Mr. Wesley was well versed in every phase of the theology of his times. Indeed, he was one of the best-read men of his age. That system of scriptural truth which he formulated has stood the test of the most searching criticism, being bitterly assailed on all sides. His theology has the advantage of having been forged in the hottest fires of controversy which have been witnessed during the last two centuries. And it is not presumption in us to say that it has revolutionized, in some marked features, the religious opinions of orthodox Christendom. This is manifest to all who have carefully observed the drift of religious sentiment.

The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England seem framed to meet different forms of religious faith, as the seventeenth and thirty-first articles clearly show.

Among the regular clergy were many high-toned Calvinists, and nearly all Dissenters were of the same faith.

In 1770 Wesley's Conference met, and after a long and earnest discussion of the subject came to the decision that they had "leaned too much toward Calvinism." When the Minutes of this Conference were made public they created great excitement, for it was a blow at the prevailing belief of the times. Three classes rushed to the defense of what they regarded as truth: 1. The Calvinistic Methodists, who had been associated with Wesley, and regarded him as their leader. 2. The Church party, strong and influential. 3. The Dissenters; these were nearly all Calvinists. Between these parties there had been formerly no special sympathy, but they united to antagonize Wesley.

Against all these Wesley stood, as he says, "Athanasius contra mundum" ("Athanasius against the world"). With him was associated Rev. John Fletcher, the saintly vicar of Madeley. As a controversialist he was peerless, and as a saintly character modern times have not produced his superior.

The conflict was long and bitter. It was conducted on the one side by Rev. and Hon. Walter Shirley, Hon. Richard Hill, his brother, the famous Rowland Hill, Rev. Mr. Beveridge, and Rev. Augustus Toplady; and on the other side by Mr. Wesley, but mainly by Mr. Fletcher. It was admitted by all fair-minded men that the Damascus blade of the hero of Madeley won in the conflict and was master of the situation. Fletcher's Checks to Antinomianism was the result. These have stood for more than a hundred years a bulwark against the baneful errors which they seek to overthrow. These plumed warriors have long since adjusted their dogmatic differences, for harmony is the law of that world in which they live.

We shall proceed to give a brief statement of the fundamental doctrines held and advocated by Mr. Wesley, omitting any merely speculative opinions regarded by him as nonessential:

While Mr. Wesley had charity for doubters, he held with great firmness the supreme divinity and Godhead of Christ. "The Word existed," he says, "without any beginning. He was when all things began to be, whatever had a beginning. He was the Word which the Father begat or spoke from eternity." "The Word was with God, therefore distinct from God the Father. The word rendered with denotes a perpetual tendency, as it were, of the Son to the Father in unity of essence. He was with God alone, because nothing beside God had then any being. And the Word was God—supreme, eternal, independent. There was no creature in respect of which he could be styled God in a relative sense. Therefore he is styled so in the absolute sense."[K]

II. The Fall and Corruption of Man.

In regard to the fall and consequent corruption of human nature, Mr. Wesley accepted the faith of the Church of England, which is as follows: "Original, or birth, sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature is inclined to evil, and that continually." He taught that sin was both original and actual, sin of the heart and sin of the life, or outward sin and inward sin.

Of actual, or outward, sin he says: "Nothing is sin, strictly speaking, but a voluntary transgression of a known law of God. Therefore, every voluntary breach of the law of love is sin, and nothing else, if we speak properly." Speaking of a believer being freed from the actual commission of sin, he says: "I understand his of 'inward sin,' any sinful temper, passion, or affection, such as pride, self-will, love of the world." Mr. Wesley's views on this subject cannot be harmonized, except we admit his definition of sin—sin as an outward act, expressed by the voluntary commission of sin; and sin as a state or condition of the heart, expressed by the text, "All unrighteousness is sin."

Mr. Wesley's view of sin is no Unitarian view, but sin in all its destructive effects upon the human heart, holding it in its "unwilling grasp;" the soul "drinking in iniquity like water;" the "soul dead in trespasses and sin," and being "dragged at sin's chariot wheels," until in utter despair he cries, "O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" At this point there comes deliverance to the soul.

By this Mr. Wesley meant that the atonement was for each member of the human family, except when rejected by voluntary choice. As a consequence of this doctrine of general redemption he lays down two axioms, of which he never loses sight in his preaching. Says Mr. Fletcher: 1. "All our salvation is of God in Christ, and therefore of grace; all opportunities, inclinations, and power to believe, being bestowed upon us of mere grace—grace most absolutely free." 2. "He asserted with equal confidence that, according to the Gospel dispensation, all our damnation is of ourself, by our obstinate unbelief and avoidable unfaithfulness, as we may neglect so great salvation." These points he made clear from the Word of God.

It must be admitted that Calvinism has greatly changed in the last hundred years, both in Europe and America. We doubt if any can be found who would attempt, in these times, to defend the doctrine which Messrs. Shirley, Hill, and Toplady attempted to defend in Wesley's time. Mr. Toplady said: "Whatever comes to pass, comes to pass by virtue of the absolute, omnipotent will of God, which is the primary and supreme cause of all things." "If so, it may be objected," he says, "that whatever is, is right. Consequences cannot be helped." "Whatever a man does," he says, "he does necessarily, though not with any sensible compulsion; and that we can only do what God, from eternity, willed and foreknew we should." Surely, this does not differ from "whatsoever is, is right."

The doctrine of foreknowledge, with Mr. Toplady, included the doctrine of election and decrees. He said: "As God does not will that each individual of mankind should be saved, so neither did he will that Christ should properly and immediately die for each individual of mankind; whence it follows that, though the blood of Christ, from its intrinsic dignity, was sufficient for the redemption of all men, yet, in consequence of his Father's appointment, he shed it intentionally, and therefore effectually and immediately, for the elect only."

Mr. Wesley said, in reply to these strange utterances, that their doctrine represented Christ "as a hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, a man void of common sincerity; for it cannot be denied that he everywhere speaks as if he was willing that all men should be saved—provided the possibility. Therefore, to say that he was not willing that all men should be saved—that he had provided no such possibility—is to represent him as a hypocrite and deceiver." "You cannot deny," says Wesley, "that he says, 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' If you say unto me, He calls those that cannot come, those whom he knows to be unable to come, those whom he can make able to come, but will not, how is it possible to describe greater insincerity? You represent him as mocking his helpless creatures by offering what he never intended to give. You describe him as saying one thing and meaning another—as pretending a love which he had not. Him, in whose mouth was no guile, you make full of deceit, void of common sincerity."

In this manner the conflict went on until the theology of the ages, on this subject, has been revolutionized.

The Wesleyan doctrine of foreknowledge and free agency may be stated in a few words. It is, in substance, as follows:

1. The freedom of a moral agent is freedom to follow his own choice, where he is held responsible for his conduct.

2. The foreknowledge of God is a divine perception of what that agent will choose to do in a given case of responsibility. In this there is no conflict between freedom and foreknowledge.

We admit that God saw sin as a certainty, but that perception did not make sin a certainty. The freedom of the agent does not destroy the knowledge of God, nor does the knowledge of God destroy the freedom of the agent. God's knowledge of the certainty does not cause the certainty. His knowledge of what an agent will choose to do depends on the certainty that he will do it, and until the certainty exists God cannot know it, as neither God nor man can know anything where there is nothing to know. The knowledge may follow after, go before, or accompany an event, but gives no existence or character to the event, any more than a light shining around a rock gives character or existence to the rock.

The new birth, according to Wesley, includes pardon, justification, regeneration, and adoption. These are coetaneous—received at one and the same time. But they are always preceded by conviction of sin, repentance, and submission to God by faith.

Mr. Wesley says that whosoever is justified is born again, and whosoever is born again is justified, that "both these gifts of God are given to every believer at one and the same moment. In one point of time his sins are blotted out, and he is born again of God."

Mr. Wesley taught that the new birth put an end to the voluntary commission of sin. This change is really a "new creation;" it removes the "love of sin," so that "he that is born of God does not commit sin." Sin, though it may and does exist, does not reign in him who is born of God. It has no longer dominion, though it may have a being, in his heart, requiring a still further work of grace. This wonderful change is effected by faith in the atoning sacrifice. It must be by faith alone. And such a doctrine is very full of comfort.

This doctrine, as well as justification by faith, was strongly contested in Wesley's time, and the contest has not fully subsided. Many argue that there is no direct witness of the Spirit except what comes through the Word, and hence is an inference which we draw by a process of reasoning. The Word of God, it is claimed, gives us certain marks of the new birth. We recognize such internal evidence, hence we infer that we are justified, or born again. This is Wesley's indirect witness, or the witness of our own spirit. But he claimed that God, by his own Spirit, gives us a direct witness; that the "Spirit of God witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God." And here is his incomparable definition of this soul-cheering truth: "By the witness of the Spirit I mean an inward impression of 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 have been blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God."

Twenty years later, speaking of this definition, he said: "I see no cause to retract any of these suggestions. Neither do I conceive how any of those expressions may be altered so as to make them more intelligible."

This constitutes the direct witness of the Spirit.

The indirect witness, or the witness of our own spirit, including the fruit of the Spirit, is subsequent to this direct witness. The one is the tree, and the other its fruit.

While Calvinism has modified its faith in regard to many things, it still adheres to its original belief in this dogma. It is stated in these words in their Confession of Faith: "They whom God has accepted in his beloved, effectually called, sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end, and be eternally saved." It is further declared that "this perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election," etc. They say, also, that "the perseverance of the saints is one of the Articles by which the creed of the followers of Calvin is distinguished from that of Arminius."

Mr. Wesley as well as Mr. Fletcher opposed this doctrine. They declared with all the force of scriptural authority that "if the righteous turn away from his righteousness and commit iniquity, his righteousness shall no longer be remembered, but for his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die for it." They insisted that if "every branch in Christ that did not bear fruit was to be cut off and cast into the fire and burned," the apostasy of a believer may be final. They insisted that "if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation," etc.; that we might so far backslide as that another "might take our crown." They went everywhere declaring that the only safeguard against final apostasy was to be "faithful unto death."

Mr. Wesley declared that this was "the grand depositum which God had lodged with the people called Methodists, and for the sake of propagating this chiefly he appears to have raised them up." His opponents charged him with preaching perfection. They said, derisively, "This is Mr. Wesley's doctrine! He preaches perfection!" "He does," responds Wesley, "yet this is not his doctrine any more than it is yours, or anyone's else that is a minister of Christ. For it is his doctrine, peculiarly, emphatically his; it is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. These are his words, not mine: 'Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.' And who says ye shall not; or, at least, not till your soul is separated from your body?"

It is true Wesley used the term "perfection," but it was not the only word he used to set forth this truth, but such terms as "perfect love," "full salvation," "full sanctification," "the whole image of God," "second change," "clean heart," "pure heart," "loving God with all the heart," etc. He says: "I have no particular fondness for the term perfection. It seldom occurs in my preaching or writing. It is my opponents who thrust it upon me continually, and ask what I mean by it. I do not build any doctrine thereupon, nor undertake critically to explain it." "What is the meaning of perfection? is another question. That it is a scriptural term is undeniable; therefore none ought to object to the term, whatever they may as to this or that explication of it." "But I still think that perfection is only another term for holiness, or the image of God in man. 'God made man perfect,' I think, is just the same as 'He made him holy,' or 'in his own image.'"

It does not come within our plan or purpose to give a detailed exposition of Christian perfection, but simply to call the reader's attention to the truth as the central doctrine in Mr. Wesley's system of religious faith. With him it was deliverance from inbred, as well as actual, sin. It was not sin repressed, but sin exterminated, deliverance from sin. His standing definition was the following: "Sanctification, in a proper sense, is an instantaneous deliverance from all sin, and includes an instantaneous power, then given, always to cleave to God. Yet this sanctification does not include a power never to think a useless thought, nor ever speak a useless word. I myself believe that such a perfection is inconsistent with living in a corruptible body; for this makes it impossible always to think aright. While we breathe we shall more or less mistake. If, therefore, Christian perfection includes this, we must not expect it until after death." He says again that "the perfection he believes in is 'love dwelling alone in the heart.'" It is "deliverance from evil desires and evil tempers" as well as from "evil words and works." "I want you to be all love. This is the perfection I believe and teach. And this perfection is consistent with a thousand nervous disorders, which that high-strained perfection is not. Indeed, my judgment is (in this case particularly) to overdo is to undo; and that to set perfection too high (so high as no man that we ever heard or read of attained) is the most effectual (because unsuspected) way of driving it out of the world."[J] "Nor did I ever say or mean any more by perfection than the loving God with all our heart, and serving him with all our strength; for it might be attended with worse consequences than you seem to be aware of. If there be a mistake, it is far more dangerous on the one side than on the other. If I set the mark too high, I drive men into needless fears; if you set it too low, you drive them into hell fire."[B]

It is not for us to defend these views, but simply to record them, as the theological faith of the founder of Methodism, and that which the Methodist Church in all the world has professed to believe and teach.

Mr. Wesley taught the doctrine of the general resurrection of the human body. "The plain notion of a resurrection," he says, "requires that the selfsame body that died should rise again. Nothing can be said to be raised again but that body that died. If God gives to our souls a new body, this cannot be called a resurrection of the body, because the word plainly implies the fresh production of what was before."[H]

While he holds that the same body is to be raised, it is not a natural, but a spiritual, body. "It is sown in this world a merely animal body—maintained by food, sleep, and air, like the body of brutes. But it is raised of a more refined contexture, needing none of these animal refreshments, and endued with qualities of a spiritual nature like the angels of God." "We must be entirely changed, for such flesh and blood as we are clothed with now cannot enter into that kingdom which is wholly spiritual."[I] He speaks of the place from which the dead rise as evidence of its being the same body that died (John v, 28). "The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth." "Now, if the same body do not rise again, what need is there of opening the graves at the end of the world?" The graves can give up no bodies but those which were laid in them. If we were not to rise with the very same bodies that died, then they might rest forever.

Mr. Wesley taught, in harmony with the Scriptures, the doctrine of

This, Mr. Wesley claimed, would take place at the second coming of Christ, at the end of the world, "when the Son of man shall come in his glory." "The dead of all nations will be gathered before him." This he calls "the day of the Lord, the space from the creation of men upon the earth to the end of all things;" "the days of the sons of men, the time that is now passing over us. When this is ended the day of the Lord begins." "The time when we are to give this account" is at the second advent, "when the great white throne comes down from heaven, and he who sitteth thereon, from whose face the heavens and earth shall flee away." It is "then the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books will be opened." "Before all these the whole human race shall appear," etc.[F]

Mr. Wesley taught that men would be both punished and rewarded at the judgment, and that both reward and punishment would be eternal. "Either the punishment is strictly eternal, or the reward is not, the very same expression being applied to the former as to the latter. It is not only particularly observable here (1) that the punishment lasts as long as the reward, but (2) that this punishment is so far from ceasing at the end of the world that it does not begin till then."[E] "The rewards will never come to an end unless God comes to an end and his truth fail. The wicked, meantime, shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

These are the doctrines of universal Methodism, as expressed in its creed. Methodism accepts the doctrines inculcated by John Wesley.

Our space does not allow us to do more than to state these doctrines in the briefest form. Wherever they are faithfully preached they become effectual to the saving of men. It is hoped that Methodism will abide by its doctrinal creed, for by it all its victories have been achieved.