the quick and the dead. This the devils believe; and so they believe all that is written in the Old and New Testaments. And yet still, for all this faith, they are but devils; they remain still in their damnable estate, lacking the true Christian faith.

9. The true Christian faith is not only to believe the Holy Scriptures 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. And this faith neither any devil hath, nor any wicked man.

No ungodly man hath or can have this sure trust and confidence in God, that by the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven and he reconciled to the favor of God."

10. This is what I believe (and have believed for some years) concerning justification by faith alone. I have chose to express it in the words of a little treatise published several years ago, as being the most authentic proof, both of my past and present sentiments. If I err herein, let those who are better informed calmly point out my error to me, and I trust I shall not shut my eyes against the light, from whatsoever side it comes.

11. The second thing laid to my charge is that I believe sinless perfection. I will simply declare what I do believe concerning this also, and leave unprejudiced men to judge.

12. My last and most deliberate thoughts on this head were published but a few months since, in these words:

(1) "Perhaps the general prejudice against Christian perfection may chiefly arise from a misapprehension of the nature of it. We willingly allow, and continually declare, there is no such perfection in this life as implies either a dispensation from doing good and attending all the ordinances of God, or a freedom from ignorance, mistake, temptation, and a thousand infirmities necessarily connected with flesh and blood.

(2) "First. We not only allow, but earnestly contend, that there is no perfection in this life which implies any dispensation from attending all the ordinances of God, or from 'doing good unto all men, while we have time,' though 'specially unto the household of faith.' We believe that not only the babes in Christ who have newly found redemption in his blood, but those also who are 'grown up into perfect men,' are indispensably obliged, as often as they have opportunity, 'to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of him,' and to 'search the Scriptures;' by fasting, as well as temperance, to 'keep their bodies under, and bring them into subjection;' and, above all, to pour out their souls in prayer, both secretly and in the great congregation.

(3) "We, secondly, believe, that there is no such perfection in this life as implies an entire deliverance, either from ignorance or mistake, in things not essential to salvation, or from manifold temptations, or from numberless infirmities wherewith the corruptible body more or less presses down the soul. We cannot find any ground in Scripture to suppose that any inhabitant of a house of clay is wholly

exempt, either from bodily infirmities or from ignorance of many things; or to imagine any is incapable of mistake, or falling into divers temptations.

(4) "But whom then do you mean by one that is perfect?' We mean one in whom is the mind which was in Christ,' and who so 'walketh as Christ walked ;' a 'man that hath clean hands and a pure heart,' or that is 'cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit;' one in whom is no occasion of stumbling,' and who accordingly 'doth not commit sin.' To declare this a little more particularly: We understand by that scriptural expression, 'a perfect man,' one in whom God hath fulfilled his faithful word, 'From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you: I will also save you from all your uncleannesses.' We understand hereby one whom God hath 'sanctified throughout, in body, soul, and spirit;' one who 'walketh in the light as he is in the light, in whom is no darkness at all; the blood of Jesus Christ his Son having cleansed him from all sin.'

(5) "This man can now testify to all mankind, 'I am crucified with Christ: Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' He is 'holy, as God who called him is holy,' both in heart and 'in all manner of conversation.' He 'loveth the Lord his God with all his heart,' and serveth him 'with all his strength.' He 'loveth his neighbor,' every man, 'as himself;' yea, as Christ loveth us;' them, in particular, that 'despitefully use him and persecute him, because they know not the Son, neither the Father.' Indeed, his soul is all love, filled with 'bowels of mercies, kindness, meekness, gentleness, long-suffering.' And his life agreeth thereto, full of the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labor of love.' And whatsoever he doeth, either in word or deed, he doeth it all in the name,' in the love

and power of the Lord Jesus.' In a word, he doeth 'the will of God on earth,

as it is done in heaven.'

(6) "This it is to be a perfect man,' to be sanctified throughout; even 'to have a heart so all-flaming with the love of God,' to use Archbishop Usher's words, 'as continually to offer up every thought, word, and work as a spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God through Christ.' In every thought of our hearts, in every word of our tongues, in every work of our hands, to 'show forth his praise, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.' O that both we and all who seek the Lord Jesus in sincerity may thus 'be made perfect in one!'"

13. If there be any thing unscriptural in these words, any thing wild or extravagant, any thing contrary to the analogy of faith or the experience of adult Christians, let them "smite me friendly and reprove me," let them impart to me of the clearer light God has given them. How knowest thou, O man, "but thou mayest gain thy brother;" but he may at length come to the knowledge of the truth; and thy labor of love, shown forth with meekness of wisdom, may not be in vain ?

14. There remains yet another charge against me, that I believe inconsistencies; that my tenets, particularly concerning justification, are contradictory to themselves; that Mr. Wesley, "since his return from Germany, has improved in the spirit of inconsistency." "For then he published two treatises of Dr. Barnes, the Calvinist, or Dominican rather, who suffered in 1541

(let us spare the ashes of the dead. Were I such a Dominican as he was, I should rejoice too to die in the flames); "the first on justification by faith only,' the other on the sinfulness of man's natural will and his utter inability to do works acceptable to God, until he be justified.' Which principles, if added to his former tenets" (nay, they need not be added to them, for they are the very same), "will give the whole a new vein of inconsistency, and make the contradictions more gross and glaring than before."

15. It will be necessary to speak more largely on this head.

16. (1) It is "asserted that Mr. Law's system was the creed of the Methodists." But it is not proved. I had been eight years at Oxford before I read any of Mr. Law's writings, and when I did I was so far from making them my creed that I had objections to almost every page. But all this time my manner was to spend several hours a day in reading the Scripture in the original tongues. And hence my system, so termed, was wholly drawn, according to the light I then had.

17. It was in my passage to Georgia I met with those teachers who would have taught me the way of God more perfectly. But I understood them not. Neither on my arrival there did they infuse any particularities into me, either about justification or any thing else. For I came back with the same notions I went. And this I have explicitly acknowledged in my second journal, where some of my words are these: "When Peter Böhler, as soon as I came to London, affirmed of true faith in Christ (which is but one), that it had these two fruits inseparably attending it, 'dominion over sin and constant peace from a sense of forgiveness,' I was quite amazed, and looked upon it as a new gospel. If this was so, it was clear I had no faith. But I was not willing to be convinced of this. Therefore I disputed with all my might and labored to prove that faith might be where these were not, especially where that sense of forgiveness was not, for all the Scriptures relating to this I had been long since taught to construe away, and to call all Presbyterians who spoke otherwise. Besides, I well saw no one could (in the nature of things) have such a sense of forgiveness and not feel it. But I felt it not. If then there was no faith without this, all my pretensions to faith dropped at once." Vol. iii, p. 73.

18. (2) Yet it was not Peter Böhler who convinced me that conversion (I mean justification) was an instantaneous work. On the contrary, when I was convinced of the nature and fruits

of justifying faith, still "I could not comprehend what he spoke of an instantaneous work. I could not understand how this faith should be given in a moment; how a man could at once be thus turned from darkness to light, from sin and misery to righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost. I searched the Scriptures again, touching this very thing, particularly the Acts of the Apostles. But to my utter astonishment I found scarce any instances there of other than instantaneous conversion; scarce any others so slow as that of St. Paul, who was three days in the pangs of the new birth. I had but one retreat left, namely, Thus, I grant, God wrought in the first ages of Christianity, but the times are changed. What reason have I to believe he works

in the same manner now?'

"But on Sunday, 22, I was beat out of this retreat too by the concurring evidence of several living witnesses, who testified God had thus wrought in themselves, giving them in a moment such a faith in the blood of his Son as translated them out of darkness into light, out of sin and fear into holiness and happiness. Here ended my disputing. I could now only cry out, *Lord, help thou my unbelief!'" (Vol. iii, p. 66.) The remaining part of this section, with the third and fourth, contain my own words, to which I still subscribe.

OF THE ASSURANCE OF JUSTIFICATION.

19. I believe that "conversion," meaning thereby justification, is an instantaneous work, and that the moment a man has living faith in Christ he is converted or justified: which faith he cannot have without knowing that he has it.

I believe the moment a man is justified he has peace with God: which he cannot have without knowing that he has it.

Read the words of Michael Linner:

"About fourteen years ago I was more than ever convinced that I was wholly different from what God required me to be. I consulted his word again and again, but it spoke nothing but condemnation; till at last I could not read, nor indeed do any thing else, having no hope and no spirit left in me. I had been in this state for several days when, being musing by myself, those words came strongly into my mind, 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that all who believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' I thought, 'All! Then I am one. Then he is given for me. But I am a sinner, and he came to save sinners.' Immediately my burden dropped off, and my heart was at rest.

"But the full assurance of faith I had not yet, nor for the two years I continued in Moravia. When I was driven out thence by the Jesuits I retired hither, and was soon after received into the church. And here, after some time, it pleased our

Lord to manifest himself more clearly to my soul, and give me that full sense of acceptance in him which excludes all doubt and fear.

"Indeed, the leading of the Spirit is different in different souls. His more usual method, I believe, is to give, in one and the same moment, forgiveness of sins, and a full assurance of that forgiveness. Yet in many he works as he did in me, giving first the remission of sins, and after some weeks, or months, or years, the full assurance of it." (Vol. iii, p. 91.)

All I need observe is that the first sense of forgiveness is often mixed with doubt or fear. But the full assurance of faith excludes all doubt and fear, as the very term implies.

Therefore (to agree with Michael Linner's words), “He may not have till long after the full assurance of faith, which excludes all doubt and fear."

I believe a man is justified at the same time that he is born of God.

And he that is born of God sinneth not.

Which deliverance from sin he cannot have without knowing that he has it.

ADVICE TO THE PEOPLE CALLED METHODISTS.

Disce, docendus adhuc quæ censet amiculus.-HOR.

["To the instruction of an humble friend,

Who would himself be better taught, attend.”—FRANCIS.]

Ir may be needful to specify whom I mean by this ambiguous term, since it would be lost labor to speak to Methodists, so called, without first describing those to whom I speak.

By Methodists I mean a people who profess to pursue (in whatsoever measure they have attained) holiness of heart and life, inward and outward conformity in all things to the revealed will of God; who place religion in a uniform resemblance of the great object of it, in a steady imitation of Him they worship, in all his imitable perfections, more particularly in justice, mercy, and truth, or universal love filling the heart and governing the life.

You to whom I now speak believe this love of human kind cannot spring but from the love of God. You think there can be no instance of one whose tender affection embraces every child of man (though not endeared to him either by ties of blood or by any natural or civil relation), unless that affection flow from a grateful, filial love to the common Father of all; to God, considered not only as his Father, but as "the Father of the spirits of all flesh; yea, as the general Parent and Friend of all the

families both of heaven and earth.