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ers. For example, Pope's "Compendium of Christian Theology," Wesley's "Plain Account of Christian Perfection," Foster's "Christian Purity," Harman's "Introduction to the Holy Scriptures," Fletcher's "Checks to Antinomianism," Whedon's treatise on "The Will," Watson's "Theological Institutes," Butler's "Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion," Wakefield's "Christian Theology," Merrill's treatise on "Christian Baptism," and others whose titles "are to be found in the memories and convictions of those upon whom the safekeeping of the body is devolved.” *

The agreement of opinion with John Wesley, on all doctrines distinctive of Methodism, and not presented in the Articles of Religion, constitutes a secondary standard of appeal in doctrinal controversies that possesses weighty authority. "Any doctrine clearly within the consensus of the Church is protected by the common law of the Church without special enactment." From this proposition we utter no dissent, but argue that all the doctrines of Methodism, if our resumé of its theological history be correct, are under the protection, not only of the "common," but also of the statute law of the Church.

Wesley's opinions of the immortality of brutes, baptismal regeneration, and the materiality of the Gehenna fire, were never numbered by him, or any other Methodist writer of credit, among the essential and characteristic doctrines of Methodism. "Our main doctrines, which include all the rest," wrote Wesley, "are repentance, faith, and holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself." +

Methodists may accept or reject the great divine's notions of brute immortality, or of the materiality of the Gehenna fire, without any liability to impeachment for heterodoxy. The first are mainly embodied in his sermon on "The General Deliverance," which is numbered sixty-five in the American edition of his works, and which was never included-so far as we understand-in the first fifty-three, or fifty-eight, (authors differ as to the number,) of his Sermons, which were legally made part of the standards of Wesleyan orthodoxy.

* Dr. Curry in the "Independent," Dec. 1, 1881.

Dr. Curry in the "National Repository," Dec., 1878.

"Principles of a Methodist further Explained," Works, vol. v, p. 333.

The doctrine of baptismal regeneration, "that vanguard of Popery," as Mr. Pullinan rigorously styles it, was never held in its naked unscripturalness by John Wesley; not even in the very zenith of his High-Churchliness. That his treatise on baptism, written in 1756, contains expressions at variance with his later opinions cannot be denied. But even in that treatise he supplies a "guarded corrective" to its misleading utterances in the words: "Baptism doth now save us, if we live answerable thereto; if we repent, believe, and obey the Gospel: supposing this, as it admits us into the Church here, so into glory hereafter." *

When John Wesley prepared his abridgment of the Thirtynine Articles for submission to the American Methodists, his powerful mind had shaken off that last vestige of Romanism. The twenty-fifth of the Anglican Articles reads: "Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace and God's good will toward us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us," etc. Wesley omitted from the definition the words "sure witnesses and effectual." See Article XVI.

More significant is his emendation of the twenty-seventh article, "Of Baptism" given in the seventh, [seventeenth,] American article. The former declares baptism to be "a sign of regeneration, or the new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the Church; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; and faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God." All this phrase after "the new birth" is omitted in the American articles, though the concluding part of the original article is retained with amendments. The omission is the more remarkable as the original article presents little or nothing that is offensive to the general faith of Protestant Christendom. Evidently the reason for this cautious change was his apprehension that it might be supposed to favor, however indirectly, the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.†

Wesley was not infallible. The keenest, largest, strongest minds are defective at some point; as the biographies of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and other great leaders amply attest.

*Wesley's "Works." vol. vi, p. 15.

Stevens' "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," vol. ii, p. 208.

Wesley was not an exception to the general rule; but he did emancipate himself from bondage to error on this point as he subsequently did in matters of Church polity. The Articles of Religion are the carefully guarded expressions of Wesley's belief on the subjects to which they refer; and, judging by them, he must logically be excluded from the number of believers in the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.

The distinctive doctrines of Methodism not comprised in the Articles, but to be found in the consensus of acknowledged theological authorities are:

1. PREVENIENT GRACE.-"The freedom of will, as a gift of prevenient grace, which is given to every man as a check and antidote to original sin."*

"No man living," says Wesley, "is without some preventing grace, and every degree of grace is a degree of life. There is a measure of free will supernaturally restored to every man, together with that supernatural light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world." "That by the offense of one judgment came upon all men (all born into the world) unto condemnation, is an undoubted truth, and affects every infant as well as every adult person. But it is equally true that by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men, (all born into the world-infants and adults) unto justification."-D. D. Whedon, Bibliotheca Sacra, 1862, p. 258. "Under the redemptive system, the man is born into the world, from Adam, a depraved being. It is as a depraved being that he becomes an Ego. But instantly after, in the order of nature, he is met by the provisions of the atonement."

"Every human being," says Warren, "has a measure of grace (unless he has cast it away,) and those who faithfully use this intrusted gift will be accepted of God in the day of judgment, whether Jew or Greek, Christian or heathen." ↑

With these representations of doctrinal belief, Clarke, Watson, Bunting, Fisk, and all acknowledged Methodist theological authorities concur; nor is there any doctrine which "so irresistibly and universally appeals for its confirmation to the common conscience and judgment of mankind."

"Original sin and original grace met in the mystery of mercy at the very gate of Paradise." +

2. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.

istic doctrine of Methodism.

Schaff's "History of Creeds," pp. 897.

This is another character

Ibid., p. 897, 898.

Pope's "Comp. of Christian Theology," vol. ii, p. 61. See also p. 359 et seq.

With Wesley's definition of the doctrine all his Methodistic contemporaries and successors substantially agree. "By the testimony of the Spirit," he writes, "I mean, an inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly witnesses to my spirit, that I am a child of God: that Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me; that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God." "The immediate result of this testimony is the fruit of the Spirit;' namely, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness; and without these the testimony itself cannot continue."

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This testimony of our spirit, as St. Paul calls it, or "indirect testimony of the Holy Spirit, by and through our own spirit, is considered confirmatory of the first testimony."

The Spirit's evidence, based on the Word and Sacrament, is guarded by the ethical and moral testimony of the life. Wherever the assurance of the Spirit is mentioned there is to be found hard by the appeal to the resulting and never-absent evidences. of devotion, obedience, and charity. Assurance is the fruit, not the essence, of faith. . . . Perfect faith must be assured of its object. . . . The internal assurance of faith is a privilege that all may claim and expect; seasons of darkness and depression and uncertainty are only the trial of that faith of assurance.

3. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION is another doctrine eminently characteristic of Methodism; its "last and crowning doctrine." ± In the minutes of 1744 we find it defined by the process of question and answer:

Quest. What is it to be sanctified?

Ans. To be renewed in the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness.

Quest. What is implied in being a perfect Christian?

Ans. The loving God with all our heart, and mind, and soul; Deut. vi, 5.

Quest. Does this imply that all inward sin is taken away? Ans. Undoubtedly; or how can we be said to be "saved from all our uncleannesses?" Ezek. xxxvi, 29.

The promises, commands, prayers, and illustrations contained in the Holy Scriptures abundantly warrant the Methodistic reply to the inquiry, "What is Christian Perfection?"

"Works," vol. i, sermon xi.

+ Pope's "Compendium of Theology," vol. iii, p. 121.
Schaff's "History of Creeds," p. 900.

"Ans. The loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This implies that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words, and actions are governed by pure love."

"Do you affirm that this perfection excludes all infirmities, ignorance, and mistake?" it was asked, in substance, if not in words. “I continually affirm quite the contrary, and have always done so," was Wesley's rejoinder. "The humble, gentle, patient love of God and our neighbor, ruling our tempers, words, and actions," "is the whole and sole perfection "* taught by him from the pulpit and the press.

He cherished this "last and crowning doctrine" as "the peculiar doctrine committed to our trust," and advised that "all our preachers should make it a point of preaching perfection to believers, constantly, strongly, explicitly." Asbury, like the great majority of Methodist preachers, felt “divinely impressed with a charge to preach it in every sermon."

The Methodist consensus on this doctrine is apparent in all our theological standards and highly prized biographies. Wesley, as many of his preachers have since done, held one opinion of the different constituents of a human being at one time, and a contrary opinion at a later period, but his testimony to Christian perfection was uniformly the same. Methodist orthodoxy is indifferent to the trichotomy or dichotomy of man; "it allows a liberal margin for further theological development," but is zealous and uncompromising in its insistence on the privilege and duty of all believers in Christ to enter into and retain the state of entire sanctification.

The doctrine of eternal rewards and punishments is not a distinctively Methodist tenet, but the agreement of Methodist writers and preachers in the exposition and defense of this revealed truth is so positive and unvarying as to leave no room for doubt as to the faith of the Church in its Scripturalness and obligation.

Neither can the possibility of falling from grace, and perishing forever, be distinguished as a distinctively Methodist doctrine. It does receive deserved prominence in the pulpit and the press, and its vital importance is recognized by the Methodist Episcopal Catechism No. 3, p. 37, which says: "It

*Wesley's "Works," vol. vi, pp. 530, 531.

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