design of this meeting was to consider what to teach, how to teach, and what to do; in other words, how to regulate their doctrines, discipline, and practice. Here, therefore, it will be convenient to present a connected account of each.

CHAPTER XX.

WESLEY'S DOCTRINES AND OPINIONS.

WESLEY never departed willingly or knowingly from the doctrines of the Church of England, in which he had been trained up, and with which he was conscientiously satisfied, after full and free inquiry. Upon points which have not been revealed, but within the scope of reason, he formed opinions for himself, which were generally clear, consistent with the Christian system, and creditable, for the most part, both to his feelings and his judgment. But he laid no stress upon them, and never proposed them for more than they were worth. In the following connected view of his scheme, care has been taken to preserve his own words, as far as possible, for the sake of fidelity.

The moral, or, as he sometimes calls it, the Adamic law, he traced beyond the foundation of the world, to that period, unknown indeed to men, but doubtless enrolled in the annals of eternity, when the morning stars first sang together, being newly called into existence. It pleased the Creator to make these His first-born sons intelligent beings, that they might know Him who created them. For this end he endued them with understanding to discern truth from falsehood, good from evil; and, as a necessary result of this, with liberty, a capacity of choosing the one and refusing the other. By this they were likewise enabled to offer Him a free and willing service; a service rewardable in itself, as well as most acceptable to their gracious Master. The law which he gave them was a complete model of all truth, so far as was intelligible to a finite being; and of all good, so far as angelic natures were capable of embracing it. And it was His design herein to make way for a continued increase of their happiness, seeing every instance of obedience to that law would both add to the perfection of their nature, and entitle them to a higher reward, which the righteous Judge would give in its season. In like manner when God, in His appointed time, had created a new order of intelligent beings, when He had raised man from the dust of the earth, breathed into him the breath of life, and caused him to become a living soul, He gave to this free intelligent creature the same law as to his first-born children; not written, indeed, upon tables of stone, or any corruptible substance, but engraven on his heart by the finger of God, written in the inmost spirit both of men and angels, to the intent it might never be afar off, never hard to be understood, but always at hand, and always shining with clear light, even as the sun in the midst of heaven. Such was the original of the law of God. With regard to man, it was coeval with his nature; but with regard to the elder sons of God, it shone in its full

splendour, or ever the mountains were brought forth, or the earth and the round world were made."

Man was made holy, as he that created him is holy perfect, as his Father in Heaven is perfect. As God is love, so man, dwelling in love, dwelt in God, and God in him. God made him to be an image of his own eternity. To man thus perfect, God gave a perfect law, to which he required a full and perfect obedience. He required full obedience in every point. No allowance was made for any falling short: there was no need of any, man being altogether equal to the task assigned him. Man disobeyed this law, and from that moment he died. God had told him, "in the day that thou eatest of that fruit thou shalt surely die." Accordingly on that day he did die : he died to God, the most dreadful of all deaths. He lost the life of God he was separated from Him in union with whom his spiritual life consisted. His soul died. The body dies when it is separated from the soul; the soul when it is separated from God: but this separation Adam sustained in the day-the hour when he ate of the forbidden fruit. The threat cannot be understood of temporal death, without impeaching the veracity of God. It must therefore be understood of spiritual death, the loss of the life and image of God.His body likewise became corruptible and mortal; and being already dead in the spirit, dead to God, dead in sin, he hastened on to death everlasting, to the destruction both of body and soul, in the fire never to be quenched.

Why was this? Why are there sin and misery in the world? Because man was created in the image of God: because he is not mere matter, a clod of earth, a lump of clay, without sense or understanding, but a spirit like his Creator; a being endued not only with sense and understanding, but also with a will. Because, to crown the rest, he was endued with liberty, a power of directing his own affections and actions, a capacity of determining for himself, or of choosing good or evil. Had not man been endued with this, all the rest would have been of no use. Had he not been a free, as well as an intelligent being, his understanding would have been as incapable of holiness, or any kind of virtue, as a tree or a block of marble. And having this power of choosing good or evil, he chose evil. But in Adam all died, and this was the natural consequence of his fall. He was more than the representative or federal head of the human race, the seed and souls of all mankind were contained in him, and therefore partook of the corruption of his nature. From that time every man who is born into the world bears the image of the devil, in pride and self-will,-the image of the beast, in sensual appetites and desires. All his posterity were, by his act and deed, entitled to error, guilt, sorrow, fear, pain, disease and death, and these they have inherited for their portion. The cause has been revealed to us, and the effects are seen over the whole world, and felt in the heart of every individual. But this is no ways inconsistent with the justice and goodness of God, because all may recover through the Second Adam, whatever they lost through the first. Not one child of man finally loses thereby, unless by his own choice. A remedy has been provided which is adequate to the disease. Yea, more than this, mankind have gained by the fall a capacity, first, of being more

holy and happy on earth; and, secondly, of being more happy in heaven than otherwise they could have been. For if man had not fallen, there must have been a blank in our faith and in our love.There could have been no such thing as faith in God so loving the world, that he gave his only Son for us men and for our salvation ;" no faith in the Son of God, as loving us and giving himself for us; no faith in the Spirit of God, as renewing the image of God in our hearts, or raising us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness.And the same blank must likewise have been in our love. We could not have loved the Father under the nearest and dearest relation, as delivering up his Son for us: we could not have loved the Son, as bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, and by that one oblation of himself once offered, making a full oblation, sacrifice, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world we could not have loved the Holy Ghost, as revealing to us the Father and the Son, as opening the eyes of our understandings, bringing us out of darkness into his marvellous light, renewing the image of God in our soul, and sealing us unto the day of redemption. So that what is now in the sight of God pure religion and undefiled, would then have had no being.

The fall of man is the very foundation of revealed religion. If this be taken away, the Christian system is subverted, nor will it deserve so honourable an appellation as that of a cunningly devised fable. It is a scriptural doctrine: many plain texts directly teach it. It is a rational doctrine, thoroughly consistent with sound reason, though there may be some circumstances relating to it which human reason cannot fathom. It is a practical doctrine, having the closest connexion with the life, power, and practice of religion. It leads man to the foundation of all Christian practice, the knowledge of himself, and thereby to the knowledge of God, and of Christ crucified. It is an experimental doctrine. The sincere Christian carries the proof of it in his own bosom.-Thus Wesley reasoned; and, from the corruption of man's nature, or in his own view of the doctrine, from the death of the soul, he inferred the necessity of a New Birth. He had made that expression obnoxious in the season of his enthusiasm, and it was one of those things which embarrassed him in his sober and maturer years; but he had committed himself too far to retract, and, therefore, when he saw, and in his own cool judgment disapproved, the extravagancies to which the abuse of the term had led, he still continued to use it, and even pursued the metaphor through all its bearings, with a wantonness of ill-directed fancy, of which this is the only instance in all his writings. And in attempting to reconcile the opinion which he held with the doctrine of the Church, he entangled himself in contradictions, like a man catching at all arguments when defending a cause which he knows to be weak and untenable.

Connected with his doctrine of the New Birth was that of Justification, which he affirmed to be inseparable from it, yet easily to be distinguished, as being not the same, but of a widely different nature. In order of time, neither of these is before the other; in the moment we are justified by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Jesus, we are also born of the Spirit; but, in order of thinking, as it is termed, Justification precedes the New Birth. We

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first conceive his wrath to be turned away, and then his Spirit to work in our hearts. Justification implies only a relative, the New Birth a real change. God, in justifying us, does something for us; in begetting us again, He does the work in us. The former changes our outward relation to God, so that of enemies we become children. By the latter our inmost souls are changed, so that of sinners we become saints. The one restores us to the favour, the other to the image of God. Justification is another word for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins, and, what is necessarily implied therein, our acceptance with God. The immediate effects are the peace of God: a peace that passeth all understanding, and a rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, with joy unspeakable and full of glory." And at the same time that we are justified, yea, in that very moment, sanctification begins. In that instant we are born again; and when we are born again, then our sanctification begins, and thenceforward we are gradually to "grow up in him who is our head." This expression, says Wesley, points out the exact analogy there is between natural and spiritual things. A child is born of a woman in a moment, or, at least, in a very short time. Afterwards, he gradually and slowly grows, till he attains to the stature of a In like manner a person is born of God in a short time, if not in a moment but it is by slow degrees that he afterwards grows up to the measure of the full stature of Christ. The same relation, therefore, which there is between our natural birth and our growth, there is also between our New Birth and our Sanctification. And sanctification, though in some degree the immediate fruit of justification, is a distinct gift of God, and of a totally different nature.

man.

The one implies what God does for us through his Son; the other what he works in us by his Spirit. Men are no more able of themselves to think one good thought, to speak one good word, or do one good work, after justification, than before they were justified. When the Lord speaks to our hearts the second time, "be clean," then only the evil root, the carnal mind is destroyed, and sin subsists no more. A deep conviction that there is yet in us a carnal mind, shows, beyond all possibility of doubt, the absolute necessity of a further change. If there be no such second change, if there be no instantaneous deliverance after justification, if there be none but a gradual work of God, then we must be content, as well as we can, to remain full of sin till death; and if so, we must remain guilty till death, continually deserving punishment. Thus Wesley explains a doctrine which, in his old age, he admitted that he did not find a profitable subject for an unawakened congregation.

This deliverance, he acknowledged, might be gradually wrought in some. I mean, he says, in this sense, they do not advert to the particular moment wherein sin ceases to be. But it is infinitely desirable, were it the will of God, that it should be done instantaneously; that the Lord should destroy sin in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And so he generally does. This, Wesley insisted, was a plain fact, of which there was evidence enough to satisfy any unprejudiced person. And why might it not be instantaneous ? he argued. A moment is to Him the same as a thousand years. He cannot want more time to accomplish whatever is his will: and he

cannot wait or stay for more worthiness or fitness in the persons he is pleased to honour. Whatever may be thought of the doctrine and of its evidence, it was a powerful one in Wesley's hands. To the confidence, he says, that God is both able and willing to sanctify us now, there needs to be added one thing more, a divine evidence and conviction that he doth it. In that hour it is done. "Thou, therefore, look for it every moment you can be no worse, if you are no better, for that expectation; for were you to be disappointed of your hope, still you lose nothing. But you shall not be disappointed of your hope; it will come, it will not tarry. Look for it then every day, every hour, every moment. Why not this hour? this moment? Certainly you may look for it now, if you believe it is by faith. And by this token you may surely know whether you seek it by faith or works. If by works, you want something to be done first, before you are sanctified. You think I must first be, or do thus or thus, Then you are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are; then expect it now. It is of importance to observe, that there is an inseparable connexion be tween these three points-expect it by faith, expect it as you are, and expect it now. To deny one of them is to deny them all: to allow one, is to allow them all. Do you believe we are sanctified by faith? Be true then to your principle, and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better nor worse; as a poor sinner, that has nothing to pay, nothing to plead, but Christ died.' And if you look for it as you are, then expect it now. Stay for nothing! Why should you? Christ is ready, and he is all you want. He is waiting for you! he is at the door. Whosoever thou art who desirest to be forgiven, first believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then thou shalt do all things well. Say not, I cannot be accepted yet, because I am not good enough. Who is good enough, who ever. was, to merit acceptance at God's hands? Say not, I am not contrite enough: I am not sensible enough of my sins.' I know it. I would to God thou wert more sensible of them, and more contrite a thousand fold than thou art! But do not stay for this. It may be God will make thee so: not before thou believest, but by believing. It may be thou wilt not weep much, till thou lovest much, because thou hast had much forgiven."

Upon these fundamental doctrines of the New Birth and Justification by Faith, he exhorted his disciples to insist with all boldness, at all times, and in all places in public, those who were called thereto; and at all opportunities in private. But what is faith?"Not an opinion," said Wesley, "nor any number of opinions put together, be they ever so true. A string of opinions is no more Christian faith, than a string of beads is Christian holiness. It is not an assent to any opinion, or any number of opinions. A man may assent to three, or three-and-twenty creeds: he may assent to all the Old and New Testament, (at least as far as he understands them,) and yet have no Christian faith at all. The faith by which the promise is attained is represented by Christianity as a power wrought by the Almighty in an immortal spirit, inhabiting a house of clay, to see through that veil into the world of spirits, into things invisible and eternal: a power to discern those things which, with eyes of flesh and blood, ne VOL. II.

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