VIII

CHARACTERISTICS OF METHODIST DOCTRINE

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VERY doctrinal system has its peculiar characteristics which differentiate it from other

systems. The peculiar points may be few or many, but there is something which distinguishes it from other schemes or schools of religious thought. The difference may be in formulation, in emphasis, or in the essential ideas, but it is sure to have its own individuality.

So it is to be expected that the Wesleyan system of doctrine had its peculiarities or striking qualities that made it stand out among other systems and gave it its own distinctive character.

In seeking for the distinguishing trait, there may be varying results according to the point of view of the investigator, and one may indicate one thing, while another may think it is something else, but, taking all things into consideration, it should be said that the chief characteristic of Wesleyan doctrine is covered by the theological term Arminianism, in opposition to what is called extreme Calvinism.

These titles come from the names of two noted theologians of the sixteenth century, namely, John Calvin and James Arminius both of whom should have at least a brief mention.

A little while after the beginning of the Protestant

Reformation in Germany, there arose the great John Calvin, who was born at Noyon, France, on the tenth of July, 1509. From childhood he was a prodigy. Before he was twenty years of age he was a curé, and, it has been said, that at twenty-two he was the most learned man in Europe. Under the advice of his father, he took up the study of law. While at Bruges, he studied Greek under Melchior Wolmar, the Reformer, and embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. When in Geneva, he wrote his "Institutes of the Christian Religion," which reveal marvellous ability and vast learning, and this is said to have been the first great composition in argumentative French prose. The work is the more remarkable, especially, in view of the fact that when the first edition was published Calvin was only twenty-seven years of age.

Possibly if he had waited until he was fifty or older, he would have modified some of his statements, and softened some of his hard logic in regard to the divine. decrees, predestination, and election.

Calvin became the great theological leader of the Reformation, and certain of his views of an extreme character, under the general name of Calvinism, soon dominated the greater part of the Protestant world, outside of Lutheranism.

The Reverend Doctor Philip Schaff, the Church historian, and himself a liberal Calvinist, in addressing a Pan-Presbyterian Council, in Edinburgh, Scotland, gave this picture of extreme Calvinism :

"The scholastic Calvinists of the seventeenth century mounted the Alpine heights of eternal decrees with intrepid courage, and revelled in the reverential contemplations of the awful majesty of God, which required

the damnation of the great mass of sinners, including untold millions of heathen and infants, for the manifestation of his terrible justice. Inside the circle of the elect all was bright and delightful in the sunshine of infinite mercy, but outside all was darker than midnight. This system of doctrine commands our respect, for it has produced the most earnest and heroic Christians; but it is, nevertheless, austere and repulsive. It glorifies the justice of God above his mercy; it savors more of the Old Testament than of the New, and is better at home on Mount Sinai than on Calvary. 'God is love,' and love is the only key that can unlock the deepest meaning of his words and works."

The special doctrines of extreme Calvinism on the divine decrees, predestination, election, and the relation of infants in the light of the divine sovereignty, held full sway over a great part of the world for a long time.

At last another leader arose. He was James Arminius, who was born in the town of Oudewater, Holland, in 1560. With great learning and consummate ability as a disputant he arrayed himself against the Augustinian theory of unconditional predestination, which had been revived and strengthened by Calvin and others. His opposition has been styled that "gigantic recoil from Calvinism, than which no reaction in nature could have been more certainly predicted."

While professor in the University of Leyden, he was the first to receive from that institution the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Arminius died on the nineteenth of October, 1609, at the early age of forty-nine. Arminius has been pronounced "one of the most learned men of a learned age."

Of the services of Arminius to theology, Richard Watson, the Wesleyan theologian, says: "They have also left on record, in the beautiful, learned, eloquent, and above all these, the Scriptural system furnished by the writings of Arminius, how truly man may be proved totally and hereditarily corrupt, without being a machine or a devil; how fully secured, in the scheme of the redemption of man by Jesus Christ, is the divine glory, without making the Almighty partial, wilful, and unjust; how much the spirit's operation in man is enhanced and glorified by the doctrine of the freedom of the human will, in connection with that of its assistance by Divine grace; with how much lustre the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ shines, when offered to the assisted choice of all mankind, instead of being confined to the forced acceptance of a few; how the doctrine of election, when it is made conditional on faith foreseen, harmonizes with the wisdom, holiness, and goodness of God, among a race of beings to all of whom faith was made possible; and how reprobation harmonizes with justice, when it has a reason, not in arbitrary will, the sovereignty of a pasha, but in the principles of righteous government." 1

1

After the decease of Arminius the discussion continued with great bitterness and all Holland was arrayed into two hostile theological camps.

In 1618 the Arminians, or followers of James Arminius, also called Remonstrants, presented a brief statement to the Synod of Dort, and the Synod condemned the "five articles" in which the Arminians had ex

'Watson: "Miscellaneous Works," Vol. VII, p. 476. McClintock and Strong: "Cyclopædia," New York. Harper Brothers: "Arminianism."

pressed their opinions on the theological points in dispute, and this was followed by severe persecution which caused many to leave the country. In 1625 they were permitted to return, and in 1630 a decree authorized them to build churches and schools. Under this permission a school was founded at Amsterdam, and in it Simon Episcopius was its first professor of theology, and he became a great leader of the followers of Arminius.

Many eminent men classed themselves among the disciples of James Arminius, but some of them corrupted the original teaching by introducing a form of semi-rationalism.

Arminianism to some extent modified Calvinism in France. In Germany, the Lutherans sympathized with the views of Arminius. In England, for a time, Arminianism became a negative term meaning merely a negation of Calvinism, but it was under Wesley that pure Arminianism, with the doctrine of the freedom of the human will, took the commanding position it has continued to hold ever since.

John Wesley was born in 1703, a century, less about six years, after the death of James Arminius, who died in 1609.

Wesley became the great leader in the modern battle against Calvinism. He precipitated the war by preaching a noted sermon on this subject, and this caused the alienation between him and the Reverend George Whitefield who in theory adhered to Calvinistic doctrines.

The Arminianism of Wesley and Methodism, however, is not precisely the Arminianism of Holland, which grew out of the teachings of James Arminius