〉 Chapter 14—Truth Advances in Britain
Chapter 14—Truth Advances in Britain
While Luther was opening a closed Bible to the people of Germany, Tyndale was impelled by the Spirit of God to do the same for England. Wycliffe’s Bible had been translated from the Latin text, which contained many errors. The cost of manuscript copies was so great that it had had a narrow circulation. (HF 154.1)
In 1516, for the first time the New Testament was printed in the original Greek tongue. Many errors of former versions were corrected, and the sense was more clearly rendered. It led many among the educated to a better knowledge of truth and gave a new impetus to the work of reform. But the common people were still, to a great extent, debarred from God’s Word. Tyndale was to complete the work of Wycliffe in giving the Bible to his countrymen. (HF 154.2)
He fearlessly preached his convictions. To the papist claim that the church had given the Bible, and the church alone could explain it, Tyndale responded: “Far from having given us the Scriptures, it is you who have hidden them from us; it is you who burn those who teach them, and if you could, you would burn the Scriptures themselves.” (HF 154.3)
Tyndale’s preaching excited great interest. But the priests endeavored to destroy his work. “What is to be done?” he exclaimed. “I cannot be everywhere. Oh! if Christians possessed the Holy Scriptures in their own tongue, they could of themselves withstand these sophists. Without the Bible it is impossible to establish the laity in the truth.” (HF 154.4)
A new purpose now took possession of his mind. “Shall not the gospel speak the language of England among us? ... Ought the church to have less light at noonday than at the dawn? ... Christians must read the New Testament in their mother tongue.” Only by the Bible could men arrive at the truth. (HF 154.5)
A learned Catholic in controversy with him exclaimed, “We were better to be without God’s laws than the pope’s.” Tyndale replied, “1 defy the pope and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than you do.” (HF 155.1)
Driven from home by persecution, he went to London and there for a time labored undisturbed. But again the papists forced him to flee. All England seemed closed against him. In Germany he began the printing of the English New Testament. When forbidden to print in one city, he went to another. At last he made his way to Worms, where, a few years before, Luther had defended the gospel before the diet. In that city were many friends of the Reformation. Three thousand copies of the New Testament were soon finished, and another edition followed. (HF 155.2)
The Word of God was secretly conveyed to London and circulated throughout the country. The papists attempted to suppress the truth, but in vain. The bishop of Durham bought a bookseller’s whole stock of Bibles for the purpose of destroying them, supposing that this would hinder the work. But the money thus furnished purchased material for a new and better edition. When Tyndale was afterward made a prisoner, his liberty was offered him on condition that he reveal the names of those who helped him meet the expense of printing his Bibles. He replied that the bishop of Durham had done more than any other person by paying a large price for the books left on hand. (HF 155.3)
Tyndale finally witnessed for his faith by a martyr’s death; but the weapons he prepared enabled other soldiers to do battle through the centuries, even to our time. (HF 155.4)
Latimer maintained from the pulpit that the Bible ought to be read in the language of the people. “Let us not take any bywalks, but let God’s word direct us: let us not walk after ... our forefathers, nor seek not what they did, but what they should have done.” (HF 156.1)
Barnes and Frith, Ridley and Cranmer, leaders in the English Reformation, were men of learning, highly esteemed for zeal or piety in the Romish communion. Their opposition to the papacy was the result of their knowledge of the errors of the “holy see.” (HF 156.2)
The grand principle maintained by these Reformers—the same held by the Waldenses, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Zwingli, and those with them—was the infallible authority of Scripture. By its teaching they tested all doctrines and all claims. Faith in God’s Word sustained these holy men as they yielded up their lives at the stake. “Be of good comfort,” exclaimed Latimer to his fellow martyr as the flames were about to silence their voices, “we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” (HF 156.3)
For hundreds of years after the churches of England submitted to Rome, those of Scotland maintained their freedom. In the twelfth century, however, popery became established, and in no country was the darkness deeper. Still rays of light came to pierce the gloom. The Lollards, coming from England with the Bible and the teachings of Wycliffe, did much to preserve the knowledge of the gospel. With the opening of the Reformation came the writings of Luther and Tyndale’s English New Testament. These messengers silently traversed the mountains and valleys, kindling into new life the torch of truth so nearly extinguished and undoing the work which four centuries of oppression had done. (HF 156.4)
Then the papist leaders, suddenly awakening to danger, brought to the stake some of the noblest of the sons of Scotland. These dying witnesses throughout the land thrilled the souls of the people with an undying purpose to cast off the shackles of Rome. (HF 156.5)
Hamilton and Wishart, with a long line of humbler disciples, yielded up their lives at the stake. But from the burning pile of Wishart there came one whom the flames were not to silence, one who under God was to strike the death knell of popery in Scotland. (HF 157.1)
John Knox turned away from the traditions of the church to feed upon the truths of God’s Word. The teaching of Wishart confirmed his determination to forsake Rome and join himself to the persecuted Reformers. (HF 157.2)
Urged by his companions to preach, he shrank with trembling from its responsibility. It was only after days of painful conflict with himself that he consented. But having once accepted, he pressed forward with undaunted courage. This truehearted Reformer feared not the face of man. When brought face to face with the queen of Scotland, John Knox was not to be won by caresses; he quailed not before threats. He had taught the people to receive a religion prohibited by the state, she declared, and had thus transgressed God’s command enjoining subjects to obey their princes. Knox answered firmly: “If all the seed of Abraham had been of the religion of Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what religion would there have been in the world? Or if all men in the days of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors, what religion would there have been upon the face of the earth?” (HF 157.3)
Said Mary: “Ye interpret the Scriptures in one manner, and they [Roman Catholics] interpret in another; whom shall I believe, and who shall be judge?” (HF 157.4)
“Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word,” answered the Reformer.... “The word of God is plain in itself; and if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, which is never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places.” (HF 157.5)
With undaunted courage the fearless Reformer, at the peril of his life, kept to his purpose, until Scotland was free from popery. (HF 158.1)
In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national religion diminished, but did not wholly stop, persecution. Not a few of Rome’s forms were retained. The supremacy of the pope was rejected, but in his place the monarch was enthroned as head of the church. There was still a wide departure from the purity of the gospel. Religious liberty was not yet understood. Though the horrible cruelties which Rome employed were resorted to but rarely by Protestant rulers, yet the right of every man to worship God according to his own conscience was not acknowledged. Dissenters suffered persecution for hundreds of years. (HF 158.2)
In the seventeenth century thousands of pastors were expelled and the people were forbidden to attend any religious meetings except such as were sanctioned by the church. In the sheltering depths of the forest, those persecuted children of the Lord assembled to pour out their souls in prayer and praise. Many suffered for their faith. The jails were crowded, families broken up. Yet persecution could not silence their testimony. Many were driven across the ocean to America and there laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty. (HF 158.3)
In a dungeon crowded with felons, John Bunyan breathed the atmosphere of heaven and wrote his wonderful allegory of the pilgrim’s journey from the land of destruction to the celestial city. Pilgrim’s Progress and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners have guided many feet into the path of life. (HF 158.4)
In a day of spiritual darkness Whitefield and the Wesleys appeared as light bearers for God. Under the established church the people had lapsed into a state hardly to be distinguished from heathenism. The higher classes sneered at piety; the lower classes were abandoned to vice. The church had no courage or faith to support the downfallen cause of truth. (HF 158.5)
The great doctrine of justification by faith, so clearly taught by Luther, had been almost wholly lost sight of; the Romish principle of trusting to good works for salvation had taken its place. Whitefield and the Wesleys were sincere seekers for the favor of God. This, they had been taught, was to be secured by virtue and observance of the ordinances of religion. (HF 159.1)
When Charles Wesley at one time fell ill and anticipated that death was approaching, he was asked upon what he rested his hope of eternal life. His answer: “I have used my best endeavors to serve God.” The friend seemed not fully satisfied with this answer. Wesley thought: “What! ... Would he rob me of my endeavors? I have nothing else to trust to.” Such was the darkness that had settled on the church, turning men from their only hope of salvation—the blood of the crucified Redeemer. (HF 159.2)
Wesley and his associates were led to see that God’s law extends to the thoughts as well as to the words and actions. By diligent and prayerful efforts they endeavored to subdue the evils of the natural heart. They lived a life of self-denial and humiliation, observing with exactness every measure which they thought could be helpful in obtaining that holiness which could secure the favor of God. But in vain were their endeavors to free themselves from the condemnation of sin or to break its power. (HF 159.3)
The fires of divine truth, well-nigh extinguished upon the altars of Protestantism, were to be rekindled from the ancient torch handed down by the Bohemian Christians. Some of these, finding refuge in Saxony, maintained the ancient faith. From these Christians light came to Wesley. (HF 159.4)
John and Charles were sent on a mission to America. On board ship was a company of Moravians. Violent storms were encountered, and John, face to face with death, felt he had not the assurance of peace with God. The Germans manifested a calmness and trust to which he was a stranger. “I had long before,” he says, “observed the great seriousness of their behavior.... There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sang on. I asked one of them afterwards, ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked, ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He replied mildly, ‘No; our women and children are not afraid to die.’ (HF 160.1)
On his return to England, Wesley arrived at a clearer understanding of Bible faith under the instruction of a Moravian. At a meeting of the Moravian society in London a statement was read from Luther. As Wesley listened, faith was kindled in his soul. “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” he says. “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” (HF 160.2)
Now he had found that the grace he had toiled to win by prayers and fasts and self-abnegation was a gift, “without money and without price.” His whole soul burned with the desire to spread everywhere the glorious gospel of God’s free grace. “I look upon all the world as my parish,” he said; “in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.” (HF 160.3)
He continued his strict and self-denying life, not now as the ground, but the result of faith; not the root, but the fruit of holiness. The grace of God in Christ will be manifest in obedience. Wesley’s life was devoted to preaching the great truths he had received—justification through faith in the atoning blood of Christ, and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, bringing forth fruit in a life conformed to the example of Christ. (HF 161.1)
Whitefield and the Wesleys were contemptuously called “Methodists” by their ungodly fellow students—a name which is at the present time regarded as honorable. The Holy Spirit urged them to preach Christ and Him crucified. Thousands were truly converted. It was necessary that these sheep be protected from ravening wolves. Wesley had no thought of forming a new denomination, but he organized them under what was called the Methodist Connection. (HF 161.2)
Mysterious and trying was the opposition which these preachers encountered from the established church—yet the truth had entrance where doors would otherwise remain closed. Some of the clergy were roused from their moral stupor and became zealous preachers in their own parishes. (HF 161.3)
In Wesley’s time, men of different gifts did not harmonize upon every point of doctrine. The differences between Whitefield and the Wesleys threatened at one time to create alienation, but as they learned meekness in the school of Christ, mutual forbearance and charity reconciled them. They had no time to dispute, while error and iniquity were teeming everywhere. (HF 161.4)
Men of influence employed their powers against them. Many clergy manifested hostility, and the doors of the churches were closed against a pure faith. The clergy, denouncing them from the pulpit, aroused the elements of darkness and iniquity. Again and again John Wesley escaped death by a miracle of God’s mercy. When there seemed no way of escape, an angel in human form came to his side, the mob fell back, and the servant of Christ passed in safety from danger. (HF 161.5)
Of his deliverance on one of these occasions, Wesley said: “Although many strove to lay hold on my collar or clothes, to pull me down, they could not fasten at all: only one got fast hold of the flap of my waistcoat, which was soon left in his hand; the other flap, in the pocket of which was a bank note, was torn but half off.... A lusty man just behind, struck at me several times, with a large oaken stick; with which if he had struck me once on the back part of my head, it would have saved him all further trouble. But every time, the blow was turned aside, I know not how; for I could not move to the right hand or left.” (HF 162.1)
The Methodists of those days endured ridicule and persecution, often violence. In some instances, public notices were posted, calling upon those who desired to break the windows and rob the houses of the Methodists to assemble at a given time and place. Systematic persecution was carried on against a people whose only fault was seeking to turn sinners to the path of holiness. (HF 162.2)
The spiritual declension in England just before the time of Wesley was in a great degree the result of teaching that Christ had abolished the moral law and that Christians are under no obligation to observe it. Others declared that it was unnecessary for ministers to exhort the people to obedience of its precepts, since those whom God had elected to salvation would “be led to the practice of piety and virtue” while those doomed to eternal reprobation “did not have power to obey the divine law.” (HF 162.3)
Others, holding that “the elect cannot fall from grace nor forfeit the divine favor,” arrived at the hideous conclusion that “the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, ... and that, consequently, they have no occasion either to confess their sins or to break them off by repentance.” Therefore, they declared, even one of the vilest of sins “considered universally an enormous violation of the divine law is not a sin in the sight of God” if committed by one of the elect. “They cannot do anything that is either displeasing to God or prohibited by the law.” (HF 162.4)
These monstrous doctrines are essentially the same as the later teaching that there is no unchangeable divine law as the standard of right, but that morality is indicated by society itself and constantly subject to change. All these ideas are inspired by him who among the sinless inhabitants of heaven began his work to break down the righteous restraints of the law of God. (HF 163.1)
The doctrine of divine decrees, unalterably fixing the character of men, had led many to rejection of the law of God. Wesley steadfastly opposed this doctrine which led to antinomianism. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” “God our Saviour ... will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all.” Christ, “the true Light, ... lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Titus 2:11; 1 Timothy 2:3-6; John 1:9. Men fail of salvation through their own wilful refusal of the gift of life. (HF 163.2)
In answer to the claim that at the death of Christ the Decalogue had been abolished with the ceremonial law, Wesley said: “The moral law, contained in the Ten Commandments and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away. This is a law which never can be broken, which ‘stands fast as the faithful witness in heaven.’ (HF 163.3)
Wesley declared the perfect harmony of the law and the gospel. “On the one hand, the law continually makes way for, and points us to, the gospel; on the other, the gospel continually leads us to a more exact fulfilling of the law. The law, for instance, requires us to love God, to love our neighbor, to be meek, humble, or holy. We feel that we are not sufficient for these things; ... but we see a promise of God to give us that love, and to make us humble, meek, and holy: we lay hold of this gospel, of these glad tidings; ... ‘the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us,’ through faith which is in Christ Jesus... .” (HF 163.4)
“In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ,” said Wesley, “are they who ... teach men to break ... not one only, whether of the least or of the greatest, but all the commandments at a stroke.... They honor Him just as Judas did when he said, ‘Hail, Master, and kissed Him.’ ... It is no other than betraying Him with a kiss, to talk of His blood, and take away His crown; to set light by any part of His law, under pretense of advancing His gospel.” (HF 164.1)
To those who urged that “the preaching of the gospel answers all the ends of the law,” Wesley replied: “It does not answer the very first end of the law, namely, the convincing men of sin, the awakening those who are still asleep on the brink of hell.... It is absurd, therefore, to offer a physician to them that are whole, or that at least imagine themselves so to be. You are first to convince them that they are sick; otherwise they will not thank you for your labor. It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose heart is whole having never been broken.” (HF 164.2)
While preaching the gospel of the grace of God, Wesley, like his Master, sought to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isaiah 42:21. Glorious were the results he was permitted to behold. At the close of above half a century spent in ministry, his adherents numbered more than half a million. But the multitude that through his labors had been lifted from the degradation of sin to a higher and purer life will never be known till the whole family of the redeemed gather in the kingdom of God. His life presents a lesson of priceless worth to every Christian. (HF 164.3)
Would that the faith, untiring zeal, self-sacrifice, and devotion of this servant of Christ might be reflected in the churches of today! (HF 165.1)