Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-11-11
MORE Lrsur ON AN ON SUBJECT
TcpIsdy w.. wesIey-Dr. Deans Views
On the SubIecf.

Bartlett, very severely blaming John
Wesley for publishing paragraph Of
his own, "a an extract from Mr.. Top
lady. l think the DR.. would have
done better to let Mr.. Toplady rest in
peace. His controversial writings
have long since been consigned to OBJ
livion and as / shall show, it would
have been a pious act TO leave them
undisturbed.
A few of Mr.. T. 5 hymns, which are
delight to Christians of every name,
are found in all our hymn books
and would have been well to let these
be his monument.
If, on the other hand, 1t was the
Dr's aim to strike down Mr.. Wesley
from the high pedestal on which the
whole Christian world has united TO
place him, l think his effort will be
failure.
/ will first refer briefly to the doc
trines which Mr.. Toplady taught, and
for some of which / imagine DR., b.
would hardly be willing to stand forth
as the champion. Election signifies
| that sovereign, unconditional, immu.
table act of God, whereby He selected
some 10 be eternally saved.n Repro
baton denotes Gods eternal preteri-
ton OF some men, and His predesti-
nation of them to destruction
Esau have l hated; that is, / did.
from all eternity determine not to have
mercy on him. 1.-THE non-elect were
predesiinated unto eternal death"
God did predestinate them to fill up
the measure of their iniquities. u
God decreed the Jews to he
the crucifiers of Christ, and Judas
to betray him. " God had predestina-
ted them to continue in impenitency
and unbelief, God had positively or
dained them to continue in their
| blindness and hardness of heart
The sins o. the reprobate were not
the cause of their being passed by but
merely and entirely the sovereign will
and discriminating pleasure of God"
/ Did ! not say with reason that it would
have been an act of mercy TO let Mr..
| Toplady's doctrinal teachings remain
| in oblivion?
But let us turn to look after Mr..
Wesley, or he may sink so deep in the
mire that we shall fail to find and res
cue him. ! will reproduce the extract
| from Tract No, 9, toward which DR.. b.
has such spite, that repeatedly i'm SER
mons and lectures he is reported to lay
| the cudgel of his indignation upon it.
Mr.. Toplady, a young, bold man,
| lately published pamphlet an extract
| from which was soon after printed,
/ concluding with these words THE
sum Of all is this: One i'm twenty sup
/ pose, of mankind, are elected nineteen
| in twenty are reprobated The elect
shall be saved, do what they will: the
| repr0bate shall be damned, do what
/ they can.'''
| DIR. b. says, 1t is plainly stated
I in the tract that this passage in quota
/ ton marks is taken from the writings
of TOplady." Now what will the read
er think, when | assure him that
there is no such statementin the tract;
but that on the other hand, Mr.. Wes-
ley plainly iutimate- that il was
written 10y himself For he i'm
mcdiately adds A great out
account, as though this was not fair
state of the case; and it has been We
/ hem eutly affirmed that 10 such cOnse-
quence follows from the doctrine of
absolute predestinatiOn. ! calmly af-
! firm it is a fair state of the case.u Is
not this a clear indication that he does
not ascribe the passage to Mr.. r., but
acknowledges it as his own? 1t is
sometimes said that " love is blind" /
imagine there are some other states of
mind which might be personified as
blind, else DR.. b. could never have
plainly stated the case as he does.
| have not Mr. Wesley's works before
me, but | will venture the assertion
. that Mr.. Wesley always acknowledged
| that passage as his own, and that in the
original form IL was so written as to
make a mistake difficult But how
could the mistake have originated at
all? Evidently in the improper use
of the word concluding or more
probably from too concise form Of
expression, the full form being "the
article concluding" sc. But that the
misleading was not intentional is
shown from the fact that Mr.. Wesley
Immediately adopts the sentiment as
his own, as | have shown above.
So much for the forgery, which, if
Mr., Wesley had had his deserts, would
have sent him to Virginia or Nary
land, ~ or perhaps, Tennessee. DR.. b.
ingeniously confesses that ait is as
cribed to Mr. W. i'm his own works,
published by the Methodist Book
/ Concern" And / may add that
. Me.hodi-ts have never ascribed it to
any one else. a slight mistake, Doctor,
when you say that A" from that time to
the present our Methodist brethren
have been pIOclaimiug 20 the world
I that the passage quoted i'm tract no. Is
was written by Toplady.n
But "I0pIgdy was so indignant,
tla. Doe published Mr.. w. iu The Jour
mails Of England as % forgar.n That is
true, Mr., H., when I'm his couuover-
sial moods, and i'm the heat of youth
Che died at the ageof thirty-eight), was
very fond Of that Eiud of argumenta-
ton. Dr.. John s, Hart himself
Presbyterian, says he was "noted for
his assaults upon John Wesley on
points of doctrine But we. in this
more Christian age, and with lempera-
ment- more cooled by years, ought to
pause q long time before we take up
against our ucighbor o reproach which
was first uttered i'm such hot blood
I'm conclusion, let me say to DR..