Notes:
Sermon 37: The Nature of Enthusiasm
With SOSO, 1-36, the barebones of Wesley’s doctrine of salvation had been exposed and his understanding of the imperatives of grace expounded. The logical next step was a stocktaking of the impact of the Methodist Revival within the Church of England and a positive delineation of the terms for a fruitful coexistence of the Methodists with the ecclesiastical establishment. Nos. 37-39 are designed, at least in part, to aid this process of what Wesley intended as a sort of mutual accommodation.
Very early on in the Revival the Methodists had been tagged with the label ‘enthusiasts’, which was reason enough for them to be deplored, since to eighteenth-century English ears, ‘enthusiasm’ had long been a near synonym for ‘fanaticism’. Sober men recalled the excesses of Cromwell’s Commonwealth, the disruptive claims of the Quakers, Ranters, and others, to superior illuminations and sanctity. Lord Shaftesbury, in 1711, had included ‘A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm’ in Vol. I of his Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, in which he held up enthusiasms, ancient and modern, to lighthearted contempt. The Methodists, then, were obvious targets for scorn with their claims of assurance and their irregular ways of worship. Their critics varied from moderate and serious men like Josiah Tucker and Joseph Trapp to intemperate pamphleteers such as those listed in Richard Green’s Anti-Methodist Publications; and, always, the main charge was enthusiasm; cf. Umphrey Lee, Historical Backgrounds of Early Methodist Enthusiasm, and Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm, chs. xvii-xxi. Henry Moore, in his Life of John Wesley (1826), I.464, reports a bitter exchange between Wesley and Joseph Butler (the ablest intellect in the Anglican hierarchy) on August 18, 1739, in which Butler had expressed his horror of what he regarded as Wesley’s presumptions: ‘Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations, and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing—a very horrid thing.’ Shortly, another bishop, Edmund Gibson of London, the Church’s greatest canonist, would be warning his people against Methodist ‘enthusiasm’ (A Pastoral Letter to the People of His Diocese… 02:045 By Way of Caution Against Lukewarmness on the one hand and Enthusiasm on the Other). In October, the Vicar of Furneaux Pelham, the Revd. Charles Wheatly, an eminent liturgist, would describe the Methodists to his audience in St. Paul’s Cathedral as ‘rapturous enthusiasts’ (St. John’s Test of Knowing Christ… A Sermon…Designed as a Support to Good Christians Against the Discouragements of some New Enthusiasts). George Whitefield was a more vulnerable target here than Wesley, but they were blurred together in their critics’ minds; and in any case the issue was larger than the individuals involved. Six years and a hundred pamphlets later, the Vicar of Battersea, the Revd. Thomas Church, had published some Remarks on the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Last Journal, in which he anticipated Dr. Johnson’s definition of enthusiasm as ‘a vain confidence of divine favour’ and classified Wesley and his people under this sign (cf. Wesley’s Answer to Mr. Church’s Remarks, also 1745). In 1749 an anonymous blast would come from the Bishop of Exeter, George Lavington, The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists Compared; this lent official sanction to the rumours about some sort of affinity between the Methodist sectaries and the Roman Catholic heretics and traitors.
Obviously, what the Methodists and others needed rather badly was a calm and constructive restatement of the issue. ‘The Nature of Enthusiasm’ is Wesley’s contribution to this need in these circumstances. There are only two reports of Wesley’s having preached from Acts 26:24 before 1750 (May 30, 1741, and May 1, 1747) and there is nothing quite like Wesley’s argument here in his earlier replies to Church, Gibson, and others. He had, however, already formulated his basic definition of enthusiasm, as one may see from the Journal entry for January 17, 1739: ‘I was with two persons who I doubt [i.e., think] are properly enthusiasts. For, first, they think to attain the end without the means, which is enthusiasm, properly so called. Again, they think themselves inspired by God, and are not. But false, imaginary inspiration is enthusiasm…. it contradicts the law and the testimony [i.e., the Scriptures].’
The following sermon is an exercise in irony. Wesley does not propose to rehabilitate the term, nor defend himself. Instead, he chooses to take his critics’ own premise that enthusiasm is ‘false confidence’ and argue from that to a different conclusion: that the really serious case of false confidence is to be seen in the ‘almost Christian’ who regards himself as something he is not. The ‘men of reason’ had equated enthusiasm and fanaticism; Wesley suggests that the real equation is with nominal 02:046Christianity. He goes on to probe more deeply, and includes those charismatics ‘who imagine God dictates the very words they speak, pointing out that “God has given us our own reason for a guide, though never excluding the secret assistance of his Spirit”.’ In this way he seeks to clear himself and his people from a clutter of misunderstandings, to blunt the reckless charges of his detractors, and to provide his readers, then and now, with a useful guide for evaluating their claims as to the inner witness of the Spirit and their own assurance of God’s favour. It makes this sermon an interesting digression in the unfolding exposition of the Wesleyan vision of the ordo salutis and sets the stage for ‘A Caution against Bigotry’, for a commendation of ‘Catholic Spirit’, and a preparation for the climax of the whole progression: the sermon on Christian Perfection. The sermon was reprinted as a pamphlet in 1755, 1778, and 1789; for its publishing history and a list of variant reading, see Appendix, Vol. 4 of this edn.
The Nature of EnthusiasmActs 26:24
And Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself.
11. And so say all the world, the men who know not God, of all that are of Paul’s religion, of everyone who is so a follower of him as he was of Christ. It is true there is a sort of religion—nay, and it is called Christianity too—which may be practised without any such imputation, which is generally allowed to be consistent with common sense. That is, a religion of form, a round of outward duties performed in a decent, regular manner. You may add orthodoxy thereto, a system of right opinions; yea, and some quantity of heathen morality. And yet not many will pronounce that ‘much religion hath made you mad.’
Cf. Acts 26:24.
See below, §10; and No. 25, ‘Sermon on the Mount, V’, IV.13 and n.
Rom. 14:17.
202:0472. And it is no compliment which the men of the world pay you herein. They for once mean what they say. They not only affirm but cordially believe that every man is beside himself who says the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him,
See Rom. 5:5.
1 Pet. 1:8.
See Rom. 6:11.
See Heb. 11:27.
See 2 Cor. 5:7.
33. It is easy to observe that the determinate thing which the world accounts madness is that utter contempt of all temporal things, and steady pursuit of things eternal; that divine conviction of things not seen;
See Heb. 11:1.
See Rom. 8:16.
44. They will, however, allow [that] in other respects the man acts and talks like one in his senses. In other things he is a reasonable man: ’tis in these instances only his head is touched. It is therefore acknowledged that the madness under which he labours is of a particular kind. And accordingly they are accustomed to distinguish it by a particular name—enthusiasm.
Cf. the long entry on ‘Enthusiasm’ in Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, particularly Chambers’s denial of the validity of the claims of ‘enthusiasts’ to superior insight by virtue of ‘immediate revelation’. But see also Theophilus Evans, The History of Modern Enthusiasm from the Reformation on to the Present Times (1st edn., 1752; 2nd edn., 1757), and his thesis that ‘a pretence to extraordinary revelation has always been the criterion of an enthusiastic brain…’ (Pref., ii). Cf. also Johnson, Dictionary: ‘A vain belief of private revelation, a vain confidence of divine favour or communication.’ He cites Locke: ‘Enthusiasm is founded neither on reason nor divine revelation but rises from the conceits of a warmed or overweening brain.’
55. A term this which is exceeding frequently used, which is scarce ever out of some men’s mouths. And yet it is exceeding rarely understood, even by those who use it most. It may be therefore not unacceptable to serious men, to all who desire to understand what they speak or hear, if I endeavour to explain the meaning of this term, to show what ‘enthusiasm’ is. It may be an encouragement to those who are unjustly charged therewith; and may possibly be of use to some who are justly charged with it—at 02:048least to others who might be so were they not cautioned against it.
66. As to the word itself, it is generally allowed to be of Greek extraction. But whence the Greek word ἐνθουσιασμός is derived none has yet been able to show.
An odd assertion, in view of the numerous instances 0f ἐνθουσιάζω, and its cognates, in Plato—sixteen of them cited in D. F. Astius, Lexicon Platonicum (Leipzig, 1835), p. 717. E.g., in the Timaeus, 71E, ἐνθουσιασμός is directly related to ἐν Θεῷ and signifies a sort of ‘divine inspiration’ antithetical to φρόνησις (‘rationality’). See also other instances of this usage (and the idea of divine ‘possession’) in classical and patristic Greek in Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon; and Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon.
77. It is not improbable that one reason why this uncouth
Johnson, Dictionary, defines ‘uncouth’ as ‘odd, strange, unusual’, and quotes usages in this sense from Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton. Cf. Wesley’s references to Boehme’s ‘hard, uncouth words’ in ‘Thoughts Upon Jacob Behmen’, in AM (1781), IV.271.
88. It is not therefore at all surprising that it is so variously taken at this day, different persons understanding it in different senses quite inconsistent with each other. Some take it in a good sense, for a divine impulse or impression superior to all the natural faculties, and suspending for the time, either in whole or in part, both the reason and the outward senses. In this meaning of the word both the prophets of old and the apostles were proper ‘enthusiasts’; being at divers times so filled with the Spirit, and so influenced by him who dwelt in their hearts, that the exercise of their own reason, their senses, and all their natural faculties, being suspended, they were wholly actuated by the power of God, and ‘spake’ only ‘as they were moved by the Holy Ghost’.
2 Pet. 1:21. Earlier, Isaac Watts had spoken positively of enthusiasm as ‘an overpowering impression…made on the mind by God himself that gives a convincing and indubitable evidence of truth and divinity: so were the prophets and apostles inspired’ (cited by Johnson, Dictionary, under ‘inspiration’). Later, John Fletcher will remind Richard Hill that ‘the word “enthusiasm” may be used in a good or bad sense…. The true enthusiasts…are really inspired by the grace and love of God;’ cf. Letter V, Fourth Check to Antinomianism, in Works (1825), II.16-17.
902:0499. Others take the word in an indifferent sense, such as is neither morally good nor evil. Thus they speak of the enthusiasm of the poets, of Homer and Virgil in particular. And this a late eminent writer extends so far as to assert, there is no man excellent in his profession, whatsoever it be, who has not in his temper a strong tincture of enthusiasm.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury. In his Characteristics, I.3-55, he has a ‘Letter Concerning Enthusiasm’ (Sept. 7, 1707). Shaftesbury distinguishes between ‘enthusiasm’ as self-deception and what he calls ‘a noble enthusiasm’, the inspiration ‘allotted to heroes, statesmen, poets, orators, musicians, and even philosophers’ (pp. 53-54; cf. II.393-94; III.30-37). ‘Inspiration is a real feeling of Divine Presence and enthusiasm is a false one’ (p. 53). But Shaftesbury is opposed to anything like persecution of ‘enthusiasts’ and insists (p. 22) that ‘good humour is not only the best security against enthusiasm, but the best foundation of piety and true religion.’ Wesley read this in Oxford in 1730. But he also could have found the same point in Dryden’s Juvenal (pref.): ‘Imaging is, in itself, the very height and life of poetry which, by a kind of enthusiasm or extraordinary emotion of the soul, makes it seem to us that we behold those things which the poet [beheld].’
1010. But neither of these is the sense wherein the word enthusiasm is most usually understood. The generality of men, if no farther agreed, at least agree thus far concerning it, that it is something evil; and this is plainly the sentiment of all those who call the religion of the heart enthusiasm. Accordingly I shall take it in the following pages as an evil—a misfortune, if not a fault.
Luther was greatly disturbed by the enthusiasts of his day (Schwärmer, as he called them contemptuously). And in The Augsburg Confession, V, those ‘who think that the Holy Ghost cometh to men without the external Word’ are condemned.
1111. As to the nature of enthusiasm, it is undoubtedly a disorder of the mind, and such a disorder as greatly hinders the exercise of reason. Nay, sometimes it wholly sets it aside: it not only dims but shuts the eyes of the understanding.
See Eph. 1:18.
1212. Every enthusiast then is properly a madman. Yet his is not an ordinary, but a religious madness. By religious I do not mean that it is any part of religion. Quite the reverse: religion is the spirit of a sound mind, and consequently stands in direct opposition to madness of every kind.
So also Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, where it is argued that ‘God, when he makes the prophet, doth not unmake the man. He leaves his faculties in their natural state to enable him to judge of his inspirations, whether they be of divine original, or no.’ Cf. Nos. 4, Scriptural Christianity, IV.2 and n. (espec. Locke’s definition of ‘madmen’); and 11, The Witness of the Spirit, II, IV.2 and n.
1313. There are innumerable sorts of enthusiasm. Those which are most common, and for that reason most dangerous, I shall endeavour to reduce under a few general heads, that they may be more easily understood and avoided.
The first sort of enthusiasm which I shall mention is that of those who imagine they have the grace which they have not. Thus some imagine, when it is not so, that they have ‘redemption’ through Christ, ‘even the forgiveness of sin’.
Cf. Col. 1:14.
Mark 4:17.
Matt. 13:5, 17, 20, etc.
Heb. 6:5.
1402:05114. This is properly an instance of the first sort of enthusiasm; it is a kind of madness, arising from the imagination that they have that grace which in truth they have not; so that they only deceive their own souls. Madness it may justly be termed, for the reasonings of these poor men are right, were their premises good; but as those are a mere creature of their own imagination, so all that is built on them falls to the ground. The foundation of all their reveries
The OED illustrates this use of the word to mean a fanciful idea by a quotation from Samuel Palmer, Moral Essays (1710), p. 325: ‘The most ridiculous bigot thinks himself in the right, and…believes his reveries acceptable to God.’ Johnson, Dictionary, defines it as ‘loose musing; irregular thought’, and quotes Locke: ‘Revery is when ideas float in our mind, without any reflection or regard of the understanding.’
Rev. 1:6.
Heb. 12:28.
1515. There are many other enthusiasts of this sort. Such, for instance, is the fiery zealot for religion; or (more probably) for the opinions and modes of worship which he dignifies with that name. This man also strongly imagines himself to be a believer in Jesus, yea, that he is a champion for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.
Jude 3.
1616. But the most common of all the enthusiasts of this kind are those who imagine themselves Christians and are not. These abound not only in all parts of our land, but in most parts of the habitable earth. That they are not Christians is clear and undeniable, if we believe the oracles of God. For Christians are holy; these are unholy. Christians love God; these love the world. Christians are humble; these are proud. Christians are gentle; these are passionate. Christians have the mind which was in Christ;
See Phil. 2:5.
Heb. 6:4.
1717. Ah, poor self-deceivers! Christians ye are not. But you are enthusiasts in an high degree. Physicians, heal yourselves.
See Luke 4:23.
Cf. Ps. 39:7 (BCP).
1818. A second sort of enthusiasm is that of those who imagine they have such gifts from God as they have not. Thus some have imagined themselves to be endued with a power of working miracles, of healing the sick by a word or a touch, of restoring sight to the blind; yea, even of raising the dead, a notorious instance of which is still fresh in our own history.
This was probably the affair of Dr. Thomas Ernes, a physician who had served among the poor in Moorfields and was ‘a great stickler for the party [of French Prophets]’; cf. his entry in DNB. He ‘died Dec. 22, 1707, and was buried in Bunhill-fields the 25th ditto. [Sir Richard Bulkley, John Lacy, et al.] began to prophesy that this Dr. Ernes would raise from the grave with a new life in glorious body on the 25th of May, 1708…. Bunhill-fields was sufficiently crowded on the 25th of May, in expectation of such a miraculous sight, as some thousands of people now living may very well remember. But, notwithstanding all the prophecies in his favour, there was no resurrection nor any the least symptom of it’ (Theophilus Evans, Enthusiasm, pp. 105-6); but see also ‘Historical Chronicle’, Jan. 1740, Gent’s Mag.: ‘At Staines, the wife of one Collet, a tanner, having lain dead three days, just before she was to be nailed up in her coffin, opened her eyes and spoke.’ See also George Hickes, The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised (1709), pp. 508-30. Cf. No. 116, ‘What is Man? Ps. 8:4’, §12.
1919. To the same class belong those who in preaching or prayer imagine themselves to be so influenced by the Spirit of God as in fact they are not. I am sensible indeed that without him we can do nothing,
See John 15:5.
Ps. 74:13 (BCP).
1 Cor. 12:6.
For Wesley’s distinction between the ‘extraordinary gifts’ of the Spirit and the ‘ordinary fruits’ to be expected of all Christians, cf. No. 4, Scriptural Christianity, § 4 and n.
2020. The same sort of enthusiasm, though in a lower degree, is frequently found in men of a private character. They may likewise imagine themselves to be influenced or directed by the Spirit when they are not. I allow, ‘if any man have not the Spirit of 02:054Christ, he is none of his;’
Rom. 8:9.
2121. To this kind of enthusiasm they are peculiarly exposed who expected to be directed of God, either in spiritual things or in common life, in what is justly called an extraordinary manner. I mean by visions or dreams, by strong impressions or sudden impulses on the mind. I do not deny that God has of old times manifested his will in this manner, or that he can do so now. Nay, I believe he does, in some very rare instances. But how frequently do men mistake herein! How are they misled by pride and a warm imagination to ascribe such impulses or impressions, dreams or visions, to God, as are utterly unworthy of him! Now this is all pure enthusiasm, all as wide of religion as it is of truth and soberness.
2222. Perhaps some may ask, ‘Ought we not then to inquire what is the will of God in all things? And ought not his will to be the rule of our practice?’ Unquestionably it ought. But how is a sober Christian to make this inquiry? To know what is ‘the will of God’? Not by waiting for supernatural dreams. Not by expecting God to reveal it in visions. Not by looking for any ‘particular impressions’, or sudden impulses on his mind. No; but by consulting the oracles of God. ‘To the law and to the testimony.’
Isa. 8:20.
Cf. Rom. 12:1, 2.
2323. ‘But how shall I know what is the will of God in such and such a particular case? The thing proposed is in itself of an indifferent nature, and so left undetermined in Scripture.’ I answer, the Scripture itself gives you a general rule, applicable to all particular cases: ‘The will of God is our sanctification.’
Cf. 1 Thess. 4:3.
2424. Suppose, for instance, it were proposed to a reasonable man to marry, or to enter into a new business. In order to know whether this is the will of God, being assured, ‘It is the will of God concerning me that I should be as holy and do as much good as I can,’ he has only to inquire, ‘In which of these states can I be most holy, and do the most good?’
This had been Wesley’s rationale for refusing to move from Oxford to Epworth, despite his family’s pleadings; cf. his letter to his father, Dec. 10, 1734, espec. §§4-6, 16.
2525. Meantime the assistance of his Spirit is supposed during the whole process of the inquiry. Indeed ’tis not easy to say in how many ways that assistance is conveyed. He may bring many circumstances to our remembrance; may place others in a stronger and clearer light; may insensibly open our mind to receive conviction, and fix that conviction upon our heart. And to a concurrence of many circumstances of this kind in favour of what is acceptable in his sight he may superadd such an unutterable peace of mind, and so uncommon a measure of his love, as will leave us no possibility of doubting that this, even this, is his will concerning us.
2626. This is the plain, scriptural, rational way to know what is the will of God in a particular case. But considering how seldom this way is taken, and what a flood of enthusiasm must needs break in on those who endeavour to know the will of God by unscriptural, irrational ways, it were to be wished that the expression itself were far more sparingly used. The using it as some do, on the most trivial occasions, is a plain breach of the third commandment. It is a gross way of taking the name of God in vain, and betrays great irreverence toward him. Would it not be far better then to use 02:056other expressions, which are not liable to such objections? For example: instead of saying on any particular occasion, ‘I want to know what is the will of God,’ would it not be better to say, ‘I want to know what will be most for my improvement, and what will make me most useful.’ This way of speaking is clear and unexceptionable. It is putting the matter on a plain, scriptural issue, and that without any danger of enthusiasm.
2727. A third very common sort of enthusiasm (if it does not coincide with the former) is that of those who think to attain the end without using the means, by the immediate power of God. If indeed those means were providentially withheld they would not fall under this charge. God can, and sometimes does in cases of this nature, exert his own immediate power. But they who expect this when they have those means and will not use them are proper enthusiasts. Such are they who expect to understand the Holy Scriptures without reading them and meditating thereon; yea, without using all such helps as are in their power, and may probably conduce to that end. Such are they who designedly speak in the public assembly without any premeditation. I say ‘designedly’, because there may be such circumstances as at some times make it unavoidable. But whoever despises that great means of speaking profitably is so far an enthusiast.
2828. It may be expected that I should mention what some have accounted a fourth sort of enthusiasm, namely, the imagining those things to be owing to the providence of God which are not owing thereto. But I doubt. I know not what things they are which are not owing to the providence of God; in ordering, or at least in governing, of which this is not either directly or remotely concerned. I expect nothing but sin; and even in the sins of others I see the providence of God to me. I do not say, his general providence, for this I take to be a sounding word which means just nothing.
See No. 67, ‘On Divine Providence’, §23 and n.: ‘But I have not done with this same general providence yet. By the grace of God I will sift it to the bottom. And I hope to show it is such stark, staring nonsense as every man of sense ought to be utterly ashamed of.’
Luke 12:7.
Cf. Matt 10:29.
Matt. 18:14.
Cf. Augustine, Confessions, III.xi: ‘O tu bone omnipotens, qui sic curas unumquemque nostrum tamquam solum cures, et sic omnes, tamquam singulos’(‘O thou Omnipotent Good who carest for every one of us as if thou didst care for him only, and so for all as if they were but one’). See also Nos. 54, ‘On Eternity’, §20; 67, ‘On Divine Providence’, §26; and 77, ‘Spiritual Worship’, I.8. Cf. also, Some Observations on Liberty, §57.
2929. If it be said the charge lies here: ‘When you impute this to providence you imagine yourself the peculiar favourite of heaven,’ I answer, you have forgot some of the last words I spoke: Praesidet universis tanquam singulis—his providence is over all men in the universe as much as over any single person. Don’t you see that he who believing this imputes anything which befalls him to providence does not therein make himself any more the favourite of heaven than he supposes every man under heaven to be? Therefore you have no pretence upon this ground to charge him with enthusiasm.
3030. Against every sort of this it behoves us to guard with the utmost diligence, considering the dreadful effects it has so often produced, and which indeed naturally result from it. Its immediate offspring is pride; it continually increases this source from whence it flows, and hereby it alienates us more and more from the favour and from the life of God. It dries up the very springs of faith and love, of righteousness and true holiness;
Eph. 4:24.
1 Pet. 5:5.
3131. Together with pride there will naturally arise an unadvisable and unconvincible spirit; so that into whatever error or fault the enthusiast falls there is small hope of his recovery. For reason will have little weight with him (as has been justly and frequently observed) who imagines he is led by an higher guide, by the immediate wisdom of God. And as he grows in pride, so he must grow in unadvisableness, and in stubbornness also. He must be less and less capable of being convinced, less susceptible of persuasion; more and more attached to his own judgment and his own will, till he is altogether fixed and immovable.
3202:05832. Being thus fortified both against the grace of God and against all advice and help from man, he is wholly left to the guidance of his own heart, and of the king of the children of pride.
See Job 41:34.
Such is the nature, such the dreadful effects, of that many-headed monster,
See Horace, Epistles I.i.76, ‘Belua multorum es capitum’; see also JWJ, Oct. 26, 1740, and A Second Letter to the Author of the Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists Compar’d (1751), §10.
3333. And, first, if enthusiasm be a term, though so frequently used yet so rarely understood, take you care not to talk of you know not what, not to use the word till you understand it. As in all other points, so likewise in this, learn to think before you speak. First, know the meaning of this hard word; and then use it if need require.
3434. But if so few, even among men of education and learning, much more among the common sort of men, understand this dark, ambiguous word, or have any fixed notion of what it means, then, secondly, beware of judging or calling any man an enthusiast upon common report. This is by no means a sufficient ground for giving any name of reproach to any man; least of all is it a sufficient ground for so black a term of reproach as this. The more evil it contains, the more cautious you should be how you apply it to anyone; to bring so heavy an accusation without full proof being neither consistent with justice nor mercy.
3535. But if enthusiasm be so great an evil, beware you are not entangled therewith yourself. Watch and pray that you fall not into the temptation.
See Matt. 26:41.
See Rom. 12:3.
Orig. (1750, 1755), ‘and that’; see Rom. 8:16.
3636. Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of him you style your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them.
See Luke 9:56.
See No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, I.6 and n.
Cf. Luke 14:23. Wesley was consistently opposed to coercion in matters of religion and in favour of religious toleration. Cf., e.g., Nos. 38, ‘A Caution against Bigotry’, II.5; 39, ‘Catholic Spirit’; 74, ‘Of the Church’, I.19. See also his letter ‘To a Roman Catholic Priest’ (? May 1735—see 25:428-30 in this edn.), his letter to a Roman Catholic, July 18, 1749, and two letters to the editors of Freeman’s Journal, Mar. 23 and Mar. 31, 1780.
3737. Beware you do not run with the common herd of enthusiasts, fancying you are a Christian when you are not. Presume not to assume that venerable name unless you have a clear, scriptural title thereto; unless you have the mind which was in Christ,
See Phil. 2:5.
See 1 John 2:6.
3838. Beware you do not fall into the second sort of enthusiasm, fancying you have those gifts from God which you have not. Trust not in visions or dreams, in sudden impressions or strong impulses of any kind. Remember, it is not by these you are to know what is ‘the will of God’ on any particular occasion, but by applying the plain Scripture rule, with the help of experience and reason, and the ordinary assistance of the Spirit of God. Do not lightly take the name of God in your mouth: do not talk of ‘the will of God’ on every trifling occasion. But let your words as well as your actions be all tempered with reverence and godly fear.
3939. Beware, lastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive to it. God can give the end without any means at all; but you have no reason to think he will. Therefore constantly and carefully use all these means which he has appointed to be the ordinary channels of his grace. Use every 02:060means which either reason or Scripture recommends as conducive (through the free love of God in Christ) either to the obtaining or increasing any of the gifts of God. Thus expect a daily growth in that pure and holy religion which the world always did, and always will, call enthusiasm; but which to all who are saved from real enthusiasm—from merely nominal Christianity—is the wisdom of God and the power of God,
See 1 Cor. 1:24.
See John 4:14.
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Entry Title: Sermon 37: The Nature of Enthusiasm