“1756, October 7th.—I rode on to Aberford. My old friend, Mr. Ingham, was labouring in the vineyard; but I had the happiness to find Lady Margaret at home, and their son Ignatius. She informed me, that, his round takes in about four hundred miles; that, he has six fellow-labourers, and one thousand souls in his Societies, most of them, converted. I sincerely rejoiced in his success. Ignatius was hardly pacified at my not preaching. We passed an hour and a half very profitably, and set out again.”
The Rev. William Romaine, also, became one of Ingham’s frequent visitors, and was received by him and Lady Margaret with every mark of respect and affectionate attention. Indeed, at a period when Romaine’s stipend was quite inadequate to provide sustenance for his family, his necessities were often liberally met by Lady Ingham’s bounty. Ingham sometimes accompanied him in his preaching excursions into several parts of the county of Durham; Romaine preaching wherever he obtained a church, and Ingham in the Methodist Chapels and private houses. Long after this, Romaine remarked in reference to Ingham’s societies,—
“If ever there was a Church of Christ upon earth, that was one. I paid them a visit, and had a great mind to join them. There was a blessed work of God among that people, till that horrid blast from the north came upon them and destroyed all.”
This horrid northern blast must be explained. In 1755, Hervey published his “Theron and Aspasio,” in three octavo volumes. In 1757, Robert Sandeman issued an elaborate reply, in two volumes octavo, entitled, “Letters on Theron and Aspasio, addressed to the Author of that Work.” Very erroneous were some of the views of Sandeman, but, all who have read his publication must admit that he was a man of considerable ability. His work, however, was blemished, not only by heterodox expositions of holy Scripture, but by severe attacks on the chief evangelical preachers and authors of the day. A furious controversy succeeded; and a large number of pamphlets and tracts bearing on the subject were printed. Sandeman’s volumes themselves were in great demand, and, in less than five years, three editions of them were published. His principal doctrine, from which all his other erroneous teachings sprang, was his doctrine of Christian faith. Hervey, Whitefield, Erskine, and others, substantially acquiesced in Wesley’s definition, namely, “Christian faith is not only an assent to the whole gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ; a trust in the merits of His life, death, and resurrection; a recumbency on Him as our atonement and our life, as given for us, and living in us.” Perhaps it would sound less sectarian to say, that the whole of these distinguished men held the doctrine of the Homilies of the Church of England: “The right and true Christian faith is, not only to believe, that holy Scripture and the articles of our faith are true, but also, to have a sure trust and confidence, to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ; whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey His commandments.” Or, again; a man’s “sure trust and confidence in God, that, by the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God.” “Three things must go together in our justification. Upon God’s part, His great mercy and grace; upon Christ’s part, the satisfaction of God’s justice, by the offering His body and shedding His blood, with fulfilling the law perfectly and thoroughly; and upon our part, true and lively faith in the merits of Jesus Christ. So that, in our justification, there is not only God’s mercy and grace, but His justice also. And so the grace of God doth not shut out the righteousness of God in our justification; but only shutteth out the righteousness of man; that is to say, the righteousness of our works. And, therefore, St. Paul declareth nothing on the behalf of man concerning his justification, but only a true and living faith, which itself is the gift of God. And yet that faith doth not shut out repentance, hope, love, and the fear of God, to be joined with faith in every man that is justified. But it shutteth them out from the office of justifying. So that although they be all present together in him that is justified; yet they justify not altogether.” (Homilies of the Church of England.)
Sandeman’s views were widely different, as a few extracts from his book will show:—
“Every doctrine which teaches us to do, or endeavour any thing toward our acceptance with God, stands opposed to the doctrine of the Apostles; which, instead of directing us what to do, sets before us all that the most disquieted conscience can require, in order to acceptance with God, as already done and finished by Jesus Christ. What Christ has done, is that which pleases God; what He hath done, is that which quiets the guilty conscience of man as soon as he knows it; so that, whenever he hears of it, he has no occasion for any other question but this, ‘Is it true or not?’ If he finds it true, he is happy; if not, he can reap no comfort by it. If, then, we slight the comfort arising from the bare persuasion of this, it must be owing, at bottom, to our slighting this bare truth, and to our slighting the bare work of Christ, and our considering it as too narrow a foundation whereon to rest the whole of our acceptance with God.” (Vol. i., p. 17.)
“Whatever doctrine teaches us to think, that our acceptance with God is begun by our own good endeavours, seconded by Divine aid, or even first prompted by the Divine influence, leads us to look for acceptance with God by our own righteousness; for whatever I do, however assisted or prompted, is still my own work. Aspasio tells us, ‘Faith is a real persuasion that Christ died for me.’ This account of faith somewhat resembles the arch of a bridge thrown over a river, having the one end settled on a rock, and the other on sand or mud. That Christ died, is indeed a truth fully ascertained in the Scriptures; that Christ died for me, is a point not so easily settled. This is a point which the Scripture nowhere ascertains; so far from it, that it often affirms the final perdition of many, not merely hearers of the gospel, but who have heard and received it with joy; yea of those who have made such progress, that their only deficiency is, that their fruit came not to perfection.” (Ibid. p. 20.)
“Men are justified by the knowledge of a righteousness finished in the days of Tiberius; and this knowledge operates upon them, and leads them to work righteousness.” (Vol. ii., p. 190.)
“The change made upon a man by the gospel, is called repentance unto life,—a change of a man’s mind to love the truth, which always carries in it a sense of shame and regret at his former opposition to it.” (Ibid. p. 193.)
“No man can be assured, that his sins are forgiven him, but in as far as he is freed from the service of sin, and led to work righteousness; for the favour of God can only be enjoyed in studying to do those things which are well pleasing in His sight.” (Ibid. p. 194.)