PRACTICAL DIVINITY - JOHN WESLEY'S DOCTRINAL AGENDA FOR METHODISM

Frank Baker

In some circles, even theological circles, there has long been skepticism as to whether John Wesley's name should be included among the theologians: an evangelist, yes; a church founder and leader, yes; but surely not a theological thinker! More than twenty years ago Albert Outler had to stretch his persuasive eloquence to the limits to convince the Editorial Board of A Library of Protestant Thought that Wesley merited a volume devoted to his theological writings - whereupon Outler's John Wesley became the best-seller in that series. Moreover, Outler's description of his writings as "folk theology" 1 became a commonplace in Methodist scholarship, more familiar, indeed, than Wesley's own definition of his major publications, which we use in our title - practical divinity.

John Wesley's largest work was in no fewer than fifty volumes, entitled: A Christian Library: consisting of Extracts from and Abridgements of the Choicest Pieces of Practical Divinity (1749-55). Although the closing term was important to Wesley, and chosen very deliberately, it is no longer widely used, though Tom Langford again chose it - again deliberately - for his own anthology: Practical Divinity: Theology in the Wesleyan Tradition. Yes, "divinity" was indeed a valid synonym for "theology," and the earliest English use of both words six hundred years ago implied alike the academic study of the nature and attributes of God, and of His relations with man and the universe. Wesley himself does not seem to have used the term theology at all, but referred instead to the various types of divinity, such as "positive divinity" and "comparative divinity," 2 somewhat scathingly to "mystic divinity," 3 and affectionately to "plain old Bible divinity." 4 Wesley would also quote an unknown early Father of the Church: "God made practical divinity necessary, the devil controversial." 5

Controversial divinity is self-explanatory. Wesley believed himself to have been dragged into this willy-nilly by the devil. But what exactly was his preferred practical divinity? He had approached middle age and had become the founder of a new religious community before he fully realized that this was the true goal of his creative thinking. During this process he had been involved to varying degrees in other types of theology. Parsonage parents passed on to him dogmatic theology, the authoritative formulation by the Church Fathers of traditional teaching about God. Strongly allied to this was biblical theology, and the Authorized Version of the Bible formed the primer by which he learned to read and write at his mother's knees. She instilled into him a strong emphasis upon its authority, as containing "all things necessary to salvation." His more formal education away from home at the London Charterhouse and Oxford University

speedily reinforced this with the touchstone of reason, dialectical theology, the logical working over of the arguments of others. In this he delighted, and showed great skill.

In preparing for Holy Orders, first as a necessary step towards academic promotion, but later as a genuine religious vocation, John Wesley became much more devout and spiritually minded. He was ordained deacon on September 19, 1725, was elected a fellow of Lincoln College the following March, and in February 1727 became a Master of Arts. He served as lecturer in Greek and in logic, and from 1730 as lecturer in philosophy. 6 Academically he had certainly arrived. Both in theology and in Christian experience, however, he knew that he was still lacking. He had become furiously engaged in the pursuit of outward holiness as a human venture, especially after his ordination as priest in 1728, but still knew little of its inward power.

On March 12,1726, his new spiritual commitment prompted him to begin experimenting with what became a lifelong dedication to early rising. His correspondence with his mother shows that he was reading very widely, but apparently still flirting with purely intellectual pursuits, including speculative theology. She had discussed predestination with him on Aug. 18, 1725, and on Nov. 10 "the nature, properties, and expressions of zeal"; on April 22, 1727, she applauded his drawing up of a scheme of studies, but on May 14 that year she felt it necessary to warn him against taking philosophical essays into the pulpit: "However curious you may be in searching into the natures or distinguishing the properties of the passions or virtues, for your own private satisfaction, be very cautious of giving definitions in public assemblies, for it does not answer the true end of preaching, which is to mend men's lives, not to fill their heads with unprofitable speculations." 7

Perhaps she was partially misjudging him here, though the advice itself was eminently sound. There were varying facets to his pastoral commitment, one of which was his concern, even passion to understand and serve the complete personality, body, mind, and soul, of those who came under his oversight. This formed an important element in the development of his theology. The study of anatomy and medicine had been a hobby throughout his Oxford years, and when he prepared to go as a missionary to Georgia he studied them in earnest, believing that he "might be of some service to those who had no regular physician among them." 8 During that same Oxford period he had dabbled also in what we would call psychology - though that term did not come into general use until long after his death. From the time of his ordination this was transformed from a purely intellectual to a pastoral study, and he took very seriously "the cure of souls." From every personal experience, from every pastoral interview, he sought to learn something more about human nature and the ways of God with man. Although Wesley never developed a handbook of spiritual first aid to match his Primitive Physick, his religious insights are scattered profusely throughout his hundreds of publications and thousands of personal letters. He never became a systematic theologian in the widest sense of that term, but he did become a specialist in the doctrines of sin and salvation, and these were certainly important elements in what he called practical divinity.

Theology is always colored by human experience, and usually derived from meditation and close thought upon it. Wesley's particular brand of theology was avowedly and inextricably interwoven with human experience. Practical divinity was that branch of theology which dealt especially with the Creator's interactions with the creatures made in His image.

Wesley's pastoral activities in Epworth and Wroot (1727-29), Oxford (1729-35), and Georgia (1735-37) brought a few new ideas, such as that of prevenient grace, but many new experiences, of which the most influential was his introduction to the Moravians. Their spiritual witness was far more crucial to his theology as well as to his religious experience than was their ecclesiastical history. At last he began to wonder whether orthodox belief and an array of ancient practices was really going to get him anywhere with God - actual experience demonstrated that the Moravians had something which he lacked, something that he longed for. Clearly the secret of true Christianity was not faith in credal statements nor arduous religious exercises, but faith in a saving Christ.

A few months later his spiritual fumblings in Georgia culminated in a personal experience of a living Savior, when in all humility he confessed that for over ten years he had been engaged in a "struggle between nature and grace," and that he was "still 'under the law,' not 'under grace.' " Eventually, on May 24,1738, he rejoiced: "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." 9 From late childhood to a middle-aged Anglican ministry he had faithfully trodden the way of holiness, defined as obedience to God's will in a context of orthodox belief and conventional piety. Now the burden of his thought and preaching became faith. There were few changes in his devotional practices, but a remarkable change in theological emphases. The attempt to understand the hazards and the way-stations traversed by a pilgrim along the path of salvation, from his loyal obedience to God's law to his humble acceptance of God's grace in the gift of His Son as Savior - this we might term pastoral theology or soteriology; this was, in fact, the essence of what Wesley called practical divinity.

From 1738 onwards Wesley was constantly expounding different aspects of the life of faith. His first University Sermon after his return from Georgia was preached on June 11, 1738, less than three weeks after his epochal experience in Aldersgate Street. He utilized the occasion for a controversial manifesto of his new evangelical preaching. In Salvation by Faith - which was speedily published, and went through at least thirty-five editions during his lifetime - he explained that faith was "not barely a speculative, rational thing, a cold, lifeless assent, a train of ideas in the head; but also a disposition of the heart, . . . a recumbency upon [Christ] as our atonement and our life, as given for us, and living in us; . . . as our 'wisdom, righteous ness, sanctification, and redemption,' or, in one word, our salvation." 10 He even claimed that through this faith they could be saved "from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of it.'' 11 In addition he claimed that salvation was "necessarily productive of all good works and all holiness." 12 In his Journal and elsewhere he constantly attempted to forestall the criticism "You preach faith without good works,"13 by claiming that the two were inseparable, "faith, holiness, and good works [being] the root, the tree, and the fruit, which God had joined and man ought not to put asunder." 14

He still continued a loyal member and minister of the Church of England, of course. This loyalty was greatly reinforced when he began to inquire carefully "what the doctrine of the Church of England is concerning the much controverted point of justification by faith." 15 He speedily discovered it, set forth in the Edwardian Homilies of 1547, especially the first five, almost certainly written by Cranmer. These Wesley edited for publication only a few weeks after his sermon on salvation, as The Doctrine of Salvation, Faith, and Good Works, extracted from the Homilies of the Church of England.

The more careful study of the doctrinal formularies of the Church of England, drawn from the ancient Creeds and enshrined in the Homilies, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, contributed much to his new theological orientation, including his favorite definition of faith: "The right and true Christian faith is not only to believe that Holy Scripture and the articles of our faith are true, but also to have . . . a sure trust and confidence in God, that by the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favor of God.'' 16

"A sure trust and confidence." That is what for years he had been seeking. And that was probably the major element in his experience on May 24, 1738: "An assurance was given me...." The Moravians in Georgia had taught him to expect this. Peter Böhler convinced him that this inner certainty was indeed scriptural, that it was still possible, and that it could occur in an instant. He could only pray, "Lord, help thou my unbelief!'' 17 When that prayer was answered, he knew that he would face many critics. These included the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London, who maintained that for anyone to claim that he knew that he was saved was spiritual pride and rank enthusiasm. Wesley defended himself in various works, and analyzed "The Witness of the Spirit" - his other principal title for Christian Assurance - in two discourses on Romans 8:16, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.'' 18

Here was a new landmark along the way of salvation. And probably it was the infusing of new assurance into his proclamation of "this new doctrine, 'Salvation by Faith,' " which brought new success to Wesley's ministry. In The Principles of A Methodist Farther Explain 'd (1746), he analyzed the response to his preaching during different periods: 1725-29, "no fruit"; 1729-34, "laying a deeper foundation of repentance, I saw a little fruit"; 1734-38, "more fruit." He continued: "From 1738 to this time, speaking continually of Jesus Christ, laying him only for the foundation of the whole building, making him all in all, the first and the last; preaching wholly on this plan, 'The kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel,' the 'Word of God run' as fire among the stubble; it 'was glorified' more and more; multitudes crying out, 'What must we do to be saved?' and afterwards witnessing, 'By grace we are saved through faith.' "19

These multitudes, of course, needed a more searching and disciplined pastoral care than most of the parochial clergy were prepared to offer. Thus were born the Methodist societies, for Wesley was never content to gather converts without training them. And then, in default of sufficient sympathetic clergy, he felt compelled of God to train laymen also to assist in his arduous pastoral responsibilities. The Methodist organization rapidly became national, and in 1744 Wesley invited his chief helpers, clergy and laity, to join him in a conference which might discuss and agree upon a plan of operation - what they should teach, and how they should organize their societies. He prepared for this gathering very carefully, sending out invitations, and drawing up his agenda for Methodism.

The doctrinal agenda is brief, but both illuminating and challenging:

"1. Are we justified by faith alone? The only condition?

"2. What is implied in being justified?

"3. What is justifying faith? Assurance? Or - ?

"4. What must go before? Repentance? Works meet for repentance?

"5. What must follow? Peace, joy, love, power? In what degree?

"6. Is faith, seeing God? A divine elenchus [proof, conviction]?

"7. Does anyone believe who has not the witness in himself? Or any

longer than he sees, loves, obeys God?

"Must a man come into darkness or the wilderness after he is justified?

"win he, unless by unfaithfulness?

"Need a believer ever doubt or fear?

"How is faith 'made perfect' by works?

"Do we think or speak high[ly] enough of justification?

"Are works necessary to the continuance of faith? . . .

"Is the 'first love' the most perfect?

"Is every believer a scriptur[al] 'new creature'?

"What is sanctification?

"Is not every believer 'born of God'?

"Can a believer fall totally and finally? How?

"Is inbred sin taken away in this life?

"How can we know one that is thus saved?

"Is the second Preface true?" [about which we shall say more later]20

This, then, was the doctrinal agenda of Methodism, the study of sin, repentance, faith, works, assurance, sanctification, and their links with Christian living. This was practical divinity.

In 1746 John Wesley began an avowed effort to publish a series of discourses incorporating his main theological emphases, a mixed collection of preached sermons and brief treatises, all comprised under the heading Sermons on Several Occasions. Originally he thought that he could do this in three volumes, but they stretched to four, published in 1746, 1748, 1750, and 1760. These contained the "standard sermons" referred to in the deeds of his "preaching-houses," as exemplifying "what those doctrines are which I embrace and teach as the essentials of true religion." 21 He set this out in more detail thus: "I have . . . set down in the following sermons what I find in the Bible concerning the way to heaven.... I have endeavored to describe the true, the scriptural, experimental religion, so as to omit nothing which is a real part thereof, and to add nothing thereto which is not." 22 Salvation by Faith was No. 1, The Witness of the Spirit Nos. 10-11, Christian Perfection No. 40. The headings of other typical sermons show the essence of this major publication on practical divinity: "Scriptural Christianity," "The Firstfruits of the Spirit," "On Sin in Believers," "The Means of Grace," "The Marks of the New Birth," "The Lord our Righteousness," "The Law established through Faith," "A Caution against Bigotry," "Catholic Spirit," and a series of thirteen discourses upon the Sermon on the Mount.

Thus in his spiritual maturity the driving force behind Wesley's approach to theology was assuredly not that of academic excitement and stimulus in the acquisition or sorting out of new knowledge about the fundamental human urge towards religion, nor the prestige that this might generate. It was rather the deep concern for spiritual values, for understanding God's purposes for His creatures, with His gift of free will to enable the growth of personality, accompanied of necessity by the danger that such a creature might seek his own will rather than that of his Creator-the selfishness which is sin. He sought to understand also the intricacies of the manner in which God had laid out a pathway to salvation, both from the penalties exacted by sin and from its power over human beings. He came to see that all this began with God, with His unmerited love for His creatures, His grace, beginning with the prevenient grace for human beings in general, and culminating in sanctifying grace available to those who had responded to God's love by their own absolute love for Him. In the utter self-forgetting of holiness lay true human peace and happiness, as Wesley constantly reminded himself and others in the words of Augustine: "Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee." 23

From 1738 onwards it had also become clear to Wesley that God's initiative was needed from the beginning to the end of a Christian's experience, and that this experience should continually be enriched, in spite of occasions of spiritual loss - that there should be not one religious peak, but many, with almost inevitable plateau and perhaps valleys, but a general upward gradient. He had also become increasingly certain that the goal of Christian perfection was possible in this life rather than at the moment of death. This certainty was developed more strongly under the influence of bitter criticism, fuller pastoral research, and deeper theological study. The prefaces of all three volumes of Hymns and Sacred Poems published by John and his brother Charles, in 1739,1740, and 1742, dealt in varying ways with this conviction. The first emphasized the difference between holiness as the fruit of faith and the mystic pursuit of the hermit: " 'Holy solitaries' is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness. 'Faith working by love' is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection." 24

The second preface (1740) was a majestic scriptural description of what was implied by Christian perfection, which he later described as "the strongest account" that he and his brother ever wrote, though he felt that in some details it needed toning down, as perhaps in section 7: 'So that God is to them all in all, and they are as nothing in his sight. They are freed from self-will; as desiring nothing, no, not for one moment, . . . but the holy and perfect will of God.... They are freed from evil thoughts, so that they cannot enter into them.... They are freed from wanderings in prayer.... They are freed from all darkness, having no fear, no doubt, either as to their state in general, or as to any particular action.... At all times their soul is even and calm." 25 It was this kind of declaration which he urged his colleagues to discuss at the opening Conference in 1744.

The preface to the 1742 volume began with a cautionary apologia: "We willingly allow, and continually declare, there is no such perfection, in this life, as implies either a dispensation from doing good and attending all the ordinances of God; or a freedom from ignorance, mistake, temptation, and a thousand infirmities necessarily connected with flesh and blood." Nevertheless he closed by claiming that the scriptural "perfect man" could indeed do the will of God "on earth, as it is done in heaven." 26 With all its modifications through the years, in 1789 he maintained: "This doctrine is the Grand Depositum which God has lodged with the People called Methodists, and for the sake of propagating this chiefly he appeared to have raised us Up. 27

Undoubtedly John Wesley's mature theology as a whole was an interweaving of countless disparate elements. He may have been a man of one Book, but into his practical divinity were woven a hundred strands from a thousand books of all preceding centuries and many nations and denominations. He drew heavily on the Fathers of the faith, on the mystics of the Roman Church, on the Reformers, on the Puritans, on the Anglican theologians of the previous century - on any writers' works in whom he could find congenial or challenging thought. He never claimed for himself an experience of Christian perfection, but his was indeed a life lived on the upward gradient, heaven begun on earth, practicing the presence of God, summarized in love from and to God, to and from man, knowing, following, and joyfully embracing the will of God. His detailed theological research was devoted to this field. He was not interested in the metaphysics of the Royal Society, seeking to discover how many angels might stand on the point of a needle, but on learning the secret of the cures wrought by the Great Physician. He sought to understand the fundamental problems of the human condition, and the finer points of Christian living - the care of souls - armed with all the theological sophistication of a specialist in the ways of God with men, and man's way to God - practical divinity.

He was content not to understand the mysteries of speculative theology, for instance, how the death of God's Son worked the miracle of a new spiritual life for mankind; he simply accepted the fact, and urged others to do the same. It is instructive to follow his search for a satisfactory theory of the Atonement. On Dec. 31, 1764, he confessed: "I do not yet find anything on the Atonement fit for a deist." 28 On Feb. 7, 1778, he wrote: "Nothing in the Christian system is of greater consequence than the doctrine of Atonement. It is properly the distinguishing point between Deism and Christianity.... But it is true I can no more comprehend it than [Lord Huntingdon, a free-thinker].... Our reason is here quickly bewildered.... But the question is (the only question with me; I regard nothing else), What saith the Scripture? It says, 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself'; it says, 'We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the atonement for our sins.'" 29 He remained completely without rancor for others who held different views upon such mysteries, however: "As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think." 30

Both in his approach to the Bible and to the formularies of the Church he held some reservations. Anything implying a lack of love in God he abhorred and could not accept. He had learned to interpret the Bible by the canon of "the analogy of faith" - his translation of Rom. 12:16 - namely the general message of Scripture: "according to that grand scheme of doctrine which is delivered therein, touching original sin, justification by faith, and present inward salvation." 31 Clearly he believed that "God's design in raising up the preachers called Methodists," "to spread scriptural holiness over the land," was thus a fulfillment of the central purpose of the Bible. 32 He applied this same canon also (negatively) to any cruelties in the Old Testament which seemed to be contrary to God's revealed purposes. Similarly to him a God of love must offer the opportunity for universal salvation. It can hardly be doubted that his own concern for human suffering colored his picture of God, and thus led to his occasional rejection of teachings in the Bible and in the Church formularies which he believed were less than inspired.

At his early Conferences, beginning in 1744, he had defined, and discussed with his preachers, the doctrinal foundations of their preaching, and expressly challenged eight of the Thirty-nine Articles, "Of the three Creeds," "Of works before justification," "Of Christ alone without sin," "Of sin after baptism," "Of predestination and election," "Of the authority of General Councils," "Of ministering in the congregation," and "Of baptism." 33 In 1755 he had publicly rejected "the damnatory clauses" of the Athanasian Creed, the passages in the Ordinal which implied an essential difference between bishops and presbyters, and their supposed power actually to remit sins. 34

In 1784 he prepared The Sunday Service of the Methodists, and felt no qualms in announcing in the preface that he had omitted "many Psalms . . ..as being highly improper for the mouths of a Christian congregation." From this volume he omitted also the eight Articles challenged in 1744, except that on baptism, which was abridged, and Article 16, whose title was changed from "Of sin after baptism" to "Of sin after justification." In 1784 he also went on to omit a further nine. 35 The pruned and revised Articles which Wesley bequeathed to American Methodism tell us a number of things about his theology as a whole. He omitted nothing from the Apostles Creed except Christ's conjectural descent into Hell (Art.3), a point which still distinguishes Methodist usage from that of other Churches. He omitted also beliefs or practices peculiar to the Roman Catholic Church, and even to the Church of England, such as the reference to the Homilies. His revisions to the Articles seemed to imply "a doctrinally liberal iconoclast [with] a somewhat low view of church, ministry, and sacraments." 36

Far more important is it, however, to consider, not these negative aspects of Wesley's theology, but those special emphases on the lifelong way of salvation, practical divinity, Wesley's vision of the beating heart of religion. This is the true essence of his teaching, which he repeated time and time again, in similar words - and even occasionally repeating the same words. I close with some extracts from The Principles of a Methodist Farther Explain'd (1746), in which the first part is new, the remainder repeated with variations from An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion:

"I have again and again . . . declared what our constant doctrines are, whereby we are 'distinguished' - only from heathens, or nominal Christians, not from any that worship God in spirit and in truth. Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three, that of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third is religion itself....

"Religion we conceive to be no other than love: the love of God and of all mankind; the loving God with all our heart and soul and strength, as having first loved us, as the fountain of all the good we have received, and of all we ever hope to enjoy; and the loving every soul which God hath made, every man on earth, as our own soul.

"This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of men. Wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness, going hand in hand. There is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long-suffering, the whole image of God, and at the same time a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable, full of glory....

"This religion we long to see established in the world, a religion of love, and joy, and peace; having its seat in the heart, in the inmost soul, but ever showing itself by its fruits, continually springing forth, not only in all innocence - for love worketh no ill to his neighbor - but likewise in every kind of beneficence, spreading virtue and happiness all round it." 37

Notes

1P.vii.

2Sermon 92, "On Zeal," II.5.

3Journal Apr. 10, 1747.

4Letters, June 18, 1757.

5Journal, Nov. 19, 1751; Letters, July 31, 1773.

6Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, 14:154.

7Letters, 25:217.

8A Plain Account of the People called Methodists, 1749, XII.2.

9Journal, May 24, 1738, sects. 10, 14.

10Sermons, ed A. C. Outler, Vol. I, pp. 120-21.

11Ibid., p. 123.

12Ibid., p. 125.

l3Journal, Nov. 1, 1739.

14Ibid., Aug. 30, 1739.

15Ibid., Nov. 12, 1738.

16Homilies, On Salvation, Pt. 3.

17Journal, Apr. 22-23, 1738.

18Sermons, 1:267-98.

19The Principles of a Methodist Farther Explain 'd (174ff), VI .4, 6. Cf. "A Short History of the People Called Methodists" (1781), sects. 8, 11.

20Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, 13:201-02.

2lPreface, sect. 1.

22Ibid., sect. 6.

23Confessions, I.1; cf Journal, July 12, 1739, etc.

24Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), Pref. 5.

25HSP (1740), Pref. 1-11, pp. iii-xi of orig.; cf. A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1766), sect. 13.

26HSP (1742), Pref. 1, 5.

27Letter to R. C. Brackenbury, Sept. 15, 1789 - not 1790, as in Telford's Wesley's Letters (the original is in the Methodist Archives at Manchester).

28Letter to his brother Charles (Telford, IV.281).

29Letter to Miss Bishop (Telford, VI.297-98).

30The Character of a Methodist (1742), sect. 1.

31Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755) on Rom.12:16. His mother had used this phrase in a letter to him on Aug. 18, 1725.

32"Large" Minutes (1763), p. 2.

33Frank Baker, John Wesley and the Church of England (1970), pp. 108, 366.

34Ibid., p. 331.

35Nos. 3, 18, 20, 26, 29, 33, 35, 36, and 37.

36Baker, op.cit., pp. 107-08, 249-51.

37Principles (1746), VI.4, 6, quoting Earnest Appeal, sects. 2-4.

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