The Life of the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson: Compiled From His Printed and Manuscript Journals, and Other Authentic Documents
(
This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
(This sermon on the Wesleyan doctrine of sanctification ha...)
This sermon on the Wesleyan doctrine of sanctification has been updated for contemporary readers. It was originally published anonymously as "The Necessity of Sanctification, or Gospel Holiness" by the Methodist Episcopal Church Tract Society, (ca. 1826), however, scholarship by Dr. Daniel F. Flores has attributed it to Rev. Dr. Nathan Bangs.
A Biblical and Theological Dictionary: Explanatory of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Jews, and Neighbouring Nations
(
This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Nathan Bangs was an American Christian theologian in the Methodist tradition and influential leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church prior to the 1860s.
Background
Born on May 2, 1778 in Stratford, Connecticut. His father, Lemuel, blacksmith, surveyor, school-teacher, had turned to the Church of England, was severely critical of Methodist preachers as uneducated, and had all his children baptized in the Protestant Episcopal Church. His mother was Rebecca Keeler of Ridgefield, Connecticut All but one of the children became members, and four sons ministers in the Methodist denomination.
Education
He received a limited education.
Career
He picked up enough education to be able to teach in the rural schools. When twenty-one he went to Canada, and took a school in a Dutch community near Niagara. One of the families where he boarded had a small library, and he became familiar with Milton, Bunyan, and Hervey's Meditations. An English parson whom he calls "drunken and card-playing, " contrasted with James Coleman, a Methodist itinerant, effaced the last trace of his father's anti-Methodism. Bangs joined the Methodist church, discarding "cue" and "ruffles, " and soon felt the definite assurance that he was divinely called to preach. He began opening his school sessions with prayer; and when the Dutch directors objected he gave up his position rather than yield. Licensed to preach in 1801, he entered at once on the laborious service of the early Methodist traveling preachers.
For years he rode on horseback through the forests of Upper Canada, sleeping and eating when and where he could find accommodation in a settler's cabin, and preaching when and where he could find a congregation. In 1804 he came into direct contact with Bishop Asbury, "the Apostle of Methodism. " He was admitted to Conference, and without the usual two-year delay was made an elder. Assigned to the Province of Quebec, he found his work beset with peculiar difficulties; but is regarded as the founder of Methodism in that district.
Conditions in Canada becoming difficult for Americans as the War of 1812 drew near, he returned to the United States; and until 1820 served as pastor and part of the time as presiding elder in the state of New York. His duties taking him into the neighboring parts of Connecticut, he is said to have been influential in the movements which ended the Church and State connection there. In 1820 he was made agent of the Book Concern in New York. He paid the debts of the almost bankrupt institution, and put it on a paying basis. In the years following, he started the system of official church journals, and was himself editor of the New York Advocate, the Methodist Magazine, and the Methodist Quarterly Review. At the same time he had editorial charge of the publications of the Book Concern.
Greatly interested in missionary work, he was the founder of the Methodist Missionary Society, for years serving as its secretary without salary. In 1836 he relinquished his connection with the Book Concern in order to give his full time to the Missionary Society. In 1841 he became acting president of Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, during the absence on account of illness of President Olin. Superannuated, according to custom, at the age of seventy-five, he never ceased active participation in church work until his death.
Almost entirely self-educated, Bangs was yet an effective writer. Besides editorials, sermons, and addresses, the list of his published works includes the following: Christianism (1809); Errors of Hopkinsianism (1815); Examination of the Doctrine of Predestination (1817); The Reformer Reformed (1818); Vindication of Methodist Episcopacy (1820); Life of Rev. Freeborn Garretson (1829); History of Missions (1832); Letters to a Young Preacher (1835); An Original Church of Christ (1837); History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in four volumes (1838 - 40); Life of James Arminius (1843); Present State, Prospects, and Responsibilities of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1850); Necessity, Nature, and Fruits of Sanctification (1851).
Bangs defended Arminianism against the Calvinism of his day. He was a strong believer of prevenient grace but not at the expense of total depravity. He argued that because of grace, humankind does have the ability to respond to God. He also opposed the antinomianism practiced by some rival members of the New Light Baptist community.
Views
In the controversy over slavery he took a mediating position, trying in vain to prevent the disruption.
Membership
He was the founder of the Methodist Missionary Society.
Connections
On April 23, 1806, he married Mary Bolton of Edwardsburg, Upper Canada, daughter of Henry and Margaret (Lateur) Bolton of England.