133. Did Mr. Wesley profess Christian perfection?
He did. Any minister who speaks of entire sanctification as Mr. Wesley did, is regarded as a professor of holiness. He says:
"You have over and over denied instantaneous sanctification to me but I have known and taught it above these twenty years." -- Vol iv. p. 140.
"Many years since, I saw that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. I began by following after it and inciting all with whom I had any intercourse to do the same. Ten years after, God gave me a clearer view than I had before of the way how to attain it, namely, by faith in the Son of God. And immediately I declared to all, 'We are saved from sin, we are made holy by faith." This I testified in private, in public, in print, and God confirmed it by a thousand witnesses." -- Vol. vii. p. 38.
This was written in 1771. In 1744, nearly thirty years before, he writes:
"In the evening, while I was reading prayers at Snowsfield, I found such light and strength as I never remember to have had before. I saw every thought as well as action or word, just as it was rising in my heart, and whether it was right before God, or tainted with pride or selfishness."
"I waked the next morning, by the grace of God, in the same spirit; and about eight, being with two or three that believed in Jesus, I felt such an awe, and tender sense of the presence of God, as greatly confirmed me therein; so that God was before me all the day long. I sought and found Him in every place and could truly say, when I lay down at night, 'now I have lived a day.' " -- Vol. iii. p. 324.
Those who say Mr. Wesley did not profess perfect love, do so because he does not, as they claim, state it in his Journals. We admit Mr. Wesley seldom recorded his personal religious experience in his Journals, and yet we have as much regarding his experience of sanctification as of justification. The most he says about his justification was that at Aldersgate, when he felt "his heart strangely warmed." This is often quoted respecting his justification, while the foregoing is both as clear, and as definite respecting his sanctification. There is just as much propriety, in the light of his Journals, in asserting that he did not profess justification, as that he did not profess entire sanctification.
134. Did Mr. Wesley find opposition in the church to the profession of holiness?
He did, and asks the following question:
"But is there no way to prevent these crosses which usually fall on those who speak of being thus saved?" He replies, "It seems they cannot be prevented altogether while so much of nature remains even in believers. But something might be done if the preacher in every place would: (b Talk freely with all who speak thus and, (2) Labor to prevent the unjust or unkind treatment of those it favor of whom there is reasonable proof." Plain Account, p. 71.
Happy, happy would it have been for the church of God, if every Methodist minister had followed this advice of the great founder of Methodism. But, alas how many, instead of laboring to help and protect those who have professed Christian holiness, have sided with their opposers, and labored to put down the profession of holiness in the church!
St. John, the lovely and sweet-spirited apostle, was banished to the isle of Patmos "for the word of the Lord, and the testimony of Jesus Christ." When Stephen, filled with the blessed Holy Spirit, gave his testimony and stated what he saw and heard, the Jews could not endure it, but "cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city and stoned him." If the apostles and martyrs had only held their peace, kept quiet, and lived their religion only, they might have saved their heads.
Satan has always stirred up the fiercest opposition to positive Christian testimony, and the most cruel and bitter persecutions Christians have ever suffered have been for witnessing to a knowledge of Christ and His most gracious work. Madam Guyon was shut up in the French Bastile four years, because she taught the doctrine and experience of justification and sanctification by faith.
It is not strange that Satan should oppose Christian testimony, for St. John says this great accuser of the brethren is overcome "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony."
William Bramwell writes as follows to a young preacher; "Live in it, talk about it, preach it, and enforce it with all patience, with all kindness and if you do this, hell, the world. and numbers among the Methodists, -- yea, some leaders, if not preachers, -- will, in some artful way, seek to hinder your success. -- Memoir.
135. Is there not a want of harmony in Mr. Wesley's teaching on this subject at successive periods?
There is, between his early and abandoned views, and his mature and established views.
Mr. Wesley's mind underwent some changes concerning Christian perfection during his early ministry. He had occasion to modify some expressions, and change his opinions somewhat several times before he became fully established in the doctrine. There was a great revival of holiness about 1760, and we have no reason to believe that his views changed at all after that time. He died in 1791.
Mr. Wesley was a humble man, and never afraid to retract when he saw that he had made a mistake but he did not suppose that a hundred years afterward men would quote his earliest views, instead of his mature -- his "latest and coolest thoughts." This some have done who have written ably in defense of Christian perfection, and make him support positions which he, during many years openly abandoned as untenable.
If Mr. Wesley had some misgivings in reference to preaching and professing holiness during his early ministry, there was a change in his mind, and in his more mature opinion urged the importance of both, without any misgivings, during many years. It is a common thing for those unfriendly to the cause of holiness to quote Mr. Wesley's early and abandoned views, which conflict somewhat with his mature and most reliable ones.
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