Gospel,
“J. Fletcher.”
The third letter, to a large extent, is historical, and shows, with terrific faithfulness, that not a few of the so-called evangelical ministers and churches of a hundred years ago were far from what they should have been, and that Wesley’s “Minutes” and Fletcher’s “Checks” were greatly needed. Fletcher writes:—
“For some years, I have suspected there is more imaginary than unfeigned faith in most of those who pass for believers. With a mixture of indignation and grief, have I seen them carelessly follow the stream of corrupt nature, against which they should have manfully wrestled. When they should have exclaimed against their Antinomianism, I have heard them cry out against the legality of their wicked hearts; which, they said, still suggested they were to do something in order to salvation. Glad was I, therefore, when I had attentively considered Mr. Wesley’s ‘Minutes,’ to find they were levelled at the very errors, which gave rise to an evil I had long lamented in secret, but had wanted courage to resist and attack.”
“Do not imagine, Rev. Sir, I cry up God’s law, to drown the late cries of heresy and apostacy. I appeal to matter of fact and to your own observations. Consider the religious world, and say if ‘Antinomianism’ is not, in general, a motto better adapted to the state of professing congregations, societies, families, and individuals, than ‘Holiness unto the Lord.’
“Begin with congregations, and cast your eyes upon the hearers. In general, they have curious ‘itching ears,’ and ‘will not endure sound doctrine.’ They say they ‘will have nothing but Christ;’ and who could blame them if they would have Christ in all His offices? Christ, with all His parables and sermons, cautions and precepts, reproofs and expostulations, exhortations and threatenings? Who would find fault with them, if they would have Christ with His poverty and self-denial, His reproach and cross, His spirit and graces, His prophets and apostles, His plain apparel and mean followers? But, alas! it is not so. They will have what they please of Christ, and that too as they please. They admire Him in one chapter, and know not what to make of Him in another. If He asserts His authority as a Lawgiver, they are ready to treat Him with as little ceremony as they do Moses. If He says, ‘Keep my commandments, I am a King;’ like the Jews of old, they rise against the awful declaration; or they crown Him as a surety, the better to ‘set Him at nought’ as a monarch. If He adds to His ministers, ‘Go, and teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;’ they complain, ‘This is the law; give us the gospel, we can relish nothing but the gospel.’”
“Hence it is that some preachers must choose comfortable subjects to please their hearers; just as those, who make an entertainment for nice persons, are obliged to study what will suit their difficult taste. A multitude of important Scriptures can be produced, on which no minister, who is unwilling to lose his reputation as an evangelical preacher, must dare to speak in some pulpits, unless it is to explain away or enervate their meaning.”
“Whence springs this almost general Antinomianism of our congregations? Shall I conceal the sore because it festers in my own breast? Shall I be partial? No! In the name of Him who is no respecter of persons, I will confess my sin, and that of many of my brethren. Though I am the least and the most unworthy of them all, I will follow the dictates of my conscience, and use the authority of a minister of Christ.
“Is not the Antinomianism of hearers fomented by that of preachers? Does it not become us to take the greatest part of the blame upon ourselves, according to the old adage, ‘Like priest, like people’? Is it surprising that some of us should have an Antinomian audience? Do we not make or keep it so? When did we preach such a practical sermon as that of our Lord on the mount, or write such close letters as the epistles of St. John? Alas! I doubt it is but seldom. Not living so near to God ourselves as we should, we are afraid to come near the consciences of our people. Some prefer popularity to plain-dealing. We love to see a crowd of worldly-minded hearers, rather than a ‘little flock,’ ‘a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ Luther’s advice to Melancthon, ‘So preach that those who do not fall out of love with their sins, may fall out with thee,’ is more and more unfashionable. Under pretence of drawing our hearers by love, some of us softly rock the cradle of carnal security in which they sleep. The old Puritans strongly insisted upon personal holiness, and the first Methodists upon the new birth; but these doctrines seem to grow out of date. The Gospel is cast into another mould. People, it seems, may now be ‘in Christ’ without being ‘new creatures,’ or new creatures without casting ‘old things’ away. They may be God’s children without God’s image; and be ‘born of the Spirit’ without ‘the fruits of the Spirit.’ If our unregenerate hearers get orthodox ideas about the way of salvation in their heads, evangelical phrases concerning Jesus’ love in their mouths, and a warm zeal for our party and favourite forms in their hearts, without any more ado, we help them to rank themselves among the children of God. But, alas! this self-adoption into the family of Christ will no more pass in heaven, than self-imputation of Christ’s righteousness.”
“How few of our celebrated pulpits are there where more has not been said, at times, for sin than against it! With what an air of positiveness and assurance has that Barabbas, that murderer of Christ and souls, been pleaded for! ‘It will humble us, make us watchful, stir up our diligence, quicken our graces, endear Christ.’ That is, in plain English, pride will beget humility, sloth will spur us on to diligence, rust will brighten our armour, and unbelief, the very soul of every sinful temper, is to do the work of faith! Jesus, who cleansed the lepers with a word or a touch, cannot, with all the force of His Spirit, and virtue of His blood, expel the leprosy of sin; it is too inveterate. Death, that foul monster, the offspring of sin, shall have the important honour of killing his father. This is confidently asserted by those who cry, ‘Nothing but Christ!’ They allow Him to lop off the branches; but Death, the great Saviour Death, is to destroy the root of sin. In the meantime, the temple of God shall have agreement with idols, and Christ concord with Belial: the Lamb of God shall lie down with the roaring Lion in our heart.”