“True believers are too apt to live by other things than by Christ alone. It is the duty of every believer to keep the faith, and constantly to live by believing in Christ. This is a lesson not soon or easily learned. To keep the faith, in opposition to the natural propensity which is in us all, to live by our own righteousness, or something of our own, is the principal part of the Christian warfare. It is like the pendulum in a clock, which moves all the wheels. If the pendulum stops, then the whole clock stands. All our strength to obey flows from believing in Christ.” (p. 185.)
“All the heavenly frames, sweet sensations, manifestations of God’s love, all the joys and comforts, are all and each of them valuable blessings, for which God’s people should be thankful; but they should not live by them, but by Christ. All the works and duties of believers, which are done in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, are pleasing to God; all the doctrines revealed in the book of God ought to be regarded and believed; the promises, threatenings, and precepts of the word of God should be used as the Lord Jesus used them when He was on earth; all the ordinances and means of grace should be conscientiously observed; but believers are not to make a Christ of any of these things, nor to live by them, but by Christ Himself.” (p. 188.)
These extracts are long, but they serve to exhibit Ingham’s views of the way of a sinner’s salvation. Substantially, they are the same as Sandeman’s, and were doubtless derived from him. One cannot but regret that Ingham suffered himself to be led astray by the hazy dogmatisms of the new Scottish sect, instead of adhering to the Scriptural views of his friend Wesley.[117] Of his sincerity there cannot be a doubt; but, in trying to make the salvation of a sinner more simple, he made it vastly more dubious and difficult. How different were these misty speculations to the plain, straightforward teachings of the Methodists! Their adoption by the truly converted and godly societies, raised up by Ingham and his friends, was a fatal error, and renders it no matter of regret, that, societies espousing and propagating such principles gradually dwindled, and nearly became extinct.
Before taking our leave of Ingham’s book, a few lines may be added concerning its general merits, apart from its doctrinal heresies; and these shall be given as an extract from a review, written by Samuel Drew, the able and honest editor of the Imperial Magazine, for 1823. After adverting to Ingham’s doctrinal peculiarities, Mr. Drew proceeds:—
“Notwithstanding these blemishes, Mr. Ingham’s treatise contains innumerable excellencies, fully entitling it to the patronage which has carried it through four editions. Though Faith and Hope form its distinguishing characteristics, the practical part of religion is not forgotten. This the author enforces by a variety of motives, and warns his readers against the rock of Antinomianism on which thousands have struck to rise no more. The language is simple and unadorned; it discovers spirit without acrimony, and never degenerates into reproaches when he reprehends the sentiments of others. On all occasions, he seems far more intent upon what he says, than upon the manner in which it is said, invariably paying a greater regard to truth, than to any fame which might be purchased, by disregarding this jewel, while hunting after the flowers of diction.”
Ingham’s active and useful work was now nearly ended. In 1762, on the re-settlement of affairs, he was chosen elder of the Church at Tadcaster, which office, in addition to that of general overseer, he sustained to the end of life; but the labours of himself and his coadjutors resulted in small success. On July 23rd, 1766, Wesley wrote:—
“I went to Tadcaster. Here Mr. Ingham had once a far larger society than ours; but it has now shrunk into nothing; ours, meantime, is continually increasing.”
The state of his societies greatly affected poor Ingham’s mind. The well-informed author of the “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” remarks, “The almost total dispersion of the Yorkshire Churches, caused by the introduction of the Sandemanian principles, had a sad effect on Mr. Ingham’s mind. He was liable to sudden transitions from the highest flow of spirits to the utmost depression, and the peculiar character of his temperament was an extreme accessibility to sudden attacks of melancholy.” The thing which he had “greatly feared had come upon him.” He was deserted by his spiritual children, and the thought distressed him. “I am lost! I am lost! was his despairing cry.” It is true, that, there were gleams of comfort. Lady Huntingdon’s letters were soothing to his anguished spirit. “A thousand and a thousand times,” he tells her, “do I bless and praise my God, for the words of comfort and consolation which your ladyship’s letters conveyed to my mournful heart, dismayed and overwhelmed as it was by the pressure of my calamities. ‘Righteous art Thou, O Lord, and just are Thy judgments.’”
This was but the beginning of his sorrows. One of his beloved and faithful friends was the laborious and devoted Grimshaw. In the early part of the year 1763, Haworth was visited with a malignant putrid fever, and, among its many victims, Grimshaw was one. At great risk, Ingham repeatedly visited the Christian veteran in his fatal illness; and, afterwards, gave to Lady Huntingdon, the following account of his several interviews:—
“From the moment he was seized with the fever, he felt the sentence of death in himself. When I first saw him, he said, ‘My last enemy is come! the signs of death are upon me, but I am not afraid. No! No! Blessed be God, my hope is sure, and I am in His hands.’ When I was pouring out my soul in prayer to the Lord, I mentioned the further prolongation of his life, that he might have more opportunities of being useful; and when I had concluded, he said, ‘My dear brother Ingham, if the Lord should raise me up, I think I could do more for His glory than I have hitherto done. Alas! what have my wretched services been? and I have now need to cry, at the close of my unprofitable course—God be merciful to me a sinner!’ At my next visit, I found him much worse, and evidently sinking. I mentioned having received a letter from your ladyship, and delivered your message. He seemed much affected, but, after a few moments, revived a little. When I had prayed with him, he said, ‘I harbour no desire of life,—my time is come,—and I am entirely resigned to God.’ Then, lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven, he added, ‘Thy will be done!’ At another time, he said, laying his hand upon his breast, ‘I am quite exhausted, but I shall soon be at home for ever with the Lord—a poor miserable sinner redeemed by His blood.’ Mr. Venn having arrived, I shortly after took my leave, but never after saw my dear brother Grimshaw alive.”