of these terms, we involve the consciences of the weak in fatal
perplexities; we give a handle to others to justify their impieties; we
confirm the enemies of religion in their prejudices._
¹ Remarks, page 2.
All this I grant. But it affects not me. For I do not undervalue either
faith or repentance.
¹_Was not irreligion and vice already prevailing enough in the nation,
but we must――――throw snares in people’s way, and root out the remains
of piety and devotion, in the weak and well-meaning? That this has been
the case, your own confessions put beyond all doubt. And you even now
hold and teach the principles, from which these dangerous consequences
do plainly and directly follow._
¹ Page 3.
_Was not irreligion and vice already prevailing enough_ (whether I
have increased them, we will consider by and by)――――_but we must throw
snares in people’s way_――――God forbid! My whole life is employed in
taking those snares out of people’s way, which the world and the devil
have thrown there――――_And root out the remains of piety and devotion
in the weak and well-meaning?_ Of whom speaketh the prophet this?
Of himself? Or of some other man?――――_Your own confessions put this
beyond all doubt_――――What? That _I root out the remains of piety and
devotion_? Not so. The sum of them all (recited above) amounts to this
and no more: “That while my brother and I were absent from _London_,
many weak men were tainted with wrong opinions: most of whom we
recovered at our return: but even those who continued therein, did
notwithstanding continue to live a holier life, than ever they did
before they heard us preach.”――――_And you even now hold the principles
from which these dangerous consequences do plainly and directly
follow_――――But I know not where to find these consequences――――Unless it
be in your title-page: there indeed I read of the very fatal tendency
of justification by faith only, _the divisions and perplexities of the_
Methodists, _and the many errors relating both to faith and practice,
which_ (as you conceive) _have already arisen among these deluded
people_.
However ¹_you charitably believe, I was not aware of these consequences
at first_. No, nor am I yet: though ’tis strange I should not, if
they _so naturally succeed that doctrine_. I will go a step farther.
I do not know, neither believe, that they ever did _succeed that
doctrine_: unless perhaps _accidentally_; as they might have succeeded
any doctrine whatsoever. And till the contrary is proved, those
consequences cannot _shew_, that _these principles are not true_.
¹ Remarks, page 4.
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 have prevailed among them.
――――But when they had been long and often used to hear good works
undervalued――――I cannot wonder――――that they should plunge into new
errors――――and wax worse and worse._
¹ Remarks, page 12.
This is one string of mistakes. _Had the people gone on in a quiet and
regular practice of their duty, as most of them did before you deluded
them――――Deluded them!_ Into what? Into the love of God and all mankind,
and a zealous care to keep his commandments. I would to God this
delusion (if such it is accounted) may spread to the four corners
of the earth! But how did most of them go on, before they were thus
deluded? Four in five, by a moderate computation, even as other
baptized Heathens; in the works of the devil, in all the ♦wretchlesness
of unclean living――――_In a quiet and regular practice of their
duty_!――――What duty? The duty of cursing and swearing? The duty of
gluttony and drunkenness? The duty of whoredom and adultery? Or of
beating one another, and any that came in their way? In this, (not very
quiet or regular) _practice, did most of_ those _go on before_ they
heard us, who have now _put off the old man with his deeds_, and are
holy in all manner of conversation.
♦ “wretchedness” replaced with “wretchlesness”
Have these, think you, _been long and often used to hear good works
undervalued_? Or, are they _prepared for_ receiving the _Moravian_
errors, by the knowledge and love of God? O Sir, the _Moravians_ know,
if you do not, that there is no such barrier under heaven against
their tenets, as those very people, whom you suppose just prepared for
receiving them.
But _complaints_ (you say) _of their errors, come very ill from you,
because you have occasioned them_. Nay, if it were so, for that very
cause they ought to _come_ from me. If I had _occasioned_ an evil,
surely I am the very person, who ought to _remove_ it as far as I can:
to recover, if possible, those who are hurt already, and to caution
others against it.
14. On some of those complaints (as you term them) you remark as
follows: ¹“_Many of those who once knew in whom they had believed_
(these are my words) _were thrown into idle reasonings, and thereby
filled with doubts and fears_.” _This_, you add, _it is ♦to be
feared, has been too much the case of the_ Methodists _in general.
――――Accordingly we find in this journal, several instances not barely
of doubts and fears, but of the most desperate despair. This is the
consequence of resting so much on sensible impressions.――――Bad men
may be led into presumption thereby: an instance of which you give,
page 66._
¹ Remarks, page 13.
♦ “be” replaced with “to be”
That instance will come in our way again. _Many of those who once knew
in whom they had believed, were thrown_ (by the _Antinomians_) _into
idle reasonings, and thereby filled with doubts and fears. This_, you
_fear, has been the case with the_ Methodists _in general_. You must
mean (to make it a parallel case) “That the generality of the people,
now termed _Methodists_, were true believers till they heard us preach;
but _were_ thereby _thrown into idle reasonings, and filled with_
needless _doubts and fears_.” Exactly contrary to truth in every
particular. For 1. They lived in open sins _till they heard us preach_,
and consequently were no better _believers_ than their father, the
devil. 2. They were not then thrown into _idle reasonings_, but into
_serious thought_, how to flee from the wrath to come. Nor 3. were
they filled with _needless doubts and fears_; but with such as were
_needful_ in the highest degree: such as actually issued in repentance
toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
_Accordingly we find in this journal several instances, of the most
desperate despair: page 24. 36. 63._
Then I am greatly mistaken. But I will set down at length the several
instances you refer to.
Page 24. “I was a little surprised in going out of the room, at one
who catched hold of me, and said abruptly, ‘I must speak with you and
will. I have sinned against light and against love.’ (N. B. She was
soon after, if not at that very time, a common prostitute) ‘I have
sinned beyond forgiveness. I have been cursing you in my heart, and
blaspheming God, ever since I came here. I am damned. I know it. I
feel it. I am in hell. I have hell in my heart.’ I desired two or three
who had confidence in God, to join in crying to him on her behalf.
Immediately that horrible dread was taken away, and she began to see
some dawnings of hope.”
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 could scarce hold her: then
cried out, ‘O eternity! eternity! O that I had no soul! O that I had
never been born!’ At last she faintly called on Christ to help her. And
the violence of her pangs ceased.”
(It should be remembered, that from that time to this, her conversation
has been as becometh the gospel.)
Page 63. _Thursday, December 25._ “I met with such a case as I do not
remember either to have known or heard of before. _L―――― S――――_ (the
same person) after many years of mourning (long before she heard of
us) was filled with peace and joy in believing. In the midst of this,
without any discernable cause, such a cloud suddenly overwhelmed her,
that she could not believe her sins were ever forgiven at all, nor that
there was any such thing as forgiveness of sins. She could not believe,
that the scriptures were true, that there was any heaven, or hell, or
angel, or spirit, or any God. One more I have since found in the same
state. (But observe, neither of these continued therein: nor did I ever
know one that did.) So sure it is, that all faith is the gift of God,
which the moment he withdraws, the evil heart of unbelief will poison
the whole soul.”
Which of these is an _instance of the most desperate despair_? Surely
the _most desperate_ of any, yea, the only one which is properly said
to be desperate at all, is that which produces instant self-murder:
which causes a poor wretch, by a sin which he cannot repent of, to rush
strait through death into hell. But that was not the case in any of
these instances; in all which we have already _seen the end of the_
Lord.
15. That I raise separate ¹_societies against the church_, is a charge
which I need not examine till the evidence is produced. You next cite a
_Moravian_’s words to me (an _Englishman_ joined with the _Moravians_)
_You have eyes full of adultery, and cannot cease from sin; you
take upon you to guide unstable souls, and lead them in the way of
damnation_: and remark, _This is only returning some of your own
treatment upon yourself. Here also you set the pattern._ At what time
and place? When and where were _such abuses as these thrown out by
me, against our universities, and against our regular clergy, not
the highest or the worthiest excepted_? I am altogether clear in
this matter, as often as it has been objected: neither do I desire to
receive any other treatment from the clergy, than they have received
from me to this day.
¹ Remarks, page 14.
You have a note at the bottom of this page which runs thus: _see page
71, 77, and 73, where some_ Methodists _said, they had heard both your
brother and you many times preach popery_.
I am afraid, you advance here a wilful untruth, purely _ad movendam
invidiam_. For you cannot but know, 1. That there is not one word
of _preaching popery_, either in the 71st or 77th page: and, 2. That
when Mr. C. and two other _predestinarians_ (as is related, page 73)
affirmed, _They had heard both my brother and me many times preach
popery_, they meant neither more nor less thereby, than the doctrine
of _universal redemption_.
16. _You proceed_, ¹Kingswood _you call_ your own house. _And when
one Mr._ C. _opposed you there, you reply to him, “You should not
have supplanted me in_ my own house, _stealing the hearts of the
people”――――The parochial clergy may call their several districts their_
own houses, _with much more propriety than you could call_ Kingswood
yours. _And yet how have you supplanted them therein, and laboured to
steal the hearts of the people――――You have suffered by the same ways
you took to discharge your spleen and malice against your brethren._
¹ Remarks, page 15.
_Your brother’s words to Mr._ C. _are――――“Whether his doctrine is true
or false is not the question. But you ought first to have fairly told
him, ‘I preach contrary to you. Are you willing notwithstanding, that
I should continue_ in your house, _gain-saying you?’ Shall I stay here
opposing you, or shall I depart?――――Think you hear this spoken to_ you
_by_ us――――_What can you justly reply?――――Again, if Mr._ C. _had said
thus to you, and you had refused him leave to stay; I ask you, whether
in such a case he would have had reason to resent such a refusal? I
think you cannot say he would. And yet how loudly have you objected our
refusing our pulpits to you!_
So you judge these to be exactly parallel cases. It lies therefore upon
me to shew, that they are not parallel at all: that there is, in many
respects, an essential difference between them.
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 parish _his own house_,
with _more propriety_ than I can call this house _mine_.
2. _Mr._ C. _opposed you there_. True: but who was Mr. _C._? One I had
sent for, to _assist me there_; a friend that was as my own soul; that
even while he opposed me, lay in my bosom. What resemblance then does
Mr. _C. thus_ opposing _me_ bear, to _me_ opposing (if I really did) a
_parochial minister_?
3. _You said to Mr._ C. _“You should not have supplanted me in my own
house, stealing the hearts of the people. Yet you have supplanted the
clergy in their own houses”――――What_ in the _same manner_ as Mr. _C._
did _me_? Have I done to any of _them_, as he has done to _me_? You
may as justly say, I have cut their throats!――――_Stealing the hearts
of their people_――――Nor are these _their_ people in the _same sense_
wherein those were _mine_, viz. Servants of the devil brought through
my ministry, to be servants and children of God.――――_You have suffered
by the same ways you took to discharge your spleen and malice against
your brethren――――To discharge your spleen and malice!_ Say, your
muskets and blunderbusses. I have just as much to do with one as the
other.
4. _Your brother said to Mr._ C. _“You ought to have told my brother
fairly, I preach contrary to you. Are you willing I should continue in
your house, gain-saying you? Shall I stay here opposing you, or shall
I depart?” Think you hear this spoken to_ you _by_ us――――_What can you
justly reply_?――――I can justly reply, “Sir, Mr. _C._’s case totally
differs from _your’s_. Therefore it makes absolutely nothing to your
purpose.”
17. A farther consequence (you think) of my preaching this doctrine, is
_the ¹introducing that of absolute predestination. And whenever these
errors_, say you, _gain ground, there can be no wonder, that confusion,
presumption and despair, many very shocking instances of all which
you give us among your followers, should be the consequences_.――――You
should by all means have specified a few of those instances, or at
least, the pages where they occur. Till this is done, I can look upon
this assertion, as no other than a flourish of your pen.
¹ Remarks, page 52.
To conclude this head. You roundly affirm once for all, ¹_The grossest
corruptions have ever followed the spreading of this tenet. The
greatest heats and animosities have been raised thereby. The widest
errors have been thus occasioned. And in proportion to its getting
ground, it has never failed――――to perplex the weak, to harden the
wicked, and to please the prophane. Your journal is a proof, that these
terrible consequences have of late prevailed, perhaps more than ever._
――――Suppose that journal gives a true account of facts (which you seem
not to deny) could you find there no other fruits of my preaching, than
these terrible ones you here mention!
“O who so blind, as he that _will_ not see?”
¹ Page 51.
18. But that we may not still talk at large, let us bring this question,
into as narrow a compass as possible. Let us go no farther, as to time,
than seven years last past; as to place, than _London_ and the parts
adjoining: as to persons, than you and me, _Thomas Church_ preaching
one doctrine, _John Wesley_ the other. Now then let us consider with
meekness and fear, what have been the consequences of each doctrine?
* You have preached _justification by faith and works_, at _Battersea_
and _St. Ann’s, Westminster_; while I preached _justification by faith
alone_, near _Moorfields_, and at _Short’s Gardens_. I beseech you then
to consider, in the secret of your heart, how many sinners have you
converted to God? By their fruits we shall know them. This is a plain
rule. By this test let them be tried. How many outwardly and habitually
wicked men, have you brought to uniform habits of outward holiness?
’Tis an awful thought! Can you instance in a hundred? In fifty? In
twenty? In ten?――――If not, take heed unto yourself and to your doctrine.
It cannot be, that both are right before God.
* 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 drunkard, that was, is now temperate
in all things. The whoremonger, now flees fornication. He that stole,
steals no more, but works with his hands. He that cursed or swore,
perhaps at every sentence, has now learned to serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice unto him with reverence. Those formerly inslaved to various
habits of sin, are now brought to uniform habits of holiness. These are
demonstrable facts. I can name the men, with their several places of
abode. One of them was an avowed _Atheist_ for many years; some were
_Jews_; a considerable number _Papists_: the greatest part of them as
much strangers to the form, as to the power of godliness.
When you have weighed these things touching the consequences of _my
preaching_, on the one hand, (somewhat different from those set down in
your remarks) and of _your preaching_ on the other, I would earnestly
recommend the following words to your deepest consideration: _Beware
of false prophets; ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree_ (every
true prophet or teacher) _bringeth forth good fruit――――Every tree that
bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire?_¹
¹ Matthew vi. 15, &c.
III. 1. Having spoken more largely than I designed, on the principle
_I hold in common with the Moravians_, I shall touch very briefly on
¹_those errors_ (so called) which, you say, I _hold, more than theirs_.
¹ Remarks, page 55.
“You name, as the first, my holding, ‘that a ¹man may have a _degree_
of justifying faith, before he has, in the _full, proper_ sense, a new,
a _clean heart_’.”
I have so often explained this, that I cannot throw away time in adding
any more now: only this, That the moment a sinner is justified, his
_heart_ is _cleansed_ in a _low degree_. But yet he has not a _clean
heart_, in the _full, proper_ sense, till he is made _perfect in love_.