LETTER IX.

CALVINISTIC METHODISTS. EVANGELICAL OR SERIOUS CHRISTIANS.

I noticed the name of George Whitfield when speaking of Wesley and his followers, for during a time they acted in unison; Whitfield, however, soon embraced the Calvinistic tenets, and then the friends separated with much of unkindly feeling. Wesley held the doctrines of Calvin in abhorrence, as altogether unchristian and unfounded in Scripture. “I defy you to say so hard a thing of the Devil,” said he with characteristic earnestness, when speaking of the notion that God could arbitrarily create any for eternal reprobation. This separation between the leaders soon extended to their congregations, and from that time Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists became distinct sects, differing, however, but little on any other point, excepting in the greater tendency to enthusiasm among the followers of Whitfield.

“Wesley and Whitfield,” says Mr. Sidney in his life of Rowland Hill, “were men of widely different characters, both in respect to their natural dispositions as well as the discipline of their minds; and painful frailties were visible in the midst of their true greatness. An ambitious love of power was evidently the besetting weakness of John Wesley; aspiration to the _honours_ when he had no prospect of the _suffering_ of martyrdom, was that of Whitfield.” In his letters to Rowland Hill, it is evident how he courted and enjoyed persecution; and whenever “_the fire_ (to use his own expression) was kindled in the country;” he was not satisfied unless “honoured” by being scorched a little in its flame. This was a wrong spirit, and did injury to his own mind, and to his followers, by encouraging a morose and morbid carriage towards the world, giving needless offence, and provoking animosity in those who might have been attracted and endeared to truth by the lovely graces of pure Christianity.”

At the time when he, and his early friends the Wesleys began their ministry, the piety of all classes was at a very low ebb. The earnestness of these men gave a new impulse to religious feeling, and after a time a considerable number of other episcopally ordained ministers of the church, together with a portion of the laity, became influenced by the same sentiments. Without seceding, they formed a party in the church, leaning to Calvinism to the extent they thought justified by the XXXIX Articles; and this party soon became designated by several distinguishing terms. They called themselves _Evangelical_ first, afterwards when that became a cant term of misapplied reproach, they took the title of _Serious_ Christians, and by others were called _Low Church_, and _Methodistical_. Besides distinguishing themselves by an especial name, they avoided public amusements, used a peculiar phraseology, and seemed to delight in wearing their religion externally in the sight of all men, thinking perhaps to reform the thoughtless by the example of their greater strictness. But herein, in my opinion, they made a net for their own feet, for that very aspiration after greater exaltation which is implanted in us as a spur to strive after glory and immortality, is soon by mismanagement perverted into a love of earthly distinction. Hence comes ambition; but the ambition for worldly honours has in it this alleviation, that the man who toils after a title or a fortune, knows that he is, after all, seeking but a mean object; and if ever his mind is awakened at all to a sense of the world to come, the soul springs back to its true ambition, and launches into the career natural to it: but the man who seeks to be distinguished among his brethren for superior holiness, and wears it externally, that it may be seen and honoured by men, blinds his better nature, and fetters it to earth by chains forged in heaven; he sees not that he is ambitious; he is not aware that while seeking, as he imagines, to honour God in his life, he is enjoying at his heart’s core the respectful homage of men; and whilst attending to his outward deportment, and making a display even of his humility, he too frequently leaves the inner heart unchastened. Our Saviour knew the frailties of man, and his injunction that our religion should chiefly be manifested by our benevolent feelings towards our fellow creatures, while the communing with God should be carried on in silence and secrecy, is the only safe guide in these matters.

I have no doubt that there are many of the Low Church party, whose conscientiousness sets at defiance the dangers of the system they have adopted: indeed my own private friendships warrant me in saying so: but it is not well to lead others into dangerous paths where our own skill indeed may enable us to walk safely, but where the hindmost, whom we are not leading by the hand, are in continual hazard of deviating from the true course; and therefore whilst honouring individual virtues, I continue to consider the whole system erroneous: one whose tendency is to create spiritual pride, and lower the standard of Christian benevolence by restricting to a party that fellowship which should be universal. It does but substitute the excitement of the crowded church where a popular preacher charms with all the graces of rhetoric, of the committee room, of the speakers at Exeter Hall, for the ball room and the theatre; with this difference, that in the first case the instinct which makes the mind seek this excitement, is overlooked; the man believes himself performing a meritorious action, and looks with some contempt on his weaker brethren, who cannot exist without worldly amusements; on the other he knows what he is about, and if he be well-intentioned, guards against excess. It would be wiser therefore to acknowledge the instinct; not bad in itself, for God implanted it, and if it be denied a due indulgence, the mind sinks into hopeless imbecility; and not to blame those who seek other, but innocent means of gratifying it. {122a}

The extracts that I am about to give, from the writings of two men of note, in that party, distinguished also for their genuine Christian feeling, will show that they saw the dangers I have pointed out, and were anxious to guard against them. The following extracts are given in Mr. Sidney’s “Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill.” {122b}

“I hate dry doctrinal preaching, without warm, affectionate, and experimental applications. Oh! ’tis most pleasant to love one another with pure hearts fervently. Love is of God, for ‘God is love.’ The summit of our happiness must be the perfection of our holiness. By this blessed grace we have the brightest evidence that we are ‘born of God.’ If we allow that little shades of difference may exist, we ought to ‘love as brethren,’ and where Christian candour and love are found to reign, the odious sin of schism, according to its general interpretation, cannot exist.” “It is no sign that we value the blessings of God, if we can part with them” (i.e. dear friends) “without regret. That mind is badly framed that prefers stoical indifference to Christian sensibility, and though the pain is abundantly more acute where those finer feelings of the mind are found to exist; yet who deserves the name of a human being who is without them?” “While a soul within our reach is ignorant of a Saviour, we must endeavour to win it to Christ. How weary I am of a great deal of what is called the ‘_religious world_!’ High and Low Church Sectarianism seems to be the order of the day; we are much more busy in contending for _parties_ than for _principles_. These evils are evidences of a lack of genuine Christianity. Oh! when shall that happy day dawn upon us, when real Christians and Christian ministers of all denominations shall come nearer to each other.”

The next extracts shall be from the writings of one who was scarcely appreciated by the world in general, but of whose excellencies I was enabled to judge, during my residence at Cambridge; Mr. Simeon.

“Religion appears in its true colours when it regulates our conduct in social life; your religion must be seen, not in the church, or in the closet only, but in the shop, the family, the field: it must mortify pride and every other evil passion, and must bring faith into exercise. Try yourselves by this standard: see what you are as husbands or wives, parents or children, masters or servants.” {124}

“The self-righteous, self-applauding moralist can spy out the failings and infirmities of those who profess a stricter system of religion; but let me ask such an one, ‘Are there not in thee, even in thee, sins against the Lord thy God?’ Verily if thou wouldst consult thy own conscience, thou wouldst see little reason, and feel little inclination too, to cast stones at others. Professors of religion also are but too guilty of this same fault, being filled with an overweening conceit of their own excellencies, and a contemptuous disregard of their less spiritual neighbours. But I would ask the professed follower of Christ, Are there not sins with thee too as well as with the pharisaic formalist? Are there not great and crying evils in the religious world, which prove a stumbling block to those around them? Are there not often found among professors of religion the same covetous desires, the same fraudulent practices, the same deviations from truth and honour, as are found in persons who make no profession? Are there not many whose tempers are so unsubdued, that they make their whole families a scene of contention and misery? Yes! Though the accusations which are brought against the whole body of religious people as ‘hypocrites,’ are a gross calumny, there is but too much ground for them in the conduct of many.” “Nothing is more common, and nothing more delusive than a noisy, talkative religion. True religion is a humble, silent, retired thing; not affecting public notice, but rather wishing to approve itself to God. It is not in _saying_ ‘Lord, Lord!’ but in _doing_ the will of our heavenly Father, that we shall find acceptance at the last day. Happy would it be if many who place all their religion in running about and hearing sermons, and talking of the qualifications of ministers, would attend to this hint, and endeavour to acquire more of that wisdom which evinces its Divine origin by the excellence of its fruits.” {126}

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