EXPERIMENTAL METHOD IN THE PRACTICAL THEOLOGY OF JOHN WESLEY

by
DONALD A. D. THOMSON

INTRODUCTION

Some contemporary Wesley scholars suggest that the emerging paradigm of practical theology offers a helpful way of describing the unique theological contribution of Wesley. If this be so, then the experimental character of his writings best describes the methodology he employed in reflecting upon, formulating, and implementing his theology.

Wesley inherited a rich tradition of theology and theological method from seventeenth-century Anglicans. From them he received a concern to apply his theology practically to the immediate needs of the Church and to apply his theology theoretically and analogously to the experimental philosophy prevalent at the turn of the eighteenth century. Wesley stated this dual concern in the preface to his "Sermons on Several Occasions." He intended to present "plain truth to plain people" in description of "the true, the scriptural, experimental religion"2

Scholars recognize that Wesley intended to be a Biblical theologian. But few scholars have investigated what Wesley meant by "experimental religion." In this phrase we discover a clue to Wesley's theological method-a method which Wesley applied theoretically to his theology and practically to his life and ministry.

In this paper we will elucidate what Wesley meant by experimental religion. We will begin by tracing the term's dual roots in the practical divinity of seventeenth-century Anglican theology and in the experimental philosophy of the British empirical tradition. From Anglican theology Wesley inherited the concern to apply theology to practical needs as well as to salvation and holy living. From the British empirical tradition he inherited the concern to apply theology to the theoretical aspects of our knowledge of true religion-knowledge that comes from our empirical experiences of the world as well as from our religious experiences of God. Wesley combined in this theological method an approach to religion which he believed would "unite the pair so long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety"3-piety which did not represent an end in itself but which served as a means to loving God and to loving one's neighbor-with a holistic understanding of what that means.

BACKGROUND OF THEOLOGICAL METHOD IN WESLEY

A. Anglican Theological Method

By Wesley's day, questions of religious authority and theological method had been prominent topics of debate for over a century. Internally and with each other Roman Catholicism, Protestantism in its various manifestations, Anglicanism and the many Nonconformist offshoots vying for recognition in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England all debated the issues. The Anglican heritage in which Wesley had been raised and educated provided an especially fruitful yet controversial history of debate. With a special debt to Richard Hooker, Anglicans sought to incorporate reason into a balanced understanding of theological method, one which would give due respect to scripture and tradition as authorities in reflection upon and formulation of theology.

Summarizing the long Anglican debate over the question of religious authority, Francis Paget reminds us of the distinctive approach taken by Anglicans in addressing the immediate needs of the Church of England: ". . . on equal loyalty to the unconflicting rights of reason, of Scripture, and of tradition rest the distinctive strength and hope of the English Church."4 The appeal to this threefold source of religious authority varied in popularity and intensity throughout the seventeenth century, but for the most part Anglicanism recognized the need to respect all three in theological endeavors. This recognition resulted in a generally consistent approach to theological method. In fact Henry McAdoo concludes that the overall consistency of the Anglican approach to theological method represents the distinctiveness of its theology.

If the distinctiveness of Anglicanism lies not in a theology but in a theological method, the distinctiveness of the method lies in the conjunction of these elements in one theological instrument. The impression of basic unity in writers of the seventeenth century is accounted for by concurrence in the use of this common theological method. Party theology in the later sense did not exist until the latter part of the century but there were differing emphases in theology. These were minimized. by means of a shared method, so that, on occasion, Hammond will take a characteristically Latitudinarian line while Stillingileet will make use of ideas usually associated with the Laudian point of view. 5

During the seventeenth century, Anglicans viewed the inclusion of reason in theological method as a boon to Christianity. Biblical authority remained central to their theology, but a new sense of freedom emerged in their understanding of doctrinal beliefs, as for example, Hooker had found in the formulation of ecclesiastical polity. To cite another example, reason had the freedom to renew the study of natural theology in a way which Protestantism had discouraged.

But Anglicans did not want to slip back into a revised form of Roman Catholicism. They prided themselves in presenting a theological alternative or via media which, as McAdoo comments, "was not in its essence compromise or an intellectual expedient but a quality of thinking, an approach in which elements usually regarded as mutually exclusive were seen to be in fact complementary These things were held in a living tension, not in order to walk the tight-rope of compromise, but because they were seen to be mutually illuminating and to fertilize each other."6

In this tension were held not only the primacy of scriptural authority and the necessary role of reason in theological method but also the ongoing need to retain a historical, traditional understanding of Christian beliefs. References to Christian antiquity were not to be arbitrarily evoked to stifle a reasonable understanding of Scripture, but rather to identify central motifs of Scripture and thus affirm the catholicity of those beliefs. Consensual creedal formulations from the early church were to be understood, valued, and followed as closely as reasonably possible. Non-essentials in Christian beliefs-both ancient and contemporary-were also to be identified and tolerated, but not required for orthodoxy. Nevertheless, one needed to consider antiquity with the same seriousness with which one considered new knowledge derived from the burgeoning scientific studies of nature and corollary philosophies of experimentation.

If reason was free to supplement studies of scripture and tradition, it also was free to incorporate new knowledge which might confirm and illuminate Christian beliefs from intellectual disciplines other than theology. Certainly a sense of tension existed between reason and the other sources of religious authority, namely, Scripture and tradition. But, as McAdoo describes it as a healthy, living tension which neither accepted authoritarianism nor uncontrolled liberty, he says:

An over-all characteristic of Anglican theological method is then this polarity or quality of living tension, which goes far towards explaining how the element of reason did not for the most part become over-weighted during the seventeenth century since it never existed in a vacuum, theologically speaking, but operated in conjunction with other elements such as the appeal to Scripture and antiquity.7

Despite inevitable differences in theological emphases, Anglicans generally assumed this distinctive approach to theology up through the time of Wesley. Wesley himself assumed this approach and did not question its reliability or relevance in responding to his immediate pastoral and theological needs. Although he felt free to draw eclectically from any theological tradition which proved expedient in a particular situation, he generally turned to his Anglican heritage, readily accepting the parameters of theological method prevalent within it.

However, Wesley did not inherit an untroubled tradition. The triad of Scripture, reason, and tradition was volatile. During the latter part of the seventeenth century and the early part of the eighteenth century, reason progressively gained ascendancy over scripture and tradition in certain theological pockets of Anglicanism. As the threefold cord of scripture, reason and tradition began to fray in these areas so did the balance of Anglican theological method. The emphases placed upon the authority of reason were varied in its ascendancy: Cambridge Platonists uplifted an intuitive knowledge which supplanted all others, Latitudinarians uplifted the freedom of human reason over traditional religious authorities, and eventually deism sought only to affirm a rational religion devoid of the supernatural. These theological groups were not dominant in the Church of England, but they definitely had an effect. As William Cannon says, "the point is that rationalism had penetrated the ranks of orthodoxy; Christianity was viewed as nothing more than a correct set of opinions, a group of propositions which offer themselves to man's reason for acceptance or rejection"8 Maxin Piette further observes that from this religious crisis a moral crisis arose due to the reduction of Christianity to a formalistic affirmation of orthodox doctrine.9

In the midst of the theological and moral crises of early eighteenth century England, Wesley sought to revive a vital understanding of Christian faith, particularly within the Church of England. He had experienced a spiritual revival in his own personal life, so he endeavored to provide the same opportunity for revival to others. Piette observes that Wesley had been profoundly affected by a kind of personal experimentation in the areas of spiritual growth and self-discipline. Perhaps the insights which resulted from his experience would be of benefit to others. Piette says, "Since practical experience and experimentation had been triumphant in the field of natural science, Wesley was led to transport it to the religious domain-to the field of the supernatural life."10 Piette primarily conceives of Wesley's use of practical experience and experimentation in the area of personal spirituality. But Wesley's use of practical experience and experimentation may also be applied to his working knowledge of theological method.

Wesley had been influenced by the development of experimental philosophy, though not directly in terms of articulating a new approach to theological method. On the contrary Wesley understood his task in the more practical terms of evangelism, church renewal, and ministering to the needs of the poor and dispossessed. He did not personally see the need to work with syllogistic theological propositions or systematic theologies. Anglicanism already provided an established way of approaching speculative and practical theological issues which positively appreciated theological system but limited its role, and Wesley simply worked within the flow of that thought. He did not perceive himself as formulating anything distinctively new and certainly nothing innovative in the history of orthodox Christian thinking. Yet working within the parameters of theological method which he inherited from Anglicanism, Wesley not only assumed but in important ways surpassed his own heritage.

B. Experience in Anglican Theological Method

We will come to understand Wesley's contribution and method best by introducing here the element of experience as a source of religious authority. We do this not because it played an explicit role in Anglican theological method, but because it came later to play a profound methodological role in the thought of Wesley. To understand this we must examine its seventeenth-century status at some length.

Without formally stating the importance of experience in reflecting upon and formulating Christian belief, the presence of religious or religiously related experience was tacitly assumed in much that was written by Anglican theologians during the seventeenth century. Hooker, without explicitly intend mg to make it a part of his theological method, considered experience alongside the study of scripture and nature in his discussion of ecclesiastical polity. For example:

What success God may give unto any such kind of conference or disputation, we cannot tell. But of this we are right sure, that nature, scripture, and experience it self, have all taught the world to seek for the ending of contentions by submitting it self unto some judicial and definitive sentence, whereunto neither part that contendeth may under any pretence or color refuse to stand.11

The appeal to experience was not contended by subsequent Anglican theologians for they too assumed that experience should confirm and elaborate Christian truths established by the generally accepted standards of scripture, reason and tradition. In the historical development of theological method in the Christian church, reason represented the formal newcomer to Anglican theological method. But informally experience played an important supportive role in theology.

In the century preceding Wesley, one does not find in formal Anglican theology frequent references to experience even in a theologically supportive role. But appeals to experience do seem frequent and significant in the practical divinity of devotional and sermonic literature. Jeremy Taylor, for example, described how his personal pastoral experience aided him in formulating The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651). Taylor claimed that he "drew the rules and advices [of holy dying] from the fountains of Scripture, and the purest channels of the primitive Church, and was helped by some experience in the cure of souls:"12 Moreover he measured the success of his labors "not by popular noises or the sentences of curious persons, but by the advantage which good people may receive."13

Taylor's appeal to experience should not be minimized because of the pastoral nature of these writings. Much of seventeenth-century Anglican theology specifically attended to questions of morality and practical divinity. Apparently Anglicans such as Taylor saw no conflict in including experience as a source of theology alongside "the fountains of Scripture, and the purest channels of the primitive Church." The quotation from Taylor also reveals how experience may serve as a confirmation of theology in that Taylor measured the success of his labors "by the advantage which good people may receive.

The abundant sermonic literature from the seventeenth century reveals the pervasive concern for both founding and confirming Christian beliefs in the crucible of day-to-day experience.14 The great number of preached and published sermons almost of necessity had to resonate with Christians' real life experiences of salvation and of moral living. Wesley later followed this noteworthy Anglican tradition of using practical divinity, e.g. sermons or homilies, for theological instruction by using his own sermons as one of the primary sources of Christian instruction for the Methodist movement.

The emergence of experimental philosophy at the end of the seventeenth century produced an interest in sense data, but not necessarily in the kind of experience which is of a more personal and distinctively religious nature. John Locke had undertaken an inwardly oriented analysis of human understanding in addition to the outwardly oriented analysis of nature supplied by the physical sciences. But most Anglicans who embraced reason as a source of religious authority, including Locke, became distrustful of individual religious experience. "Enthusiasm" was a charge often directed against those perceived as having a private inspiration or of exhibiting extravagance m religious devotion, and Locke dedicated an entire chapter in definition of enthusiasm-a definition which became normative for eighteenth century usage.15 Parenthetically, we note at this point that Wesley was often accused of being an enthusiast, but he vigorously rejected that label He based his defense primarily on his concern for presenting Christian beliefs in a way that is consonant with reason as well as with scripture and the best of Christian antiquity.16

Peter Browne represents the early Anglican critics of Locke. He criticized Locke for his tendency towards deism.17 But while criticizing Locke's philosophy, Browne recognized that Locke was a great genius and he endeavored to extend Locke's ideas theologically so that they would include a more complete understanding of the nature and extent of experience, including religious experience. In The Procedure, Extent and Limits of Human Understanding, Browne argued:

I propose rightly to state the whole Extent and Limits of human Understanding; to trace out the several steps and degrees of its Procedure from our first and simple Perception of sensible Objects, through the several operations of the pure Intellect upon them, till it grows up to its full Proportion of Nature: And to show, how all our Conceptions of things supernatural are then grafted on it by Analogy; and how from thence it extends it self immensely into all the Branches of Divine and Heavenly Knowledge.18

By means of "the true nature of Divine analogy;"19 Browne maintained "that the things of another World are now the Immediate Objects of our Knowledge and Faith."20

Although Browne did not gain lasting recognition for his work, he articulated a growing interest among Anglicans to incorporate into their theological thinking a broadened understanding of that which may be investigated as integral to their religious beliefs. Richard Brantley argues that "Browne's spiritual theology, then pivotal in Anglican thought, signals the Anglican emphasis on spiritual experience during the rest of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth"21 Wesley was quite familiar with the work of Browne, and although he gained some of his understanding and appreciation for experience from non-Anglican sources,22 his primary source remained the Anglican tradition. From it, Wesley drew an increasing concern for incorporating an experientially or experimentally oriented approach to theology.

C. Influence of Experimental Method on Wesley

Anglican theologians such as the Latitudinarians and the Cambridge Platonists were influenced by the growth of science and of scientific or experimental method, though each in different ways. Wesley was also impressed with the products of knowledge garnered from the employment of experimental method in the natural sciences. For example, he was intrigued by scientific experiments in the area of electricity, especially those done by Benjamin Frimidin and Richard Lovett.23 Wesley even published a work entitled The Desideratum: Or Electricity made plain and useful By a Lover of Mankind, and of Common Sense, which he distilled from numerous scientific articles. 24 In the preface to this work Wesley extolled the highly probable health benefits of electricity, even though hypotheses had not yet been developed to explain many of the data derived from experimentation.25 Wesley did not think that a complete philosophical or conceptual understanding of electricity was necessary in order to undertake further experiments which might reveal immediate and practical benefits of electricity. Wesley's practicality overrode the need for theoretical understanding if useful results were already being achieved.

Many Anglican theologians appreciated Locke's experimental philosophy as the source of conceptual framework for a universal methodology which could be employed in all intellectual disciplines, including theology. A prominent example among these was Peter Browne, who, although a critic of Locke, contributed greatly to the growing interest in the philosophy of Locke among Anglicans. Browne also influenced Wesley's appreciation and broadened understanding of the applicability of Locke's philosophy to theology.26 Clifford Hindley suggests that Wesley not only "imbibed" Lockean philosophy from his readings of Browne, but that Browne supplied the needed conceptual extrapolation of Locke's philosophy which enabled Wesley to include religious experience as a crucial part of theological method.27

Wesley's interest in experience predisposed him, for example, to the message of the Moravians concerning the personal assurance of salvation. Thus the Lockean concern for experimentation affected more than Wesley's interest in the natural sciences; it influenced his entire approach to theology and, correspondingly, to the practical applications of his ministry. For this reason Wesley claimed that he "endeavored to describe the true, the scriptural, experimental religion."28 Certainly Wesley wished to present his theological work in a way that was consonant with the best in contemporary scientific investigation rather contrary to it.29

In this regard Wesley naturally reflected the trend in Anglican theological thinking which sought to bridge-though not obliterate-differences between theology, philosophy and science. Of course, Wesley's references to "experimental" referred to more than mere empirical experimentation; they included the felt awareness or witness of God's Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Nevertheless, Locke provided a conceptual clue or tool for Wesley in undertaking the task of theology just as he has done for others both inside and outside Anglican theological circles. Without accepting all that Locke argued for in his experimental philosophy, Wesley praised Locke's work and general support for traditional Christian beliefs.30 In trying to understand Wesley's theological method, we will need to consider the extent to which ideas of experimental philosophy affected his methodical approach to theology.

WESLEY'S EXPERIMENTAL AND PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THEOLOGY

Wesley's various references to experience or religious experience reflect his belief that scriptural truths are confirmed and illuminated for all who reasonably reflect upon that which is revealed to them through God's natural and divine revelation. At first glance, the term experimental captures the experiential potential of knowing God in creation as well as in our personal lives. Of course, Wesley's description of his work as experimental includes more than our religious experiences and religious knowledge.31 In substantial agreement with British empirical thinking which was prevalent in his day, Wesley believed that there is an experimental dimension to all knowledge, natural as well as supernatural. In fact, Wesley draws striking analogies between how we gain knowledge through our physical and spiritual senses.32 The pervasiveness of the experimental character of knowledge, including spiritual knowledge, represents a crucially important aspect of Wesley's theology-an aspect long recognized by Wesley scholars.33 It relates to every part of our lives and thus has an immediate and practical effect upon us, Wesley did not articulate or deploy theological method in a systematic fashion; his concerns were too practical and ministry-oriented to motivate him to develop a whole system of theology. And Wesley was not apologetic about not being systematic in the traditional understanding of systematic theology, just as Anglican theologians had not been apologetic about their methodological approach to theology. Both Anglicanism and Wesley were secure in their theological methods. For example, Wesley often claimed to be consistent in the theology that he wrote. 34 Wesley was aware of methodological considerations which impinged upon his understanding and implementation of true, scriptural religion, and he endeavored to write in accordance with his theological method.

A. Experimental Method

The term experimental derives from the growing appreciation and incorporation of experimental method during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Experimental method primarily influenced the work of science and philosophy, but it slowly became an instrument of Anglican theological method as well.35 Samuel Johnson defined experimental as "1. Pertaining to experiment. 2. Built upon experiment; formed by observation [and] 3. Known by experiment or trial."36

Wesley did not use the term often, but he used it in places critical to our understanding of his methodological approach to theology. As we have already noted, Wesley stated an experimental concern in the thesis paragraph to his "Sermons on Several Occasions," which we now quote:

I have accordingly set down in the following sermons what I find in the Bible concerning the way to heaven, with a view to distinguish this way of God from all those which are the inventions of men. 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.37

Here Wesley affirmed the primacy of scripture in discovering that which is reasonably true concerning religious beliefs, but he also introduced this methodologically potent phrase: "experimental religion." The phrase suggests that his sermons-and the theology contained therein-were somehow related to or based on experience.

Although Wesley did not elaborate upon what he meant by describing "the true, the scriptural, experimental religion," the phrase is pregnant with insights or clues to understanding his theological method. By true religion or Christianity, Wesley meant inward religion-the essence of religion, namely, our spiritual relationship with God and all that relationship implies for our life.38 In Discourse X "Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount," Wesley wrote:

our great Teacher [Jesus Christ] has fully described inward religion in its various branches. He has there laid before us those dispositions of soul which constitute real Christianity; the tempers contained in that holiness 'without which no man shall see the Lord'; the affections which, when flowing from their proper fountain, from a living faith in God through Christ Jesus, are intrinsically and essentially good, and acceptable to God.39

By scriptural religion or Christianity, Wesley meant the religion described by scripture, which, he believed, best communicates the essence of true, inward religion. Wesley dedicated an entire sermon to the discussion of "Scriptural Christianity"40 and in another sermon, while discussing with a deist the probability of scriptural truths, Wesley described how God graciously demonstrates the truth of scripture to all who believe. He said:

Considering these things we may well cry out, How great a thing it is to be a Christian, to be a real, inward, scriptural Christian! Conformed in heart and life to the will of God! Who is sufficient for these things? None, unless he be born of God. I do not wonder that one of the most sensible deists should say: "I think the Bible is the finest book I ever read in my life, yet I have an insuperable objection to it. It is too good. It lays down such a plan of life, such a scheme of doctrine and practice, as is far too excellent for weak silly men to aim at, or attempt to copy after" All this is most true upon any other than the scriptural hypothesis. But this being allowed, all the difficulty vanishes into air. For if "all things are possible with God," then "all things are possible to him that believeth?"41

By experimental religion or Christianity, Wesley meant that religion in which the stated truths of scripture concerning inward religion become verified in the life of a believer, a religion in which people may test the truths of scripture for themselves. In agreement with the psalmist, who said, "O taste and see that the Lord is good!" Wesley wrote the following (in reference to those who had experienced the new birth of faith in Jesus Christ):

But the moment the Spirit of the Almighty strikes the heart of him that was till then without God in the world, it breaks the hardness of his heart, and creates all things new. The Sun of righteousness appears, and shines upon his soul, showing him the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He is in a new world. All things round him are become new, such as it never before entered into his heart to conceive. He sees, so far as his newly opened eyes can bear the sight, The opening heavens around him shine, With beams of sacred bliss.

He sees that he has "an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," and that he has "redemption in his blood, the remission of his sins."…At the same time he receives other spiritual senses, capable of discerning spiritual good and evil. He is enabled to taste, as well as to see, how gracious the Lord is. He enters into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and tastes of the powers of the world to come.42

Not only the truths of salvation but also other Biblical truths prove to be true in our observation of and reflection upon experience.43 So Wesley under-took the method of experimental philosophy, already prevalent through Britain, in fully investigating the truths of scripture and of experience as well. George Eayrs points out that "Wesley's method had these features: observation, investigation, written record, comparison, and induction from experiments. He knew and acted upon Bacon's dictum (Novum Organum, Preface) 'not to dispute upon the very point of the possibility of experience.' 44 Eayrs thus draws attention to the experimental or inductive character of theological reasoning which Wesley wove into his Biblical hermeneutics as well as into his conceptualizations and applications of theology.45 Brantley goes so far as to argue that as early as 1730, Wesley had in mind "if not a synthesis of revelation and rational empiricism then an intellectually as well as passionately experimental emphasis in religion both revealed and natural."46

We may question the degree of consistency with which Wesley carried out his theological method or we may question the degree of critical awareness he possessed concerning theological method as a whole. But we cannot question the fact that Wesley understood his methodology to reflect the kind of experimental methodologies prominent within early eighteenth-century England.

Randy Maddox rightly points out that, although Wesley understood his theological method to reflect an experimental or inductive character, he fell short of achieving that goal.47 Maddox further notes that Mark Horst presents a similar argument when he says that-in practice-Wesley did not so much use experience as a foundation for doctrines, as he used doctrines to shape believer's experience. 48 Despite inadequacies we may find in Wesley's method logical perceptivity from our contemporary vantage point, we may not discount the intentionality of Wesley's approach to theology.

Wesley sought to emulate much that he found in the experimental method of such English philosophers and theologians as Locke and Brantley. But even Locke was criticized by later empiricists such as David Hume for not undertaking his empiricism with sufficient methodological criticalness. For example, Locke argued that we have intuitive knowledge of our own existence and subsequently of the existence of God.49 Wesley did not consider it empirically inconsistent to appeal to the kind of knowledge which we experience intuitively as well as to the kind of knowledge which we experience concretely in the world. Nor would Wesley consider it appropriate to reduce his study of scripture to a kind of deductive enterprise. Although in practice it may appear as though Wesley used scripture (or doctrine) to shape believers' experience, it was his theoretical understanding that experience should never conflict with scripture because scripture would never conflict with experience.

A.1. Empirical and Experiential Knowledge. The experimental study of religion is concerned with knowledge that is both empirical and experiential. Wesley does not make this distinction himself, but it does reflect a tension that occurs within his writings. Because Wesley does not distinguish between empirical and experiential knowledge, we do run the risk of imposing an unnecessary bifurcation upon his thought by using such categories. Nevertheless, the distinction helps to clarify aspects of Wesley's theology which otherwise might remain unclear without more precise categories with which to analyze his writings.

Empirical knowledge pertains to knowledge founded on experience, observation, sensation, practice, concrete situations, and real events. It represents a posteriori knowledge derived from sense experience and it is generally capable of public assessment. Examples of this kind of knowledge include arguments from classical natural theology for the existence of God.50 It also includes accounts of miracles and the testimonies of Christian believers both from the past and the present.51 These examples have to do with experiences where no direct sense or impression of the presence of God occurs, or at least where the intensity of the awareness of God tends to be little marked. Nevertheless, they serve as potential evidence for cumulative case arguments on behalf of the reasonableness of Christian belief.

Experiential knowledge relies upon understanding, insights or information that derive from personal or interpersonal sense experiences. It contrasts with empirical experience, which is confined to sensation, perception, or observation of types of experiences that are shared. Experiential knowledge is obtainable by such means as introspection, self-analysis, private conscious states, and so on. It is not the same thing as a priori knowledge, which is derived from the function of reason without reference to sense experience.52 Experiential knowledge, on the contrary is based upon sense experience, but not upon the kinds of empirical experiences that provide knowledge easily capable of public assessment. Personal experiences are difficult to assess publicly because they are so individualistic as to prevent others from fully comprehending the significance of the experience for a particular person. For example, it is not always possible to articulate why you love one person and hate another, or why you act one way rather than another. Personal experiences tend to be very private and meaningful only to the individual or individuals involved in the given experience The difficulties noted are especially critical in the analysis of religious experiences in which there occurs a direct awareness or impression of God-that personal Being whose very existence transcends our ability to verify on the basis of empirical experience alone. Although this kind of knowledge involves the personal participation of the knower, it is not purely psychological or subjective because we genuinely come into contact with an objective, albeit empirically hidden, reality. Brantley argues that Wesley's "analogy of proportionality between physical and spiritual senses] helped Wesley to think that what is felt is a theologically satisfying substitute for what is seen philosophically-that as the intellect remains convinced of what the senses have to tell, so the intellect trusts emotion to be not illusory but spiritual veridical, i.e., to correspond to religious fact:"53 Thus Wesley believed that Christians may in fact attain certain experiential knowledge of God and of God's salvation for one's life.

A.2. Hypothetical Nature of Human Knowledge.Wesley's use of the term experimental also reflects a willingness to admit the hypothetical nature of human knowledge. That is, human knowledge-in contrast to God's knowledge-is provisional or tentative. It is subject to change as additional information is gathered and/or new theories and laws-theological, philosophical or scientific-are advanced. This is true because human knowledge stems from reflection upon that which we or others first experience rather than upon knowledge we might receive through innate ideas. Again, this phenomenal approach to knowledge resembles the experimental philosophy reminiscent of Locke.54 From a conceptual perspective, we must recognize the experiential-or experimental-dimension in all human knowledge.55 This experimental dimension includes our knowledge and use of Scripture. Scripture, in a sense, represents a provisional or tentative proposal(s) for the explanation of phenomena-religious or otherwise-that has some degree of empirical substantiation of probability. For example, Wesley referred to the hypothetical way in which he understood Scripture when he appealed to the "Scripture hypothesis" in the following passage:

If you ask, "Why then have not all men this faith, all, at least, who conceive it to be so happy a thing? Why do they not believe immediately?"-we answer (on the Scripture hypothesis), "It is the gift of God." No man is able to work it in himself. It is a work of omnipotence.56

Of course, from Wesley's personal experience, the truth of Scripture represented no mere hypothesis. On the contrary, Wesley believed Scripture with complete certainty. Because he experienced God speaking to him through Scripture, an experience coupled with the confirming testimony of the Holy Spirit in his life,57 Wesley believed that all may hear God speak to them by listening to scripture. Yet, when it came to theological reflection, Wesley recognized the phenomenal process people follow in coming to knowledge and faith in God.

Strictly speaking, faith is a hypothesis-at least initially.58 From a human perspective, our knowledge is incomplete; it can only be completed by God. Stanley Frost discusses the hypothetical nature of faith evident in Wesley in his treatment of Wesley's understanding of the authority of God. He says:

It means that even God's authority is only relatively final, that is, final only so long as we accept the hypothesis which we call the Christian Faith. But this limitation is more apparent than real, for never, except in abstract discussion, do we go beyond the scope of that hypothesis, and then it is always with a conscious effort, made possible only by the firm conviction at the back of our mind that our Faith is an accurate account of Reality. We live, and move and have our being within the realm of that hypothesis and this philosophical limitation of God's authority no more affects our attitude to him, than do our philosophical doubts concerning the existence of the physical universe affect our attitude to the shelf on which we have just knocked our head. In acknowledging that the basis of certainty lies in faith and not in knowledge, we in no way lessen the significance of God's authority, as Wesley himself shows, both by his words and his deeds.59

All people follow a hypothetical or experimental path in coming to faith-a faith which in turn comes to understand that which is true, including that which is scripturally or spiritually true.

A.3. Emphasis on Religious Experience. Given the experimental nature of human knowledge, Wesley gave special attention to the area of religious experience or the experimental knowledge we personally have of the divine presence in our lives. Wesley strongly emphasized the privilege Christians have in personally experiencing the reality of Christ in their lives. He said, "This experimental knowledge, and this alone, is true Christianity. He is a Christian who hath received the Spirit of Christ."60 Again, Wesley said, "For in the scripture language to say, or to believe, implies an experimental assurance. The sum is, none have the Holy Spirit but Christians: all Christians have this Spirit."61 While such participatory experience of the Spirit of Christ adds nothing to the substance of Biblical truth, it confirms and vitalizes such truths in the believer. Thus the experimental dimension contributes to a more holistic understanding and formulation of Christian theology, which respects the ongoing witness of the Holy Spirit. This intimate and vital dimension of the Christian life precludes a purely formal or rationalistic conception of Christian doctrine. The very affirmation of Scripture by an individual generally follows a kind of experimental appropriation of its truth. Salvation makes a real difference in a person's life, and Christian doctrine must likewise reflect its dynamic character or else Christianity as a whole lapses into formalities inappropriate both to Scripture and the Christian experience of salvation. Immediately following the passage quoted above from the preface to the "Sermons on Several occasions;' Wesley warned against two common misconceptions found in Christianity:

And herein it is more especially my desire, first, to guard those who are just setting their faces toward heaven (and who, having little acquaintance with the things of God, are the more liable to be turned out of the way) from formality, from mere outside religion, which has almost driven heart-religion out of the world; and secondly, toward those who know the religion of the heart, the faith which worketh by love, lest at any time they make void the law through faith, and so fall back into the snare of the devil.62

Although experience adds little to the substance or content of Biblical truth, it confirms, illumines and vitalizes such truths in the believer. Wesley expected such experience to occur concomitantly with our recognition of the truths of Scripture. Such experimental truths concur with the propositionally stated truths we find in Scripture. For this reason, Mildred Wynkoop argues that Wesleyanism should interpret Scripture experimentally rather than philosophically. In theology, according to Wynkoop, "The illogicalities and lack of practicality and realism and moral seriousness arise, not because men are not serious or devout or Christian, but because the Bible has been interpreted philosophically and not experimentally."63

A.4. Summary of Experimental Method. Overall experience contributes to a more holistic formulation of Christian theology. Experience which respects the ongoing witness of the Holy Spirit prevents one from overly systematizing or institutionalizing the core of Christian truth. It also helps Christians to keep in touch with the actual pulse of people's needs of both a spiritual and social nature. This is why Brantley describes Wesley's methodology as serving "as the model for putting experience into words"; thus, Wesley's writings could not help but reflect the sometimes nonsystematic character of our experiences, even our experiences of God.64 Truths concerning God, God's relationship with believers, and believers' actions towards others should not and, in fact, cannot be demystified or compartmentalized by human theological endeavors. As with the Anglican heritage which preceded him, it was a matter of principle for Wesley not to articulate theology so rigidly or systematically that it denied the participatory activity of God in the world or the creative response to perceived needs on the part of believers. Without explicitly saying so, Wesley presented an asystematic theology which avoided the formalistic tendencies of theological system building, yet he did it in a way which allowed for coherence and consistency over years of theological writing.

B. Practical Application of Wesley's Theology

Throughout Wesley's writings one finds an ongoing concern for both ministering to the spiritual needs of people and to the practical aspects of their personal and social needs. With regard to people's spiritual needs, Wesley sought to proclaim the gospel message and to spiritually nurture those who believe. In order to accomplish all of this Wesley was willing to listen to experience when deciding upon courses of action, even when those courses of action had no explicit warrant in Scripture and church tradition. Wesley's methodological approach to theology influenced the way in which he applied that theology to life, and his consciousness of those applications (or related experiences he observed) conversely influenced Wesley's theological theory. Thus Wesley was willing to experiment with the unorthodox practices of preaching outdoors, establishing extended intra-church group meetings, singing hymns to popular tunes, appointing lay preachers, and eventually ordaining them to the effective work of the ministry. When Wesley saw the immense numbers of people seriously searching for religious truth, he considered it expedient to preach to them, pointing out that he disobeyed no explicit Scripture or law in preaching outdoors.65 After all, Wesley observed positive results to his efforts, and some became Christians who otherwise might never have heard the gospel message.66

The societies and bands were, as Colin Williams describes them, "important experiments . . . essential to translate faith into forms of discipline, in order to relate the faith to the common concerns of daily life and to provide for the mutual growth of the members."67

The experiment of singing Christian poetry to the then-contemporary tunes proved very successful. Wesley described the eventual compilation of lifelong work in the development of popular hymnody as "a little body of experimental and practical divinity."68 Although the modern editors of "A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists" consider the terms "experimental," "practical," and "scriptural" to be interchangeable, they recognize that "Experience is not a separate second source of authority; it finds out (ex-periri) the external truth of the Word of God."69 Such external truths may be observed and incorporated into a body of experimental and practical divinity.

In his defense of lay preaching, Wesley made the results of ministry the primary focus of his argumentation-experiential proof of their call to serve God in whatever way possible.70 Wesley admitted that lay preaching might conflict with ecclesiastical law, but argued that it should be considered an exempt case because of his experience and that of his associates in having a clear conscience about field preaching.71

Wesley's first experiment in actually ordaining lay ministers proved disastrous. Vivian Green comments on this experiment: "Already, in 1764, a visiting Greek prelate, Erasmus, Bishop of Arcadia (in Crete), had at his request ordained some of his preachers; but the experiment had been a very dubious success, arousing Charles Wesley to consternation and irritating others who suspected the obliging bishop's credentials."72 Wesley later ordained lay ministers himself, though he still refused to consider schism from the Church of England. He recognized that past experience proved schisms to be undesirable, and commented on his own desire not to create yet another: ". . . the experiment has been so frequently tried already, and the success never answered the expectation."73

Wesley is well known for his emphasis upon salvation, holiness and other aspects of religious life, but his care for people extended beyond their spiritual well-being. Considering his time and place in history, Wesley was in the forefront of meeting the social needs of eighteenth-century England. His care for souls extended to the whole person. He especially recognized the importance of caring for people who were poor, uneducated, and sick, and for those who-for various reasons-were dispossessed by society, for example, slaves and prisoners. Wesley especially sought to care for the poor. It was toward them that Wesley directed his primary evangelistic thrusts and his social actions. For example, Wesley provided basic medical care and wrote simple medical manuals in order to aid those who could not afford professional care.74 He also established what came to be known as "The Poor House" for those, especially widows, who could not care for themselves, and he founded an orphanage.75 Wesley took it upon himself to educate those who otherwise did not have the means to be educated. He originally intended to teach the children himself. But Wesley said that "alter several unsuccessful trials;' he found better people "of sufficient knowledge, who had talents for, and their hearts in, the work:'76 At the Kingswood School, Wesley recognized that he needed to make variations in the educational structure after many years of trial and error in its development.77 Wesley even made it possible for people to receive money who had immediate needs for small loans by establishing a benevolent loan fund. The only stipulation was that borrowers should repay the loan within three months.78

Wesley's concern for the poor extended beyond actual acts of good will toward the poor. Whole sermons-and many of them-were written for the purpose of instructing the Methodists on how to handle their money for the expressed goal of both aiding the work of the ministry and for helping the needs of the poor-those whom Outler describes as "Wesley's self-chosen constituency: 'Christ's poor.' "79

Of course, Wesley's best known sermon dealing with money is entitled "The Use of Money." Here Wesley exhorted Christians to gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.80 Wesley soon discovered that his Methodist followers were good at the first two principles, but ignored the third principle, which was to stand against surplus accumulation. Wesley considered surplus accumulation to be the leading sin of Christian praxis.81

So concerned was Wesley over this misuse of money and corresponding injustices against the poor that he wrote his sermons warning about the spiritual and social dangers of accumulating surplus wealth.82 Outler aptly recognizes that Wesley's sermons were

in clear contrast to the notion, proffered by the Puritans, but approved by others, that honestly earned wealth is a sign and measure of divine favors What is interesting is that Wesley's economic radicalism on this point has been ignored, not only by most Methodists, but by the economic historians as well.83

Although Wesley may not have been able to find sufficient scriptures or church tradition to convince the Methodists of the dangers of accumulating surplus wealth, he thought that experience provided ample proof of its dangers both to the spiritual well-being of the would be giver of money and to the physical well-being of the would-be recipient of money.

Most Wesley scholars recognize that Wesley's teachings on social holiness or social responsibility concentrate on the renewal of society rather than on its reformation or transformation.84 Wesley lived in an era which did not possess the same social consciousness shared by modern Christians, so we must not expect from Wesley the kind of theological sensitivity and praxis expected by Christians today. But in his religious and economic radicalism Wesley laid the conceptual or methodological framework for later involvement’s by Methodists, especially their place in the growth of the British liberal party and in the rise of socialism In the words of Green, Wesley's "Religious radicalism had acted as a midwife to political reform."85 Thus we are not surprised when for example, Williams finds in Wesley's abolitionist support of Wilberforce, a belief that God appoints times (kairoi) when an attack on great social evils can succeed, but that for their success the complete obedience of his followers and the leaders he has appointed is required."86

CONCLUSION

Wesley employed an experimental approach to his conceptual understanding of theology and to its application. The term experimental included recognition of the awareness or witness of God's Holy Spirit in our lives. It also included an experimental or inductive approach to understanding life experiences as a whole in order to understand and implement theology better. In other words, Wesley's self-styled attempt to describe and live out "the true, the scriptural, experimental religion" reflects his willingness to extend inductive investigation beyond the study of scripture to include the study of all experiences that may be relevant to theology and its practical application. In this way Wesley thought that he developed a holistic, dynamic and relevant understanding of Christian theology and praxis.

Wesley distilled his methodology from the dual Anglican concerns for practical divinity and for incorporating the popular experimental philosophy of British empiricism. In his theology; Wesley was willing to investigate experience, along with tradition and reason, as genuine sources of religious authority in the confirmation, illumination and application of scriptural truths. For Wesley, experience included more than personal religious experience, He was also willing to consider phenomena which might enhance our knowledge of such doctrines as sin, salvation, sanctification, and ministry. In the practical application of his theology, Wesley was further willing to experiment in order to discover the most effective means of service. This experimentation primarily had to do with the ways in which he communicated the gospel through such unorthodox practices as field preaching, lay ministers, ordination of lay ministers, and so on. But it also included ways in which to minister holistically to the needs of people Wesley's care included experimentation with alternative forms of health care, housing and education for the poor and aid to those dispossessed by society. It also included a radical economic view of how Christians should avoid surplus accumulation of money-an accumulation which was equally dangerous to the spiritual well-being of the wealthy and to the social neglect of the poor.

While Wesley did not live in an era which shared the modern awareness of the need for challenging social structures as well as for providing for basic human needs, he supplied a theological method which provides the frame-work for creatively approaching such problems. His radicalism in both ecclesiastical and economic matters challenges us to observe the world in which we live and respond to every social as well as spiritual need that we encounter. Moreover we must not rest from experimenting with ways in which to meet those needs as effectively as possible because it is only in doing so that we will be faithful in realizing love for our neighbors as well as for God.

Notes

1This article was first presented as a paper at the Wesleyan Studies Group at the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, 20 November 1988.

2John Wesley, preface, __3, 6, "Sermons on Several Occasions," The Works of John Wesley, ed. Albert C. Outler, The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley, 33 vols. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984), 1:104, 106. The Bicentennial Edition completes the edition of Wesley's Works begun by Oxford Univ. Press.

3Here I borrow the phrase from a hymn by Charles Wesley. See Charles Wesley, "A Collection of Hymns for the use of the People called Methodists, 1780," hymn 462, 1.5, The Works of john Wesley, ed. Franz Hildebrandt and Oliver Beckerlegge, The Oxford Edition of Wesley's Works, 33 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), 7:644.

4Francis Paget, Introduction to the Fifth Book of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907)284. Cf. Charles Gore, Roman Catholic Claims, 4th ed. (London: Longinans, Green, and Co., 1892), 6.

5Henry R. McAdoo, The Spirit of Anglicanism (New York: Charles Seribner's Press, 1965), vi.

6McAdoo, Spirit of Anglicanism, 312.

7McAdoo, Spirit of Anglicanism, 313.

8Willlam Ragsdale Cannon, Theology of john Wesley (New York: Abingdon Press, 1946), 19. 9Piette states that the whole of Europe "experienced a formidable moral crisis, which itself originated in a religious crisis. This religious crisis in the last analysis was the result of a disorder in the dogmatic sphere. For is it not always the case that ideas rule the world? . . . While remaining rigidly orthodox, the Churches seemed to have lost the power of giving life to souls." See Maximin Piette, John Wesley in the Evolution of Protestantism, tr. J. B. Howard (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1937), 181-182.

10Piette, Evolution of Protestantism, 436.

11Richard Hooker, preface, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, The Folger Library Edition of the Works of Richard Hooker, ed. W Speed Hill, 4 vols. (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977), 1:29.

12Jeremy Taylor, Epistle Dedicatory, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1864), xxi.

13Taylor, Holy Dying, xxi.

14Wesley included a wide sampling of both ancient and modern sermons in A Christian Library: Consisting of Extracts from, and Abridgements of the Choicest Pieces of Practical Divinity which have ever been Published in the English Tongue, 50 vols. (Bristol: Farley, 1749-1755 (-84). Cf. esp. vols. VII-IX.

15See the chapter "Of Enthusiasm" in John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, In, 1959), 2:428-441, esp. 432. Cf. Samuel Johnson's entry under "enthusiasm" in his Dictionary of the English Language (1755; New York: Arno Press, 1979), which attributes its primary definition to the writings of Locke.

165ee Wesley's defense against charges of enthusiasm in An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion;' __1-36, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 11:45-58, and "A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, Part I," V.26-27, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 11:169-171. Cf. "Doctrine of Original Sin, according to Scripture, Reason, and Experience;' Works (Jackson ed.) 8:432-434; an the letters "To William Law;' 6 January 1756,1.1, The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. John Telford, 8 vols. (London: Epworth Press, 1931), 3:332-335; "To the John Downes;' 17 November 1759, _14-17, Letters (Telford ed.) 4:333-334; and "To Dr. Home;' 10 March 1762, Letters (Telford ed.) 4:172.

171n writing against Toland, Browne also criticized what he considered to be Locke's limited view of evidence in trying to understand the mysteries of Christianity. see Peter Browne, A Letter in Answer to a Book Entitled, Christianity Not Mysterious; As also to All Those Who Set Up for Reason and Evidence in Opposition to Revelation and Mysteries (London: R. Clavell, 1697).

18Peter Browne, The Procedure, Extent and Limits of Human Understanding (1728; New York: Garland Publishing, 1976), 33.

19Browne, Procedure, Extent and Limits of Human Understanding, 34. Cf. the development of Browne's ideas of analogy in Things Divine and Supernatura4 Conceived by Analogy with Things Natural and Human (1733; New York: Garland Publishing, 1976).

20Browne, Procedure, Extent and Limits of Human Understanding, 462.

215ee Richard E. Brantley, Locke, Wesley, and the Method of English Romanticism (Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1984), 34.

22For example, Wesley was aware of Jonathan Edwards' work in A Treatise on the Religious Affections, but his evaluation of Edwards was mixed at best. See the preface to Wesley's abridgement of the Treatise in A Christian Library, quoted in the Works (Jackson ed.) 14:269-270.

23See Wesley's various remarks upon electricity in The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. Nehemiah Curnock, 9 vols. (1909-1916; London: Epworth Press, 1938), 3:320,16 October 1747; 4:53-54, 17 February 1753; 4:190-191, 9 November 1756; 4:357, 30 October 1759; and 5:247, 4 January 1768.

245ee the preface to this article in Works (Jackson ed.) 14:241-244.

25Preface, "The Desideratum: Or, Electricity made plain and useful. By a Lover of Mankind, and of Common Sense;' Works (Jackson ed.) 14:241-244.

26Wesley made references to having read Browne's philosophical commentaries on Locke as early as 1729. See references to Browne's writings in the series of letters between Wesley and Mary Pendarves in "To Mrs. Mary Pendarves," 3 October 1730, 28 December 1730, 4 February 1731, Works (Oxford ed.) 25:250, 261, 269; and "From Mrs. Mary Pendarves;' 13 February 1731, Works (Oxford ed.) 25:271. In an editor's note, Telford states, "Many references in the diary for Sept. 1730 show how diligently Wesley was reading the Bishop of Cork's book at this time." See Telford, Letters (Telford ed.) 56, n. 1.

275ee Clifford J. Hindley, "The Philosophy of Enthusiasm: A Study in the Origins of 'Experimental Theology; " The London Quarterly and Holborn Review, 182 (1957): 99-109, esp. 108; and Brantley, Locke, Wesley, 27-102, esp. 30, 34.

28Preface, _6, "Sermons on Several Occasions," Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:106.

29Hindley convincingly argues that it is only in this empiricist atmosphere that we can rightly understand the epistemological thought of Wesley and his method of investigating the truths of Christian belief. See Hindley, "The Philosophy of Enthusiasm;' 99.

30See "Remarks upon Mr. Locke's 'Essay on the Human Understanding;" Works (Jackson ed.) 13:455-464. The complete series of Wesley's remarks may be found in vols. 5-7 of the Arminian Magazine. Cf. Mitsuo Shimizu's discussion of Wesley and the philosophical traditions of Locke, Brone and Malebranche in "Epistemology in the Thought of John Wesley" (diss., Drew University, 1980), 111-154.

31For example, see various instances of Wesley's use of or reference to experimentation in the following places: Preface, _6, "Sermons on Several Occasions;' Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:106; "The Case of Reason Impartially Considered" (1781, sermon 70), 11.3, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:594-595; "Hypocrisy in Oxford" (1741, Sermon 150), 11.13, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:406; and "To Dr. Lavingren, Bishop of Exeter," _13, December 1751, Letters (Telford ed.) 3:302.

32For example, see "Awake, Thou That Sleepest" (1742, Sermon 3), 1.10, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:145-146; "The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption" (1746, Sermon 9), 1.1, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:251; "The Witness of the Spirit, I" (1746, Sermon 10), 11.12, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:283; "The Witness of Our Own Spirit" (1746, Sermon 12), __11, 18, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:306-307, 311; "The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God" (1748, Sermon 19), 1.1-10, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:433-435; "Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, X" (1750, Sermon 30), _17, Works (Bicentennial ed') 1:658; "The New Birth" (1760, Sermon 45), 11.4, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:192-193; "The Signs of the Times" (1787, Sermon 66), 11.4, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:526; "On Conscience" (1788,

Sermon 105), 1.8-9, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 3:483-484; "Walking by Sight and Walking by Faith" (1788, Sermon 119), __2-3, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:49; "On Living without God" (1790, Sermon 130), __941, 15, Works Bicentennial ed.) 4:172-173, 176; "On Faith, Heb. 11:1" (1791, Sermon. 132), __2, 7, 18, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:189, 192, 200. Cf. Outler's comments on Wesley's "spiritual sensorium" in Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:117n, 276n.

33Roderick Leupp rightly observes that commentary on Wesley's thought has long recognized his empirical tendencies, though scholars have varied widely concerning the degree to which his thought was genuinely empirical. See Roderick Thomas Leupp," 'The Art of God': Light and Darkness in the Thought of John Wesley" (diss., Drew University, 1985), 223; cf. 192-206.

34One of the best examples of Wesley's professed self-professed consistency may be found in the preface to his "Sermons on Several Occasions": "The following sermons contain the substance of what I have been preaching for between eight and nine years last past....Every serious man who peruses these will therefore see in the clearest manner what those doctrines are which I embrace and teach as essentials of true religion:' See the Preface, _1, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:103. Another excellent example may be found in Wesley's treatise, "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, as believed and taught by the Reverend Mr. John Wesley, from the year 1725 to the year 1777;' Works (Jackson ed') 11:366-445. Concerning his doctrine of Christian perfection, Wesley affirmed: "These are the very same words wherein I largely declared, for the first time, my sentiments of Christian perfection. And is it not easy to see, (1.) That this is the very same point at which I aimed all along before the year 1725; and.... (2.) 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 turn now; as will appear to every impartial person from the extracts subjoined below:' See "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection;' Works (Jackson ed.) 11:373. For further references concerning Wesley's self-professed consistency see "Principles of a Methodist," _29, Works (Jackson ed.) 8:374 and n.; and "To the Countess of Huntingdon," 19 June 1771, Letters (Telford ed.) 5:259.

35This may be seen to a degree in the works of Cambridge Platonists and Latitudinarians. Experimental method, of course, became very apparent in the scientifically oriented philosophy and theology of Boyle, Locke and Bentley. But it also influenced a growing number of Anglicans such as Browne and Vincent Perronet.

36Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language n.p. (see definition of "Experimental"). Although Wesley used the term experimental long before Johnson compiled his dictionary, the definition reflects common usage contemporary with Wesley. Examples of how the term was used in context, provided by Johnson, were drawn from such diverse sources as William Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, Isaac Newton's Opticks, and Richard Bentley's Eight Sermons preached at the Honorable Robert Boyle's Lectures in the first year.

37Preface, _6, "Sermons on Several Occasions," Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:106.

38To this understanding of true religion, 'led Campbell adds "that John Wesley conceived of Christian antiquity as a period in which an ideal of Christian individual and community life was realized. The 'ideal' Wesley believed to have been realized in Christian antiquity was that to which Wesley referred as 'true' or 'genuine Christianity and whose paradigm Wesley found in Christ and in the Christianity of the New Testament" See 'led Allen Campbell, "John Wesley's Conceptions and Uses of Christian Antiquity" (diss., Southern Methodist University, 1984), 14. Although Wesley's references to true religion do not primarily pertain to his view of Christian antiquity, Campbell rightly reminds us that Wesley always understood his theology within the context of orthodox church history

39"Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, X" (1750, Sermon 30), _2, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:651. Cf. "On Divine Providence" (1786, Sermon 67), _18, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:543; and "Walking by Sight and Walking by Faith" (1788, Sermon 119), _18, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:57-58.

40"Scriptural Christianity" (1744, Sermon 4), Works (Bicentennial ed.),159-180.

41"On a Single Eye" (1789, Sermon 125), _3, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:121-122.

42"On Living without God" (1790, Sermon 130), __9, 11, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:172, 173. Cf. "'Awake, Thou That Sleepest'"(1742, Sermon 3), 1.10, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:145.

43Wesley often argued for Christian doctrine by observing, interpreting and evaluating empirical evidence on its behalf For example, Wesley began his monograph on the doctrine of original sin by empirically observing "The Past and Present State of Mankind" (Part I). He continued by interpreting observations of sin in accordance with scripture (Part II) and then by evaluating his observations in relationship to the writings of John Taylor entitled The Scripture-Doctrine of Original Sin, Proposed to Free and Candid Examination (Part III). See "The Doctrine of Original Sin, according to Scripture, Reason, and Experience," Works (Jackson ed.) 9:191-352. And in his letter to the Rev. Conyers Middleton, Wesley sought to investigate "the surest and most accessible evidence" of genuine Christianity-evidence that included personal religious

experiences and religious experiences of others and of Christianity as a whole which could be empirically observed. See the letter to "The Rev. Dr. Middleton;' VI, Works (Jackson ed.) 10:67-79, esp. 78. Cf. Harold Lindstrom's study of Wesley and sanctification and how 'In later years, clearly actuated by his experiences in the Methodist revival, Wesley altered some of the extreme statements he had made on the state of the entirely sanctified in 1740 in the preface to Hymns and Sacred Poems." See Harald Lindstrom's, Wesley and Sanctification, tr. H. S. Harvey (London: Epworth Press, 1950), 139-140.

44George Eayrs, John Wesley: Christian Philosopher and Church Founder (London: Epworth Press, 1926), 58-59.

45Cf. the analysis by R. Larry Shelton of Wesley's hermeneutics as being "primarily inductive, historical-literal, and soteriologically motivated" in "John Wesley's approach to Scripture in Historical Perspective;' Wesleyan Theological Journal, 16.1 (1981): 23-50, esp. 41-42.

46Brantley, Locke, Wesley, 43.

47Randy L. Maddox, "John Wesley-Practical Theologian?" Wesleyan Studies Group, American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, 20 November 1988.

48Mark H. Horst, "Christian Understanding and the Life of Faith in John Wesley's Thought" (diss., Yale University, 1985), 285.

495ee Locke's discussion of the sense in which the idea of God is innate and necessary in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1959), 1:95, 100-101, and how the existence of God is demonstrable in 2:306, 312, 324, 327.

50Although Wesley did not make natural theology and arguments for the existence of God an essential part of his theology, he maintained that we do have experientially related knowledge that God exists. In this regard, Wesley's view resembled views of the cosmological and teleological arguments affirmed by Locke, Calvin and others. See "The Imperfection of Human Knowledge" (1784, Sermon 69), _4, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:571; 'A Farther Appeal;' 111.21, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 11:268; and "Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, VI" (1748, Sermon 26), 111.7, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:580-581.

51For some of Wesley's views concerning miracles see "The Principles of a Methodist farther explained: Occasioned by the Rev. Mr. Church's Second Letter to Mr. Wesley: In a Second Letter to that Gentleman;' V, Works (Jackson ed.) 8:460-468; and "A Letter to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Gloucester;' 11.3-8, Works (Jackson ed.) 9:157-163.

52Some refer to a priori knowledge as notional knowledge, that is, knowledge that is abstract and non-experiential Notional knowledge contrasts with empirical and experiential knowledge which involves varying degrees of personal participation of an individual in the knowing process. Empirical knowledge involves personal experiences which are relatively easy to communicate, whereas experiential knowledge involves personal experiences which are relatively difficult to communicate, if in fact it is fully possible to communicate personal experiences at all.

53Brantley, Locke, Wesley, 46.

54Wesley describes his general agreement with the epistemology of Locke in his "Remarks upon Mr. Locke's 'Essay on Human Understanding: "For example, Wesley said, "I think that point, 'that we have no innate principles,' is abundantly proved, and cleared from all objections that have any shadow of strength:' See "Remarks upon Mr. Locke's 'Essay on Human Understanding;" Works (Jackson ed.) 13:455; cf. n. 29.

55Cf. the connection scholars have long drawn between the experimental philosophy of Locke and the theology of Wesley, for example: George Croft Cell, The Rediscovery of John Wesley (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1935), 84-86, 168470; Hindley, "The Philosophy of Enthusiasm;' 99409, 199-210; and Brantley, Locke, Wesley, 27-47.

56 "An Earnest Appeal," _9, Works (Oxford ed.) 11:47-48. Cf. reference to the "scriptural hypothesis" in the passage quoted above from "On a Single Eye" (1789, Sermon 125), _3, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:121-122.

57Eayrs comments, "It is admitted that he [Wesley] regulated and used his method upon a master principle or hypothesis; but every investigator is guided, more or less, by some principle or some assumption. . . . It seems to the present student that Wesley's working hypothesis may be found in a statement in the remarkable preface which he issued, in 1747, with the first volume of his Standard Sermons (Works, v. Preface). There Wesley utters this impressive confession: 'I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: This simple but profound statement includes his belief as to the origin, nature, consciousness, and conscience of man, and the purpose of his existence:' See Eayrs, John Wesley: Christian Philosopher and Church Founder, 59-60.

58Cf. Wesley's distinction between "the faith of a servant" versus "the faith of a son" in "On the Discoveries of Faith" (1788, Sermon 117), esp. _13, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:35.

59Staniey Brice Frost, The Doctrine of Authority in the Works of John Wesley (London: n.p., 1938), 104405. The English translation is by the author from his book entitled Die Authoritatslehre in den Werken John Wesleys (Munchen: E. Reinhardt, 1937).

60"Awake, Thou That Sleepest" (1742, Sermon 3), 111.6, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:154. Cf. Wesley's quotation of the Marquis de Renty as having said, "I bear about with me continually an experimental verity, and a plenitude of the presence of the ever-blessed Trinity." See "On the Trinity" (1775, Sermon 55), _17, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:385.

61Wesley, Wesleyan New Testament, 433, quoted by Cell, Rediscovery of John Wesley, 65. Cell does not specify from which edition he quoted Wesley, but the quotation probably does not come from the original 1790 edition but from either the 1815 or 1818 editions. In the introduction to his own edition of Wesley's translation, Cell confirms the experimental theme in Wesley by concluding his introduction in the following words: "Beyond controversy the primary resource of the Protestant faith has been the experimental and experiential knowledge of the Word of God." See George C. Cell, Introduction, John Wesley's New Testament; Compared with the Authorized Version (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company, 1938), xiv. This statement implies both a methodological study of Scripture as well as the experiential confirmation of its truths.

For further references to "experimental assurance" or the "experimental knowledge of pardoning love," which represents the privilege of all Christians, see Wesley's commentary on I Cor. 12:3 and Eph. 6:17 in the Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament (London: The Epworth Press, 1948), 622, 722.

62Preface, _6, "Sermons on Several Occasions;' Works (Bicentennial ed.) 1:106.

63Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1972), 221.

64Brantley, Locke, Wesley, 2. Brantley further states that "Wesley verbalized his experience. And experience, throughout this study, is conceived as a continuum from things, through ideas, to words" (p.23).

65 See Journal (Curnock ed.) 3:231, 27 December 1745; and 4:54, 23 September 1759.

66SeeJouraal (Curnock ed') 3:373, 28 August 1748; and 4:13, 20 May 1759.

67Colin W William’s, John Wesley's Theology Today (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1960), 140.

68Preface, _4, "A Collection of Hymns," Works (Oxford ed.) 7:74.

69Hildebrandt and Beckerlegge, Introduction, "A Collection of Hymns;' Works (Oxford ed.) 7:3.

70See Wesley's extended defense of lay preaching in "A Farther Appeal;' especially __10-25, Works (Bicentennial ed.) 11:296-308.

71See Journal (Curnock ed.) 3:231, 27 December 1745.

72Vivian H. H. Green, John Wesley (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1964), 148.

73"Reasons Against a Separation from the Church of England;" 1, Works (Jackson ed.) 13:226; cf. the eleven other reasons given by Wesley for refusing to separate from the church of England.

741n 1747 Wesley first published Primitive Physic, or an Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases(1747; London: Epworth Press, 1960). This simple medical manual was reprinted twenty-one times by 1785. Cf. references to it in the Journal (Curnock ed.) 8:273, 4 December 1746; 3:301, 6 June 1747; 3:329, 1647 January 1748; and "A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists," XII.1-6, Works (Jackson ed.) 8:263-265.

755ee "A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists," XIII-XIV, Works (Jackson ed.) 8:265-267.

76"A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" XIV.2, Works (Jackson ed.) 8:266.

775ee "A Plain Account of Kingswood School," _1, Works (Jackson ed.)

13:289.

78See "A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists," XV, Works (Jackson ed.) 8:267-268.

79Outler, introductory comment, "The Use of Money" (1760, Sermon 50), Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:263.

80"The Use of Money" (1760, Sermon 50), Works (Bicentennial ed.) 2:263-280.

815ee Outler's comments in the introductory comment to "The Danger of Riches" (1781, Sermon 87), Works (Bicentennial ed.) 3:227.

825ee "The Danger of Riches" (1781, Sermon 87), Works (Bicentennial ed.) 3:228-246; "On Riches" (1788, Sermon 108), Works (Bicentennial ed.) 3:519-530; and "The Danger of Increasing Riches" (1790, Sermon 131), Works (Bicentennial ed.) 4:178-186.

830ut1er, introductory comment, "The Danger of Riches" (1781, Sermon 87), Works (Bicentennial ed.) 3:228.

84Cf. Williams, John Wesley's Theology Today, 194498; Green, John Wesley, 152-160; and Henry Carter, The Methodist Heritage (London: Epworth Press, 1951), 178487.

85Green, John Wesley, 158.

86WIlliams, John Wesley's Theology Today, 197, n. 13.

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