Answering The Attacks On Wesley's Teaching And His Own Experience

Surprising as it may seem, there has developed within the very church which God used Wesley to establish an amazing conflict, not only concerning the doctrine he taught, but also concerning his own spiritual experience.

Some, obviously ignorant of Methodism's historical and theological background, have arrogantly declared the teaching of holiness as a second work of grace to be a newfangled idea, as dangerous as it is erroneous.

Others there are who acknowledge that Wesley taught a second instantaneous work of grace early in his ministry, but declare that in his later years he changed his emphasis, and taught entire sanctification as a progressive work.

Some have gone so far as to level their guns at Wesley's own experience, declaring that, while it cannot be gainsaid that he taught second blessing holiness as a distinctive doctrine, there is no evidence that Wesley himself ever professed the personal enjoyment of the experience.

This heavy artillery, with other satanic weapons, has been aimed at the very foundations of this truth with the determination, if at all possible, to destroy its witness before this generation. Fortunately, we are not left to wage a battle of opinions in this matter, having the plain statements of Wesley himself. These we shall take up, examine, and seek to evaluate, thus allowing Wesley to make his own reply.

I. Concerning the Charge That This Teaching Is a Modern Error

Our answer is that only one of two things can be said concerning such a statement. Either it is the result of an amazing ignorance or the product of an unscrupulous misrepresentation. Whichever of these it may be, the charge itself is almost unpardonable in view of the possibility of so easily ascertaining the real facts of the case.

Should the question arise as to how these facts may be known, the answer is twofold:

A. By a study of easily available Wesleyan literature.

Among many other writings will be found:

1. Wesley's own works

Notes on the New Testament; Sermons; Journal; Letters; A Plain Account of Christian Perfection; the many fine old hymns, both original and translated, from the pens of both John and Charles.

2. Works of Wesley's contemporaries, and their immediate successors.

John Fletcher, with his priceless Checks to Antinomianism. Adam Clarke, with his still popular Commentary and other works. Richard Watson, with his Theological Institutes and Bible Expositions. Joseph Benson with his Commentary.

3. Arminian theologians with their later works, among whom are Miley, Pope, Ralston, Wiley, Hills, and others.

4. Added to these is a host of other creditable writers both older and more recent.

Within the past few decades hundreds of volumes by reputable writers of Arminian emphasis have been placed at the disposal of all who desire to read them.

B. By a study of the Bible itself.

Simply to prove the teaching of entire sanctification to be Wesleyan in its origin would be far from sufficient. If Wesley is its source and origin, such a doctrine is not worth contending for.

Wesley, however, made no pretense of originating it, but repeatedly insisted that the doctrine which he taught had for its basis the unchanging Word of God. We have no hesitation in affirming that the Bible nowhere contradicts the doctrine of entire sanctification as Wesley taught it.

II. Concerning the Charge That Wesley Changed His Emphasis with Regard to This Experience

This second attack is even more subtle than the first, but no less contrary to fact. Again, it can only have one of the same two explanations, either ignorance or misrepresentation.

We would not want to go on record, however, as stating that throughout the long years of his outstanding ministry Wesley's thinking underwent no general change. No mind so keen and alert as Wesley's could progress through so many years without some necessary change.

There were some things on which he deliberately reversed himself. Some statements he definitely modified. There were some truths, however, on which from the beginning he was so positive that they needed neither reversal nor modification; they were his firm convictions right to the end.

A. He changed his views on the subject of eternal security.

There was evidently a period when in his thinking he leaned in that direction. In his interesting volume, The Rediscovery of John Wesley', Dr. George C. Cell almost makes a case for Wesley as a Calvinist.

Wesley's own writing, however, will prove for us a safer guide.

Discussing the subject of entire sanctification, Wesley wrote:

"I do not exclude an impossibility of failing from it either in part or in the whole. Therefore I retract several expressions in our hymns which partly express, partly imply such impossibility . . . . Formerly we thought one saved from sin could not fall, now we know the contrary." -("Wesley's Works," vol. VI, p.219. Quoted by J. A. Wood)

In a letter to his brother Charles in 1767 he wrote:

"Can one who has attained it fall? Formerly I thought not, but you (with Thomas Walsh and John Jones) convinced me of my mistake."

John Wesley was too honest a man to hold on to a theory simply because at one time he had mistakenly endorsed it. Immediately he saw his mistake, he unhesitatingly corrected it. Unconditional eternal security retained no place in Wesleyan theology.

B. He modified his position as to what the experience of entire sanctification does in the lives of those who receive it.

Some statements he had made seemed apt to prove misleading; these he corrected without hesitation. Some interesting examples of this are to be found in his Plain Account of Christian Perfection. There he quotes the preface written for the second volume of hymns published in the year 1741, and with amazing candor pauses to correct it in six different places with footnotes.

Speaking of those enjoying this experience of full salvation, he says:

"They are freed from self will, desiring nothing but the holy and perfect will of God; not supplies in want or ease in pain."

Footnote in later edition: "This is too strong. Our Lord Himself desired ease in pain. He asked for it only with resignation."

"Whenever they pour out their hearts in a more immediate manner before God, they have no

thought of anything past, or absent, or to come, but of God alone."

Footnote in later edition: "This is far too strong. See Sermon on Wandering Thoughts."

"They have no fear or doubt either as to their state in general or as to any particular action."

Footnote in later edition: "Frequently this is the case, but only for a time."

"The unction from the Holy One teaches them every hour what they shall say and what they shall do."

Footnote in later edition: "For a time it may be so: but not always."

"Nor have they any need to reason concerning it."

Footnote in later edition: "Sometimes they have no need, but at other times they have."

"They are in one sense freed from temptations; for though numberless temptations fly about them, yet they trouble them not." Footnote in later edition: "Sometimes they do not; at other times they do, and that grievously." (Taken from "Wesleys Works," Third Edition, Vol XI, p.379) A stubborn insistence on a mistaken notion for the mere saving of face had no place in the character of Wesley.

C. Throughout his entire ministry, however, he gave neither hint nor suggestion of any change of view on the subject of instantaneous sanctification by faith.

On the other hand, the entire trend of his writings indicates a continual insistence upon it. Some idea of this will be seen as we compare dates and utterances in his writings.

In 1762, in his letter to Bell and Owen, he wrote:

"You have over and over denied instantaneous sanctification to me, but I have known it and taught it (and so has my brother, as our writings show) above these twenty years."

In 1733 Wesley preached his famous sermon on "Circumcision of Heart" before the University at Oxford. In his last revision of his Plain Account of Christian Perfection, in 1777, he mentions this sermon as follows:

"This sermon was composed first of all my writings which have been published. This was the view I had then, which even then I scrupled not to term Perfection. This is the view I have of it now without any addition or diminution."

In 1737 he wrote his first tract on holiness. In 1777 he said concerning it:

"Is it not easy to see that this is the very same doctrine which I believe and teach at this day, not adding one point either to that inward or outward holiness which I maintained eight and thirty years ago? And it is the same which by the grace of God I have continued to teach from that time till now."

In 1741, he preached his sermon on Christian Perfection and published a book of hymns with preface. In his last revision of A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, 1777, he says:

"There is nothing which we have since advanced upon the subject either in verse or prose, which is not either directly or indirectly contained in this preface; so that whether our present doctrine be right or wrong, it is however the same which we taught from the beginning."

In 1778, when seventy-five years of age, Wesley wrote:

"I know not that I can write a better [sermon) on the circumcision of heart than I did five and forty years ago. Forty years ago I knew and preached every Christian doctrine which I peach now." Journal, September, 1778.

In 1785, when eighty-two years of age, he wrote:

"It will be well as soon as any of them find peace with God to exhort them to go on to perfection. The more you press all believers to aspire after Full Salvation as attainable now by simple faith, the more the work of God will prosper."

In 1790, one year before his death, he declared:

"This doctrine is the grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called Methodists, and for the sake of propagating this chiefly He appears to have raised us up.'

In 1791, three months before his death, these were his words:

"A man that is not a thorough friend of Christian Perfection can easily puzzle others and thereby weaken, if not destroy any select society."

"Wherever you have an opportunity of speaking to believers, urge them to go on to perfection."

In 1791, four days before he left for heaven, he declared:

"We may be justified by faith, and then go on to Full Salvation."

Thus we see that, while his thought developed and his capacity increased, while through the years there were necessary adjustments in details in his thinking concerning this great theme, Wesley never ceased to teach and to preach the experience of entire sanctification as an instantaneous second work of grace.

III. Concerning the Charge That Wesley Himself Never Professed the Enjoyment of This Blessing

That, in the minds of all fair-minded people, will be considered the most arrogant argument of all. Again only one of the same two reasons can be suggested for it, namely, either ignorance of the real facts or deliberate misrepresentation concerning them.

To this charge against Wesley those familiar with his life and writings have a twofold reply:

A. The first answer is inferential.

Such an inference is surely not unreasonable. Through a ministry covering half a century he had, as we have already seen, made this doctrine his leading theme. He had taught its possibility. He had exhorted others to seek it, and had rejoiced to record the testimonies of those who had professed to receive it. He had preached sermons on this theme, written books about it, composed hymns embodying its truth, and had strongly insisted that his ministers should preach it.

Who could have any respect for or confidence in such a man as a spiritual leader if, after all this, he did not know the experience for himself? If Wesley was the man which the world thinks he was, there can be no doubt about his enjoyment of the experience of entire sanctification.

B. The further answer is his own personal declaration.

The story of his protracted search for a real experience is known to all, and much in Methodist hymnology is expressive of the soul craving which he knew. With John and Charles Wesley, however, craving after the experience was not the end. His letter to Bell and Owen already quoted, written October 29, 1762, will again serve us here:

"I dislike the saying, this was not known or taught among us until two or three years ago. I grant you did not know it You have over and over denied instantaneous sanctification to me; but I have known it.... (and so has my brother, as our writings show) above these twenty years." -Journal.

In 1771 he wrote:

"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 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. I have continued to declare this for about thirty years, and God has continued to confirm the word by His grace."

As to the exact time and place of Wesley's second blessing experience there has been much interesting discussion. Going back "these twenty years" from the letter dated 1762 written to Bell and Owen, "these twenty years" being evidently a round figure rather than an exact number, the nearest location of recorded incidents seems to be the experience at Snowfield, December 24, 25, 1744. Here is his Journal record concerning it.

"In the evening, while I was reading prayers at Snowfield, 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 never knew before (I mean not as at this time) what it was to be still before God.

"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 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."

After this outstanding experience, he lived many days, bearing a clear, ringing testimony before a critical church and a sinning world that, in the atonement of a crucified and risen Redeemer, God had provided deliverance for every believing soul from the last remains of sin.