Germany.

And what, in this

critical instance,

did John Wesley chiefly learn? This is a point, which I wish all his followers understood clearly; and, I must add, which I wish he himself could have opened out as consistently, as he has, here and there, expressed it happily.

He learned, then, in my mind, simply this, that there is a divine plan for making man holy; and that, therefore, in that way only, holiness can be sought effectually. He knew before, most exactly, that the essence of holiness is, the love of God, rooted in the heart, as its master affection; but, he imagined, that he must seek this in itself, immediately, by aiming at the exercise of love; by thinking over motives of love; by laborious abstraction from outward things, and painful combating with his own corruptions and weaknesses. But, at the moment I refer to, he learned, that love could never grow out of this self-impelling mechanism, any more than blowing with bellows would light a fire; that the one only root of love was, faith, a grace wrought in us by Omnipotence, and, therefore, to be implored, and waited for, and panted after; but, never to be self-manufactured; that, therefore, his one business was, to obtain faith from God; that this, when wrought, would speak for itself; and, in proportion, as it was divinely wrought, would surmount every thing, facilitate every thing, be pregnant with every thing.

"By salvation," says John Wesley, "I mean, a present deliverance from sin; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls, after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness; in justice, mercy, and truth. Now, without faith,

we cannot be thus saved; for we cannot rightly serve God, unless we love him; and we cannot love him, unless we know him; neither can we know God, but by faith. Therefore, salvation by faith, is only, in other words, the love of God, by the knowledge of God; or the true recovery of the image of God, by a true spiritual acquaintance with him."

This, then, is John Wesley's view of first principles; to which is only to be added, that this faith can be obtained by prayer only; and the object which it reveals with the deepest effect, on us, depraved, weak, sensitive creatures, as we are, is God manifest in the flesh, -a view of the divine Redeemer, as living, acting, teaching, dying, rising, reigning, and, now, our ever-present friend and benefactor; the shepherd of our souls, the elder brother of our spirits, the king of our hearts; (but, I would say, dying, with peculiar emphasis; because, to know the crucified Redeemer aright, must crucify us to the world, and the world to us). Such a view, I say, of this transcendent object, as begets predominant love, is the faith by which our paralysed souls are reanimated, our worldly minds made heavenly; for Jesus Christ is all excellence, and to love him truly, is, to love all that is worth loving in the universe. It is the tuning of the heart,— the fitting it for the universal concert.

Now, this view of John Wesley, connects faith so directly, and exclusively, with holiness, as to make the former, nothing but the root, and principle, of the latter. But, the grand point is, that it teaches how to become holy, in the briefest and simplest way. "Would you be freed from the bondage of corruption; would you grow in grace,

in

grace

in general, or in any grace in particular? If you would, your way is plain; -ask from God more faith; beg of him morning, noon, and night, while you walk by the way, while you sit in the house, when you lie down, and when you rise up; beg of him, simply, to impress divine things more deeply on your heart, to give you more and more of the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This is John Wesley's central lesson; and it never was, it never can be, excelled. It is astonishing, from how many labyrinths of perplexed, and thorny theology, this simple view, at once, relieves. Who can miscarry, whose habit it is, thus to go, continually, to God; to ask, what God is so willing to bestow, and which, when granted, cannot but be effectual?

In teaching this doctrine, I conceive, John Wesley has formed the true junction, between foundation and superstructural principles; and he, who, with this key-stone truth, employs as much of his leisure as he can, in reading those, whom Mr. Wesley has described as teachers of sanctification, and adds thereto, constant watchfulness, and the prayer of the closet and the heart, cannot fail to go on, from strength to strength.

This, then, I deem the vital spirit of John Wesley's true mission. The catching this does not depend, on embracing his outward system of societies, and classes, and bands. Nay, his outward system may lose this vital spirit, without suspecting it. Therefore it is, that I would recommend such a preference of this one thing, as would imply, not dereliction of, but, certainly, independence on, any outward system whatever.

I need add no more: you yourself will connect, with these last observations, several things I have said in the foregoing pages; to retrace which, explicitly, would be needless to you, and is, at this moment, out of my power, having only time to add, that I am, most truly and cordially,

September 25. 1807.

Yours,

ALEXANDER KNOX.

166

UNFINISHED LETTER TO JOSEPH BUTTERWORTH, ESQ.

MY DEAR MR. BUTTERWORTH,

Dawson Street, Sept. 3. 1808.

YOUR letter of the 8th ult. would have been highly acceptable to me, if it had not told me of your accident, and confinement. In addition to what you then said, of your prospect of recovery, I was glad to hear, since, from Mr. Cooke, that you were clearly mending, and had laid aside your crutches.

I should have been very sorry you had not consulted your own convenience, in the matter of returning the letter.' I have been solicitous, only, that it should not be lost; as my thoughts, when once registered on any subject of importance, become valuable to me, were it only that I may know, what I did think, at such a time, on such a point. From some such records, I am now able to ascertain, to myself, that, though I have been as busy a thinker as most people, my mind has always adhered to the same radical principles, and that changes in me have either been circumstantial, or merely progressive; I should also say, perhaps, expansive. But, certainly, in no essential point, do I seem to myself to have veered about, from the age of eighteen, to the present hour. My conduct varied much, from that time, until I was thirty-nine, but not my principles; and

1 Of Sept. 25. 1807.