also a twenty-fifth standard, fabricated by themselves, and suited to the national relations of the new Church. * Thenceforth the doctrinal symbols of the Methodist Episcopal Church have consisted of the old beloved standards common to Methodism plus the articles supplied by Wesley and the Church-organizing Conference. Had the American Methodists remained in a mere societary relation to the Anglican Church, or assumed such relation to the Protestant Episcopal Church, its claimant successor in this country, it is in no wise probable that the articles would ever have been formally adopted into the number of our "established standards of doctrine." Their verbal primacy in the legal enumeration of the first Restrictive Rule is due to the suffrages of the General Conference, that is to say, of the Church which placed them there. In the "Discipline," the Americanized form of the "Large Minutes," we find the following among other references to the old Methodist doctrines: Are you going on to perfection? do you expect to be made perfect in this life? are you groaning after it? "Let us strongly and closely insist upon inward and outward holiness in all its branches." Let all the preachers carefully read over Mr. Wesley's and Mr. Fletcher's tracts. We have received as a maxim, that a man is to do nothing in order to justification. Nothing can be more false. Whoever desires to find favor with God should cease from evil and learn to do well. So God himself teacheth by the prophet Isaiah. We are every moment pleasing or displeasing to God according to our works; according to the whole of our present inward tempers and outward behavior. If preachers and exhorters cannot attend, let some person of ability be appointed in every society to sing, pray, and read one of Mr. Wesley's sermons. *"At the organization of the Church, in 1784, it was the first religious body in the country to insert in its constitutional law (in its Articles of Religion) a recognition of the new government, enforcing patriotism on its communicants." In 1800 the General Conference, by a motion of Ezekiel Cooper, "struck out all allusion to the Act of Confederation,' inserting in its stead the Constitution of the United States,' etc., and declared that the said States are a sovereign and independent nation.' Methodism thus deliberately, and in its constitutional law, recognized that the 'Constitution' superseded the Act of Confederation,' and that the Republic was no longer a confederacy but a nation, and, as such, supreme and sovereign over all its States.'" Stevens' "History of M. E. Church," vol. iv, pp. 180, 181. Be active in dispersing the books among the people. From four to five in the morning, and from five to six in the evening, meditate, pray, and read the Scriptures with Mr. Wesley's Notes, and the closely practical parts of what he has published. Let us strongly and explicitly exhort all believers to go on to perfection. Whoever will advance the gradual change in believers should strongly insist on the instantaneous. * There is no evidence to prove the theory that "our fathers " ever imagined that the Articles of Religion, superadded at Mr. Wesley's suggestion to the recognized standards, either superseded or in any way took precedence of them. If such a thought every entered their minds, they were singularly careful not to voice it in word or written document. The assertion of the Rev. J. Pullman, that Wesley designedly procured the substitution of the Articles of Religion in place of his own Notes, Sermons, and the "Large Minutes" as the authoritative doctrinal standards of the Methodist Episcopal Church,unintentionally charges that great divine," whose genius for government was equal to that of Richelieu," with the commission of a great absurdity. "It is true," writes Mr. Pullman, "that prior to the organization of the Church in 1784, 'The Notes, Sermons, and Minutes of Mr. Wesley' were, by special enactment, (Annual Minutes of 1781, and April, 1784,) declared the standard of doctrine; but it is equally true that at the Christmas Conference, in 1784, when the Church assumed an organic form, the Articles of Religion were adopted, at the request of Mr. Wesley, as the authoritative doctrinal standard of the Church, and ever since they have had a conspicuous and sacred place in the Book of Discipline; and it is also true that from the time of their adoption there has been no mention of Mr. Wesley's Notes and Sermons; "-from which he infers that the Methodist doctrinal standards, universally binding up to that epoch, ceased thenceforth to possess any constitutional force. In other words, Mr. Pullman maintains that John Wesley deliberately substituted the purified and abbreviated doctrinal symbols of the Anglican Church for the "existing and established standards of doctrine" hitherto obligatory on Methodist preachers, exhorters, and stewards; and that the pious Bangs' "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," vol. i., pp. 182-211. and intelligent members of that epochal Conference knowingly accepted the substitution. This assertion is all the more startling in presence of the fact so forcibly stated by Dr. Stevens: But what is most noteworthy in the negative character of the American Articles, is the fact that the opinions which are deemed most distinctive of Wesleyan theology have therein no expression, if indeed any intimation. Wesley eliminates the supposed Anglican Calvinism, but he does not introduce his own Arminianism; unless the thirty-first Anglican Article on the "Oblation of Christ" be admitted to be Arminian in spite of the seventeenth article on "Predestination." In like manner we have no statement of his doctrines of the "Witness of the Spirit," and "Christian Perfection." And yet no doctrines more thoroughly permeate the preaching, or more entirely characterize the moral life, of Methodism than his opinions of the universal salvability of man, assurance, and sanctification.* Yet, notwithstanding these omissions, the thinkers of Mr. Pullman's school contend that Mr. Wesley intended to establish a Methodist Episcopal Church, with all, or nearly all, that is distinctive of evangelically Arminian Methodism left out of its doctrinal Constitution. We venture to doubt whether this was the opinion of Bishop Simpson, when he told Dean Stanley, at the reception given to that distinguished churchman in St. Paul's Church, New York, that the Methodist Episcopal Church "reflects" John Wesley's "mind better than any other on earth." 66 The rapid extension and growth of the Church, the difficulty of assembling all the preachers in General Conference, and the need of securing the assent of all to requisite legislation, induced the Conference of 1789 to order the creation of the ephemeral Council," which was invested with authority "to preserve the essentials of the Methodist doctrines and discipline, pure and uncorrupted." In 1792 the O'Kelly secession, and its concomitant evils, led to the Conferential passage of the following rule: If a member of our Church shall be clearly convicted of endeavoring to sow dissensions in any of our Societies, by inveighing against either our doctrine or discipline, such person so offending shall be first reproved by the senior preacher of his cir * Stevens' "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," vol. ii, pp. 208, 209. Bangs' "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," vol. i, p. 303. cuit; and if he afterward persist in such pernicious practices, he shall be expelled from the society.* This enactment is revelatory of the jealous care with which the fathers guarded the doctrines of the Church, and the judicious promptitude with which they dealt with incorrigible heretics. Not until the session of the General Conference at Baltimore, in 1808, were the doctrinal standards of the Church placed under the protection of constitutional law. Up to that time the General Conference, in which the several Annual Conferences were of necessity unequally represented, "possessed unlimited powers over our entire economy," and "could alter, abolish, or add to any article of religion or any rule of discipline." "This depository of power was considered too great for the safety of the Church and the security of its government and doctrine," † and the expediency "of limiting the powers of the General Conference, so as to secure forever the essential doctrines of Christianity from all encroachments," was generally and deeply felt. By the General Conference of 1808, the delegative principle was introduced into its future composition, and the Constitution of the Church was adopted. This Constitution is contained in the Six Restrictive Rules, which state what the General Conference may not do, leaving it free to adopt any other measures not therein prohibited. But to these restrictions was appended the proviso, "that upon the joint recommendation of all the Annual Conferences, then a majority of two thirds of the General Conference succeeding, shall suffice to alter any of the above restrictions." + In their form, at this time, they leave open to change the fundamental interests of the Church, even its theology and terms of membership, without representation of the laity; but in 1832, the proviso giving this power was modified, making the Articles of Religion [and, if our views be correct, "our present existing and established standards of doctrine "] unalterable, and requiring a vote of three fourths of the members of the Annual, and two thirds of the General Conferences, to effect any of the specified changes.§ * Bangs' "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," vol. i, p. 351. § Stevens' "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vol. iv, pp. 441, 442. Of these unalterable standards of doctrine, Methodism has just reason to be proud. Wesley's "Notes on the New Testament, with a New Version of the Text,"-" remarkable as having anticipated many of the improved readings of later critics,"*—a work unrivaled among Biblical commentaries for its terseness, condensation, and pertinency,t is still a "recognized standard of theology" throughout the Methodistic world. For "conciseness, spirituality, acuteness, and soundness of opinion," it has won glowing commendations from the best judges. His Sermons, so "remarkable for the terseness and purity of their style, in which not a word is wasted; the transparency and compactness of their thoughts; and a logical force which is not subtle, but the fruit of a 'keen, clear insight,' merit equal praise. "No thinker in the modern Church has excelled Wesley in the direct logic, the precision, the transparent clearness, and popular suitableness with which he presented the experimental truths of Christianity. Faith, justification, regeneration, sanctification, the witness of the Spirit, these were his themes, and never were they better defined and discriminated by an English theologian. Although Wesley's Sermons and Notes on the New Testament are, in the opinion of Dr. Schaff, (a great Presbyterian authority,) "legally binding only on the British Wesleyans, . . . they are in fact as highly esteemed and as much used by American Methodists, and constitute the life of the denomination." "These sermons are fifty-eight in number, and cover the common faith and duties of Christians, but contain, at the same time, the doctrines which constitute the distinctive creed of Methodism." "Creeds of Christendom," vol. i, p. 890. Among the Methodist doctrinal standards of secondary character, not indicated (or but secondarily) in any section of the Discipline, and between which and the legalized standards there must be consensus to give them doctrinal weight, are the commentaries of Benson, Clarke, Whedon, and other expositors, and the "Doctrinal Tracts," with other familiar treatises. Among those indicated by the Discipline are the works included by the Bishops, under authority from the General Conference, in the course of study prescribed for traveling and local preach |