Chapter 14 : Later English Reformers

While Luther was opening a closed Bible to the people of Germany,

Tyndale was impelled by the Spirit of God to do the same for

England. Wycliffe’s Bible had been translated from the Latin text,

which contained many errors. It had never been printed, and the

cost of manuscript copies was so great that few but wealthy men or

nobles could procure it, and, furthermore, being strictly proscribed

by the church, it had had a comparatively narrow circulation. In

1516, a year before the appearance of Luther’s theses, Erasmus had

published his Greek and Latin version of the New Testament. Now

for the first time the Word of God was printed in the original tongue.

In this work many errors of former versions were corrected, and the

sense was more clearly rendered. It led many among the educated

classes to a better knowledge of the truth, and gave a new impetus

to the work of reform. But the common people were still, to a great

extent, debarred from God’s Word. Tyndale was to complete the

work of Wycliffe in giving the Bible to his countrymen.

A diligent student and an earnest seeker for truth, he had received

the gospel from the Greek Testament of Erasmus. He fearlessly

preached his convictions, urging that all doctrines be tested by the

Scriptures. To the papist claim that the church had given the Bible,

and the church alone could explain it, Tyndale responded, “Do you

know who taught the eagles to find their prey? That same God

teaches his hungry children to find their Father in his Word. Far

[246] from having given us the Scriptures, it is you who have hidden them

from us; it is you who burn those who teach them; and if you could,

you would burn the Scriptures themselves.”

Tyndale’s preaching excited great interest; many accepted the

truth. But the priests were on the alert, and no sooner had he left the

field than they by their threats and misrepresentations endeavored to

destroy his work. Too often they succeeded. “Alas!” he exclaimed,

“what is to be done? While I am sowing in one place, the enemy

ravages the field I have just left. I cannot be everywhere. Oh! if

Christians possessed the Holy Scriptures in their own tongue, they

could of themselves withstand these sophists. Without the Bible it is

impossible to establish the laity in the truth.”

A new purpose now took possession of his mind. “It was in the

language of Israel,” said he, “that the psalms were sung in the temple

of Jehovah; and shall not the gospel speak the language of England

among us? ... Ought the church to have less light at noonday than

at the dawn? ... Christians must read the New Testament in their

mother-tongue.” The doctors and teachers of the church disagreed

among themselves. Only by the Bible could men arrive at the truth.

“One holdeth this doctrine, another that.... Now each of these authors

contradicts the other. How then can we distinguish him who says

right from him who says wrong? ... How? ... Verily, by God’s

Word.”

It was not long after that a learned Catholic doctor, engaging in

controversy with him, exclaimed, “It were better for us to be without

God’s law than without the pope’s.” Tyndale replied, “I defy the

pope and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years I will

cause a boy who driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures

than you do.”

The purpose which he had begun to cherish, of giving to the

people the New-Testament Scriptures in their own language, was

now confirmed, and he immediately applied himself to the work. [247]

Driven from his home by persecution, he went to London, and there

for a time pursued his labors undisturbed. But again the violence of

the papists forced him to flee. All England seemed closed against

him, and he resolved to seek shelter in Germany. Here he began

the printing of the English New Testament. Twice the work was

stopped; but when forbidden to print in one city, he went to another.

At last he made his way toWorms, where, a few years before, Luther

had defended the gospel before the Diet. In that ancient city were

many friends of the Reformation, and Tyndale there prosecuted his

work without further hindrance. Three thousand copies of the New

Testament were soon finished, and another edition followed in the

same year.

With great earnestness and perseverance he continued his labors.

Notwithstanding the English authorities had guarded their ports with

the strictest vigilance, the Word of God was in various ways secretly

conveyed to London, and thence circulated throughout the country.

The papists attempted to suppress the truth, but in vain. The bishop

of Durham at one time bought of a bookseller who was a friend of

Tyndale, his whole stock of Bibles, for the purpose of destroying

them, supposing that this would greatly hinder the work. But, on

the contrary, the money thus furnished, purchased material for a

new and better edition, which, but for this, could not have been

published. When Tyndale was afterward made a prisoner, his liberty

was offered him on condition that he would reveal the names of

those who had helped him meet the expense of printing his Bibles.

He replied that the bishop of Durham had done more than any other

person; for by paying a large price for the books left on hand, he had

enabled him to go on with good courage.

Tyndale was betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and at one

time suffered imprisonment for many months. He finally witnessed

for his faith by a martyr’s death; but the weapons which he prepared

have enabled other soldiers to do battle through all the centuries

even to our time.

[248] Latimer maintained from the pulpit that the Bible ought to be

read in the language of the people. “The Author of Holy Scripture,”

said he, “is God himself, and this Scripture partakes of the might

and eternity of its Author. There is neither king nor emperor that

is not bound to obey it. Let us beware of those by-paths of human

tradition, full of stones, brambles, and uprooted trees. Let us follow

the straight road of theWord. It does not concern us what the Fathers

have done, but rather what they ought to have done.”

Barnes and Frith, the faithful friends of Tyndale, arose to defend

the truth. The Ridleys and Cranmer followed. These leaders in the

English Reformation were men of learning, and most of them had

been highly esteemed for zeal or piety in the Romish communion.

Their opposition to the papacy was the result of their knowledge of

the errors of the “holy see.” Their acquaintance with the mysteries

of Babylon, gave greater power to their testimonies against her.

“Do you know,” said Latimer, “who is the most diligent bishop

in England? I see you listening and hearkening that I should name

him. I will tell you. It is the devil He is never out of his diocese;

you shall never find him idle. Call for him when you will, he is ever

at home, he is ever at the plow. You shall never find him remiss, I

warrant you. Where the devil is resident, there away with books,

and up with candles; away with Bibles, and up with beads; away

with the light of the gospel, and up with the light of wax tapers,

yea, at noonday; down with Christ’s cross, up with the purgatory

pick-purse; away with clothing the naked, the poor, the impotent;

up with the decking of images and the gay garnishing of stones and

stocks; down with God and his most holy Word; up with traditions,

human councils, and a blinded pope. Oh that our prelates would be

as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine as Satan is to sow cockle

and darnel!”

The grand principle maintained by these reformers—the same [249]

that had been held by the Waldenses, by Wycliffe, by John Huss, by

Luther, Zwingle, and those who united with them—was the infallible

authority of the Holy Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice. They

denied the right of popes, councils, Fathers, and kings, to control

the conscience in matters of religion. The Bible was their authority,

and by its teaching they tested all doctrines and all claims.

Faith in God and his Word sustained these holy men as they

yielded up their lives at the stake. “Be of good comfort,” exclaimed

Latimer to his fellow-martyr as the flames were about to silence their

voices, “we shall this day light such a candle in England as, I trust,

by God’s grace shall never be put out.”

In Scotland the seeds of truth scattered by Columba and his colaborers

had never been wholly destroyed. For hundreds of years

after the churches of England submitted to Rome, those of Scotland

maintained their freedom. In the twelfth century, however, popery

became established here, and in no country did it exercise a more

absolute sway. Nowhere was the darkness deeper. Still there came

rays of light to pierce the gloom, and give promise of the coming

day. The Lollards, coming from England with the Bible and the

teachings of Wycliffe, did much to preserve the knowledge of the

gospel, and every century had its witnesses and martyrs.

With the opening of the Great Reformation came the writings

of Luther, and then Tyndale’s English New Testament. Unnoticed

by the hierarchy, these messengers silently traversed the mountains

and valleys, kindling into new life the torch of truth so nearly extinguished

in Scotland, and undoing the work which Rome for four

centuries of oppression had done.

Then the blood of martyrs gave fresh impetus to the movement.

The papist leaders, suddenly awakening to the danger that threatened

their cause, brought to the stake some of the noblest and most

[250] honored of the sons of Scotland. They did but erect a pulpit, from

which the words of these dying witnesses were heard throughout the

land, thrilling the souls of the people with an undying purpose to

cast off the shackles of Rome.

Hamilton and Wishart, princely in character as in birth, with a

long line of humbler disciples, yielded up their lives at the stake.

But from the burning pile of Wishart there came one whom the

flames were not to silence,—one who under God was to strike the

death-knell of popery in Scotland.

John Knox had turned away from the traditions and mysticisms

of the church, to feed upon the truths of God’sWord, and the teaching

of Wishart had confirmed his determination to forsake the communion

of Rome, and join himself to the persecuted reformers.

Urged by his companions to take the office of preacher, he shrunk

with trembling from its responsibility, and it was only after days of

seclusion and painful conflict with himself that he consented. But

having once accepted the position, he pressed forward with inflexible

determination and undaunted courage as long as life continued.

This true-hearted reformer feared not the face of man. The fires of

martyrdom, blazing around him, served only to quicken his zeal to

greater intensity. With the tyrant’s ax held menacingly over his head,

he stood his ground, striking sturdy blows on the right hand and on

the left to demolish idolatry.

When brought face to face with the queen of Scotland, in whose

presence the zeal of many a leader of the Protestants had abated,

John Knox bore unswerving witness for the truth. He was not to be

won by caresses; he quailed not before threats. The queen charged

him with heresy. He had taught the people to receive a religion

prohibited by the State, she declared, and had thus transgressed

God’s command enjoining subjects to obey their princes. Knox

answered firmly:—

[251] “As right religion received neither its origin nor its authority

from princes, but from the eternal God alone, so are not subjects

bound to frame their religion according to the tastes of their princes.

For oft it is that princes, of all others, are the most ignorant of God’s

true religion. If all the seed of Abraham had been of the religion of

Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what

religion would there have been in the world? And if all in the days

of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors, I

pray you, madam, what religion would there have been now upon

the earth? ... And so, madam, you may perceive that subjects are not

bound to the religion of their princes, although they are commanded

to give them reverence.”

Said Mary, “You interpret the Scripture in one way, and they [the

Romish teachers] interpret it in another; whom shall I believe, and

who shall be judge?”

“You shall believe God, who plainly speaketh in his Word,”

answered the reformer; “and farther than the Word teaches you, ye

shall believe neither the one nor the other. The Word of God is plain

in itself, and if in any one place there be obscurity, the Holy Ghost,

who never is contrary to himself, explains the same more clearly in

other places, so that there can remain no doubt but unto such as are

obstinately ignorant.” Such were the truths that the fearless reformer,

at the peril of his life, spoke in the ear of royalty. With the same

undaunted courage he kept to his purpose, praying and fighting the

battles of the Lord, until Scotland was free from popery.

In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national

religion diminished, but did not wholly stop persecution. While

many of the doctrines of Rome had been renounced, not a few of its

forms were retained. The supremacy of the pope was rejected, but

in his place the monarch was enthroned as the head of the church.

In the service of the church there was still a wide departure from the

purity and simplicity of the gospel. The great principle of religious [252]

toleration was not as yet understood. Though the horrible cruelties

which Rome employed against heresy were resorted to but rarely

by Protestant rulers, yet the right of every man to worship God according

to the dictates of his own conscience was not acknowledged.

All were required to accept the doctrines and observe the forms of

worship prescribed by the established church. Dissenters suffered

persecution, to a greater or less extent, for hundreds of years.

In the seventeenth century thousands of pastors were expelled

from their positions. The people were forbidden, on pain of heavy

fines, imprisonment, and banishment, to attend any religious meet214

ings except such as were sanctioned by the church. Those faithful

souls who could not refrain from gathering to worship God, were

compelled to meet in dark alleys, in obscure garrets, and, at some

seasons, in the woods at midnight. In the sheltering depths of the

forest, a temple of God’s own building, those scattered and persecuted

children of the Lord assembled to pour out their souls in prayer

and praise. But despite all their precautions, many suffered for their

faith. The jails were crowded. Families were broken up. Many

were banished to foreign lands. Yet God was with his people, and

persecution could not prevail to silence their testimony. Many were

driven across the ocean to America, and here laid the foundations of

civil and religious liberty which have been the bulwark and glory of

this country.

Again, as in apostolic days, persecution turned out to the furtherance

of the gospel. In a loathsome dungeon crowded with profligates

and felons, John Bunyan breathed the very atmosphere of Heaven,

and there he wrote his wonderful allegory of the pilgrim’s journey

from the land of destruction to the celestial city. For two hundred

years that voice from Bedford jail has spoken with thrilling power

to the hearts of men. Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” and “Grace

Abounding to the Chief of Sinners” have guided many feet into the

path of life.

[253] Baxter, Flavel, Alleine, and other men of talent, education, and

deep Christian experience, stood up in valiant defense of the faith

which was once delivered to the saints. The work accomplished by

these men, prescribed and outlawed by the rulers of this world, can

never perish. Flavel’s “Fountain of Life” and “Method of Grace”

have taught thousands how to commit the keeping of their souls to

Christ. Baxter’s “Reformed Pastor” has proved a blessing to many

who desire a revival of the work of God, and his “Saint’s Everlasting

Rest” has done its work in leading souls to the “rest that remaineth

for the people of God.”

A hundred years later, in a day of great spiritual darkness, Whitefield

and the Wesleys appeared as light-bearers for God. Under the

rule of the established church, the people of England had lapsed

into a state of religious declension hardly to be distinguished from

heathenism. Natural religion was the favorite study of the clergy,

and included most of their theology. The higher classes sneered at

piety, and prided themselves on being above what they called its fanaticism.

The lower classes were grossly ignorant, and abandoned to

vice, while the church had no courage or faith to any longer support

the downfallen cause of truth.

The great doctrine of justification by faith, so clearly taught

by Luther, had been almost wholly lost sight of, and the Romish

principle of trusting to good works for salvation, had taken its place.

Whitefield and the Wesleys, who were members of the established

church, were sincere seekers for the favor of God, and this they had

been taught was to be secured by a virtuous life and an observance

of the ordinances of religion.

When Charles Wesley at one time fell ill, and anticipated that

death was approaching, he was asked upon what he rested his hope

of eternal life. His answer was, “I have used my best endeavors

to serve God.” As the friend who had put the question seemed not

to be fully satisfied with his answer, Wesley thought, “What! are

not my endeavors a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of [254]

my endeavors? I have nothing else to trust to.” Such was the dense

darkness that had settled down on the church, hiding the atonement,

robbing Christ of his glory, and turning the minds of men from their

only hope of salvation,—the blood of the crucified Redeemer.

Wesley and his associates were led to see that true religion is

seated in the heart, and that God’s law extends to the thoughts as

well as to the words and actions. Convinced of the necessity of

holiness of heart, as well as correctness of outward deportment, they

set out in earnest upon a new life. By the most diligent and prayerful

efforts they endeavored to subdue the evils of the natural heart. They

lived a life of self-denial, charity, and humiliation, observing with

great rigor and exactness every measure which they thought could be

helpful to them in obtaining what they most desired,—that holiness

which could secure the favor of God. But they did not obtain the

object which they sought. In vain were their endeavors to free

themselves from the condemnation of sin or to break its power. It

was the same struggle which Luther experienced in his cell at Erfurt.

It was the same question which had tortured his soul,—“How should

man be just before God?” [Job 9:2.]

The fires of divine truth, well-nigh extinguished upon the altars

of Protestantism, were to be rekindled from the ancient torch handed

down the ages by the Bohemian Christians. After the Reformation,

Protestantism in Bohemia had been trampled out by the hordes

of Rome. All who refused to renounce the truth were forced to

flee. Some of these, finding refuge in Saxony, there maintained the

ancient faith. It was from the descendants of these Christians that

light came to Wesley and his associates.

John and Charles Wesley, after being ordained to the ministry,

were sent on a mission to America. On board the ship was a company

of Moravians. Violent storms were encountered on the passage, and

[255] John Wesley, brought face to face with death, felt that he had not

the assurance of peace with God. But the Germans, on the contrary,

manifested a calmness and trust to which he was a stranger.

“I had long before,” he says, “observed the great seriousness of

their behavior. Of their humility they had given continual proof, by

performing those servile offices for the other passengers which none

of the English would undertake; for which they desired and would

receive no pay, saying, it was good for their proud hearts, and their

loving Saviour had done more for them. And every day had given

them occasion of showing a meekness which no injury could move.

If they were pushed, struck, or thrown down, they rose again and

went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. There was

now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the

spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the

midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over,

split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between

the deck as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible

screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on.

I asked one of them afterward, ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered,

‘I thank God, no.’ I asked, ‘But were not your women and children

afraid?’ He replied mildly, ‘No; our women and children are not

afraid to die.’”

Upon arriving in Savannah, Wesley for a short time abode with

the Moravians, and was deeply impressed with their Christian deportment.

Of one of their religious services, in striking contrast to

the lifeless formalism of the Church of England, he wrote: “The

great simplicity as well as solemnity of the whole almost made

me forget the seventeen hundred years between, and imagine myself

in one of those assemblies where form and state were not; but

Paul, the tent-maker, or Peter, the fisherman, presided; yet with the

demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

On his return to England, Wesley, under the instruction of a [256]

Moravian preacher, arrived at a clearer understanding of Bible faith.

He was convinced that he must renounce all dependence upon his

own works for salvation, and must trust wholly to the “Lamb of God

that taketh away the sin of the world.” At a meeting of the Moravian

society in London, a statement was read from Luther, describing the

change which the Spirit of God works in the heart of the believer.

As Wesley listened, faith was kindled in his soul. “I felt my heart

strangely warmed,” he says. “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone,

for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away

my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Through long years of wearisome and comfortless striving,—

years of rigorous self-denial, of reproach and humiliation,—Wesley

had steadfastly adhered to his one purpose of seeking God. Now he

had found him; and he found that the grace which he had toiled to

win by prayers and fasts, by almsdeeds and self-abnegation, was a

gift, “without money, and without price.”

Once established in the faith of Christ, his whole soul burned

with the desire to spread everywhere a knowledge of the glorious

gospel of God’s free grace. “I look upon all the world as my parish,”

he said, “in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my

bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad

tidings of salvation.”

He continued his strict and self-denying life, not now as the

ground, but the result of faith; not the root, but the fruit of holiness.

The grace of God in Christ is the foundation of the Christian’s hope,

and that grace will be manifested in obedience. Wesley’s life was

devoted to the preaching of the great truths which he had received,—

justification through faith in the atoning blood of Christ, and the

renewing power of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, bringing forth

fruit in a life conformed to the example of Christ.

Whitefield and the Wesleys had been prepared for their work [257]

by long and sharp personal convictions of their own lost condition;

and that they might be able to endure hardness as good soldiers of

Christ, they had been subjected to the fiery ordeal of scorn, derision,

and persecution, both in the university and as they were entering

the ministry. They and a few others who sympathized with them

were contemptuously called Methodists by their ungodly fellowstudents,—

a name which is at the present time regarded as honorable

by one of the largest denominations in England and America.

As members of the Church of England, they were strongly attached

to her forms of worship, but the Lord had presented before

them in his Word a higher standard. The Holy Spirit urged them to

preach Christ and him crucified. The power of the Highest attended

their labors. Thousands were convicted and truly converted. It was

necessary that these sheep be protected from ravening wolves. Wesley

had no thought of forming a new denomination, but he organized

them under what was called the Methodist Connection.

Mysterious and trying was the opposition which these preachers

encountered from the established church; yet God, in his wisdom,

had overruled events to cause the reform to begin within the church

itself. Had it come wholly from without, it would not have penetrated

where it was so much needed. But as the revival preachers were

churchmen, and labored within the pale of the church wherever they

could find opportunity, the truth had an entrance where the doors

would otherwise have remained closed. Some of the clergy were

roused from their moral stupor, and became zealous preachers in

their own parishes. Churches that had been petrified by formalism

were quickened into life.

In Wesley’s time, as in all ages of the church’s history, men

of different gifts performed their appointed work. They did not

harmonize upon every point of doctrine, but all were moved by the

Spirit of God, and united in the absorbing aim to win souls to Christ.

[258] The differences between Whitefield and the Wesleys threatened at

one time to create alienation; but as they learned meekness in the

school of Christ, mutual forbearance and charity reconciled them.

They had no time to dispute, while error and iniquity were teeming

everywhere, and sinners were going down to ruin.

The servants of God trod a rugged path. Men of influence and

learning employed their powers against them. After a time many

of the clergy manifested determined hostility, and the doors of the

churches were closed against a pure faith, and those who proclaimed

it. The course of the clergy in denouncing them from the pulpit,

aroused the elements of darkness, ignorance, and iniquity. Again

and again did JohnWesley escape death by a miracle of God’s mercy.

When the rage of the mob was excited against him, and there seemed

no way of escape, an angel in human form came to his side, the mob

fell back, and the servant of Christ passed in safety from the place

of danger.

Of his deliverance from the enraged mob upon one of these

occasions, Wesley said: “Many endeavored to throw me down while

we were going down hill on a slippery path to the town; as well

judging that if I were once on the ground, I should hardly rise any

more. But I made no stumble at all, nor the least slip, till I was

entirely out of their hands. Although many strove to lay hold on my

collar or clothes, to pull me down, they could not fasten at all; only

one got fast hold of the flap of my waistcoat, which was soon left in

his hand; the other flap, in the pocket of which was a bank-note, was

torn but half off. A lusty man just behind, struck at me several times,

with a large oaken stick; with which if he had struck me once on the

back part of my head, it would have saved him further trouble. But

every time the blow was turned aside, I know not how; for I could

not move the right hand nor the left. Another came rushing through

the press, and raising his arm to strike, on a sudden let it drop, and

only stroked my head, saying, ‘What soft hair he has.’ ... The very

first men whose hearts were turned were the heroes of the town, the [259]

captains of the rabble on all occasions, one of them having been a

prize fighter at the bear garden.

“By how gentle degrees does God prepare us for his will! Two

years ago, a piece of brick grazed my shoulders. It was a year after

that the stone struck me between the eyes. Last month I received one

blow, and this evening two; one before we came into the town, and

one after we were gone out; but both were as nothing; for though

one man struck me on the breast with all his might, and the other on

the mouth with such force that the blood gushed out immediately, I

felt no more pain from either of the blows than if they had touched

me with a straw.”

The Methodists of those early days—people as well as preachers—

endured ridicule and persecution, alike from church-members

and from the openly irreligious who were inflamed by their misrepresentations.

They were arraigned before courts of justice—such only

in name, for justice was rare in the courts of that time. Often they

suffered violence from their persecutors. Mobs went from house

to house, destroying furniture and goods, plundering whatever they

chose, and brutally abusing men, women, and children. In some

instances, public notices were posted, calling upon those who desired

to assist in breaking the windows and robbing the houses of

the Methodist to assemble at a given time and place. These open

violations of both human and divine law were allowed to pass without

a reprimand. A systematic persecution was carried on against

a people whose only fault was that of seeking to turn the feet of

sinners from the path of destruction to the path of holiness.

Said John Wesley, referring to the charges against himself and

his associates: “Some allege that the doctrines of these men are

false, erroneous, and enthusiastic; that they are new and unheard-of

till of late; that they are Quakerism, fanaticism, popery. This whole

pretense has been already cut up by the roots, it having been shown

[260] at large that every branch of this doctrine is the plain doctrine of

Scripture interpreted by our own church. Therefore it cannot be false

or erroneous, provided the Scripture be true.” “Others allege that

their doctrines are too strict; that they make the way to Heaven too

narrow; and this is in truth the original objection, as it was almost the

only one for some time, and is secretly at the bottom of a thousand

more which appear in various forms. But do they make the way to

Heaven any narrower than our Lord and his apostles made it? Is

their doctrine stricter than that of the Bible? Consider only a few

plain texts: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and

with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and

thy neighbor as thyself.’ [Luke 10:27.] ‘Every idle word that men

shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment.’

[Matthew 12:36.] ‘Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever

ye do, do all to the glory of God.’ [1 Corinthians 10:31.]

“If their doctrine is stricter than this, they are to blame; but

you know in your conscience it is not. And who can be one jot

less strict without corrupting the Word of God? Can any steward

of the mysteries of God be found faithful if he change any part of

that sacred deposition?—No; he can abate nothing; he can soften

nothing; he is constrained to declare to all men, I may not bring

down the Scriptures to you taste. You must come up to it, or perish

forever. The popular cry is, The uncharitableness of these men!

Uncharitable, are they? In what respect? Do they not feed the

hungry and clothe the naked? No; that is not the thing; they are not

wanting in this, but they are so uncharitable in judging; they think

none can be saved but those who are of their own way.”

The spiritual declension which had been manifest in England

just before the time of Wesley, was in great degree the result of

Antinomian teaching. Many affirmed that Christ had abolished the

moral law, and that Christians are therefore under no obligation to [261]

observe it; that a believer is freed from the “bondage of good works.”

Others, though admitting the perpetuity of the law, declared that it

was unnecessary for ministers to exhort the people to obedience of its

precepts, since those whom God had elected to salvation would, “by

the irresistible impulse of divine grace, be led to the practice of piety

and virtue,” while those who were doomed to eternal reprobation

“did not have it in their power to obey the divine law.”

Others, also holding that “the elect cannot fall from grace or

forfeit the divine favor,” arrived at the still more hideous conclusion

that “the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor to

be considered as instances of the violation of the divine law, and

that consequently they have no occasion either to confess their sins

or to break them off by repentance.” Therefore, they declared that

even one of the vilest of sins, “considered universally an enormous

violation of the divine law, is not a sin in the sight of God,” if

committed by one of the elect,“because it is one of the essential and

distinctive characteristics of the elect, that they cannot do anything

which is either displeasing to God or prohibited by the law.”

This monstrous doctrine is essentially the same as the Romish

claim that “the pope can dispense above the law, and of wrong make

right, by correcting and changing laws;” that “he can pronounce

sentences and judgments in contradiction ... to the law of God and

man.” Both reveal the inspiration of the same master-spirit,—of him

who, even among the sinless inhabitants of Heaven, began his work

of seeking to break down the righteous restraints of the law of God.

The doctrine of the divine decrees, unalterably fixing the character

of men, had led many to a virtual rejection of the law of God.

Wesley steadfastly opposed the errors of the Antinomian teachers,

and showed that this doctrine which led to Antinomianism was contrary

to the Scriptures. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation [262]

hath appeared to all men.” “This is good and acceptable in the sight

of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come

unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one

mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave

himself a ransom for all.” [Titus 2:11; 1 Timothy 2:3-6.] The Spirit

of God is freely bestowed, to enable every man to lay hold upon

the means of salvation. Thus Christ, “the true light,” “lighteth every

man that cometh into the world.” [John 1:9.] Men fail of salvation

only through their own willful refusal of the gift of life.

In answer to the claim that at the death of Christ the precepts of

the decalogue had been abolished with the ceremonial law, Wesley

said: “The moral law, contained in the ten commandments, and

enforced by the prophets, he did not take away. It was not the design

of his coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never

can be broken, which ‘stands fast as the faithful witness in Heaven.’

... This was from the beginning of the world, being ‘written not on

tables of stone,’ but on the hearts of all the children of men, when

they came out of the hands of the Creator. And, however the letters

once written by the finger of God are now in a great measure defaced

by sin, yet can they not wholly be blotted out, while we have any

consciousness of good and evil. Every part of this law must remain

in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either

on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on

the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their unchangeable

relation to each other.

“‘I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’ ... Without question

his meaning in this place is (consistently with all that goes before

and follows after),—I am come to establish it in its fullness, in spite

of all the glosses of men; I am come to place in a full and clear

view whatsoever was dark and obscure therein; I am come to declare

the true and full import of every part of it; to show the length and

[263] breadth, the entire extent, of every commandment contained therein,

and the height and depth, the inconceivable purity and spirituality of

it in all its branches.”

Wesley declared the perfect harmony of the law and the gospel

“There is, therefore, the closest connection that can be conceived,

between the law and the gospel. On the one hand, the law continually

makes way for and points us to, the gospel; on the other, the gospel

continually leads us to a more exact fulfilling of the law. The law, for

instance, requires us to love God, to love our neighbor, to be meek,

humble, or holy. We feel that we are not sufficient for these things;

yea, that ‘with man this is impossible;’ but we see a promise of God

to give us that love, and to make us humble, meek, and holy; we lay

hold of this gospel, of these glad tidings; it is done to us according to

our faith; and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, ‘through

faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

“In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ,” said

Wesley, “are they who openly and explicitly ‘judge the law’ itself,

and ‘speak evil of the law;’ who teach men to break (to dissolve, to

loose, to untie the obligation of) not one only, whether of the least

or of the greatest, but all the commandments at a stroke.” “The most

surprising of all the circumstances that attend this strong delusion,

is that they who are given up to it, really believe that they honor

Christ by overthrowing his law, and that they are magnifying his

office, while they are destroying his doctrine! Yea, they honor him

just as Judas did, when he said, ‘Hail, Master, and kissed him.’ And

he may as justly say to every one of them, ‘Betrayest thou the Son

of man with a kiss?’ It is no other than betraying him with a kiss,

to talk of his blood, and take away his crown; to set light by any

part of his law, under pretense of advancing his gospel. Nor indeed

can anyone escape this charge, who preaches faith in any such a

manner as either directly or indirectly tends to set aside any branch

of obedience; who preaches Christ so as to disannul, or weaken in [264]

any wise, the least of the commandments of God.”

To those who urged that “the preaching of the gospel answers all

the ends of the law,” Wesley replied: “This we utterly deny. It does

not answer the very first end of the law, namely, the convincing men

of sin, the awakening those who are still asleep on the brink of hell.”

The apostle Paul declares that “by the law is the knowledge of sin;”

“and not until man is convicted of sin, will he truly feel his need

of the atoning blood of Christ.... ‘They that be whole,’ as our Lord

himself observes, ‘need not a physician, but they that are sick.’ It is

absurd, therefore, to offer a physician to them that are whole, or that

at least imagine themselves so to be. You are first to convince them

that they are sick; otherwise they will not thank you for your labor.

It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose heart is whole,

having never yet been broken.”

Thus while preaching the gospel of the grace of God, Wesley,

like his Master, sought to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.”

Faithfully did he accomplish the work given him of God, and glorious

were the results which he was permitted to behold. At the

close of his long life of more than fourscore years—above half a

century spent in itinerant ministry—his avowed adherents numbered

more than half a million souls. But the multitude that through his

labors had been lifted from the ruin and degradation of sin to a

higher and purer life, and the number who by this teaching had attained

to a deeper and richer experience, will never be known till the

whole family of the redeemed shall be gathered into the kingdom of

God. His life presents a lesson of priceless worth to every Christian.

Would that the faith and humility, the untiring zeal, self-sacrifice and

devotion of this servant of Christ, might be reflected in the churches

of today!