“Still let them rave, and their loud throats uprear,
As if the walls they’d crack, and split the doors;
Be not dismayed, nor aught give way to fear,
Only think this—that Mumbo Chumbo roars.”
Wesley’s publications, during the year 1765, were as follows.
1. “The Scripture Way of Salvation. A Sermon on Ephesians ii. 8.” 12mo, 22 pages. Wesley’s text, in this instance, was the same as the one he took when he preached, twenty-seven years before, his famous sermon before the Oxford university. The divisions also are substantially the same; but the discourses are different. There are no contradictions; but there are further elucidations. The sermon published in 1738 was exactly adapted to the times; and so was the sermon published in 1765. During that interval, controversies had sprung up respecting faith, repentance, and Christian perfection. Sandemanianism had become rampant, and it was become necessary to define, with great exactness, the nature of saving faith, and also the nature of repentance, and in what sense it is essential to salvation. The fanatical theories of Thomas Maxfield and George Bell had thrown all the Methodist ideas of entire sanctification into confusion; and it was of the highest importance, that Wesley should state most distinctly, not only what he meant by being entirely sanctified, but, how such a state was to be attained. These are questions which the second sermon discusses; and, in that respect, it is a most important appendix to the first. Thoroughly to understand Wesley’s doctrine, the two must be read together.
2. “The Lord our Righteousness. A Sermon preached at the chapel in West Street, Seven Dials, on Sunday, November 24, 1765.” 8vo, 36 pages. This, also, was a sermon for the times. The controversy respecting Hervey’s notions of imputed righteousness had attracted great attention. Wesley was misrepresented, and misunderstood; and the object of his sermon is to correct the errors in circulation concerning him. His two divisions are: 1. What is the righteousness of Christ? 2. When, and in what sense, is it imputed to us? Wesley most conclusively shows, that the accusations respecting his having changed his opinions are unfounded; and that, really, the difference between him and men like Hervey is merely verbal. He wrote in his journal, on the day he preached the sermon: “I said not one thing which I have not said, at least, fifty times within this twelvemonth; yet it appeared to many entirely new, who much importuned me to print my sermon, supposing it would stop the mouths of all gainsayers. Alas! for their simplicity! In spite of all I can print, say, or do, will not those who seek occasion of offence find occasion?” Well might Wesley write thus; for, though his sermon is written in language the most explicit and unmistakable, no sooner was it published than a sixpenny octavo pamphlet was issued with the title,—“A Letter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, concerning his inconsistency with himself. Occasioned by the publication of his sermon, entitled ‘The Lord our Righteousness.’” The spirit of the letter maybe surmised from the motto on the title page: “Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.”
3. “Thoughts on a Single Life.” 12mo, 11 pages. This is a queer tract; and the less Said about it the better. A man holding such sentiments had no right to have a wife; and yet Wesley declares: “My present thoughts upon a single life are just the same they have been these thirty years, and the same they must be, unless I give up my Bible.”
About the same time, another tract, of the same size, was written with the title, “Jesus altogether lovely; or, a letter to some of the single women of the Methodist society”; but, though it was sold at Wesley’s “preaching houses, in town and country,” it is far from certain that Wesley was its author. Still, it is not unlikely that one was connected with the other. At all events, both substantially aim at the same thing, namely, to show that, though marriage is not sinful, it is a high state of perfection, and the result of a great gift of God, to be able to live a single life.
In 1765, also was published, “The Christian’s Pocket Companion: consisting of select Texts of the New Testament, with suitable observations in prose and verse. By John Barnes, Carmarthen.” 372 pages. The preface to this Welsh production was written by Wesley, and is as follows: