On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
wj&s . I am not half legal enough , not enough under the law of love . " ,. And again , in a subsequent letter to vthe same lady , February 16 , 1771 , he says ; ' * Legality , with most who use that term , really means tenderness of conscience . ' * The Methodists have
already done much good , and we have no fear of their usefulness being diminished by their preaching becoming more practical . We are glad to find that rational ideas respecting the nature of faith , are making progress among the
Methodists in Ireland ; for which they are censured by this writer . Complaining of the pharisaism of some of the preachers , he says , p . 130 , •* faith according to them , being only a
rational conviction of the great truths of revelation , and its only use to act as a spur to our endeavours to fulfil the righteousness of the law , which is to be our chief passport to heaven . ' Again ,
" The advocates for this drictrine ( and they are numerous in the Methodist connexion , ) contend that the faith which is ordained of God to be the instrument of our salvation , is essentially the same with that r < $ 1 iance which we repose upon the testimony of a man , in whose integrity we can
place implicit confidence ; the distinction between these consisting" only in the diversity of the objects which they embrace . And accommodatiHg" their language to their principles , they divide faith into human and divine : human faith is .
according to them , the assent whicrl we g-ive to human testimony ; and divine faith the assent which we g-ive to divine testimony . And they insinuate , that the one is as much the spontaneous act of the natural powers of the human mind as the other .
The evidence upon which this * divine faith is required and supposed to rest , is thai which is contained in the oracles of inspiration . But little or nothing * is either * aid or admitted respecting- the particular influence of the spirit of God , in applying " the truths of scripture to the conscience , or inspiring a conviction of their reality and importance . " P . 224 .
The following is the view of Regeneration , which this author states as entertained by some of his brethren the Methodists , and to be rapidly gaining ground among them . " They appear to believe thai every man possesses what may properly be termed « natural power to obey the divine commandments , to repent of his sin * , 4 ttfl ibeUev © the gftqptol&t hit pleasure ;
Untitled Article
the spirit of God being always Heady ( so far as his influence may be necessary , ) to co-operate with the sinner , and assist him iu the work of conversion . But it would appear , from this system of doctrine , that by far the
greater part of the work rests with the sinner himself , who , it seems , has it completely in his power to become a saint whenever he pleases ; only in consideration of the foolish and sinful habits he has long indulged , it will necessarily be a work of some time
and labour to get his heart thoroughly converted to the ways of truth and holiness . No extraordinary degree of divine influence , however , is to be expected , or is indeed supposed to be requisite to effect the great work of conversion ; and accordingly it is a
principle held by the favourers of this doctrine , * That God , prompted by his own goodness , hath already done all that he possibly can do , consistently with his own glory , for the preseut happiness and final salvation of every human creature upon earth ; and that
consequently no farther interference ot divine power or influence need be expected to effect the conversion of any individual ; although , as the divine spirit is omnipresent , an < J is in fact the primum mobile of all physical ,
intellectual , and moral power in the universe , his aid in a general way cannot be excluded , particularly as it is admitted , that * God is loving to every man , and his tendeF mercy is over all his wor | ts . '" Pp . 177—178 .
Though this writer asserts , p . 287 , that " the Methodist societies are well grounded in the fundamental and important doctrine of a trinity of persons in the Godhead ; it appears from his account at large that a dissonance oi
language is found among them respecting the divinity of Christ , and that a complete uniformity of opinion on the subject does not exist in their societies . He says , p . 288 . The generality both o { preachers and people
seem content with a general , but often very confused idea of the divinity of Christ . ' * In a note , he adds , " A preacher , who certainly has no mean opinion of his own talents and orthodoxy , was delivering a discourse from Col . i * 12—18 . He admitted that the
terms Jesus Christ applied only to the manhood of our Lord , and were descriptive of bis vicarious character , as the Saviour of the world , and the on ly
Untitled Article
i 66 Review . —Inquiry into the Methodist Societies .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1816, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2449/page/36/
-