CHAPTER 1
(1760)
William Otterbein stresses repentance in a sermon at a conference of German Reformed preachers in Philadelphia
Source: William Otterbein, Die Heilbringende Menschwerdung und der Herrliche Sieg Jesu Christi ueber den Teufel und Tod. Germantown (Philadelphia): Printed by Christoph Sauer, 1763. English translation in J. Steven O'Malley, Early German-American Evangelicalism: Pietist Sources on Discipleship and Sanctification (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1995), 19, 25-28. Excerpts; footnotes omitted.
THE SALVATION-BRINGING INCARNATION AND THE GLORIOUS VICTORY OF JESUS CHRIST OVER THE DEVIL AND DEATH
Text: Hebrews 2:14-15
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.
The doctrine of the redemption of the poor sinner through Jesus Christ is rightly called a gospel and a message that brings salvation and joy. By nature we are in a completely desperate condition. We are without God, and children of wrath. What a pity! So we go astray, like a sheep without a shepherd, who locate no pasture, and stand exposed to the power of Satan and sin. How amazing, that most people live totally secure and hardened in this desperate condition! Are we not destitute of all godly light and life, and without hope? Truly, this is a condition that—if we think about it—rightly drives us into a tight spot....
The gospels give us a detailed account of the death of Jesus Christ. Christ died a violent and agonizing death on the cross. He has already guaranteed from eternity that this would happen for poor sinners. This death was not only prophesied through the prophets, but it was also prefigured through the sacrifices and the other ceremonies of the law. And all of this happened for our good. It was for the sake of our sins that Christ sweated blood, and out of love for us He offered His soul as a guilt offering. What a work our sins made for him! We are expensively purchased. As painful as this suffering was to the Lord Jesus, so great was the salvation that occurred from this for the poor sinner.
Paul says, "That through death He might destroy him who has the power...." That was the purpose of the suffering of Jesus Christ (I John 3:8). The promise in paradise was directed toward this (Genesis 3:15). And Christ has actually carried out this promise through His death (II Timothy 1:10). That happened above all on the cross (Colossians 2:14-15). Christ here became a poison for death and destruction for hell (Hosea 13:14). Hence Paul joyfully cries out (I Corinthians 15:55-57), "Death, where is your sting?" O costly death! (Daniel 9:24). This death brings a laudable salvation. Now God is reconciled, and the way into the inner holiness is prepared, that Paul so simply expressed in his words of praise (Ephesians 1:3), "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Meanwhile, with all that, the matter of our salvation is not yet fully completed. What a pity it is that people almost without exception seek a salvation that lies outside themselves. People imagine that Christ has completed all things on the cross and He has made us holy just as we are. Christ has paid, they think, and sin will be fully put away at death. Those are erroneous thoughts about Jesus' death and redemption. Almost any perverse thinker can conclude this. It is certainly more on the order of a hellish doctrine, that merely makes Christ to be a covering for sin, that also builds the devil's kingdom....
Pay attention to see if you comprehend this. Through what He has done outside of us, Christ has only laid the groundwork for our salvation. He has freely reconciled His heavenly Father to us through His death. However, He has at the same time given us a picture of what He must do within us—how He must destroy the kingdom of Satan within us, even as He has destroyed this kingdom outside of us. Christ has set an example for us by His suffering (I Peter 2:21), and Paul speaks clearly about conformity with His death (Philippians 3:10). Thus, the Savior Himself urges the bearing of His cross after Him, and that is the great secret, Christ in us (II Corinthians 13:5). Here it becomes apparent that what Christ has done outside of us, He also completes within us. He also crushes the head of the serpent within us and with it the sin that leads to death. Paul rejoices in this (Galatians 2:19). This is true of all believers (Galatians 5:24). Christ and His death only become beneficial to us when He comes home to us in this way. On the basis of conformity with the death of Jesus Christ we receive the crown (James 1:12). Life depends on this (Romans 6:8). Upon the same agony with Jesus, there follows the same glory (Romans 2:17).
But may a person know whether Christ has killed the sin in him? Certainly, as surely as he lives. An unbroken heart, security, a worldly outlook are all genuine works of darkness, of Satan's kingdom within us. Wherever a man walks according to the lusts of his heart, while boasting that he is redeemed through Christ, he remains horribly blind, if not completely obstinate. Even the devil shudders when he thinks of God. What help is it if a man has great sorrow for his sins and yet he repeats them a hundred times? Peter describes this sort of repentance in II Peter 2:22. Where there is no true change of heart there is also no deliverance.
How, then, does a person arrive at this point of deliverance? That is God's work. No one comes to the Son until the Father draws him. As soon as God's Spirit opens a person's eyes, so that he recognizes and feels his misery, then he gets up with the prodigal son and says, "Father, I have sinned" (Luke 15:18). A person will not become disgusted with the world and sin until he recognizes in God's light that these things have brought him unhappiness. If a person comes this far by God's grace, that he despairs of himself and his efforts, he then sits down with Mary at Jesus' feet and cries.
In this way a person can easily know whether the Holy Spirit has His work in a person; it is when he knows and feels with agony his inner corruption of heart, and where this knowledge breaks, shames, and makes the heart humble before God. It is wherever a person becomes an enemy of sin, turns his back to the world, and hungers after Jesus. It is where all of this continues and grows (Hebrews 3:14). Whoever struggles here, under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, will finally be led by grace to victory. And that is the work of deliverance, Christ in us. The marks by which it can be recognized are where lusts and a tendency to sin are lost, where sin ceases (Romans 6:6 and verse 18). The fruit of this is holiness (Romans 6:22), the new man (Colossians 3:10-14), and a step-by-step progression toward perfection (II Corinthians 3:18).
And that is the purpose of redemption (Titus 2:14). If nothing impure can enter into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:27), then an impure, unregenerated sinner has no hope. God is reconciled on His side through Jesus, and where grace puts to death the carnal mind that lives in us by nature, then will we also be reconciled to God on our side. Furthermore, just as it is impossible for a doctor to cure a sick person if he has not first killed the evil that has caused the sickness and pain, so also Christ has little opportunity to save a single soul from hell where he does not eradicate the sin that brings about the hell. And is not the power of Satan over us based on the sin and evil within us? This is undeniable. Accordingly, the power of Satan over us ceases when sin also ceases within us....
What counsel is there, then? It is indicated for you to make repentance, believe the gospel, search in the Scripture. There is no other way.... The entire word of God presses toward denial, inward renewal, and holiness. If you want Jesus to rid you of your sin, then first let your hearts break down in true repentance. You must travel this way, if you want to find mercy on that day....
To be a redeemed person of the Lord—what a salvation! What a joy there will be when God sends this message to one or to another of you, saying your names are written in the book of life. You came to this place by the way of repentance. Come, then, to the One who can help you. Jesus has already saved many miserable sinners. If your salvation is important to you, join up with the prodigal son. Jesus waits upon you. The garment is already prepared. Everything is ready; come.
(1768)
Thomas Taylor Begs Wesley to Send Preachers to America
Source: Frank Baker, "Early American Methodism: A Key Document," Methodist History 3/2 (January 1965): 9-15. First printed in Charles Atmore, An Appendix to the Methodist Memorial (Manchester: W. Shelmerdine & Co., 1802), 579-82. Nathan Bangs published a variant full text of Taylor's letter in the Methodist Magazine (New York) 6/11 (November 1823): 427-431, and again in his 1838 History 1:52-58. The following text is from Atmore, as edited by Baker. New York, 11th April, 1768
Rev. and very Dear Sir [John Wesley],
I intended writing to you for several weeks past, but a few of us had a very material transaction in view. I therefore postponed writing until I could give you a particular account thereof. This was the purchasing of ground for building a preaching-house upon, which by the blessing of God we have now concluded. But before I proceed I shall give you a short account of the state of religion in this city. By the best intelligence I can collect there was little either of the form or power of it till Mr. Whitefield came over thirty years ago; and even after his first and second visit there appeared but little fruit of his labours. But during his third visit fourteen or fifteen years ago there was a considerable shaking among the dry bones. Divers were savingly converted, and this work was much increased in his last journey, about four years since, when his words were really as a hammer and as a fire. Most part of the adults were stirred up, great numbers pricked to the heart, and by a judgment of charity several found peace and joy in believing. The consequence of this work was, the churches were crowded and subscriptions raised for building new ones. Mr. Whitefield's example provoked most of the ministers to a much greater degree of earnestness. And by the multitudes of people young and old, rich and poor, flocking to the churches, religion became an honourable profession—there was no outward cross to be taken up therein. Nay, a person who could not speak about the grace of God and the new birth was esteemed unfit for genteel company. But in a while, instead of pressing forward and growing in grace (as he exhorted them) the generality were pleading for the remains of sin, and the necessity of being in darkness. They esteemed their opinions as the very essentials of Christianity, and regarded not holiness either of heart or life.
The above appears to me to be a genuine account of the state of religion in New York eighteen months ago, when it pleased God to rouse up Mr. Embury to employ his talent (which for several years had been as it were hid in a napkin) by calling sinners to repentance and exhorting believers to let their light shine before men. He spoke at first only in his own house. A few were soon collected together and joined in a little society—chiefly his own countrymen, Irish. In about three months after brother White and brother Sause from Dublin joined them. They then rented an empty room in their neighbourhood, which was in the most infamous street of the city, adjoining the barracks. For some time few thought it worth their while to hear. But God so ordered it by His providence that about fourteen months ago Captain Webb, barrack master at Albany (who was converted about three years since at Bristol) found them out and preached in his regimentals. The novelty of a man preaching in a scarlet coat soon brought greater numbers to hear than the room could contain. But his doctrines were quite new to the hearers, for he told them point blank "that all their knowledge and profession of religion was not worth a rush unless their sins were forgiven and they had the 'witness of God's spirit with theirs, that they were the children of God.'" This strange doctrine, with some peculiarities in his person, made him soon be taken notice of, and obliged the little society to look out for a larger house to preach in. They soon found a place that had been built for a rigging-house, sixty feet in length and eighteen in breadth.
About this period Mr. Webb, whose wife's relations live at Jamaica on Long Island, took a house in that neighbourhood, and began to preach in his own house and several other places on Long Island. Within six months about twenty-four persons received justifying grace, near half of them whites, the rest Negroes. While Mr. Webb (to borrow his own phrase) was "felling the trees on Long Island," brother Embury was exhorting all who attended on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings and evenings at the rigging-house to flee from the wrath to come. His hearers began to increase, and some gave heed to his report, about the time the gracious providence of God brought me safe to New York after a very favourable passage of six weeks from Plymouth [England]. It was the 26th day of October last when I arrived, recommended to a person for lodging. I inquired of my host (who was a very religious man) if any Methodists were in New York. He informed me there was one Captain Webb, a strange sort of man, who lived on Long Island and sometimes preached at one Embury's at the rigging-house. In a few days I found out Embury. I soon found what spirit he was of, and that he was personally acquainted with you and your doctrines, and had been a Helper in Ireland. He had formed two classes, one of the men and another of the women, but had never met the society apart from the congregation, although there were six or seven men and about the same number of women who had a clear sense of their acceptance in the Beloved.
You will not wonder at my being greatly surprised in meeting with a few here who have and desire again to be in connection with you. God only knows the weight of the affliction I felt in leaving my native country. But I have reason now to conclude God intended all for my good. Ever since I left London my load has been been removed and I have found a cheerfulness in being banished from all near and dear to me, and I made a new covenant with my God that I would go to the utmost parts of the earth provided He would raise up a people with whom I might join in His praise. On the great deep I found a more earnest desire to be united with the people of God than ever before. I made a resolution that God's people should be my people, and their God my God, and (bless His holy name!) I have since experienced more heartfelt happiness than ever I thought it possible to have on this side of eternity. All anxious care even about my dear wife and children is taken away. I cannot assist them, but I daily and hourly commend them to God in prayer, and I know He hears my prayers, by an answer of love in my heart. I find power daily to devote myself unto Him, and I find power also to overcome sin. If any uneasiness at all affects me, it is because I can speak so little of so good a God.
Mr. Embury has lately been more zealous than formerly, the consequence of which is that he is more lively in preaching, and his gifts as well as graces are much increased. Great numbers of serious people came to hear God's word as for their lives. And their numbers increased so fast that our house for this six weeks past would not contain the half of the people.
