THE “ETERNAL SONSHIP” CONTROVERSY
IN EARLY BRITISH METHODISM
by
Barry W.
Hamilton
While Adam Clarke’s Commentary stands as one of the great
achievements of early British Methodism, his interpretation of the term “Son of
God” triggered an intense Trinitarian debate. One of the greatest biblical
scholars in
Regarding
Clarke’s position an unfortunate aberration, Methodist leaders coerced
preachers to endorse the “Eternal Sonship” or leave the Connection.[3] However, Wesleyan ministers made Clarke’s Commentary a staple of their libraries;
no one could deny its inestimable value for studying the Scriptures.[4] Furthermore,
Methodists honored Clarke as an exemplary saint who combined scholarship and
Wesleyan spirituality.[5] In fact, the
real issue surrounding Clarke consisted of an exegetical dispute over the term
“Son of God.”[6] Those who
branded Clarke a heretic misread his interpretation as a denial of orthodoxy.
The larger controversy took place between Methodist leaders and self-taught
preachers.
Theological Controversy within Early British Methodism
Methodism
in the early nineteenth century experienced its share of a wider assault on
orthodox Christian teachings, often termed “infidelity” by contemporaries.
Challenges included various forms of Arianism and Socinianism, although some
controversialists simply used these terms to cast aspersion on opponents.[7] Although the
“Sonship” issue had been debated since the seventeenth century, the dispute
that impacted the Methodists at this time came primarily from Unitarianism,
Joseph Priestley’s form of “reasonable” Christianity.[8] Without its own systematic theology, the Wesleyan movement
struggled to train its ministers to respond intelligently to the crisis. Lacking
a seminary, the movement relied largely on self-taught men and women drawn from
the working class—people who lacked formal education and were often vulnerable
to common-sense arguments.[9]
By
1818, some preachers and laity formed the Methodist Unitarian Movement,
evidence of the inroads being made by rational religion.[10] Thus, when
Clarke published the Matthew-Luke volume of his Commentary and Critical Notes on the Holy Bible (1817), some
Methodists feared that Clarke’s hermeneutical principles and theological
opinions—in the hands of ignorance—might compromise Methodism’s orthodoxy.[11] Concerned
that Wesleyan ministers might misread Clarke, critics honed in on passages that
tested his views on the Trinity and pronounced the footnote on Luke 1:35
unsound.[12] In his
comments on this verse, Clarke rejected the application of the term “Son of
God” exclusively to the divine nature of Christ. Rather, he applied the term
“to that holy person or thing. . .which was born of the virgin,
by the energy of the Holy Spirit.” Clarke connected “Son of God” to Jesus’
birth so that the term referred to Christ only after the Incarnation.
Anticipating
opposition, Clarke rejected the doctrine of Eternal Sonship, asking, “But is
there any part of the Scriptures in which it is plainly said that the Divine nature of Jesus was the Son of God?” Clarke produced five
reasons for this rejection: (1) “I have not been able to find any express declaration in the Scriptures
concerning it”; (2) “If Christ be the Son of God as to his Divine nature, then he cannot be eternal; for son implies
a father; and father implies, in
reference to son, precedency in time, if not in nature
too”; (3) “If Christ be the Son of God as to his Divine nature, then the Father
is of necessity prior, consequently superior
to him”; (4) “Again, if this Divine
nature were begotten of the Father, then it must be in time; i.e., there was a period in which
it did not exist and a period when it
began to exist”; (5) “To say that he
was begotten from all eternity is, in my opinion, absurd; and
the phrase eternal Son is a positive
self-contradiction.” Clarke alleged, “This doctrine of the Eternal Sonship destroys the deity
of Christ; now if his deity be taken away, the whole Gospel scheme of
redemption is ruined.” He noted the publications that addressed the issue in
terms of “Socinianism” and “Deism,” and prayed that God might “save his Church”
from such “heterodoxies” and “their abetters.”[13]
Certainly, no one could justly bring
charges against Adam Clarke, for he strenuously upheld the divinity of Jesus
Christ. As noted above, he believed the Eternal Sonship doctrine to be a denial
of Christ’s deity.[14] Clarke was
indisputably Methodism’s greatest biblical scholar, a renowned preacher and
philanthropist. After his death, contemporaries counted him among the “greatest
men” of his age.[15] Opponents
could scarcely attack Clarke’s character, for his service to Methodism had been
monumental. Nevertheless, they charged him with believing that revelation could
not contradict reason.
For
Clarke, the Bible embodied divine reason, correlative with human reason aided
by divine illumination. His critics thought he meant that when people
encountered mysterious teachings in the Bible, reason could interpret those
elements to satisfy the mind according to its prior experience. Clarke’s
critics misrepresented him in this case, for as a Methodist he defended divine
revelation as necessary for Christian faith. In fact, reason added nothing to
what God has revealed.[16] On the basis of Scripture, Clarke stoutly defended the
divinity of Christ.[17] Certainly,
those who affirmed a significant role for reason in the interpretation of
Scripture often regarded the Bible as the sole source for Christian teaching
and scorned “human creeds” and “works of divinity,” and Clarke explicitly
despised systematic theology.[18] Yet, while
some scholars could sound “Biblicist”—for example, the Unitarians—Clarke kept
his own views in check with his evangelical scholarship and his loyalty to
Methodism. Unfortunately, his stubborn adherence to the letter of Scripture
compromised his adherence to the historic creeds of Christendom with respect to
Christology. Consequently, Clarke took an exegetical position that re-opened
the debate over the Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ and challenged Wesleyan
ministers to consider whether a common-sense reading of Luke 1:35 should allow
them to differ with the historic creeds of the church.
Clarke never published a response to
his critics. He believed Scripture had spoken and let the matter rest. When
critics launched fusillades of pamphlets on the “eternal Sonship” issue, Clarke
likened their attacks to a man who went to the seashore to hold back the tide
with a pitchfork. A busy scholar who detested controversy, he contented himself
with continuing his work on the Commentary.[19] Those who
rushed to defend Clarke wielded no greater skill than his detractors, often
displaying confusion regarding the “persons” of the Trinity and their
relations.[20] Both parties
strove to make the opposing side appear ridiculous, and in Stephen Brunskill’s
case, his own unskilled use of rhetoric did not help Clarke.[21] From the
vantage point of nearly two centuries, the ‘Sonship’ issue illustrates the
impossibility of resolving theological issues through Biblicist-rationalist
approaches. The debate hinged around rhetoric, slander and convoluted
theological argumentation, and thus failed to enrich the church’s faith.
Richard Watson Defends the Eternal Sonship
The definitive response to the issue
came from Clarke’s younger contemporary, Richard Watson (1781-1833). While
Watson recognized Clarke’s exceptional standing and record of service, he
nevertheless sensed a greater duty to defend the Eternal Sonship.[22] And although
he refused to call Clarke an Arian or a Socinian, Watson did regard some of his
opinions as meriting these labels. In some cases, he believed Clarke’s
hermeneutical principles had a “direct tendency. . .to lead to errors, which
Dr. Clarke himself would be the first to condemn.”
The
year after Clarke’s volume on Matthew-Luke appeared, Watson published his Remarks on the Eternal Sonship of Jesus
Christ (1818). He never meant his Remarks
as an attack on Clarke’s character—in fact, Watson hints at the latter’s
innocence; rather, Watson considered the defense of orthodox Trinitarian
doctrine to be an “imperative duty”—an indication that he aimed at a larger
issue in Wesleyan Methodism.[23] In this
pamphlet, he pointed out the danger of making reason the measure of revelation
and demonstrated its weakness in theological matters. While both Clarke and
Watson believed the interpretation of revelation should be consistent with
reason aided by the Holy Spirit, Watson more clearly articulated the priority
of revelation for Christian faith, even when consistency with reason proved
impossible.[24] Watson may
have feared that, if reason gained the upper hand, Methodism could not have
maintained a consistently orthodox position on the Trinity among its ministers.
Wesleyan doctrine would have been undermined by its own preachers, many of whom
used reason to force Christian teaching to conform to their generation’s
expectations about “reasonable” belief.[25]
Watson
never blamed Clarke for doctrinal controversy within the
Furthermore,
Clarke’s prominence had garnered important social connections with the English
nobility. He had also been commissioned by the British government to publish a
new edition of the Fedora, a
collection of public records. Indeed, Clarke’s reputation—his impeccable
character and extraordinary competence as a scholar and preacher—made him an
unlikely target for criticism from colleagues of high standing. He had an
abundance of friends—in Methodism, in the Church of England, in the dissenting
churches, among the general public, among the gentry, and in the national
government. To take a public stand against Clarke risked alienation, criticism,
and embarrassment. Those who remonstrated against his views would surely be
attacked by scores of Clarke’s prominent friends. Watson fully recognized the
risk. Taking up the pen against his colleague almost inevitably meant being
charged with ambition and jealously—and indeed, Clarke’s friends and family
charged Watson with these faults even after both men were in their graves.
Watson
sensed a strong obligation to publish his Remarks
on the Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ, even though he knew he would thus make
an abundance of enemies. There is no evidence that Watson intended this
pamphlet as a personal attack on Clarke, and certainly Watson never appears to
have been motivated by ambition. Both men were exemplary Christians whose
character and integrity provided no grounds for reproach, although their
prominence gave each man his share of criticism. As a younger Wesleyan minister with
exceptional talent, Watson had yet to earn the public esteem that Clarke held
and thus hesitated to risk his reputation for a theological controversy. Since
Watson had left the Wesleyan Methodist Church for the Methodist New Connexion
in the early years of his ministry—even for only a brief period, he knew his
detractors would quickly fasten on this event to discredit him, especially
those who defended their esteemed friend Adam Clarke. When one considers the
fact that Clarke and Watson respected each other and stayed on good terms,
although there is no evidence that these men were particularly close
associates, one has difficulty charging Watson with malice or ambition, even
though critics accused him relentlessly. Yet no one could make a heretic of
Adam Clarke, as stubbornly as the latter could cling to his exegesis. Watson
knew Clarke never meant to lead his beloved Methodism into error.
But
Watson could not remain silent while the
Finding
answers to theological questions took more time than most itinerants could
spare. Methodism needed a “compendium” or systematic theology to address the
issues of the day.[27] The
ministers’ choices of collateral theological reading material subjected them to
the rationalism that had made rapid inroads on the religious literature of that
era. Thus, Methodist pulpits became tinged with the ministers’ own confusion
and ill-guided theological reflection. Arianism and Socinianism became real
dangers for the
Through
his Remarks, Watson brought Methodist
thought back into line with the Nicene and other early creeds of Christendom.
He never disparaged reason as a human endowment; rather he considered reason as
God’s gift that made the human race a special creation. Nevertheless, such
special endowment had come under the curse of sin.[29] As fallen
humanity, people could no longer use reason to apprehend revealed truth without
the assistance of divine illumination. Ironically, Watson later expounded this
pre-modern Christian perspective through his systematic theology, the Theological Institutes, a “modern” form
of doctrinal exposition related to the quintessential Enlightenment compendium
of universal knowledge, the “encyclopedia.” Through Watson and Clarke,
Methodist thought embraced Enlightenment reason even as it expressed an
Anti-Enlightenment faith. As Methodism’s leading biblical scholar, Clarke took
this turn toward rationalism without fully recognizing the implications for
historic Christian teaching. Through his scholarly application of “modern”
reason in his Commentary, Clarke gave
the biblical text an unparalleled authenticity and depth of meaning for his
generation. As Methodism’s future systematic theologian, Watson recognized the
unquestionable value of Clarke’s biblical scholarship for the church. Even so,
Watson saw the danger of an unbridled Biblicism that neglected the faith of the
intervening centuries. The Remarks
were his prelude to the Institutes,
his magnum opus by which he grounded
Methodist scholarship in scriptural—and historic—Christianity. Through the Remarks, Watson called on Methodists not to allow reason to undermine
orthodoxy.
Watson’s
Remarks addressed the first
issue—whether the Sonship of Jesus Christ designates his divine nature or his
human nature, particularly as the latter refers to Christ’s role as Messiah.
Watson notes several occurrences in Scripture where the phrase “Son of God”
refers exclusively to the divinity of Jesus Christ, a point that overturns
Clarke’s contention that no “express declaration of Scripture” exists where
Jesus Christ is declared to be the Son of God exclusively in terms of divinity.
As Sellers states, “Watson was the one man in Wesleyan Methodism with
sufficient learning to point out that the former title [Son of God] is far
higher than and different from that of Messiah as understood by the Jews of the
day.”[30] Contrary to
Clarke, “Son of God” and “Messiah” could not be synonymous. Neither could Jesus
be called ‘Son of God’ on the basis of his miraculous conception, as Clarke
asserted.[31] Rather, Jesus
was called ‘Son of God’ as a designation for his divinity. Watson accused
Clarke of inconsistency in disavowing a doctrine that allegedly had no “express
declaration” in Scripture, for Clarke consented to infant baptism and the union
of two natures in Jesus Christ. Yet Watson demonstrated the Eternal Sonship as
a doctrine “expressly” avowed in Scripture.[32] His first
selection consisted of two verses—John 1:14 and John 1:18—that contain the
Christologically-significant term, “only-begotten.” He began with the
opposition in verse 18 that “no man, (oudeis,
nullus, nemo) hath seen” or (Watson paraphrased) “that is, in Scripture
language, hath known, the Father.” Rather, “‘the only begotten Son,’ he hath seen, and known him, and hath,
therefore, declared him: but if this ‘only
begotten Son,’ were the man Jesus, separately and distinctly considered as
a man; then at least one man. . .hath seen God, and declared him, which the
former part of the verse denies. Between the term ‘only begotten’ and the nature of man there is an obvious opposition.” Watson adds further that the
“14th verse is still stronger” in its demonstration that Christ’s
glory “could not be human glory” but rather the glory of divinity. “If this
glory be referred to his miraculous works, as these works were wrought, not by
his human, but his divine power, this view would fix the term “only begotten,” as a note of supreme and
absolute Divinity, demonstrating itself by miraculous operations.” Watson
points out an even “more striking view of the passage” with its comparison of
Jesus’ “fleshly body” with the “tabernacle of Moses, the sacred tent of the
divine Shekinah.” Thus, the glory of the “only begotten” is exclusively divine,
without reference to human glory. By moving from point to point in a rising
climax and positing human/divine elements as opposites (with an obvious preference
for the divine), Watson struck at Clarke’s position as giving the lesser glory
to Jesus.[33]
Yet
Watson recognized that Clarke did not deny Christ’s divinity; rather, he feared
that Clarke’s hermeneutical principles—in the hands of ill-guided Wesleyan ministers—could
lead to a diminished role for the divine nature in the Incarnation. At one
point Watson acknowledged—for the sake of argument—Clarke’s insistence that
“Son” referred to both human and divine natures. Discussing John 3:16 as
crucial for interpreting the term “Son,” Watson contended with Clarke that,
although both natures might be assumed in this passage, “yet the force of this
important text, as an expression of God’s love to the world, depends upon the
use of that term, as the designation of the divine nature of Christ.” Without
this signification—that ‘Son’ refers to the divine nature and not to the
human—the love of the Father for the Son “lose[s] much of its unutterable
tenderness, and affecting expression.” After all, it is the Father’s giving of
His only begotten Son as a divine Savior that has, “to use Dr. Clarke’s own
words, put an eternity of meaning into the particle outo, so, and left a
subject for everlasting contemplation, wonder, and praise, to angels and men.”
To attribute “only begotten Son” to the human Jesus, rather than to his
divinity, would lessen the strength of the particle “so” and thus the degree of
the love of the Father for humanity.[34]
Watson
further supported the Eternal Sonship through the importance of the revealed
name, “Father,” even when “divinity is spoken of without any reference to the
peculiar and mysterious mode of his existence in three persons.” Thus, “‘The
Father’ is the high and expressive distinction of the first [person].” When God revealed the nature of the Trinity in the
New Testament, where terms “not only of the most expressive import but of the
utmost precision were to be expected”—since these terms would be taught to
converts from paganism—“the three persons are thus distinctly and emphatically
designated.… Baptizing them in the name
of the FATHER, and of the SON, and of the HOLY GHOST.… The inquiry then is,
why the first person in the Godhead is thus called the Father with relation to
a Son, in a case where there is a distinct
consideration of the three?” Watson insisted that the “Father” correlates
to the “Son” in terms of the divine rather than the human nature of Christ. In
other words, these titles—Father, Son, and Spirit—designate essential relations
within the Trinity rather than functional titles. The denial of these essential
relations would nullify the substance of Trinitarian teaching pronounced on
each new convert.
Watson
continued his rebuttal of Clarke’s position, citing several biblical passages
in support of the Eternal Sonship. Of particular importance are Christ’s
titles, used in specific contexts. For example, in the story of the calling of
Nathaniel, Philip invites the latter to meet “him of whom Moses in the law and
the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the SON OF JOSEPH.” Watson observed
that nothing of the “miraculous conception” could be derived from this title,
if this event had been employed by Jesus to support his call for discipleship.
Nor did Peter intend to call Jesus “Messiah” when he called him the Son of God
in Matthew 16:16. Rather, Peter used the title Son of God as an explicit
confession of Christ’s divinity; the ambiguous title of Messiah usually did not
include reference to divine nature. In fact, Watson’s argument largely stands
on his knowledge that the Jews did not “generally, in the time of Christ,
expect their Messiah to be a divine person.” Watson relied once again on his
“oppositional exegesis,”
After
he demonstrated Son of God to be a title for Christ’s divinity, Watson turned
to the basis for Clarke’s rejection of the Eternal Sonship—his
“rationalism”—and questions reason as a criterion for revelation: “How do I
know that my reason in this particular case is right reason? That the
communication of one single idea, which I may acquire in this life, when my knowledge
is more improved. . .may not correct my present views, alter the whole scope of
my present reasoning on these high subjects, and furnish me with some medium of
proof, which shall demonstrate what now is to me, not only incomprehensible,
but even contradictory?” While reason may be trusted with respect to sensory
knowledge, how can it grasp the nature of God? Contrary to the Enlightenment
correlation of human reason with eternal reason, Watson severs the connection
and disqualifies reason as equal to revelation. Reason is fallible on the
grounds of its limits and incorrect judgments: “We can argue only from what we
know; and if we err in knowledge, we must err in reason.”[35] Given this
fallibility, Watson moved on to the primary issue—how far reason can be used to
judge revelation—and cited Clarke:
The doctrine which cannot stand the test of rational investigation, cannot be true. We have gone too far when we have said, such and such doctrines should not be subjected to rational investigation, being doctrines of pure revelation. I know of no such doctrine in the Bible. The doctrines of this book are doctrines of eternal reason, and they are revealed because they are such. Human reason could not have found them out; but when revealed, reason can both apprehend and comprehend them.” “No man either can or should believe a doctrine that contradicts reason; but he may safely credit (in any thing that concerns the nature of God) what is above his reason.
Watson believed these principles placed reason
above Scripture:
To most of
these positions I object, generally, because they implicate the pernicious
principle, that the meaning of Scripture is to be determined by our own views
of what is reasonable; that human reason is to be made not only the instrument of investigating the meaning
of the revelation, but the judge of
the doctrine: a principle, which makes it a canon of interpretation, that where
the letter of Scripture indicates a doctrine that appears unreasonable to us,
it must be taken in a sense which does appear reasonable. [This would] make the
sense of revelation to be what every man may take it to be; thereby destroying
the unity of truth, and leaving us without any standard of opinion, except the
ever varying one of human reason. [The most destructive application would be]
to those parts of the sacred revelation which relate to the manner of the
divine existence. This must, from its nature, be a subject of pure revelation,
“for no man hath seen God at any time.”[36]
For
Watson, revelation by nature could not be superseded by human reason; without
revelation “the love of sin veils the heart” and thus darkens the mind.[37] Revelation of
the divine existence—including the doctrine of the Eternal Sonship—must be
received as God’s own word as the light of Christ shines on the heart. Clarke’s
“error” is the equation of “eternal reason” with “human reason.” To equate
human reason with eternal reason regards the former as infallible, which no one
admits. Instead, revelation must be received as infallible and accepted on the
basis of its own evidence. Watson argued that Christian teachings “of every
age” would not stand the test of rational investigation if reason meant “a
process by which we inquire the truth and falsehood of any thing by comparing
it with what we already know, and what we have already determined to be true.”[38] To subject
Scripture to rational investigation would test God by human knowledge, to
subject the Infinite to finitude.
Thus,
Watson denied reason as the yardstick of revelation. The “rational
investigation” advocated by Clarke could not go beyond revelation; indeed, such
an investigation questioned God’s veracity. And if a “rational investigation”
remained within the limits of revelation, it would not be “a rational, but a
scriptural investigation; and Dr. Clarke has in vain attempted to correct the
notions of those who exclude reason as the judge of the doctrines of an
acknowledged revelation.”[39] Watson cited
Ellis’s Knowledge of Divine Things on
the impasse between reason and revelation: “The great difference between the
objects of human knowledge and divine is that in the former there is a spacious
field for new acquisitions and improvements; but in divine invisible objects it
is far otherwise. The boundary is fixed;
our inquiries limited to what is revealed; and all further search vain and
unlawful.”[40] Only faith,
without the corroboration of reason, could be deemed a proper response when
reason cannot support the truth of revelation. Watson drew on John Locke’s
observations on the relationship of reason and revelation. He sought to shore
up faith in an era when naturalism was undermining confidence in historic
Christian teachings, and rallied the
Watson brought his argument to a
climax, scorning reason’s ability to extend revelation: “If this then be the
fact as to doctrines whose reasons are partly revealed, how can reason be the
judge of those which are stated on naked authority—all here is darkness, which,
if the sun has not dispersed, the light of the glow-worm may be applied to it
in vain.” Watson faulted pride as the basis for the rationalistic enterprise:
“I know that there is nothing here so dazzling as in the principles on which I
have animadverted; it is more flattering to the human mind to be accounted a
judge, than to be reduced to the rank of a scholar; to be placed in a condition
to summon divine wisdom to its bar, and oblige it to give an account of its
decisions, than to receive them upon authority.” He then linked biblical
interpretation to the classical doctrine of divine illumination and advocated
the reception of revelation on its own authority.[42] His Remarks thus
limited reason’s role in interpreting revelation and prepared the way for his Institutes, an authoritative statement
of Trinitarian orthodoxy that would overshadow Methodist theology for decades.[43]
By
subordinating reason to revelation, Watson defended the classical Christian
heritage of Methodism and determined the limits of just how “reasonable” its
faith should be. The Sonship controversy thus highlighted a storm center in the
The Silent Dignity of Adam Clarke
Adam Clarke never responded in
public to Watson’s Remarks, but kept
silence since he loved Methodism and loathed controversy. Clarke’s family and
friends attributed his silence to his piety, and accused Watson of jealousy and
ambition.[45] The
Methodism
overlooked Clarke’s “faults” because his contention over the term Son of God
was an exegetical opinion rather than a doctrinal heresy. The theological
controversy took place between orthodox Methodist leaders—led by Bunting and
Watson—and Methodist preachers, self-educated young men who were not firmly
rooted in Wesleyan doctrine. Certainly Watson did not write his Remarks on the basis of unfounded
concern. Enemies of the Eternal Sonship who misread Clarke’s exegetical opinion
as a theological statement attacked Trinitarian orthodoxy as well as the
leaders of the
In the eyes of “official Methodism,”
Richard Watson emerged as the leading defender of the Eternal Sonship. Already
prominent as the President of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, Watson secured
his reputation as Methodism’s leading theologian through the publication of his
Remarks. A few years later he
published the Theological Institutes
as a compendium of Methodist orthodoxy to arm Wesleyan ministers against the onslaughts
of infidelity and heresy. However, neither Watson nor any other critic could
deprive Clarke of his eminent standing. Clarke’s contributions to both church
and society could not be sullied by controversy over a footnote. Even as they
expelled other ministers over this issue, Methodist leaders never brought
charges against Clarke because they knew him to be innocent. At Clarke’s
expense, the Connection used the Sonship issue to denounce rationalism and cull
its ministerial ranks of budding heretics. Shortly after their untimely deaths,
the
[1] Adam Clarke presented his hermeneutical principles in the
“General Preface” to his Commentary.
See Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible
Containing the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols. (
[2] Clarke’s generation widely misunderstood his position as
theological speculation. For example, see William Jones, Memoirs of the Life, Ministry, and Writings, of the Rev. Adam Clarke,
LL.D., F.S.A. (London: M’Gowan and
Co., 1838), 542-545.
[3] See Minutes of
Several Conversations Between the Methodist Preachers in the Connexion
Established by the Late Rev. John Wesley, M.A., at Their Eighty-Third Annual
Conference, Begun in Liverpool, on Wednesday, July 26, 182 (London: J.
Kershaw, 1826), 83-84; and Minutes of
Several Conversations Between the Methodist Preachers in the Connexion
Established by the Late Rev. John Wesley, M.A., at Their Eighty-Fourth Annual
Conference, Begun in Manchester, on Wednesday, July 25, 1827 (London: J.
Mason, 1827), 77. Courtesy Bridwell Library, Southern
[4] “Adam Clarke’s magnum
opus—the scholarly work for which he was most remembered and revered—was
his eight-volume Commentary on the
Scripture published between 1810-1826. It was a standard work, not alone
for Methodists, for several generations.” Elden Dale Dunlap, “Methodist
Theology in
[5] See Dunlap,
“Methodist Theology in
[6] “It was rather a question in philology than in theology.”
Dunn, Life of Adam Clarke, 230-231.
[7] James Everett
points out that in the late eighteenth century, when Adam Clarke ministered in
that city, “Deism and Socinianism were rife in
[8] For the Trinitarian debates of the seventeenth century see
Philip Dixon, “Nice and Hot
Disputes”: The Doctrine of the Trinity
in the Seventeenth Century (
[9] See “Section IV—Improvement of Young Preachers” in Samuel
Tucker, A Candid and Impartial Inquiry
into the Present State of the Methodist Societies in Ireland; Wherein Several
Important Points Relative to Their Doctrines and Discipline are Discussed (Belfast:
G. Berwick, 1814), 385-410.
[10] “In 1806 Joseph Cooke practically denied the witness of the
Spirit and set the stage for the first of the only two schisms over doctrine.
He rejected the doctrine of the Atonement as currently understood, abandoned
original sin, denied the Trinity, and taught that justifying faith was in
itself meritorious. Through these teachings and his emphasis on the Holy
Scripture as interpreted by good sense and right reason, he led the way to
Methodist Unitarianism in 1818.” Dunlap, “Methodist Theology in
[11] For a summary of Methodism’s quandary with Clarke, see
Thomas Jackson, Memoirs of the Life and
Writings of the Rev. Richard Watson, Late Secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary
Society (New York: B. Waugh and T. Mason, 1834), 174. See also John W. Etheridge, The Life of the Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D.,
F.A.S., M.R.I.A., Etc., Etc. (New
York: Carlton & Porter, 1858), 368-369. Jackson and Etheridge illustrate
the misunderstanding of those who took Clarke’s exegetical judgments for
doctrinal opinion.
[12] After his death, Clarke’s friends attributed evil motives
to his critics. For example, see Nathan Bangs, A Discourse on the Death of the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke, Delivered in Green-Street
Church, in the City of New-York, on the Evening of October 30, 1832
(New-York: B. Waugh and T. Mason, 1832), 14.
[13] Clarke, Commentary,
1:490-491. See also Etheridge, Life of
the Rev. Adam Clarke, 73.
[14] See An Account of the
Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.A.S., &c. &c.,
&c. By a Member of His Family. With an Appendix by J. B. B. Clarke, M.A.
3 vols. (London: T. S. Clarke, 1833), 1:91-110; see also 1:298-301.
[15] See Maldwyn L.
Edwards, Adam Clarke. Wesley
Historical Society Lectures 8 (London: Epworth, 1942), 44-45; L. Giustiniani, Divine Love:
A Funeral Oration on the Death of the Late Dr. Adam Clarke, Delivered in
French at Great Queen-Street Chapel, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Sept. 18, 1832;
and Dunlap, “Methodist Theology in Great Britain in the Nineteenth Century,”
92. Dunlap cites John Fletcher Hurst, The
History of Methodism. 7 vols. (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1902), 1255.
[16] See Sermon XXXI, “Divine Revelation: A Discourse on Romans
xv.4” in Adam Clarke, Discourses on Various
Subjects, Relative to the Being and Attributes of God, and His Works in
Creation, Providence, and Grace (New-York: M’Elrath & Bangs, 1831);
Sermon X, “The Wisdom That Is From Above,” in Clarke, Discourses on Various Subjects, 1:173-181, especially pages
175-177.
[17] Adam Clarke, Christian
Theology: Selected from His Published and Unpublished Writings, and
Systematically Arranged: With a Life of the Author: By Samuel Dunn
(New-York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), 111.
[18] Ian Sellers, Adam Clarke, Controversialist: Wesleyanism
and the Historic Faith in the Age of Bunting (Ian Sellers, 1976), 2; and An Account
of the Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, III:37.
[19] An Account of the
Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, III:168-169. See also Dunn, Life of Adam Clarke, 232; and Clarke, Christian Theology, 43-44.
[20] For example, see Sellers, Adam Clarke, Controversialist, 10.
[21] Sellers, Adam Clarke,
Controversialist, 10-11. See Stephen Brunskill, Thoughts on the Divinity and Sonship of Jesus Christ (Liverpool:
Caxton Press, 1819). Courtesy British Library (
[22] For an overview of the “Eternal Sonship” controversy, see
Dunlap, “Methodist Theology in
[23] Richard Watson, Remarks
on the Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ and the Use of Reason in Matters of
Revelation: Suggested by Several
Passages in Dr. Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the New Testament. In a Letter to a Friend. 2nd
ed. (London: T. Cordeaux, 1818). See also Jackson, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Richard Watson, 176.
[24] However, Clarke never judged reason capable of knowing God
beyond revelation. For example, see
Clarke, Christian Theology, 116.
[25] For example, see Samuel Tucker, The Triumph of Scriptural and Rational Truth: Displayed in a Complete Refutation of the
Absurd and Unauthorized Doctrines of the Eternal Generation of the Divine
Logos, and the Hypostatical Union of the Two Spiritual Natures in Jesus Christ:
in a Series of Letters addressed to the President of the Wesleyan Methodist
Conference (London: Marshall and Mills: Fisher, Son and Jackson,
1828). Courtesy United Library,
Northwestern University (
[26] For example, see George Bevan, God in Christ; Set Forth in Two Letters to a Friend, with Some
Observations on Mr. McLean’s Tract on the Sonship of Jesus Christ; and an
Appendix, Containing Some Remarks on Dr. Gill’s Arguments in His Body of
Divinity for the Eternal Generation of the Son of God (London: J. F. Dove,
1818), especially pages 2-8. Courtesy Bodleian Library,
[27] See Samuel Tucker, A
Candid and Impartial Inquiry into the Present State of the Methodist Societies
in Ireland; Wherein Several Important Points Relative to Their Doctrines and
Discipline are Discussed (Belfast: G. Berwick), 332-369.
[28] Evaluating Clarke as an Old Testament scholar, Stephen Dawes
mentions the Eternal Sonship controversy as “relevant only to the extent to
which it illustrates Clarke’s stress on the use of reason in the interpretation
of Scripture and in doing theology generally.” Stephen B. Dawes, Adam Clarke:
Methodism’s First Old Testament Scholar. Occasional Publication no. 26 (Carharrack,
Redruth, Cornwall: Cornish Methodist Historical Association, 1994), 26.
[29] See “Man Magnified by the Divine Regard,” Sermon IV in
Richard Watson, Sermons and Sketches of
Sermons (New-York: G. Lane & C. B. Tippett, 1848), I:54. This sermon
was also printed in The Methodist
Magazine for the Year of Our Lord 1824, VII:3-13, 41-47.
[30] Sellers, Adam Clarke,
Controversialist, 9.
[31] Clarke’s own
writings do not support Sellers’ statement that he held a form of “adoptionist
Christology” that proposed a “gradual communication of deity.” See Sellers, Adam Clarke, Controversialist, 3.
[32] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 6.
[33] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 8-9.
[34] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 10-11.
[35] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 48-49.
[36] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 50-51. Watson also employed this high view of
Scriptural authority while defending John Wesley against Robert Southey, whose
unflattering biography of Methodism’s founder dismissed supernatural events as
“enthusiasm.” See Richard Watson, Observations
on Southey’s “Life of Wesley:” Being a Defence of the Character, Labours, and
Opinions of Mr. Wesley Against the Misrepresentations of That Publication
(New York: N. Bangs and T. Mason, 1821), 208-210.
[37] One of Watson’s best expositions on divine revelation is
found in his sermon on II Corinthians 4:6. See Richard Watson, “The Glory of
God in the Face of Jesus Christ,” Sermon XCIII in Sermons and Sketches of Sermons, 2:244-251. Clarke would have
agreed with Watson on virtually every point.
See Adam Clarke, The Christian
Prophet and His Work: A Discourse on I Corinthians XIV.3 (New-York: E.
Sargeant, and Grimmin and Rudd; and J. F. Watson,1812), 132-133; bound with
Adam Clarke, A Discourse on the Nature,
Design, and Institution, of the Holy Eucharist, Commonly Called the Sacrament
of the Lord’s Supper. To Which are Added, A Collection of His Smaller Tracts;
Including Two Sermons (New-York: E.
Sargeant, and Griffin and Rudd; and J. F. Watson, 1812).
[38] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 52-55.
[39] Watson, Remarks on the Eternal Sonship, 56-57.
[40] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 60-61. Watson is citing John Ellis, The Knowledge of Divine Things from
Revelation, Not from Reason or Nature (
[41] “Mr. Watson’s pamphlet on the Sonship of Christ was
accompanied by similar publications from the pens of the Rev. Messrs.
[42] Watson, Remarks on
the Eternal Sonship, 80-81. Watson defended his views on divine
illumination to the end of his life. See John Beecham, [Conversations with
Richard Watson, 15 January 1833] (London: James Nichols, [1833]), 2. Courtesy
of the United Methodist Archives and
[43] “The publication of this pamphlet stamped the character of
Mr. Watson as an able divine and a profound thinker. Nothing that he had ever
published made so deep an impression.” Jackson, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Richard Watson,
180. See also Jabez Bunting, Memorials of the Late Rev. Richard Watson (London:
John Mason, 1833), 28.
[44] For a critique of Watson’s role in the development of
Methodist theology, see John W. Wright, “Wesley’s Theology as Methodist
Practice: Toward the Post-Modern Retrieval of the Wesleyan Tradition.” Wesleyan Theological Journal 35:2 (Fall
2000), 7-31. See also Randy Maddox, “Respected Founder/Neglected Guide: The
Role of Wesley in American Methodist Theology.” Methodist History, vol. XXXVII, no. 2 (January 1999), 77-78 for his
observations on Watson’s Institutes.
In their critiques of Watson, neither Wright nor Maddox [see his note 51] take
into account the context of theological controversy that overwhelmed British
Methodism in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. See Tucker, A Candid and Impartial Inquiry,
especially pages 287-310, 332-369, esp. 345-348.
[45] See Life and Labours
of the Rev. Adam Clarke, 376-383; Dunn, The
Life of Adam Clarke, 161, 179, 240; Edwards, Adam Clarke, 22.
[46] For example, see Dunn, The
Life of Adam Clarke, 231-232.
[47] Life and Labours of
Adam Clarke, 441-482.
[48] For example, see Nathan Bangs, A Discourse on the Death of the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke, Delivered in
Green-Street Church, in the City of New-York, on the Evening of October 30,
1832 (New-York: B. Waugh and T.
Mason, 1832), 14.
[49] James Dixon, Recollections
of Dr. Adam Clarke: A Lecture by the Rev. James Dixon, D.D.,
[50] By the mid-nineteenth century, the Eternal Sonship debate
had already lapsed into obscurity. For example, see The Triumphs of Industry: Illustrated by the Life of Adam Clarke, LL.D.
[51] For example,
see Samuel Dill, The Origin, Nature, and
Dignity of the Sonship of Jesus Christ, in Which the Self-Existence and True
Deity of the Son of God are Established on Scripture Testimony. Being a Reply
to the Principal Arguments of the Most Popular Writers in Defence of Eternal
Generation.
[52] For example, see Joseph Forsyth, The Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ Discussed. Three Letters to the
President of the Wesleyan-Methodist Conference, Showing That the Doctrine of
the Sonship of Jesus, Which That Venerable body Rejects as Heresy, was taught
by Christ Himself, and constituted the alleged blasphemy for which he was
condemned to death; also, a review of several pamphlets, published by
Wesleyan-Methodist preachers, in defence of eternal Sonship, together with its
effects upon preachers and people (London: John Stephens, 1835), esp.
24-32. Courtesy of the James P. Boyce Centennial Library, Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary (
[53] Unpublished diary of Rev. William Pollard [Wesleyan
minister, moved from Chelmsford Circuit to
[54] For example, see Dunn, The
Life of Adam Clarke, 240.