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Moralism, Justification, and the Controversy over Methodism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2017

Jeffrey S. Chamberlain
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Extract

When asked why he objected to the preaching of George Whitefield, Parson Adams, Henry Fielding's paradigmatic parish priest in Joseph Andrews, replied that Whitefield ‘set up the detestable doctrine of faith against good works’. He went on to say that in his opinion ‘a virtuous and good Turk, or heathen, are more acceptable in the sight of their Creator than a vicious and wicked Christian, though his faith was as perfectly orthodox as St Paul's himself’. This literary anecdote illustrates the caricatures that developed in the wake of the Methodist revival: Methodists were portrayed as ‘solafideists’ and antinomians while traditional Anglicans were characterised as moralists. Both sides in the dispute felt obliged to attack the other, with the result that straw men were often set up in order to be knocked down. There were substantive differences between the Methodists and other Anglicans, but these were frequently exaggerated on both sides for the purpose of emphasising the severity of the opponent's error. And often these substantive differences were ignored altogether in favour of contrived and inflammatory charges.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 652 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

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10 Clifford, Alan, Atonement and Justification: English evangelical theology 1640–1790, Oxford 1990 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Clifford examines the theology of four individuals-John Owen, Richard Baxter, John Tillotson and John Wesley - in order to ascertain who most consistently represented the classical Protestant doctrine of John Calvin. Clifford's concern, as a pastor, is apparently to establish the correct application of Protestantism.

11 In Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649 (Oxford 1979)Google Scholar, Kendall argues that English Calvinism constituted a departure from, not an extension of, John Calvin's doctrines. Using this argument, Clifford claim s that Calvinism constituted a lacuna in the English Church between Calvin and the Caroline divines. Tillotson and his ilk were restoring true reformed Christianity.

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18 Allison, , Moralism, 27 Google Scholar. Though the primary reference here is to English theologians, it can also be illustrated by the continental reformers. Luther himself talked about the necessity of works for assurance of salvation. Though he emphasised faith as the primary evidence of election, works were an added assurance that one's faith was genuine, and hence, that one was redeemed. Thus ‘Works are a certain sign, a seal on a letter, which make me certain that my faith is genuine. As a result if I examine my heart and find that my works are done in love, then I am certain that my faith is genuine. If I forgive, then my foregiving makes me certain that my faith is genuine and assures me and demonstrates my faith to me’: Althaus, Paul, The Theology of Martin Luther, trans. Schultz, Robert C., Philadelphia 1966, pp246 Google Scholar.

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21 Contra Scholtz, ‘Anglicanism in the age of Johnson’.

22 This was, in any case, the point that caused Luther and the other reformers to balk at the nominalist theology of redemption. There were other views in the Roman Catholic communion, which came out during the debates in Trent. But regardless of the definitions which emerged then, Protestants had already formed their opinion of Catholicism, and it was the nominalist theology that was most often adduced in Anglican references to Catholicism.

23 For evidence of Calvinist hegemony in the English Church before the Interregnum, see Wallace, Dewey, Puritans and Predestination: grace in English Protestant theology 1525–1605, Chapel Hill 1982 For the soteriological implications and the fears which plagued Calvinists during the Arminian putsch of Archbishop William Laud seeGoogle Scholar Nicholas Tyacke, , Anti-Calvinists: the rise of English Arminianism c. 1590–1640, Oxford 1987.Google ScholarAnd for the sweeping adoption of Laudianism (i.e. Arminianism and sacramentalism) after the Restoration see Bosher, Robert, The Making of the Restoration Settlement: the influence of the Laudians 1640–1662, London 1951 Google Scholar. Spurr, John argues that the Church of England in the Restoration ‘began to grope towards a “Catholic” model of the church and to renounce “Reformed” ecclesiology’: Restoration Church, pp. xvi, 105–65Google Scholar.

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25 As Spurr has observed, ‘by the Restoration, the fear of antinomianism had seriously distorted Anglican perceptions and representations of Calvinism’: ibid.. 321.

26 If it did, John Wesley himself would have to be considered a moralist, since he did not like the doctrine of imputed righteousness. See below.

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37 As Spurr, John has observed, this readjustment ‘involved little more than a change of theological emphasis’:Restoration Church, pp281 Google Scholar.

38 It should be noted that this was not a major issue separating Methodists and non-Methodists in the early years of the revival. It was not until the late 1750s, when James Hervey wrote his Theron and Aspasio to campaign for the doctrine of imputation, that it was trumpeted as a major point of contention. He himself admitted that it was not crucial to a person's redemption. ‘Only let men be humbled, as repenting criminals, at the Redeemer's feet; only let them rely, as devoted pensioners, on his precious merits; and they are undoubtedly in the way to a blissful immortality’: Theron and Aspasio, Or a Series of Dialogues and Letters Upon the Most Important and Interesting Subjects, in Hervey, James, The Whole Works, London 1819, ii. pp54 Google Scholar. This statement could apply to almost all Anglicans. Furthermore, there was disagreement in the Methodist ranks over the issue - Wesley took the position that the idea of imputation of Christ's righteousness is neither scriptural nor necessary. Wesley believed, with the proponents of the ‘holy living’ school, that the doctrine of imputed righteousness made believers ‘satisfied without any holiness at all; yea, and encouraged them to work all uncleanness with greediness’: Hervey, James, Aspasio Vindicated and the Scripture Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness Defended, in Eleven Letters from Mr. Hervey to Mr. John Wesley, Philadelphia 1794, pp viii Google Scholar. Hervey believed just the opposite - that it was the doctrine of imputation of righteousness that worked towards ‘furthering men's progress in vital holiness’.

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46 East Sussex Record Office (hereinafter cited as ESRO), A. 54 f. 252b (XA26/32).

47 ibid.. A. 47 f. 247 (XA26/29).

48 West Sussex Record Office, STC I/36/51.

49 PRO, Prob 11/541, 140 Astin.

50 Sommerville, C.John, Popular Religion in Restoration England, Gainesville 1977, 95–6Google Scholar.

51 ESRO FRE 1373. ‘John Smith’ believed, apparently, that ‘sinless perfection’ was one of the three distinctives of Methodism (the other two were ‘unconditional predestination’ -a charge Wesley vehemently denied - and ‘perceptible inspiration’, a reference to assurance by the direct witness of the Holy Spirit). See The Works of John Wesley, London 1872 Google Scholar, repr. Grand Rapids n.d., xii. pp 68.

52 John Wesley, ‘A Blow at the Root, or Christ Stabb'd in the House of His Friends’, ibid.. x. 364. See also his ‘A Dialogue between an Antinomian and his Friend’, and ‘A Second Dialogue between an Antinomian and his Friend’, ibid.. x. 266–83.

53 Hervey, , Theron and Aspasio, 54–5Google Scholar.

54 See, for example, the Institutes, iii. 2. 39: The Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Battles, Ford Lewis, London 1960, 586–7Google Scholar. Kendall, R. T. is on shaky ground when he maintains that Calvin believed that assurance came only from faith itself, but he is correct that his emphasis was there: Calvin and English Calvinism, 23–5Google Scholar.

55 Many Anglican writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries point this out: they claimed that the Reformers, transported by their zeal for the doctrine of justification by faith, overemphasised grace and underemphasised works. See Heylin, Peter, Cyprianus Anglicus: or, the History of the Life and Death of the Most Reverend and Renowened Prelate WILLIAM By Divine Providence, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, London 1668, 28 Google Scholar.

56 The Sentiments of Archbishop Tillotson and Sharp on Regeneration, London 1736, 25–6Google Scholar.

57 John Sommerville noted, in his survey of popular theological writings after the

58 For the background to Wesley's search see Green, V. H. H., The Young Mr. Wesley, London 1961 Google Scholar; Tuttle, Robert G., John Wesley: his life and theology, Grand Rapids 1978 Google Scholar; Skevington Wood, Burning Heart; and Wesley's, journal for 1735–1738, in Works, i Google Scholar.

59 ‘Justification by Faith’, in Wesley's Standard Sermons, ed. Sugden, Edward H., London 1921, i. 125 Google Scholar.

60 Grimshaw, , Answer, 28–30 Google Scholar. In this, the Methodists were reacting against the prevailing epistemology of probabilism. For them a reasonable assurance was not enough, so they adopted a kind of fideism in order to achieve confidence in their relationship to God. William Romaine extended this fideism beyond the religious realm to encompass even the discipline of science - and that is what he taught as lecturer at Gresham College in 1750: Chamberlain, Jeffrey S., ‘The Epistemological Framework of the Evangelical Movement in Eighteenth-Century England: the case of William Romaine’, unpubl. MA diss., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois 1986 Google Scholar.

61 Clifford, , Atonement and Justification, 202 Google Scholar; Tuttle, , John Wesley, 198–201 Google Scholar.

62 Allen, John, No Acceptance with God by Faith only, London [1761], 16–17 Google Scholar.

63 Compare the bishop of Lincoln's sentiments to the effect that ‘The whole doctrine of heavenly voices and visions, of secret impressions and illuminations, as laid down by our modern reformers’ was outside the means prescribed by God for assurance, and led common people towards antinomianism: Green, John, The Principles and Practices of the Methodists considered, in some letters to the leaders of that sect, London 1760, 12, 62 Google Scholar.

64 Though Wesley was quicker to acknowledge this than his Calvinist colleagues. I n one of his letters to ‘John Smith’, Wesley wrote that though he did not like the term ‘infallible testimony’ as a description of the assurance of salvation by the Holy Spirit, he would not quibble with it. He made it clear that when men ‘have this faith, they cannot possibly doubt of their having it’ because the Spirit is so clear in his witness. H e said, too, that he did not ‘either exclude or despise’ the ‘logical evidence’ of salvation, i.e. the evidence of a person's behaviour, but that it was inferior and secondary to the ‘direct witness of the Spirit’ which the apostle Paul talked about:Works xii. 66.

65 Mainstream Anglicans did not deny the role of the Holy Spirit in assurance, but they emphasised the ‘ordinary’ rather than the ‘extraordinary’ gifts of the Spirit. In other

67 Veneer, , Thirty Nine Articles, i. 314 Google Scholar.

68 In fact, John Veneer harmonised the differences between the apostle Paul and the apostle James by claiming that Paul was talking about initial justification when he said we are justified by faith only, but James was talking about final justification when he said we are justified by works. Justification was not based on works, but works had to be done, and so James could even say that men were justified by works, and not by faith only. But there was no conflict in Veneer's mind - salvation was wholly by grace: ibid. i. 314–17.

69 Beveridge, , Catechism, 20–1Google Scholar.

70 Burnet, , Thirty-Nine Articles, 127 Google Scholar.

71 Wesley was aware that theologians often referred to justification as ‘our acquittal at the last day’. But he refused even to consider the possibility that this was the justification of which theThirty-Nine Articles spoke: ‘Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion’, Works, viii. 46. After arguing for several pages that works could not precede justification, he noted ‘That both inward and outward holiness are consequent on this faith [faith which was the condition of initial justification], and are the ordinary, stated condition of final justification’:ibid.. viii. 56. This was no different to what his opponents were saying.He simply felt that when they said it without qualification, they led their hearers to believe salvation (or justification) was by works.

72 Whitefield, George, Three Letters from the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield, Glasgow 1740, 5 Google Scholar.

73 Journal entry, 13 Sept. 1739, Works, i. 224–5.

74 Burnet, , Thirty-Nine Articles, 122–7Google Scholar.

75 Tillotson, , Works, v. 416 Google Scholar. He did carefully distinguish his position from Pelagianism, however, in that he affirmed that no person could turn to God or renovate his life of his own accord:ibid.. v. 382.

76 On the other hand, Clifford is incorrect when he claims that ‘The early Methodist disapproval of Tillotson must… be put down to ignorance and antinomianism’:Atonement and Justification, 208. Wesley was not ignorant, nor was he antinomian. He simply disagreed with the terminology used by Tillotson because it could easily be taken to mean that works come before justification - a doctrine expressly forbidden by theThirty-Nine Articles. Later

78 Wesley came ultimately, in fact, to endorse the doctrine of two-fold justification. As he wrote in response to James Hervey's Theron and Aspasio, ‘we obey, in order to our final acceptance thro his merits’: Hervey, James, Aspasio Vindicated, pp ix Google Scholar.

79 Part of the reason why the Methodists balked at this terminology so much was that they were afraid that it created self-righteousness and pride. John Wesley, George Whitefield, William Grimshaw, James Hervey and William Romaine all complained about the haughtiness which the Anglican system seemed to breed. William Grimshaw observed that the longer a man based his assurance on his works, ‘the more tenacious of it, stiff, selfish, hypocritical, proud and supercilious, like the Pharisees of old he grows’: Answer, 18.

80 Stebbing, Addrees, 6

81 Green, , Principles, 43, 51Google Scholar.

82 Though it was not quite as dramatic as Wesley made it sound in his journal when he wrote ‘There is, therefore, a wide, essential, fundamental, irreconcilable difference between us; so that if they speak the truth as it is in Jesus, I am found a false witness before God. But if I teach the way of God in truth, they are blind leaders of the blind’: 13 09 1739 Works, i. 225 Google Scholar.

83 See, for example, Cohen, Charles, God's Caress: the psychology of Puritan religious experience, Oxford 1986, 75–110, 201–41Google Scholar.

84 James Hervey, for example, was forever quoting the Puritans; William Grimshaw seemed to believe that they were the true representatives of the reformed Church of England, and that the Caroline divines had sadly deviated from their example; William Romaine too was clearly indebted to them in his theology.

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87 He could, for example, publish a treatise written by his father which espoused exactly the Anglican position outlined above:‘Treatise on Baptism’, Works, x. 188–200 Google Scholar.

88 ‘The New Birth’, in Standard Sermons, ii. 242–3Google Scholar. Note also his statement explaining why he opposed other clergy, Anglican - ‘They speak of the new birth as an outward thing; as if it were no more than baptism; or, at most, a change from outward wickedness to outward goodness; from a vicious to (what is called) a virtuous life. I believe it to be an inward thing; a change from inward wickedness to inward goodness’: journal entry, 13 09 1739, Works, i. 225 Google Scholar.

89 ibid.. xii. 71.

90 Sentiments of Tillotson and Sharp, 9–10.

91 ibid.. 21. For Wesley, this was nothing more than ‘using outward works as commutations for inward holiness’. He felt that this kind of teaching lulled men into being satisfied with a few good works when, in reality, their souls were in mortal danger: ‘Letter to John Smith’, Works, xii. 76.

92 Stebbing, , Address, 9 Google Scholar.