“The fountain from which the Magistrate draws his power, for the punishment of wickedness and vice, is none other but God himself. All power, whether spiritual or temporal, is originally derived from the Supreme Monarch of the world, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords. Since, therefore, every Power, whether it be supreme or subordinate, does primarily and originally derive all its authority from above, surely the gift of God ought to be used to His honour and glory. Authority is a sacred thing, of divine original, and, therefore, as it may not be resisted by subjects without danger of damnation, so neither may it be lightly neglected, nor wantonly misapplied by those entrusted with it; lest they provoke that God to anger, who putteth down one Ruler, and setteth up another” (p. 17).
Again,—
“Wickedness is grown to such a head in the world,—immorality and profaneness are become so epidemical among us, that, it is much to be feared, nothing but discipline and wholesome rigour can prove a cure for it. The infection of vice is extended so far and wide, and the contagion of sin spreads so prodigiously fast, that it seems necessary to use severe methods towards the corrupted parts, if we hope either to recover them, or to save those that are as yet untouched with the disease. God knows, the flagrant impiety of our days, the excessive corruption of these dregs of time,—this rust of the iron age, into which we are fallen,—is such as every good man must complain of, and for which charity itself can find no sufficient excuse or extenuation” (p. 7).
Advocates of political expediency may object to these high-toned sentiments; but there are still a few who have old-fashioned hardihood enough to exclaim with the Psalmist, “Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” (Psalm xciv. 16).
The friendship between Clayton and the Wesley brothers was unbroken until the latter departed from Church usages, and became out-door evangelists. In 1735, when urged by Oglethorpe and others to go to Georgia, Wesley, not only sought advice from his brother Samuel and William Law, but went to Manchester to consult with Clayton and others whose judgment he respected; and, six weeks after his return from the Georgian colony, we find him spending several days with his old Oxford friend. He writes:—
“1738. March 15. I set out” (from Oxford) “for Manchester, with Mr. Kinchin, Fellow of Corpus Christi, and Mr. Fox, late a prisoner in the city prison. Friday, the 17th, we spent entirely with Mr. Clayton, by whom, and the rest of our friends here, we were much refreshed and strengthened. Mr. Hoole, the Rector of St. Ann’s church, being taken ill the next day, on Sunday, 19th, Mr. Kinchin and I officiated at Salford chapel in the morning, by which means Mr. Clayton was at liberty to perform the service of St. Ann’s; and, in the afternoon, I preached there on those words of St Paul, ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.’”[38]
Two months after the date of this extract from his journal, Wesley, ceasing to rely on the merit of his own good works, and trusting solely for salvation in the infinitely meritorious sacrifice of Christ, experienced an amazing change. His own words must be quoted. After relating that, for “above ten years,” he had “dragged on heavily,” “trusting to his own works and his own righteousness,” “in a refined way, zealously inculcated by the mystic writers,”[39] he remarks:—
“1738. May 24. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. 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.”[40]
This was the turning point in Wesley’s history. Hitherto, like his friend Clayton, he had hoped to be saved by works; now he was saved by faith. This new experience confirmed his new conceptions of gospel truth, and he began to preach accordingly. He insisted upon good works as much as ever; but he henceforth taught, that man is saved, not by these, but by faith in Christ only. His new doctrine was the means of his being shut out of churches; and this led to his preaching in the open air; and the whole resulted in a rupture of the friendship between him and Clayton, who, so far as there is evidence to show, went on to the end of life, as he and Wesley had begun at Oxford,—a sincere, earnest, self-denying, devout, and laborious Pharisee, trusting in his own righteousness, instead of trusting solely in Christ Jesus.