Skip to main content

Full text of "The history of the religious movement of the eighteenth century, called Methodism, considered in its different denominational forms, and its relations to British and American Protestantism"

See other formats 


LIBRARY  OF 
WELLES  LEY  COLLEGE 


PRESENTED  BY 

Clara  R.  Walker,  Class  of 
1886 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  witii  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  IVIember  Libraries 


http://www.arcliive.org/details/liistoryofreligiostev 


HISTORY  OF  METHODISM, 


FROM  ITS   ORIGIN  TO  ITS  HUNDREDTH   ANNIVERSARY, 

MDCCCXXXIX. 


VOLUME    I. 


w  wcusri. 


THE    HISTORY 


OP   THE 


SlHi5|i0«s  lt0ljmettt  tif  t\t  €i^\im\t\  Cnttars, 


CALLE© 


ME  T  H  0  I)  I  S  I 


CONSIDEEED  IN  ITS  DIFFEEENT  DENOMINATIONAL  FOEMS, 

AND  ITS  EELATIONS  TO  BEITISH  AND  AMEEICAN 

PEOTESTANTISM. 


By  ABEL  STEYENS,  LL.D. 

VOLUME    I. 

from  t^z  #rigm  of  P^tl^o^ism  to  t^e  gmt^  of  ®;^it£fi£lb, 

TWENTIETH   THOUSAND. 


JJetD    |3ork: 
PUBLISHED    BY    CAELTON    &   POETEK, 

200     MULBEERT-STEEET. 
LONDON  :   ALEXANDER  HEYLIN,  28  PATEENOSTER  ROW 


Hmn 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

CARLTON'   &  PORTER, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Courl^  of  the  Southern  District  of 

New-York. 


6X 

323/ 

/ 


PREFACE. 


As  a  great  religious"  development  of  the  last  century, 
aiFecting  largely  our  common  Protestantism,  and,  unques- 
tionably, destined  to  affect  it  still  more  profoundly,  Meth- 
odism does  not  belong  exclusively  to  the  denominations 
which  have  appropriated  its  name.  I  have  therefore  at- 
tempted to  write  its  history  in  a  liberal  spirit,  and  to  con- 
sider it,  not  as  a  sectarian,  but  as  a  general  religious  move- 
ment, ostensibly  within  the  Church  of  England,  at  least 
during  the  lives  of  the  chief  Methodist  founders,  but  reach- 
ing beyond  it  to  most  of  the  Protestantism  of  England 
and  America.  I  have  endeavored  steadily  to  keep  this 
point  of  view  till  the  movement  was  reduced  into  sectarian 
organizations. 

I  am  not  aware  that  this  plan  has  been  followed  by  any 
of  the  numerous  writers  on  Methodism,  Calvinistic  or 
Arminian,  except  Isaac  Taylor,  and  Dr.  James  Porter  in 
his  excellent  "  Compendium,"  our  best  practical  manual  of 
Methodism.  If  Southey's  life  of  Wesley  should  be  consid- 
ered another  exception,  yet  its  questionable  purpose,  and 
its  total  misapprehension  of  the  providential  design  of  Meth- 
odism, have  deprived  it,  among  religious  readers,  of  any 
importance,  aside  from  the  romantic  interest  of  its  facts. 

This  comprehensive  plan  is  not  only  historically  just,  but 
it  affords  special  advantage  to  the  variety  and  interest  of 
the  narrative:  for  whereas  the  Calvinistic  writers,  on  the 
one  side,  have  had  as  their  chief  characters,  Whitefield,  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  Howell  Harris,  Berridge,  Venn, 
Remain  e,  Madan ;  and  the  Arminian  authors,  on  the  other, 


6  PEEFACE. 

the  Wesleys,  Grimshaw,  Fletcher,  Nelsoi. ,  I  claim  them 
all  as  "  workers  together  with  God ;"  and  the  marvelous 
"itinerancy"  of  Whitefield  runs  parallel  with  the  equally 
marvelous  travels  and  labors  of  Wesley.  Marking  dis- 
tinctly the  contrasts  of  the  Calvinistic  and  Arminian  sections 
of  Methodism,  I  have  nevertheless  been  able  to  show  that 
much  more  harmony  existed  between  them,  through  most 
of  their  history,  than  has  usually  been  supposed;  that  in  fact 
the  essential  unity  of  the  movement  was  maintained,  with 
but  incidental  and  salutary  variations,  down  to  the  death  of 
Whitefield.  In  this  respect,  at  least,  I  trust  my  pages  will 
teach  a  lesson  of  Christian  charity  and  catholicity  which 
shall  be  grateful  to  all  good  men  who  may  read  them ;  and 
as  it  is  more  the  office  of  history  to  narrate  than  polemi- 
cally to  discuss  opinions,  I  have  endeavored  not  to  impair 
the  much-needed  lesson  in  my  accounts  of  parties.  It  has 
been  as  impossible  as  inexpedient  to  dissemble  my  own 
theological  opinions,  but  it  is  hoped  that  they  will  not  be 
found  unnecessarily  obtruded.  As  the  Wesleyan  section 
of  the  movement  was  the  most  ostensible,  and  took  finally 
an  organized  and  permanent  form,  it  necessarily  takes  the 
lead  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  narrative,  and  will  almost 
exclusively  occupy  the  latter  part  of  it.  I  have  endeavored, 
however,  to  give  the  fullest  attention,  required  by  the  plan 
of  the  work,  to  other  Methodist  bodies. 

The  present  volume  brings  the  narrative  down  to  the 
death  of  Whitefield,  a  period  after  which  Calvinistic  Meth- 
odism, though  it  will  continue  to  receive  due  notice,  loses 
its  prominence,  and  the  history  of  the  movement  becomes 
distinctively  Wesleyan..  The  second  volume  will  com- 
plete the  history  of  British  Methodism.  The  history  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  only  alluded  to  in  the  preced- 
ing volumes  so  far  as  was  necessary  to  the  integrity  of  the 
narrative,  will  be  given  in  two  additional  volumes.  While 
this  arrangement  is  legitimate  to  the  real  history  of  Meth- 
odism, and  will  afford  some  special  conveniences  to  the 
writer,  it  will   also  have  the  important  advantnge  of  jire- 


PREFACE.  7 

senting  to  the  reader  the  English  history,  including  the  full- 
est "  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley "  yet  published,  and  the 
,history  of 'the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States,  each  in  so  distinct  a  form  as  not  to  be  dependent  one 
on  the  other. 

I  have  endeavored  to  do  justice  to  the  Lay  Preachers  of 
Wesley,  many  of  whom,  though  overshadowed  by  the  lead- 
ers of  Methodism,  were  its  noblest  heroes.  Southey  is  the 
only  writer  who  has  said  much  respecting  them ;  but  lie 
has  referred  to  them  in  almost  every  instance  for  the  pur- 
pose of  citing  proofs  of  his  charges  of  fanaticism  and  insan- 
ity, though  he  could  not  disguise  his  admiration  of  their 
extraordinary  characters,  and  they  afford  the  chief  romance 
of  his  volumes.  He  has  given  sketches  of  eight  of  them  ;  1 
have  given  more  than  that  number  in  the  present  volume ; 
miany,  however,  of  historical  importance,  who  were  active 
during  my  present  period,  do  not  appear  within  it.  The 
reader  will  hereafter  find  that  I  have  not  ignored  theii' 
claims,  but  postponed  them  to  more  suitable  points  of  the 
narrative. 

The  Ecclesiastical  Economy,  the  Doctrines,  Psalmody, 
Literature,  etc.,  of  Methodism  are  noticed  as  the  narrative 
proceeds,  their  historical  development  being  distinctly  traced ; 
but  they  will  be  more  fully  discussed  in  a  book  of  the  second 
volume. 

I  have  authenticated  the  most  important  facts  of  the  nar- 
rative by  marginal  references ;  in  order,  however,  not  to 
encumber  the  volume  unnecessarily  with  notes,  I  have,  in 
most  instances,  given  my  authority  in  the  beginning  of  each 
chapter,  without  repeating  it  except  when  some  intervening 
reference  has  made  it  necessary.  The  number  of  publica- 
tions relating  to  early  Methodism  would  be  incredible  to 
ordinary  readers.  Whether  from  a  curious  or  a  hostile 
motive,  a  "  Catalogue  of  Works  that  have  been  published 
in  Refutation  of  Methodism  from  its  origin  in  1729  to  1846, 
compiled  by  H.  C.  Decanver,"  was  printed  in  Philadelphia 
by  John  Pennington  in  1846,     It  is  not  complete,  but  com- 


8  PEEFACE. 

prises  the  titles  of  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  publications.  The  compiler  was  a  Protestant  Episco- 
palian ;  "  Decanver "  is  his  nomme  de  plume  ;  he  has  given 
his  real  name  in  the  original  manuscript,  which,  with  the 
printed  catalogue  and  one  hundred  and  forty-three  of  the  most 
curious  of  these  works,  he  has  deposited  in  the  Library  of 
the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  New  York  city.  Whatever  may  have  been  his  design, 
he  has  done  a  valuable  service  to  Methodism,  and  enriched 
the  library  of  that  institution  with  the  best  collection  of  such 
documents  in  the  United  States,  perhaps  the  best  in  the 
world.  If  we  add  to  these  the  works  in  favor  of  Method- 
ism, and  others  bearing  directly  or  indirectly  on  its  history, 
the  list  can  hardly  be  short  of  fifteen  hundred.  Of  course  1 
have  not  examined  all  these ;  but  I  know  of  none  necessary 
to  my  purpose  which  have  not  been  consulted. 

None  of  the  common  portraits  of  Wesley  are  satisfactory. 
They  lack  character — at  least  the  character  which  we  attrib- 
ute to  him,  from  his  writings  and  deeds.  A  painting  has 
recently  been  discovered  in  England  which  presents  him  as 
he  really  was — the  strong  but  amiable  man.  The  portrait 
given  in  this  volume  is  of  like  character.  It  is  copied  from 
an  old  engraving  in  the  above-named  library. 

I  am  under  many  obligations  to  Rev.  Drs.  Whedon,  (of 
the  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,)  Hibbard,  (of  the  North- 
ern Christian  Advocate,)  Holdich,  (of  the  American  Bible 
Society,)  Prof.  Strong  of  Troy,  Franklin  Rand,  Esq.,  of 
Boston,  S.  B.  Wickens,  Esq.,  New  York,  and  most  espe- 
cially to  R.  A.  West,  Esq.,  (of  the  New  York  Commercial 
Advertiser,)  for  the  revision  of  the  proofs,  and  important 
suggestions. 

My  task  will  terminate  at  the  centenary  celebration  of 
Methodism  in  1839 — a  period  prior  to  the  sectional  disputes 
which  have  divided  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and 
which  are  yet  too  recent  for  a  satisfactory  judgment  from 
Jlistory. 


CONTENTS. 

BOOK    I. 

INTRODUCTION. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM    IN    THE 

HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Page 

(Jhristianity  is  Spiritual  Life ....  15 

The  Church  its  Organic  Form. .  IQi 
Standpoint  of  Methodism. ......  l§r 

Corruption  of  the  Church ......  {TTSl 

The  Eeformation  incomplete ^^ 

Literary  and  Moral  Aspects  of^,--i, 

England  prior  to  Methodism.  /.^ 

Condition  of  the  English  Church'^^ 

Popular  Demoralization 7^ 

Characteristics  of  Methodism . . .  gO 

CHAPTEE  II. 

THE   WESLEY  FAMILY. 

Providential  Preparations . . .  33 

Susanna  Wesley  the  Foundress 

of  Methodism 34 

Her  Father,  Dr.  Annesley 35 

Her  Marriage  — Beauty  —  Char- 
acter   36 

Bartholomew  Westley 39 

John  Westley 40 

Samuel  Wesley — Eemarkable  II- 
lustrations  of  his  Character. . .  43 

Life  in  the  Epworth  Eectory 51 

John  Wesley's  Escape  from  Fire  59 

CHAPTEE  III. 

JOHN  AND   CHARLES   WESLEY. 

John  Wesley 61 

Extraordinary  "Noises"  at  Ep- 
worth   62 

The  Wesleys  at  School 64 

The  Duke  of  Wellington 65 


The  Wesleys  at  Oxford 66 

Eehgious  Inquiries 66 

Kempis  —  Taylor  —  Law 67 

"  Witness  of  the  Spirit" .......  68 

"  Eeprobation  " — "  Perfection  " .  69 

The  "  Holy  Club  " , 72 

"  Methodists  " 72 

George  Whitefield 74 

Dispersion  of  the  Epworth  Fam- 
ily.... . 77 

The  Moravians 78 

The  Wesleys  in  Georgia 80 

Eeturn  of  the  Wesleys 82 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

GEORGE   WHITEFIELD. 

Whitefield^s  Mental  Conflicts. . .  86 

His  Conversion 87 

Effects  of  his  Preaching 88 

His  Eloquence 90 

He  embarks  for  Georgia 92 

Eeturns  to  England 92 

CHAPTEE  V. 

WESLEY  AND   THE   MORAVIANS. 

Wesley  Arrives  in  England. ...  93 

His  Eeligious  Disquiet ,93 

Obligations  of  Methodism  to  the 

Martyrs  of  Constance 94 

Zisca  and  his  Peasant  Heroes  .  95 

Herrnhut — Zinzendorf 97 

Peter  Bohler 1 00 

Conversion  of  the  Wesleys 101 

Wesley  at  Marienborn 1 05 

Theological  Views 106^ 

Scenes  at  Herrnhut lOo 

Methodism  and  Moravianism..  103; 


10 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK    II. 

ORIGIN  AND  PROGEESS  OF  METHODISM,  1739 -17M. 


CHAPTEE  I.      . 

THE  WESLETS  AND  WHITEFIELD  ITIN- 
ERATING. 

Page 

Wesley  returns  from  Germany  109 

Charles  Wesley 109 

London" Societies " IK) 

The  Wesleys  preaching 11 

Expelled  from  the  Pulpits 113 

'  Arrival  of  Whitefield 113 

He  preaches  in  the  Open  Air. . .  114 

Wesley  follows  his  Example 116 

Scenes  at  Kingswood 117 

Methodism  in  Wales 118 

Griffith  Jones  —  Howell  Harris .  118 

Whitefield  in  Moorflelds 121 

Extraordinary   Eesults    of   his 

Preaching 122 

Wesley  and  Beau  Nash 123 

The  first  Methodist  Chapel 124 

The  Wesleys  in  Moorfields. ...  125 
Physical   Efi"ects   of  Eehgious 

Excitement 126 

Separation  from  the  Moravians .  129 

The  Foundry  opened 131 

Epoch  of  Methodism 131 

CHAPTEE  n. 


THE     WESLEYS     ITINEPvATING    IN   EN- 
GLAND —  WHITEFIELD  ITINEEATIN 
IN  AMEEICA.  * 


\ 


/  Page 

u/Arminianism  as  defined  at  Dort  148 
Intellectual  Character  of  White- 

TSeld .,.  149 

Historical  Importance  of  their 

Disagreement 151 

John  Cennick 152 

Wesley's    Sermon    on    "Free 

Grace" 153 

ttempts  at  Eeconciliation 155 

ethodism  still  a  Unit 156 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

CALVINISTIC   METHODISM. 

Whitefield' s  Tabernacle  opened  157 

He  employs  Lay  Preachers 157 

Eecouciled  with  Wesley 157 

Goes  to  Scotland 158 

Marvelous  Scenes  atCamhuslang  160 

Methodism  in  Scotland 161 

Whitefield  again  in  Mooi'fields .  162 

His  greatest  "  Field-day" 162 

v^Countess  of  Huntingdon 165 

Whitefield    preaching    in    her 

Mansion 167 

Chesterfield,  Bolingbroke,  Wal- 

pole,  Hume 167 

Lady  Huntingdon's  Usefulness  168 

Her"^College  at  Trevecca 169 

Its  first  Student 169 

^/Calvinistic  Methodist  Societies.  170 


Susanna  Wesley 134 

.jCommencement  of  the  Lay  Min- 
istry   136 

David  Taylor  —  Mobs 136 

<'harles     Wesley    mobbed    in 

Wales 140 

Whitefield  in  America 141 

Philadelphia  —  Princeton    Col- 
lege —  Boston 141 

His  triumphant  Passage  through 
the  Colonies 143 


CHAPTEE  III. 

SEPARATION   OF   WHITEFIELD   FROM 
,,     ^.  WESLEY. 

f\The  Calvinistic  Controversy. . .  146 
\  tibiiracter  of  Wesley's  Mind. . .  146 


CHAPTEE  V. 

TRAVELS-  AND   LABORS    OF    THE   WES- 
LEYS  FROM   1741   TO   1744. 

Susanna  Wesley 173 

Thomas  Maxfield 174 

Wesley  itinerating 175 

Introduction  of  Class  Meetings .  176 

Sketch  of  Jolm  Nelson 176 

Wesley  at  Newcastle 181 

5    Preaches  on  his  Father's  Tomb  183 

\^The  General  Eules 1S5 

;,^heir  Catholicity 187 

^Physical  Phenomena  of  Eelig- 
ious  Excitement  at  Newcastle  187 

Wesley  examines  them 187 

/Pronounces  them  Demoniacal..  187 
Cliarles  Weslev 189 


CONTENTS. 


11 


Is  mobbed  at  "Walsal,  Sheffield, 

and  St.  Ives 189 

Wesley  and  Nelson  in  Cornwall  193 

T&mble  Mobs 194 

progress  of  Methodism 198 

CHAPTEE  VL 

EVENTS  OF  174A  —  THE   FIRST  WES- 
LEYAN   CONFEKENCE. 

Eeports  against  Wesley 199 

Mobs  in  Staffordshire ..........  200 


Page 

Chas.  Wesley  among  the  Eioters  200 

John  Wesley  in  Cornwall 203 

Nelson's  Power  over  Mobs 205 

He  is  impressed  as  a  Soldier. . .  207 
The  Proto-martyr  of  Methodism  210 

The  first  Conference 211 

Its  proceedings . 212  y 

Lady  Huntingdon 214  '' 

Ministerial  Education  approved  214 
Wesley's  "Appeal  to  Men  of 
1-  Eeason  and  Eehgion" 216 


BOOK    III. 


PROGEESS  OF  METHODISM  FROM  THE  CONEERENCE 
OF  1744  TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1750. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

FROM  THE  CONFEREKCE  OF  1744  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1745. 

Charles  Wesley  in  Cornwall. . .  219 
Triumphs  of  Methodism .......  220 

Wesley's  last  Appeal  to  Oxford  221 

Winter  Itinerancy 223 

Preachers   impressed  and   im- 

prisoned 224 

Wesley  arrested  —  Mobbed 225 

Nelson  itinerating 227 

Methodism  in  the  Army ... 229 

Evans,  Haime,  Bond,  Staniforth  229 
The  Battle  of  Fontenoy ........  225 

Scenes  on  the  Battle-field 235 

CHAPTEE  II. 

FROM  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1745  TO 
THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1750. 

The  Scotch  Eebellion .....  242 

Wesley  abroad  amid  the  public 

Alarm 243 

i/Second  part  of  his  "Appeal "...  244 
s/Extensive  Kesults  of  Methodism  244 

v/Its  doctrinal  Liberality 244 

The  Wesleys  itinerating 246 

Thompson  of  St.  Gennis 247 

Nelson's  Perils  from  the  Mob..  249 

Vincent  Perronet 257 

Grimshaw's  extraordinary  His- 
tory    258 

He  is  mobbed  with  Wesley  at 

Eoughlee 261 

Eiot  at  Devizes 264 


The  Wesleys  in  Middle  Life. . .  266 

Charles  Wesley's  Marriage 269 

John  Wesley  and  Grace  Murray  270 

CHAPTEE  III. 

INTRODUCTION   OF  METHODISM  INTO 
IRELAND. 

Eeligious  Problem  of  Irish  His- 
tory  _ 271 

Wesley  comprehends  it 271 

Bishop  Berkeley 272 

Wesley  arrives  in  Dublin 273 

His  Views  of  Irish  Character. . .  274 

Charles  Wesley  in  Ireland 274 

Mobs  and  Murders  in  Dublin. .  275 

"Swaddlers" 275   ,, 

Power  of  Methodist  Music 277^ 

Eiots  at  Cork _ 281 

Charles   Wesley  indicted  as    a 

Vagabond 282 

Success  of  Methodism 283  -' 

Singular  Conversions 284 

John  Smith  at  Glenarm 285 

A  Military  Veteran  defending 

the  Methodists 286 

John  M'Burney  mobbed.. ..  ..  286 

He  is  martyred 287 

Hard  Fare  of  the  Preachers 287 

Eobert  Swindells 287 

Sketch  of  Thomas  ^alsh 288 

His  Learning 288 

His  Labors 292 

He  is  mobbed  and  imprisoned.  293 
Illustrations  of  his  Usefulness.    295 


12 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LABOSS    OF    THE    CALVINISTIO    METH- 
ODISTS FROM  1744  TO  1750.    _ 

Page 

WMtefield's     third    American 
visit 298 

*'  Testimonies"  against  him. . .  299 
The  Cape  Breton  Expedition. . .  299 
His  Eeception  in  Philadelj)hia..  300 
Singular  Interest  in  Virginia. . .  300 

He  goes  to  Bermuda 302 

Howell  Harris  in  Wales 303 

\yLadj  Huntingdon  in  Wales ....  304 
John  Newton  and  Whitefield. .  305 
Whitefield  in  England  and  Scot- 
land   305 

Eemarkable  Conversions 305 

Bishop  Lavington's  Attacks. . .  306 
Charles~Wesrey  and  Whitefield 
preaching  amid  the  Alarms 
of  Earthquakes  in  London. . .  308 

CHAPTEE  V. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  METHODIST  OPIN- 
IONS AND  ECONOMY  IN  THE  CON- 
FERENCES  FROM  1744  TO   1750. 

f  The  Conference  of  1745 310 

Theological  Discussions 310 

J   Witness  of  the  Spirit 311 

;    Sanctification 311 

f 
V 


Tagi 


TeiTible  Preaching 311 

Church  Government 312 

Wesley's  High-Church  Views..  314 
He  designed  n'ot  to  form  a  Sect  314 

Session  of  1746 315 

Laymen  present &1 5 

Progress  of  Opinion SI  5 

Neeessity  of  the., Lay  Ministry 

declared 31@ 

Its  Divine  Right  acknowledged  317 

Ordination  anticipated •  317 

Exhorters  recognized 318 

Importance  of  Local  Preachers.  318 

First  List  of  Circuits 318 

Session  of  1747 319 

E^ee  Discussion 319 

^ Relation  of  Faith  to  Assurance.  320 
Cautions  respecting  Sanctifica- 
tion...   321 

What  is  a  Church? 322 

Divine  Eight  of  Episcopacy  de- 
nied   322 

Session  of  1748 323 

Formation  of  Societies  renewed  324 

Session  of  1749 325 

Scheme  of  Union 325 

"  Assistants  "— "  Helpers  " 325 

Quarterly  Meetings 326 

Book  Circulation 326 

Extraordinary   Results    of  the 
i-"''  first  Decade  of  Methodism. . .  326 


BOOK    IV. 

PROGRESS  OF  METHODISM  FROM  1750  TO  THE  DEATH 
OF  WHITEFIELD  IN  ITTO. 


CHAPTER  I. 

METHODISM  IN  IRELAND. 

Wesley  again  in  Ireland 329 

Death  of  John  Jane 330 

Progress  of  Methodism 330 

Remarkable  German  Colony. . .  332 
It    gives    Birth    to    American 

Methodism 333 

Methodism  in  the  Army 333 

Duncan    Wright,     a    Military 

Preacher 334 

A  Military  Execution 335 

A  Converted  Surgeon 336 

Thomas  Walsh 337 


His  Labors 33T 

His  extraordinary  Piety 338 

His  Sickness 340 

His  Mental  Trouble  in  Death. .  341 

Fletcher  of  Madeley 342 

CHAPTER  II. 

METHODISM    IN    ENGLAND    AND    SCOT- 
LAND  FROM   1750   TO   1760. 

Success  in  Cornwall 343 

Wesley  in  Scotland 345 

His  slight  Success  there 346 

State  of  the  English  Societies . .  347 
Nathaniel  Gilbert  and  Method- 
ism in  tlie  West  Indies 351 


CONTENTS. 


18 


Tlie  first  African  Methodist 861 

Happy  Deaths  of  Methodists. . .  351 

Wheatley's  Defection 852 

Bennet's  Secession , .  852 

Baptist  Proselytism 853 

Gyace  Murray 353 

[yMeslej  and  the  Oalvinists 854 

He  administers  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per to  their  Leaders  at  Lady  v 

Huntingdon's  House 854 

The  Trials  of  Thomas  Lee 855 

Christopher  Hopper 360 

His  Labors  and  Trials  ........  862 

Cownley  Mobbed 363 

The  Parson  and  the  Quaker. , .  363 
Charles  Wesley  ceases  to  itin- 
erate   364 

Death  of  Meriton 365 

Fletcher  joins  the  Methodists. .  365 

Keview  of  Success 367 

Wesley's  desire  for  Eest 368 

His  unfortunate  Maniage ......  369 

His  Sickness  and  Epitaph 371 

His  Notes  on  the  New  Testa- 
ment   372 

James  Hervey 372 

Wesley's  Address  to  the  Clergy  873 
His  views  of  Ministerial  Qualifi- 
cations    373 

CHAPTER  III. 

CALVINISTIO  AND  MORAVIAN"  METHOD- 
ISM I-ROM  1750  TO  1760. 

Whitefield  "  ranging  " 375 

His  Good-Humor— His  Health  376 

His  Relations  with  Wesley  ....  378 

Whitefield  again  in  America. . .  879 

His  Visit  to  Ireland 380 

Is  mobbed  at  Dublin 381 

Eminent  Methodist  Churchmen  882 

Sketch  of  Berridge 382 

Great  Excitement  at  Everton . . .  383 

Remarkable  Conversion  .......  383 

Sketch  of  Romaine 385 

Madan's  singular  Conversion. .  387 

Venn 388 

Moravian  Methodism 889 

Sandemanianism. .............  891 

Ingham's  Success  and  Failure,  892 

Death  of  Lady  Ingham 893 

Ingham's  Death  and  Character.  393 

CHAPTER  IV. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  METHODIST  OPIN- 
IONS AND  ECONOMY  IN  THE  CON- 
FERENCES FROM  1750  TO  1760. 

Failure  of  Records 394 

Salary  of  Preachers  395 


Prominent  Preachers  secede.  . .  895 

Tendency  to  Dissent 896 

The  Perronets 896 

Charles  Wesley's  High-Church 

Prejudices 896 

Critical  Importance  of  the  Ses- 
sion of  1755........ 897 

Question  of  Separation  from  the 

Church 897 

Concession  of  the  Preachers. . .  398 

Was  Dissent  expedient  ?. 399 

Wesley's       Twelve       Reasons 

Against  it 399 

^/Wesley  as  a  Reformer. 400 

His  Opinion  of  John  Knox 400 

Wesley  not  an  Anarchist 400 

Historical    Importance    of   his 

.Conservatism. 401 

.'liis  Opinions  at  this  Time 401 

Subsequent  Sessions 401 

Conference      Examination      of 
Characters   introduced 401 

CHAPTER  V. 

METHODISM  FROM  1760  TO   1770. 

Great  Revivals 402 

Sanctification 403 

Writers  upon  it 405 

George  Bell's  Delusions 407 

Maxfield's     Separation      from 

Wesley  .... 407 

The  End  of  the  World 408 

George  Story 408 

Fate  of  Bell  and  Maxfield 409 

Wesley's  large  Congregations,.  410 

Christopher  Hopper 410 

Cudworth's  Letters  of  Hervey..  411 

Sketch  of  Thomas  Taylor. 411 

His  Adventures  at  Glasgow. . . .  413 
Wright  among  the  Highlanders  418 
Dissent  among  Wesley's  Socie- 
ties   418 

Death  of  Grimshaw 419 

Death  of  John  Manners 420 

Death     of     the     oldest     Lay 

Preacher , 420 

Wesley  and  Warburton ,  421 

Fletcher's  Trials  at  Madeley. . ,  422 
His  great  Piety  and  Success. . . .  424 
Condition  of  Methodism  in  1770  420 
Its  Introduction  into  America. ,  427 
Barbara  Heck — Philip  Embury  427 
Wesley's    regard   for   Military 

Men , 427 

Recommends     Methodists     to 

learn  the  Military  Exercise, . .  428 
Ofiers  to  raise  Troops  for  the 

Government, 428 

Captain  Webb 428 


14 


CONTEXTS. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF    METHODIST    0 
IONS   AND    ECONOMY    IN    THE 
FERENCES  FEOM  1760  TO  1770. 

Minutes  of  Conferences 429 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

CALVINISTIC  METHODISM  FEOM  1760 
TO   1770. 


430 
431 
432 
433 
433 


The  Greek  Bishop,  Erasmus. . 
Union  of  Evanffelical  Clergy. . 
They  dechne  Wesley's  Terms 
First  Census  of  Methodism. . . 
Eh'st  Temperance  Societies . . . 

■VT)ebt  of  the  Connection 434 

"Wesley's  View  of  his  Authority  434 
Preachers  required  to  study  . . .  435 

Conference  of  1767 435 

Calvinists  and  Laymen  present  435 

Circulation  of  Books 436 

Term  of  Circuit  Appointments. .  437 
Secular  Business  of  Preachers. .  437 
John  Nelson  —  William  Shent .  437 
Eield  Preaching  —  Early  Eising  439 

Sanctification 439 

Preachers  sent  to  America 440 

Provisions  for  Preachers' Wives  441 
Perpetuation  of  the  Lay  Minis- 
try   441 

Conference  of  1770 442 

Statistics 442 

Preachers  Famihes 443 

s/Minute  on  Calvinism 443 


Pago 

The  Calvinistic  Societies  ......  445 

Pa^e^rLady  Huntingdon  in  Yorkshire  446 
Attends  Wesley's  Conference. .  446 

Venn,  Grimshaw,  Fletcher 447 

Sketcn  of  Captain  Scott 448 

Adventures  of  Captain  Joss  . . .  450 

Scenes  at  Cheltenham 453 

Lord  Dartmouth  —  Dartmouth 

College 454 

Alliance  of  the  Arminian  and 

V^Calvinistic  Leaders 456 

Trevecca  College 456 

Expulsion  of  Oxford  Students . .  457 
Extraordinary  Scenes   at   Tre- 
vecca    458 

Whitefield's  declining  Health. .  459 

He  again  visits  America 460 

Eeturns  to  England 461 

Personal  Habits 461 

Last  Interviews  with  Wesley  . .  463 

Last  Vovage  to  America 464 

His  Orplian  House 464 

Happy  religious  Frame 464 

Excursion  up  the  Hudson 465 

Last  Sermon  and  Death. ......  466 

His  Eloquence  and  Character. .  468 
Eesults  of  his  Labors 475 


Its  Historical  Importance . . .        444  |;6alvinistic  Methodists 476 


HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 


BOOK     I. 
INTRODUCTION. 


CHAPTEK   I. 


STAOT)POINT    OF   METHODISM    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF 
CHEISTIANITY. 

'Cliristianity  is  Spiritual  Life  —  Tiie  Church  an  Organic  Form  of  this  Life 
—  The  Philosophical  Standpoint  of  the  History  of  Methodism  —  Process 
of  Corruption  in  the  Early  Church — The  Eeformation  incomplete  — 
Condition  of  the  English  Church  prior  to  Methodism — Literary  and 
Moral  Aspects  of  England  —  Popular  Degradation  —  Characteristics  of 
Methodism. 

Had  a  studious  heathen  sought  to  ascertain  the  nature  of  the 
Cliristian  religion,  immediately  after  the  completion  of  its 
canonical  records,  and  solely  from  those  records,  he  would 
have  been  surprised  by  its  contrast  with  nearly  all  prior  re- 
ligious systems,  in  its  suggestion  rather  than  prescription  of 
ecclesiastical  arrangements,  its  general  abstinence  from  ritual 
forms,  and  its  total  abstinence  from  dogmatic  definitions.  He 
would  have  discovered  what  modern  Protestantism,  emanci- 
pated from  traditional  influence,  has  found,  that  the  purifica- 
tion of  the  individual  man,  pursued  in  his  individual  freedom, 
and  on  the  responsibility  of  his  individual  conscience,  is 
the  characteristic  design  of  Christianity — rites  and  creeds, 
as  aids  to  faith,  being  left  discretionary,  however  necessary. 
Christianity  is  spiritual  life.  "The  words  that  I  speak 
unto  you,"  said  its  Founder,  "  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are 


10  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

life;"^  and  he  declared  the  distinctive  character  of  the  new 
dispensation,  when  at  the  well  of  Sychar  he  said  :  "  Believe 
me,  the  hour  cometh,  when  ye  shall  neither  in  this  mountain, 
nor  yet  at  Jerusalem,  worship  the  Father.  The  hour 
cometh,  and  now  is,  when  the  true  worshipers  shall  worship 
ihe  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth ;  for  the  Father  seeketh 
such  to  worship  him.  God  is  a  Spirit :  and  they  that  wor- 
ship him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  ^ 

A  development  of  Judaism,  which  was  characterized 
above  all  other  religions  of  antiquity  by  ritual  forms  and 
penal  morals,  Christianity,  nevertheless,  quickly  distinguished 
itself  by  the  simplicity  of  its  ceremonies  and  the  mild  purity 
of  its  ethics,  subordinating  both  to  the  interior  moral  life 
which  it  taught  as  "  the  regeneration,"  ^  the  "  life  of  God  "  in 
the  soul  of  man.* 

A  true  Christian  Church  is  a  collective  or  organic  form  of 
this  spiritual  life ;  its  external  institutions,  whether  in  doc- 
trinal symbols,  or  modes  of  worship  or  government,  are 
valuable  only  so  far  as  they  can  be  means  to  this  end.  And 
therefore  any  new  practical  measures  which  may  be  rendered 
expedient,  by  the  ever-varying  conditions  of  human  history, 
for  the  effectiveness  of  the  Church  in  the  moral  regeneration 
of  individual  men,  are  admissible,  being  in  harmony  with  the 
original  purpose  and  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  however  they 
may  contravene  ecclesiastical  precedents  or  traditions. 

Such  is  the  standpoint  which  Methodism  takes  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church ;  and  such  the  only  standpoint  from 
which  its  own  history  can  be  interpreted.  Throughout  the 
extraordinary  series  of  events  which  we  are  about  to  narrate 
from  its  amials,  we'  shall  find  continually  this  recurrence  to 
the  first  principles  of  Christianity.  This  is  the  philosophy 
of  its  history. 

Ecclesiastical  history  records  how  Christianity  came  to 
lose  its  original  spiritual  simplicity,  and  to  grow  into  a  gi- 
gantic system  of  ecclesiasticism  and  ritualism,  which  was 
more  symbolic  than  Judaism  itself,  and  under  the  shadow 
i  John  vi,  63.      ^  John  iv,  21,  23,  24.      ^  Matt,  xix,  28.      *  Eph.  iv,  18. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM.  17 

of  which  personal  spiritual  life,  and  even  the  popular  morals, 
withered,  and  seemed  really,  if  not  avowedly,  superseded  by 
Church  rites. 

The  apostles,  while  yet  observing  some  of  the  Judaic  rites 
for  the  sake  of  expediency,  wrote  against  them,  nevertheless, 
as  void  under  the  new  dispensation.^ 

In  planting  Christianity  they  adopted  such  forms  as  wers 
found  most  convenient  to  their  hands  in  the  religious  cus- 
toms of  their  countrymen ;  but  it  is  remarkable  that  scarcely 
one  feature  of  their  ecclesiastical  system,  if  such  it  can  be 
called,  was  borrowed  from  the  divinely  prescribed  forms  of 
the  Levitical  institute. 

Tor  generations  the  primitive  Christians  had  no  temples, 
but  worshiped,  with  familiar  simplicity,  in  private  houses, 
or  in  the  synagogues  of  converted  Jews  which  were  scattered 
over  the  Roman  empire.  The  synagogue,  unmentioned,  not 
t-o  say  unenjoined,  in  the  writings  of  Moses,  afforded  them 
also  most  of  those  simple  rites  and  offices  which  afterward 
became  technicalized  and  dignified  into  essential  and  even 
sacramental  importance.  When  the  distribution  of  the 
charities  of  the  Church  became  too  laborious  for  the  apos- 
tles, they  copied  from  the  synagogue  the  office  of  Deacon. 
The  older  servants  of  the  Church,  having  oversight  of  its 
l)eacons  and  general  interests,  were  called  Elders,  (Presby- 
ters,) a  title  borrowed  from  the  head  of  the  Jewish  "tribe" 
and  the  members  of  the  Sanhedrim,  The  designation  of 
these  men  to  their  offices  was  made  by  imposition  of  hands,  a 
decency,  but  not  a  sacrament,  derived  also  from  the  Jews,  who 
used  it  in  the  inauguration  of  their  naunicipal  and  provincial 
officers,  but  never  in  the  consecration  of  their  priests.  But 
how  soon  these  simple  offices  became  essential  orders,  awful 
with  divine  authority,  and  mysterious  with  divine  virtue ! 
How,  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years,  have  controver- 
sies respecting  their  distinctions  and  prerogatives  agitated 
Christendom !  How  has  the  simple  form  of  the  imposition 
of  hands  become  the  divine  rite  of  Ordination,  a  sacramental 

^  *  Compare  Acts  xv,  7-Sl  ;  xvi,  8  ;  xxi,  20-26  ;  Col.  ii,  20-2S, 
Voi,.  T. — 2 


18  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM. 

mystery,  with  its  fabulous  but  disastrous  consequence  of  the 
Apostolic  Succession,  leading  to  the  exclusion  of  the  purest 
bodies  of  Christian  men,  who  could  not  verify  their  claims 
to  it,  from  the  charities  of  the  Church,  and  to  the  general 
perversion  of  Christianity  by  priestly  and  prelatical  preten- 
sions !  The  office&of  Deacon  and  Elder  became  fundamental 
and  unchangeable;  the  Elder,  presiding  in  the  assembly  of 
his  peers  as  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  presided  in  the  col- 
lege of  Elders,®  became  Bishop,  but  very  different  from  the 
Scriptural  "superintendent  ;"the  Bishop  became  Archbishop, 
the  Archbishop,  Pope  or  Patriarch ;  the  two  Sacraments  be- 
came seven; — the  confessional  and  penance;  the  naonastic 
life,  asceticism,  celibacy,  and  virginity ;  the  idolatry  of  the 
host,  and  the  worship  of  saints ;  extreme  unction,  purgatory, 
infallibility,  and  dogmatic  symbols ;  the  supererogative 
merit  of  works,  canonization,  pei^ecution,  and  the  inqui- 
sition,— these,  with  the  priestly  assumption  of  civil  author- 
ity, the  loss  of  ancient  civilization,  and  the  general  degrada^ 
tion  of  the  masses,  make  up  most  of  the  subsequent  history 
of  the  Church  down  to  the  period  in  which  the  Reformation 
uttered  its  appeal  back  to  the  apostolic  age."^ 

During  all  these  ages  of  corruption,  however,  the  spir- 
itual Church  existed,  represented  in  the  persons  of  devout 
men,  who  walked  with  God  amid  the  night  of  error,  suffer- 
ers from  the  evils  of  their  times,  unable  to  explain  or  to 
break  away  from  them,  but  seeking,  in  their  monastic  cells, 
or  in  the  walks  of  ordinary  life,  that  purification  and  peace 
which  are  received  only  by  faith ;  and  the  ecclesiastical  his- 
torian finds  grateful  relief,  as  he  gropes  through  the  Dark 
Ages,  in  being  able  continually  to  point  to  these  scattered 
lights  which,  like  the  lamps  in  Roman  tombs,  gleamed 
faintly  but  perennially  amid  the  moral  death  of  the  visible 

«  Asprirmts  inter  pares,— Vitnnga,  De  Vet.  Syn.,  lib.  iii,  cap.  16. 

^  On  the  origin  and  changes  of  Chiirch  government,  I  have  followed 
Archbishop  Stillingfleet,  Irenicum  ;  Lord  King,  Primitive  Church ;  Nean- 
der,  History  of  the  Christian  Religion,  etc. ;  Archbishop  Whately,  King 
dom  of  Christ,  and  especially  Vitringa,  De  Synagoga  Vetere. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM.  19 

Churdh.  Obscure  communities  also,  as  the  Cathari  of 
the  Novatians,  the  Paulicians,  the  Albigenses,  and  the 
Waldenses,  maintained  the  '^ancient  faith  in  comparative 
purity,  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  down  to 
the  Reformation. 

In  the  year  1510  an  Augustinian  monk  walked,  with  des- 
olate heart,  the  streets  of  Rome,  and  turning  away  from  the 
pomp  of  her  churches  and  the  corruptions  of  the  Vatican, 
sought  relief  to  his   awakened  soul  by   ascending,  on  his 
knees,  with  peasants  and  beggars,  the  staircase  of  Pilate, 
which  was   supposed  to  have  been  trodden  by  Christ  at 
his   trial,   and   is    now   inclosed  near  the  Lateran  palace. 
While  pausing  on  the  successive  steps  to  weep  and  pray, 
a  voice  from  heaven  seemed  to  cry  within  him,  "  The  just 
shall  live  by  faith,"     It  w^as  the  voice  of  apostolic  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  announcement  of  the  Reformation.      He 
fled  from  the  superstitious  scene.     Seven  years  later,  the 
same  monk  nailed  on  the  gate  of  the  church  at  Wittenberg 
the  Theses  w^hich  introduced  the  Reformation.     They  were  as 
trumpet  blasts  echoing  from  the  Hebrides  to  the  Calabrias, 
and  sumnfioning  Europe  to  a  moral  resurrection. 
•    But  though  the  doctrine  of  "  Justification  by  Faith  "  was 
thus  the  dogmatic  germ  of  the  Reformation,  that  great  rev- 
olution took  chiefly  an  ecclesiastical  direction,  and  became 
m.ore  an  attempt  to  overthrow  the  organic  system,  of  popery, 
by  the  reassertion  of  certain  apostolic  doctrines,  than  an 
evangelical  revival  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  ;  hence 
its   early  loss  of  moral  power.     All  Western  Europe  fel!: 
its  first  motions  ;  but  hardl}^  forty  years  had  passed  when 
it  reached-  its  furthest  conquests,   and  began  its  retreats. 
During  most  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  could  have  prop- 
agated its  doctrines  with  but  little  restraint  in  the  greater 
part  of  l^urope,  but  it  had  not  internal  energy  enough  to 
do  so.     Dealing  ostensibly  with  the  historical  pretensions  of 
the  Church,  it  introduced  at  last  the  "  Historical  Criticism " 
which,  notwithstanding  its  inestimable  advantages  to  Biblical 
exegesis,  degenerated,  under  the  English  deistical  writings 


20  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

that  entered  Germany  about  the  epoch  of  Methodism,  into 
Rationalism,  and  subverted  both  the  spiritual  life  and  the 
doctrinal  orthodoxy  of  the  continental  Protestant  churches, 
and,  to  a  great  extent,  substituted  infidelity  for  the  dis- 
placed popery.  Besides  this  tendency,  the  Lutheran  Ee- 
fprmation  retained  many  papal  errors,  in  its  doctrines  of 
the  sacraments,  and  of  the  priestly  offices,  and  erred,  above 
all,  in  leaving  the  Church  subject  to  the  state.  It  did  not 
sufficiently  restore  the  spirituality  and  simplicity  of  the  apos- 
tolic Church,  and  our  owti  age  witnesses  the  spectacle  of 
a  High-Church  reaction  in  Germany,  in  which  some  of  her 
most  distinguished  Christian  scholars  attempt  to  correct  the 
excesses  of  Rationalism  by  an  appeal,  not  so  much  to  the 
apostolic  Church  as  to  the  ante-Nicene  traditions.  A  Pusey- 
ism  as  thorough  as  that  which  flourishes  under  the  papal 
attributes  of  the  Anglican  Establishment,  prevails  in  the 
strongholds  of  the  German  Reformation.^ 

In  like  manner  was  the  English  Reformation  incomplete. 
Not  only  did  it  retain  many  papal  errors  in  doctrine,  espe- 
cially respecting  the  sacraments,  the  priestly  offices,  the 
hierarchal  constitution  of  the  Church,  and  its  relation  to  the 
state,  but  by  these  very  errors  it  failed  to  restore  adequately 
the  primitive  idea  of  Christianity,  as  "  the  kingdom  of  God 
within  you."  Hence  its  frequent  lapses  toward  popery. 
Hardly  had  it  been  established  under  Henry  VIII.,  and 
nourished  under  the  brief  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  than  it  fell 
away  under  Mary,  and  its  noblest  champions,  Cranmer,  Lat- 
imer, Hooper,  and  Ridley,  perished  at  the  stake.  Elizabeth 
restored  it,  but  Charles  I.  again  favored  its  papal  tendencies. 
His  queen  was  a  papist.  Archbishop  Laud  restored  pic- 
tures to  the  churches,  and  embroiled  the  kingdom  with  con- 
troversies respecting  copes,  genuflexions,  and  the  position 
of  the  "  altar."  The  Court  of  High  Commission  displaced 
devout    clergymen    for    not    observing    petty   ceremonies. 

8  The  evangelical  world  has  been  scandalized  to  find  so  eminent  an 
opponent  of  Eationalism  as  Hengstenberg,  leading  the  High-Church  reac- 
tion.   With  him  are  associated  such  men  as  Stahl,  Leo,  and  Gerlack. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM.  21 

After  the  great  Eebellion,  diaries  II.  did  what  he  could  to 
favor  the  Papists,  and  died  one  himself.^  His  brother, 
James  II.,  devoted  his  whole  reign  to  the  restoration  of 
Popery.  The  Revolution,  with  the  accession  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange  to  the  throne,  alone  put  an  end  to  these 
Papal  efforts  of  the  acknowledged  "head"  of  the  British 
Church,  and  even  then  many  of  its  most  influential  incumb- 
ents refused  to  recognize  the  title  of  the  new  Protestant 
king ;  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  with  several  bishops, 
and  fourteen  hundred  clergymen,  sacrificed  their  offices 
rather  than  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him.  So  far  was 
the  divine  right  of  prelacy  still  kindred  with  the  divine  right 
of  royalty. 

During  all  these  Papal  struggles  primitive  ideas  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  Church  were  more  or  less  active  among  the 
people.  Even  before  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  much  popular 
discontent  prevailed  with  the  but  partM  purification  of  the 
Church  from  Papal  errors.  Her  Act  of  Uniformity  threw 
multitudes  out  of  its  pale,  and  Puritanism  began  its  work 
of  reformation  and  honest  rebellion.  But  Puritanism,  wdth 
all  its  virtues,  had  profound  and  inexorable  vices.  It  early 
created  a  High-Churchism  of  its  own,  and  claimed  a  higher 
Scriptural  authority  for  Presbyterianism  than  the  English 
reformers,  or  its  great  Episcopal  antagonists,  Sewell,  Whit- 
gift,  Hooker,  and  others,  asserted  for  prelacy  itself. ^°  The 
vigor  of  its  Commonwealth  has  illustrated  the  name  of 
England  in  the  history  of  the  world  ;  but  its  reaction  under 
the  Restoration  spread  over  the  country  as  gze^a  if  not 
greater  aemoralization  than  had  preceded  it  under  the 
Papal  reignsr'*''T1Ke*^oirrt  became  a  royal  brothel.  The 
play-house  became  the  temple  of  England.  The  drama  of 
the  day  could  not  now  be  exhibited,  nor  even  privately 
read  without  blushes.  Many  of  the  most  learned  and  de- 
voted clergymen,  whose  writings  are  imperishable  in  our 
religious  literature,  were  either  silenced  or  displaced.     The 

^  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  vol.  i,  chap.  4. 
1"  See  Art.  on  Hooker,  North  British  Eeview,  1857. 


22  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

'ministrations  of  the  Churcli  grew  foi'mal  and  ineffective ; 
the  Puritan  Churches  themselves  at  last  fell  into  general 
decay,  while  the  masses  of  the  people  sunk  into  incredible 
vice  and  brutality.  A  living  English  writer,  himself  a 
Churchman,  has  declared  that  England  had  lapsed  int'> 
virtual  heathenism,  when  Wesley  appeared.'-^ 

The  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century,  particularly  of  its 
earlier  part,  is  an  important  index  to  the  moral  character  of 
that  period.  It  presents  a  brilliant  catalogue  of  names, 
among  which  are  Addison,  Steele,  Berkeley,  Swift,  Pope, 
Congreve,  Gray,  Parnell,  Young,  Thomson,  Powe,  Gold- 
sm.ith,  and  Johnson,  besides  a  splendid  array  in  the  more 
profound  departments  of  knowledge.  The  reader  may 
easily  conceive  what  must  have  been  the  moral  aspects  of 
English  society,  when  the  loose  wit  of  Congreve  was  the 
attraction  of  the  British  theater,  and,  as  Dryden  declared, 
"  the  only  prop  of  the  declining  stage ;"  or  what  the 
respect  of  the  people  for  the  Church  when,  among  the 
clergy,  could  be  found  men  like  Swift  and  Sterne  to 
regale  the  gross  taste  of  the  age  with  ribald  burlesque  and 
licentious  humor.  And  what  were  the  popular  fictions  of 
the  day  1  Richardson  gave  way  before  Smollett  and  Eield- 
ing.  The  latter  obtained  a  renown  which  renders  them 
still  familiar;  while  Richardson,  whom  Johnson  deemed 
"as  superior  to  them  in  talents  as  in  virtue,"  is  barely 
remembered.  The  works  of  these  and  similar  authors  were 
the  parlor-table  books  of  the  age ;  while  on  the  same  table 
lay  also  the  erotic  poets  of  antiquity,  translated  by  the  wits 
of  the  period,  with  Dryden  at  their  head,  dedicated  to  the 
first  ladies  of  the  court,  and  teeming  with  the  pruriency 
which  pervades  the  polite  writings  of  that  and  the  preceding 
age.  Dryden  died  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  his 
works,  as  full  of  vice  as  of  genius,  were  in  general  vogue. 

The  infidel  works  of  Hobbes,  Tindal,  Collins,  Shaftesbury, 
and  Chubb  were  in  full  circulation,  and  were  re-enforced  by 
the  appearance  of  the  three  greatest  giants  in  the  cause  of 
1^  Isaac  Taylor :  Wesley  and  Methodism. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM,  23 

skeptical  error  which  modern  times  have  produced — Boling- 
broke,  Hume,  and  Gibbon.  The  first  was  influential  by  his 
political  eminence,  and  by  the  adornments  which  the  har- 
ir.onious  verse  of  Pope  gave  to  his  opinions ;  the  second 
by  all  the  arts  of  insinuation,  and  by  a  style  which,  says 
Sir  J.  Mackintosh,  "  was  more  lively,  more  easy,  more  in  • 
gratiating,  and,  if  the  word  may  be  so  applied,  more  amus- 
ing than  that  of  any  other  metaphysical  wTiter ;"  and  the 
last  by  weaving  his  infidel  sentiments  into  one  of  the  great- 
est works  of  the  human  intellect,  a  production  as  corrupt  in 
its  religious  tendency  as  it  is  magnificent  in  its  execution. 
The  intellisrent  reader  need  not  be  reminded  that  the  same 
class  of  writers  had  triumphed,  and  were  at  this  time  in  full 
prevalence  across  the  channel.  The  Encyclopedists  had 
attempted  the  design  of  eradicating  from  the  circle  of  the 
sciences  every  trace  of  Christian  truth ;  and  the  polite 
writers  of  France,  headed  by  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  had 
decked  the  corrupt  doctrines  of  the  day  with  the  attractions 
of  eloquence  and  poetry,  humor  and  satire,  until  they  swept 
over  the  nation  like  a  sirocco,  withering  not  only  the  senti- 
ments of  religion,  but  the  instincts  of  humanity,  and  sub- 
verting at  last,  in  common  ruin,  the  altar,  the  throne,  and 
the  moral  protections  of  domestic  life.  Notwithstanding 
the  inveterate  antipathies  which  existed  between  the  two 
nations,  the  contagion  of  French  opinions,  both  in  religion 
and  politics,  infected  England  seriously  during  most  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  continental  infidelity  had  in  fact 
sprung  from  the  English  deism,  and  naturally  reacted 
upon  it. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  one  of  the  most  interesting 
,  departments  of  the  English  literature  of  the  last  century 
owes  its  birth  to  the  alarm  which  the  better-disposed  literary 
men  of  the  age  took  at  the  general  declension  of  manners 
and  morals,  and  their  attempt  to  check  it.  The  British 
Essayists  are  technically  distinguished  in  our  literature. 
They  form  a  department  which  has  become  classical.  They 
have  been  reprinted  more  extensively  than  any  other  books 


24  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

in  our  language,  except  the  Scriptures  and  a  few  of  our  most 
popular  fictions.  Some  of  the  brightest  names  in  the  cata- 
logue of  English  writers  owe  much  of  their  fame  to  these 
works ;  among  them  may  be  mentioned  Steele,  Addison, 
Berkeley,  and  Johnson.  They  were  conducted  as  ephemeral 
sheets,  and  issued  twice  or  thrice  a  week,  with  brief  articles, 
which  discussed  the  follies  and  vices  of  the  times.  Their 
character  was  generally  humorous  or  sarcastic;  occasion- 
ally they  contained  a  sober  rebuke  of  the  irreligion  of 
the  day. 

The  first  in  the  list  is  the  Tattler,  projected  by  Steele, 
and  to  which  Addison  was  a  frequent  contributor.  It  was 
almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  superficial  defects  of 
society,  and  is  the  best  picture  extant  of  the  domestic, 
moral,  and  literary  condition  of  the  early  part  of  that 
century.  The  Spectator,  conducted  jointly  by  Addison 
and  Steele,  followed  the  Tattler,  and  is  still  one  qf  the 
most  popular  works  of  our  language.  Next  appeared  the 
Guardian,  projected  by  Steele,  and  aided  by  Addison, 
Pope,  and  Berkeley.  A  long  list  of  miscellaneous  writers 
of  the  same  class  followed,  who  have  not  been  placed,  by 
public  opinion,  in  the  rank  of  the  classical  essayists.  Dr. 
Johnson,  in  his  Rambler,  restored  the  periodical  essay  to 
its  first  dignity,  and  gave  it  a  still  higher  moral  tone. 

Though  these  writers  aimed,  at  first,  more  at  the  cor- 
rection of  the  follies  than  the  sins  of  the  times,  they  grew 
serious  as  they  grew  important.  It  is  curious  to  observe 
their  increasing  severity  as  they  obtained  authority  by  time 
and  popularity.  Steele,  from  a  long  and  various  study  of 
the  world,  painted,  with  minute  accuracy,  its  absurdities. 
Addison,  with  a  style  the  most  pure,  and  a  humor  mild  and 
elegant,  attempted  to  correct  the  literary  taste  of  the  day^ 
and  to  shed  the  radiance  of  genius  on  the  despised  virtues 
of  Christianity.  He  rescued  Milton  from  the  neglect  which 
the  sublime  religious  character  of  his  great  epic  had  in- 
curred for  him  from  the  degenerate  age.  Pope  satirized,, 
in  some  admirable  critiques,  the  literary  follies  of  the  times. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM.  25 

Berkeley  attacked,  with  his  clear  logic  and  finished  style, 
the  skeptical  opinions  which  were  then  prevalent;  most  of 
his  articles  are  on  "Free-thinking;"  Johnson,  "the  great 
moralist,"  stood  up  a  giant  to  battle,  with  both  hands, 
against  all  error  and  irreligion,  whether  in  high  places  or 
low  places. 

These  writings  exerted  an  influence  upon  the  tastes  and 
morals  of  the  age ;  but  it  was  comparatively  superficial. 
Gay,  who  was  contemporary  with  Addison  and  Steele,  says 
it  was  incredible  to  conceive  the  effect  they  had  on  the 
town ;  how  many  thousand  follies  they  had  either  quite 
banished  or  given  a  very  great  check  to  ;  how  much  coun- 
tenance they  had  added  to  virtue  and  religion.  Hannah 
More  has  devoted  a  chapter  in  her  Education  of  a  Princess 
to  this  interesting  portion  of  our  literature.  She  speaks  in 
the  highest  terms  of  Addison's  influence,  and  confirms  these 
statements  respecting  the  moral  condition  of  the  age :  "  At 
a  period  when  religion,"  she  says,  "  was  held  in  more  than 
usual  contempt,  from  its  having  been  recently  abused  to  the 
worst  purposes,  and  when  the  higher  walks  of  life  exhibited 
that  dissoluteness  which  the  profligate  reign  of  the  second 
Charles  made  so  deplorably  fashionable,  Addison  seems  to 
have  been  raised  up  by  Providence  for  the  double  purpose 
of  improving  the  public  taste  and  correcting  the  public 
morals.  As  the  powers  of  imagination  had,  in  the  preced- 
ing age,  been  peculiarly  abused  to  the  purposes  of  vice,  it 
was  Addison's  great  object  to  show  that  vice  and  impurity 
have  no  necessary  connection  with  genius.  He  not  only 
evinced  this  by  his  reasonings,  but  he  so  exemplified  it  by 
his  own  compositions  as  to  become,  in  a  short  time,  more 
generally  useful,^  by  becoming  more  popular,  than  any 
writer  who  had  yet  appeared.  This  well-earned  celebrit}* 
he  endeavored  to  turn  to  the  best  of  all  purposes ;  and  his 
success  was  such  as  to  prove  that  genius  is  never  so  advanta- 
geously employed  as  in  the  service  of  virtue;  no  influence 
so  well  directed  as  in  rendering  piety  fashionable." 

But  while  these  writers  were  commendable  for  the  ele- 


26  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM.      . 

vated  purpose  which  they  proposed,  a  purpose  noble  as  it 
was  novel  among  what  are  called  polite  authors,  their  in- 
fluence was  comparatively  ineffective ;  it  was  infinitely  short 
of  what  was  necessary ;  it  was  moral,  but  not  religious.  It 
was  on  the  side  of  Christianity,  but  had  nothing  to  do  with 
those  great  evangelical  truths  which  are  the  vital  elements 
of  Christianity,  and  in  which  inheres  its  renovating  energy. 
It  is  the  diffusion  of  these  truths  among  the  popular  mass 
that  alone  can  effect  any  general  moral  elevation  of  men. 
It  was  reserved  for  the  agency  of  Methodism  to  revive  and 
spread  them,  with  a  transforming  efficacy,  through  the 
British  empire  and  much  of  the  civilized  world.  Reference 
has  been  made  to  these  authors,  therefore,  only  as  instances 
of  the  conviction  felt  by  the  better-disposed  literary  leaders 
of  the  day,  that  some  new  check  was  necessary  to  stop  the 
overwhelming  progress  of  corruption.  The  pictures  of 
vice  which  they  exhibit,  and  the  mamier  in  which  they 
attempt  the  necessary  reform,  show  that  society  was  not 
only  deplorably  wicked,  but  that  adequate  means  of  its 
recovery  were  not  understood  by  those  who  lamented  its 
evils. 

Natural  reli£iojL..was-Ahe  favorite  study,  of  the  clergy,  and 
pf ,  the  learned  generally,  and  included  most  of  their  theol- 
ogy. Collins  and  Tindal  had  denounced  Christianity  as 
priestcraft ;  Whiston  pronounced  the  miracles  to  be  Jewish 
impositions ;  Woolston  declared  them  to  be  allegories ;  and 
the  next  year  after  the  recognized  date  of  Methodism, 
Edelmann^^  and  Eeimarus  introduced  the  English  deism 
into  Germany,  and  thus  founded  the  Rationalism  which,  as 
developed  by  her  "Historical"  or  "Negative  Criticism," 
has  nearly  extinguished  her  religious  life.  The  decayed 
I  state  of  the  English  Church,  in  which  Methodism  was  about 
to'Tiave  its  birth,  was,  in  fine,  the  cause,  direct  or  indirect,  of 
imost  of  the  infidelity  of  the  age,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

*  12  Edelmann's  "  Moses  mit  Aufgedecktem  Angesicht,"  was  published 
in  1740,  Art.  Criticism,  Herzog's  Encyclopedia  translated  by  Bombe]> 
ger.     Philadelphia,  1858. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHOiyiSM.  27 

Arianism.  and  Socinianism,  taught  by  such  men  as  Clarke, 
Priestley,  and  Whiston,  had  become  fashionable  among 
the  best  English  thinkers.  Some  of  the  brightest  names  of 
the  times  can  be  quoted  as  exceptions  to  these  remarks ;  but 
such  was  the  general  condition  of  religion  in  England.  The 
higher  classes  laughed  at  piety,  and  prided  themselves  en 
being  abov^  what  they  called  its  fanaticism ;  the  lower 
classes  were  grossly  ignorant,  and  abandoned  to  vice,  while 
the  Church,  enervated  by  a  universal  decline,  was  unable 
longer  to  give  countenance  to  the  downfallen  cause  of  truth. 

This  general  decline  had  reached  its  extremity  when 
Wesley  and  his  coadjutors  appeared.  "  It  was,"  to  use  his 
own  words,  "just  at  the  time  when  we  wanted  little  of  filling 
up  the  measure  of  our  iniquities,  that  two  or  three  clergy- 
men of  the  Church  of  England  began  vehemently  to  call 
simiers  to  repentance.""^'  His  ovvii  testimony  to  the  irreligion 
of  the  times  is  emphatic.  "  What,"  he  asks,  "  is  the  present 
characteristic  of  the  English  nation'?  It  is  ungodliness. 
Ungodliness  is  our  universal,  our  constant,  our  peculiar 
character." 

From  the  Eestoration  down  to  the  origin  of  Methodism, 
Cliurchmen  and  Nonconformists  bear  concurrent,  and  in 
some  instances  startling  testimony  respecting  the  decayed 
condition  of  religion  and  morals.  The  pathetic  lamentation 
of  Bishop  Burnet,  on  the  state  of  the  Church,  has  often  been 
quoted :  "  I  am  now,"  he  says,  "  in  the  seventieth  year  of 
my  age ;  and  as  I  cannot  speak  long  in  the  world  in  any 
sort,  so  I  cannot  hope  for  a  more  solemn  occasion  than  this 
of  speaking  with  all  due  freedom,  both  to  the  present  and  to 
the  succeeding  ages.  Therefore  I  lay  hold  on  it,  to  give  a 
free  vent  to  those  sad  thoughts  that  lie  on  my  mind  both 
day  and  night,  and  are  the  subject  of  many  secret  mourn- 
ings." He  proceeds  to  say  :  "  I  cannot  look  on  without  the 
deepest  concern,  w^hen  I  see  the  imminent  ruin  hanging  over 
this  Church,  and,  by  consequence,  over  the  whole  Reforma- 
tion.    The  outward  state  of  things  is  black  enough,  God 

">'  Appea]  to  Men  of  Eeason  and  Eeligion,  Part  III.    Works,  vol.  v. 


28  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

knows ;  but  that  which  heightens  my  fears  rises  chiefly  from 
the  inward  state  into  which  we  are  unhappily  fallen."  Re- 
ferring to  the  condition  of  the  clergy,  he  says  :  "  Our  ember- 
weeks  are  the  burden  and  grief  of  my  life.  The  much 
greater  part  of  those  who  come  to  be  ordained  are  ignorant 
to  a  degree  not  to  be  apprehended  by  those  who  are  not 
obliged  to  know  it.  The  easiest  part  of  knowledge  is  that 
to  which  they  are  the  greatest  strangers.  Those  who  have 
read  some  few  books,  yet  never  seem  to  have  read  the 
Scriptures.  Many  cannot  give  a  tolerable  account  even  of 
the  Catechism  itself,  how  short  and  plain  soever.  This  does 
often  tear  my  heart.  The  case  is  not  much  better  in  many 
who,  having  got  into  orders,  come  for  institution,  and  cannot 
make  it  appear  that  they  have  read  the  Scriptures,  or  any 
one  good  book,  since  they  were  ordained ;  so  that  the  small 
measure  of  knowledge  upon  which  they  got  into  holy  orders 
not  being  improved,  is  in  a  way  to  be  quite  lost ;  and  then 
they  think  it  a  great  hardship  if  they  are  told  they  must 
know  the  Scriptures  and  the  body  of  divinity  better  before 
they  can  be  trusted  with  the  care  of  souls."  ^^ 

Watts  declares  that  there  was  "  a  general  decay  of  vital 
religion  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men ;"  that  "  this  declen 
sion  of  piety  and  virtue  "  was  common  among  Dissenters 
and  Churchmen ;  that  it  was  "  a  general  matter  of  mournful 
observation  among  all  who  lay  the  cause  of  God  to  heart ;" 
and  he  called  upon  "  every  one  to  use  all  possible  efforts  for 
the  recovery  of  dying  religion  in  the  worldP  ^^  Another 
writer  asserts  that  "  the  Spirit  of  God  has  so  far  departed 
from  the  nation,  that  hereby  almost  all  vital  religion  is  lost 
out  of  the  world."  ^^  Another  says  :  "  The  present  modish 
turn  of  religion  looks  as  if  we  had  no  need  of  a  Mediator, 
but  that  all  our  concerns  with  God  were  managed  with  him 
as  an  absolute  God.  The  religion  of  nature  makes  up  the 
darling  topics  of  our  age ;  and  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  valued 
only  for  the  sake  of  that,  and  only  so  far  as  it  carries  on  the 

1*  Pastoral  Care.  ^^  Preface  to  his  Humble  Attempt,  etc. 

^®  Hurrion's  Sermons  on  the  Holy  Spirit. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM.  29 

light  of  nature,  and  is  a  bare  improvement  of  that  kind  of 
light.  All  that  is  restrictively  Christian,  or  that  is  peculiar 
to  Christ  (everything  concerning  him  that  has  not  its  appar- 
ent foundation  in  natural  light,  or  that  goes  beyond  its  prin- 
ciples) is  waived,  and  banished,  and  despised."  ^^ 

Archbishop  Seeker  says  :  "  In  this  we  camiot  be  mistaken, 
!;hat  an  open  and  professed  disregard  is  become,  through  a 
variety  of  unhappy  causes,  the  distinguishing  character  of  the 
present  age."  "  Such,"  he  declares,  "  are  the  dissoluteness 
and  contempt  of  principle  in  the  higher  part  of  the  world, 
and  the  profligacy,  intemperance,  and  fearlessness  of  com- 
mitting crimes,  in  the  lower,  as  must,  if  this  torrent  of  im- 
piety stop  not,  become  absolutely  fatal."  He  further  as- 
serts tiiat  "  Christianity  is  ridiculed  and  railed  at  with  very 
little  reserve,  and  the  teachers  of  it  without  any  at  all ;" '® 
and  this  testimony  was  made  but  one  year  before  that  which 
is  commemorated  as  the  epoch  of  Methodism.  About  the 
same  time  Butler  published  his  great  work  on  the  Analogy 
between  Eeligion  and  the  Constitution  and  Course  of  Na- 
ture, as  a  check  to  the  infidelity  of  the  age.jKIn  his  preface 
he  gives  a  deplorable  description  of  the  religious  world.  He 
concurs  with  the  preceding  authorities  in  representing  it  as 
in  the  very  extremity  of  decline.  "  It  has  come,"  he  says, 
"  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  Christianity  is  no  longer  a  sub- 
ject of  inquiry ;  but  that  it  is  now  at  length  disc'^vered  to 
be  fictitious.  And  accordingly  it  is  treated  as  if,  in  the 
present  age,  this  were  an  agreed  point  among  all  persons  of 
discernment,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  set  it  up  as  a 
principal  subject  for  mirth  and  ridicule."  '■ 

Southey  says  :  "  The  clergy  had  lost  that  authority  which 
may  always  command  at  least  the  appearance  of  respect ; 
and  they  had  lost  that  respect  also  by  which  the  place  of 
authority  may  sometimes  so  much  more  worthily  be  sup- 
plied. In  the  great  majority  of  the  clergy  zeal  was  wanting. 
The  excellent  Leighton  spoke  of  the  Church  as  a  fair  carcass 
without  a  spirit.  Burnet  observes  that,  in  his  time,  our 
17  Dr.  Guise's  Sermons  at  Coward's  Lecture.      J8  Eight  Charges. 


30  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

clergy  had.  less  authorit}',  and  were  under  more  contempt, 
than  those  of  any  other  Church  m  all  Europe ;  for  they 
were  much  the  most  remiss  in  their  labors,  and  the  least 
severe  in  their  lives.  It  was  not  that  their  lives  were  scan- 
dalous ;  he  entirely  acquitted  them  of  any  such  imputation ; 
but  they  were  not  exemplary,  as  it  became  them  to  be ;  and 
in  the  sincerity  of  a  pious  and  reflecting  mind,  he  pro- 
nounced that  they  would  never  regain  the  influence  they  had 
lost  till  they  lived  better  and  labored  more."^^ 

A  scarcely  less  prejudiced  ^T.iter  on  Methodism  admits 
that  when  Wesley  appeared  the  Anglican  Church  was  "  an 
ecclesiastical  system  under  which  the  people  of  England  had 
lapsed  into  heathenism,  or  a  state  hardly  to  be  distinguished 
from  it ;"  and  that  Methodism  "  preserved  from  extinction 
and  reanimated  the  languishing  Nonconformity  of  the  last 
century,  w^hich,  just  at  the  time  of  the  Methodistic  revival, 
was  rapidly  in  course  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  books."  ^o 

Such  was  the  moral  condition  of  England  w^hen  Meth- 
odism came  forth  from  the  gates  of  Oxford,  not  to  revive 
the  ecclesiastical  questions  over  which  Churchmen  and  Puri- 
tans had  fought  and  exhausted  each  other,  nor  even  to  appeal 
to  the  Reformation,  with  its  incomplete  corrections  of  popery, 
but  to  recall  the  masses  to  their  Bibles,  which  said  so  little 
about  those  questions,  but  which  declared  that  "  the  kingdom 
of  God  Cometh  not  with  observation ;"  that  it  "  is  not  meat 
and  drink,  but  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost."  Acknowledging  the  importance  of  sound  doctrine, 
it  nevertheless  dealt  mostly  in  the  theology  which  relates  to 
the  spiritual  life — Faith,  Justification,  Regeneration,  Sancti- 
fication,  and  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit ;  these  were  its  groat 
ideas,  and  never,  since  the  apostolic  age,  were  they  brought 
out  more  clearly.  Wesley  fcjrmed  no  creed  for  the  English 
Methodists,  and  though  some  of  his  own  writings  are  recog- 
nized in  his  chapel  deeds,  and  by  the  civil  courts,  as  the 
standard  of  Methodist  doctrine,  yet  from  their  number  and 
the  great  variety  of  subjects  treated  in  them,  a  rigorous 
"  Life  of  "Wesley,  ch.9.       s"  Taylor's  "Wesley  and  Methodism,  pp.  56,  59. 


STANDPOINT    OF    METHODISM.  81 

system  of  interpretation  has  become  impossible.  In  provid- 
mg  an  organization  for  Methodism  in  the  New  World,  where 
it  was  destined  to  have  its  chief  range,  he  so  abridged  the 
Articles  of  the  Chm'ch  of  England  as  to  exclude  the  most 
formidable  of  modern  theological  controversies,  and  make  it 
possible  for  Calvinists,  alike  with  Arminians,  to  enter  ita 
communion ;  he  prescribed  no  mode  of  baptism,  but  virtu- 
ally recognized  all  modes ;  and  it  has  b^en  doubted,  incau- 
tiously perhaps,  whether  even  a  Restorationist  or  Universa- 
list,  if  exemplary  in  life,  could  be  adjudged  a  heretic  by  its 
creed. 

Methodism  reversed,  in  fuie,  the  usual  policy  of  relig- 
ious-siect^,'wlio  seek  to  sustain  their  spiritual  life  by  their 
Qrthodoxy7~Triiirr^Ti?rame^^^  orthodoxy  by  devoting  its 
cinefcare  to  ics  s-piritiuil  life,  and  for  more  than  a  century 
has  had  no  serious  outbreaks  of  heresy,  notwithstanding  the 
masses  of  untrained  minds,  gathered  within  its  pale,  and  the 
general  lack  of  preparatory  education  among  its  clergy.  No 
other  modern  religious  body  affords  a  parallel  to  it  in  this 
respect. 

Admitting  the  absolute  necessity  of  Church  economics, 
it  would  not  admit  that  they  were  in  any  particular  form 
fundamental,  but  that  the  kind  and  degree  of  moral  life  pos- 
sessed by  any  body  of  men  claiming  to  be  a  Church,  consti- 
tuted the  proof  or  refutation  of  that  claim.  It  admitted  the 
Scriptural  example,  but  not  the  Scriptural  obligation  of  two 
orders  in  the  ministry.  It  adopted  but  one  as  expedient  in 
its  English  Conference,  while  it  provided  both  for  America, 
[t  admitted  the  Scriptural  example  of  ordinatio^i  by  the  im  - 
position  of  hands,  but  waived  it  in  England  for  the  sake  of 
peace  with  the  National  Church,  and  ordained  its  ministry 
dmply  with  prayer  and  exhortation,  until  within  a  few  years, 
yv^hen  it  was  adopted,  not  as  necessary,  but  as  appropriate. 
It  pretended  to  no  Episcapal  form  of  organization  in  En- 
gland, but  provided  one  for  America — a  Presbyterian  Epis- 
copacy— Wesley,  a  Presbyter,  ordaining  a  bishop,  and  thus 
practically  denying  High  Churchism.     It  founded  a  lay  min- 


32  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

istry  of  Traveling  Preachers,  Local  Preachers,  and  Exhort- 
ers.  It  adopted  the  Band-meeting,  the  Class-meetmg^  th 
ancient  Agape  or  Love-feast.  It  was,  in  fine,  a  system  of 
vital  doctrines  and  practical  expedients — a  breaking  away 
from  all  old  dead-weights  which  had  encumbered  the  march 
of  the  Reformation — a  revival  Church  m  its  spirit,  a  mis- 
sionary Church  in  its  organization. 

Such  is  the  standpoint  of  Methodism  in  the  history  of 
the  Church ;  and,  thus  considered,  its  historians  do  not,  per- 
haps, claim  too  much  when,  with  the  suggestive  writer  who 
has  attempted  to  give  us  its  rationale,  they  insist  that  "  the 
Methodism  of  the  last  century,  even  when  considered  apart 
from  its  consequences,  must  always  be  thought  worthy  of 
the  most  serious  regard ;  that,  in  fact,  that  great  religious 
movement  has,  immediately  or  remotely,  so  given  an  im- 
pulse to  Christian  feeling  and  profession,  on  all  sides,  that 
it  has  come  to  present  itself  as  the  starting-point  of  our 
modern  religious  history ;  that  the  field-preaching  of  Wes- 
ley and  Whitefield,  in  1739,  was  the  event  whence  the 
religious  epoch^  now  current^  must  date  its  commencement ; 
that  back  to  the  events  of  that  time  must  we  look,  neces- 
sarily, as  often  as  we  seek  to  trace  to  its  source  what  is 
most  characteristic  of  the  present  time ;  and  that  yet  this  ia 
not  all,  for  the  Methodism  of  the  past  age  points  forward 
to  the  next-coming  development  of  the  powers  of  the 
Gospel."  21 

*i  Isaac  Taylor's  Wesley  and  Methodism,  Preface. 


/ 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY. 


CHAPTER  11. 

'THE    WESLEY    FAMILY. 

ProvidentiaL  Preparations  —  The  Epworth  Kectory  —  Susanna  We-sley, 
The  Foundress  of  Methodism  —  Her  Father,  Dr.  Annesley  —  Her  Inde- 
pendence of  Opinion  —  Her  Marriage  —  Her  Beauty  —  Her  Intellectual 
Character  —  Her  Eeligious  Character  —  Her  Husband,  Samuel  Wesley 
—  His  Ancestors  —  Bartholomew  AVestley  and  John  Westley  —  Their 
Sufferings  for  Conscience  sake  —  The  Eector  of  Epworth  —  His  Good- 
humor —  Eemarkable  Anecdotes  —  Life  at  the  Eectory — Characteristics 
of  the  Children  —  The  Household  Education  —  Mrs.  Wesley  conducts 
Eeligious  Worship  in  the  Eectory  —  Domestic  Sorrows  —  Destruction 
of  the  Eectory  by  Fire  —  John  Wesley's  providential  Escape. 

Man's  extremity,  says  Augustine,  is  God's  opportunity. 
While  Seeker  was  deploring  the  demoralization  of  England, 
as  threatening  to  "  become  absolutely  fatal,"  and  the  aged 
Burnet  saw  "  imminent  ruin  hanging  over  the  Church,"  and 
"  over  the  whole  Eeformation ;"  while  Watts  was  ^^a-itmg 
that  "religion  was  dying  in  the  world,"  and  Butler  that 
"  it  had  come  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  Christianity  was 
no  longer  a  subject  of  inquiry,  but  at  length  was  discovered 
to  be  fictitious;"  when,  in  fine,  the  Anglican  Church  had 
become  "an  ecclesiastical  system,  under  which  the  people 
of  England  had  lapsed  into  heathenism,"  and  "  Nonconform- 
ity was  rapidly  in  course  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  books,"  * 
and,  meanwhile,  across  the  Channel,  rationalistic  infidelity 
was  invading  the  strongholds  of  the  Reformation,  and  the 
Erench  philosophers  were  spreading  moral  contagion  through 
Europe,  God  was  preparing  the  means,  apparently  discon- 
nected, but  providentially  coincident,  which  were  to  resus- 
citate the  "  dying  "  faith,  and  introduce  the  era  of  modern 
evangelism  in  the  Protestant  world.     A  young  man,  bred 

^  Isaac  Taylor's  AVeslev  and  Mctliodisni. 

Vol.  I.— 3 


84  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

in  an  iini  at  Bristol,  and  struggling  for  his  education,  as  a 
servitor  at  Oxford,  was  seeking,  in  agony  of  spirit,  for  a 
purer  faith  than  he  could  find  around  him,  and,  as  he  tells 
us,  "  lying  prostrate  on  the  ground,  for  whole  days,  in 
silent  or  vocal  prayer."  In  a  few  years  his  eloquence, 
never,  perhaps,  surpassed  in  the  pulpit,  was  to  startle  and 
illuminate  all  England,  and  the  American  Colonies  from 
Maine  to  Georgia. ^  From  the  mountains  of  Wales  a  youth 
of  fortune  entered,  later,  the  same  university  as  a  gentleman 
commoner  \^  he  was  to  become  the  foreign  administrator 
of  Methodism,  its  first  bishop  in  America,  the  founder  of  its 
missions  in  both  Indies,  and  of  that  Vv^hole  missionary 
scheme  which,  in  our  day,  enrolls  a  larger  number  of  con- 
verts from  heathenism  than  all  other  Protestant  missions 
combined.  From  the  mountains  of  Switzerland  came  into 
England,  meanwhile,  a  young  man  who  v/as  to  become  the 
champion  of  the  Arminian  theology  of  the  new  movement, 
and  the  intimate  counselor  of  its  leader,  and  wh)se  saintly 
life  was  to  leave  with  it  a  greater  blessing  than  the  works 
of  his  pen.* 

But  its  chief  agents  were  in  obscure  preparation  in  ths 
village  of  Epworth,  a  rural  community  of  Lmcolnshire, 
with  a  population,  at  the  time,  of  about  two  thousand 
souls,  occupied  m  the  cultivation  and  manufacture  of  hemp 
and  flax.  In  the  household  of  the  Epworth  Rectory  can 
be  traced  its  real  origin,  amid  one  of  those  pictures  of 
English  rural  life  which  have  so  often  given  a  charm  to  our 
literature,  and  which  form,  perhaps,  the  best  example  of  the 
domestic  virtues  of  religion  that  Christian  civilization  has 
afforded.  An  "  elect  lady  "  there  trained  the  founder  and 
legislator  of  Methodism,  and  to  no  inconsiderable  degree, 
by  impressing  on  him  the  traits  of  her  own  extraordinary 
character ;  and,  under  the  same  nurture,  grew  up  by  his 
side  its  psalmist,  w^hose  lyrics  were  to  be  heard,  in  less 
than  a  century,  wherever  the  English  language  was  spok- 

»  Gillies'e  Life  of  Whit  afield.  ^  Drew's  Life  o*'  Coke. 

*  Jenson's  Life  of  Fletclier. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  35 

en,  and  to  be  "more  devoutly  committed  to  memory," 
and  "  oftener  repeated  upon  a  death-bed,"  than  any  other 
poems.^ 

The  mother  of  the  Wesleys  was  the  mother  of  Method- 
isiii,  says  a  writer  who  has  given  us  the  philosophy  of  its 
history,^  and  she  properly  belongs  to  the  foreground  of  our 
narrative.  She  was  "nobly  related,"  being  the  daughter 
of  Dr.  Samuel  Annesley,  who  was  the  son  of  a  brother  of 
the  Earl  of  Anglesea.'^  She  inherited  from  her  father  those 
energetic  traits  of  character  which  she  transmitted  to  her 
most  distinguished  child. 

Dr.  Annesley  was  one  of  the  leading  Nonconformist 
divines  of  his  day.  Like  his  grandson,  he  was  noted  at  Ox- 
ford for  his  piety  and  diligence  ;  he  served  the  national 
Church  as  chaplain  at  sea,  and  as  parish  priest  at  Cliff,  in 
Kent,  at  St.  John  the  Apostle's  and  at  St.  Giles's,  two  of  the 
largest  congregations  in  London.  Under  the  Act  of  Uniform- 
ity, the  inherent  energy  of  the  family  showed  itself  with  him, 
as  afterward  with  his  daughter  and  grandson,  in  a  calm  but 
determined  independence.  He  refused  to  "conform,"  and, 
endured  a  series  of  severe  persecutions,  which  were  attended 
by  many  of  those  "remarkable  interpositions"  that  dis- 
tinguish the  later  history  of  the  family.  One  of  his  per- 
secutors fell  dead  while  preparing  a  warrant  for  his 
apprehension.  He  became  a  leader  of  the  Puritans  during 
the  troubles  of  the  times,  preaching  almost  daily,  providing 
pastors  for  destitute  congregations,  and  relief  for  his  ejected 
and  impoverished  brethren.  "  O  how  many  places,"  ex- 
claims one  of  his  contemporaries,  "  had  sat  in  darkness,  how 
many  ministers  had  been  starved,  if  Dr.  Annesley  had 
died  thirty  years  since."  ^  After  a  ministry  of  more  than 
half  a  century,  and  of  sore  trials,  under  which  he  never  once 

'  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  chapter  21, 
^  Taylor:  Wesley  and  Methodism,  p.  28. 
''  Adam  Clarke's  Wesley  Family,  p.  289. 

*  Dr.  Daniel  Williams,-  in  Annesley's  Funera^  Sermon,  published  hj 
Wesley,  in  the  Arminian  Magazine,  vol.  xv. 


SQ  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

faltered,  he  died  in  1696,  exclaiming,  "I  shall  be  satisfied 
with  thy  likeness:  satisfied,  satisfied."  De  Foe,  who  sat 
under  his  preaching,  has  dravv^n  his  character  as  "perfect, 
in  an  elegy.  The  '  Nonconformists  considered  him  a 
second  St.  Paul.^  Richard  Baxter  pronounced  him  totally 
devoted  to  God.^°  He  was  endeared  to  all  who  knew 
him  intimately,  and  his  noble  relative,  the  Countess  of 
Anglesea,  desired,  on  her  death-bed,  to  be  buried  in  hi? 
grave.  ^^  He  had  a  manly  countenance  and  dignified  per 
son ;  a  rich  estate,  which  he  devoted  to  charity ;  robust 
health,  which  was  capable  of  any  fatigue ;  and  "  a  large 
soul,"  says  Clarke,  "  flaming  with  zeal."  "  He  was  an 
Israelite,  indeed,"  exclaims  Calamy,  "  sanctified  from  the 
womb."  ^2  Cromwell  esteemed  him,  and  appointed  him  to 
an  office  at  St.  Paul's. 

He  accorded  to  his  daughter  the  independence  of  opinion 
which  he  claimed  for  himself,  and  while  yet  under  his  roof, 
and  not  thirteen  years  old,  she  showed  her  hereditary  spirit 
by  examining  the  whole  controversy  between  Churchmen 
and  Dissenters,  and  by  renouncing,  in  favor  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  the  opinions  to  which  her  father  had  devoted 
a  life  of  labor  and  suffering.  The  fact  is  characteristic ;  and 
judging  from  the  evidence  of  her  later  history,  she  possessed, 
even  at  this  early  age,  an  unusual  fitness  for  such  an  inves- 
tigation. Devout,  thoughtful,  amiable,  and  beautiful,  she 
was  the  favorite  child  of  her  father,  and  the  change  of  her 
opinions  produced  no  interruption  of  the  affectionate  ties 
which  had  bound  them  together. 

She  was  married  to  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley  about  1689, 
when  nineteen  or  twenty  years  of  age.  She  had  been 
thoroughly  educated,  and  was  acquainted  with  the  Greek 

^  Dunton's  "  Life  and  Errors,"  p.  95.     This  noted  publisher,  who  rankt 
by  the  side  of  Dodsley  in  the  Enghsh  typography  of  the  last  century, 
was  Annesley's  son-in-law. 
•  ^°  Adam  Clarke's  Wesley  Family,  p.  298. 

"  Dunton,  p.  280. 

^2  Nonconformists'  Memorial,  vol.  i.     Anthony  a  "Wood's  sketch  of  him 
(Athenae  Oxouiensis,  vol.  iv,)  is  evidently  a  Jacobite  caricature. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  87 

Latin,  and  French  languages.  She  showed  a  discrimma- 
tive  judgment  of  books  and  men,  and,  without  any  unique 
trait  of  genius,  presents,  perhaps,  one  of  the  completest 
characters,  moral  and  intellectual,  to  be  found  in  the  history 
of  her  sex.  She  has  left  us  no  proof  of  poetical  talent,  and 
the  genius  of  her  children  in  this  respect  seems  to  have 
beeii  inherited  from  their  father,  whose  passionate  lo\"e  of 
the  art,  and  unwearied  attempts  at  rhythm,  if  not  poetry, 
may  also  account  for  the  hereditary  talent  of  the  family 
in  music 

A  portrait  of  Susanna  Wesley,  taken  at  a  later  date 
than  her  marriage,  but  evidently  while  she  was  still  young, 
affords  us  a  picture  of  the  refined  and  even  elegant  lady  of 
the  times.  The  features  are  slight,  but  almost  classical  in 
their  regularity.  They  are  ""lioroughly  Wesleyan,  affording 
proof  that  John  Wesley  inherited  from  his  mother  not 
only  his  best  moral  and  intellectual  traits,  but  those  also 
of  his  physiognomy.  Her  dress  and  coiffure  are  in  the 
simplest  style  of  her  day,  and  the  entire  picture  is  marked 
by  chaste  gracefulness.  It  lacks  not,  also,  an  air  of  that 
high-bred  aristocracy  from  which  she  was  descended.  ^^ 
Adam  Clarke,  whose  uxorious  fondness  shows  him  to  have 
been  no  inapt  judge,  says  she  was  not  only  graceful,  but 
beautifuL  Sir  Peter  Leiy,  the  painter  of  the  "  beauties  *'  of 
his  age,  has  left  a  portrait  of  one  of  her  sisters,  who  was 
pronounced  a  womaa  of  rare  charms ;  "  One,"  says  Clarke, 
*'  who  well  knew  them  both,  said,  beautiful  as  Miss  Amiesley 
appears,  she  was  far  from  being  as  beautiful  as  Mrs.  Wes- 
ley," The  learned  commentator  lingers  with  heartiest  ad- 
miration before  her  image.  He  assures  us  that  he  could 
not  repress  his  tears  while  contemplating  her  Christian  and 
womanly  virtues,  and  her  more  than  manly  struggles  with 
adversity,  "  Such  a  woman,"  he  says,  "  take  her  for  all  in 
all,  I  have  not  heard  of,  I  have  not  read  of,  nor  with  her 

"  Clarke,  (Wesley  Family,)  with  his  ixsiial  learned  detail,  traces  the 
Anglesea  family  back  beyond  the  Conquest.  He  says:  "I  find  that 
Mrs.  Wesley  signed  some  of  her  letters  with  the  Annesley  arms." 


38  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

equal  have  I  been  acquainted.  Such  a  one  Solomon  has 
described  in  the  last  chapter  of  his  Proverbs ;  and  to  her  I 
can  apply  the  summed  up  character  of  his  accomplished 
housewife.  Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously,  but 
Susanna^  Wesley  has  excelled  them  all."  In  his  comment 
on  Solomon's  sketch  of  the  Jewish  matron,  he  again  refers  to 
the  lady  of  Epworth  rectory  as  the  best  exemplification  ne 
knew  of  the  Scriptural  portrait. 

An  exact  balance  of  faculties  was  the  chief  characteristic 
of  her  intellect.  With  this  she  combined  a  profound  piety. 
Her  early  interest  in  the  Nonconformist  controversy  shows 
that  from  her  childhood,  religion,  even  in  some  of  its  intri- 
cate questions,  had  engaged  her  thoughts.  Her  healthful 
common  sense  is  manifest  in  all  her  allusions  to  the  sub- 
ject. Her  womanly  but  practical  mind  never  fell  into 
mysticism. ;  and  when  her  sons  ^yere  wavering  under  its 
influence  at  Oxford,  her  letters  continually  recalled  them  to 
wholesome  and  Scriptural  sentiments.  "I  take  Kempis," 
she  writes  to  John,  when  he  was  poring  over  the  pages  of 
the  "  Imitation,"  "  I  take  Kempis  to  have  been  an  honest, 
weak  man,  who  had  more  zeal  than  knowledge,  by  his 
condemning  all  mirth  or  pleasure  as  sinful  or  useless,  in 
opposition  to  so  many  direct  and  plain  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture." And  again  she  wrote :  "  Let  every  one  enjoy  the 
present  hour.  Age  and  successive  troubles  are  sufficient 
to  convince  any  man  that  it  is  a  much  wiser  and  safer 
way  to  deprecate  great  afflictions  than  to  pray  for  them, 
and  that  our  Lord  knew  what  was  in  man  when  he 
directed  us  to  pray :  '  Lead  us  not  into  temptation.' 
I  think  heretic  Clarke,^*  in  his  exposition  on  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  is  more  in  the  right  than  Castaniza  concerning 
temptations." 

With  unusual  sobriety  on  religious  subjects,  she  united  a 
cheerful  confidence  in  her  own  religious  hopes.  She  conse- 
crated an  hour  every  m.orning  and  evening  to  entire  se- 
clusion for  meditation  and  prayer ;  her  reflections  at  these 
1*  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  39 

times  were  often  recorded,  and  present  the  happiest  blend- 
ing of  good  sense  and  religious  fervor.  "  If,"  she  exclaims, 
in  one  of  her  evening  meditations ;  "  if  comparatively  to 
despise  and  undervalue  all  the  world  contains,  which  is 
esteemed  great,  fair,  or  good;  if  earnestly  and  constantly 
to  desire  Thee — thy  favor,  thy  acceptance,  thyself — rather 
than  any  or  all  things  thou  hast  created,  be  to  love  Thee — I 
do  love  Thee."  15 

Her  independent  habit  of  thinking  led  her  early  to  So- 
cinian  opinions,  but  they  were  abandoned  after  matured 
investigations.  Her  letters  are  marked  not  only  by  just  but 
often  by  profound  thought.  She  projected  several  literary 
works,  and  a  fragment  which  remains,  on  the  "Apostles' 
Creed,"  would  not  have  been  discreditable  to  the  theological 
literature  of  her  day.  She  had  begun  a  work  on  Natural 
and  Revealed  Religion,  comprising  her  reason=s  for  renounc- 
ing Dissent,  and  a  discourse  on  the  Eucharist,  but  both  were 
destroyed  by  a  fire  which  consumed  the  rectory.  ^^ 

Her  husband,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  was  born  at 
Whitechurch  in  1662,  and  was  her  senior  by  seven 
years.  1'''  His  character  was  contrasted  in  important  re- 
spects with  her  own ;  but  he  shared  fully  her  conscientious 
independence  of  opinion  on  religious  questions.  With  him 
as  with  her,  this  seems  to  have  been  an  hereditary  trait, 
and  was  transmitted  by  them  both  to  their  children.  The 
characteristics  of  the  founder  of  Methodism  were  indeed 
continually  revealing  themselves  in  the  ancestral  history  of 
the  family.     Samuel  Wesley's  grandfather,   Bartholomew 

•5  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  I.  3.  Clarke  is  very  justly  scandalized  at  the 
epitaph  which  Charles  Wesley  wrote  for  her  tomb,  and  which  represents 
her  as  in  "  a  legal  night"  till  her  seventieth  ye^r — a  period  at  which  she 
attained,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  a  clearer  sense  of  her  acceptance  with 
God,  while  receiving  the  Lord's  Supper  from  one  of  her  sons-in-law. 

^^  Letter  to  her  son,  Eev.  S,  Wesley,     Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  1, 4. 

1''  Clarke  contradicts  himself  at  pp.  81  and  320  of  Wesley  Family  respect- 
ing his  age.  Methodist  writers  speak  with  uncertainty  of  the  year  of  Mrs. 
Wesley's  birth.  Clarke  (p.  319)  gives  it  as  1669  or  1670.  Her  epitaph, 
in  Bunhill  Fields,  says  she  was  aged  73,  at  her  death  in  1742.  This  de- 
termines the  year  of  her  birth  as  1669. 


40  HISTOliY    OF    METHODISM. 

Westley,^^  after  serving  the  Established  Church  in  several 
parishes,  under  Charles  I.,  joined  the  Puritan  party.  He 
Avas  ejected  at  the  Restoration,  and  obstinately  refusing  to 
conform,  lived  by  the  practice  of  medicine,  a  persecuted 
outcast,  not  allowed  by  the  Five  Mile  Act  to  approach 
within  five  miles  of  any  of  his  former  parishes,  or  any 
borough  town,  but  preaching,  meanwhile,  as  he  had  oppor- 
tunity,  till  the  treatment  and  premature  death  of  his  son., 
occasioned  by  a  like  conscientious  independence  of  opinion, 
''  brought  his  gray  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave."  ^^  We 
know  little  else  of  him  than  these  brief  characteristic  facts 
of  his  sufferings.  Calamy  says  he  was,  when  an  old 
man,  and  the  vigor  of  life  had  gone,  "  as  tender  hearted 
and  affectionate  as  he  had  been  pious  and  prudent." 

His  son,  John  Westley,  under  whose  afHictions  the  veteran 
dissenter  sunk  into  the  grave,  was  true  to  the  independent 
and  vigorous  character  of  his  father.     He  was  educated  at 

18  Such  M-as  the  original  orthography  of  the  name.  Clarke  thinks  it 
may  be  of  Arabic  origin,  and  that  the  family  came  from  Spain.  Beal 
("Wesley  Fathers")  gives  it  a  good  Saxon  origin.  There  are  traces  of 
the  name  in  Dorsetshire  as  early  as  the  fourteenth  century,  a  period 
before  which,  Camden  tells  us,  surnames  were  not  common  in  England, 
families  being  designated  by  localities.  Smith  (History  of  "Wesleyan 
Methodism,  book  I,  chap.  2)  says  there  were  in  Dorsetshire  certain 
portions  of  lai^d  formerly  called  Mdes^  vils^  (fields,)  and  manors^  dis- 
tinguished by  the  names  Wantesleigh,  Wynesleigh,  Wernsley,  and 
Westley.  Hutchinson,  the  historian  of  Dorsetshire,  says  there  is  a  hamlet 
in  Broadwindsor  called  Wansley,  Wantsley,  Wantsleigh,  and  Wanslew, 
and  further  observes  that  there  are  twenty  acres  of  land  in  Hook  called 
West  Leas.  "  This  latter  statement,"  remarks  Smith,  "  probably  affords 
a  key  to  the  whole  case.  Z^a,  in  Saxon,  signifies  a  place,  and  in  English 
an  enclosed  piece  of  cultivated  or  pastured  land.  Such  a  place,  desig- 
nated by  its  bearing,  would  be  called  Westlea,  and  might  have  given  the 
original  of  the  family  name."  John  de  Wintereslegh,  vicar  of  Frampton, 
in  1360  ;  George  Westley,  treasurer  of  Sarum,  1403  ;  John  Westley,  rector 
of  Langton  Maltravers,  1481  ;  John  Wannesleigh,  rector  of  Bettiscomb, 
1497 ;  and  John  Wennesley,  chaplain  of  Pillesdore,  1508,  were  all,  both 
persons  and  places,  in  the  same  county  and  same  neighborhood  where 
the  great-grandfather  of  John  Wesley  resided ;  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  they  were  ancestors  of  Samuel  Westley,  as  the  father  of  the  foundei 
of  Methodism  wrote  his  name  at  Oxford. 

»'  Southey's  Wesley,  chap.  1. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  41 

Oxford,  where  he  excelled  in  Oriental  studies.  He  seems 
not  to  have  sought  ordination,  but  was  abroad  during  Crom- 
well's power,  preaching  at  various  places,  at  one  time  to 
seamen,  at  others  in  rural  churches.  He  was  remarkable 
for  his  religious  zeal,  and,  like  several  others  of  his  family, 
kept  strict  notes  of  his  interior  life  by  a  diary.  At  the 
Restoration  he  had  scruples  against  the  use  of  the  Common 
Prayer.  He  was  cited  before  the  Bishop  of  Bristol  for  his 
irregularities,  and  told  by  the  prelate  that  if  he  continued  to 
preach,  it  must  be  according  "  to  order,  the  order  of  the 
Church  of  England,  upon  ordination."  "  What,"  he  replied, 
"  does  your  lordship  mean  by  an  ordination  1  If  you  mean 
that  sending  spoken  of  in  Romans  x,  2, 1  have  it."  "  I  mean 
that,"  rejoined  the  bishop.  "  What  mission  had  you  1  You 
must  have  it  according  to  law  and  the  order  of  the  Church 
of  England."  "  I  am  not  satisfied  in  my  spirit  of  that," 
was  the  truly  Wesleyan  reply  ;  "  I  am  not  satisfied  in  con 
science  touching  the  ordination  you  speak  of."  He  pro- 
ceeded to  vindicate  his  preaching  by  its  good  results,  the 
approval  of  good  men,  and  his  entire  devotion  to  it.  "  I 
am  glad  I  heard  this  from  your  own  mouth,"  replied 
the  prelate.  "  You  will  stand  to  your  principles,  you 
say  V  "  I  intend  it,  through  the  grace  of  God,  and  to  be 
faithful  to  the  king's  majesty,  however  you  may  deal  with 
me."  "I  will  not  m.eddle  with  you,"  said  the  bishop, 
perceiving,  doubtless,  what  kind  of  man  he  was  dealing 
with.  "  Farewell  to  you,  sir,"  was  Mr.  Westley's  only  reply. 
"  Farewell,  good  Mr.  Westley,"  responded  his  lordship.^o 

Here  was  the  germ  of  the  ministerial  system  which 
afterward  flourished  under  his  grandson ;  a  kind  of  epitome 
of  Methodism,  says  Clarke.  He  was  a  "  lay  preacher,  and 
he  was  an  itinerant  evangelist."  "  It  cannot,"  continues 
Clarke,  "escape  the  reflection  of  the  reader,  that  Method- 
ism, in  its  grand  principles  of  economy,  and  the  means  by 
which  they  have  been  brought  into  action,  had  its  specific 

20  Calamy  (Nonconformists'  Mem.,  vol.  ii.)  lias  preserved  the  interesting 
dialogue  at  length.     Moore  quotes  it,  Life  of  Wesley,  I,  1. 


42  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

h'ealthy,  though   slowly  vegetating   seeds,  in   the   original 
members  of  the  Wesley  family.''^^ 

The  good  impression  which  he  left  upon  the  m.ind  of  the 
Bishop  of  Bristol,  could  not  save  him  from  imprisonment 
shortly  after.  He  was  released  by  an  order  of  the  King's 
Council,  in  1661,  but  was  seized  while  leaving  his  church,  in 
the  next  year,  and  again  thrust  into  prison.  K  leading 
magistrate  of  the  county,  however,  bailed  him.  out.  Soon 
afterward  the  Act  of  Uniformity  went  into  effect ;  Wesley 
would  not  yield  to  it ;  he  stood  up  amid  his  weeping  peo- 
ple, and  preaching  a  farewell  discourse,  left  them,  to  become 
an  outcast  and  a  wanderer.  The  remainder  of  his  history 
is  a  series  of  affecting  sufferings  ;  but  they  were  borne  with 
intrepid  steadfastness.  On  leaving  his  congregation  at 
Whitchurch,  he  took  his  family  to  Melcombe,  but  the 
local  authorities  hunted  him.  there,  imposing  upon  him  a 
fine,  and  upon  his  landlady  the  forfeiture  of  twenty  pounds. 
He  took  refuge  in  Ilminster,  Bridgewater,  and  Taunton, 
livmg  on  the  charity  of  their  dissenting  Churches.  His 
sufferings  at  last  touched  the  sympathies  of  a  wealthy 
gentleman,  who  gave  him  a  house  free  of  rent,  in  the 
village  of  Preston.  There  he  found  a  retreat  for  almost  two 
years,  when  the  Five  Mile  Act  drove  him  out  of  his  com- 
fortable refuge.  He  sheltered  his  family  at  Poole,  preach- 
ing there  as  he  found  opportunity,  but  living  in  the  country 
to  escape  the  new  law.  Four  tijjaes  was  he  imprisoned, 
once  for  half  a  year,  and  in  another  instance  for  three 
months.  He  thought  of  seeking  shelter  in  America,  but 
about  the  year  1670  found  it  in  heaven.  He  sunk  into  the 
grave,  under  his  many  trials,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four, 
bearing  w^ith  him  the  broken  heart  of  his  father,  whose 
admiration  of  his  independence  and  zeal  could  not  sustain 
his  own  spirit  in  its  painful  sympathy  with  his  tried  and 

21  Clarke  infers  from  the  "  escalop  shell "  on  the  family  arms,  that  some 
of  its  ancestors  had  heen  in  the  Crusades  ;  whether  this  is  the  fact  or 
not,  the  crusading  spirit  seemed  hereditary  and  ineradicahle  in  the  Wes- 
leyan  constitution. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY,  43 

Mthful  son.  His  sufferings,  says  Southey,  have  given  him 
a  place  among  the  confessors  of  the  Nonconformists.  Cal- 
amy  has  left  us  evidence  that  John  Westley  was  alike  devout 
and  firm,  and  an  able  theologian. ^^  jj^  lies  in  the  church- 
yard of  Preston ;  such  was  the  spirit  of  the  times  that  the 
vicar  would  not  allow  him  to  be  buried  in  the  church. ^^ 

Weak  character  is  indicated  as  often,  perhaps,  by  strong  as 
by  feeble  opinions,  for  opinions  ai:e  mostly  prejudices  ;  and 
on  theological  subjects,  and  especially  on  ecclesiastical  ques- 
tions, where  so  much  must  always  be  doubtful,  liberality 
must  always  be  more  wise  as  well  as  more  generous  than 
dogmatism.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  if  the 
Wesleys  were  tenacious  of  their  later  sentiments,  this  very 
fact  proves  that  they  were  not  so  of  their  earlier  opinions. 
They  conquered,  at  least,  the  prejudices  of  education.  Opin- 
ions on  the  questions  for  which  they  suffered  were  deemed, 
in  their  day,  to  be  more  fundamental  than  they  have  been 
considered  since  the  epoch  of  Methodism.  They  were  still 
matters  of  conscience,  and  strong  souls  are  always  strongest 
in  matters  of  conscience.  The  opposition  of  Bartholomew 
and  John  Westley  to  the  Common  Prayer,  and  other  ecclesi- 
astical requisitions  of  the  times,  was  more  a  protest  against 
bigotry  than  bigotry  itself;  and  by  the  progress  of  such 
dissent  has  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  reached  its  later  and 
m.ore  forbearing  liberality. 

Such  were  the  immediate  ancestors  of  Samuel  Wesley, 
the  rector  of  Epworth,  and  father  of  the  founder  of  Method- 

22  Nonconformists'  Memorial,  vol.  ii. 

23  Soutliey's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  1.  One  of  Wesley's  circuit  preachers 
makes  an  affecting  reference  to  this  good  and  brave  man's  grave  :  "  IntJie 
chnrch-yard  no  stone  tells  where  his  ashes  lie,  nor  is  there  a  monument  to 
record  his  worth.  The  writer  would  not  seem  to  affect  anything ;  yet  to 
this  village  (wliich  he  visits  regularly,  as  a  small  Wesleyan  chapel  is  there) 
he  does  not  go  without  remembering  the  Vicar  of  Whitchurch.  In  this 
and  that  house,  lonely  dell,  and  retired  spot,  he  seems  to  see  the  man 
whose  spirit  was  crushed^  the  Christian  hunted  to  obscurity,  and  the  min- 
ister whose  lamp,  though  lighted  in  the  skies,  was  wickedly  quenched  by 
the  triumphant  spirit  of  persecution ;  and  he  is  no  stranger  to  the  hal- 
lowed spot  where  his  mortal  part  is- deposited." — BeaVs  Wedey  Father's. 


44  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

ism.  The  rector  himself  had  a  robust  soul,  and  early 
proved  that  he  inherited  the  ancestral  spirit  of  his  family. 
Designed  for  the  ministry  of  the  Nonconformists,  and 
trained  by  so  many  domestic  examples  and  sufferings  to 
sympathize  with  their  cause,  he  was  appointed  to  prepare  a 
reply  to  some  severe  invectives  which  had  been  published 
against  them.  In  attempting  the  task  "  he  conceived  that 
he  saw  reason  to  change  his  opinions."  ^^  Rising  one  morn- 
ing very  early,  and  without  acquainting  any  person  with  his 
design,  he  set  out  on  foot  for  Oxford,  and  entered  himself  as 
a  "poor  scholar"  at  Exeter  College.  He  had  but  two 
pounds  five  shillings  in  his  pocket  when  he  arrived  there, 
and  received  during  his  collegiate  life  but  one  crown  as 
assistance  from  his  friends.  Strong  in  the  characteristic 
energy  and  methodical  habits  of  his  family,  he  successfully 
prosecuted  his  studies,  supporting  himself  by  his  pen  and 
by  instructing  others  as  a  tutor.  We  have  but  few 
glimpses  of  his  Oxford  life ;  they  .  show,  however,  the 
genuine  Wesleyan  character.  He  was  laborious,  devout, 
and  not  forgetful  of  those  whom  the  Church  of  the  day 
seemed  most  inclined  to  forget— prisoners  and  the  wretched 
poor.  He  visited  the  former  in  the  Castle,  relieving  their 
necessities  and  ministering  to  their  souls  ;  and  when  his  sons 
afterward  became  notorious  at  Oxford  for  similar  labors,  he 
was  able  to  write  to  them :  "  Go  on,  in  God's  name,  in  the 
path  into  which  your  Saviour  has  directed  you,  and  that 
wherein  your  father  has  gone  before  you." 

Wesleyan  in  his  economy  as  in  his  liberality,  he  was 
able  at  last  to  leave  college  for  London  with  more  than  ten 
pounds  in  his  pocket.  Dunton,  his  London  jDublisher,  had 
married  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Annesley,  and  introduced  his 
young  friend  to  the  family.  The  acquaintance  ripened 
at  last  into  his  marriage  with  Susanna  Annesley.  After 
beginning  his  clerical  life  as  a  curate,  with  twenty-eight 
pounds  a  year,  and  receiving  a  chaplaincy  aboard  the  fleet, 
at  seventy  pounds,  he  took  charge  of  a  curacy  in  London  at 
3*  Jolin  "Wesley :  Adam  Clarke's  "Wesley  Family,  p.  88. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY,  45 

thirty  pounds,  which,  however,  he  doubled  by  the  tireless 
industry  of  his  pen.  While  in  the  city  he  gave  a  remark- 
able instance  of  his  hereditary  spirit.  The  "  Declaration  " 
of  James  II.  was  ordered  to  be  read  in  the  churches ;  and 
the  court  party,  deeming  Wesley  a  talented  partisan,  prom.- 
ised  him  preferment,  as  a  motive  for  his  support  of  the 
measure.  He  was  poor,  and  living  in  lodgings  with  his 
wife  and  one  child ;  but  he  spurned  the  overture,  and  be- 
lieving the  Declaration  to  be  a  Papal  design,  he  not  only 
refused  to  read  it,  but  ascended  the  pulpit  and  denounced  it 
in  a  sermon  from  the  text :  "  If  it  be  so,  our  God  whom  we 
serve  is  able  to  deliver  us  from  the  burning  fiery  furnace, 
and  he  will  deliver  us  out  of  thy  hand,  O  king.  But  if 
not,  be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve 
thy  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast 
set  up." 

We  next  find  him  in  the  curacy  of  South  Ormsby,  near 
Epworth,  with  fifty  pounds  a  year.  Here  his  family  in- 
creased to  six  children ;  but,  with  true  English  paternity,  he 
welcomed  each  addition  as  a  gift  from  ,God,  and  struggled 
manfully  to  provide  bread  for  every  new  comer.  He  says, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  York,  that  he  had  but 
fifty  pounds  a  year  for  six  or  seven  years  together,  and 
one  child  at  least  per  annum.  The  parish  had  been  ob- 
tained for  him  by  the  Marquis  of  Normanby ;  a  character- 
istic instance  of  conduct  led  to  its  resignation.  This  noble- 
man, says  John  Wesley,  had  a  house  in  the  parish,  where  a 
woman  who  lived  with  him  usually  resided ;  she  insisted 
on  being  intimate  with  Mrs.  Wesley,  but  to  such  an  inter- 
course the  rector  would  not  submit.  Coming  in  one  day, 
and  finding  the  intrusive  visitant  sitting  with  his  wife,  he 
went  up  to  her,  took  her  by  the  hand,  and  unceremoniously 
led  her  out.  The  nobleman  resented  the  affi'ont,  and  made 
it  necessary  for  Wesley  to  retire  from  the  living.  The 
dedication  of  one  of  his  works  to  Queen  Mary  procured 
him  the  rectory  of  Epworth,  where,  on  two  hundred  pounds 
a  year,  and  the  proceeds  of  his  literary  labors,  he  sustained 


46  HISTORY    OF     METHODIS:^!. 

and  eclLicated  his  numerous  family,   amounting  at  last  to 
nineteen  cliildren. 

His  poetical  mania  kept  Mm  busily  at  work  "beating 
rhyme,"  as  he  called  it.  Poem  after  poem  came  forth  to 
the  public  fromr  the  rectory  study.  Besides  his  elaborate 
works  detailing  in  verse  which  was,  more  rhythmical  than 
poetical,  "  The  Life  of  Christ,"  and  "  The  History  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,"  less  pretentious,  but  really  better 
productions,  were  continually  emanating  from  his  pen. 
His  most  valuable  publication  was  a  Latin  dissertation  on 
the  book  of  Job.  He  had  the  rare  fortune  of  dedicating 
volumes  to  three  successive  queens  of  England ;  but  as 
popular,  not  royal  sovereignty,  wields  the  sceptre  of  fate  in 
the  world  of  letters,  the  royal  sanction  has  not  been  able  to 
save  them  from  oblivion.  Their  few  worm-eaten  remnants 
have  no  other  interest  than  that  which  arises  from  the  later 
historical  importance  of  the  family  name.  The  Latin  dis- 
sertation on  Job  evinces  profound  learning ;  and  he  was 
doubtless  competent  to  have  prosecute^  successfully,  under 
m.ore  favorable  circumstances,  a  grand  scheme  which  he 
had  projected  for  a  new  edition  of  the  original  Scriptures,  on 
the  plan  more  lately  accomplished  by  Bagster.  Pope  was 
intimate  with  the  rector,  and  in  a  letter  to  Swift,  says  :  "  I 
call  him  what  he  is,  a  learned  man,  and  I  engage  you  will 
approve  his  prose  more  than  you  formerly  did  his  poetry."  ^ 
Dunton  says  he  used  to  write  two  hundred  couplets  a  day. 
The  current  of  his  verse  was  so  rapid  as  to  carry  with  it 
all  the  lighter  rubbish  of  its  banks,  and  to  sink  whatever  of 
weighty  value  was  cast  upon  it. 

He  plied  faithfully,  meanwhile,  his  parish  labors.  Hd 
Imew  all  his  parishioners,  and  visited  them  from  house  to 
house,  keeping  a  record  of  his  visits.  His  preaching  was 
pointed,  and  he  quailed  not  when  it  gave  offense.  Bad  livers 
in  the  parish  resented  it,  as  they  did  also  his  party  politics, 
by  wounding  his  cattle  at  night,  cutting  off  the  legs  of  his 
house-dog,  breaking  his  doors,  and  by  twice  setting  fire  to 
his  house.     His  conduct  toward  them  was  sometimes  as 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  47 

prompt  as  in  the  case  which  occasioned  his  resignation  at 
Ormsby.  Many  of  them  vexed  him  not  a  little  about  the 
tithes,  and  at  one  time  they  would  pay  only  in  kind.  Going 
into  a  field  where  the  tithe  corn  was  laid,  he  discovered  a 
.-erson  cutting  the  ears  with  a  pair  of  shears,  and  filling  with 
them  a  bag  brought  for  the  purpose.  Without  saying  a 
word,  he  seized  the  astonished  parishioner  by  the  arm,  and 
led  him  into  the  market-place  of  the  town,  where  he  opened 
the  bag,  turned  it  inside  out  before,  the  multitude,  and,  de- 
claring what  the  pilferer  had  done,  walked  quietly  away, 
leaving  him  confounded  before  his  neighbors. 

He  did  not  disguise  his  High  Church  and  State  principles, 
and  his  imprudent  political  zeal  involved  him  in  serious  per- 
secutions. Besides  the  injuring  of  his  cattle,  and  the  burning 
of  his  house,  the  rabble  drummed,  shouted,  and  fired  arms 
under  his  windows  at  night.  Under  the  pretense  of  a  small 
debt,  which  he  could  not  at  the  moment  discharge,  he  was 
arrested  while  leavmg  his  church,  and  imprisoned  in  Lin- 
coln Castle,  where  he  continued  about  three  months.  But 
his  native  spirit  never  failed  him.  "  Now  I  am  at  rest," 
he  wrote  from  the  prison  to  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
"  for  I  am  come  to  the  haven  where  I  have  long  expected  to 
be ;  and,"  he  characteristically  adds,  "  I  don't  despair  of 
doing  good  here,  and,  it  may  be,  more  in  this  new  parish 
than  in  my  old  one."  Like  Goldsmith's  good  vicar,  he  im- 
mediately became  a  volunteer  chaplain  to  his  fellow  prison- 
ers. He  read  prayers  daily,  and  preached  on  Sundays  to 
them.  He  was  consoled  by  the  fortitude  of  his  noble  wife ; 
"  'Tis  not  every  one,"  he  wrote  again  to  the  archbishop, 
"  who  could  bear  these  things  ;  but  I  bless  God,  my  wife 
is  less  concerned  with  suffering  them  than  I  am  in  writing, 
or  than  I  believe  your  Grace  will  be  in  reading  them." 
"  When  I  came  here,"  he  said  in  another  letter,  "  my  stock 
was  but  little  above  ten  shillings,  and  my  wife's  at  home 
scarce  so  much.  She  soon  sent  me  her  rings,  because  she 
had  nothing  else  to  relieve  me  with,  but  I  returned  them." 
When  advised  to  remove  from  Epworth,  on  account  of  his 


48  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

persecutions,  he  replied  in  an  answer  which  reminds  us  of 
his  son,  when  hooted  by  later  mobs  in  his  itinerant  preach- 
ing :  "  'Tis  like  a  coward  to  desert  my  post  because  the 
enemy  fires  thick  upon  me.  They  have  only  wounded  me 
yet,  and  I  believe  cannot  kill  me." 

The  energy  of  his  character  and  the  tenacity  of  his 
opinions  were,  doubtless,  faulty  virtues.  They  led  him 
rjto  not  a  few  unnecessary  sufferings,  and  bordered  some- 
times on  insanity.  A  fact  is  told  of  him  which  would  be 
incredible  if  related  on  less  authority  than  that  of  John 
Wesley  himself.  He  informs  us  that  his  father,  observing 
one  evening,  at  the  close  of  family  prayers,  that  his  wife  did 
not  respond  "  Amen "  to  the  prayer  for  the  king,  asked  her 
the  reason.  She  replied  that  she  did  not  believe  in  the 
title  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  to  the  throne.  "  If  that  be 
the  case,"  rejoined  the  rector,  "we  must  part,  for  if  we  have 
two  kings,  we  must  have  two  beds."  "  My  mother,"  says 
Wesley,  "  was  inflexible."  Her  husband  went  to  his  study, 
and  soon  after  took  his  departure,  and  returned  not  till 
about  a  year  had  elapsed,  when  the  death  of  the  king,  and 
the  accession  of  Queen  Anne,  whose  title  neither  questioned, 
allowed  him  to  go  back  without  violating  his  word.  Their 
conjugal  harmony  was  restored,  and  John  Wesley  himself 
was  the  first  child  born  after  their  reconciliation.  This  very 
singular  incident  seems  not  to  have  been  attended  with  any 
severe  recriminations ;  it  was  as  cool  as  it  was  determined 
and  foolish;  it  was  made  a  matter  of  conscience  by  both 
parties,  and  both  were  immovably  but  calmly  resolute  in 
all  conscientious  prejudices.  As  an  illustration  of  character, 
it  indicates  worse  for  the  good  sense  than  the  good  heart  of 
the  rector,  for  through  the  robust  nature  of  this  man  of 
sturdy  opinions  flowed  a  current  of  habitual  good-humor, 
and  humor,  more  than  apparent  conscientiousness  itself, 
reveals  truthfully  the  heart,  as  it  is  an  affection,  if  not  a 
virtue,  which  has  the  rare  peculiarity  of  being  necessarily 
genuine,  and  when  even  associated  with  satire,  is  so,  more 
from  a  genial  and  instinctive  disposition  to  relieve,  than  to 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  49 

add  U)  its  sting.  Southey  says  of  Samuel  Wesley's  early 
poems,  that  his  imagination  seems  to  have  been  playful, 
and  had  he  written  during  his  son's  celebrity,  some  of 
his  pieces  might  perhaps  have  been  condemned  by  the 
godly  as  profane.^^  Clarke  assures  us  that  he  had  a  large 
share  of  vivacity ;  that  in  private  conversation  he  was  very 
entertaining  and  instructive,  having  a  rich  fund  of  anecdote, 
and  a  profusion  of  witty  and  wise  sayings.  He  shows  that 
the  hearty  rector  relished  practical  jokes  so  well  as  to  be 
led  sometimes  to  trench  with  them  on  sacred  ground,  where 
even  a  useful  lesson  could  hardly  redeem  them.^^ 

■  25  Southey's  Early  English  Poets.  AdaraClarke  demurs  to  the  latter  point. 
The  veteran  commentator  was,  however,  himself  not  very  squeamish. 

26  The  Epworth  parish  clerk  was  a  well-meaning  and  honest,  but  an  ob- 
trusively vain  man.  His  master,  the  rector,  he  esteemed  the  greatest  char- 
acter in  the  parish,  or  even  in  the  county,  and  himself,  being  second  to 
him  in  church  services,  as  only  second  to  him,  also,  in  importance  and 
title  to  general  respect.  "  He  had  the  privilege  of  wearing  Mr.  Wesley's 
cast  off  clothes  and  wigs,  for  the  latter  of  which  his  head  was  by  far 
too  small,  and  the  figure  he  presented  was  ludicrously  grotesque. 
The  rector  finding  him  particularly  vain  of  one  of  the  canonical  substitutes 
for  hair,  which  he  had  lately  received,  formed  the  design  to  mortify  him 
in  the  presence  of  that  congregation  befor'^  which  Jolm  wished  to  appear 
in  every  respect  what  he  thought  himself  in  his  near  approach  to  his 
master.  One  morning  before  church  time  Mr.  W,  said :  '  John,  I  shall 
preach  on  a  particular  subject  to-day,  and  shall  choose  my  own  psalm,  of 
which  I  shall  give  out  the  first  line,  and  you  shall  proceed  as  usual.' 
John  was  pleased,  and  the  service  went  forward  as  usual  till  they  came 
to  the  singing,  when  Mr.  Wesley  gave  out  the  following  line  : 

'  Like  to  an  owl  in  ivy  bush.' 

This  was  sung ;  and  the  following  line,  John,  peeping  out  of  the  large 
oanonical  wig  in  which  his  head  was  half  lost,  gave  out  with  an  audible 
voice,  and  appropriate  connecting  twang — 

'  That  rueful  thing  am  I.' 

The  whole  congregation,  struck  with  John's  appearance,  saw  and  felt  the 
similitude,  and  could  not  refrain  from  laughter.  The  rector  was  pleased, 
for  John  was  mortified  and  his  self-conceit  lowered." — darkens  Wesley 
Family.  This  anecdote  was  questioned  in  the  Wesleyan  Magazine,  Lon- 
don, for  1824.  Clarke  replies  "  that  he  had  it  from  John  Wesley  himself, 
and,  as  near  as  he  can  possibly  recollect,  in  the  very  words  given."  He 
adds,  what  may  be  as  relevant  to  our  pages  as  to  his  own,  that  it  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  man,  and  it  is  from  facts  of  this  nature  that  the 
author  forms  a  proper  estimate  of  the  character  he  describes.  The 
Vol  I.— 4 


50  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

Adam  Clarke,  to-  whom  \Ye  are  indebted  for  our  most 
interesting,  if.  not  most  important  information  respecting 
Samuel  Wesley,  and  who  evidently  found  in  him  a  kindred 
nature,  took  pains  to  inquire  on  the  spot  respecting  his 
character  and  labors,  and  discovered  aged  parishioners  to 
whom  the  memory  of  the  man  and  pastor  was  still  dear. 
They  bore  grateful  testimony  to  his  pastoral  fidelity  and 
his  devoted  piety,  as  well  as  his  eccentricities.  He  had  the 
zealous  energy  of  his  Methodist  sons,  and  had  it  not  ex- 
pended itself  in  incessant  literary  labors,  it  would  probably 
have  led  him  into  extraordinary  evangelical  schem.es,  like 
those  which  resulted  in  Methodism.  He  did,  indeed,  con- 
ceive a  plan  of  gigantic  naissionary  efforts,  which,  it  cannot 
be  doubted,  he  would  have  heroically  prosecuted,  had  it  not 
been  defeated  by  the  neglect  of  the  government.  It  com- 
prehended St.  Helena,  India,  and  China,  and  reached  even 
to  Abyssinia,  taking  in  the  foreign  British  territories  as 
posts  from  which  to  extend  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen.  The 
written  sketch  of  the  scheme,  signed  by  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  still  remains.  Wesley  offered  to  attempt  it  in  person, 
if  the  government  would  sanction  it,  and  provide  a, humble 
subsistence  for  his  family.  Clarke  contends  that  it  was  en- 
tirely practicable  to  the  English  government  and  Church. 
It  was  an  anticipation  of  the  missionary  enterprise  of 
Methodism ;  but  the  time  for  it  had  not  yet  come.  His 
wife  was  unconsciously  preparmg  for  it  in  the  nursery  at 
Epworth,  while  her  husband  was  discussing  it  with  prelates 
and  statesmen. 

A    prophetic    anticipation    of  the    approaching    revival 

harmless  weakness  of  the  aged  clerk  seems  to  have  made  him  quite  a 
"  character"  in  the  Epworth  circle,  and  the  humor  of  the  hard-working 
rector  was  doubtless  often  refreshed  by  his  comicahties.  Clarke  says : 
"This  is  the  same  man  who,  when  King  William  returned  to  London, 
after  some  of  his  expeditions,  gave  out  in  Epworth  church,  '  Let  us  sing, 
to  the  praise  and  glory  of  God,  a  hymn  of  my  own  composing  : 

'King  William  is  come  home,  come  home, 
King  William  home  is  come  ; 
Therefore  let  us  together  sing 
The  hymn  tluif s  called  Te  D'um.' " 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  51 

of  the  Protestant  faitli  seemed  to  linger  in  this  good  man's 
mind  down  to  his  last  hour.  When  dying  he  laid  his  hand 
repeatedly  on  the  head  of  his  son  Charles,  saying :  "  Be  steady ; 
the  Christian  faith  will  surely  revive  in  this  kingdom ;  you 
will  see  it,  though  I  shall  not."  "And  to  another  of  his  chil- 
dren he  said :  "  Do  not  be  concerned. at  my  death,  God  will 
then  begin  to  manifest  himself  to  my  family."  2"^  He  died 
attesting  the  doctrine  of  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  afterward 
so  emphatically  preached  by  the  founders  of  Methodism. 
"  He  had  a  clear  sense  of  his  acceptance  with  God,"  says 
John  Wesley.  "  The  inward  witness,"  he  said,  "  the  inward 
witness,  that,  is  the  proof,  the  strongest  proof  of  Chris- 
tianity." ^s  The  family  gathered  around  his  bed  to  take  the 
Lord's  Supper  with  him  for  the  last  time ;  but  he  was  hardly 
able  to  receive  it.  "  God  chastens  me  with  strong  pain,"  he 
exclaimed  before  departing ;  "  but  I  praise  him  for  it,  I  thank 
him  for  it,  I  love  him  for  it."  At  the  moment  when  one  of 
his  sons  finished  the  Communion  prayer  he  expired. 

His  character,  sufficiently  delineated  in  our  narrative,  is 
not  without  marked  defects ;  but  it  is  admirable  for  its 
genuine  English  manhood,  its  healthful  piety,  its  brave 
independence  of  opinion,  and  the  endurance  of  life-long  strug- 
gles with  poverty  besides  other  and  complicated  trials. 

Such  were  the  parents  and  ancestors  of  the  Wesley 
family. 

The  glimpses  which  we  get  from  contemporary  records  of 
the  interior  life  at  the  rectory  of  Epworth,  give  us  the  im- 
age of  an  almost  perfect  Christian  household.  If  some  of 
its  aspects  appear  at  times  too  grave,  or  even  severe,  they 
are  relieved  by  frequent  evidence  of  those  home  affections  and 
gayeties  with  which  the  beneficent  instincts  of  human  nature 
are  sure  to  resist,  in  a  numerous  circle  of  children,  the  re- 
ligious austerities  of  riper  years.  The  Epworth  rectory  pre- 
sents, in  fine,  the  picture  of  a  domestic  church,  a  family 
school,  and  a  genuine  old  English  household.     Before  the 

27  Letter  of  Charles  Weslev :  Wesley  Family,  p.  277. 

28  Letter  of  John  Wesley  :  Ibid.,  p.  276. 


52  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

first  fire  the  building  was  a  humble  structure  of  wood  and 
plaster,  roofed  with  thatch,  and  venerable  with  a  hundred 
years.  It  boasted  one  parlor,  an  ample  hall,  a  buttery,  three 
large  upper  chambers,  besides  some  smaller  apartments,  and 
a  study,  where  the  studious'  rector  spent  most  of  his  time  ir 
"  beating  rhymes,"  and  preparing  his  sermons,  leaving  the 
rest  of  the  house  and  almost  all  in-door  affairs,  as  well  as  the 
management  of  the  temporalities  of  the  glebe  and  tithes,  tc 
his  more  capable  wife,  and  fondly  comforting  himself  against 
the  pinchmg  embarrassments  of  poverty  with  the  consola- 
tion, as  he  expresses  it  in  a  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  "  that  he  who  is  born  a  poet,  must,  I  am  afraid,  live 
and  die  so,  that  is,  poor."  John  Wesley  expresses  ad- 
nairation  at  the  serenity  with  which  his  mother  transacted 
business,  wrote  letters,  and  conversed,  surrounded  by  her 
thirteen  children.  All  the  children  bore  "nicknames"  in 
the  home  circle,  and  the  familiar  pseudonyms  play  fondly 
through  the  abundant  family  correspondence  which  remains. 
Qarke  assures  us  that  "  they  had  the  common  fame  of  being 
the  nnost  loving  family  in  the  county  of  Lincoln."  The 
mother  especially  was  the  center  of  the  household  affections. 
John,  after  leaving  home,  writes  to  her  at  a  time  when  her 
health  was  precarious,  with  pathetic  endearment,  and  ex- 
presses the  hope  that  he  may  die  before  her,  in  order  not  to 
have  the  anguish  of  witnessing  her  end.  "  You  did  well," 
she  afterward  writes  him,  "  to  correct  that  fond  desire  of  dy- 
ing before  me,  since  you  do  not  know  what  work  God  may 
have  for  you  to  do  before  you  leave  the  world.  It  is  what 
I  have  often  desired  of  the  children,  that  they  would  not 
weep  at  my  parting,  and  so  make  death  more  uncomfort- 
able than  it  would  otherwise  be  to  me."  The  home  where 
such  sentiments  prevailed  could  not  have  been  an  austere  one. 
The  children  all  shared  this  filial  tenderness  for  the 
mother.  Martha  (afterward  Mrs.  Hall)  clung  to  her  with 
a  sort  of  idolatry.  She  would  never  willingly  be  from 
her  side,  says  Clarke;  and  the  only  fault  alleged  against 
the   parent  was   her   fond   partiality   for  this   affectionate 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  53 

cliild.^^  Several  of  the  nineteen  cliildren  died  young,  but,  ac- 
cording to  the  allusion  of  John  Wesley,  already  quoted,  thir- 
teen were  living  at  one  time.  Some  of  them  were  remark- 
able for  beauty,  others  for  wit  and  intelligence.  Samuel,  the 
eldest  son,  was  poetic  from  his  childhood,  and  has  left  some 
of  the  finest  hymns  of  the  Methodist  psalmody. 2°  Susan 
na  (afterward  Mrs.  Ellison)  is  described  as  "  very  facetious 
and  a  little  romantic ;"  Mary,  though  somewhat  deformed, 
as  "  having  an  exquisitely  beautiful  face — a  legible  index  to 
a  mind  almost  angelic,"  and  "  one  of  the  most  exalted  of 
human  characters,  full  of  humility  and  goodness ;"  Me- 
hetabel  (Mrs.  Wright)  as  able,  in  her  eighth  year,  to  read 
the  Greek  language,  and  as  "  gay,  sprightly,  full  of  mirth, 
good-humor,  and  wit,  and  attracting  many  suitors,"  and  in 
later  life  an  elegant  woman,  "  with  great  refinement  of  man- 
ners, and  the  traces  of  beauty  in  her  countenance."  She  had 
also  an  uncommon  poetic  talent.  The  few  letters  of  Keziah 
that  remain  show  vivacity  and  vigorous  sense.  Charles  and 
John  gave  distinct  promise,  even  in  the  nursery,  of  their 
coming  greatness.  The  natural  temper  of  the  latter,  in 
youth,  is  described  as  "gay,  with  a  turn  for  wit  and 
humor."  ^^  The  former  was  "  exceedingly  sprightly  and 
active,  and  so  remarkable  for  courage  and  skill  in  juvenile 

■  29  Mrs.  Hall's  Ijeautiful  character  and  sad  Mstory  form  the  most  ro- 
iiantic  and  touching  story  in  the  ""Wesley  Family."  Her  affection  for 
John  was  stronger  than  the  love  of  woman,  and  she  resembled  him  in 
person  to  a  remarkable  degree.  Her  domestic  hfe  was  blighted  by  the 
deepest  sorrows,  which  were  sustained,  however,  with  unmurmuring 
patience.  Clarke  gives  their  affecting  details.  She  dined  often  with  Dr. 
Johnson  at  Bolt-Cotirt ;  he  ardently  admired  her,  and  even  wished  her  to 
reside  in  his  own  house  with  Mesdames  "Wilhams  and  Du  Moulin.  Bos- 
well  mentions  his  unusual  deference  toward  her,  and  her  striking  re- 
semblance to  John  Wesley,  "both  in  figure  and  manner."  See  Bos- 
well's  Johnson,  vol.  ii,  pp.  28,  291,  292,  374. 

3«  Among  them  are  those  beginning:  "The  morning  flowers  display 
their  sweets ;"  "The  Lord  of  Sabbath  let  us  praise ;"  "  Hail,  Father, 
whose  creating  call ;''*"**^  Hail,  God  the  Son,  in  glory  crown'd;"  "Hail, 
Holy  Ghost,  Jehovah,  third,"  etc. 

81  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  II,  1.  "  He  appeared,"  says  the  Westminster 
Magazine,  "  the  very  sensible  and  acute  collegian ;  a  young  fellow  of  the 
finest  classical  taste,  of  the  most  liberal  and  manly  sentiments." — Ihid. 


54  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

encounters  that  he  afterward  obtamed,  at  Westminster,  the 
title  of  '  Captain  of  the  school.' "  Still  later,  he  laments 
that  he  lost  his  first  year  at  Oxford  in  diversions.^^  Martha, 
who  lived  to  be  the  last  survivor  of  the  origmal  Wesley 
family,  though  habitually  sober,  if  not  sad,  amid  the 
pastimes  of  the  household  circle,  had  an  imiate  horror  of 
melancholy  subjects.  Her  memory  was  remarkable,  and 
was  abmidantly  stored  with  the  results  of  her  studies, 
especially  in  history  and  poetry.  Her  good  sense  and 
intelligence  delighted  Jolmson  in  discussions  of  theology  and 
moral  philosophy.  Of  wit,  she  used  to  say,  that  she  was 
the  only  one  of  the  family  who  did  not  possess  it. 

Though  method  prevailed  throughout  the  household,  its  al- 
most mechanical  rigor  w^as  relaxed  at  suitable  intervals,  in 
which  the  nursery,  with  its  large  juvenile  community,  became 
an  arena  of  hilarious  recreations,  of  "  high  glee  and  frolic."  ^^ 
Games  of  skill  and  of  chance  even,  were  among  the  family 
pastimes,  such  as  John  Wesley  afterward  prohibited  among 
the  Methodists.  While  the  rectory  was  rattling  with  the 
"  mysterious  noises,"  so  famous  in  the  family  history,  we  find 
the  courageous  daughters  "  playing  at  the  game  of  cards."  ^^ 

The  educational  system  at  the  rectory  has  been  the  ad- 
miration of  all  who  have  written  respecting  the  Wesley 
family.  It  had  some  extraordmary  points.  It  was  con- 
ducted solely  by  Mrs.  Wesley,  who  thus  combined  the 
labors  of  a  school  with  the  other  and  numerous  cares  of 
her  household.  She  has  left  a  long  letter  addressed  to  John 
Wesley,  in  which  it  is  fully  detailed.     "  The  children,"  she 

82  Smith's  History  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  I,  3. 

33  Clarke — whose  monograph  sketches  of  the  family  are  the  best,  because 
the  most  "gossiping"  history  we  have  of  it.  My  unreferred  quotations 
are  aH  from  him.  He  seems  to  take  pleasure  in  correcting  the  common 
impression  that  "Wesley's  early  education  was  unduly  severe.  The 
reader  will  excuse  me  if  he  thinks  my  pages  show  an  excess  of 
sympathy  with  this  design ;  for  Epworth,  not  Oxford,  was  the  cradle  oi 
Methodism. 

34  Original  Letters  of  Eev.  John  Wesley  and  his  Friends,  by  Dr, 
Priestley.    Birmingham:  1791.    See  App.  to  Southey's  Wesley. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  55 

says,  "  were  always  put  into  a  regular  mettiod  of  living,  in 
such  things  as  they  were  capable  of,  from  their  birth ;  as  in 
dressing  and  undressing,  changing  their  linen,  etc.  The 
first  quarter  commonly  passes  in  sleep ;  after  that  they 
were,  if  possible,  laid  in  their  cradle  awake,  and  rocked  to 
sleep ;  and  so  they  were  kept  rocking  till  it  was  time  for 
them  to  awake.  This  was  done  to  bring  them,  to  a  regular 
course  of  sleeping,  which  at  first  was  three  hours  in  the 
morning,  and  three  in  the  afternoon ;  afterward  two  hours, 
till  they  needed  none  at  all."  When  one  year  old,  and  in 
some  cases  earlier,  they  were  taught  to  "  cry  softly,'''  by 
which  means  they  escaped  abundance  of  correction,  and  that 
"  most  odious  noise  "  of  the  crying  of  children  was  rarely 
heard  in  the  house ;  but  the  family  usually  lived  in  as  much 
quietness  as  if  there  had  not  been  a  child  among  them.  Drink- 
ing and  eating  between  meals  was  never  allow^ed,  unless  in 
cases  of  sickness,  which  "  seldom  happened."  They  retired 
at  eight  in  the  evening,  and  were  "  left  in  their  several  rooms 
aw^ake,  for  there  was  no  such  thing  allowed  in  the  house  as 
sitting  by  a  child  till  it  fell  asleep."  To  subdue  the  will  of 
the  child  was  one  of  her  earliest  tasks,  "  because,"  she  contin- 
ues, "  this  is  the  only  strong  and  rational  foundation  of  a  re- 
ligious education,  without  which  both  precept  and  example 
will  be  ineffectual.  But  when  this  is  thoroughly  done  then 
a  child  is  capable  of  being  governed  by  the  reason  and 
piety  of  its  parents,  till  its  own  understanding  comes  to 
maturity,  and  the  principles  of  religion  have  taken  root  in 
the  mind."  Her  children  were  taught  to  be  quiet  at 
family  prayer,  and  to  ask  a  blessing  immediately  after,  by 
sig7is^  before  they  could  kneel  or  speak. 

The  family  school  was  opened  and  closed  with  singing ;  at 
five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  all  had  a  season  of  retirement, 
when  the  oldest  took  the  youngest  that  could  speak,  and  the 
second  the  next,  to  whom  they  read  the  Psalm  for  the  day, 
and  a  chapter  in  the  New  Testament.  She  herself  also  con- 
versed, each  evening,  with  one  of  her  children,  on  religious 
subjects,  and  on  some  evenings  with  two,  so  as  to  compre- 


66  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

hend  the  whole  circle  every  week.^^  Cowardice  and  fear 
of  punishment,  she  remarlcs,  often  lead  children  to  contract  a 
habit  of  lying,  from  which  it  is  difficult  for  them  to  break 
away  in  later  life.  To  prevent  this,  a  law  was  made  that 
whoever  was  charged  with  a  fault,  of  which  he  was  guilty, 
should  not  be  chastised  if  he  would  ingenuously  confess  it,  and 
promise  to  amend.  No  child  was  ever  punished  twice  for 
the  same  fault ;  and  if  he  reformed,  the  offense  was  never 
afterward  upbraided.  Promises  were  to  be  strictly  observed . 
No  girl  was  taught  to  work  till  she  read  correctly ;  she  was 
then  kept  to  her  work  with  the  same  application,  and  for 
the  same  time  that  she  had  spent  in  reading.  "  This  rule," 
wisely  remarks  the  mother,  "  is  much  to  be  observed  ;  for 
the  putting  children  to  learn  sewing  before  they  can  read 
perfectly,  is  the  very  reason  why  so  few  women  can  read  in 
a  manner  fit  to  be  heard."  None  of  them  were  taught  to 
read  till  they  were  five  years  old,  except  one  daughter, 
and  she  was  more  years  in  learning  than  any  of  the  rest  had 
been  months.  The  day  before  a  child  began  to  study,  the 
house  was  set  in  order,  every  one's  work  appointed,  and  a 
charge  given  that  none  should  come  into  the  room  from 
nine  till  twelve,  or  from  two  till  five,  which  were  the  school 
hours.  One  day  was  allowed  the  pupil  to  learn  its  letters,  and 
each  of  them  did  in  that  time  know  them  all,  except  two,  who 
were  a  day  and  a  half  at  the  task,  "  for  which,"  she  says,  "  I 
then  thought  them  very  dull."  Samuel,  who  was  the  first 
child  thus  taught,  learned  the  alphabet  in  a  few  hours.  The 
day  after  he  was  five  years  old  he  began  to  study,  and  as 
soon  as  he  knew  the  letters  he  proceeded  to  spell  out  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis.  The  same  method  was  observed 
by  them  all.  As  soon  as  they  acquired  the  knowledge  of  the 
alphabet  they  were  put  to  spelling  and  reading  one  line,  then 
a  verse,  never  leaving  it  till  perfect  in  the  appointed  lesson, 
were  it  shorter  or  longer. 

35  This  fact  is  mentioned  in  the  letter  to  her  husband,  February  6, 1712, 
in  which  she  defends  the  public  worship  that  she  conducted  at  the  reo- 
tory.    Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  I,  3. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  57 

Such  was  the  family  school  at  Epworth.  Who  can  doubt 
that  the  practical  Methodism  of  the  rectory,  more  than  any 
other  human  cause,  produced  the  ecclesiastical  Methodism 
which  to-day  is  spreading  the  Wesleyan  name  around  the 
world  ?  It  received  there,  also,  much  of  its  thoroughly  spir- 
itual tone.  Religion  impressed  the  habitual  life  of  the  fam 
ily.  Susanna  Wesley  was  its  priestess,  and,  more  than  the 
rector  himself,  ministered  to  the  spiritual  necessities  of  the 
household.  During  his  absence  she  even  opened  its  doors 
for  a  sort  of  public  worship,  which  was  conducted  by  her- 
self. She  read  sermons,  prayed,  and  conversed  directly 
with  the  rustic  assembly.  Her  husband,  learning  the  fact 
by  her  letters,  revolted,  as  a  Churchman,  at  its  novelty. 
Her  self-defense  is  characteristically  earnest,  but  submissive 
to  his  authority.  "I  chose,"  she  says,  "the  best  and  most 
awakening  sermons  we  had.  Last  Sunday,  I  believe,  we  had 
above  two  hundred  hearers,  and  yet  many  went  away  for 
want  of  room.  We  banish  all  temporal  concerns  from  our 
society  ;  none  is  suffered  to  mingle  any  discourse  about 
them  with  our  reading  and  singing.  We  keep  close  to  the 
business  of  the  day,  and  as  soon  as  it  is  over  they  all  go 
home.  And  where  is  the  harm  of  this  ?  As  for  your  pro- 
posal of  letting  some  other  person  read,  alas  I  you  do  not 
consider  what  a  people  these  are.  I  do  not  think  one  man 
among  them  could  read  a  sermon  without  spelling  a  good 
part  of  it ;  and  how  would  that  edify  the  rest  1  Nor  has 
any  of  our  family  a  voice  strong  enough  to  be  heard  by 
such  a  number  of  people."  Her  husband  equally  hesitated 
to  approve  or  disapprove  the  extraordinary  proceeding. 
Very  soon  she  assembled  round  her  a  larger  audience  than 
had  usually  met  at  the  church  itself.  Some  of  the  leading 
parishioners,  and  Wesley's  curate,  wrote  to  him  against  the 
assembly  as  a  "conventicle."  Her  reply  is  full  of  good 
sense  and  womanly  feeling.  She  states  that  the  measure 
was  reclaiming  many  of  the  common  people  from  immoral- 
ity; that  it  was  filling  up  the  parish  Church;  that  some  who 
not  attended  the  latter  for  years  were  now  seen  there. 


58  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

She  prays  him  to  relieve  her  from  the  responsibility  of  end- 
ing these  useful  services  by  assuming  it  himself,  as  her 
husband  and  pastor.  A  writer  on  Methodism  justly  remarks, 
that  when,  in  this  characteristic  letter,  she  said,  '"Do  not 
advise,  but  command  me  to  desist,'  she  was  bringmg  to  its 
place  a  corner-stone  of  the  future  Methodism.  In  this  em- 
phatic expression  of  a  deep,  compound  feeling,  a  powerful 
conscientious  impulse,  and  a  fixed  principle  of  submission  to 
rightful  authority,  there  was  condensed  the  very  law  of  her 
son's  course,  as  the  founder  and  legislator  of  a  sect.  This 
equipoise  of  forces,  which,  if  they  act  apart,  and  when  not 
thus  balanced,  have  brought  to  nothing  so  many  hopeful 
movements,  gave  that  consistency  to  Methodism  to  which 
it  owes  its  permanence."  ^^ 

Thus  did  this  truly  English  and  Christian  household  pur- 
sue its  course  of  successful  self-culture.  For  more  than 
forty  years  it  rendered  Epworth  rectory  a  sanctuary  of 
domestic  and  Christian  virtues.  Ten  of  the  children  attained 
adult  years.37  ^n  these  became  devoted  Christians,  and 
every  one  of  them  "died  in  the  Lord."  "How  powerful," 
remarks  their  biographer,  in  endmg  his  almost  romantic 
record,  "  is  a  religious  education  ;  and  how  true  the  saymg, 
'  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is 
old  he  will  not  depart  from  it !' "  "  Such  a  family,"  he  adds, 
"  I  have  never  read  of,  heard  of,  or  known ;  nor,  since  the 
days  of  Abraham  and  Sarah,  and  Joseph  and  Mary  of  Naz- 
areth, has  there  ever  been  a  family  to  which  the  human 
race  has  been  more  indebted."  ^^ 

Let  us  not  suppose,  however,  that  in  this  rare  picture  of 
Christian  household  life  there  were  no  shadows  contrasted 
with  its  tranquil  lights.  It  would  have  been  less  perfect 
without  them.  Samuel  Wesley  lived  in  continual  conflict 
with  poverty.  He  was  imprisoned  for  debt,  and  died  in 
debt.     His   Epworth   living,  though  nominally  valued  at 

38  Isaac  Taylor's  Wesley  and  Methodism,  page  28. 

37  Southey  says  six  ;  Moore  and  Clarke  say  ten. 

38  Clarke's  Wesley  Family,  p.  609. 


THE    WESLEY    FAMILY.  69 

£200,  afforded  but  about  £130,  and  his  small  adjacent 
parish  of  Wroote  scarcely  more  than  met  its  own  expenses. 
The  economy  by  which  so  large  a  family  was  so  well  sus- 
tained and  educated,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  in 
its  history.  Pressed  on  every  side  by  want,  suffering  some- 
times from  severe  destitution,  as  she  has  recorded  in  a  let- 
ter to  the  Archbishop  of  York,  the  admirable  matron  of  the 
rectory  could  nevertheless  say,  when  more  than  fifty  years 
old,  that  from  the  best  observation  she  had  been  able  to 
make,  she  had  learned  it  was  much  easier  to  be  contented 
without  riches  than  with  them.  Keener  sorrows  were  often 
added  to  their  poverty.  Death  followed  death  until  nine 
children  had  been  borne  away  from  the  circle ;  the  marriages 
of  several  of  the  daughters  were  unfortunate,  and  the  noble 
mother,  in  a  letter  to  her  brother,  writes  with  the  anguish 
which  only  a  mother  can  know,  for  the  saddest  sorrow  of  a 
child :  "  0  sir !  0  brother !  happy,  thrice  happy  are  you ; 
happy  is  my  sister  that  buried  your  children  in  infancy,  se- 
cure from  temptation,  secure  from  guilt,  secure  from  want 
or  shame,  secure  from  the  loss  of  friends.  Believe  me,  it  is 
better  to  mourn  ten  children  dead  than  one  living,  and  I 
have  buried  many." 

Twice  was  the  rectory  fired  at  night  by  the  rabble  of  the 
parish.  In  the  first  instance  it  was  partly  consumed,  in  the 
second  it  was  totally  destroyed,  together  with  its  furniture, 
and  the  books  and  manuscripts  of  the  rector.  The  family 
barely  escaped  with  their  night  garments  upon  them.  Mrs. 
Wesley  was  in  feeble  health ;  unable  to  climb  with  the  rest 
through  the  windows,  she  w^as  thrice  beaten  back  from  the 
front  door  by  the  flames.  Committing  herself  to  God,  she 
at  last  waded  through  the  fire  to  the  street,  scorching  her 
face  and  hands.  It  was  found  that  one  child  was  missing. 
Tlie  father  attempted  several  times  to  pass  up  the  stairs  to 
rescue  him,  but  the  consuming-  steps  could  not  bear  his 
weight.  He  returned  in  despaij?,  and  kneeling  down  upon 
the  earth,  resigned  to  God  the  soul  of  his  child.  Mean- 
while, the  latter  waking  from  his  sleep,  and  finding  his 


60  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

chamber  and  bed  on  fire,  flew  to  the  window,  beneath  which 
two  peasants  placed  themselves,  one  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
other,  and  saved,  him  at  the  moment  that  the  roof  fell  in  and 
crushed  the  chamber  to  the  ground. ^^  "  Come,  neighbors," 
exclaimed  the  father,  as  he  received  his  son,  "  let  us  kneel 
down ;  let  us  give  thanks  unto  God;  he  has  given  me  all  my 
eight  children ;  let  the  house  go,  I  am  rich  enough."  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  devout  hearts  have  since  repeated 
that  thanksgiving.  A  few  minutes  more  and  the  founder 
of  Methodism  would  have  been  lost  to  the  world.  In  about 
a  quarter  of  a  century  the  rescued  boy  went  forth  from  the 
cloisters  of  Oxford  to  Moorfields,  to  call  the  neglected  mass- 
es to  repentance,  and  to  begin  the  great  work  which  has  ren- 
dered his  family  historical,  not  only  in  his  own  country,  but 
in  all  Protestant  Christendom.  ^"^ 

39  Letter  of  Mrs.  "Wesley,  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  II,  1. 

40  "Wesley  gratefuUy  remembered  his  escape,  through  life,  and  had  an 
emblem  of  a  house  in  flames  engraved  on  one  of  his  portraits  w  th  the 
motto,  "  Is  not  this  a  brand  plucked  out  of  the  fire  ?" 


OHJSr    AND    CHARLES    WESLEY.  61 


CHAPTER  ni. 

JOHN   AND    CHAELES    WESLEY. 

John  Wesley  —  "Mysterious  Noises"  at  the  Eectory — Wesley  at  tlio 
Charter  House  —  Charles  Wesley  —  The  Duke  of  Wellington  —  John 
Wesley  at  Oxford  —  Eeligious  Inquiries  —  His  Mother's  Guidance  — 
Thomas  a  Kempis  —  Jeremy  Taylor  —  The  Witness  of  the  Spirit — • 
Eeprobation  —  William  Law  —  Eeligious  Habits  —  Scholarship  —  Ee- . 
ligious  Anxieties  of  Charles  Wesley  —  Mysticism  —  The  Holy  Club  — ■ 
The  Methodists  —  George  Whitefield  —  Death  of  the  Father  of  the  Wes- 

IjJeys,  and  Dispersion  of  the  Epworth  Family  —  The  Wesleys  embark 
for  Georgia  —  The  Mora^dans  —  Failure  of  the  Plans  of  the  Wesleys  — 
Their  Errors  —  Their  Eetum  to  England. 

John  Wesley  was  born  at  Epworth,  on  the  17th  of  June, 
1703,  old  style.  The  domestic  training  which  has  been  de- 
scribed, doubtless  gave  him  those  habits  of  method,  punc- 
tuality, diligence,  and  piety,  which  afterward  developed 
into  the  system  of  Methodism  itself  His  providential 
escape  at  the  destruction  of  the  Epworth  rectory  by  fire  in 
his  sixth  year,  impressed  him  early  with  the  sense  of  a 
special  mission  in  the  world ;  his  mother  shared  the  impres- 
sion, and  felt  herself  called  by  that  event  to  specially  conse- 
crate him  to  God.  Two  years  after  it  we  fmd  her  making 
it  the  subject  of  one  of  her  recorded  evening  meditations. 
"  I  do  intend,"  she  writes,  "  to  be  more  particularly  careful 
of  the  soul  of  this  child,  that  Thou  hast  so  mercifully  pro- 
vided for,  than  ever  I  have  been,  that  I  may  do  my  en- 
deavor to  instil  into  his  mind  the  principles  of  thy  true  relig- 
ion and  virtue.  Lord  give  me  grace  to  do  it  sincerely  and 
prudently,  and  bless  my  attempts  with  good  success."^ 

Writers  on  Methodism  have  been  interested  in  tracing  the 
influence  of  Wesley's  domestic  education  on  the  habits  of  his 
1  Moore's  Life  of  WesleyJT,  1. 


62  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

manliood  and  the  ecclesiastical  system  which  he  founded. 
Even  the  extraordinary  "noises"  for  which  the  rectory  be- 
came noted,  and  which  still  remain  unexplained,  are  supposed 
to  have  had  a  providential  influence  upon  his  character.  These 
phenomena  were  strikingly  similar  to  marvels  which,  in  oui 
times,  have  suddenly  spread  over  most  of  the  civilized  world, 
perplexing  the  learned,  deluding  the  ignorant,  producing  a 
"spiritualistic"  literature  of  hundreds  of  volumes  and  peri- 
odicals, and  resulting  in  extensive  church  organizations.^ 
The  learned  Priestley  obtained  the  family  letters  and  jour- 
nals relating  to  these  curious  facts,  and  gave  them  to  the 
world  as  the  best  authenticated  and  best  told  story  of  the 
kind  that  was  anywhere  extant.^  John  Wesley  himself  has 
left  us  a  summary  of  these  mysterious  events.  They  began 
usually  with  a  loud  whistling  of  the  wind  around  the  houA. 
Before  it  came  into  any  room  the  latches  were  frequently 
lifted  up,  the  windows  clattered,  and  whatever  iron  or  brass 
was  about  the  chamber  rung  and  jarred  exceedingly.  When 
it  was  in  any  room,  let  the  inmates  make  what  noises  they 
could,  as  they  sometimes  did  on  purpose,  its  dead  hollow 
note  would  be  clearly  heard  above  them  all.  The  sound 
very  often  seemed  in  the  air,  in  the  middle  of  a  room ; 
nor  could  they  exactly  imitate  it  by  any  contrivance. 
It  seemed  to  rattle  down  the  pewter,  to  clap  the  doors, 
draw  the  curtains,  and  throw  the  inan-servant's  shoes  up 
and  down.  Once  it  threw  open  the  nursery  door.  The  mas- 
tiff barked  violently  at  it  the  first  day,  yet  whenever  it  came 
afterward,  he  ran  whining,  or  quite  silent,  to  shelter  him- 
self behind  some  of  the  company.  Scarcely  any  of  the  fam- 
ily could  go  from  one  room  into  another  but  the  latch  of  the 
door  they  approached  was  lifted  up  before  they  touched  it. 

2  The  best  account  and,  perhaps,  the  best  solution  of  these  modern 
wonders,  have  been  given  by  Count  Gasparin,  of  Geneva :  Science  versus 
Spiritualism,  2  vols.,  translated  from  the  French.  New  York.  See,  also, 
Kogers's  Philosophy  of  Mysterious  Agents.     Boston. 

3  Original  Letters  of  the  Eev.  John  Wesley  and  his  Friends,  illustrative 
of  his  Early  History,  with  other  Curious  Papers,  etc.  By  Eev.  Joseph 
Priestley,  L.L.D.,  F.  E.  S.     Binningham  :  1791. 


JOHN    AND    CHARLES    WESLEY.  63 

It  was  evidently,  says  Southey,  a  Jacobite  gobliii,  and 
seldom  suffered  Mr.  Wesley  to  pray  for  the  king  without 
disturbing  the  family.  John  says  it  gave  "thundering 
knocks  "  at  the  Amen,  and  the  loyal  rector,  waxing  angry  at 
the  insult,  sometimes  repeated  the  prayer  with  defiance. 
He  was  thrice  "pushed  by  it"  with  no  little  violence;  it 
never  disturbed  him,  however,  till  after  he  had  rudely  de- 
nounced it  as  a  dumb  and  deaf  devil,  and  challenged  it  to 
cease  annoying  his  innocent  children,  and  meet  him  in  his 
study  if  it  had  anything  t»  say.  It  replied  with  "a  knock, 
as  if  it  would  shiver  the  boards  in  pieces,"  and  resented 
the  affront  by  accepting  the  challenge.  At  one  time  the 
trencher  danced  upon  the  table  without  any  body's  touching 
either.  At  another,  when  several  of  the  daughters  were 
amusing  themselves  at  a  game  of  cards  upon  one  of  the 
beds,  the  wall  seemed  to  tremble  with  the  noise;  they 
leaped  from  the  bed,  and  it  was  raised  in  the  air,  as  de- 
scribed by  Cotton  Mather,  in  the  witchcraft  of  New  England. 
Sometimes  moans  were  heard,  as  from  a  person  dying;  at 
others,  it  swept  through  the  halls  and  along  the  stairs,  with 
the  sound  of  a  person  trailing  a  loose  gown  on  the  floor,  and 
the  chamber  walls,  meanwhile,  shook  with  vibrations. 
It  would  respond  to  Mrs.  Wesley  if  she  stamped  on  the 
floor  and  bade  it  answer ;  and  it  was  more  loud  and  fierce 
whenever  it  was  attributed  to  rats  or  any  natural  cause. 

These  noises  continued  about  two  months,  and  occurred 
the  latter  part  of  the  time  every  day.  The  family  soon 
came  to  consider  them  amusing  freaks,  as  they  were  never 
attended  with  any  serious  harm;  they  all,  nevertheless, 
deemed  them  preternatural.  Adam  Clarke  assures  us  that 
though  they  subsided  at  Epworth,  they  continued  to  molest 
some  members  of  the  family  for  many  years.  Clarke  be- 
lieved them  to  be  demoniacal;  Southey  is  ambiguous  re- 
specting their  real  character;*  Priestley  supposed  them  a 

4  Though  Southey  avoids  any  explicit  explanation  of  them  in  his  Life  of 
Wesley,  in  a  letter  to  Wilberforce  he  avows  his  behef  in  their  preter- 
natural character.     See  Wilberforce's  Correspondence,  2  vols.     London. 


64  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

trick  of  the  servants  or  neighbors,  but  without  any  other 
reason  than  that  they  seemed  not  to  answer  any  adequate 
purpose  of  a  "miracle,"  to  which  Southey  justly  replies, 
that  with  regard  to  the  good  design  which  they  may  be 
supposed  to  answer,  it  would  be  end  sufficient  if  sometimes 
one  of  those  unhappy  persons  who,  looking  through  the 
dim  glass  of  infidelity,  see  nothing  beyond  this  life,  and 
the  narrow  sphere  of  mortal  existence,  should,  from  the 
well-established  truth  of  one  such  story,  trifling  and  object' 
less  as  it  might  otherwise  appear,  be  led  to  a  conclusion  that 
there  are  naore  things  in  heaven  and  earth  than  are  dreamed 
of  in  their  philosophy.  Isaac  Taylor  considers  them 
neither  "  celestial "  nor  "  infernal,"  but  extra-terrestrial, 
intruding  upon  our  sphere  occasionally,  as  the  Arabian 
locust  is  sometimes  found  in  Hyde  Park.^  Of  the  influ- 
ence of  these  facts  on  Wesley's  character,  this  author 
remarks  that  they  took  effect  upon  him  in  such  a  decisive 
manner  as  to  lay  open  his  faculty  of  belief,  and  create  a 
right  of  way  for  the  supernatural  through  his  mind,  so  that 
to  the  end  of  his  life  there  was  nothing  so  marvelous  that 
it  could  not  freely  pass  where  these  mysteries  had  passed 
before  it.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  this  very  hypo- 
thetical suggestion,  and  of  its  incompatibility  with  the  dispo- 
sition of  this  writer,  and,  indeed,  of  most  of  Wesley's  critics, 
to  impute  to  him  a  natural  and  perilous  credulity,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  in  an  age  which  was  characterized  by  skepticism, 
a  strong  susceptibility  of  faith  was  a  necessary  qualification 
for  the  work  which  devolved  upon  him,  and  less  dangerous 
by  far  than  the  opposite  disposition ;  for  though  the  former 
might  mar  that  work,  the  latter  must  have  been  fatal  to  it. 
When  but  thirteen  years  old,  John  Wesley  left  the 
paternal  home  for  the  Charter-House  School,  in  London. 
There  could  hardly  be  a  misgiving  of  his  moral  safety  in 
passing  out  into  the  world  from  the  thorough  and  consecrat- 
ing discipline  of  the  rectory.  His  scholarship  and  life  at 
the  Charter-House  showed  a  character  already  determinate 

*  Wesley  and  Methodism,  p.  30. 


JOHK    AND    CHAELES    WESLEY.  65 

and  exalted.  He  suffered  the  usual  tyranny  of  the  elder 
students  at  the  Charter-House,  bemg  deprived  by  them,  most 
of  the  time,  of  his  daily  portion  of  animal  food ;  but  he  pre- 
served his  health  by  a  wise  prescription  of  his  father,  that  he 
should  run  round  the  garden  three  times  every  day.  The 
institution  became  endeared  to  him,  and  on  his  yearly  visits 
to  London  he  failed  not  to  walk  through  its  cloisters  and- 
recal  the  memories  of  his  studious  boyhood,  memories 
which  were  always  sunny  to  his  healthful  mind.  In  1720  he 
entered  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford,  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 
Meanwhile  his  brother,  and  chief  coadjutor  in  founding 
Methodism,  Charles  Wesley,  had  also  left  E23worth,  for 
Westminster  school.  Born  December  18,  1708,  he  was  the 
junior  of  John  by  more  than  five  years.  At  Westminster 
he  was  under  the  tuition  of  his  brother,  Samuel  Wesley, 
who  was  usher  in  the  school.  While  there  an  incident  oc- 
curred which  might  have  changed  considerably  the  history 
not  only  of  Methodism,  but  of  the  British  empire.  Garret 
Wesley,  of  Ireland,  who  seems  not  to  have  been  related 
to  the  family,  proposed  to  adopt  .him  and  settle  upon  him 
his  estate.  The  Rector  of  Epworth  must  have  favored  the 
offer,  for  money  w^as  forwarded  yearly  from  Ireland  to  Lon- 
don for  the  expenses  of  the  son.  The  latter,  however, 
finally  declined  the  proposition  of  his  benefactor,  and  thus, 
as  his  brother  John  remarked,  made  "  a  fair  escape  "  from 
fortune.  Richard  Colley,  afterward  known  as  Richard  Colley 
Wesley,  was  adopted  in  his  stead.  This  gentleman  passed 
through  several  public  offices,  and  by  the  time  that  the 
Wesleys  were  abroad  founding  Methodism,  had  entered 
Parliament.  Under  George  II.  he  became  Baron  Morning- 
ton.  He  was  the  grandfather  of  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley, 
Governor  General  of  India,  and  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton,  the    conqueror   of    Napoleon.^       Had    the   wish    of 


«  This  fact  has  heen  questioned  hy  Maxwell,  in  his  Life  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington.     Jackson,  however,  clenaonstrates  its   correctness ;   Life  of 
Charles  Wesley,  1, 1.  The  duke's  name,  in  the  "Army  List"  of  1800,  is 
the  Hon.  Arthur  Wesley,  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  33d  Kegiment. 
Vol.  I.— 5 


66  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Garret  Wesley  been  accomplished,  the  name  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  and  the  hymns  of  Charles  Wesley,  might  not 
to-day  be  known  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken. 

When  about  eighteen  years  old,  Charles  was  elected  to 
Christ  Church  College,  Oxford.  John  had  previously  left  it 
to  become  a  fellow  at  Lincoln ;  the  religious  seriousness 
which  had  grown  with  his  youth,  now  deepened  into'  a  pro- 
found anxiety  to  solve,  by  his  own  experience,  the  questions 
of  personal  religion.  Healthful  in  his  temperament,  and 
not  knowing,  as  he  records  in  later  years,  "  fifteen  minutes 
of  low  spirits  "  during  his  life,  he  nevertheless  bore,  from 
day  to  day,  the  consciousness  of  a  want  of  harmony  with 
God.  Such  a  harmony,  "  peace  with  God,"  was  his  ideal 
of  personal  religion.  Could  it  not  be  attained  1  If  attained, 
could  it  fail  to  be  a  matter  of  consciousness  1  Did  not  the 
Scriptures  teach  that  "  the  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with 
our  spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of  God  V  Was  there 
not  also  a  "  Christian  Perfection"  taught  in  the  Scriptures  ; 
a  "  perfect  love  which  casteth  out  fear  '?"  Not,  of  course,  a 
perfection  according  to  the  absolute  moral  law  of  God,  but 
according  to  the  accommodated  relation  to  that  law  in  which 
our  fallen  race  exists,  under  the  mediatorial  economy,  and 
in  which  unavoidable  imperfections  are  provided  for  by  the 
Atonement,  as  in  the  case  of  unregenerate  infancy,  without 
the  remorseful  sense  of  guilt.  If  these  conjectures  were 
correct,  what  a  deplorable  condition  did  Christendom  pre- 
sent 1  How  few  exemplified  essential  Christianity  1  How 
generally  had  dogmatism,  ecclesiasticism,  or,  at  best,  mere 
ethical  principles,  overshadowed  the  spiritual  life,  and  free- 
dom, and  beauty  of  genuine  religion  ?  How  necesssary  was 
it  that  the  Christian  world  should  be  recalled  from  the  "tithe 
of  the  mint  and  anise  and  cummin,"  to  the  spiritual  life  and 
simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  he,  first  settling  these 
questions  for  himself,  should  proclaim  them  as  on  the  house- 
tops to  his  generation  1  These  were  the  essential  questions 
of  "  Methodism,"  that  is  to  say,  of  primitive  Christianity  ; 
and  thus,  while  meditating  in  fhe  cloisters  of  Oxford,  was 


JOHiSr    AND    CHARLES    WESLEY.  67 

he  being  prepared,  "by  the  habitual  pressure  of  such  interro- 
gations upon  his  own  conscience,  for  the  great  mission  which 
was  before  him.  His  vigilant  mother,  %ho  seems  to  have 
been  providentially  guided,  not  only  to  form  his  character 
for  the  origination  of  Methodism,  but  to  direct  him,  during 
her  long  life,  in  many  of  its  distinct  and  most  important 
stages,  strengthened,  by  her  letters,  the  tendencies  of 
his  mind  at  this  time.  "And  now,"  said  she,  "in  good 
earnest,  resolve  to  make  religion  the  business  of  your  life ; 
for,  after  all,  that  is  the  one  thing  that,  strictly  speaking,  is 
necessary.  All  things  besides  are  comparatively  little  to 
the  purposes  of  life.  I  heartily  wish  you  would  now  enter 
upon  a  strict  examination  of  yourself,  that  you  may  know 
whether  you  have  a  reasonable  hope  of  salvation  by  Jesus 
Christ.  If  you  have,  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  it  will 
abundantly  reward  your  pains ;  if  you  have  not,  you  will 
find  a  more  reasonable  occasion  for  tears  than  can  be  met 
with  in  any  tragedy."  ' 

As  usual  in  the  m.oral  discipline  of  good  men,  he  was 
to  reach  the  solution  of  the  problems  which  now  ab- 
sorbed his  attention, ^by  inward  struggles,  the  "fiery  trial" 
which  purifies.  He  'did  not  yet  apprehend  the  Scriptural 
simplicity  of  faith  as  .'the  condition  of  justification,  and 
also  of  sanctification.  •  He  pored  over  the  pages  of  that 
marvelous  book,  De  Imitatione  CAn's^i,  .'which  has  lent  the 
fragrance  of  its  sanctity  to  every  language  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  which,  by  its  peculiar  appositeness  to  almost  every 
aspiration,  misgiving,  or  consolation  of  devout  minds,  has 
seemed  more  a  production  of  Divine  inspiration  than  any 
other  work  in  Christian  literature,  except  the  Scriptures.  It 
had  been  a  favorite  with  his  father,  his  "great  and  old 
companion."  Almost  perfect  for  its  design  as  a  monastic 
manual,  its  very  adaptedness,  in  this  respect,  staggered  the 
youthful  Wesley,  but  it  failed  not  to  infect  him  with  its  fas- 
cinating mysticism.  Its  impression  was  deepened  by  Jer- 
emy Taylor's  "Holy  Living  and  Dying."     The  rare  poetic 

7  Southev's  Wesley,  eliap,  2.     Smith's  History  of.M-etiro"disra,  I,  8. 


68  HISTORY    OF    METHODISIvI. 

beauties  of  this  work  could  not  fail  to  charm  his  young 
imagination;  but  its  piety  Vas  still  more  grateful  to  his 
present '  inquiring  temper.  Taylor's  views  of  simplicity 
and  purity  of  motive  commended  themselves  to  his  con- 
science. Instantly,  he  says,  he  resolved  to  dedicate  all  his 
life  to  God,  all  his  thoughts,  and  words,  and  actions — being 
thoroughly  convinced  there  is  no  medium ;  that  not  only 
a  part,  but  the  whole  must  either  be  a  sacrifice  to  God  or 
himself,  "that  is,  in  effect,  to  the  devil;"  a  sentiment  that 
characterized  his  entire  remaining  life.  The  more  genial 
light  of  the  "  Holy  Living  "  illuminated,  though  it  did 
not  fully  explain  the  pages  of  the  "Imitation,"  and  both 
books  became  his  daily  companions.  His  letters  show  their 
effect,  and  his  father,  perceiving  it,  endeavored  to  confirm  it. 
"  God  fit  you  for  your  great  work,"  he  wrote  to  him  ;  "  fast, 
watch,  and  pray,  believe,  love,  endure,  and  be  happy,  toward 
which  you  shall  never  want  the  ardent  prayers  of  your  most 
affectionate  father."  Some  of  Taylor's  opinions  provoked 
the  dissent  of  the  devout  student,  and  led  him  more  defi- 
nitively to  doctrines  which  were  to  be  vital  in  the  theology 
of  Methodism.  Tlie  bishop,  in  common  with  most  theolo- 
gians of  his  day,  denied  that  the  Christian  could  usually 
know  his  acceptance  with  God.  Wesley  replied:  "If  we 
dwell  in  Christ  and  Christ  in  us,  which  he  will  not  do  unless 
we  are  regenerate,  certainly  we  must  be  sensible  of  it.  If 
we  can  never  have  any  certainty  of  our  being  in  a  state  of 
salvation,  good  reason  it  is  that  every  moment  should  be 
spent,  not  in  joy,  but  in  fear  and  trembling ;  and  then, 
undoubtedly,  in  this  life  we  are  of  all  men  most  miserable. 
God  deliver  us  from  such  a  fearful  expectation !  Hmnility 
is,  undoubtedly,  necessary  to  salvation;  and  if  all  thes^ 
things  are  essential  to  humility,  who  can  be  humble,  who 
can  be  saved "?  That  we  can  never  be  so  certain  of  the  pas- 
don  of  our  sins  as  to  be  assured  they  will  never  rise  up 
against  us,  I  firmly  believe.  We  know  that  they  will  infal- 
libly do  so,  if  we  apostatize ;  and  I  am  not  satisfied  what 
evidence  there  can  be  of  our  final  perseverance,  till  we  have 


JOHK    AND    CHARLES    WESLEY.  69 

finislied  our  course.  But  I  am  persuaded  we  may  know  if 
we  are  noio  in  a  state  of  salvation,  since  that  is  expressly 
promised  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  our  sincere  endeavors, 
and  we  are  surely  able  to  judge  of  our  own  sincerity."  ^ 

Here  was  not  only  his  later  doctrine  of  the  "  Witness  of 
the  Spirit,"  but  a  clear  dissent  from  the  Calvinistic  tenet  of 
"final  perseverance."  His  proclivity  to  Arminianism  be- 
came quite  decided  about  this  time.  "  As  I  understand 
faith,"  he  wrote,  "  to  be  an  assent  to  any  truth  upon  rational 
grounds,  I  do  not  think  it  possible,  without  perjury,  to 
swear  I  believe  anything  unless  I  have  reasonable  grounds 
for  my  persuasion.  Now  that  which  contradicts  reason 
cannot  be  said  to  stand  upon  reasonable  grounds  ;  and 
such,  undoubtedly,  is  every  proposition  which  is  incom- 
patible with  the  Divine  justice  or  naercy.  What,  then, 
shall  I  say  of  predestination  %  If  it  was  inevitably  decreed 
from  eternity  that  a  determinate  part  of  mankind  should 
be  saved,  and  none  besides,  then  a  vast  majority  of  the 
world  were  only  born  to  eternal  death,  without  so  much  as 
a  possibility  of  avoiding  it.  How  is  this  consistent  with 
either  the  Divine  justice  or  mercy  1  Is  it  merciful  to 
ordain  a  creature  to  everlasting  misery?  Is  it  just  to 
punish  a  man  for  crimes  which  he  could  not  but  commit? 
That  God  should  be  the  author  of  sin  and  injustice,  which 
must,  I  think,  be  the  consequence  of  maintaining  this  opinion, 
is  a  contradiction  to  the  clearest  ideas  we  have  of  the 
Divine  nature  and  perfections."  His  mother  confirmed 
him  in  these  views,  and  expressed  her  abhorrence  of  the 
Calvinistic  theology.  God's  prescience,  she  argued,  is  no 
more  the  effective  cause  of  the  loss  of  the  wicked  than  our 
foreknowledge  of  the  rising  of  to-morrow's  sun  is  the  cause 
of  its  rising.  She  prudently  advised,  however,  abstinence 
from  these  speculations  as  "  studies  which  tended  more  to 
confound  than  to  inform  the  understanding." 

The  writings  of  the  celebrated  William  Law  had  much 
influence  upon  him  at  this  stage  of  his  progress.  They 
8  Moore's  Wesley,  II,  1,  2. 


70  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM. 

deepened  his  mysticism  and  confirmed  his  asceticism,  leading 
him  to  depend  upon  his  own.  works  as  the  means  of  purifi- 
cation and  comfort,  but  failing  to  give  him  just  ideas  of  the 
faith  "which  worketh  hj  love."  And  precisely  here  was 
the  critical  period  in  his  history,  one  which  must  determine 
whether  he  should  be  the  ascetic  recluse  at  Oxford,  with  the 
"  Imitation  "  ever  before  him,  or  the  evangelist  of  his  age,  on 
Moorfields,  and  the  Gwemiap  hills,  with  the  Bible  in  his  hand, 
homo  unius  libri,  a  "  man  of  one  book."  With  an  earnestness 
bordering  on  agony,  he  wiites  to  his  mother,  deploring  the 
repugnance  toward  holiness,  which  he  felt  to  be  natural  to 
him ;  he  sought  for  humility,  but  complains  that  it  seemed 
impossible  to  him ;  humility  with  him,  however,  meant 
at  this  time  the  ascetic  self-abnegation  of  the  "  Imitation," 
a  temper  which,  though  it  infected  him  temporarily  after- 
ward, was  incompatible  with  his  healthful  temperament  and 
with  the  destined  work  of  his  life.  He  implored  his 
mother's  counsels  and  prayers,  entreating  her  especially  to 
grant  him  the  Thursday  evening,  which,  according  to  her 
method  of  domestic  training,  she  used  to  spend  in  devotional 
retirement  with  him. 

His  removal  from  Christ  Church  College  to  that  of  Lin- 
coln, enabled  him  to  change  his  ordinary  society.  He  re- 
solved to  make  but  few  acquaintances  in  his  new  residence, 
and  none  that  could 'not  aid  his  religious  progress;  and  now 
he  began  that  marvelous  diary  which  so  much  illustrates  his 
character,  his  literary  opinions,  and  his  unparalleled  energy. 
He  received  the  communion  every  week ;  he  gave  alms  to 
the  poor,  and  his  whole  life  was  consecrated  to  the  attain- 
ment of  the  personal  "holiness  without  which  no  man 
shall  see  the-  Lord."  Meanwhile  he  had  been  admitted 
to  orders,  and  preached  occasionally.  He  had  already 
attained  a  high  reputation  at  the  university,  and  was 
esteemed  an  excellent  critic  in  the  classic  languages ;  his  skill 
in  logic  was  extraordinary  *,  he  was  elected  Greek  lecturer 
and  moderator  of  the  classes  in  a  few  months  after  obtain- 
ing his  fellowship,  and  when  but  little  more  than  twenty-- 


JOHN    AND    CHARLES    WESLEY.  71 

three  years  old.  These  successes  were  a  part  of  his  provi- 
dential preparation  for  the  career  before  him.  Six  times  a 
week  disputations  were  held  at  Lincoln  College ;  "  I  could 
not,"  he  writes,  "  avoid  acquiring  some  degree  of  expertness 
in  arguing,  and  especially  in  discerning  and  pointing  out 
well-covered  and  plausible  fallacies.  I  have  since  found 
abundant  reason  to  praise  God  for  giving  me  this  honest 
art.  By  this,  when  men  have  hedged  me  in  by  what  they 
call  demonstrations,  I  have  been  many  times  able  to  dash 
them  in  pieces ;  in  spite  of  all  its  covers,  to  touch  the  very 
point  where  the  fallacy  lay,  and  it  flew  open  in  a  moment." 
He  was  called  away  much  of  the  time  to  assist  his  father, 
who  was  sinking  under  years,  at  Epworth.  On  one  of  his 
occasional  visits  to  Oxford,  he  found  that  his  brother  was 
passing  through  the  same  religious  crisis  as  himself.  Charles 
wrote  to  him,  urging  his  return  to  Oxford ;  he  describes 
himself  as  mysteriously  awakened  from  the  moral  lethargy 
in  which  he  had  spent  his  youth ;  and  attributes  the  Divine 
illumination  which  had  been  given  him  to  the  prayers  of 
his  mother.  Both  seemed  to  turn  instinctively  to  her,  rather 
than  to  their  flither,  whenever  their  hearts  were  deeply 
moved  by  any  religious  anxiety  or  difficulty. 

John,  during  his  rural  retirement  at  Epworth,  had 
yielded  still  more  to  his  mystical  tendencies  under  the  influ- 
ence of  a  Kempis  and  Law.  The  turning  point  which  was 
to  fit  or  unfit  him  for  the  task  of  his  life,  had  not  yet  been 
passed.  He  had  desired  at  one  time  to  try  the  tranquil  life  of 
the  Catholic  recluses ;  "  it  was  the  decided  temper  of  his  soul," 
he  said.  Seclusion  from  the  world  for  at  least  some  months 
might,  he  hoped,  settle  his  thoughts  and  habits.  A  school 
in  one  of  the  "  Yorkshire  dales"  was  proposed.  His  wiser 
mother  again  stepped  in  to  save  him  for  his  appointed 
\  career,  prophetically  intimating  that  God  had  better  work 
\  for  him  to  do.  He  tells  us  himself,  that  before  his  return  to 
\the  university  he  traveled  some  miles  to  see  a  "  serious  man." 
)ir,  said  this  person,  as  if  inspired  at  the  right  moment, 
rith  the  right  word,  for  the  mm  of  Providence  standing  be- 


72  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

fore  liim;y/Sir,  you  wish  to  serve  God  and  go  to  heaven; 
remember  you  cannot  serve  him  alone ;  you  must  therefore 
find  companions,  or  make  them  ;  the  Bible  knows  nothing  of 
solitary  religion./  Wesley  never  forgot  these  words.     They, 
perhaps,  forecast  the  history  of  his  life.     On  reaching  Ox- 
ford he  found  "  companions  "  already  prepared  for  him  by 
Ids  brother's  agency.     The  "  Holy  Club "  was  now  known  ' 
there,  and  the  epithet  of  "Methodist"  had  already  been 
committed  to  ecclesiastical  history.     He  arrived  at  Oxford 
■in  November,  1729;    Charles  and  his  religious  associates 
gathered  immediately  around  him,  recognizing  at  once  that 
capacity  for   guidance   and   authority  ■  w^hich   all   who  ap- 
proached him  afterward,  seemed  spontaneously  to  acknowl- 
edge.    Charles  was  now  twenty-one  years  of  age,  a  Bache- 
lor of  Arts,  and  a  college  tutor.      The  "Holy  Club,"  of 
which  he  was  considered  the  founder,  at  first  consisted  of  but 
four  members.     Their  names  are  reverently  preserved  by 
Methodist  \\Titers  ;  they  Avere,  "Mr.  John  Wesley,  who  w^as 
fellow  of  Lincoln  College ;  his  brother  Charles,  student  of 
Christ  Church;  Mr.  Morgan,  commoner  of  Christ  Church 
the  son  of  an  Irish  gentleman ;  and  Mr.  Kirkham,  of  Merton 
College."     They  were  closely  bound  together  not  only  in 
their  religious  sympathies,  but  in  their  studies,  spendmg 
three  or  four  evenings  each  week  in  j-eading  together  the 
Greek  Testament  and  the  ancient  classics,  and  Sunday  even- 
ings in  the  study  of  divinity.     They  received  the  Lord's 
Supper  weekly,  and  fasted  twice  a  week.    A  rigid  system  of 
self-examination  was  draA\Ti  up  for  them  by  Wesley,  which,  it 
has  been  observed,  might  have  been  appended  to  the  spiritual 
exercises  of  Loyola,  had  it  not  mentioned  the  laws  of  the 
Anglican  Church.     The  almost  monastic  habits  of  life  they 
were  forming,  in  which,  as  Wesley's  biographers.  Coke  and 
Moore,  remark,  "  the  darkness  of  their  minds  as  to  Gospel 
truths   is    evident,"   was    counteracted  by   the  benevolent 
and  active   sympathies  of  Morgan.     He  had  visited   thf 
prison,  and  brought  back  reports  which  induced  the  littl 
company  systematically  to  instruct  the  prisoners  once  ( 


JOHK    AND    CHARLES^WESLEY.  73 

twice  a  week.  Morgan  also  came  to  them  from  the  bedside 
of  a  sick  person  of  the  town,  and  they  were  led  to  adopt  a 
plan  for  the  regular  visitation  of  the  sick.  Meanwhile  their 
numbers  increased.  In  1730  several  pupils  of  Jolm,  and  one 
of  Charles,  joined  themjf  in  1732  Ingham,  of  Queen's  Col- 
lege, and  Broughton^of  Exeter,  and  about  the  same  time 
Clayton,  of  Brazenafose,  with  some  of  his  pupils,  and  Her- 
vey,  the  author  ojr  "  Theron  and  Aspasio  "  and  "  The  Medi- 
tations," were  received.  Whitefield  joined  them  in  1735. 
Before  the  return  of  John  from  Epworth,  the  term  Meth- 
odist had  been  applied  to  them  in  jest,  by  a  fellow  student, 
and  Charles  was  the  first  of  the  family  who  received  the  now 
honored  title.  It  was  suggested,  doubtless,  by  their  meth- 
odical lives ;  but  it  had  been  previously  used  among  religious 
parties.  A  hundred  years  prior  to  this  date,  we  hear  of  "  the 
Anabaptists  and  plain  pack-stafi' Methodists."  ^  A  class  of 
Nonconformists,  in  the  days  of  Annesley,  were  designated 
by  the  epithet,  for  their  views  respecting  the  method  of 
man's  justification  before  God;  and  a  controversial  pamphlet 
of  those  times  discusses  the  principles  of  the  "  New  Method- 
■ists."^o  ^  class  of  high  Calvinistic  divines  in  England, 
about  the  time  of  the  Wesleys,  also  bore  the  title. 

Morgan,  whose  influence  on  his  companions  was  so  salu- 
tary, was  of  delicate  constitution,  but  tireless  beneficence. 
He  not  only  visited  the  sick  and  prisoners,  but  collected 
together  the  peasant  children  of  the  vicinity  for  religious  in- 
struction, and  the  distribution  of  good  books.  His  health 
failed  and  he  retired  to  his  home  in  Ireland,  where,  after  a 
period  of  mental  depression,  produced  by  disease,  he  died  in 
"great  peace  and  resignation." 

9  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  cliap.  2. 

10  The  controversy  and  the  party  seem  to  have  been  extensive.  Dr. 
Wilhams,  who  preached  Annesley's  funeral  sermon,  was  one  of  their 
writers.  The  questions  in  dispute  were  referred  to  the  arbitration  of 
Bishop  StilUngfleet.  The  title  of  the  pamphlet  alluded  to  is,  "  A  War 
Among  the  Angles  of  the  Churches,  Avherein  is  shown  the  Principles  of 
tile  Kew  Methodists  in  the  great  Point  of  Justification,  also  a  Form  of 
Prayer  according  to  those  Principles,"  etc. — Ibid. 


74  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

Whitefield  has  left  us  a  characteristic  account  of  his  connec- 
tion with  the  "  Holy  Club."  He  was  born  in  1714,  at  Glou- 
cester. He  describes  his  childhood  as  exceedingly  vicious. 
"  If  I  trace  myself,"  he  says,  "  from  my  cradle  to  my  manhood, 
I  can  see  nothing  in  me  but  a  fitness  to  be  damned ;  and  if  the 
Almighty  had  not  prevented  me,  by  his  grace,  I  had  now  either 
been  sitting  in  darkness,  and  in  the  shadow  of  death,  or  con- 
demned, as  the  due  reward  to  my  crimes,  to  be  forever  lifting 
up  my  eyes  in  torments."  ^^  Yet  he  alludes  to  intervals  of 
deep  religious  sensibility  in  his  early  life.  When  about  fifteen 
years  old  he  "  put  on  his  blue  apron  and  his  snuffers,"  washed 
mops,  cleaned  rooms,  and  became  a  "  common  drawer"  in  the 
Bell  Inn,  which  was  kept  by  his  mother  at  Bristol.  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  so  important  with  the  Wesley s  at  Oxford,  had  fallen 
into  his  hands,  and  co-uld  not  fail  to  impress  a  heart  like  his, 
which  retained  through  life  the  freshness  of  childhood,  and 
attained  with  advanced  piety,  the  vivid  but  steady  ardor 
of  a  seraph.  He  had  already  given  evidence  of  his  natural 
powers  of  eloquence  in  school  declamations,  and  while  m  the 
Bristol  Inn  composed  two  or  three  sermons.  Hearing  of 
the  possibility  of  obtaining  an  education  at  Oxford,  as  a  servi 
tor  or  "poor  student,"  he  prepared  himself  and  went  thither, 
and  afterw^ard  provided  for  his  expenses,  chiefly  by  serv 
ing  his  fellow  collegians.  His  mind  had  taken  a  deeply  re- 
ligious turn  w^hile  yet  at  Bristol,  but  a  Kempis  had  not 
helped  him  to  comprehend  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by 
Faith.  He  says  that  when  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  he 
began  to  fast  twice  a  week  for  thirty-six  hours  together, 
pi  ayed  many  times  a  day,  received  the  sacrament  every  ten 
days,  fasted  himself  almost  to  death  all  the  forty  days  of 
Lent,  during  which  time  he  made  it  a  point  of  duty  never  to 
go  less  than  three  times  a  day  to  public  worship,  besides 
seven  times  a  day  to  his  private  devotions,  yet,  he  adds,  "1 
knew  no  more  that  I  was  to  be  born  again  in  God,  born  a 
new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus,  than  if  I  was  never  born  at 
all."  He  obtained  Law's  Serious  Call  at  Oxford,  and  that 
"  Eobert  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  Wliiteficld,  chap.  1. 


JOHN    AND    CHAKLES     WESLEY.  75 

powerful  book  affected  him  as  it  had  the  Wesleys.  He 
says,  that  he  now  began  to  pray  an(?  sing  psalms  twice  every 
day,  besides  morning  and  evening,  and  to  fast  every  Friday, 
and  to  receive  the  sacrament  at  a  parish  church  near  his  col- 
lege, and  at  the  castle,  where  the  "  despised  Methodists  used 
to  receive  it  once  a  month."  The  Methodists  were  not  only 
the  common  butt  of  Oxford  ridicule,  but  their  fame  had 
spread  as  far  as  Bristol  before  Whitefield  left  his  home.  He 
had  "loved  them,"  he  tells  us,  before  he  entered  the  univer- 
sity, and  now  defended  them  against  the  sarcasms  of  his 
fellow  students.  For  a  year  he  longed  to  meet  them,  but 
an  opportunity  seemed  not  to  offer,  though  he  often  gazed 
at  them  with  deep  emotions  as  they  passed  through  a 
satirical  crowd  to  receive  the  Eucharist  at  St.  Mary's. 

He  procured,  at  last,  an  introduction  to  Charles  Wesley, 
who  received  him  at  once  to  his  heart,  for  they  were  conge- 
nial spirits,  being  both  ardent  with  vivid  natural  sympathies ; 
the  one  a  natural  poet,  the  other  a  natural  orator.  He  was 
soon  introduced  to  the  Holy  Club.  "They  built  me  up 
daily,"  he  says,  "in  the  knowledge  and  fear  of  God,  and 
taught  me  to  endure  hardness  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus 
Christ."  Like  them  he  now  began  to  live  by  rule,  to  econo- 
mize the  very  moments  of  his  time ;  and  whether  he  ate  or 
drank,  or  whatsoever  he  did,  to  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God. 
Like  them,  he  received  the  sacrament  every  Sunday,  at 
Christ  Church,  and  he  joined  them  in  fasting  Wednesdays 
and  Fridays.  Regular  retirement,  morning  and  evening,  for 
meditation  and  prayer,  he  says  he  found  at  first  difficult,  if 
not  irksome ;  but  it  grew  profitable  and  delightful.  He  was 
soon  abroad  visiting  the  sick  and  prisoners,  and  reading  to 
poor  families,  for  it  had  become  a  custom  of  the  Methodist 
band  to  spend  an  hour  every  day  in  such  acts  of  usefulness. 

The  morals  of  the  university  were  low  at  this  time.  Infi- 
delity prevailed,  and  called  forth  public  remonstrances  from 
the  collegiate  authorities.  What  regard  was  paid  to  religion 
was  formal  and  lifeless,  and  the  little  company  of  earnest 
inquirers  looked'  beyond  their  circle,  in  vain,  for  sympathy 


76  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

and  guidance.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  wonder,  then,  that 
some  of  them  fell  into*  errors.  Whitefield,  for  a  time, 
became  a  Quietist,  and  sought  repose  for  his  troubled 
spirit  in  seclusion  from  the  usual  meetings  of  the  club,  in 
walks  in  the  fields,  and  in  praying  silently  by  himself.  The 
Wesleys  rescued  him,  and  gave  him  directions  as  his 
"  various  and  pitiable  state  required."  "  God  gave  me,"  he 
•v^T:-Ltes,  with  his  characteristic  tenderness  of  feeling,  "God 
gave  me,  blessed  be  his  holy  nanie,  a  teachable  temper, 
and  I  was  delivered  from  those  wiles  of  Satan." 

The  scene  presented  by  these  young  men,  thus  struggling 
for  self-purification  at  the  greatest  seat  of  English  learning, 
and  unconsciously  preparing  a  new  development  of  Protest- 
antism, at  a  time  of  general  infidelity  and  demoralization, 
cannot  fail  to  strike  any  devout  mind  as  a  most  impress- 
ive spectacle.  It  was  one  of  those  examples  of  Di- 
vine Providence  by  which  the  Church,  in  some  of  its  dark- 
est and  most  hopeless  exigences,  has  been  endowed  Avith 
"power  from  on  high,"  and  led  forth,  as  from  the  wilder- 
ness, for  renewed  triumphs,  by  means  which  none  had  antic- 
ipated, and  which,  notwithstanding  their  apparent  insignifi- 
cance, have  surpassed  the  wisdom  of  the  wise  and  the 
resources  of  the  mighty.  Voltaire  predicted,  about  this  time, 
that  in  the  next  generation  Christianity  would  be  overthrown 
throughout  the  civilized  world ;  these  young  men  defeated 
the  prophecy,  and  rendered  the  next  generation  the  most 
effective  in  Christian  history  since  the  days  of  Martin  Luther. 

But  their  preliminary  training  was  not  over.  The  lead- 
ing agents  of  the  coming  revolution  were  to  be  cast  out 
upon  the  world,  to  prepare  themselves,  in  a  larger  arena, 
for  the  work  before  them.  The  father  of  the  Wesleys, 
approaching  his  end,  and  exhorting  his  sons,  meanwhile,  to 
struggle  on,  had  entreated  John  to  become  his  successor  at 
Epworth,  and  protect  his  family  from  dispersion  at  his 
death.  The  appeal  was  an  affecting  one,  and  the  son  has 
been  reproached  for  not  heeding  it ;  but  he  was  steadfast  in 
his  conviction  that  a  diffei-ent  course  of  life  devolved  upon 


JOHN   AND    CHAKLES    WESLEY.  77 

him ;  and  his  thoughtful  mother  seems  not  to  have  joined 
her  husband  m  the  attempt  to  divert  him  from  it.  The 
rector  died,  the  family  was  scattered,  and  the  Epworth  rec- 
tory fades  from  the  history  of  Methodism,  to  reappear  again 
only  when,  in  later  years,  its  founder,  hastening  over  the 
realm  to  call  the  neglected  multitudes  to  repentance,  and, 
denied  the  pulpit  of  his  father,  stood  upon  his  tombstone, 
in  the  church -yard,  and  proclaimed  his  message  to  the  vil- 
lagers. The  disinterestedness  of  his  motives,  in  declining 
the  Epworth  living,  was  soon  tested.  General  Oglethorpe, 
the  friend  and  correspondent  of  his  father,  was  about  to 
conduct  a  reinforcement  to  the  colony  of  Georgia,  and  the 
young  divine,  who  had  refused  a  quiet  rectory,  and  the  com- 
forts of  the  parental  home,  consented  to  go,  accompanied  by 
his  brother  Charles,  as  a  missionary  to  the  American  aborig- 
ines. He  was  to  be  disappointed  in  his  main  design,  but 
was  to  learn,  by  the  expedition,  important  lessons  for  the 
future.  The  charm  of  the  mystic  writers  still  hung  about 
him ;  it  was  to  be  dispelled  in  the  remote  wilds  of  America, 
where  it  could  do  little  harm,  but  where  his  failure  to  find  relig- 
ious peace,  contrasted  with  the  practical  piety  and  spiritual 
enjoyment  of  a  few  simple  Moravians,  was  to  prepare  him 
to  return  better  qualified  for  the  predestined  work  of  his  life. 

It  was  still  a  question  whether  he  ought  to  desert  his 
widowed  mother,  who  was  now  dependent  upon  her  chil- 
dren. "  I  can  be,"  he  replied  to  the  invitation,  "  the  staff  of 
her  age,  her  chief  support  and  comfort."  His  consent 
depended  upon  hers ;  and  her  reply  was  what  might  have 
been  expected  from  such  a  woman :  "  If  I  had  twenty  sons, 
[  should  rejoice  that  they  were  all  so  employed,  though 
(•  should  never  see  them  again." 

On  the  14th  of  October,  1735,  the  party,  consisting  of 
Ihe  two  Wesleys,  and  Messrs.  Ingham  and  Delamatte,  left 
London  to  embark.  They  found  on  board  the  ship  one 
hundred  and  twenty-four  persons,  including  twenty-six 
German  Moravians,  with  their  bishop,  David  Nitschman. 
John  Wesley  seems  immediately,  though   informally,  to 


78  HISTOflY    OF    METHODISM. 

have  been  recognized  as  the  religious  head  of  the  floating 
community,  and  his  methodical  habits  prevailed  over  all 
around  him.  The  ship  became  at  once  a  Bethel  Church  and 
a  seminary.  The  daily  course  of  life  among  the  Methodist 
party  was  directed  by  Wesley :  from  four  till  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning  each  of  them  used  private  prayer  ;  from  five 
till  seven  they  read  the  Bible  together,  carefully  comparing 
it  with  the  writings  of  the  earliest  Christian  ages  ;  at  seven 
they  breakfasted ;  at  eight  were  the  public  prayers.  From 
nine  to  twelve  Wesley  usually  studied  German,  and  Dela- 
motte  Greek,  while  Charles  Wesley  wrote  sermons,  and 
Ingham  instructed  the  children.  At  twelve  they  met  to 
give  an  account  of  what  each  had  done  since  their  last 
meeting,  and  of  what  they  designed  to  do  before  the  next. 
About  one  they  dined ;  the  time  from  dinner  to  four  was 
spent  in  reading  to  persons  on  board,  a  number  of  whom 
each  of  them  had  taken  in  charge.  At  four  were  the  even- 
ing prayers,  when  either  the  second  lesson  of  the  day  was 
explained — as  the  first  always  was  in  the  morning — or  the 
children  were  catechised  and  instructed  before  the  congrega- 
tion. From  five  to  six  they  again  retired  for  private  prayer. 
From  six  to  seven  Wesley  read  in  his  state-room  to  two  or 
three  of  the  passengers,  and  each  of  his  brethren  to  a  few 
more  in  theirs ;  at  seven  he  jomed  the  Germans  in  their 
public  service,  while  Ingham  was  reading  between  decks  to 
as  many  as  desired  to  hear.  At  eight  they  met  again  to 
exhort  and  instruct  one  another.  Between  nine  and  ten 
they  went  to  bed,  where,  says  Wesley,  neither  the  roaring 
of  the  sea,  nor  the  motion  of  the  ship,  could  take  away  the 
refreshing  sleep  which  God  gave  them.  "^^ 

Here  was  practical  "Methodism"  still  struggling  in  its 
forming  process;  it  was  Epworth  rectory  and  Susanna 
Wesley's  discipline  afloat  on  the  Atlantic. 

The  great  event  of  the  voyage,  as  affecting  the  history  of 
Methodism,  was  the  illustration  of  genuine  religion  which 
the  little  band  of  Moravian  passengers  gave  during  a 
"  Wesley's  Journal,   Anno  1735. 


JOHN    AKD    CHARLES    WESLEY.  79 

perilous  storm.  ■  Wesley  had  observed  with  deep  interest 
their  humble  piety,  in  offices  of  mutual  kindness  and  serv- 
ice, and  in  patience  under  occasional  maltreatment;  but 
when  the  storm  arose  there  was  an  opportunity,  he  says,  of 
seeing  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  with  which  their  service  began,  the  sea 
broke  over  the  ship,  split  the  main-sail  into  pieces,  and 
poured  in  between  the  decks  as  if  the  great  deep  had 
already  swallowed  them  up.  A  terrible  alarm  and  outcry 
arose  among  the  English,  but  the  Germans  calmly  sung  on. 
Wesley  asked  one  of  them :  "  Were  you  not  afraid  ?"  He 
answered  :  "  I  thank  God,  no."  "  But  were  not  your  women 
and  children  f  "  No ;  our  women  and  children  are  not 
afraid  to  die." 

Wesley  felt  that  he  had  not  yet  so  learned  Christ,  and 
retired  to  lay  the  lesson  to  heart,  and  to  urge  it  on  the 
attention  of  their  "  crying,  trembling  English  neighbors." 
On  arriving  in  America  it  was  again  to  be  pressed  upon  his 
awakened  mind  by  a  representative  of  these  devoted  people. 
He  met  Spangenberg,  one  of  their  pastors,  and  consulted 
him  respecting  the  best  plans  of  ministerial  labor. 

"  My  brother,"  said  the  Moravian,  "  I  must  first  ask  you 
one  or  two  questions.  Have  you  the  witness  within  your- 
self? Does  the  Spirit  of  God  bear  witness  with  your  spirit 
that  you  are  a  child  of  God  ?" 

Wesley  was  surprised,  and  knew  not  what  to  answer. 
Spangenberg  observed  his  embarrassment,  and  asked :  "  Do 
yoif  know  Jesus  Christ  *?"  "  I  know  he  is  the  Saviour  of  the 
world,"  replied  Wesley.  "  True,"  rejoined  the  Moravian  ; 
"  but  do  you  know  that  he  has  saved  you  T'  "  I  hope  he 
has  died  to  save  me."  Spangenberg  only  added :  "  Do  you 
know  yourself f  "I  do,"  responded  Wesley;  "but,"  he 
writes,  "  I  fear  they  were  mere  words." 

He  was  impressed  by  the  simple  beauty  of  the  religious 
life  of  these  Moravians.  Delamotte  and  he  lodged  with 
them,   and  had   opportunities,   day  by  day,  of  observing 


80  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

their  whole  demeanor ;  for  they  were  present  in  one  room 
with  them  from  morning  till  night,  unless  for  the  little  time 
spent  in  walking  for  exercise.  He  describes  them  as  al- 
ways employed,  always  cheerful,  always  cordial  to  one 
another;  "they  had  put  away  all  anger,  and  strife,  and 
wrath,  and  bitterness,  and  clamor,  and  evil-speaking ;  they 
walked  worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  they  were  called, 
and  adorned  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  in  all  things."  His 
Churchly  prejudices  were  rebuked  by  the  apostolic  purity 
of  their  ecclesiastical  forms.  Tliey  met,  he  says,  to  con- 
sult concerning  the  affairs  of  their  Church;  Spangenberg 
being  about  to  go  to  Pennsylvania,  and  Bishop  Nitschman 
to  return  to  Germany.  After  several  hours  spent  in  con- 
ference and  prayer,  they  proceeded  to  the  election  and  ordi- 
nation of  a  bishop.  The  great  simplicity,  as  well  as 
solemnity,  of  the  proceeding  almost  made  him  forget  the 
seventeen  hundred  years  between  him  and  the  apostles, 
and  imagine  himself  in  one  of  those  assemblies  where 
form  and  state  were  unknown,  but  Paul,  the  tent-maker, 
or  Peter,  the  fisherman,  presided,  with  the  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit  and  of  power.  ^^ 

It  early  became  manifest  that  he  could  not  prosecute  his 
designs  respecting  the  Indians,  and  he  continued  in  Savan- 
nah ;  but  his  ascetic  habits  and  severe  formalism  were  un- 
successful in  reclaiming  the  demoralized  colonists.  A 
similar  failure  attended  his  brother  at  Frederica.  They 
labored  indefatigably,  but  had  yet  very  imperfect  ideas  of 
the  "  way  of  salvation  by  faith."  The  forms  of  the  Church 
were  enforced  with  a  repetition  and  rigor  which  soon  Cired 
out  the  people,  and  provoked  resentments  and  persecutions. 
Charles  performed  four  public  services  every  day,  en. 
larging  them  by  an  explanation  of  the  morning  and  even- 
ing lessons.  John,  assisted  by  Delamotte,  formed  what 
serious  persons  they  could  find  at  Savannah  into  a 
society,  to  meet  once  or  twice  a  week,  in  order  to  reprove, 
instruct,  and  exhort  one  another,  and  from  them  selected  a 

13  Wesley's  Journal,    Anno  1736. 


JOHK    AKD    CHAELES    WESLEY.         .      81 

smaller  number  for  a  m^ore  intimate  communion.  He  read 
the  prayers  according  to  the  primitive  order  of  his  Church, 
beginning  with  the  morning  service  at  five  o'clock,  giving  a 
sermon  and  the  communion  service  at  eleven,  and  the 
evening  service  at  three.  Between  eleven  and  three,  when 
the  people  were  compelled  by  the  heat  to  remain  at  home, 
he  visited  them  from  house  to  house.  Following  the 
primitive  but  obsolete  Rubric,  he  would  baptize  children 
only  by  immersion,  and  no  person  was  admitted  as  a  sponsor 
who  was  not  a  communicant.  He  refused  to  recognize  any 
baptism  which  was  performed  by  a  clergyman  who  had  not 
received  episcopal  ordination,  and  insisted  upon  rebaptizing 
such  children  as  had  otherwise  received  that  sacrament. 
His  rigor  extended  even  so  far  as  to  refuse  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per to  one  of  the  most  devout  men  of  the  settlement,  who 
had  not  been  baptized  by  an  episcopally  ordained  minis- 
ter ;  1*  and  the  burial  service  itself  was  denied  to  such  as 
died  with  what  he  deemed  unorthodox  baptism. 

Asceticism  is  usually  associated  with  formalism,  for  the 
misled  but  anxious  mind,  failing  to  find  comfort  in  the  one, 
would  add  other  expedients  for  its  relief  Both  the  broth- 
<Brs  denied  themselves  not  only  the  luxuries,  but  many  of  the 
ordinary  conveniences  of  life.  They  slept  on  the  ground 
rather  than  on  beds ;  they  refused  all  food  but  bread  and 
water ;  and  John  went  barefooted,  that  he  might  encourage 
the  poor  boys  of  his  school — a  condescension  better  in  its 
motive  than  in  its  example.  In  fine,  these  Oxford  students, 
misapprehending  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  lib- 
erty wherewith  Christ  maketh  free,  were  groping  their  way, 
in  the  new  world,  through  nearly  the  same  deplorable  errors 

"  When  he  escaped  these  "  orthodox"  folhes,  he  referred  to  them  with 
astonishment.  In  his  Journal  for  September  29,  1749,  he  gives  a  letter 
from  John  Martin  Bolzins,  and  adds  :  "  What  a  truly  Christian  piety  and 
simplicity  breathe  in  these  lines !  And  yet  this  very  man,  when  I  was 
at  Savannah,  did  I  refuse  to  admit  to  the  Lord's  table,  because  he  was 
not  baptized ;  t^at  is,  not  baptized  by  a  minister  who  had  been  epis- 
copally ordained.  Can  any  one  carry  High-Church  zeal  higher  than 
this?  And  how  well  have  I  been  since  beaten  with  mine  own  staff  I" 
Voi.I._6 


82  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

which  a  class  of  earnest  men  of  the  sapae  university  have 
promulgated  in  our  day,  with  as  little  success,  both  as  it  re- 
spects their  own  spiritual  life  and  the  reformation  of  the 
Church.     They  were  Puseyites. 

Not  only  their  rigorous  practices,  but  their  theological 
opinions  defeated  them.  Faith,  not  works,  as  the  con- 
dition of  justification — faith  producing  works  as  its  neces-. 
sary  fruits;  ordinances  and  sacraments  as  only  aids  to 
faith ;  the  conscious  forgiveness  of  sins ;  peace  and  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost;  the  sanctification,  not  the  abnegation,  of 
the  natural  affections  and  appetites,  with  cheerful  thankful- 
ness to  Him  "  who  giveth  us  richly  all  things  to  enjoy ;" 
these  were  conceptions  as  yet  obscure,  if  not  foreign  to 
their  minds.  How,  with  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  their 
hands,  they  could  thus  err  might,  indeed,  be  a  mystery  to  us, 
were  it  not  that  the  history  of  the  human  mind  shows  so  uni- 
versally the  power  of  traditional  influences,  and  of  even  appar- 
ently accidental  states  of  opinion,  to  distort  the  interpretation 
of  the  plainest  truth ;  so  that  the  declaration  of  a  profound 
and  evangelical  wi'iter  ^^  of  our  own  age  may  yet  prove  true, 
that' ideas  now  admitted  by  the  Christian  world  to  be  correct, 
may  yet  come  to  be  repelled  as  intolerable  and  abominable. 

The  colonists  recoiled  from  the  earnest  but  erring  mis- 
sionaries. Gossip,  backbiting,  and  scandal,  the  prevalent 
vices  of  small  and  isolated  settlements,  beset  them  at  all 
points  ;  an  unfortunate  "  courtship"  which  Wesley  found  it 
prudent  to  abandon,  occasioned  the  disaffection  of  a  large 
family  circle;  open  persecution  followed,  and  an  attempt 
was  made  to  assassinate  Charles  Wesley.  In  about  a  year 
he  returned  by  way  of  Boston,  where  he  preached  repeatedly 
m  King's  Chapel.  In  some  fifteen  months  more  John  fol- 
lowed him.  They  had  failed  in  their  designs,  but  they  had 
learned  important  lessons.  On  the  sea  Wesley  wrote  that  he 
had  bent  the  bow  too  far,  by  making  antiquity  a  co-ordinate 
rather  than  a  subordinate  rule  with  Scripture ;  by  admit- 
ting several  doubtful  writings ;  by  extending  antiquity  too 

i-^  Yiiict. 


JOHN    AND    CHARLES    WESLEY.  88 

far ;  by  believing  more  practices  to  have  been  universal  in 
tiie  ancient  Church  than  ever  were  so ;  by  not  considering  that 
the  decrees  of  synods  or  councils  were,  of  but  human  autho- 
rity.    These  considerations  insensibly  stole  upon  him,  he 
says,  as  he  grew  acquainted  with  the  Mystic  writers,  whose 
descriptions  of  union  with  God  and  internal  religion  made 
everything  else  appear  mean  and  insipid.     "  But,  in  truth," 
he  adds,  "  they  made  good  works  appear  so  too ;  yea,  and 
faith  itself,  and  what  nof?     They  gave  me  an  entire  new 
view  of  religion,  nothing  like  any  I  had  before.     But,  alas ! 
it  was  nothing  like  that  religion  which  Christ  and  his  apostles 
taught     I  had  a  plenary  dispensation  from  all  the  com- 
mands of  God ;  the  form  was  thus :  Love  is  all ;  all  the 
commands  besides  are  only  means  of  love ;  you  must  choose 
those  which  you  feel  are  means  to  you,  and  use  them  as . 
long  as  they  are  so.     Thus  were  all  the  bands  burst  at  once ; 
and  though  I  could  never  fully  come  into  this,  nor  contentedly 
omit  what  God  enjoined,  yet,  I  know  not  how,  I  fluctuated  be- 
tween obedience  and  disobedience.    I  had  no  heart,  no  vigor, 
no  zeal  in  obeying ;  continually  doubting  whether  I  was  right 
or  wrong,  and  never  out  of  perplexities  and  entanglements. 
Nor  can  I  at  this  hour  give  a  distinct  account  how  or  when  I 
came  a  little  back  toward  the  right  way ;  only  my  present 
sense  is  this — all  the  other  enemies  of  Christianity  are  triflers; 
the  Mystics  are  the  most  dangerous ;  they  stab  it  in  the  vitals, 
and  its  most  serious  professors  are  most  likely  to  fall  by  them." 
Thus  was  he  breaking  away  from  the  mists  which  had 
encompassed  him ;  but  he  had  not  yet  reached  those  higher 
acclivities  of  the  religious  life,  where  the  problems  which 
had  agonized  his  spirit  shine  out  in  clear,  serene  illumina- 
tion to  the  vision  of  faith.     There  is  an  earnestness  which  is 
touching  in  its  pathos  in  an  entry  of  his  journal,  written  as 
the  ship  approached  the  Land's  End  of  England :  "I  went 
to  America,"  he  says,  "  to  convert  the  Indians,  but  0 !  who 
shall  convert  me?     Who,  what  is  he  that  will  deliver  me 
from  this  evil  heart  of  unbelief?     I  have  a  fair  summer  re- 
ligion; I  can  talk  well,  nay,  and  believe  myself,  while  no 


84  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

danger  is  near ;  but  let  death  look  me  in  the  face,  and  my 
spirit  is  troubled,  nor  can  I  say,  to  die  is  gain.  I  think 
verily,  if  the  Gospel  be  true,  I  am  safe ;  for  I  not  only  have 
given  and  do  give  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor — I  not  only 
give  my  body  to  be  burned,  drowned,  or  whatever  else  God 
shall  appoint  for  me,  but  I  follow  after  charity — though  not 
as  I  ought,  yet  as  I  can — if  haply  I  may  attain  it.  I  now 
believe  the  Gospel  is  true.  I  show  my  faith  by  my  works, 
by  staking  my  all  upon  it.  I  would  do  so  again  and  again 
a  thousand  times,  if  the  choice  were  still  to  make.  Who- 
ever sees  me,  sees  I  would  be  a  Christian.  Therefore  are 
my  ways  not  like  other  men's  ways ;  therefore  I  have  been,  I 
am,  I  am  content  to  be,  a  by-word,  a  proverb  of  reproach. 
But  in  a  storm  I  think.  What  if  the  Gospel  be  not  true  1 
,Then  thou  art  of  all  men  most  foolish.  For  what  hast  thou 
given  thy  goods,  thy  ease,  thy  friends,  thy  reputation,  thy 
country,  thy  life?  For  what  art  thou  wandering  over  the 
face  of  the  earth  1  a  dream  1  a  cunningly-devised  fable  ?  0 ! 
who  will  deliver  me  from  this  fear  of  death  1  What  shall  I 
do  1  Where  shall  I  fly  from  it  1  Should  I  fight  against  it  by 
thinking,  or  by  not  thinking  of  it  ?  A  wise  man  advised  me 
some  time  since, '  Be  still,  and  go  on.'  Perhaps  this  is  best; 
to  look  upon  it  as  my  cross ;  when  it  comes  to  let  it  humble 
me,  and  quicken  all  my  good  resolutions,  especially  that  of 
praying  without  ceasing ;  and  at  other  times  to  take  no  thought 
about  it,  but  quietly  to  go  on  in  the  work  of  the  Lord." 

On  the  1st  of  February,  1738,  he  was  again  in  England, 
and  writing  in  his  diary :  "  This,  then,  have  I  learned  in  the 
ends  of  the  earth — that  I  '  am  fallen  short  of  the  glory  of 
God;'  that  my  whole  heart  is  'altogether  corrupt  and 
abominable,'  and,  consequently,  my  whole  life — seeing  it 
cannot  be  that  an  'evil  tree'  should  'bring  forth  good 
fruit ; '  that,  '  alienated '  as  I  am  from  '  the  life  of  God,'  I  am 
a  '  child  of  wrath,'  an  heir  of  hell ;  that  my  own  works,  my 
'own  sufferings,  my  own  righteousness,  are  so  far  from  re- 
conciling me  to  an  offended  God,  so  far  from  makmg  any 
atonement  for  the  least  of  those  sins  which  '  are  more  in 


JOHN    AND    CHAKLES    WESLEY.  85 

number  than  the  hairs  of  my  head,'  that  the  most  specious 
of  them  need   an   atonement  themselves,   or   they  cannot 
abide  his  righteous  judgment ;  that  '  having  the  sentence  of 
death'  in  my  heart,  and  having  nothing  in  or  of  myself  to 
plead,  I  have  no  hope  but  that  of  being  justified  freely, 
'  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Jesus ;'  I  have  no  hope, 
but  that  if  I  seek,  I  shall  find  Christ,  and  '  be  found  in  him, 
not  having  my  own  righteousness,  but  that  which  is  through 
the  faith  of  Christ,  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by 
faith.'"     Astonishing  and  affecting  disclosures  of  the  mys- 
terious heart  of  man  !     Admonitory  lesson  to  all  who  would 
successfully  seek  the  truth,  and  by  it'  be  made  free !     Here 
was  a  man  of  healthful  temperament,  of  rare  intelligence,  of 
logical  astuteness,  who  had  read  every  line  of  Holy  Scrip- » 
ture  in  the  very  language  in  which  prophet  or  apostle  had 
penned  it,  and  yet,  with  the  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  an  anguish 
of  earnestness  in  his  heart,  he  stumbles  before  the  most  im- 
portant and  most  simple  truths  of  revelation.     What  is  the 
solution  of  this  mystery  *?     Can  we  suppose  that  had  he 
read  the  Scriptures  only,  and  interpreted  them  as  an  earnest, 
unsophisticated  peasant  would  have  done,  he  could  so  long 
have  failed  of  their  simple  faith  and  inexpressible  comfort  ? 
These  were  all  he  needed;  he  had  reached  all  other  con- 
ditions of  the  Christian  life ;  the  faith  to  appropriate  to  him- 
self the  promises  and  consolations  of  the  Gospel  was  still 
lacking ;  but  could  he  have  failed  to  discern  this  fact  if  he 
had  looked  into  the  Scriptures  without  the  sophistications  of 
other  books  and  the  prejudice  of  traditional  errors  1     His 
previous  references  to  councils,  and  Church  decrees,  and 
mysticism — his  asceticism  and  ecclesiasticism  in  Georgia — 
these  explain  the  mystery.     They  complicated  and  rendered 
nugatory  his  more  direct  and  simple  views  of  truth.    Neither 
the  personal  history  of  Wesley  nor  the  history  of  Method- 
ism itself,  can  be  comprehended  without  these  revelations 
of  his  inward  struggles.     But  the  light  was  dawning,  and 
the  morning  was  at  hand.     The  Moravians  were  again  to 
meet  him  in  London. 


86  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 


CHAPTEE  lY. 

GEOEGE   WHITEFIELD. 

■WMtefleld's  Mental  Conflicts  —  His  Ascetic  Errors  —  His  Conversion  — 
He  begins  to  preach  —  He  preaches  in  the  MetropoUs  —  Eemarkable 
Effects  of  his  Sermons  —  His  Powers  as  an  Orator  —  He  embarks  for 
America  —  His  Eetnrn  to  England. 

During-  the  absence  of  the  Wesleys  m  America,  George 
Whitefield  was  the  presidmg  sph'it  of  the  "  Holy  Club "  at 
Oxford.     He  preceded  the  Wesleys  m  obtammg  the  peace 
of  mmd,  and  "assurance  of  faith,"  which  they  had  sought 
together  so  arduously  before  they  parted.     But,  like  them, 
he  passed  through  an  ordeal  of  agonizing  self-conflicts,  in 
which  his  sensitive  mind  became  deeply  melancholy,  and 
'  was  betrayed  into  ascetic  follies.     He  was  overwhelmed 
with  morbid  horrors,  and  describes  himself  as  losing  at 
times,  even  the  power  of  thinking.     His  memory  failed;  his 
feelings  were  cramped,  he  says,  as  a  man  bound  in  iron 
armor;  he  selected  the  poorest  food,  and  the  meanest  ap- 
parel, and  by  dirty  shoes,  patched  raiment,  and  coarse  gloves, 
endeavored  to  mortify  his  burdened  spirit.     He  was  insulted 
by  his  fellow  students,  and  those  who  employed  his  serv- 
ices discharged   him,  because  of  his   self-negligence.     He 
daily  underwent  some  contempt  at  college.     Students  threw 
dirt   at  him   in   the  streets.      Whenever  he   knelt   down 
to  pray  he  felt  great  pressure  both  in  soul  and  body,  and 
often  prayed  under  the  weight  of  it  till  the  sweat  dripped 
from  his  face.     "  God  only  knows,"  he  "writes,  "  how  many 
nights  I  have  lain  upon  my  bed  groaning  under  what  I 
felt.     Whole  days  and  weeks  have  I  spent  in  lying  pros- 
trate on  the  ground  in  silent  or  vocal  prayer."  ^     During 
1  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  Whitefield,  chap  1. 


GEOEGE    WHITEFIELD.  87 

the  forty  days  of  lent  he  ate  nothing  but  "  coarse  bread  and 
sage  tea,"  except  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays.  He  prayed 
under  the  trees  at  night,  trembling  with  the  cold,  till  the 
bell  of  the  college  called  him  to  his  dormitory,  where  he 
often  spent  in  tears  and  supplications  the  hours  which  should 
have  brought  him  the  relief  of  sleep.  His  health  sunk 
under  these  rigors ;  but  he  writes  that,  notwithstanding  his 
sickness  continued  six  or  seven  weeks,  he  trusted  he  should 
have  reason  to  bless  God  for  it  through  the  ages  of  eternity. 
For  about  the  end  of  the  seventh  week,  after  having  under- 
gone inexpressible  trials  by  night  and  day,  under  the  spirit 
of  bondage,  God  was  pleased  at  length  to  remove  the  heavy 
load,  to  enable  him  to  lay  hold  on  the  cross  by  a  living 
faith,  and  by  giving  him  the  Spirit  of  adoption  to  seal  him, 
as  he  humbly  hoped,  even  to  the  day  of  everlasting  redemp- 
tion. "  But  O !"  he  continued,  "with  what  joy,  joy  unspeak- 
able, even  joy  that  was  full  of  glory,  was  my  soul  fdled,  when 
the  weight  of  sin  went  off,  and  an  abiding  sense  of  the  par- 
doning love  of  God,  and  a  full  assurance  of  faith,  broke  in 
upon  my  disconsolate  soul !  Surely  it  was  the  day  of  my 
espousals,  a  day  to  be  had  in  everlasting  remembrance.  At 
first  my  joys  were  like  a  spring  tide,  and,  as  it  were,  over- 
flowed the  banks ;  go  where  I  would  I  could  not  avoid  the 
singing  of  psalms  almost  aloud ;  afterward  they  became 
more  settled,  and  blessed  be  God,  saving  a  few  casual  inter- 
vals, have  abode  and  increased  in  my  soul  ever  since." 

Healed  in  soul  and  convalescent  in  body,  he  visited 
Bristol  for  a  change  of  air.  He  met  there  the  bishop  of 
Gloucester,  who  perceived  his  talents  and  earnest  spirit, 
and  proffered  him  ordination.  He  prepared  himself  for 
the  ceremony  by  fasting  and  prayer,  and  spent  two  hours 
the  previous  evening  on  his  knees  in  the  neighboring  fields. 
At  the  ordination  he  consecrated  himself  to  an  apostolic 
life.  "  I  trust,"  he  writes,  "  I  answered  to  every  question 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  and  heartily  prayed  that  God 
might  say,  Amen.  And  when  the  bishop  laid  his  hands 
upon   my  head,  if  my   vile  heart  doth   not   deceive  me, 


88  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

I  offered  up  my  whole  spirit,  soul,  and  body  to  the  service 
of  God's  sanctuary.  Let  come  what  will,  life  or  death, 
depth  or  height,  I  shall  henceforward  live  like  one  who,  this 
day,  in  the  presence  of  men  and  angels,  took  the  holy  sac- 
rament, upon  the  profession  of  being  inwardly  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  take  upon  me  that  ministration  in  the 
Church.  I  can  call  heaven  and  earth  to  witness,  that  when 
the  bishop  laid  his  hand  upon  me,  I  gave  myself  up  to  be  a 
martyr  for  Him  who  hung  upon  the  cross  for  me.  Known 
unto  him  are  all  future  events  and  contingencies.  I  have 
thrown  myself  blindfold,  and,  -I  trust,  without  reserve,  into 
His  almighty  hands."  His  remaining  life  was  an  exempli- 
fication of  these  vows.  He  had  a  soul  of  fire,  and  hence- 
forth it  glowed  brighter  and  brighter  even  unto  the  perfect 
day. 

Fitted  by  every  attribute  of  his  large  but  simple  mind  to 
be  an  evangelist,  but  not  an  ecclesiastical  legislator,  he  now 
went  forth  as  the  Baptist  of  Methodism,  to  prepare  the 
way  in  both  hemispheres  for  the  Wesleys  and  their  coadju- 
tors. The  good  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  who  seems  to  have 
felt  a  genial  sympathy  with  his  ardent  soul,  gave  him  five 
guineas,  "  a  great  supply,"  wrote  Whitefield,  "  for  one  who 
had  not  a  guinea  in  the  world."  His  first  sermon  was 
preached  in  the  church  where  he  had  been  baptized,  and  had 
received  his  first  communion.  He  revealed  at  once  his  ex- 
traordinary powers.  It  was  reported  to  the  bishop  that 
fifteen  of  his  hearers  had  gone  mad.  The  prelate  only 
washed  that  the  m^adness  might  not  pass  away  before  another 
Sabbath. 

Eeturning  to  Oxford  he  forthwith  resumed  his  "Meth- 
odist "  labors,  comforting  his  brethren,  visiting  the  sick  and 
prisoners,  and  encouraging  several  charity  schools  which  the 
"  Holy  Club  "  had  established.  He  was  called  to  London 
to  preach  temporarily  at  the  Tower.  There  was  some 
scoffing  at  his  first  appearance  in  the  pulpit,  but  his  natural 
eloquence  and  vivid  zeal  burst  with  surprise  upon  the 
people,  and  he  passed  out  amid  their  blessings,  while  the 


GEOEGE    WHITEFIELD.  89 

query  flew  from  one  to  another,  "  Who  is  he  f  For  two 
months  he  continued  to  labor  in  the  metropolis,  visiting  the 
soldiers  in  the  barracks  and  hospitals,  catechising  children, 
reading  prayers  every  evening  in  one  chapel,  preaching  in 
others,  and  delivering  one  sermon  a  week  at  least  at  Lud- 
gate  prison.     The  people  crowded  to  hear  him. 

Returning  to  Oxford  he  had  the  pleasure  to  see  the  Meth- 
odist band  increasing,  but  he  was  soon  away  again  preaching 
at  Dummer,  in  Hampshire,  where  he  spent  eight  hours  a 
day  in  reading  prayers,  catechising  children,  and  visiting  the 
parishioners.  He  had  received  several  letters  from  the 
Wesleys,  in  Georgia,  calling  him  thither.  "  Do  you  ask  me 
what  you  shall  have"?"  wrote  John  Wesley.  "Food  to  eat, 
and  raiment  to  put  on,  a  house  to  lay  your  head  in,  such  as 
your  Lord  had  not ;  and  a  crown  of  glory  that  fadeth  not 
away."  His  heart,  he  says,  leaped  within  him,  and  echoed 
to  the  call.  Hervey,  of  the  Oxford  Club,  took  his  place  in 
Hampshire,  and  he  resolved  to  go  again  to  London  to  em- 
bark. He  went  first  to  Bristol  to  take  leave  of  his  friends. 
While  there  he  preached  indefatigably.  People  of  all 
classes,  and  all  denominations,  from  Quakers  to  High 
Churchmen,  flocked  to  hear  him.  "The  whole  city,"  he 
wrote,  "seemed  to  be  alarmed."  The  churches  were 
crowded,  "  the  word  was  sharper  than  a  two-edged  sword, 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth  made  its  way  like  light- 
aing  into  the  hearer's  consciences."  After  a  short  absence 
le  returned  to  Bristol,  and  found  the  excited  people,  some 
on  foot  and  some  in  coaches,  coming  a  mile  out  of  the  city 
to  welcome  him.  They  blessed  him  as  he  passed  along 
the  streets.  Though  preaching  five  times  a  week,  he  could 
not  appease  the  eager  crowds.  It  was  diflicult  for  him  to 
make  his  way  through  them  to 'the  pulpit.  Some  climbed 
upon  the  roof  of  the  church,  others  hung  upon  the  rails  of 
the  organ  loft,  and  the  mass  within  made  the  air  so  hot 
with  their  breath,  that  the  steam  fell  from  the  pillars  like 
drops  of  rain.  When  he  preached  his  farewell  sermon,  the 
irrepressible  feelings  of  his  hearers  broke  out  into  sobs  and 


90  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

tears  all  over  the  house.  They  followed  him  weeping  into 
the  street.  They  kept  him  busy  the  next  day,  from  early 
morning  till  midnight,  in  comforting  or  counseling  them, 
and  he  had  to  escape  from  their  importunities,  secretly, 
during  the  night,  for  London.  While  delayed  there  by  his 
preparations  for  the  voyage,  his  unexampled  eloquence 
produced  a  general  sensation  through  the  metropolitan 
churches.  When  he  assisted  at  the  Eucharist,  the  consecra^ 
tion  of  the  elements  had  to  be  twice  or  thrice  repeated. 
Charitable  institutions  claimed  his  services,  and  larger  col 
lections  were  made  than  had  ever  been  received  by  them  on 
similar  occasions.  Constables  were  stationed  at  the  doors  to 
restrain  the  multitude  of  hearers.  Churches  were  crowded 
on  week-days  and  on  the  autumnal  Sunday  mornings  the 
streets  were  thronged  before  da^vn  with  people,  lighting 
their  way  by  lanterns  to  hear  him. 

This  transcendent  power  arose  frOm  a  combination  of 
qualities,  with  which  he  was  providentially  endowed  for 
the  crisis  that  w^as  approaching  in  the  history  of  English, 
and,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  the  history  of  general  Prot- 
estantism. A  great  movement  was  at  hand,  which  needed, 
among  other  agencies,  powers  like  these  to  usher  it  in  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  to  awaken  the  popular 
sympathies  to  welcome  it — a  movement  which,  it  has 
been  said,  has  immediately,  or  remotely  so  given  an 
impulse  to  Christian  feeling  and  profession,  on  all  sides, 
that  it  has  come  to  present  itself  as  the  starting  point 
of  our  modern  religious  history.2  Wesley  was  approach- 
ing the  coast  of  England  while  Whitefield  was  prepar- 
ing for  his  embarkation ;  "  and  now,"  says  an  author  who 
was  not  over  credulous  respecting  the  providential  facts  of 
Methodism,  "and  now,  when  Whitefield,  having  excited  this 
powerful  sensation  in  London,  had  departed  for  Georgia, 
to  the  joy  of  those  who  dreaded  the  excesses  of  his  zeal,  no 
sooner  had  he  left  the  metropolis  than  Wesley  arrived  there, 
to  deepen  and  widen  the  impression  which  Whitefield  had 
2  Isaac  Taylor's  "Wesley  aiid  Methodism,  Preface. 


GEOKGE    WHITEFIELD.  91 

made.  Had  their  measures  been  concerted  they  could  not 
more  entirely  have  accorded."  ^  In  a  few  days  Wesley  -w^as 
proclaiming,  in  the  pulpits  of  London,  "  If  any  man  be  in 
Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature."   . 

It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  define  the  elo- 
quence of  Whitefield.  It  was  the  utterance  of  the  whole 
man — heart,  head,  and  person.  It  was  more;  it  was  the 
"  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power,"  the  utterance  of 
a  living,  exulting  piety.  Just  before  these  scenes  in  London, 
while  in  his  native  county,  he  says  his  spirit  would  make 
such  sallies  that  he  thought  it  would  escape  from  the 
body.  At  other  times  he  was  so  overwhelmed  with  a 
sense  of  God's  infinite  majesty,  that  he  was  constrained  to 
throw  himself  prostrate  on  the  ground,  and  offer  his  soul  as 
a  blank  for  the  Divine  hand  to  write  on  it  what  should 
please  God.  One  night  he  describes  as  a  time  never  to  be 
forgotten.  It  happened  to  lighten  exceedingly ;  he  had  been 
expounding  to  many  people,  and  some  being  afraid  to  go 
home,  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  accompany  them.,  and  im-  ' 
prove  the  occasion  to  stir  them  up  for  the  coming  of  the  Son 
of  man.  He  preached  to  them  warnings  and  consolations 
on  the  highway,  while  the  thunders  broke  above  his  head, 
and  the  lightnings  sped  along  his  path.  On  his  return  to 
the  parsonage,  while  the  neighbors  were  rising  from  their 
beds,  and  terrified  to  see  the  lightning  run  upon  the  ground, 
and  shine  from  one  part  of  the  heavens  unto  the  other,  he 
and  a  poor  but  pious  countryman  continued  in  the  field, 
praying,  praising,  and  exulting  in  God,  and  longing  for, 
the  time  when  Christ  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  in  a 
flame  of  fire  !  "  O  that  my  soul,"  he  ^^Tote,  "  may  be  in  a 
like  flame  when  he  shall  actually  come  to  call  me !" 

How  could  such  a  man  be  other  than  eloquent  ?  An 
untutored  hearer,  returning  from  one  of  his  sermons, 
significantly  said,  "  He  preached  like  a  lion."  But  with  this 
moral  power  he  combined  most,  if  not  all  other  qualifica- 
tions of  a  popular  orator.  He  is  said  to  have  had  a  perfect 
3  Southey's  Wesley,  chap.  4. 


92  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

natural  grace  of  manner  out  of  the  pulpit,  and  of  gesture 
in  it.  Marvels  are  told  about  the  compass  and  music  of 
his  voice.  He  was  tall  in  person ;  his  features  were 
regular,  and  expressive  of  a  generous  and  buoyant  heart ; 
his  eyes  were  blue  and  luminous,  though  small,  and  a 
slight  squint  in  one  of  them,  caused  by  the  measles,  is  said 
not  to  have  "lessened  the  uncommon  sweetness"  of  his 
countenance.  His  humble  origin,  and  occupation  in  the 
Bristol  Inn,  enabled  him  to  understand  and  address  the 
common  people,  who,  while  admiring  that  natural  grace 
which  afterward  rendered  him  at  home  in  aristocratic  circles, 
felt  that  he  was  one  from  among  themselves.  He  had 
also  an  aptitude  for  illustrations  drawn  from  common 
life,  and  a  tendency  to  popular  humor,  which,  without 
degenerating  into  vulgarity,  drew  irresistibly  toward  him 
the  popular  interest ;  so  that  Wesley,  who  was  scrupu 
lously,  though  simply  correct,  said:  "Even  the  little  im 
proprieties,  both  of  his  language  and  manner,  were  the 
means  of  profiting  many,  who  would  not  have  been  touched 
by  a  more  correct  discourse,  or  a  more  calm  and  regular 
manner  of  preaching." 

His  passage  to  America  was  long.  The  ship's  company, 
includmg,  besides  the  crew,  soldiers  and  emigrants,  were 
mostly  an  immoral  class ;  but  he  preached,  read  prayers, 
catechised  the  children,  and  ministered  to  the  sick,  with 
such  zeal,  that  before  they  reached  Georgia  the  whole 
moral  aspect  of  his  floating  congregation  was  changed.  He 
remained  in  the  colony  only  about  four  months,  but  during 
that  time  traveled  and  labored  incessantly  among  its  settle- 
ments. A  brief  residence  among  the  Indians,  and  an  unsuc^ 
cessful  attempt  to  frame  a  grammar  of  their  language,  seem 
to  have  satisfied  him  that  his  call  was  not  unto  them.  Pie 
found  many  orphan  children  among  the  colonists,  and  pro- 
jected an  asylum  for  them,  a  design  which  led  to  his  early 
return  to  England.  He  embarked  from  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  September,  1738,  in  time,  as  we  shall  see,  for 
Important  events  in  the  incipient  history  of  Methodism. 


WESLEY   AND   THE    MORAVIANS,  98 


CHAPTER   Y. 

WESLEY   AND    THE    MOEAVIANS. 

Wesley's  Eeturn  from  Georgia — His  Eeligious  Disquiet  —  Sketch  of  the 
Moravians  —  OtUgations  of  Methodism  to  the  Martyrs  of  Constance  — 
Ziska  and  his  Peasant  Heroes  —  Commencement  of  Herrnhut — Coimt 
Zinzendorf — The  Moravians  in  London  —  Peter  Bohler — Conversion 
of  Charles  Wesley — Conversion  of  John  Wesley — Wesley's  Visit  to 
Herrnhut  —  His  Description  of  it  —  Theological  Views  —  Obligations 
of  Methodism  to  the  Moravians. 

The  ship  which  bore  Whitefield  from  England,  passed  in 
sight  of  that  which  bore  Wesley  back,  only  a  few  hours 
before  his  arrival  at  the  Downs ;  but  neither  of  them  knew 
the  fact.  Whitefield,  liberated  in  spirit,  and  winged  with 
zeal  as  with  pinions  of  flame,  was  flying  exultingly  on  his 
mission ;  ^  but  Wesley,  who  was  to  be  last,  and  yet,  in  an 
important  'sense,  first  in  the  new  career  they  had  been  fore- 
casting, entered  the  metropolis,  which  was  still  stirred  by 
the  evangelical  triumphs  of  his  friend,  bowed  and  broken  in 
spirit.  In  placing  his  foot  again  on  English  soil,  he  repeats, 
with  profound  contrition,  the  record  of  his  inward  struggles  : 
"  It  is  now,"  he  writes,  "  two  years  and  almost  four  m.onths 
since  I  left  m.y  native  country,  in  order  to  teach  the  Georgian 
Indians  the  nature  of  Christianity.  But  what  have  I  learned 
myself,  meantime  1  Why,  what  I  the  least  of  all  sus- 
pected, that  I,  who  went  to  America  to  convert  others,  was 
never  m.yself  converted  to  God.  /  am  not  mad,  though  I 
thus  speak,  but  I  speak  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness,  if, 
haply,  some  of  those  who  still  dream  may  awake,  and  see 
that  as  I  am  so  are  they."  Were  they  read  in  philosophy  1 
he  continues,  with  eloquent  earnestness,  and  in  language 

^  The  device  of  Whitefield's  seal  was  a  winged  heart,  soaring  above  the 
globe,  and  the  motto,  Astra  petamus.     Southey's  Wesley,  note  24. 


94  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

which  would  cover  boastfulness  itself  with  shame ;  were 
ikej  read  in  philosophy '?  so  was  he.  In  ancient  or  modem 
tongues  1  he  was  also.  Were  they  versed  in  the  science  of 
divinity?  he  too  had  studied  it  many  years.  Could  they 
talk  fluently  upon  spiritual  things  1  the  very  same  could  he 
do.  Were  they  plenteous  in  alms  ?  behold,  he  gave  all  hh 
goods  to  feed  the  poor.  Did  they  give  of  their  labor  as 
well  as  their  substance  1  he  had  labored  more  abundantly. 
Were  they  willmg  to  suffer  for  their  brethren  ?  he  had 
thrown  away  his  friends,  reputation,  ease,  country ;  he  had 
put  his  life  in  his  hands,  wandering  into  strange  lands;  he 
had  given  his  body  to  be  devoured  by  the  deep,  parched  up 
with  heat,  consumed  by  toil  and  weariness,  or  whatsoever 
God  should  please  to  bring  upon  him.  But,  he  continues, 
does  all  this,  be  it  more  or  less,  it  matters  not,  make  him 
acceptable  to  God  ?  Does  all  he  ever  did,  or  can,  know, 
say^  give,  do,  or  suffer,  justify  him  in  His  sight  *?  If  the 
oracles  of  God  are  true,  if  we  are  still  to  abide  by  the  law 
and  testimony,  all  these  things,  though,  when  ennobled  by 
faith  in  Christ,  they  are  holy,  and  just,  and  good,  yet 
without  it  are  dung  and  dross.  He  refuses  to  be  com- 
forted by  ambiguous  hopes.  "  If,"  he  adds,  "  it  be  said 
that  I  have  faith,  for  many  such  things  have  I  heard 
from  many  miserable  comforters,  I  answer,  so  have  the 
devils  a  sort  of  faith ;  but  still  they  are  strangers  to  the 
covenant  of  promise.  The  faith  I  want  is  a  sure  trust  and 
confidence  in  God,  that,  through  the  merits  of  Christ,  my 
sins  are  forgiven,  and  I  reconciled  to  the  favor  of  God."  ^ 

But  the  time  of  his  deliverance  was  at  hand.  He  had 
learned  in  anguish  its  preparatory  lessons ;  his  good  works, 
his  ascetism,  his'  ritualism  had  failed  him.  It  had  been 
necessary,  perhaps,  that  he  should  try  them,  in  order  to  be 
a  competent  guide  for  the  millions  who  were  yet  to  be 
affected  by  his  influence.  Susanna  Wesley  had  educated  him 
for  his  great  work,  and  in  this  respect  was  the  real  founder 
of  Methodism,  for  with  a  different  character  he  would  have 
9  Journal,   Anno  1738. 


WESLEY    AND    THE    MORAVIANS.  95 

had  a  different  history ;  the  germinal  principle  of  Methodism 
had  sprung  up  at  Oxford ;  but  the  vital  element  which  was 
to  give  it  growth  and  enable  it  to  branch  out  over  the  world, 
was  still  wanting.  It  was  to  be  supplied  in  a  manner  which 
forms  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  illustrations  of  Divine 
Providence  afforded  by  the  annals  of  the  Church. 

More  than  three  hundred  years  had  passed  since  the 
Council  of  Constance  had  sacrificed,  at  the  stake,  the  two 
noblest  men  of  Bohemian  history,  Jerome  and  Huss.  With 
Wicklif,  they  had  initiated  Protestantism  a  century  before 
Luther.  Though  Wicklif  died  without  the  honors  of 
martyrdom,  his  work  was  apparently  yet  not  really 
defeated;  and  his  bones,  dug  up  from  the  grave  and 
reduced  to  ashes,  were  cast  on  the  Severn,  and  borne  by 
the  ocean  to  the  wide  world,  an  emblem,  says  a  Church 
historian,  of  the  future  fate  of  his  opinions.  The  Papal 
persecutors  representing  Europe  at  Constance,  deemed  that 
in  destroying  Jerome  and  Huss  they  had  extinguished  the  new 
movement  on  the  continent  at  least ;  but  "  God's  thoughts 
are  not  as  man's  thoughts."  A  spark  from  the  stake  of  Con- 
stance lit  up  at  last  the  flame  of  Methodism  in  England,  and 
is  extending  over  the  world  in  our  day  like  fire  in  stubble. 

The  princes  and  prelates  had  hardly  retired  from  Con- 
stance when  the  people,  always  truer  than  the  great  of  the 
earth  in  their  instinctive  appreciation  of  great  truths,  rose 
throughout  Bohemia  to  defend  the  opinions  and  avenge  the 
death  of  their  martyred  teachers.  Armed  with  flails,  they 
marched  victoriously  against  trained  armies,  for  they  were 
fighting  for  the  right  of  themselves  and  of  their  children  to 
the  word  of  God  and  its  sacraments.  A  nobleman  of  the 
court,  Count  Ziska,  placed  himself  at  their  head,  and  orga- 
nizing them  into  a  formidable  army,  fought  against  the 
Emperor  Sigismund  for  the  independence  of  Bohemia.  He 
had  lost  one  eye ;  the  remaining  one  was  destroyed  by  an 
arrow  in  battle  about  a  year  after  the  war  began ;  but, 
when  no  longer  able  to  see,  he  still  led  his  triumphant 
peasants  from  victory  to  victory.     Mounting  a  cask  in  the 


96  HISTORY   OF   METHODISM. 

camp,  the  sightless  hero  prepared  them  for  battle  by  his 
eloquent  appeals.  The  emperor  invaded  Bohemia,  but 
Ziska  totally  defeated  him.  The  blind  commander  in- 
vaded Austria  and  Hungary.  His  victory  at  Arssig  placed 
the  Austrian  dominions  at  his  mercy.  He  founded  among 
his  peasant  heroes  the  modern  science  of  fortification;  he 
held  at  bay  the  arms  of  all  Germany ;  he  restored  the  in- 
dependence of  Bohemia,  extinguished  factions,  and  achieved 
eleven  victories  in  pitched  battles.  Apparently  immortal 
in  war,  he  fell  at  last  by  the  plague ;  but  ordered,  it  is  said, 
that  his  skin  should  be  converted  into  drum-heads,  to  be 
beat  in  the  marches  of  his  soldiers.  Eleven  years  after  his 
death  did  they  maintain  the  desperate  struggle.  After 
memorable  scenes  of  fanaticism  and  terror  on  both  sides, 
it  was  concluded  at  last  by  the  treaty  of  Prague,  nearly 
twenty  years  subsequent  to  the  martyrdom  of  Jerome  and 
Huss.  That  treaty  conceded  the  most  important  religious 
demands  of  the  Bohemians ;  but  the  Papal  party  afterward 
denied  them.  The  Hussites  were  depressed,  persecuted, 
and  exiled ;  and  it  seemed  at  times  that  the  movement  had 
been  defeated,  and  that  "  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  "  could 
not,  in  this  instance  at  least,  be  said  to  be  "  the  seed  of  the 
Church."  It  is  not  necessary,  in  order  to  vindicate  a  maxim 
which  has  so  often  been  the  boast  of  Christian  virtue  and 
suffering,  to  trace  the  influence  of  the  Wicklifite  and  Hussite 
agitations  on  the  "  Great  Reformation "  a  century  later. 
The  Bohemian  Reformation,  though  repressed,  was  not 
extinguished.  It  had  its  own  peculiar  effect  on  the  world, 
and  has  it  to-day.  Many  families  lingered  in  Bohemia  and 
Moravia  from  generation  to  generation,  retaining,  in  humble 
obscurity,  the  truth  for  which  the  Constance  martyrs  had 
burned.  A  half  century  after  their  martyrdom  the  prisons 
of  Bohemia  groaned  with  the  sufferings  of  their  faithful  fol- 
lowers. Five  years  later  they  were  again  ruthlessly  hunted 
down  by  persecutions.  They  were  declared  outlaws ;  were 
expatriated  and  despoiled  of  their  property.  The  sick  and 
aged  were  driven  out  of  their  homes,  and  many  perished  of 


WESLEY    AND    THE    MORAVIANS,  97 

cold  and  hunger.  Some  expired  in  dungeons,  others  were 
tortured  and  burned,  and  the  remnant  took  refuge  in  the 
thickest  forests, ,  where,  fearing  discovery  during  the  day, 
they  kindled  their  fires  only  by  night,  and  around  them 
spent  the  hours  in  watchings,  in  reading  the  Scriptures,^  in 
mutual  exhortations,  and  in  prayer,^ 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  these  persecuted  Bohemians  ga  ve 
the  first  printed  edition  of  the  Bible  to  the  world,  and  the  old- 
est version  in  any  modern  language.  They  established  presses 
at  three  different  places  for  the  purpose  of  printing  it,  and  had 
issued  three  editions  before  Luther  appeared.  They  hailed 
the  Reformation  under  Luther ;  the  terrible  "  Thirty  Years' 
War "  ensued,  but  failed  to  secure  them  liberty  of  con- 
science ;  and  they  wandered  away  to  other  lands  to  find  it. 
One  of  them — Christian  David,  an  earnest-minded  carpenter 
— led  ten  persons  of  like  mind  from  Schlen,  Moravia,  to 
Bertholsdorf,  in  Lusatia,  a  domain  of  which  Count  Zinzen- 
dorf,  a  devout  young  nobleman,  was  then  lord.  He  was 
absent,  but  welcomed  them  by  Heitz,  his  major-domo ; 
Heitz  led  the  little  band  to  a  piece  of  land,  near  a  mound, 
the  Hutberg  or  Watch-hill,  where  Christian  David,  lifting 
his  ax,  cleaved  a  tree,  exclaiming :  "  Here  hath  the  sparrow 
found  a  house,  and  the  swallow  a  nest  for  herself,  even 
thine  altars,  O  Lord  of  hosts."  On  the  17th  of  June, 
1722,  the  first  tree  was  cut  down ;  on  the  17th  of  October 
the  exiles  entered  their  new  home.  Tlie  count  was  still 
absent,  but  his  pious  major-domo  wrote  him  a  report  of 
their  progress.  A  phrase  in  his  letter  has  since  given  name 
to  the  locality,  and  become  a  household  word,  if  not  a 
watchword  throughout  the  Pratestant  world.  "  May  God 
bless  the  w^ork  according  to  his  loving-kindness,"  wrote 
Heitz,  "  and  grant  that  your  excellency  may  build  a  city  on 
the  Watch-hill,  [Hutherg^  which  may  not  only  stand  under 
the  Lord's  guardianship,  but  where  all  the  inhabitants  may 

^  "  Memorial  Days  of  the  Ancient  Brethren's  Church."    The  chief  sourca 
of  my  data  respecting  the  Bohemian  Eeformation  is  Bonnechose's  Ee- 
formers  before  the  Reformation.    See  also  Southey's  Wesley,  chap.  5. 
Vol.  f.— 7 


98  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

stand  upon  the  AYatch  of  the  Lord!"  [Hermhut.']  At 
the  dedication  of  the  building  the  good  major-dona o  dis- 
coursed to  the  little  company  on  the  words  of  Isaiah :  "  I  will 
set  watchmen  upon  thy  walls,  O  Jerusalem !  which  shall 
never  hold  their  peace  day  nor  night :  ye  that  make  mention 
of  the  Lord  keep  not  silence,  and  give  him  no  rest  till  he 
establish,  and  till  he  make  Jerusalem  a  praise  in  the  earth." 

Thus  arose  Hermhut — Watch  of  the  Lord — and  the 
Moravian  Brotherhood,  a  religious  community  whose  name 
is  as  "  omtment  poured  forth,"  whose  missions  have  been 
the  admiration  of  all  good  men,  and  who,  in  our  day,  have 
the  extraordmary  distinction  of  enrolling  the  majority  of 
their  communicants  on  their  lists  of  reclaimed  pagans. 

Zinzendorf,  accompanied  by  his  young  wife,  visited  the 
domain  some  few  months  later,  and  seeing  from  the  high- 
way the  new  home  of  the  exiles  in  the  forest,  descended 
from  his  carriage,  and  hastily  entering  it,  fell  upon  his 
knees  amid  the  group  of  grateful  inmates,  and  "  blessed  the 
place  with  a  warm  heart."  '  He  had  secured  Roth,  a  dili- 
gent pastor,  for  his  tenants  at  Bertholdsdorf,  and  his  friend, 
the  pastor  Schaefer,  had  said  at  the  introduction  of  E-oth : 
"  God  will  place  a  light  upon  these  hills  which  will  illumi- 
nate the  v/hole  country ;  of  this  I  am  assured  by  a  living 
faith."  The  count  shared  this  faith,  and  sacrificing  the 
honors  and  prospects  of  his  rank,  devoted  himself  thence- 
forth to  Christian  labors.  His  friend,  the  Baron  de  Watte- 
ville,  joined  him ;  the  lady  Goanna  de  Zetzschwitz  subse- 
quently took  thither  a  number  of  young  women  for  education, 
and  founded  the  famous  Economy  of  Girls  at  Herrnhut,  and 
'the  forest  sanctuary  now  became  the  home  of  hundreds, 
not  only  of  the  remnants  of  the  old  Bohemian  Protestants, 
but  of  devout  men  from  many  parts  of  Europe. 

The  government  grew  jealous  of  the  new  establishment, 
and  the  count  was  exiled,  and  saved  his  estates  only  by  secur- 
ing them  to  his  wife.  Disguised  by  the  name  of  De  Erey- 
deck,  one  of  his  real  but  least  known  titles,  he  traveled  in 
Germany,  and  became  a  private  tutor  in  the  family  of  a 


WESLEY    AND    THE    MOEAVIANS.  99 

mercliant  till  he  could  prepare  himself  for  an  examination 
for  ordination.  He  succeeded,  and  began  to  preach,  and 
journeyed  as  an  evangelist  in  Sweden,  Holland,  Switzer- 
land, and  England.  Meanwhile,  under  his  patronage,  mis- 
sionaries were  passing  out  from  Herrnhut  to  various  parts 
of  the  world.  He  visited  in  their  behalf  the  West  Indies, 
New- York,  and  Pennsylvania.  Returning  to  revisit  his 
Herrnhut  people,  he  was  imprisoned,  was  re-banished,  and 
resumed  his  religious  travels  in  various  parts  of  Europe. 
Finally  he  found  shelter  again  among  his  devoted  Herrn- 
huters,  and  died  at  the  age  of  sixty,  amid  the  tears  and 
prayers  of  "nearly  a  hundred  brethren  and  sisters  who 
were  assembled  in  the  room  where  he  lay  and  the  adjoin- 
ing apartments."*  A  few  hours  before  his  departure  he 
said  to  those  around  him :  "  We  are  together  like  angels ; 
and  as  if  we  were  in  heaven."  "  Did  you  suppose,"  he 
asked,  "  in  the  beginning,  that  the  Saviour  would  do  as 
much  as  we  now  really  see,  in  the  various  Moravian  settle- 
ments, among  the  children  of  God  of  other  denominations, 
and  among  the  heathen  1  I  only  entreated  of  him  a  few  first- 
fruits  of  the  latter,  but  there  are  now  thousands  of  them." 

The  "  Reformers  before  the  Reformation  "  had  not  then 
Jabored  in  vain.  The  Bohemian  sufferers  at  Constance  had 
verified  the  maxim  so  often  consecrated  by  the  tears  and 
thanksgivings  of  the  faithful,  that  "  the  blood  of  the  martyrs 
is  the  seed  of  the  Church."  There  gleam  to-day  on  the 
darkest  skies  of  the  Pagan  world  reflections  of  light  from 
the  martyr  fires  of  Constance;  and  Herrnhut,  "the  watch 
of  the  Lord,"  has  become  a  watch-light  to  the  world. 
From  this  people — so  remarkable  and  fruitful  in  their  his- 
tory— was  Methodism  not  only  to  copy  much  of  its  internal 
discipline,  but  to  receive  the  impulse  which  wg,s  yet  neces- 
sary to  start  it  on  its  appointed  route.  Wesley  had  already 
learned  much  from  them.  In  their  resignation  amid  the 
storms  of  the  Atlantic,  he  had  seen  a  piety  which  he  pos- 

4  Spangenberg's  Life  of  Zinzendorf,  translated  by  Samuel  Jackson. 
London.  1838. 


100  HISTORY    OF    METHOD  IS  AL 

sessed  not  himself.  On  his  landing  in  Georgia,  the  doctrine 
of  the  "  Witness  of  the  Spirit,"  which  had  dawned  upon  his 
mind  from  the  Scriptures,  while  reading  Jeremy  Taylor  at 
Oxford,  was  brought  home  to  his  conscience  by  the  appeal 
of  Spangenberg.  His  unavailing  asceticism  had  been  re- 
buked there  by  their  more  cheerful  practical  piety ;  his 
unsuccessful,  because  defective,  preaching,  by  their  more 
evangelical  and  more  useful  labors ;  and  his  rigid  eccle- 
siasticism  by  the  apostolic  simplicity  of  their  Church  coun- 
cils. And  now,  hardly  had  he  landed  in  England  from 
Georgia  w^hen  witnesses  for  the  truth,  from  Herrnhut,  met 
him  again  with  the  appeal :  "  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it." 
They  had  established  or  revived  several  small  assemblies 
in  London  and  elsewhere.  One  of  their  preachers,  Peter 
Bohler,  a  name  which  will  ever  be  naemorable  to  Meth- 
odists, had  just  arrived  in  the  city.  Wesley  first  met 
him  on  February  7,  1738,  about  a  w^eek  after  his  owa 
arrival — "  a  day  much  to  be  remembered,"  he  "^Tites. 
"  From  this  time,"  he  adds,  "  I  did  not  willingly  lose  an 
opportunity  of  conversing  with  him."^  He  again  records 
that  "by  Bohler,  in  the  hand  of  the  great  God,  I  was  con- 
vinced of  unbelief,  of  the  want  of  that  faith  whereby  alone 
w^e  are  saved."  At  a  later  date  he  says  that  he  was  amazed 
more  and  more  by  the  accounts  which  Bohler  gave  of  the 
fruits  of  living  faith — the  holiness  and  happiness  which  he 
affirmed  to  attend  it.  Wesley  began  the  Greek  Testament 
anew,  resolving  to  abide  by  the  law  and  the  testimony,  and 
being  confident  that  it  would  show  him  whether  this  doctrine 
was  of  God.  On  the  first  day  of  the  following  April  we 
read  in  his  journal :  "  Being  at  Mr.  Fox's  society  my  heart 
was  so  full  that  I  could  not  confine  myself  to  the  forms  of 
prayer  which  we  were  accustomed  to  use  there.  Neither 
do  I  propose  to  he  confined  to  them  any  more^  but  to  pray 
indifferently,  with  a  form  or  without,  as  may  be  suitable  to 
particular  occasions."  He  began  to  see  "  the  promise,"  he 
says,  "but  it  was  afar  off'."  Again  he  records  that  he  met 
6  "Wesley's  Journal,    Auno,  1738. 


WESLEY    AND    THE    MORAVIANS.  101 

Peter  Bohler  once  more,  and  had  now  no  objection  to  what 
the  Moravian  said  on  the  nature  of  faith ;  namely,  that  it  is — ■ 
to  use  the  words  of  the  Anglican  Church — "  a  sure  trust  and 
confidence  which  a  man  hath  in  God,  that  through  the  merits 
of  Christ  his  sins  are  forgiven,  and  he  reconciled  to  the  favor 
of  Ood."  Neither  could  he  deny  the  happiness  nor  holiness 
which  Bohler  described  as  fruits  of  this  living  faith.  "The 
Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  vfith  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God,"  and,  "  He  that  believeth  hath  the  witness  in 
himself,"  were  texts  which  fully  convinced  him  of  the  former, 
as  "Whosoever  is  born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin,"  and, 
"  Whosoever  believeth  is  born  of  God,"  did  of  the  latter.  He 
was  staggered,  however,  for  a  time,  at  the  Moravian  doctrine 
of  an  instantaneous  change  of  heart.  Desponding  under  a 
sense  of  guilt,  he  subsequently  adds :  "  Yet  I  hear  a  voice — 
and  is  it  not  the  voice  of  God? — saying,  'Believe,  and  thou 
shalt  be  saved.  He  that  believeth  is  passed  from  death 
unto  life.  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only- 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish  but  have  everlasting  life.'  O,  let  no  one  deceive  us 
by  vain  words  as  if  we  had  already  attained  this  faith — that 
is,  the  proper  Christian  faith.  By  its  fruits  we  shall  know. 
Do  we  already  feel  ^  peace  with  God,'  and  'joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost  V  Does  '  his  Spirit  bear  witness  with  our  spirit  that 
we  are  the  children  of  Godf'  Alas,  with  mine  he  does  not ! 
O  then.  Saviour  of  men,  save  us  from  trusting  in  anything 
but  thee  !  Draw  us  after  thee !  Let  us  be  emptied  of  our- 
selves, and  then  fill  us  with  peace  and  joy  in  believing, 
and  let  nothing  separate  us  from  thy  love,  in  time  or  in 
eternity." 

The  indefatio;able  Bohler  and  his  humble  associates  had 
already  been  guiding  Charles  Wesley  into  "  the  way  of  sal- 
vation by  faith ;"  and  as  Charles  was  the  first  of  the  brothers 
who  received  the  name  of  Methodist,  so  was  he  the  first  to 
learn  by  experience  the  saving  truth  which  Methodism  was 
destined  to  witness  to  the  world.  He  had  conversed  with 
Zinzendorf,  and  had  been  in  one  of  the  small  Moravian  as- 


102  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

semblies,  where,  he  says,  "  I  thought  myself  in  a  choir  of 
angeis."^  He  was  entertained  during  a  period  of  sickness 
at  the  house  of  a  pious  mechanic,  by  the  name  of  Bray, 
"who  was  an  attendant  of  the  London  "  Societies,"  and  who, 
he  says,  is  "now  to  supply  Peter  Bohler's  place,"  as  the 
latter  had  left  England.  This  devoted  artisan  read  the 
Scriptures  to  him,  and  was  able,  from  his  own  experimental 
knowledge  of  them,  to  direct  his  troubled  mind.  "  God 
sent,"  he  says,  "  Mr.  Bray,  a  poor,  ignorant  mechanic,  who 
knows  nothing  but  Christ;  yet,  by  knowing  him,  knows 
and  discerns  all  things."  A  Christian  woman  of  the  family 
conversed  with  him  on  the  nature  of  faith.  "  Has  God 
bestowed  faith  on  you  ?"  he  asked.  "  Yes,  he  has."  "  Why, 
have  you  peace  with  God  ?"  "  Yes,  perfect  peace."  "  And 
do  you  love  Christ  above  all  things'^"  "I  do,  above  all 
things  incomparably."  "Then,  are  you  willing  to  die'?" 
"  I  am,  and  would  be  glad  to  die  this  moment ;  for  I  know 
all  my  sins  are  blotted  out;  the  hand^vriting  that  was 
against  me  is  taken  out  of  the  way,  and  nailed  to  the  cross. 
He  has  saved  me  by  his  death.  He  has  washed  me  by  his 
blood.  He  has  hid  me  in  his  wounds.  I  have  peace  in  him, 
and  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  Her  an- 
swers to  the  most  searching  questions  he  could  ask  were  so 
full,  that  he  had  no  doubt  of  her  having  received  the  atone- 
ment, and  waited  for  it  himself  with  a  more  assured  hope. 

On  May  21,  1738,  he  inserts  a  remarkable  passage  in  his 
journal :  "  I  waked  in  hope  and  expectation  of  His  coming. 
At  night  my  brother  and  some  friends  came  and  sang  a 
hymn  to  the  Holy  Ghost.  My  comfort  and  hope  were 
hereby  increased.  In  about  half  an  hour  they  went.  I  be- 
took myself  to  prayer,  the  substance  as  follows  :  '  O,  Jesus, 
thou  hast  said,  /  will  come  unto  you.  Thou  hast  said,  /  will 
send  the  Comforter  unto  you.     Thou  hast  said.  My  Father 

6  Jackson's  Life  of  diaries  "Wesley,  chapter  iv.  I  cannot  too  strongly 
commend  this  work.  It  has  been  our  best  history  of  Methodism.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  the  American  edition  omits  many  of  its  best  specimens 
of  Charles  Wesley's  poetry.  The  English  edition  is  a  mosaic  set  with 
the  gems  of  his  genius. 


WESLEY    AND    THE    MOEAYIANS.  103 

a/nd  I  will  come  unto  you  and  make  our  abode  with  you.  Thou 
art  God,  who  canst  not  lie.  I  wholly  rely  ujDon  thy  most 
true  promise.  Accomplish  it  in  thy  time  and  manner." 
Having  thus  prayed  he  was  composing  himself  to  sleep  in 
quietness  and  peace,  when  he  heard  some  one  say,  "  In  the 
name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  arise,  and  believe,  and  thou 
shalt  be  healed  of  all  thy  infirmities."  The  words  were 
so  appropriate  to  his  state  of  mind  that  they  "  struck  him  to 
the  heart."  He  said  within  himself,  "  0  that  Christ  would  but 
speak  thus  to  me !"  and  lay  "  musing  and  trembling  for  some 
time."  Then  ringing  the  bell  for  an  attendant  he  sent  to 
ascertain  who  had  uttered  the  words,  feeling  in  the  mean 
time  "  a  strange  palpitation  of  heart,"  and  saying,  yet  fear- 
ing to  say,  I  believe,  I  believe.  The  devout  woman  who 
had  before  given  him  so  positive  a  testimony  respecting  the 
knowledge  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  came  to  him  and  said : 
"  It  was  I,  a  weak,  sinful  creature,  that  spoke ;  but  the  words 
were  Christ's.  He  commanded  me  to  say  them,  and  so  con- 
strained me  that  I  could  not  forbear."  He  sent  for  his 
pious  host,  and  asked  him  whether  it  would  be  right  for 
him  to  dare  to  presume  that  he  now  had  Faith  ?  Bray  an- 
swered, that  he  ought  not  to  doubt  of  it ;  it  was  Christ  that 
spoke  to  him ;  he  knew  it,  and  wished  them  to  pray  to- 
gether. "  But  first,"  said  he,  "  I  will  read  what  I  have 
casually  opened  upon :  '  Blessed  is  the  man  whose  transgres- 
sion is  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered.  Blessed  is  the  man  to 
whom  the  Lord  imputeth  not  iniquity,  and  in  whose  spirit 
there  is  no  guile.' "  "  Still,"  says  Wesley,  "  I  felt  a  violent 
opposition  and  reluctance  to  believe ;  yet  still  the  Spirit  of 
God  strove  with  my  own  and  the  evil  spirit,  till,  by  degrees, 
he  chased  away  the  darkness  of  my  unbelief  I  found  myself 
convinced,  I  knew  not  how  nor  when,  and  immediately  fell 
to  intercession.  I  now  found  myself  at  peace  with  God,  and 
rejoiced  in  hope  of  loving  Christ.  My  temper  was  for  the 
rest  of  the  day  mistrust  of  my  own  great  but  unknown 
M^eakness.  I  saw  that  by  faith  I  stood,  and  the  continual 
support  of  faith  kept  me  from  falling,  though  of  myself  I  am 


104  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

ever  sinking  into  sin.  I  went  to  bed  still  sensible  of  mj 
own  weakness ;  I  humbly  hope  to  be  more  and  more  sOy  yet 
confident  of  Christ's  protection." 

Three  days  after  Charles  had  thus  attained  "  rest  to  his 
soul,"  John  also  found  it.  He  records  that  he  continued 
to  seek  it,  though  w^ith  strange  indifference,  dullness,  and 
coldness,  and  unusually  frequent  relapses  into  sin,  till  Wed- 
nesday, May  24.  About  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  that 
day  he  opened  his  Testament  on  these  words :  "  There  are 
given  unto  us  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises,  even 
that  ye  should  be  partakers  of  the  divine  nature."  2  Peter  i,4. 
Just  as  he  went  out  he  opened  it  again  on  the  passage,  "Thou 
art  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God."  In  the  evening  he 
w^ent  very  unwillingly  to  a  society  in  Aldersgate-street,  where 
a  layman  was  reading  Luther's  preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans;  about  a  quarter  before  nine,  while  listening  to 
Luther's  description  of  the  change  which  the  Spirit  works 
in  the  heart  through  faith  in  Christ,  "  I  felt,"  writes  Wesley, 
"  my  heart  strangely  warmed.  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.  But  it  was  not  long  before 
the  enemy  suggested,  '  This  cannot  be  faith,  for  where  is  thy 
joy  V  Then  was  I  taught  that  peace  and  victory  over  sin 
are  essential  to  faith  in  the  Captain  of  our  salvation ;  but 
that,  as  to  the  transports  of  joy  which  usually  attend  the  be- 
ginning of  it,  especially  in  those  who  have  mourned  deeply, 
God  sometimes  giveth,  sometimes  withholdeth  them,  accord- 
ing to  the  counsels  of  his  own  will.  After  my  return  home 
I  was  much  buflfeted  with  temptations,  but  cried  out  and 
they  fled  away.  They  returned  again  and  again ;  I  as  often 
lifted  up  my  eyes,  and  He  sent  me  help  from  his  holy  place. 
And  herein  I  found  the  difference  between  this  and  my 
former  state  chiefly  consisted.  I  was  striving,  yea  fighting 
with  all  my  might  under  the  law  as  well  as  under  grace. 
But  then  I  was  sometimes,  if  not  often,  conquered ;  now  I 
was  always  conqueror."     Thus  had  the  feet  of  both  the 


WESLEY    AND    THE    MOEAVIANS.  105 

brothers  been  directed  into  the  path  of  life  by  the  instru- 
mentality of  the  London  Moravians. 

Wesley's  mother,  who  was  residing  in  London,  was  still 
his  guide  and  counselor.  He  read  to  her  a  paper  recording 
his  late  religious  experience.  She  strongly  approved  it, 
and  said  "  she  heartily  blessed  God  who  had  brought  him  to 
so  just  a  way  of  thinking."'^  Thus,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year 
of  his  age,  after  twenty-five  years,  as  he  elsewhere  informs  us,^ 
of  religious  solicitude  and  struggles,  did  he.  by  a  clearer  ap- 
prehension of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  find  rest 
to  his  soul,  and  feel  himself  at  last  authorized  to  preach  that 
blessing  to  all  contrite  men,  from  his  own  experimental 
proof  of  its  reality.  But  had  he  not  faith  before  1  Doubtless 
he  had ;  at  another  time  he  declared  that  he  had,  but  that  it 
was  "  the  faith  of  a  servant "  rather  than  "  of  a  child."  The 
animadversions  of  Southey  and  Coleridge  on  his  present  ex- 
perience are  conclusively  met  by  the  direct  question  whether 
that  experience  was  in  accordance  with  the  Scriptures  or 
not.  Was  his  previous  state  of  inward  struggle  and  deso- 
lation, or  his  present  one  of  settled  trust  and  peace,  most 
in  harmony  with  the  Scriptural  description  of  a  regenerated 
soul,  which  has  "  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,"  having  "  not  received  the  spirit  of  bondage  unto 
fear,  but  the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba, 
Father?"  Any  further  question  than  this  on  the  subject,  is 
not  one  of  Christian  experience,  but  of  Christianity  itself 

The  interest  which  these  and  previous  events  had  given 
him  for  the  Moravians,  induced  him  to  visit  Herrnhut.  In 
about  a  fortnight  he  set  out  on  the  journey,  accompanied  by 
his  friend,  Ingham,  and  six  others.  At  Marienborn  they 
met  Zinzendorf,  who  had  organized  there  a  brotherhood  of 
about  fifty  disciples  from  various  countries.  "  I  continu- 
ally met,"  says  Wesley,  "with  what  I  sought  for,  living 
proofs  of  the  power  of  faith ;  persons  saved  from  inward  as 

7  Compare  his  Journal,  June  8,  1788,  with  Jnnc  18,  1739.  These  ref- 
erences effectually  correct  Southey's  misrepresentations  of  her  opinion 
on  the  subject.  '^  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  1. 


106  HISTOEY   OF    METHODISM. 

well  as  outward  sin,  by  the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in 
their  hearts ;  and  from  all  doubt  and  fear,  by  the  abiding 
witness  of  the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  them."  He  sums  up 
the  views  which  Zinzendorf  gave  him  concerning  justifica- 
tion, as  follows :  1.  Justification  is  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
2.  The  moment  a  man  flies  to  Christ  he  is  justified.  3.  And 
has  peace  with  God,  but  not  always  joy.  4.  Nor,  perhaps, 
m.ay  he  know  he  is  justified  till  long  after.  5.  For  the»as- 
surance  of  it  is  distinct  from  justification.  6.  But  others 
may  know  he  is  justified  by  his  power  over  sin,  by  his 
seriousness,  by  his  love  of  the  brethren,  and  his  "hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness,"  which  alone  prove  the  spirit- 
ual life  to  be  begun.  7.  To  be  justified  is  the  same  thing 
as  to  be  born  of  God.  ("  Not  so,"  interpolates  Wesley.) 
8.  When  a  man  is  awakened  he  is  begotten  of  God,  and  his 
fear  and  sorrow,  and  sense  of  the  wrath  of  God,  are  the 
pangs  of  the  new  birth. 

He  passed  to  Herrnhut,  which  he  reached  August  1, 1738. 
He  describes  it  as  lying  in  Upper  Lusatia,  on  the  border  of 
Bohemia,  and  containing  about  a  hundred  houses,  built  on  a 
rising  ground,  with  evergreen  woods  on  two  sides,  gardens 
and  cornfields  on  the  others,  and  high  hills  in  the  back 
ground.  It  had  one  long  street,  through  which  the  great 
road  from  Zittau  to  Lobau  extended.  Fronting  the  middle 
of  this  street  was  the  orpnan  house,  in  the  lower  part  of 
which  was  the  apothecaries'  shop;  in  the  upper  the  chapel, 
capable  of  containing  six  or  seven  hundred  people.  Another 
row  of  houses  ran,  at  a  small  distance,  from  the  orphan 
house,  which  accordingly  divided  the  rest  of  the  tOAvn,  be- 
sides the  long  street,  into  two  squares.  At  the  cast  end  of 
it  was  the  Count's  house,  a  small,  plain  building  like  the 
j-est,  having  a  large  garden  behind  it,  which  was  well  laid 
out,  not  for  show  but  for  the  use  of  the  community.  Wes- 
ley spent  there  about  a  fortnight.  He  found  at  Herrnhut 
defects,  doubtless,  but  his  best  expectations  were  surpassed. 
"  God,"  he  says,  "  has  given  me  at  length  the  desire  of  my 
heart.      I   am   with   a    Church    whose  conversation   is   in 


WESLEY   AND   THE    MORAVIANS.  107 

heaven,  in  whom  is  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  and  who 
walk  as  he  walked.  As  they  have  all  one  Lord  and  one 
faith,  so  they  are  all  partakers  of  one  spirit,  ttH  spirit  of 
meekness  and  love,  which  uniformly  and  continually  ani- 
mates all  their  conversation.  O  how  high  and  holy  a  thing 
Christianity  is,  and  how  widely  distant  from  that  which  is 
so  called,  though  it  neither  purifies  the  heart  nor  renews  the 
life,  after  the  image  of  our  blessed  Redeemer."  He  heard 
there,  with  admiration,  Christian  David,  who  had  cleaved 
with  his  ax  the  first  tree  for  the  mansion  of  the  colony.  Of 
justification  this  Christian  mechanic  said :  "  The  right  found- 
ation is  not  your  contrition — though  that  is  not  your  own, 
not  your  righteousness,  nothing  of  your  own,  nothing  that 
is  wrought  in  you  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  but  it  is  something 
without  you,  the  righteousness  and  the  blood  of  Christ.  For 
this  is  the  word:  'To  him  that  believeth  on  God,  that  justi- 
fieth  the  ungodly,  his  faith  is  counted  for  righteousness.' 
This,  then,  do  if  you  would  lay  a  right  foundation.  Go 
straight  to  Christ  mth  all  your  ungodliness ;  tell  him, '  Thou 
whose  eyes  are  as  a  flame  of  fire,  searching  my  heart,  seest 
that  I  am  ungodly ;  I  plead  nothing  else,  I  do  not  say  I 
am  humble  or  contrite,  but  I  am  ungodly ;  therefore  bring 
me  to  him  that  justifieth  the  jmgodly,  Let  thy  blood  be  the 
propitiation  for  me.'  Here  is  a  mystery,  here  the  wise 
men  of  the  world  are  lost ;  it  is  foolishness  unto  them." 

He  was  struck  by  the  peculiarity  of  almost  everything 
about  this  Christian  community.  Some  of  its  customs  were 
questionable,  but  most  appeared  to  him  peculiar  only  in  the 
sense  of  being  thoroughly  Christian.  Even  what  might  be 
called  their  recreations  were  religious.  He  saw,  with  agree- 
able surprise,  all  the  young  men  march  around  the  town  in 
the  evening,  "  as  is  their  custom,"  singing  praise  with  instru- 
ments of  music,  and  gathering  into  a  circle  on  a  neighboring 
hill  to  join  in  prayer.  Returning  with  resounding  songs, 
they  concluded  the  evening,  and  made  their  mutual  adieus 
by  commending  one  another  to  God  in  the  great  square. 
He  was  affected  by  their  simple  burial  rites.     Their  grave- 


108  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

yard  was  "  God's  Acre."  They  bore  thither  the  dead 
with  hymns.  Little  children  led  the  procession,  and  carried 
the  bier  oi  a  deceased  child.  He  saw  a  bereaved  father, 
a  humble  mechanic,  looking  upon  the  grave  of  his  infant, 
and  wishing  to  console  him,  found  it  unnecessary,  for  he 
had  a  higher  comforter.  Wesley  inquired  respecting  his 
affliction.  "  Praised  be  the  Lord,"  was  the  parent's  reply ; 
"  praised  be  the  Lord,  he  has  taken  the  soul  of  my  child  to 
himself;  I  know  that  when  his  body  is  raised  again  both  he 
and  I  shall  be  ever  with  the  Lord." 

"  I  would  gladly,"  says  Wesley,  "  have  spent  my  life  here, 
but  my  Master  calling  me  to  labor  in  other  parts  of  his 
vineyard,  I  was  constrained  to  take  my  leave  of  this  happy 
place."  He  returned  as  he  came,  on  foot,  bearing  with  him 
lessons  which  were  to  be  available  in  all  his  subsequent  career. 

Methodism  owes  to  Moravianism  special  obligations. 
First  it  introduced  Wesley  into  that  regenerated  spiritual 
life,  the  supremacy  of  which  over  all  ecclesiasticism  and 
dogmatism  it  was  the  appointed  mission  of  Methodism 
to  reassert  and  promote  in  the  Protestant  world.  Second, 
Wesley  derived  from  it  some  of  his  clearest  conceptions 
of  the  theological  ideas  which  he  was  to  propagate  as  essen- 
tially related  to  this  spiritual  life;  and  he  now  returned 
from  Herrnhut  not  only  confirmed  in  his  new  religious 
experience,  but  in  these  most  im|)ortant  doctrinal  vie^vfe. 
Third,  Zinzendorf 's  communities  were  based  upon  Spener's 
plan  of  reforming  the  Established  Churches,  by  forming 
"little  Churches  within  them,"^  in  despair  of  maintaining 
spiritual  life  among  them  otherwise;  Wesley  thus  organ- 
ized Methodism  within  the  Anglican  Church.  And,  fourth, 
not  only  in  this  general  analogy,  but  in  many  details  of  his 
discipline  can  we  trace  the  influence  of  Moravianism. 

He  reached  England  in  September,  1738.  After  these 
providential  preparations,  he  was  ready  to  begin  his  great 
career,  though  as  yet  without  a  distinct  anticipation  of  its 
historical  importance. 

»  Spangenberg's  Life  of  Zinzendorf. 


BOOK    II 

OEIGIN    AND   PROGRESS    OF   METHODISM. 

1739—1744. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE    WESLEYS    AND    WHITEEIELB    ITII^TEEATII^G. 


Wesley  returns  from  Germany — Charles  "Wesley  —  Eeligioiis  "  Societies  " 
in  London  —  "Wesley  takes  Eefuge  in  them  when  expelled  from  the 
Clmrches  —  He  preaches  to  the  Prisoners  at  Newgate  —  His  Tenacity 
for  Church  Order  —  "Whitefield  arrives  —  He  is  denied  the  City  Pulpits 

—  He  goes  to  Bristol  —  Is  excluded  from  the  Pulpits  there  —  Preaches 
in  the  open  Air  at  Kingswood  —  "Wesley  at  Bristol  — He  begins  to 
preach  in  the  open  Air- — Vast  Congregations  —  Whitefield's  Departure 

—  Scenes  at  Kingswood  —  Methodism  in  Wales- — Griifith  Jones  — 
Howell  Harris  —  "Whitefield  in  Moorfields  —  Extraordinary  Effects  of  his 
Preaching  —  "Wesley's  Labors  —  He  encounters  Beau  Nash  at  Bath  — 
The  First  Methodist  Chapel  —"Wesley  in  Mooiilelds  —  Marvelous  Effects 
on  his  Hearers — Examples  —  Charles  "Wesley  threatened  with  Excom- 
munication—  He  preaches  in  Mooiiields  —  The  Foundry  opened  for 
"Worship  —  Separation  from  the  Moravians  —  Epoch  of  Methodism. 

While  Wesley  was  returning  to  England  on  the  German 
Ocean,  Whitefield.  was  also  returning  on  the  Atlantic.  They 
were  about  to  meet,  to  lay  permanently,  though  uncon- 
sciously, the  foundations  of  Methodism. 

Charles  Wesley  had  been  preaching  with  increased  zeal 
during  his  brother's  absence.  Several  clergymen  had  em 
braced  his  improved  views,  and  converts  were  multiplied 
daily  by  his  labors.  When  he  preached  the  houses  were 
generally   crowded  with   eager  hearers,  but   church   after 


110  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

church  was  closed  agamst  him.  He  had  taken  charge  of 
the  curacy  of  Islington,  but  was  ejected  from  it,  not  so  much 
because  of  his  doctrine,  as  for  the  earnestness  with  which 
he  uttered  it.  He  frequented 'Newgate,  and  ministered  to 
the  convicts ;  and  his  fervid  spirit  rejoiced  in  the  simple 
but  lively  devotions  of  the  small  assemblies  which  the 
Moravians  had  revived  in  London.  These  societies  were 
formed  in  1667,  under  the  labors  of  two  London  clergy- 
men, Horneck  and  *  Smithies,  and  the  auspices  of  Bishop 
Hopkins,  during  a  period  of  extraordinary  religious  inter- 
est. More  than  thirty  years  later  Dr.  Woodward  published 
an  account  of  them.  He  reports  that  there  were,  in  his  day, 
forty  in  London  and  its  neighborhood,  besides  several  in 
the  country  and  nine  in  Ireland.  They  seem  to  -have  had 
no  other  affiliation  than  a  common  purpose  and  the  ties  of 
a  more  intimate  religious  sympathy  than  the  formal  means 
of  grace  in  the  Established  Church  afforded.  They  became 
active  in  Christian  philanthropy,  and  originated,  it  is  said, 
no  less  than  twenty  associations  for  the  suppression  of  vice 
and  the  relief  of  suffering,  some  of  which  grew  into  suffi- 
cient importance  to  command  the  interest  of  several  bishops 
and  of  the  queen  of  William  III.^  They  had  latterly  much 
declined,  but  the  visits  of  the  Moravians  to  London  renewed 
a  few  of  them.  They  seemed  a  providential  preparation  for 
the  approaching  development  of  Methodism ;  ^  for  Avhen  the 
Wesleys  were  expelled  from  the  pulpits  of  the  Establish- 
m.ent,  they  found  refuge  and  audiences  in  these  humble  as- 
semblies, and  they  afforded  at  last  the  nucleus  and  form  of 
the  m.ore  thoroughly  organized  Methodist  "  Societies "  in 
several  parts  of  the  kingdom. 

When  Wesley  reached  the  metropolis,  on  returning  from 
Germany,  he  flew  to  them  as  to  an  asylum.  He  arrived  oa 
Saturday  night.  The  next  day  "  I  began,"  he  says,  "  to  de- 
clare in  my  own  country  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation, 
preaching  three  times,  and  afterward  expounding  to  a  large 

1  Mary,  not  Anne  as  Smitli  says,  History  of  Methodism,  II,  2.  PLilip'a 
Life  of  Whitefield,  chap.  4. 


OKIGIN    OF    METHODISM. 

company  in  the  Minories.  On  Monday  I  rejoiced  to  meet 
our  little  society,  which  now  consisted  of  thirty-two  persons. 
The  next  day  I  went  to  the  condemned  felons  in  Newgate, 
and  offered  them  a  free  salvation.  In  the  evening  I  went  to 
a  society  in  Bear  Yard,  and  preached  repentance  and  remis- 
sion of  sins.  The  next  evening  I  spoke  the  truth  in  love  at 
a  society  in  Aldersgate-street ;  some  contradicted  at  first, 
but  not  long ;  so  that  nothing  but  love  appeared  at  our  part- 
ing. Thursday,  21st,  I  went  to  a  society  in  Gutter-lane, 
but  I  could  not  declare  the  mighty  works  of  God  there,  as  ] 
did  afterward  at  the  Savoy,  with  all  simplicity,  and  the 
word  did  not  return  empty.  -On  Saturday,  23d,  I  was 
enabled  to  speak  strong  words  both  at  Newgate  and  at  Mr. 
E.'s  society,  and  the  next  day  at  St.  Anne's,  and  twice  at  St. 
John's,  Clerkenwell,  so  that  I  fear  they  will  bear  with  me 
there  no  longer."  ^ 

Thus  he  entered  upon  the  great  career  of  his  life,  for  these 
incessant  labors  were  no  consequence  of  a  febrile  or  temporary 
zeal ;  they  are  an  example  of  what  was  thereafter  to  be  al- 
most his  daily  habit  till  he  fell,  in  his  eighty-eighth  year,  at 
the  head  of  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  followers, 
and  five  hundred  and  fifty  itinerant  preachers,  who  were 
stimulated  by  his  unabated  zeal  to  similar  labors  in  both 
hemispheres.  And  now  those  marvelous  "Journals"  which 
have  afforded  so  much  inspiration  to  the  devout,  so  much 
matter  of  criticism,  to  tKe  learned,  and  of  astonishment  and 
scorn  to  the  skeptical,  open  before  us  as  a  new  book  of  won- 
ders, calm  themselves,  but  hurrying  us  along,  year  after 
year,  with  an  almost  feverish  excitement.  He  began  by 
"  expounding,"  nearly  every  day,  in  the  London  "  Societies." 
On  Sundays  he  preached  in  the  churches,  but  at  the  end  of 
almost  every  sermon  he  records  it  to  be  the  last  time ;  not 
that  his  manner  was  clamorous,  or  in  any  way  eccentric;  nor 
that  his  doctrine  was  heretical,  for  it  was  clearly  that  of  the 
Homilies  and  other  standards  of  the  Church;  but  it  was 
brought  out  too  forcibly  and  presented  too  vividly  for  the 
2  Journal,    Sept.  17,  1738. 


112  HIST*OKY    OF    METHODISM. 

state  of  religious  life  around  him.  He  went  from  the  closed 
pulpits  not  only  to  the  "  Societies,"  but  to  the  prisons  and  the 
hospitals,  where  his  message  was  received  with  gratitude  and 
tears,  and  was  attended  with  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit 
and  of  power.  "  Friday,  November  3,  1738,"  he  writes,  "  I 
preached  at  St.  Antholin's ;  Sunday,  five  in  the  morning,  afc 
St.  Botolph's,  Bishopsgate;  in  the  afternoon  at  Islington; 
and  in  the  evening  to  such  a  congregation  as  I  never  saw 
before,  at  St.  Clement's  in  the  Strand.  As  this  was  the  first 
time  of  my  preaching  here,  I  suppose  it  is  to  be  the  last. 
On  Wednesday  my  brother  and  I  went,  at  their  earnest  de- 
sire, to  do  the  last  good  office  to  the  condemned  malefactors." 
He  describes  the  scene  at  their  execution  as  the  most 
affecting  instance  he  ever  saw  of  faith  triumphing  over  sin 
and  death.  Observing  the  tears  running  do'vvn  the  cheeks 
of  one  of  the  criminals,  while  his  eyes  were  steadily  fixed 
upward,  a  few  moments  before  he  died,  Wesley  asked,  "  How 
do  you  feel  now  ?"  He  calmly  replied :  "  I  feel  a  peace  which 
I  could  not  have  believed  to  be  possible ;  and  I  know  it  is 
the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding."  His 
brother  made  use  of  the  occasion  to  declare  the  Gospel  of 
peace  to  a  large  assembly  of  publicans  and  sinners.  "  O  Lord 
God  of  my  fathers,"  exclaimed  Wesley,  "accept  even  me 
among  them,  and  cast  me  not  out  from  among  thy  children." 
In  the  evening  he  was  preaching  at  Basingshaw  church,  and 
the  next  morning  at  St.  Antholin's. 

The  Wesleys  were  still  tenacious  of  "  Church  order ;" 
they  had  done  nothing,  nor  did  they  yet  intend  to  do  any- 
thing, which  was  contrary  to  that  order.  They  had  consult- 
ations  with  the  Bishop  of  London  and  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  were  found  by  these  prelates  to  be  even  too 
rigid  in  some  of  their  ecclesiastical  opinions.  The  former  ap- 
proved their  doctrine  of  Assurance  as  explained  in  his  pres- 
ence, but  had  to  reprove  them  for  their  readiness  to  rebap- 
tize  Dissenters.  The  latter  gave  them  sensible  advice. 
"  Keep,"  he  said,  "  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church ;  avoid  all 
exceptionable  phrases ;  preach  and  expound  only  th'e  essen- 


OKI  GIN     OF    METHODISM.  113 

fcials  of  religion ;  other  things,  time  and  the  providence  of 
God  only  can  cure." 

Denied  the  city  pulpits,  the  brothers  went  not  only  to 
the  "Societies"  and  prisons,  but  to  and  fro  in  the  country, 
preaching  almost  daily.  Vv^hitefield  was  needed  to  lead 
them  into  more  thorough  and  more  necessary  "irregular- 
ities." He  arrived  in  London  December  8,  1738.  Wesley 
hastened  to  greet  him,  and  on  the  12th  "  God  gave  us,"  he 
writes,  "  once  more  to  take  sweet  counsel  together."  The 
mighty  preacher  who  had  stirred  the  whole  metropolis  a 
year  before,  now  met  the  same  treatment  as  his  Oxford 
friends.  In  three  days  five  churches  were  denied  him.  Good, 
however,  was  to  come  out  of  this  evil.  He  also  had  recourse 
now  to  the  "  Societies,"  and  his  ardent  soul  caught  new  zeal 
from  their  simple  devotions  as  from  his  new  trials.  Wesley 
describes  a  scene  at  one  of  these  assemblies,  which  reminds 
us  of  the  preparatory  Pentecostal  baptism  of  fire,  by  which 
the  apostles  were  "  endued  with  power  from  on  high,"  for 
their  mission.  He  says,  January  1,  1739,  that  Messrs. 
Hall,  Kinchin,  Ingham,  Whiteiield,  and  his  brother  Charles 
were  present  with  him  at  a  love-feast  in  Eetter-lane,  with 
about  sixty  of  their  brethren.  About  three  in  the  morn- 
ing, as  they  were  continuing  instant  in  prayer,  the  power 
of  God  came  mightily  upon  them,  insomuch  that  many 
cried  out  for  exceeding  joy,  and  many  fell  to  the  ground. 
As  soon  as  they  had  recovered  a  little  from  the  awe  and 
amazement  which  the  presence  of  the  Divine  Majesty  had 
inspired,  they  broke  out  with  one  voice,  "We  praise  thee,  O 
God;  we  acknowledge  thee  to  be  the  Lord."  Whitefield  ex- 
claims: "It  was  a  Pentecostal  season,  indeed."  And  he  adds, 
respecting  these  "  Society  meetings,"  that  "sometimes  whole 
nights  were  spent  in  prayer.  Often  have  we  been  filled  as 
"W  ith  new  wine,  and  often  have  I  seen  them  overwhelmed  with 
the  Divine  Presence,  and  cry  out,  '  Will  God,  indeed,  dwell 
with  men  upon  earth  ]  How  dreadful  is  this  place  !  This 
is  no  other  than  the  house  of  God,  and  the  gate  of  heaven  !"'^ 

3  Gillies's  Life  of  Whitefield,  chap,  4,  note. 
Vol.  L--8 


114  HISTOKY     OF     METHODISM. 

m  this  manner  did  the  three  evangelists  begin  together  the 
memorable  year  which  was  afterward  to  be  recognized  as  the 
epoch  of  Methodism.  On  the  5th  Whitefield  records  an  oc- 
casion which  foreshadowed  the  future.  A  "  conference  "  wa? 
neld  at  Islington  with  seven  ministers,  "despised  Methodists/^ 
concerning  many  things  of  importance.  They  continued  in 
fasting  and  prayer  till  three  o'clock,  and  then  parted  ^^ivith^a 
full  conviction  that  God  was  about  to  do  great  things  among  us.^^^ 
r*  Whitefield  wished  to  take  collections  for  his  projected 
^'*•^«™Orphan  House,  but  the  churches  were  soon  generally  closed 
against  him ;  only  two  or  three  still  remained  at  his  com- 
mand for  a  few  days.  Preaching  in  one  of  them  with 
"  great  freedom  of  heart  and  clearness  of  voice,"  w^hile  nearly 
a  thousand  people  stood  outside  the  edifice,  and  hundreds 
had  gone  away  for  want  of  room,  he  was  struck  with  the 
thought  of  proclaiming  the  word,  as  Christ  did,  in  the  open 
air.  He  mentioned  it  to  some  friends,  who  looked  upon  it 
as  a  fanatical  notion.  "However,"  he  writes,  "we  knelt 
down  and  prayed  that  nothing  may  be  done  rashly.  Hear 
and  ansvv^er,  O  Lord,  for  thy  name's  sake." 

He  went  to  Bristol,  his  native  city,  which  had  formerly 
received  him  with  enthusiasm.  The  churches  were  open  to 
him  at  his  arrival,  but  in  a  fortnight  every  door  was  shut, 
except  that  of  Newgate  prison;  and  this,  also,  was  soon 
after  closed  against  him,  by  the  authority  of  the  mayor. 
Not  far  from  Bristol  lies  Kingswood,  a  place  which  has 
since  become  noted  in  the  history  of  Methodism.  It  was 
formerly  a  royal  chase,  but  its  forests  had  mostly  fallen, 
and  it  was  now  a  region  of  coal  mines,  and  inhabited  by  a 
population  which  is  described  as  lawless  and  brutal,  worse 
than  heathens,  and  diifering  as  much  from  the  people  of  the 
surrounding  country  in  dialect  as  in  appearance.^  There 
was  no  church  among  them,  and  none  nearer  than  the 
suburbs  of  Bristol,  three  or  four  miles  distant.  White- 
Eeld    found   here   an  unquestionable  justification   of    field 

*  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  "Whitefield,  chap.  4. 

*  Southey's  Wesley,  chap.  6. 


ORIGIN    OF    METHODISM.  115 

preaching,  and  on  Saturday,  February  17,  1739,  he  crossed 
the  Rubicon,  and  virtually  led  the  incipient  Methodism 
across  it,  by  the  extraordinary  irregularity  of  preaching 
in  the  open  air.  Standing  upon  a  mount,  he  proclaimed 
the'  truth  to  about  two  hundred  degraded  and  astonished 
colliers.  He  took  courage  from  the  reflection  that  he  was 
imitating  the  example  of  Christ,  who  had  a  mountain  for  his 
pulpit,  and  the  heavens  for  a  sounding-board ;  and  who, 
when  his  Gospel  was  refused  by  the  Jews,  sent  his  servants 
mto  the  highways  and  hedges.  "  Blessed  be  God,"  he  writes, 
"  that  the  ice  is  now  broke,  and  I  have  now  taken  the  field. 
Some  may  censure  me,  but  is  there  not  a  cause"?  Pulpits 
are  denied,  and  the  poor  colliers  are  ready  to  perish  for  lack 
of  knowledge." 

He  repeated  his  labors  at  Kingswood  with  continually  in- 
creasing hearers ;  two  thousand  were  present  at  his  second 
sermon;  from  four  to  five  thousand  at  his  third;  and  they 
rapidly  grew  to  ten,  fourteen,  and  twenty  thousand.  His 
marvelous  powers  found  their  full  play  in  this  new  arena, 
and  his  poetic  spirit  felt  the  grandeur  of  the  scene  and  its 
surroundings.  He  speaks  of  the  sun  shining  very  brightly, 
and  the  people  standing  in  such  "  an  awful  manner  around  the 
mount,"  and  in  such  profound  silence,  as  to  fill  him  with  a 
"holy  admiration."  The  trees  and  hedges  were  full.  All 
was  hushed  wdien  he  began ;  and  he  preached  for  an  hour 
with,  great  power,  and  so  distinctly  that  all  could  hear  him. 

"  Blessed  be  God,"  he  writes,  "  Mr. spoke  rightly ; 

the  fire  is  kindled  in  the  country."  To  behold  such  crowds 
standing  together  in  solemn  silence,  and  to  hear  the  echo  of 
their  singing  resounding  over  the  mighty  mass,  suggested 
to  him  the  scene  of  the  general  assembly  of  the  spirits  of 
just  men  made  perfect,  w^hen  they  shall  join  in  singing  the 
song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb  in  heaven !  The  moral  effect 
of  these  occasions  still  more  deeply  impressed  him.  Having 
no  righteousness  of  their  own  to  renounce,  the  poor  colliers 
were  glad  to  hear  that  Christ  was  a  friend  to  publicans,  and 
came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance.     He 


116  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

could  see  the  effect  of  his  words  by  the  white  gutters  made 
C  by  the  tears  which  trickled  down  their  blackened  cheeks, 
rt'for  they  came  unwashed  out  of  the  coal  pits  to  hear  him. 
Hundreds  after  hundreds  of  them  were  brought  under  deep 
religious  impressions,  which,  as  the  event  proved,  happily 
ended  in  soimd  and  thorough  conversions.  The  change  was 
soon  visible  to  all  observers.  As  the  scene  was  quite  new,  and 
Whitefield  had  just  begun  to  preach  extempore, it  often, he  says, 
occasioned^him  inward  conflicts.  Sometimes,  wh'en  twenty 
thousand  people  were  before  him,  he  had  not,  in  his  own  ap- 
prehension, a  word  to  say  either  to  God  or  to  them.  "But,'' 
he  continues,  "  I  was  never  totally  deserted,  and  frequently 
(for  to  deny  it  would  be  lying  agamst  God)  so  assisted  that 
I  knew  by  happy  experience  what  our  Lord  meant  by  say- 
ing, '  Out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water.' '' 
The  open  firmament  above  him,  the  prospect  of  the  adjacent 
fields,  with  the  sight  of  thousands  beyond  thousands,  some  m 
coaches,  some  on  horseback,  and  some  in  the  trees,  and  at 
times  "  all  affected  and  drenched  in  tears  together,"  presented 
a  scene  which  was  sublime  and  at  times  overpowering  to 
his  vivid  imagination,  especially  when  the  grand  picture  was 
impressed  with  the  solemnity  of  the  approaching  evenmg. 
"  It  was  then,"  he  writes,  "  almost  too  much  for,  and  quite 


overcame  me 


"6 


He  soon  began  to  preach  boldly  on  a  large  bowling-green 
in  Bristol,  and  as  thousands  flocked  to  the  novel  scene, 
he  wrote  to  Wesley  to  come  to 'his  aid.  Wesley  arrived 
on  Saturday  evening,  April  31,  1739.  He  could  hardly 
reconcile  himself  at  first,  he  says,  "  to  this  strange  way  of 
preaching  in  the  fields,  of  which  he  set  me  an  example  on 
Sunday,  having  been  all  my  life,  till  very  lately,  so  tenacious 
of  every  point  relating  to  decency  and  order,  that  I  sh(  aid 
have  thought  the  saving  of  souls  almost  a  sin,  if  it  had  not 
been  don«  in  a  church."  The  next  evening,  Whitefield  being 
gone,  he  began  expounding  to  a  small  "Society"  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount ;  "  one  pretty  remarkable  precedent,"  he  writes, 
«  Gillies' 8  White-field,  chap.  4. 


ORIGIN    OF    METHODISM.    '  117 

"  of  field-preaching,  though  I  suppose  there  were  churches 
at  that  time  also."  Monday,  2d  of  May,  at  four  in  the  after- 
noon, he  "  submitted  to  be  more  vile,"  he  says,  and  pro- 
claimed in  the  open  air  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  from 
a  little  eminence  in  a  ground  adjoining  the  city,  to  about 
three  thousand  people.  His  text  befitted  the  occasion :  "  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor.  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal 
the  broken-hearted;  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives, 
and  recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind;  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised ;  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 
in  a  few  days  more  he  was  standing  on  the  top  of  Haimam 
Mount,  in  Eingswood,  proclaiming,  "  Ho,  every  one  that 
thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters :  .  .  ^yea,  come,  buy  wine  and 
milk  without  money  and  without  price;"  and  in  the  after- 
noon he  again  stood  up  amid  five  thousand,  and  cried,  "  If 
any  man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink."  He  too 
had  now  crossed  the  Rubicon,  and  all  who  knew  him  knew 
that  with  him  there  could  be  no  retreat. 

Driven  out  of  the  churches,  the  new  evangelists  had  evi- 
dently taken  possession  of  the  people.  Whitefield  com- 
mitted his  out^door  congregations  to  Wesley,  and  left  for 
other  fields.  The  multitude  sobbed  aloud  at  his  farewells ; 
crowds  gathered  at  his  door  when  he  departed,  and  twenty 
accompanied  him  out  of  the  city  on  horseback.  His  exit 
was  hardly  less  triumphant  than  at  hife  former  visit,  notwith- 
standing his  different  treatment  from  the  clergy  and  author- 
ities. As  he  passed  through  Kingswood  the  grateful  colliers 
stopped  him;  they  had  prepared  an  "entertainment"  for 
him,  and  offered  subscriptions  for  a  charity  school  to  be 
established  among  them.  He  was  surprised  at  their  lavish 
liberality ;  and  laying,  at  their  urgent  request,  a  corner-stone 
for  the  building,  knelt  down  on  the  ground  among  them, 
and  prayed  that  the  gates  of  hell  might  not  prevail  against 
it,  to  which  their  rough  voices  responded  a  hearty  "  Amen." 
Breaking  away  from  them  at  last,  he  passed  into  Wales. 
■  Religion   and   morals   had   sunk  as   low  in   the  Priiici- 


118  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

pality,  during  this  century,  as  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 
A  contemporary  witness'  represents  that  spiritual  darkness 
hung  over  the  land.  The  morals  of  both  high  and  low  were 
generally  corrupt,  drunkenness,  gluttony,  and  licentiousness 
being  everywhere  prevalent.  Saturday  night  was  spent, 
usually  to  the  dawn  of  the  Sabbath,  in  the  Nosioeithian 
Cann^  or  song  singing  to  the  harp,  accompanied  with  danc- 
ing; and  Sunday  afternoon  at  the  Aclvwaren-Gamp^  ath- 
letic sports  and  rustic  dances,  which  drew  together  the 
population  of  towns  and  villages;  while  the  Bobl  gerdded^ 
or  walking  people,  a  vagabond  class,  infested  the  country, 
living  by  beggary.  The  -Church,  meanwhile,  is  represented 
as  almost  totally  inert,  and  "nothing  would  appear  more 
improbable  than  that  Methodism  could  find  proselytes" 
among  a  people  so  thoughtless,  reckless,  and  profligate. 
Many  papal  superstitions  still  lingered  among  the  peasantry, 
and  Wesley,  at  his  first  visit,  said  "they  w^ere  as  little 
versed  in  the  principles  of  Christianity  as  a  Creek  or 
Cherokee  Indian,"  a  condition  which  Methodism  Avas  destined 
totally  to  revolutionize. 

The  moral  desolation  of  the  country  induced  Griffith  Jones, 
who,  though  he  lived  and  died  a  clergyman  of  the  Establish- 
ment, became  noted  as  a  Methodist,  to  attempt  some  extra 
ordinary  naeans  for  its  improvement.  He  established  the 
Welsh  "circulating  schools,"  an  itinerant  system  of  religious 
education,  conducted  by  an  organized  corjDS  of  instructors,  who 
were  distributed  over  the  country  to  teach  the  common  people 
to  read  the  Scriptures  in  Welsh,  and  to  instruct  them  in  the 
catechism  and  m  psalmody.  They  passed  from  one  district 
to  another,  pausing  sufficiently  in  each  to  teach  such  persons 
as  they  found  willing  to  receive  them,  and  revisiting  them 
for  the  same  purpose  at  intervals.  This  novel  scheme  was 
soon  extended  over  the  whole  country.    Jones  was  meanwhile 

7  See  "An  Account  of  Eeligion  in  Wales  about  the  Middle  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century."  Pliilip's  Whitefield,  chap.  6.  It  was  taken  from 
the  mouth  of  a  very  old  "Welsh  Methodist,  and  published  in  1799,  in  the 
Trysorva,  edited  by  Eev.  Thomas  Charles,  of  Bala. 


OEIGIN    OF    METHODISM.  119 

the  most  iiideflitigable  preacher  in  Wales;  and  vdiile  the 
Wesleys  and  Whitefield  were  beginning  their  extraordinary 
labors  in  England,  he  was  making  preachmg  tom\s,  and  ex- 
tending his  itinerant  schools,  through  a  large  portion  of  the 
Principality.  He  sometimes  preached  from  tombstones, 
and  on  the  green  sward,  for  the  churches  could  not  accom- 
modate the  people.  About  the  time  of  Whitefield's  visit, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  of  his  schools  were  in  opera- 
tion ;  and  they  had  been  established  in  almost  every  parish 
when  their  venerable  founder  died,  in  1761.  Though  a 
faithful  Churchman,  the  impulse  which  he  gave  to  religion 
in  Wales  resuscitated  and  greatly  promoted  evangelical 
Dissent.  His  teachers  became  the  earliest  native  Methodist 
preachers ;  and  their  travels  as  instructors,  as  also  his  own 
preaching  tours,  opened  the  way  for  the  Methodist  itinerancy. 
He  co-operated  afterward  with  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  met 
in  their  Conferences  in  London,  and  is  entitled  to  be  con- 
sidered one  of  the  Methodist  founders. 

The  name  of  Howell  Harris  is  as  dear  to  evangelical 
Welshmen  as  that  of  Griffith  Jones.  He  was  born  at  Tre- 
vecca  in  1714.  In  1735  he  went  to  Oxford  to  study  for  the 
Church,  but  disgust  at  the  infidelity  and  immorality  which 
prevailed  there  drove  him  away.  Returning  to  Wales,  he 
began  to  exhort  the  neglected  poor  in  their  cottages,  and  w^as 
so  successful  that  in  a  few  months  he  formed  several  societies 
among  them,  thus  affording  a,nother  of  those  providential 
coincidences  which  mark  the  religious  history  of  the  times. 
Thirty  of  these  organizations  were  sustained  by  him  at  the 
time  of  Whitefield's  arrival,  and  in  three  years  more  they 
numbered  three  hundred.  He  lived  and  died  a  Churchman, 
but  received  little  sympathy  from  the  established  clergy, 
and,  until  the  visits  of  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys,  pursued 
his  evangelical  labors  almost  alone,  apparently  without 
anticipating  that  they  would  result  in  a  widespread  Dis- 
sent. In  1715  there  were  only  thirty  Dissenting  chapels  in 
the  Principality,  and  in  1736  only  six  in  all  North  Wales  ;S 
8  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  Whitefield,  chap.  6. 


120  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

in    1810   they   numbered   nearly   a   thousand;    they   have 
increased  to  more  than  two  thousand.^ 

Harris  was  a  lay  preacher ;  he  applied  repeatedly  for  ordi- 
nation, but  was  denied  it  by  the  bishops  on  account  of  his  ir 
regular  modes  of- labor.  Whitefield  passed  from  Kingswood 
to  Cardiff,  and  there  saw  him  for  the  first  time.  Their  souls 
met  and  blended  like  two  flames,  and  "  set  the  whole  Prinei 
pality  in  a  blaze."  ^^  For  three  years  had  the  laborious  lay 
man  traveled,  and  preached  twice  nearly  every  day.  Seven 
counties  had  he  gone  over,  calling  the  people  to  repentance, 
addressing  them  in  fields,  from  tables,  walls,  or  hillocks. 
"He  is  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  wrote  Whitefield;  "blessed 
be  God,  there  seems  a  noble  spirit  gone  out  into  Wales." 
And  he  expresses  himself  as  not  doubting  that  Satan  envied 
the  happiness  of  their  first  meeting,  and  as  believing  that  they 
should  make  his  kingdom  shake  throughout  the  Principality. 
They  held  public  meetings  immediately  in  Cardiff,  preaching 
amid  weeping  crowds  within  and  a  scoffing  rabble  without. 

The  next  day  they  were  at  Newport,  where  Whitefield 
addressed  a  large  assembly.  He  found,  he  said,  Wales 
well  prepared  for  the  Gospel ;  new  schools  were  opening 
every  day,  on  the  plan  of  Griffith  Jones,  and  the  people 
readily  came  twenty  miles  to  hear  a  sermon.  Husk,  Ponty- 
pool,  Abergavemiy,  Carlean,  and  Treleck  were  rapidly 
visited.  In  some  instances  the  churches  were  opened  to 
liim,  and  when  they  could  not  accommodate  the  crowd  he 
preached  a  second  sermon  in  the  open  air.  All  the  way,  he 
says,  he  could  think  of  nothing  so  much  as  of  Joshua,  going 
from  city  to  city  and  subduing  the  devoted  nations.  Mobs 
threatened  him,  but  he  hesitated  not.     At  Treleck,  being 

9  According  to  the  official  statistics  of  the  British  Government  for  1857 
they  were  about  2,300,  Over  one  million,  or  nearly  the  whole  Welsli 
population,  now  attend,  public  worship  some  part  of  the  day  every  Sab- 
bath. There  is  now  a  church,  National  or  Dissenting,  to  nearly  every 
three  square  miles  of  Wales.  (Article  by  Eev.  J.  G.  Evans  in  New-York 
Observer,  May  1,  1858.)  Methodism,  which,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see, 
made  but  slight  impression  on  Scotland,  has  elevated  the  po])ular  religious 
condition  of  Wales  above  tliat  of  Scotland. 

10  Philip's  Whitefield,  c]iap.  6. 


.ORIGIN     OF     METHODISM.  121 

denied  the  church,  he  stood  upon  a  horseblock  before  the 
inn  and  delivered  his  message.  At  Carlean  Harris  had  been 
assailed  by  the  rabble,  who  beat  a  drum  and  huzzaed  around 
him.  Whitefield  considered  it  to  be  a  challenge  which  he 
himself  ought  to  accept.  He  stood  up  amid  "  many  thou- 
sands," but  "  God  suffered  them  not  to  move  a  tongue." 
He  preached  with  unusual  power,  and  "was  carried  out 
beyond  himself"  Harris  followed  the  English  discourses 
of  Whitefield  with  exhortations  in  Welsh.  They  were  con- 
genial spirits,  and  their  co-operation  gave  an  impulse  to  the 
religious  spirit  of  Wales  which  has  not  only  been  felt  down 
to  our  day,  but  promises  to  be  perpetual. 

Returning  to  England,  Whitefield  traversed  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  country,  preaching  at  bowling-greens,  market-J 
crosses,  and  on  the  highways.  After  thus  preparing  tt^ 
way  for  the  Wesleys,  by  arousing  the  popular  attention  of 
the  rural  districts,  he  went  to  London,  where,  while  opening 
the  services  at  Islington  church,  he  was  silenced  by  a  church- 
warden, but  stood  upon  a  tomb  in  the  church-yard,  and  pro- 
claimed the  truth  to  the  willing  'people. 

Excluded  from  all  the  churches,  he  resolved  to  preach  at 
Moorfields  on  the  next  Sunday.  His  friends  admonished 
him  of  danger  from  .the  rabble  which  frequented  that  noted 
resort;  two  of  them,  however,  had  courage  enough  to  ac- 
company him.  Arm  in  arm,  they  pushed  their  way  through 
the  multitude ;  but  he  was  separated  from  his  companions 
by  the  pressure,  and  borne  along  through  a  lane  which  the 
mob  formed  for  him  to  the  center  of  the  fields.  A  table 
placed  there  for  his  pulpit  was  broken  to  pieces;  he  was 
then  pressed  to  a  wall,  mounting  which  he  preached  to  the 
swarming  thousands  with  such  effect  that  they  were  soon 
tamed  down  to  the  quiet  and  decorum  of  a  church.  "  The 
word  of  the  Lord,"  he  writes,  "  runs  and  is  glorified ;  peo- 
ple's hearts  seem  quite  broken;  God  strengthens  me  ex- 
ceedingly ;  I  preach  till  I  sweat  through  and  through." 

He  went  the  same  evening  to  Keimington  Common,  and 
addressed   a   vast   multitude.     These   labors  he  continued 


122  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

with  increasing  interest.  Scores  of  carriages,  hundreds  of 
horsemen,  and  thirty  or  forty  thousand  on  foot,  thronged 
around  him.^^  Their  singing  could  be  heard  two  miles  off, 
and  his  own  voice  a  mile.  Wagons  and  scaffolds  were 
hired  to  the  throng  that  they  might  the  better  hear  and 
see  the  wonderful  preacher,  who,  consecrated  and  gowned 
as  a  clergyman  of  the  national  hierarchy,  had  broken 
away  from  its  rigid  decorum,  and,  like  his  divine  Master, 
had  come  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges  to  save  their 
neglected  souls.  The  genuine  popular  heart  recognized  him 
as  a  true  apostle ;  and  in  the  collections,  made  after  these 
field  sermons,  for  his  Orphan  Asylum,  the  poor  people  gave 
their  half-pence  so  liberally  that  he  was  wearied  down  hi 
receiving  them,  and  a  single  man  could  not  carry  the  amoimt 
home  for  him.  He  records  a  contribution,  of  which  nearly 
one  half  consisted  of  but  little  short  of  ten  thousand  pieces 
of  copper.  After  the  collection  had  been  taken,  the  crowd 
gathered  around  his  carriage  throwing  their  mites  into  the 
windows.  Such  are  the  people  at  heart,  whatever  their 
voices  and  fists  may  declare  in  the  mob. 

Wesley,  meantime,  was  greatly  successful  at  Bristol, 
where  he  had  formed  "  Bands ;"  and  at  Kingswood,  where 
the  school,  begun  by  Whitefield,  was  rising  under  his  care. 
He  made  excursions,  also,  to  other  towns,  and  his  journals 
afford,  on  almost  every  page,  examples  of  mcredible  labors. 
Astonishing  effects  began  to  attend  his  word.  While  preach- 
ing at  Newgate,  Bristol,  on  the  words,  "  He  that  believeth 
hath  everlasting  life,"  he  was  led,  without  any  previous  design, 
to  declare  strongly  and  explicitly  that  God  willeth  "  all  men 
to  be  thus  saved,"  and  to  pray  that  if  this  were  the  truth  of 
God,  he  would  "  bear  witness  to  His  word."  Immediately 
one,  and  another,  and  another,  sank  to  the  earth ;  "  they 
dropped  on  every  side  as  thunderstruck."  And  the  next 
day  he  records  "that  all  Newgate  rang  with  the  cries  of 
those  whom  the  word  of  God  cut  to  the  heart."  ^^     His  own 

11  He  gives  one  estimate  of  nearly  sixty  thousand  in  Moorfields. 
Philip's  Life,  etc.,  cliap.  4.  12  Journal,    Anno   1739. 


m 

OEiaiN    OF    METHODISM.  128 

spirit  grew  mighty  in  the  consciousness  of  the  moral  power 
he  was  now  wielding  by  the  word  of  God.  On  one  occasion, 
he  says,  his  soul  was  so  enlarged  that  he  thought  he  could 
have  cried  out,  m  another  sense  than  Archimedes,  "  Give 
me  where  to  stand  and  I  will  shake  the  earth."  The  same 
day  he  stood  amid  hundreds  of  people  on  Eose  Green, 
and  taking  for  his  text,  "  The  God  of  glory  thundereth," 
etc.,  preached  to  them  in  a  storm  of  lightning  and  rain, 
which  could  not  disperse  them  from  his  magical  presence. 

In  one  of  his  excursions  to  Bath,  about  this  time,  he 
encountered  the  noted  Beau  Nash,  the  presiding  genius  of  its 
gayeties.  The  iilcident  is  interesting,  as  being  the  first  of  those 
public  interruptions  of  his  ministry  which  were  soon  to  de- 
generate into  mobs,  and  agitate  most  of  England  and  Ireland. 
The  fashionable  pretender  hoped  to  confound  the  preacher 
and  amuse  the  town,  but  was  confounded  himself.  Wesley 
says  there  was  great  public  expectation  of  what  was  to  be 
done,  and  he  was  entreated  not  to  preach,  for  serious  conse- 
quences might  happen.  The  report  gained  him  a  large 
audience,  among  whom  were  many  of  the  rich  and  fashion- 
able. He  addressed  himself  pointedly  to  high  and  low, 
rich  and  poor.  Many  of  them  seemed  to  be  surprised,  and 
were  sinking  fast  into  seriousness,  when  their  champion  ap- 
peared, and,  coming  close  to  the  preacher,  asked  by  what 
authority  he  did  these  things  ?  By  the  authority  of  Jesus 
Christ,  conveyed  to  me  by  the  now  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, when  he  laid  hands  upon  me  and  said.  Take  thou 
authority  to  preach  the  Gospel,  was  the  reply.  This  is 
contrary  to  act  of  parliament ;  this  is  a  conventicle,  rejoined 
Nash.  Sir,  said  Wesley,  the  conventicles  mentioned  in  that 
act,  as  the  preamble  shows,  are  seditious  meetings ;  but  this 
is  not  such ;  here  is  no  shadow  of  sedition ;  therefore  it  is 
not  contrary  to  that  act.  I  say  it  is,  replied  Nash;  and, 
besides,  your  preaching  frightens  people  out  of  their  wits. 
Sir,  asked  Wesley,  did  you  ever  hear  me  preaph?  No. 
How,  then,  can  you  judge  of  what  you  never  heard?  Sir, 
oy  common  report.     Common  report  is  not  enough;  give 


12.4  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

me  leave,  sir,  to  ask,  is  not  your  name  Nash  ?  My  name  is 
Nash.  Sir,  continued  Wesley,  I  dare  not  judge  of  you  by 
common  report.  The  irony  was  too  pertment  to  fail  of 
effect.  Nash  paused  awhile,  but,  havmg  recovered  himself, 
said,  I  desire  to  know  what  these  people  come  here  for  % 
One  of  "the  people"  replied.  Sir,  leave  him  to  me;  let  an 
old  woman  answer  him :  you,  Mr.  Nash,  take  care  of  your 
body ;  we  take  care  of  our  souls,  and  for  the  food  of  our 
souls  we  come  here.  His  courage  quailed  before  the  sense 
and  wit  of  the  common  people,  and,  without  another  word, 
he  retreated  in  haste.  As  Wesley  returned  the  street 
was  full  of  people  hurrying  to  and  fro,  and  speaking 
emphatic  words.  But  when  any  of  them  asked,  Which  is 
hel  and  he  replied,  I  am  he,  they  were  awed  into  silent 
respect. 

He  had  already  undesignedly  become  an  "  Itinerant ;"  his 
ordinary  em^ploym.ent  in  public,  he  says,  was  now  as  follows  : 
every  morning  he  read  prayers  and  preached  at  Newgate ; 
every  evening  expounded  a  portion  of  Scripture  to  one  or 
more  of  the  societies.  On  Monday,  in  the  afternoon,  he 
preached  abroad,  near  Bristol ;  on  Tuesday  at  Bath  and 
Two-mile  Hill,  alternately;  on  Wednesday,  at  Baptist  Mills ; 
every  other  Thursday,  near  Peneford;  every  other  Friday, 
in  another  part  of  Kingswood;  on  Saturday  afternoon  and 
Sunday  morning,  in  the  Bowling  Green,  (which  lies  near 
the  middle  of  Bristol;)  on  Sunday,  at  eleven,  near  Hannam 
Mount ;  at  two,  at  Clifton ;  and  at  five,  on  Eose  Green ;  and 
"hitherto,"  he  adds,  "as  my  days,  so  my  strength  hath 
been." 
r^  His  societies  in  Bristol  grew  so  rapidly  that  he  was  com- 
I  pelled  to  erect  a  place  of  worship  for  their  accommodation ; 
L.  aiid  thus  was  another  step  taken  forward  in  the  independent 
career  upon  which  he  was  being  unconsciously  led  by  the 
providence  of  God.  On  the  12th  of  May,  1739,  the  corner- 
stone "  was  laid  with  the  voice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving." 
This  was  the  first  Methodist  chapel  in  the  world.  He  had 
not  the  least  design  of  being  personally  engaged  either  in  the 


ORIGIN    OF    METHODISM.  125 

expense  or  the  direction  of  the  work,  having  appointed 
"  eleven  feoffees,"  on  whom  he  supposed  the  burden  would 
fall ;  but,  becoming  involved  in  its  entire  financial  responsi- 
bility, he  was  constrained  to  change  this  arrangement.  And 
as  to  the  direction  of  the  undertaking,  he  says  he  presently 
received  letters  from  his  friends  in  London,  Wbiteiield  in 
particular,  (backed  with  a  message  by  a  person  just  from  the 
metropolis,)  that  neither  he  nor  they  would  have  anything  to 
do  with  the  building,  nor  contribute  anything  toward  it,  un- 
less he  would  instantly  discharge  all  feoffees  and  do  every- 
thing in  his  own  name.  Many  reasons  they  gave  for  this 
course ;  but  one  was  decisive  with  him,  namely,  that  such  feof- 
fees always  would  have  it  in  their  power  to  control  him, 
and,  if  he  preached  not  as  they  liked,  to  turn  him  out  of  the 
house  he  had  built.  He  accordingly  yielded  to  their  advice, 
and,  calling  all  the  feoffees  together,  canceled,  without  op- 
position, the  instrument  made  before,  and  took  the  whole 
management  into  his  own  hands.  Money,  he  says,  it  is  true, 
he  had  not,  nor  any  human  prospect  of  procuring  it ;  but  he 
knew  "  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fullness  thereof,"  and 
in*  his  name  set  out,  nothing  doubting.  In  this  manner  was 
it  that  the  property  of  all  his  chapels  became  vested  solely 
in  himself  during  the  early  part  of  his  career,  a  responsi- 
bility which  was  necessary  in  his  peculiar  circumstances, 
which  he  never  abused,  and  which  he  transferred,  in  prospect 
of  his  death,  by  a  "  deed  of  declaration,"  to  his  Legal  Con- 
ference. Decisions  in  the  Court  of  Chancery,  made  under 
this  document,  have  given  security  to  the  property,  and  sta- 
bility to  the  whole  economy  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  (jlown 
to  our  day. 

Charles  Wesley  was  laboring,  meantime,  incessantly  ni 
many  parts  of  London,  and  Ingham  m  Yorkshire.  White- 
field  lingered  in  London,  as  if  detained  to  thrust  out  Wesley 
before  the  multitudes  there.  Wesley  arrived  from  Bristol, 
and  the  next  day  accompanied  him  to  Blackheath,  to  hear 
him  preach.  Between  twelve  and  fourteen  thousand  people 
were  present.     Whitefield  urged  him  to  address  them;  he 


126  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

recoiled,  but  at  last  consented,  and  thus  became  kno^sMi  as  a 
field-preacher  in  the  metropolis.  Whitefield  felt  that  he 
himself  had  done  a  good  work  that  day.  He  says  :  "  I  went 
to  bed  rejoicmg  that  another  fresh  inroad  was  made  into 
Sataii^s  territories,  by  Mr.  Wesley  following  me  in  field- 
preaching  m  London  as  well  as  in  Bristol." 

After  accompanying  Wesley  to  Bristol,  Kingswood,  and 
Gloucester,  and  visitmg  other  places  as  a  field-preacher, 
Whitefield  embarked  again  for  America  August  14,  1739. 
He  had  a  work  of  preparation  to  do  there  also,  for,  in  a  few 
years,  Wesley's  itinerants  were  to  follow  on  his  track. 

Most  English  religious  writers  of  our  day,  who  have 
treated  of  these  events,  have  come  to  acknowledge  the  utility, 
if  not  the  necessity,  of  the  irregular  labors  of  Whitefield  and 
the  Wesleys  in  the  condition  of  the  Church  and  of  the  de- 
graded masses  of  their  time,  for  the  beneficial  results  are 
inscribed  on  all  the  land  and  on  much  of  the  world ;  but. 
they  have  not  been  equally  liberal  in  excusing  the  marvel- 
ous phenomena  which  attended  the  zealous  evangelists,  and 
which  surprised  them  as  much  as  their  enemies.  It  Avas  im- 
possible that  such  extraordinary  exertions  should  not  be 
accompanied  by  extraordinary  excitement,  and  it  was,  per- 
haps, equally  impossible  that  the  extraordinary  excitement 
should  not  occasion  correspondent  physical  effects.  Some 
of  these  effects  have  already  been  mentioned.  The  most 
singular  fact  about  them  is,  that  for  a  considerable  time  the 
superior  ardor  and  eloquence  of  Whitefield  did  not  produce 
them,  while,  under  the  calmer  and  more  logical  preaching 
of  W,esley,  people  dropped  on  every  side  as  if  thunderstruck. 
It  is  also  noteworthy,  that  from  the  date  of  his  return  from 
Germany  down  to  this  time,  not  one  of  his  texts,  as  recorded 
in  his  Journals,  was  of  a  severe  or  terrific  character,  but  they 
w^ere,  as  in  most  of  his  life,  selected  from  the  "  great  and 
precious  promises,"  or  related  to  the  nature  and  means  of 
personal  religion.  Yet  under  such  preaching  did  hardened, 
as  well  as  sensitive  hearers,  fall  around  him  like  men  shot  in 
battle.     While  preaching  on  the  Common,  at  Bristol,  from 


ORIGIN    OF    METHODISM.  .         127 

the  words,  "  Vf  hen  they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he  frankly  for- 
gave them  both,"   a  young  woman  sank  down  in  violent 
agony,  as  did  five  or  six  persons  at  another  meeting  in  the 
evening.     Many  were  greatly  offended  by  their  cries.     The 
same  offense  was  given  during  the  day  by  one  at  "  Theaner's 
Hall,"  and  by  eight  or  nine  others  at  "Gloucester-lane." 
One  of  these  was  a  young  lady,  whose  mother  was  irritated 
at  the  scandal,  as  she  called  it,  of  her  daughter's  conduct ; 
out  "  the  mother  was  the  next  who  dropped  down  and  lost 
her  senses  in  a  moment,  yet  went  home  with  her  daughter 
full  of  joy,  as  did  most  of  those  who  had  been  in  pain." 
Such  "  phenomena  "  increased  continually.     Bold  blasphem- 
ers were  instantly  seized  with  agony,  and  cried  aloud  for  the 
divine  mercy,  and  scores  were  sometimes  strewed  on  the 
ground  at  once,  insensible  as  dead  men.     A  traveler  at  one 
time  was  passing,  but  on  pausing  a  moment  to  hear  the 
preacher  was  directly  smitten  to  the  earth,  and  lay  there  ap- 
parently without  life.     A  Quaker,  who  was  admonishing  the 
bystanders  against  these  strange  scenes  as  affectation  and 
hypocrisy,  was  himself  struck  down,  as  by  an  unseen  hand, 
while  the  words  of  reproach  were  yet  upon  his  lips.     A 
weaver,  a  great  disliker  of  Dissenters,  fearing  that  the  new 
excitement  would  alienate  his  neighbors  from  the  Church, 
went  about  zealously  among  them  to  prove  that  it  was  the 
work  of  Satan,  and  would  endanger  their  souls.     A  new 
convert  lent  him  one  of  Wesley's  sermons ;  while  reading  it 
at  home  he  suddenly  turned  pale,  fell  to  the  floor,  and  roared 
so  mightily  that  the  people  ran  into  the  house  from  the 
streets,  and  found  him  sweating,  weeping,  and  screaming  in 
anguish.     He  recovered  his  self-possession,  and  arose  re-l 
joicing  in  God.     On  one  occasion  great  numbers  fell  around 
the  preacher,  while  he   was   inviting  them  to   "enter  into 
the  Holiest  by  a  new  and  living  way."     A  woman  opposed 
them  as  giving  way  to  an  agitation  which  they  might  control, 
and  endeavored  to  escape  from  the  assembly.     Scarcely  had 
she  got  three  or  four  yards  when  she  fell  do\\Ti  in  as  violent 
agony  as  the  rest. 


128  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

Not  imtil  July,  1739,  when  Whitefield  was  again  with 
Wesley,  did  any  such  phenomena  attend  his  own  preaching. 
"  Saturday,  9th,"  says  Wesley,  "  I  had  an  opportunity  to  talk 
with  him  of  those  outward  signs  which  had  so  often  acconi- 
panied  the  inward  work  of  God.  I  found  his  objections  were 
chiefly  grounded  on  gross  misrepresentations  of  matter  of 
fact.  But  the  next  day  he  had  an  opportunity  of  informing 
himself  better,  for  no  sooner  had  he  began  to  invite  all  sin- 
ners to  believe  in  Christ  than  four  persons  sank  down  close 
to  him,  almost  in  the  same  moment.  One  of  them  lay  with- 
out either  sense  or  motion.  The  third  had  strong  convulsions 
all  over  his  body,  but  made  no  noise  unless  by  groans.  The 
fourth,  equally  convulsed,  called  upon  God  with  strong  cries 
and  tears.  From  this  time  I  trust  we  shall  all  suffer  God 
to  carry  on  his  OAvn  work  in  the  way  that  pleaseth  him." 

These  marvels  were  not  peculiar  to  Methodism ;  they  had 
occurred  in  "Eeligious  Revivals"  from  the  Reformation 
down  to  this  time.  Edwards  recorded  them  as  common 
under  his  ministry  in  New  England.  ^^  Gillies  shows  them 
to  have  been  frequent  in  Scotland  and  other  sections  of  the 
Church.^*  They  have  occurred  in  our  day,  with  even  an  epi- 
demic prevalence,  in  many  parts  of  America.  Charles  Wes- 
ley discountenanced  them.  John  considered  them  at  first 
with  favor,  as  proofs  of  the  power  of  the  truth,  but  afterward 
discouraged  them.  Most  Methodists  agree  with  Watson, 
"  that  in  no  such  cases  does  the  occasional  occurrence  of 
noise  and  disorder  prove  that  an  extraordinary  work  in  the 
hearts  of  men  was  not  then  carrying  on  by  the  Spirit  of  God ; 
that  by  the  exercise  of  a  firm  discipline,  then  most  of  all  to 
be  exerted,  they  are  to  be  as  far  as  possible  repressed,  for 
the  power  of  the  work  does  not  lie  in  them ;  and  that  yet 
discipline,  though  firm,  ought  to  be  discriminating,  for  the 

IS  See  his  Treatise  on  tlie  Eeligious  Affections,  and  Ms  Narrative  of  tlie 
New  England  Eevival. 

"  Gillies's  Historical  Collections;  see  also  "Watson's  Observations  on 
Southey's  Life  of  Wesley.  Isaac  Taylor's  solution  of  these  affections  is 
quite  apologetic,  but  perhaps  equally  fantastic :  Wesley  and  MethodibUi, 
p.  44. 


ORIGIN    OF    METHODISM.  129 

sake  of  the  real  blessing  with  which,  at  such  seasons,  God  is 
crowning  the  administration  of  his  truth."  They  will  come 
under  our  consideration  more  fully  hereafter. 

The  new  movement  had  now  advanced  too  far  for  a  re- 
treat, and  had  acquired  too  much  energy  to  stand  still ;  it 
must  go  forward  with  increasing  "irregularities"  and  isola- 
tion from  the  Church.  Charles  Wesley  was  cited  to  Lambeth, 
and  threatened  by  the  Archbishop  with  excommunication ; 
for  while  his  brother  was  preaching  in  the  open  air  at, 
Bristol,  and  Whitefield  in  Moorfields,  he  had  followed 
their  example  in  Essex,  Thaxted,  and  other  places.  He 
was  somewhat  intimidated  by  the  menace ;  but  Whitefield, 
whose  agency  seems  to  have  been  alv.^ays  opportune  through- 
out this  stage  of  Methodism,  was  at  hand  for  his  rescue,  and 
exhorted  him  to  take  his  stand  openly  in  Moorfields  the 
following  Sunday.  He  did  so,  preaching  there  to  ten  thou- 
sand hearers.  He  preached  elsewhere  in  the  afternoon,  and 
still  later  on  the  same  day,  to  '•  multitudes  upon  multitudes," 
at  Kemiington  Common.  At  night  he  sought  consolation  at 
the  Moravian  society,  in  Fetter-lane.  He,  too,  was  now  fully 
committed  to  the  "  irregularities"  of  the  new  moveiaent. 

Apparently  adverse  events  hastened  its  development. 
Peter  Bohler  had  formed  the  constitution  of  the  Fetter-lane 
Society.  Wesley,  though  virtually  recognized  as  its  guide, 
had  not  interfered  with  its  regulations.  But  dangerous  errors 
were  creeping  into  it:  some  of  its  members  denounced  the 
institution  of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  some  all  religiousi 
ordinances ;  others  became  Antinomians,  and  quietism  prei 
vailedjimong  them.  Some  of  the  customs  and  Hymns  intro- 
duced by  the  Moravians  were  exceptionable.  Molther,  a 
Moravian  recently  from  Germany,  promoted  these  errors 
with  unwearied  enthusiasm,  and  inculcated  "True  Still- 
ness" as  a  substitute  for  external  means  of  grace.  Wes- 
ley hastened  to  London,  and  found,  he  says,  "ever}'  day  the 
dreadful  effects  of  our  brethren's  reasoning  and  disputing 
with  each  other.  Scarcely  one  in  ten  retained  his  first  love, 
and  most  of  the  rest  were  in  the  utmost  confusion,  biting 

Vol.  I.— 9 


130  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

and  devouring  one  another."  He  entreated  them  to  stand 
in  the  old  paths,  and  no  longer  to  subvert  one  another  by  idle 
controversies  and  strife  of  words.  He  left  them  apparently 
reconciled,  and  Molther  acceded  to  his  counsels ;  but  scarcely 
had  he  returned  to  Bristol  before  information  reached  him  of 
new  troubles.  Again  he  visited  and  admonished  them,  but  was 
not  successful.  On  Sunday,  July  20,  1740,  he  read  to  the 
society  his  objections,  and  being  resisted,  took  final  leave  of 
it.  He  was  followed  by  about  a  score  of  its  members,  to 
whom  nearly  fifty  were  soon  after  added,  comprising  most 
of  the  female  "  Bands."  "  We  gathered  up,"  says  Charles 
Wesley,  "  our  wreck  rari  nantes  in  gurgite  vasto^  floating 
here  and  there  on  the  vast  abyss,  for  nine  out  of  ten  were 
swallowed  up  in  the  dead  sea  of  stillness.  O  why  was 
not  this  done  six  months  ago !  How  fatal  was  our  delay 
and  false  moderation !" 

Attempts  were  made  by  the  Moravians  for  a  reunion. 
Peter  Bohler  arrived  soon  after  the  separation ;  Wesley  re- 
vered him  more,  perhaps,  than  he  did  any  other  man  then 
living,  but,  as  his  objections  applied  not  so  much  to  the 
Moravians  in  general  as  to  local  evils  among  them  in  En- 
gland, and  these  could  not  be  remedied,  he  could  not  follow 
the  counsels  of  his  old  friend.  "  I  marvel,"  he  says,  "  how 
1  refrain  from  joining  these  men;  I  scarce  ever  see  any  of 
them  but  my  heart  burns  within  me ;  I  long  to  be  with  them, 
and  yet  I  am  kept  from  them."  Spangenberg,^^  his  friend 
in  Georgia,  and  finally  Zinzendorf  himself,  came  to  London 
to  repair  the  division ;  but  it  was  irreparable,  and  it  is  well, 
perhaps,  that  it  was  so.  Time  allayed  the  irritations  ot 
both  parties.  Each  had  its  peculiar  mission  in  the  Avorld; 
each  has  since  cordially  recognized  the  other ;  but  had  it  not 

15  Latrobe,  in  a  note  to  Spangenberg's  Life  of  Zinzendorf,  examines 
the  Moravian  difficulties  in  London  very  candidly,  in  reply  to  Wliitefield's 
charges.  They  seem  to  have  been  temporary  errors,  and  not  chargeable 
to  the  Church  elsewhere.  Wesley  however  believed,  with  Whitefield,  thaij 
they  were  inherent  in  the  Moravian  system,  and  he  attached  them  often 
afterward.  Zinzendorf  was  certainly  inclined  to  defend  them,  I  take, 
however,  with  pleasure,  Latrobe's  explanations. 


OrwIGi:N"    OF    METHODISM.  131 

been  for  this  temporary  disturbance,  Wesley  and  his  associ- 
ates might  have  been  merged  in  the  Moravian  body,^^  and 
assm-edly  not  with  the  advantages  which  have  resulted  to 
the  world  from  the  distinct  organization  of  Methodism. 

Wesley  had  previously  secured  the  foundry  in  Moorfields, 
a  building  which  the  government  had  used  for  the  casting  of 
cannon,  but  which  was  deserted  and  dilapidated.  At  the 
invitation  of  two  strangers  he  preached  in  it,  and  at  their  in- 
stance, and  by  their  assistance,  opened  it  for  regular  public 
worship  on  the  11th  day  of  November,  1739,  some  eight 
months  before  his  separation  from  the  Fetter-lane  Society. 
This  date  has  been  considered  the  epoch  of  Methodism,  for 
thenceforward  the  Foundry  was  its  head-quarters  in  London. 
In  his  "  Church  History,"  Wesley  assigns  it  other  dates,  as 
the  formation  of  "  the  Holy  Club,"  at  OxforS,  in  1729 ;  and 
the  meeting  of  himself  and  others,  by  the  advice  of  Peter 
Bohler,  in  Fetter-lane,  May  1, 1738 ;  but  in  his  introduction  to 
the  "  General  Rules  of  the  Society,"  he  says  :  "  In  the  latter 
end  of  the  year  1739  eight  or  ten  persons  came  to  me  in 
London  and  desired  that  I  would  spend  some  time  with  them 
in  prayer,  and  advise  them  how  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come;  this  was  the  rise  of  the  United  Society."  "This," 
he  tells  us,  "  was  soon  after  the  consecration  of  the  Foundry." 
Twelve  came  the  first  night,  forty  the  next,  and  soon  after  a 
hundred.'^''  Though  he  continued,  in  fraternal  relations  with 
the  Moravians  till  the  separation  of  July  20, 1740,  the  society 
formed  the  preceding  year  was  organized  and  controlled  by 
himself,  and  has  continued  in  unbroken  succession  down  to 
our   day.i^     The   date  of  its   origin   was   celebrated   with 

*''  At  a  later  period  Charles  "Wesley  was  deterred  from  joining  the 
]\Ioravians,  and  adopting  their  English  Quietism,  only  by  the  strenuous 
remonstrances  of  his  brother  and  Lady  Huntingdon.  Jackson  attempts 
to  disprove  the  fact,  but  Smith  successfully  corrects  him.  Jackson's 
Charles  Wesley,  chap.  8:  Smith's  Hist,  of  Methodism,  II,  2. 

17  Jackson's  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  7. 

18  Dr.  Smith  (History  of  Wesleyan_Methodism,  II.  2,)  argues  in  favor 
of  the  date  of  the  separation  from  the  Moravians  in  1740.  His  reasons  do 
not.  however,  justify  such  a  deviation  from  the  acknowledged  opinion  of 


132  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

cenffenary  solemnities  by  all  the  Methodist  communities 
of  the  world  in  1839.  It  was  signalized  not  only  by 
the  organization  of  the  Society,  and  by  the  opening  of  the 
Foundry  for  worship,  but  by  the  erection  at  Bristol  of  the 
first  Methodist  chapel,  by  the  organization  of  "Bands"  in 
that  city,  and  by  the  publication  by  the  Wesleys  of  their 
"  Hymns  and  Sacred  Poems,"  the  beginning  of  that  Method 
istic  psalmody  which  has  since  been  of  inestimable  service 
to  the  denomination  wherever  it  has  extended. ^^ 

The  purely  accidental,  or,  rather,  providential  manner  in 
which  Methodism  had  reached  this  stage  of  its  progress,  is 
too  obvious  to  need  much  remark.  Excluded  from  the 
churches,  and  with  "  Bands "  of  converted  men  in  London, 
Bristol,  and  Kingswood  under  his  care,  Wesley  was  com- 
pelled to  provide  places  for  their  assemblies  and  regulations 
for  their  government.  He  did  so  only  as  the  necessity  was 
thrust  upon  him,  not  knowing  what  result  would  follow. 
Neither  at. this  period,  nor  indeed  at  any  subsequent  time, 
did  he  think  of  deviating  from  the  national  Church.  It  was 
the  practical  and  summary  philosophy  of  his  life  to  do  the  duty 
nearest  to  him,  assured  that  all  others  would  come  in  their 
due  order.  His  least  partial  biographer  has  justly  said,  that 
whither  his  plans  at  this  time  were  to  lead  he  knew  not,  nor 
what  consistence  the  societies  he  was  collecting  would  take, 
nor  where  he  was  to  find*  laborers  as  he  enlarged  his  oper- 


all  Methodist  bodies  thronghont  the  world.  There  can  hardly  be  a  dis- 
pute respecting  the  real  epoch  of  Methodism.  The  same  affirmation  can- 
not be  made,  however,  respecting  the  locality  of  its  origin.  "Bands" 
were  formed  by  Wesley,  and  the  "  New  Eoom,"  or  chapel,  was  commenced 
at  Bristol,  some  months  before  the  opening  of  the  Foimdry  and  the  form- 
ation of  the  "  Society"  in  London.  Myles  (Chronological  History  of  tho 
M  ethodists,  chap.  1)  says :  "  The  first  preaching-honse  was  huilt  in  Bristol ; 
the  first  which  was  opened  was  in  London."     The  italics  are  his  own. 

13  At  their  return  from  Georgia  they  published  a  similar  work,  but  i^ 
was  less  adapted  to  public  use.  The  two  vohnnes  issued  in  1739  spread 
rapidly  among  the  now  "  Societies."  Two  editions  were  issued  during 
the  first  year ;  they  introduced  that  popular  church  music  which  has 
ever  since  been  characteristic  of  Methodism,  and  one  of  the  most  potent 
means  of  its  success. 


OKIGIN    OF    METHODISM.  133 

nilons,  nor  liow  the  scheme  was  to  derive  its  financial  support. 
But  these  considerations  troubled  him  not.  God,  he  believed, 
liad  appointed  it,  and  God  would  always  provide  means  for 
His  own  eiids.2^  English  Methodist  writers  have  deemed  it 
desirable  to  defend  him  against  imputations  of  disregard  for 
the  authority  and  "  order  "  of  the  national  Church.  The  task 
is  not  difficult,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  course  of  our  narrative ; 
hut  it  may  hereafter  be  a  more  difficult  one  to  defend  him, 
before  the  rest  of  the  Christian  Avorld,  for  having  been  so 
deferential  to  a  hierarchy  whose  moral  condition  at  the  time 
lie  so  much  denounced,  and  whose  studied  policy  throughout 
the  r^t  of  his  life  was  to  disown,  if  not  to  defeat  him 
^  fei-uitliey's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  9. 


ll$4  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM 


CHAPTEE  n. 

THE  WESLEYS  ITES^EATIIN'G   IN   ENGLAISD  ;    WHITE 
FIELD    ITINEEATINa   IE"   AMERICA. 

Susanna  Wesley — Her  Counsels  and  Encouragements  to  her  Son  — 
Beginning  of  the  Lay  Ministry  —  David  Taylor  —  Mobs  —  Charles 
Wesley  itinerating — Is  mobbed  in  Wales  —  Whitefield  itinerating  in 
America  —  Effects  of  his  Preaching  in  Philadelphia  —  Princeton  Col- 
lege —  His  Eeception  in  Boston  —  His  triumphant  Passage  through  the 
Colonies. 

During  these  important  events  Susanna  Wesley  was  provi- 
dentially still  at  hand,  though  in  extreme  age,  to  counsel 
and  encourage  her  son.  She  had  approved  his  field-preach- 
ing, and  accompanied  him  to  Kemimgton  Common,  where 
she  stood  by  his  side  amid  twenty  thousand  people.^  Her 
son  Samuel  Wesley,  with  whom  she  had  resided  at  West- 
minster since  the  dispersion  of  the  family  from  Epworth, 
remonstrated  against  her  sanction  of  the  irregular  labors  of 
his  brothers ;  but  she  saw  the  overruling  hand  of  God  in 
the  inevitable  circumstances  which  compelled  them  to  their 
extraordinary  course.  A  consultation  was  held  in  her  pres- 
ence respecting  their  separation  from  the  Fetter-lane  So- 
ciety, and  she  approved  that  necessary  measure.  She  had 
been  led,  about  this  time,  by  a  clearer  faith,  to  sympathize 
more  fully  than  ever  with  their  new  views  of  the  spiritual 
life.  John  Wesley  records  a  conversation  with  her  on  the 
subject,  in  which  she  remarked  that  till  lately  she  had 
rarely  heard  of  the  present  conscious  forgiveness  of  sins,  or 
the  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  much  less  that  it  was  the  common 
privilege  of  all  true  believers.  "  Therefore,"  she  said,  "  1 
1  Wesley's  Journal,   Anno  1739. 


THE    WESLEYS    AND    WHITEFIELD.         135 

!iever  durst  ask  for  it  myself.  But  two  or  three  weeks  ago, 
while  my  sou  Hall,  in  delivering  the  cup  to  me,  was  pro- 
nouncing these  words  :  '  The  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
which  was  given  for  thee,'  they  struck  through  my  heart,  and 
I  knew  that  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  had  forgiven  me  all  mij 
sins."  Wesley  asked  v,^hether  her  father  (Dr.  Amiesley) 
had  not  the  same  faith,  and  if  she  had  not  heard  him  preach 
it  to  others.  She  answered,  he  had  it  himself,  and  declared, 
a  little  before  his  death,  that  for  more  than  forty  years  he 
had  no  darkness,  no  fear,  no  doubt  at  all  of  his  being  "  ac- 
cepted in  the  Beloved ; "  but  that,  nevertheless,  she  did 
not  remember  to  have  heard  him  preach  even  once  ex- 
plicitly upon  it ;  whence  she  supposed  he  also  looked  upon 
it  as  the  peculiar  blessing  of  a  few,  and  not  as  promised  to 
all  the  people  of  God.^ 

Doubtless  she  had  enjoyed  before  this  tim.e  a  genuine 
Christian  experience  ;  her  writings  incontestably  prove  this ; 
her  misgivings  related  to  the  degree  of  confidence  which 
attends  a  true  faith.  The  doctrine  of  Assurance,  or  the 
Witness  of  the  Spirit,  as  Wesley  called  it,  had  always 
been  admitted  by  the  Puritan  divines  of  both  Old  and 
New  England ;  but,  as  she  remarked,  it  had  not  been 
considered  the  privilege  of  all  true  believers.  It  was 
a  logical  consequence  of  the  Calvinistic  theology,  that  it 
should  be  assurance  of  eternal  as  well  as  of  present  salva- 
tion, and  the  perilous  liabilities  of  such  an  inference  ren- 
dered it  a  rare  and  almost  esoteric  opinion  in  Calvinistic 
Churches.  Arminianism  alone  could  therefore  safely  re- 
store this  precious  truth  as  a  common  privilege  to  the  Church. 
And  herein  is  seen  the  providential  necessity  of  Arminianism 
as  the  theological  basis  of  the  Methodist  movement;  for 
what  would  Methodism  have  been  without  its  most  familiar 
doctrine,  the  "  Witness  of  the  Spirit "  as  the  common  right 
and  test  of  Christian  experience  % 

Under  the  stirring  events  of  these  times  the  aged  mother 
of  Wesley  was,  after  a  long  and  faithful  pilgrimage,  enabled, 
2  Journal,   Sept.  3,  1739. 


186  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM. 

"  with  liumble  boldness,"  to  claim  the  consolation  of  that 
"  assurance"  which  she  had  so  long  hesitated  to  accept.  Such 
is  the  only  possible  explanation  of  the  case. 

In  changing  the  foundry  mto  a  chapel,  he  had  prepared 
an  adjacent  house  as  a  residence  for  himself  and  his  assist- 
ants in  London,  Hither  his  mother  now  removed,  and 
here  she  spent  her  remaining  days,  sustained  by  his  filial 
care,  and  counseling  him  in  his  new  responsibilities. 

After  his  separation  from  the  Moravians,  Wesley  re- 
sumed his  itinerant  mmistrations  with  unabated  zeal.  He 
had  appointed  Jolm  Cennick,  a  layman,  to  take  charge  of 
the  Kingswood  society,  and  to  pray,  and  expound  the 
Scriptures,  though  not  to  preach,  during  his  absence. 
Thomas  Maxfield,  one  of  his  converts  at  Bristol,  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  same  duties  at  the  Foundry  in  London,  and 
about  the  same  time  John  Nelson  (a  memorable  name  in 
the  annals  of  Methodism)  began  to  exhort  in  public,  work- 
ing as  a  mason  for  his  bread  by  day,  and  holding  meetings 
at  night;  and  thus,  as  will  hereafter  be  seen,  originated, 
without  design  on  the  part  of  Wesley,  that  "  lay  ministry  " 
which  has  spread  and  perpetuated  Methodism  in  both 
hemispheres. 

During  the  years  1740  and  1741  Wesley  traversed 
many  parts  of  the  kingdom,  preaching  almost  daily,  and 
sometimes  four  sermons  on  the  Sabbath.  Ingham,  his  com- 
panion in  America,  was  abroad  also,  itinerating  in  York- 
shire, where  he  formed  many  societies,  Howell  Harris 
pursued  his  labors  successfully  in  Wales,  and  John  Bennet 
preached  extensively  in  Derbyshire  and  its  surrounding 
counties.  David  Taylor,  a  man  of  signal  usefulness,  also 
began  to  travel  and  preach  about  this  time.  He  was  a 
servant  to  Lord  Huntingdon,  Converted  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  the  Methodists,  with  whom  Lady  Hunting- 
don was  now  openly  identified,  he  was  encouraged  by  her 
to  pursue  his  labors  in  the  hamlets  around  her  residence 
at  Donnington  Park.  He  had  some  education,  sound 
sense,   and  good  ability  as  a  preacher.     He  went,  under 


THE    WESLEYS    AND    WHITEFIELD.        137 

the  direction  of  the  countess,  to  Glenfield  and  Ratby,  in 
Leicestershire,  where  his  discourses  in  the  open  air  excited 
extraordinary  interest,  and  attracted  great  assemblies  of  the 
rustic  population.  Samuel  Deacon  threw  do^vn  his  scythe 
in  the  field,  and  wended  his  way  with  the  multitude  to  the 
preaching  place ;  he  returned  to  his  home  deeply  impressed 
with  the  truth,  and  eventually  became  a  distinguished 
preacher  at  Barton-fabis,  in  Leicestershire ;  his  labors  and 
church  extended  out  into  Hugglescote,  Melbourne,  Lough- 
borough, Derby,  Leicester,  (where  a  decayed  Church  was 
resuscitated,)  Nottingham,  and  other  places.  All  the  neigh- 
boring regions,  in  fiiie,  were  pervaded  by  the  Methodistic 
influence  thus  introduced,  and  the  salutary  results  con- 
tinue to  our  day.^ 

3  The  Churches  thus  formed,  together  with  others  in  Cam'bridge  and 
Yorkshire,  were  uinted,   in  1770,   into   a  "connection,"  with  Baptist 
principles.    In  1840  it  comprised  one  hundred  and  thirteen  churches, 
eleven  thousand    three    hundred    and    fifty-eight    members,  five   dis- 
trict home  missionary  societies,  a  foreign  missionary  society,  and  two 
academies.     The  author  of  the  "Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon" 
(vol.  i,  p.  44)  says  :  "  The  principal  strength  of  the  New  Connection  of 
General  Baptists  is  in  the  Midland  Counties,  and  Barton-fabis  is  con- 
sidered the   'mother  of  them  all.'     In  1802,  the  Midland  Conference 
included  twenty-one  churches.     In  1816,  the  Warwickshire  churches, 
six  in  number,  formed  themselves  into  a  separate  conference ;  as  also  in 
1825,  four  or  five  churches  in  the  north  of  Nottinghamshire  were  formed 
into  what  was  called  the  North  Midland  Conference.     The  Midland  Con- 
ference, in  1832,  included  forty-two  churches.     ThesQ  forty-two  churches 
in  the  Midland  Counties  probably  contain  seven  thousand  members; 
many  of  the  chapels  are  large  and  well  attended ;  the  Sunday  schools 
attached  have  many  hundred  children  in  them.    As  the  little  one  has 
become  a  thousand,  may  the  small  one  at  home  and  abroad  become  a 
strong  nation !     These  details,  when  viewed  in  connection   with  the 
itinerant  labors  of  a  servant  belonging  to  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon, 
sent  forth  under  her  patronage,  ai-e  peculiarly  interesting.     But  for  those 
labors,  and  the  benediction   of  the  Spirit  resting  upon  them,  giving 
maturity  and  reproduction  to  the  seed  sown,  what  would  have  been  the 
state  of  thousands  in  those  villages  and  towns  ?     Coventry  is  a  home 
missionary  station  of  this  district,  as  are  also  Northampton,  Mansfield, 
Ashbourne,  Macclesfield,  Manchester,  etc."     Such  is  an  example  of  that 
evangelical  influence  of  Methodism,  beyond  its  denominational  limits, 
which  has  been  asserted  in  our  narrative  as  a  part  of  its  providential 
mission. 


138  HISTOBY    OF    METHODISM. 

Mobs  began  to  assail  the  traveling  evangelists,  but  they 
often  "  melted  away  like  water,  and  were  as  men  that  had 
no  strength,"  before  Wesley's  appeals.  The  rabble  met 
him  in  throngs  as  he  descended  from  the  coach  at  the  door 
of  the  Foundry,  preventing  his  entrance;  but  on  taking 
his  stand  in  the  street  and  preaching  to  them  of  "  righteous- 
ness and  judgment  to  come,"  they  became  a  quiet  and 
attentive  congregation,  and  dismissed  him  with  many  bless- 
ings. Many  more,  he  says,  who  came  into  the  Foundry  as 
lions  in  a  short  time  became  as  lambs,  the  tears  trickling 
apace  down  the  cheeks  of  those  who  at  first  most  loudly 
contradicted  and  blasphemed.  A  few  days  later  a  riotous 
multitude  entered  the  building,  and  attempted  to  drown 
his  voice  by  their  outcries.  But  soon  "  the  hammer  of  the 
word  brake  the  rocks  in  pieces ;  all  quietly  heard  the  glad 
tidings  of  salvation."  On  the  foUowmg  Sunday  when  he 
came  home  he  found  an  innumerable  mob  around  the  door, 
who  raised  a  simultaneous  shout  the  moment  they  saw  him. 
He  sent  his  friends  into  the  house,  and  then  walking  into  the 
midst  of  the  crowd,  proclaimed  "the  name  of  the  Lord, 
gracious  and  merciful,  and  repenting  him  of  the  evil." 
They  stood  staring  one  at  another.  "I  told  them,"  he 
says,  "  they  could  not  flee  from  the  face  of  this  great  God, 
and  therefore  besought  them  that  we  might  all  join  together 
in  crying  to  him  for  mercy."  To  this  they  readily  agreed. 
His  peculiar  power  was  irresistible ;  he  prayed  amid  the 
awe-struck  multitude,  and  then  went  undisturbed  to  the 
little  company  within. 

While  he  was  passing  and  repassing  between  London  and 
Bristol,  with  continual  deviations  to  Windsor,  Southamp- 
ton, Leicester,  Ogbrook,  Nottingham,  Bath,  and  Wales, 
Charles  Wesley  was  scarcely  less  active.  He  also  was  as 
sailed  by  persecutors.  In  March,  1740,  he  was  beset  by  a 
mob  at  Bengeworth;  he  says  "their  tongues  were  set  on 
fire  of  hell."  One  in  the  crowd  proposed  to  take  him  away 
and  duck  him.  He  broke  out  into  singing  with  Thomas 
Maxfield,  and   allowed   them   to  carry  him  whither  they 


THE    WESLEYS    AND    WHITEFIELD.        139 

would.     At  the  bridge  end  of  the  street  they  relented  and 

left  him.     But  instead  of  retreating,  he  took  his  stand  therf^ 

and  singing, 

"Angel  of  God,  whate'er  betide, 
Thy  summons  I  obey," 

preached  to  some  hundreds  who  gathered  respectfully  around 
him,  from  the  text,  "  If  God  he  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  V* 
He  had  fairly  won  the  field.  "  Never,"  he  says,  "  did  I  feel 
so  much  what  I  spoke.  The  word  did  not  return  empty, 
as  the  tears  on  ail  sides  testified." 

He  passed  to  Evesham,  Westcot,  Oxford,  and  other  places, 
preaching,  and  withstanding  the  clamors  of  the  people,  till 
he  arrived  again  in  London,  where  the  Foundry,  Moorfields, 
and  Kennington  Common  were  his  arenas.  While  in  the  city 
he  was  tireless  also  in  pastoral  labors,  devoting  three  hours 
daily  to  "  conferences  "  and  to  the  "  bands.'"  In  Jime,  1740, 
he  was  again  abroad  among  the  rural  towns,  accompanied  by 
his  faithful  assistant,  Thomas  Maxfield.  He  preached  in 
Bexley,  Blendon,  Bristol,  and  Kingswood.  At  the  latter  place 
he  was  especially  refreshed  by  the  good  results  of  the  Meth- 
odist labors.  Methodism,  had  already  commenced  those  de- 
monstrations of  its  efficacy  among  the  demoralized  masses 
which  have  since  commanded  for  it  the  respect  of  men  who 
have  questioned  its  merits  in  all  other  respects.  "  O  what 
simplicity,"  he  exclaims,  "  is  in  this  childlike  people !  A 
spirit  of  contrition  and  love  ran  through  them.  Here  the 
seed  has  fallen  upon  good  ground."  And  again,  on  the  next 
Sabbath,  he  writes :  "  I  went  to  learn  Christ  among  our  col- 
liers, and  drank  into  their  spirit.  O  that  our  London  breth- 
ren would  come  to  school  to  Kingswood !  God  knows  their 
poverty ;  but  they  are  rich,  and  daily  entering  into  rest^ 
without  first  being  brought  into  confusion.  Their  souls  truly 
wait  still  upon  God,  in  the  way  of  his  ordinances.  Ye  many 
masters,  come,  learn  Christ  of  these  outcasts,  for  know,  '  ex- 
cept ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  cannot 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  "  He  questions  whether 
Herrnhut  could  afford  a  better  example  of  Christian  simpli- 


140  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

city  and  purity ;  and  yet  these  reclaimed  colliers  were  re- 
pelled from  the  Lord's  Supper  by  most  of  the  regular  clergy 
of  the  churches  of  Bristol,  because  their  reformation  had 
been  effected  by  the  "  irregular  "  labors  of  the  Methodists. 

From  Kingswood  he  made  a  preaching  excursion  into 
Wales,  where  he  spent  three  weeks,  co-operating  with  How- 
ell Harris,  who,  though  differing  from  him  on  the  "  Five 
Points"  of  the  Calvinistic  controversy,  welcomed  him  cor 
dially.  His  last  night  in  the  Principality  was  one  of  stormy 
riot.  He  was  at  Cardiff,  expecting  to  depart  by  water  the 
next  day ;  Howell  Harris  and  a  company  of  devout  people 
had  assembled  ^vith  him  there  for  some  days,  and  the  inter 
est  of  their  meetings  had  diverted  the  public  attention  from 
the  players  of  the  theater.  The  latter,  joined  by  the  popu- 
lace, and  led  on  by  a  physician  who  had  taken  offense  at 
one  of  Wesley's  sermons,  assailed  the  assembly.  Many,  it 
is  said,  had  bound  themselves  by  an  oath  to  prevent  his 
further  preaching.  At  night  the  mob  attacked  the  house ; 
the  physician  struck  Wesley  with  his  cane,  but  was  tripped 
down  in  the  confusion,  and  after  injuring  several  persons, 
and  raving  like  a  demoniac,  was  carried  out;  but  the 
house  was  quickly  again  broken  open  by  two  magistrates, 
who,  however,  found  it  desirable  to  retire  after  some  in 
quiries.  The  players  then  besieged  it.  "  We  sang  on  uncon- 
cerned," he  writes,  "  though  they  were  armed,  and  threat- 
ened to  burn  the  house.  The  ground  of  their  quarrel  is,  that 
the  Gospel  has  starved  them."  After  midnight  one  of  the 
actors  got  into  the  house,  sword  in  hand :  the  weapon  was 
wrested  from  him,  and  he  thrust  out.  "  When  the  sword 
was  brought  in,"  says  Wesley,  "the  spirit  of  faith  was 
kindled  at  the  sight  of  the  danger.  Great  was  our  rejoicing 
within,  and  the  uproar  of  the  players  without,  who  strove  to 
force  their  way  after  their  companion."  The  hour  had 
arrived  for  him  to  go  on  board  the  vessel ;  against  the  re- 
monstrances of  many  of  his  friends,  he  resolutely  walked 
out  through  the  midst  of  the  rabble ;  he  was  unmolested,  and 
passed  calmly  to  the  water  side,  where  many  of  his  friends 


THE    WESLEYS    AND    WHITEFIELD.        141 

standing  on  the  shore,  joined  him  in  hearty  thanksgiving. 
The  vessel  being  delayed,  he  returned  on  shore  after  some 
hours,  and  found  Howell  Harris  and  others  still  assembled. 
He  preached  to  them  again  while  some  of  his  fiercest  op- 
posers  stood  weeping  around  him.  He  afterward  waited 
on  a  magistrate,  and  presented  to  him,  as  a  trophy,  the 
savord  taken  from  the  player  the  preceding  night.  Such 
is  an  illustrationof  the  trials  and  the  spirit  of  the  founders 
of  Methodism. 

Returning  to  Bristol  and  Kingswood,  he  resumed  his 
labors  there,  and  visited  the  neighboring  towns,  preaching  in- 
defatigably.  He  records  even  five  sermons  a  day.  During 
the  summer  of  1741  he  made  three  more  excursions  into 
Wales.  His  travels  were  rapid,  his  discourses  incessant  and 
powerful,  his  trials  from  persecutors  not  a  few,  but  his  suc- 
cess was  immediate.  He  formed  many  societies,  and  opened 
broadly  the  way  for  the  later  progress  of  Methodism. 

While  the  Wesleys  were  thus  definitively  founding  Meth- 
odism in  England,  Whitefield  was  traversing  the  colonies  of 
North  America,  promoting  that  more  general  but  salutary 
influence  among  existing  Churches  which  was  so  important 
a  part  of  its  mission  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  which 
forms  an  essential  feature  in  its  early  history.* 

He  left  England,  as  we  have  seen,  on  his  second  voyage  to 
America,  in  August,  1739,  and  landed  at  Philadelphia  in  the 
beginning  of  November.  His  eloquence  set  the  city  astir 
immediately ;  its  effects  are  described  as  "  truly  astonishing." 
People  of  all  denominations,  Quakers,  Presbyterians,  Bap- 
tists, as  well  as  Churchmen,  thronged  the  churches,  and  afler 
he  had  departed  public  service  was  held  twice  every  day, 
and  three  and  four  times  on  Sundays,  for  about  a  year,  and 
the  city,  though  then  comparatively  small,  kept  up  twenty- 
six  societies  for  social  prayer.^  Though  the  churches  were 
at  his  command,  he  preached  often  in  the  open  air,  for  the 

*  See  Isaac  Taylor's  Methodism.    Much  of  this  able  but  unsatisfactory 
work  discusses  "Methodism"  as  distinguished  from  "  Wesleyanism." 
'  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Hannah  Hodge.    Philadelpliia,  1806, 


142  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

eager  multitudes  could  not  find  room  in  any  building.  The 
favorite  place  for  his  out-door  preaching  was  the  balcony  of 
the  old  court-house  (since  Market-house)  in  Market-street. 
His  powerful  voice  was  heard  on  the  opposite  shore  of  New 
Jersey,  and  the  crews  of  vessels  on  the  Delaware  could  dis- 
tinguish his  words.  ^ 

He  passed  to  New- York,  and  on  his  route  through  Ne^- 
Jersey  proclaimed  his  message  in  the  prmcipal  towns  to 
thousands,  who  gathered  from  all  the  surrounding  regions. 
A  general  religious  interest  had  been  previously  excited 
among  them  by  the  labors  of  Frelinghuysen,  the  Ten- 
nents,  Blair,  and  Eowland.*''  He  records  that  Tennent  and 
his  brethren  had  begun  an  institution  for  the  education  of 
pastors.  The  building  in  which  the  young  men  were  then 
studying  was  a  log-house,  about  twenty  feet  long  and  nearly 
as  many  broad.  From  this  "  despised  place  "  seven  or  eight 
worthy  ministers  of  Christ  had  been  sent  forth,  and  a  founda- 
tion was  being  laid  for  the  instruction  of  many  others.  Tlie 
work,  he  was  persuaded,  was  of  God,  and  "  therefore  would 
not  come  to  naught."  Tlius  arose  the  theological  fame  of 
Princeton.  Nassau  Hall  received  a  Methodistic  baptism  at 
its  birth.  Whitefield  inspirited  its  founders,  and  was  hon- 
ored by  it  with  the  title  of  A.M. ;  the  Methodists  in  En- 
gland gave  it  funds ;  and  one  of  its  noblest  presidents  was 
the  correspondent  of  Wesley,  and  honored  him  as  a  "  re- 
storer" of  the  true  faith. ^ 

8  ISTote  to  American  edition  of  Gillies' s  Life  of  Whitefield.  Philadel- 
pMa,  1854. 

"^  Physical  effects  like  those  which  had  attended  the  Methodist  preach- 
ing in  England  had  already  occurred  in  New-Jersey  nnder  the  ministra- 
tion of  Eowland;  the  hearers  "fainted  away,"  and  nnmhers  were  carried 
ont  of  the  chitrch  in  a  state  of  insensibility,    Gillies's  Whitefield,  chap.  5. 

8  When  Davies  and  Gilbert  Tennent  were  in  England  soliciting  aid  for 
the  college,  fifteen  years  later,  Tennent  called  on  Wesley  in  London. 
The  latter  alludes  to  the  visit  with  an  expression  of  his  characteristic 
cathoUcity.  "  He  infoi'med  me,"  he  writes,  "  of  his  design,  now  ready  to 
be  executed,  of  founding  an  American  college  for  Protestants  of  every 
denomination ;  an  admirable  design  if  it  ^oill  IHng  Protestants  of  every 
denorairMtion  to  hear  witTi  one  av other. ''^ — Journal,  Anno  1754. 
Princeton  has  verified  Wesley's  doubt  rather  than  his  hope — and  h'oxa 


THE    WESLEYS    AND    WHITEFIELD.        143 

He  spent  a  week  in  New- York,  preacMng  thrice  a  daj  in 
churches  and  in  the  open  air.^  Returning  on  land  to 
Georgia,  he  preached  throughout  his  route  sometimes  to 
ten  thousand  people.  Many  enthusiastic  Philadelphians 
accompanied  him  as  a  cavalcade  sixty  miles  from  the  city. 
About  the  middle  pf  January  he  was  with  his  family  at  the 
Orphan  House,  where  forty  children  were  soon  gathered 
under  his  protection.  In  a  short  time  he  found  it  necessary 
to  tesume  his  travels,  in  order  to  collect  funds  for  their 
support.  Taking  passage  for  Newcastle,  Delaware,  he 
was  before  long  again  addressing  thousands  in  Phila- 
delphia. "  Societies  for  praying  and  singing  "  were  multi- 
plied "  in  every  part  of  the  to^vn ;"  and  a  hundred  and 
forty  of  his  converts  were  organized  into  a  Church  on  one 
day  by  Gilbert  Tennent.  His  route  through  New-Jersey 
was  attended,  as  before,  by  vast  congregations.  Since -his 
previous  visit  a  general  outward  reformation  had  become 
nsible.     Many  ministers  had  been  quickened  in  their  zeal 

lecessitj  as  much,  perhaps,  as  from  choice,  American  sects  have  de- 
Tived  but  questionable  advantages  from  stich  combinations.  President 
Davies  corresponded  with  "Wesley,  and  addressed  him  in  language  which 
Methodists  have  not  usually  had  the  pleasure  to  receive  from  their  Cal- 
vinistic  brethren.  "  Though  you  and  I,"  he  said,  "  may  differ  in  some 
little  things,  I  have  long  loved  you  and  your  brother,  and  wished  and 
prayed  for  your  success,  as  zealous  revivers  of  experimental  Christianity. 
If  I  differ  from  you  in  temper  and  design,  or  in  the  essentials  of  religion, 
1  am  siTre  the  error  must  be  on  my  side.  Blessed  be  God  for  hearts  to 
love  one  another !  How  great  is  the  honor  God  has  conferred  upon  you 
in  making  you  a  restorer  of  declining  religion !"  See  his  letter  in  "Wes- 
ley's Journal,   Anno  1757. 

9  The  English  Church  was  denied  him.  He  preached  usually  in  Dr. 
Pemberton's  Presbyterian  meeting-house  on  "Wall-street,  the  only  one  of 
that  denomination  in  New-York,  and  in  front  of  tire  old  Exchange  on  Broad, 
near  Water-street ;  and  still  later  at  the  "  Brick  Meeting,"  which  was  then 
"  in  the  fields  ;"  the  effect  of  his  labors  was  such  that  Pemberton's  church 
had  to  be  repeatedly  enlarged.  In  this  city  occurred  the  well-known 
illustration  of  his  dramatic  power,  when,  preaching  to  a  large  number  of 
sailors,  he  introduced  a  description  of  a  storm  and  shipwreck,  carrying 
away  their  imaginations  so  irresistibly  that  in  the  climax  of  the  catas- 
trophe they  sprang  to  their  feet,  exclaiming  :  "  Take  to  the  long  boat !" 
Conant's  Narratives  of  Kemarkable  Con\'ersions  and  Revival  Ineidenta, 
etc.    New-York,  1858. 


144  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

to  preacli  the  word  in  season  and  out  of  season,  and  their 
congregations  were  greatly  enlarged.  Several  preachers, 
prompted  by  his  example,  went  forth  traveling  and  labor- 
ing among  the  towns.  After  visiting  New- York  with  un- 
abated success,  he  again  returned  to  Savannah.  But  his 
fame  had  spread  to  New-England,  and  iRev.  Drs.  Colman 
and  Cooper,  of  Boston,  sent  letters  to  Georgia,  urging  him 
to  visit  them.  Again  he  took  passage  for  the  north,  and 
arrived  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  September  14,  1740. 
He  began  immediately  his  usual  course  of  incessant  preach- 
ing. His  sermons  on  his  way  to  Boston  spread  his  repu- 
tation, and  when  within  ten  miles'  distance  he  was  met  by 
the  governor's  son  and  a  train  of  the  clergy  and  chief  citi- 
zens, who  escorted  him  into  the  city.  Belcher,  the  governor, 
received  him  heartily,  and  became  his  warm  friend.  He 
was  denied  "  King's  Chapel,"  the  English  Church ;  but 
Webb,  Eoxcroft,  Prince,  Sewall,  and  all  the  other  Puritan 
divines,  welcomed  him.  His  preaching  had  its  usual  effect. 
"It  was  Puritanism  revived,"  said  old  Mr.  Walter,  the 
successor  of  Eliot,  the  apostle  to  the  Indians.  "  It  was  the 
happiest  day  I  ever  saw  in  my  life,"  exclaimed  Colman, 
after  his  first  sermon.  He  "itinerated"  northward  from 
Boston,  traveling  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles,  and 
preaching  sixteen  times  in  about  a  week.  On  his  return 
the  whole  city  seemed  moved.  High  and  low,  clergymen 
and  municipal  officers,  professors  and  students  from  the 
neighboring  college  of  Cambridge,  and  people  from  the 
country  towns,  thronged  to  hear  him,  and  appeared  ready  tc 
"  pluck  out  their  eyes  for  him."  Twenty  thousand  hearers 
crowded  around  him  when  he  delivered  his  farewell  dis- 
course under  the  trees  of  the  Common,  where  Lee,  the 
founder  of  Methodism  in  New-Eiigland,  was  afterward  tc 
preach  his  first  sermon  in  Boston.  "  Such  a  power  and 
presence  of  God  with  a  preacher,"  wrote  one  who  heard  him, 
"  I  never  saw  before.  Our  governor  has  carried  him  from 
place  to  place  in  his  coach,  and  could  not  help  following 
him  fifty  miles  out  of  town," 


THE    WESLEYS    AND    WHITEFIELD.        145 

He  directed  liis  course  westward  to  Northampton,  where 
he  met  a  congenial  spirit  in  Jonathan  Edwards.  Pulpits 
were  open  to  him  on  all  the  route,  and  a  "  divine  unction  " 
attended  his  preaching.  From  Northampton  he  passed 
dowTi  to  New  Haven,  addressing  as  he  journeyed  vast  and 
deeply  affected  congregations.  He  arrived  there  October 
23,  when  the  Colonial  Legislature  was  in  session,  and  on 
the  Sabbath  preached  before  them  and  an  immense  throng, 
some  of  whom  had  come  twenty  miles  to  hear  him.  The 
aged  governor  was  so  deeply  affected  that  he  could  speak 
but  few  words ;  with  tears  trickling  down  his  cheeks  like 
drops  of  rain,  he  exclaimed :  "  Thanks  be  to  God  for  such 
refreshings  on  our  way  to  heaven !" 

By  November  8  he  was  again  in  Philadelphia,  preaching 
in  a  house  which  had  been  erected  for  him  during  his 
absence,  and  which  afterward  became  the  Union  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  On  the  14th  of  December  he  reached 
the  Orphan  House,  near  Savannah.  In  seventy-five  days 
he  had  preached  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  sermons,  and 
received^  upward  of  seven  hundred  pounds  sterling  for 
his  orphans.  "Never,"  he  writes,  "did  I  see  such  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  Divine  presence  in  the  congregations  to 
which  I  have  preached."  Never  had  preacher  or  any  other 
orator  led  the  masses  more  triumphantly.  He  had  stirred 
the  consciences  of  tens  of  thousands  from.  Maine  to  Georgia, 
and  doubtless,  by  these  and  his  subsequent  travels,  did 
much  to  prepare  the  soil  for  that  harvest  of  Methodism 
which  in  our  day  has  "  shaken  like  Lebanon  "  along  all  his 
course. 

On  the  16th  of  January,  1741,  he  again  embarked  at 
Charleston  for  England, 

Vol.  L— 10 


14:H  HISTORY    OF    METHODIS 


CHAPTER  III. 

SEPARATION    OF    WHITEFIELD    FEOM    WESLEY. 

Tlie  Calvinistic  Controversy — Character  ofWesley's  Mind —  The  Diffi 
ciilties  of  Cahnjiism  to  such  a  Mind  —  Arminianism,  as  defined  at  th< 
Synod  of  Dort  —  Intellectual  Character  of  Whitefield  —  His  Adoption 
of  Calvinistic  Opinions  —  Historical  Importance  of  the  Dispute  between 
Wesley  and  Whitefield  —  Wesley  excludes  it  from  his  Societies  —  It 
disturbs  them  in  London  —  Difficulties  at  Kingswood — John  Cen- 
nick  —  Wesley's  Sermon  on  "Free  Grace" — Whitefield' s  Eetum  to 
England  —  His  Separation  from  Wesley  —  Unsuccessful  Attempts  at 
Eeconciliation. 

While  these  good  and  great  men  were  thus  abroad,  laboring 
exclusively  for  the  moral  recovery  of  souls,  and  confining 
themselves  to  those  vital  truths  which  alone  v/ere  Essential 
to  this  end,  a  serious  occasion  of  discord  occurred  between 
them ,  but  the  painful  record  of  their  partial  alienation, 
which  the  fidelity  of  history  requires,  is  relieved  by  the  fact, 
acknowledged  by  both  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  that  the  im- 
portant movement  in  which  they  were  engaged  took  a  wider 
sway  from  their  differences  of  opinion.  These  differences 
related  to  the  problem  of  Predestination— ^he  insoluble  diffi- 
culties which  for  so  many  ages  have  been  fruitful  causes  of 
contention  and  bigotry  among  good  men,  and  must  continue 
to  be  so  till  they  are  transferred  from  Dogmatic  Theology 
to  their  more  legitimate  place  in  the  sphere  of  Metaphysics. 
Wesley,  as  we  have  seen,  early  and  definitively  took  the 
Arminian  view  of  these  questions,  and  was  confirmed  in  that 
view  of  them  by  the  correspondence  of  his  mother  while  he 
was  yet  at  Oxford.  If,  as  some  of  his  critics  say,  his  intel- 
lect was  more  logical  than  philosophical,  this  was,  perhaps, 
one  of  his  chief  qualifications  for  his  appointed  work.     What 


WHITEFIELD   AND   WESLEY   SEPARATE.    147 

was  needed  in  the  theological  development  of  Methodism 
was  clear,  pointed  definitions,  rather  than  philosophic  gene- 
ralization s,  of  those  elementary  evangelicahtruths  which  are 
most  essential  to  the  personal  salvation  of  men ;  for,  in  its 
positive  bearing,  Methodism  was  to  be  a  spiritual,  rather 
than  a  dogmatic  or  ecclesiastical  reform,  its  effects  on  the 
dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  errors  of  the  times  being 
chiefly  negati^'e,  and  the  more  effective  for  being  such.  Na 
thinker  in  the  modern  Church  has  excelled  Wesley  in  the 
direct  logic,  the  precision,  the  transparent  clearness,  and 
popular  suitableness  with  which  he  presented  the  experi- 
mental truths  of  Christianity.  Faith,  Justification,  Eegener- 
ation,  Sanctification,  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  these  were  his 
themes,  and  never  were  they  better  defined  and  discriminated 
by  an  English  theologian ;  and  the  keen  faculty  and  practical 
directness  with  Avhich  he  thus  treated  theological  ideas  was, 
perhaps,  equally  important  in  guiding  him  to  those  effective 
expedients  of  church  government  which  have  won  for  him, 
from  the  greatest  historian  of  his  country,  the  eulogy  of  hav- 
ing had  "  a  genius  for  government  not  inferior  to  that  of 
Richelieu."  ^ 

It  was  impossible  that  a  mind  thus  addicted  to  precise, 
conceptions  and  direct  conclusions,   rather  than  generaliza-.t 
tions,  should  hesitate  which  side  to  take  in  the  Calvinistic  I 
controversy.     Even  the  modern  qualifications  of  Calvinism,'! 
stated  in  the  pious,  compromising  spirit  of  Baxter,  could  not  I 
satisfy  him.     It  were  vain  to  say  to  such  a  thinker  that  in  I 
predestinating  the  elect  to  be  saved,  God  had  only  passed  j 
by  the  reprobates,  leaving  them  to  their  own  natural  wicked-  I 
ness  and  fate.     His  prompt  reply  would  be  that,  according  | 
to  his  opponents,  the  foreknowing  God  created  the  repro    i 
bate  in  his  wickedness,  and  under  his  inevitable  doom,  and  ? 
he  would  devolve  upon  them  the  formidable  task  of  showing  | 
how  then  the  unassisted  offcast  could  be  held  responsible  for  | 
.his  fate.     He  would  require  them,  also,  to  reconcile~witfir| 

^  Macaulay's  Eeview  of  Southey's  Colloquies,  Edinburgh  Eeyiew,  18SQ, 
See  also  Lis  Miscellanies,  vol.  i,  p.  283.  ^ 


148  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

such  a  condition  of,  perhaps,  nine-tenths  of  the  human  race, 
the  Divine  beneficence ;  the  Scriptural  warnings  and  invita- 
tions addressed  to  them  ;  the  universal  redemption  made  for 
them,  or,  if  that  were  denied,  the  explicit  Scriptural  offers 
of  it ;  their  responsibility  for  their  moral  conduct,  which,  if 
alleged  to  be  voluntary,  is  so,  nevertheless,  because  their 
volitions  are  bound  by  an  eternal  decree,  or,  at  least,  by 
the  absence  of  that  Divine  grace  by  which  alone  the  will 
can  be  corrected.  The  inevitable  salvation  of  the  elect, 
according  to  the  dogma  or'Knai'Perseverance,.  he  would 
also  insist  to  be  logically  dangerous  to  good  morals.  The 
philosophical  predestinarian  would  not  admit  the  logical 
pertinency  of  these  difficulties  •,  it  is  not  the  province  of  the 
historian  to  discuss  them  polemically ;  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  such  was  the  character  of  Wesley's  mind,  and  such  the 
consequences  which  he  drew  from  the  Calvinistic  theology. 
And  yet,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  he  was  already  too  con- 
scious of  the  peculiar  mission  of  Methodism  as  a  spiritual 
development  of  the  Eeformation,  to  attach  fundamental  im- 
portance to.  the  question,  or  make  it  a  condition  of  member 
ship  in  his  societies. 

In  avowing  Arminian  opinions,  and  in  giving  that  title  to 
the  magazine  w^hich  he  subsequently  established,^  he  did  not 
adopt  the  perversions  which  many  of  the  disciples  of  Ar- 
minius  have  taught  in  Europe,  and  which  have  too  often 
since  been  confounded  with  Arminianism  by  its  opponents. 
He  found  in  the  writings  of  that  great  and  devout  theologian  an 
evangelical  system  of  opinions,  as  he  thought,  and  Arminian- 
ism, as  stated  by  the  Remonstrants  at  the  Synod  of  Dort, 
he  did  heartily  receive,  namely :  1.  That  God  did  decree^ 
to  confer  salvation  on  those  who,  he  foresaw,  would  maintain 
their  faith  in  Christ  Jesus  inviolate  until  death ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  consign  over  to  eternal  punishment  the  un- 
believing who  resist  his  invitations  to  the  end  of  their  lives. 
2.  That  Jesus  Christ,  by  his  death,  made  expiation  for  the 
sins  of  all  and  every  one  of  mankind;  yet  that  none  but 

8  He  coinrQenced  the  Arminian  Magazine  in  1778, 


WHITEFIELD   AND   WESLEY   SEPARATE.   14.-9 

n5eiieversj.„<ean    become    partakers    of   its    divine    benefit,  | 
SrTKat  no  one  can  of  himself^  or  by  the  powers  of  his  free   | 
will,  produce  or  generate  faith  in  his  own  mind;  but  that 
man  being  by  nature  evil,  and  incompetent  {ineptus)  both  to 
think  and  to  do  good,  it  is  necessary  he  should  be  born  again 
and  renewed  by  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  through  the  Holy    > 
Spirit.     4.  That  this  divine  grace  or  energy,  which  heals  the    I 
soul  of  man,  perfects  all  that  can  be  called  truly  good  in    | 
him,  yet  that  this  grace  compels  no  man  against  his  will,    ' 
though  it  may  be  repelled  by  his  will.     -5.  That  those  who    I 
are  united  to   Christ  by  faith  are  furnished  with  sufficient   - 
strength  to  overcome  sin ;  but  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  / 
to  lose  his  faith  and  fall  from  a  state  of  grace. ^ 

While  Wesley's  m.ind  was  severely  diajectic,  and  in 
some  cases,  doubtless,  too  much  so,  Whitefield's  was  quite 
the  reverse.  He  seldom  or  never  attempts  a  logical  state- 
menTof  his  opinions  ;  l^is  logicjK,^,,Ja^Ji^^|?^^fc,^^^^ 
in  his  head ;  and  his  feeliiigs,  happily  of  the  purest  temper, 
and  guided  by  the  conscience  rather  than  the  reason,  usually 
determined  his  opinions.  But  the  logic  of  the  feelings, 
though  the  most  important  in  ordinary  life,  that  upon  which 
the  most  responsible  relations  and  duties  are  devolved  by 
nature  herself,  is  baffled  in  the  presence  of  these  speculative 
mysteries.  An  accidental  bias  may  make  a  man  like  White- 
field  a  bigot  through  life,  for  or  against  them.  Had  White- 
field  thought  of  the  controversy,  for  the  first  time,  while 
preaching  with  tears  before  twenty  thousand  neglected  and 
depraved  hearers  in  Moorfields ;  had  the  question  whether 
the  Atonement  comprehended  them  all,  and  whether  all  could 
"  turn  and  live,"  come  up  then  for  an  answer,  he  would  have 
shouted  the  affirmative  to  the  wi*etched  multitude,  and  been 
an  unwavering  Arminian  ever  after.*     But  he  saw  the  contro- 

3  The  last  proposition  was  left  undeciderl  at  the  time  of  the  Synod, 
but  adopted  by  the  Arminians  afterward.  See  Murdock's  Mosheim, 
Seventeenth  Century. 

4  He  seems,  indeed,  not  to  have  liked  the  puhlic  preaching  of  Predesti- 
nation down  to  the  time  of  his  breach  with  Wesley.  Before  the  crisis  of 
the  dispute  he  proposed  silence  to  Wesley,  and  assured  him  that  what- 


150  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

versy  from  a  different  standpoint.  He  felt  himself  to  have 
been  so  vile  a  siimer  that  he  could  not  but  ascribe  his  salva- 
tion to  infinite  and  sovereign  grace.  Wesley  would  have 
granted  this,  but  would  also  have^asRed  the  question,  Why 
not  exalt  this  sovereign  grace  still  more  by  allowing  that  it 
has  provided  for  all  men  1  Whitefield  saw  thousands  not 
more  depraved  than  he  had  been,  yet  unreclaimed ;  his 
grateful  heart,  therefore,  assumed,  not  with  egotism,  but 
with  contrition,  that  a  special  grace  had  mysteriously 
^^'plucked  him  out  from  the  lost  multitude.  "  Free  grace," 
I  he  exclaimed,  in  a  letter  to  Wesley,  "free,  indeed,  because 
I  not  to  all ;  but  free,  because  God  may  withhold  or  give  it  to 
\_jp^hom  and  when  he  pleases."  And  his  ebullient  spirit  found 
so  much  delight  in  the  hope  of  his  final  salvation,  that  the 
doctrine  of  "Final  Perseverance"  was  eagerly  seized  by 
him,  with  apparently  no  hesitancy  at  its  possible  bad  conse- 
quences to  men  of  less  conscientious  fervor.  In  all  his  letters 
to  Wesley,  during  the  dispute  that  now  occurred  between 
them,  we  find  but  one  allusion  to  "  Reprobation ;"  that  was 
an  aspect  of  the  subject  v/hich  he  seemed  inclined  not  to  think 
of;  it  was  "  Electing  Grace  "  which  absorbed  his  thoughts — 
"Final  Perseverance" — the  inestimable  mercy  of  God  in 
rescuing  even  elect  souls  from  perdition,  without  a  reference 
to  his  severity  in  creating  and  then  abandoning  forever  the 
lost  masses  of  reprobates.  He  had  not  read,  he  says,  a 
single  work  of  Calvin ;  he  was  "  taught  the  doctrme  of  God ;" 
he  even  had  "  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit "  respecting  it,  and 
pronounces  Wesley  no  proper  "judge  of  its  truth,"  as  he 
had  not  received  that  witness  on  the  question.  ^  "  God  him- 
self," he  says,  in  another  letter,  "  God  himself,  I  find,  teaches 
my  friends  the  doctrine  of  election..  Sister  M.  has  lately 
been  convinced  of  it ;  and,  if  I  mistake  not,  dear  and  honored 
Mr.  Wesley  will  be  hereafter  convinced  also."     Wesley  was 

evci  had  been  his  own  opmions  on  the  question  he  had  never  preached 
them. 

*  See  the  correspondence,  quite  impartially  given,  by  Southey,  Life  of 
"Wesley,  chap.  11. 


WHITEFIELD   AND   WESLEY   SEPAKATE.    15i 

affected  by  the  tender  spirit  of  the  .correspondence.  He 
]'eplied :  "  The  case  is  quite  plain ;  there  are  bigots  both  for 
predestination  and  against  it ;  God  is  sending  a  message  to 
either  side,  but  neither  will  receive  it  unless,  from  one  who 
is  of  their  own  opinion.  Therefore  for  a  time  you  are  suf- 
fered to  be  of  one  opinion  and  I  of  another.  But  when  his 
time  is  come,  God  will  do  what  men  cannot,  namely,  make 
us  both  of  one  mind."  The  prediction  was  fulfilled  in  its 
best  sense,  for,  though  never  one  in  opinion,  they  became 
one  in  heart,  and  their  separate  courses  in  public  life  verified 
Wesley's  opinion  of  the  providential  design  of  their  theo- 
logical divergence. 

The  dispute  between  them  at  this  time  is  not  without  his- 
torical importance,  as  it  doubtless  led  to  the  later  controversy 
between  Fletcher  and  his  opponents,  which  has  influenced 
Methodist  opinions  throughout  the  world,  and  which,  it  can 
be  wished,  more  perhaps  than  hoped,  may  be  the  last  great 
struggle  on  the  question,  before  it  shall  be  finally  consigned 
by  theologians  over  to  the  unavailing  studies  of  metaphysi- 
cians, a  suggestion  which  dogmatists  will  be  slow  to  receive, 
but  which,  nevertheless,  the  popular  good  sense  of  Christen- 
dom is  irresistibly  forcing  upon  them. 

Tenacious  as  Wesley  was  of  his  personal  opinions,  we 
have  said  that  he  did  not  insist  on  the  Arminian  doctrines 
as  a  condition  of  membership  in  his  societies.  All  he  re- 
quired was  that  disputes  respecting  them  should  not  be 
obtruded  into  devotional  meetings  by  either  party.  His 
first  trouble  on  the  subject  was  from  a  Tnember  of  one  of 
the  London  societies,  by  the  name  of  Acourt,  who  would 
debate  it  in  the  meetings  of  his  brethren.  Charles  Wesley 
forbade  his  admission.  He  presented  himself  at  a  subse- 
quent meeting,  when  John  was  present,  and  inquired  if  he  had 
been  excluded  for  his  opinions '?  "  Which  opinions  ?"  asked 
Wesley.  "That  of  election,"  he  replied.  "I  hold  that  a 
certain  number  are  elected  from  eternity,  and  they  must  and 
shall  be  saved,  and  the  rest  of  mankind  must  and  shall  be 
daomed !"   He  asserted  that  others  of  the  society  so  believed. 


152  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

Wesley  replied  that  he  never  questioned  their  opinions ;  all 
he  demanded  was  that  they  should  "  only  not  trouble  others' 
by  disputing  about  them."  "  Nay,  but  I  will  dispute  about 
them,"  responded  the  hearty  Calvinist ;  "  you  are  all  wrong, 
and  I  am  determined  to  set  you  right."  "I  fear,"  said 
Wesley,  "  that  your  coming  with  this  view  will  neither 
profit  you  nor  us."  "  I  will  go  then,"  replied  Acourt,  "  and 
tell  all  the  world  that  you  and  your  brother  are  false 
prophets,  and  I  tell  you  that  in  a  fortnight  you  will  all  be 
in  confusion."^  Wesley  was  not. a  man  to  be  subdued  by 
such  logic. 

What  induced  him  to  take  at  last  a  decisive  course 
respecting  this  controversy  was  the  discovery  that  John 
Cennick,  his  "helper"  at  Kingswood,  had  attacked  his 
Arminianism  publicly.  The  school  at  Kingswood  was 
entirely  distinct  from  the  seminary  which  afterward 
became  noted  there  as  Wesley's  school  for  "preachers' 
sons."  Whitefield  had  performed  the  ceremony  of  lay- 
ing its  foundation  stone,  but  left  the  institution  immedi- 
ately in  the  hands  of  Wesley.  "  I  bought  the  ground  where 
it  stands,"  says  Wesley,  "  and  paid  for  building  it,  partly 
from  the  contributions  of  my  friends,  partly  from  the  in- 
come of  my  fellowship."''  John  Cennick  was  employed  by 
him  as  teacher,  and  though  a  layman,  was  authorized  by 
him  to  expound  the  Scriptures  to  the  society  which  Wesley 
himself  had  gathered  in  the  vicinity,  and  which  met  in  the 
seminary.  Cennick  was  an  earnest,  pious  young  man.  He 
first  met  the  Wesleys  in  London,  in  1739,  and  being  poor, 
and  without  employment,  was  sent  to  Kingswood  at  the  in- 
stance of  Charles  Wesley.  He  did  well  there  for  some  time. 
In  1740  he  dissented  from  the  preaching  of  "  Universal  Ee- 
demption,"  which,  however,  he  had  publicly  approved  be- 
fore, on  a  visit  of  Charles  Wesley.  He  raised  a  party 
against  the  doctrine  and  his  patrons.  He  wrote  letters  to 
Whitefield,  in  America,  urging  his  immediate  return  to  sup- 
press the   heresy.     Wesley  was  justly  indignant   at   this 

«  Wesley's  Journal,  Jane  19,  1740.  ">  Works,  vol.  v,  p.  283. 


WHITEFIELD  AND  WESLEY  SEPAKATE.    153 

treatment,  from  a  man  whom  he  himself  employed,  and  who 
attempted  to  "  supplant  him  in  his  own  house."  The  harmony 
of  the  society  was  disturbed ;  many  efforts  were  made  to 
restore  it ;  but  Cennick  was  obstinate,  and  insisted  that  him- 
self and.  his  adherents,  while  retaining  their  membership, 
should  also  "meet  apart."  After  unavailing  delays  and 
overtures  of  peace,  Wesley  read  publicly  a  paper  declaring, 
"by  the  consent  and  approbation  of  the  Band  Society  of 
Kingswood,"  that  Cennick  and  his  followers  "were  no 
longer  members  thereof."  One  of  the  accused  asserted  that 
it  was  not  for  any  strife  or  disorder  that  they  were  expelled, 
but  only  for  holding  the  doctrine  of  election.  Wesley  re- 
plied that  they  knew  in  their  own  consciences  this  was  not 
the  case ;  that  there  were  several  predestinarians  in  the  so- 
cieties, both  in  London  and  Bristol,  nor  did  he  "  ever  yet  put 
any  one  out  of  either  because  he  held  that  opinion."  About 
fifty  persons  adhered  to  Cennick,  and  upward  of  ninety  to 
Wesley. 

Ceimick  afterward  united  with  the  Whitefield  Method- 
ists, but  did  not  continue  long  with  them.  He  became  at 
last  a  Moravian.  He  was  a  good  though  weak  man,  and 
his  subsequent  earnest  and  laborious  life  shows  that  he 
deserves  more  lenience  than  has  usually  been  accorded 
to  him  by  Methodist  writers.,^ 

These  events  convinced  Wesley  that  it  was  time  to  pro- 
test against  the  Calvinistic  doctrines  publicly.  He  imme- 
diately preached  in  Bristol  the  most  impassioned  of  his  ser- 
mons, containing  passages  as  eloquent  as  the  pulpit  litera- 
ture of  our  language  affords.  ^  It  was  printed,  and  was  the 
third  of  his  published  discourses ;  the  first  was  issued  on 

^  Jackson  treats  him  impartially :  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  8.  The 
eceentrie  Matthew  Wilks  published  his  sermons,  with  a  "Life"  prefixed, 
and  says :  "  He  possessed  a  sweet  simplicity  of  spirit,  with  an  ardent  zeal 
in  the  cause  of  his  divine  Master." 

»  When  the  late  Earl  of  Liverpool  read  its  peroration  in  Southey,  he 
declared  that  in  his  judgment  it  was  the  most  eloquent  passage  he  had 
ever  met  with  in  any  writer,  ancient  or  modern.  Jackson' s  Life  of  Charles 
Wesley,  chap.  8. 


154  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

his  embarkation  for  Georgia,  a  farewell  message  to  his 
friends  on  "The  Trouble  and  Rest  of  Good  Men;"  the 
second  was  on  "Salvation  by  Faith,"  preached  and  printed 
soon  after  his  own  conversion;  the  present  discourse  w^as 
on  "  Free  Grace."  It  was  sent  by  his  opponents  to  White- 
field,  who  was  then  in  America.  Whitefield  \vrote  fre- 
quent letters  to  him,  remonstrating  against  his  opinions,  but 
still  sincerely  proposing  mutual  peace.  His  intercourse 
with  the  New-England  clergy  had,  however,  deepened  his 
interest  for  the  Calvinistic  opinions.  Assisted  by  his 
American  friends,  he  composed  an  answer  to  Wesley,  and 
had  it  printed  at  Boston,  and  also  in  Charleston,  South 
Carolina. 

On  the  11th  of  March,  1741,  Whitefield  again  reached 
England,  and  the  next  Sabbath  was  preaching  in  the  open 
air  at  Kennington  Common.  But  his  reception  was  dis- 
heartenmg.  His  Calvinistic  sentiments  had  become  known 
by  his  correspondence.  A  letter  from  him  against  Wesley's 
opinions  had  been  surreptitiously  printed  before  his  arrival, 
and  circulated  at  the  door  of  the  Foundry.  Wesley  stood 
up  in  the  desk  with  a  copy  of  it  in  his  hand,  and  referring  to 
its  disingenuous  publication,  said  he  would  do  what  he  be- 
lieved his  friend,  the  writer,  would,  were  he  present,  and 
tore  it  into  pieces.  The  congregation  spontaneously  did  so 
with  the  copies  which  had  been  given  them  at  the  door. 

A  violent  prejudice  now  spread  against  Whitefield,  and 
the  people  refused  to  hear  him.  He  still  wished  for 
peace  with  the  Wesleys.  He  hastened  to  Charles  Wes- 
ley, who  was  in  London,  and  says  it  would  have  melted 
any  heart  to  have  seen  them  weeping,  "after  prayer 
that  the  breach  might  be  prevented."  He  soon  began  to 
believe,  however,  that  he  was  sacrificing  the  truth  by  not 
preaching  election,  and  when  John  Wesley  returned  to 
the  city,  Whitefield  declared  that  they  preached  two  dif- 
ferent Gospels,  that  he  could  no  longer  give  the  Wesleys 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  but  must  preach  against 
them.     When  reminded  that  he  had  just  before  promised 


WHITEFIELD  AND  WESLEY  SEPAEATE.   155 

and  prayed  for  peace,  he  pronounced  Ms  promise  an  error, 
a  weakness,  and  retracted  it.^^ 

Whitefield's  strength  was  also  his  weakness.  The  ardor 
which  made  him  powerful  when  right,  rendered  him  impetu- 
ous when  wrong,  and  he  now  committed  some  grave  but  tem- 
porary errors.  He  preached  against  the  Wesleys  by  name 
in  Moorfields,  not  far  from  the  Foundry,  where  his  old 
friends  were  preaching  at  the  same  time.  He  addressed 
them  a  letter  finding  fault  with  petty  details  in  the  chapel 
furniture  at  Kingswood ;  but  when  approached  by  them,  his 
better  feelings  revived.  They  invited  him  to  preach  at  the 
Foundry ;  yet  there,  before  thousands  of  hearers,  and  with 
Charles  Wesley  by  his  side,  he  proclaimed  the  absolute  de- 
crees in  a  most  peremptory  and  offensive  manner. '^  Wes- 
ley had  repeated  interviews  with  him,  and  sought  for  a  re- 
conciliation ;  but  the  attempt  was  useless.  Wesley  protests, 
at  a  later  period,  that  the  breach,  was  not  necessary ;  that 
those  who  believed  Universal  Redemption  had  no  desire  to 
separate,  but  those  who  held  Particular  Redemption  would 
not  hear  of  any  accommodation.  "  So,"  he  adds,  "  there  - 
were  now  two  sorts  of  Methodists,  those  for  particular  and 
those  for  general  redemption."  ^2  fjg  insists,  at  another--- 
time,  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  "  manner  "  in  which  the 
Calvinistic  party  maintained  their  doctrine,  the  division 
might  have  been  avoided ;  that  difference  of  doctrine  need 
not  have  created  any  difference  of  affection,  but  Whitefield 
"  might  have  lovingly  held  particular  redemption,  and  we 
general  to  our  lives'  end."  ^^ 

Thus  did  Methodism  divide  into  two  currents,  but  thereby   1 
watered  a  wider  range  of  the   moral  wilderness.      Both  / 
flowed  from,  the  same  source  and  in  the  same  general  direc-  '' 
tion.     Both^parties  still  adhered  to  the  Church  of  England, 
availmg  themselves  ofTne  mstorical  11  not  literal  ambiguity 

^0  Wesley's  Journal,    March,  1741.  \ 

"  John  Wesley's  Letter    to  Eev.   Thomas   Maxfield.  London,   1778, 
Jackson's  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  8. 
ia  Wesley's  Short  History  of  Methodism.     Works,  vol.  v,  p.  247. 
"  Letter  to  Maxfield.     Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  8. 


156  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

of  its  seventeentli  Article.  Neither  yet  thought  of  forming  a 
distinct  ecclesiastical  organization,  and  both  soon  after  en 
tered  into  cordial  relations,  though  pursuing  their  common 
work  in  separate  courses.  Methodism,  in  fine,  still  continued 
to  be  a  general  evangelical  "movement,  ostensibly  within  the 
English  Church,  though  not  hesitating  to  reach  into  any 
opening  beyond  it.  Its  history,  therefore,  if  properly  writ- 
ten, must  still  be  a  unit.^^ 

14  The  anonyinouR  author  of  "  The  Life  and  Times  of  the  Countess  of 
Huntington,"  has  abused  the  Wesleys  by  many  false  details  in  his  sketeh 
of  this  dispute.  I  hive  not  deemed  it  necessary  to  encumber  my 
pages  with  them.  The  reader  will  find  them  fully  answered  in  Jackson's 
Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  8. 


THE    OALVINISTIC    METHODISTS.  157 


CHAPTER  lY. 

THE    CALVIl^ISTIC   METHODISTS. 

Wliitefleld's  Tabernacle  opened  —  He  employs  Lay  Preachers  —  Is  recon- 
ciled with  Wesley  —  Goes  to  Scotland  —  Wonderful  Effects  of  his 
Preaching  —  Scenes  at  Cambuslang  —  Slight  Success  of  Methodism  in 
Scotland  —  Eemarkable  Scene  at  Moorfelds  —  The  Coimtess  of  Hun- 
tingdon —  Whitefleld  preaching  at  her  Mansion  —  Noble  Hearers  : 
Chesterfield,  Bolingbroke,  Walpole,  Hume  —  The  Countess  erects 
Chapels  —  Her  Liberality — The  School  of  the  Prophets  at  Trevecca 
—  Her  Followers  become  Dissenters. 

The  loss  of  Whitefield's  popularity  in  London  could  be 
but  temporary.  His  zeal  and  eloquence  could  not  fail  to 
triumph  over  popular  disaffection.  Evangelical  Calvinists 
gathered  about  him,  and  some  of  them  proposed  to  erect  for 
him  a  place  of  worship.  A  lot  of  ground  was  secured  near 
Wesley's  Foundry,  and  the  celebrated  Tabernacle  quickly 
rose  upon  it.  The  new  building  was  immediately  crowded, 
and,  following  Wesley's  example,  which  he  had  before  dis- 
approved, Whitefield  secured  the  assistance  of  lay  preach- 
ers. Cennick  and  Humphreys,  both  of  whom  had  been 
Wesley's  "  helpers,"  joined  him,  and  soon  after  Howell 
Harris  came  to  his  aid  from  Wales. 

Though  operating  thus  at  separate  batteries,  and  in  near 
proximity,  Wesley  and  Whitefield  did  not  long  maintain 
opposing  fires,  but  turned  them  against  the  common  enemy. 
"  All,"  says  Whitefield,  "  was  wonderfully  overruled  for 
good,  and  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel."^  They  were 
soon  personally  reconciled ;  cordial  letters  passed  between 
them;  brotherly  meetings  took  place,  and  they  preached 
in  each  other's  pulpit.     "May  you  be  blessed  in  brmging 

1  Gillies's  Whitefield,  chap.  8. 


158  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

souls  to  Christ  more  and  more,"  wi-ote  Whitefield  to 
Charles  Wesley.  "  Our  Lord  exceedingly  blesses  us  at 
the  Tabernacle.  Behold  what  a  happy  thing  it  is  for 
brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity."  The  poet  of  Methodism 
responded  in  one  of  his  noblest  lyrics.^  "  Bigotry,"  said 
John  Wesley,  writing  of  Whitefield  at  a  later  date,  when 
distinguished  Calvinists  were  patronizing  him ;  "  bigotry 
cannot  stand  before  him,  but  hides  its  head  vfherever  he 
comes.  My  brother  and  I  conferred  with  him  every  day ; 
and  let  the  honorable  men  do  what  they  please,  we  re- 
solved, by  the  grace  of  God,  to  go  on  hand  m  hand  through 
honor  and  dishonor." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  detail,  within  our  appropriate 
limits,  the  marvelous  labors  and  successes  of  Whitefield 
during  the  three  years  of  his  present  sojourn  in  England. 
Though  separated  from  Wesley,  he  desired  not  to  establish 
a  sect ;  he  knew  that  he  was  not  competent  to  do  so ;  ha 
lacked  the  requisite  legislative  capacity ;  but  as  he  repre- 
sented Calvinistic  Methodism,  Calvinistic  clergymen  and 
Churches  encouraged  his  labors.  The  Erskines  of  Scotland, 
distinguished  as  leaders  of  the  Scotch  Secession,  invited  him 
thither,  and  he  made  two  excursions  beyond  the  Tweed 
before  his  next  return  to  America.  The  Erskines  and  their 
brethren  of  the  Associate  Presbytery  were  staunch  zealots 
for  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  which  forms  so  inter- 
esting a  feature  in  not  only  the  ecclesiastical,  but  the  civil 
history,  and  even  the  romantic  literature  of  the  country. 
They  could  make  no  compromise  with  English  Churchmen, 
or  any  others  who  differed  from  themselves.  Soon  after 
his  arrival  at  Dunfermline,  where  Ealph  Erskine  resided, 
Whitefield  was  surprised  by  a  grave  but  ludicrous  scene; 
ludicrous  by  its  very  gravity.  He  found  himself  intro- 
duced into  the  presence  of  several  venerable  members  of 
the  Associate  Presbytery,  who  proposed  to  proceed  to  busi- 

2  Hymn  for  tlie  Eev,  Mr.  "Whitefield  and  Messrs.  Wesley.  See  Jack- 
son's Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  8,  English  edition.  This  spirited 
poem  is  unfortunately  omitted  in  the  American  edition. 


THE    CALVINISTIC    METHODISTS.  159 

ness  in  formal  session.  He  inquired  for  what  purpose. 
They  gravely  replied,  to  consult  and  set  him  right  about 
Church  order,  and  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  He 
assured  them  they  might  save  themselves  that  trouble ;  that 
he  had  no  difficulties  about  either  subject,  and  to  intermed 
die  with  either  was  not  within  "  his  plan."  Yielding  to  his 
devout  feelings,  he  proceeded  to  relate  his  Christian  ex- 
perience, and  how  Providence  had  led  him  into  his  present 
catholic  course  of  action.  Some  of  them  were  deeply 
affected  by  the  singular  narrative.  Ebenezer  Erskine  en- 
treated their  forbearance  with  him  as  a  good  man  who  had 
unfortunately  been  born  and  bred  in  England,  and  had 
never  studied  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  One  of 
the  Associate  divines  replied,  that  he  was  the  less  excusable 
on  this  account,  for  England  had  revolted  most  in  regard  to 
Church  government,  and  he  should  be  acquainted  with  the 
important  naatters  in  debate.  Whitefield  insisted  that  he 
had  never  made  them. a  subject  of  study,  being  too  busy 
with  more  important  interests.  Several  of  the  sturdy 
Scotchmen  repelled  the  hint.  "Every  pin  in  the  Taber- 
nacle," they  said,  was  important.  He  begged  them  to  do 
good  in  their  own  way,  and  to  allow  him  to  proceed  in  his. 
They  dissented;  he  then  entreated  them  to  say  what  they 
would  have  him  do.  They  demanded  that  if  he  could  not 
forthwith  sign  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  he  should 
at  least  preach  only  for  them  till  he  was  better  enlight- 
ened, for  they  were  the  people  of  the  Lord.  It  was  even 
suggested  that  two  of  their  brethren  should  be  deputed 
with  him  to  England  to  settle  a  Presbytery  there,  and 
two  more  to  accompany  him  to  America  for  a  similar 
purpose. 

He  declined  to  take  sides  with  either  of  the  Scotch  par- 
ties,'but  was  determined  to  preach,  as  he  had  opportunity, 
for  both.  "  If  the  pope  himself,"  he  said  to  the  astonished 
Ralph  Erskine,  "if  the  pope  himself  would  lend  me  his 
pulpit  I  would  gladly  declare  the  righteousness  of  Jesus 
Christ  therein."     The  Seceders,  absorbed  by  local  contro- 


160  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

versies  and  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  could  not 
comprehend  him,  and  left  him  to  himself.  One  of  them 
mounted  the  pulpit,  and  preached  against  the  English 
Church,  declaring  that  any  one  who  held  communion  with  it 
or  with  "  the  backslidden  Church  of  Scotland  could  not  be 
an  instrument  of  reformation."  They  afterward  appointed 
a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  against  him.^  He  preached, 
however,  with  great  success  in  the  kirks  of  some  thirty 
towns  and  cities,  delivering  from  two  to  seven  sermons  a 
day,  and  left  them  in  a  general  religious  revival. 

On  his  second  visit,  in  the  spring  of  1742,  he  was  re- 
ceived with  enthusiasm.  Multitudes  met  him  at  the  land- 
ing at  Leith,  weeping  for  joy,  and  welcoming  him  with 
blessings.  They  followed  his  coach  to  Edinburgh,  and 
crowded  around  him  when  he  alighted,  pressing  him  in 
their  arms.  His  preaching  stirred  the  whole  city.  The 
churches  could  not  contain  the  people,  and  an  amphitheater, 
under  awnings,  had  to  be  constructed  in  the  Park  for  their 
accommodation.  He  was  called  to  the  west,  and  made  a 
tour  of  several  weeks  through  its  principal  towns,  preach- 
ing daily,  and  leaving  a  profound  sensation  wherever  he 
went. 

At  Cambuslang  the  popular  interest  reached  a  height 
which  was  never  equaled  elsewhere  under  his  labors.  He 
preached  three  times  on  the  day  of  his  arrival  to  many 
thousands.    The  third  discourse  was  at  nine  o'clock  at  night, 

3  Gillies's  "WTiitefield,  chaps.  8,  10.  A  violent  pamphlet,  character- 
istic of  the  times,  was  issued  against  him,  entitled,  "A  Warning  against 
comitenancing  the  Ministrations  of  Mr,  George  Whitefield.  Together 
•with  an  Appendix  npon  the  same  Subject,  wlierein  are  shown  that  Mr. 
Whitefield  is  no  Minister  of  Jesus  Christ ;  that  his  Call  and  Coming  to 
Scotland  are  scandalous ;  that  his  Practice  is  disorderly  and  fertile  of  Dis- 
order ;  that  his  whole  Doctrine  is,  and  his  success  must  be  Diabolical ;  so 
that  People  ought  to  avoid  him  from  Duty  to  God,  to  the  Church,  to  them- 
selves, to  Fellow-Men,  to  Posterity,  to  him.  By  Adam  Gib,  Minister  of 
the  Gospel  at  Edinburgh.  Edinburgh,  1742."  This  curious  publication 
is  noticed  in  Philip's  Whitefield,  p.  278,  American  edition.  A  copy  of  it 
(the  only  one  perhaps  in  America)  is  in  the  Library  of  the  General  Theo- 
logical Seminar^'  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  New-York. 


THE    CALVINISTIC    METHODISTS.  161. 

and  continued  till  eleven,  "  amid  such  a  commotion,"  he  say;;!, 
"as  scarcely  ever  was  heard  of."  A  fellow-clergyman  re- 
lieved  him  at  eleven,  and  preached  on  till  one  in  the  morn- 
ing. All  night  the  voice  of  prayer  and  praise  could  be  heard 
in  the  fields.  This  remarkable  introduction  sqon  brought 
all  the  surrounding  population  to  hear  him.  A  "  brae  "  or 
hill  near  the  manse,  was  occupied  instead  of  the  churclL 
"  The  people,"  he  writes,  "  seem  to  be  slain  by  scores.  They 
are  carried  off,  and  come  into  the  house  like  soldiers  wounded 
in  and  carried  off  a  field  of  battle.  Their  cries  and  agonies 
are  exceedingly  affecting."  At  another  tiine  a  great  sacra- 
mental occasion  was  held,  in  imitation  of  Hezekiah's  Pass- 
over. More  than  twenty  thousand  people  were  present. 
Three  tents  were  set  up  for  the  administration  of  the  Supper, 
and  twenty  clergymen  assisted  in  the  service.  There  was 
preaching  all  day  to  such  as  could  not  get  access  to  the  ad- 
ministrators, and  at  nightfall  Whitefield  preached  to  the 
whole  mass.  Though  usually  occupying  but  about  half  an 
hour  in  his  sermons,  he  now  stood  up  for  an  hour  and  a 
half,  speaking  with  irresistible  power.  The  next  morning, 
he  says,  "  I  preached  again  to  near  as  many,  but  such  a  uni- 
versal stir  I  never  saw  before.  The  motion  fled  as  swift  as 
lightning  from  one  end  of  the  auditory  to  the  other.  You 
might  have  seen  thousands  bathed  in  tears,  some  at  the  same 
time  syringing  their  hands,  others  almost  swooning,  and 
others  crying  out  and  mourning  over  a  pierced  Saviour." 

By  these  and  subsequent  labors  in  Scotland  did  White- 
field  promote  the  mission  of  Methodism  to  that  land.  In 
no  part  of  Europe  had  the  Reformation  more  thoroughly 
wrought  its  work  among  the  common  people.  An  intelli- 
gent, frugal,  and  religiouS  population,  they  needed,  less  than 
any  other,  the  provocations  of  zeal  which  are  usually  fur- 
nished by  new  sects.  Wesley  marveled  at  their  insuscepti- 
bility to  Methodism;  but  Methodism  at  this  time  was  more 
important  as  a  general  moral  movement,  pervading  the  old 
churches  and  the  whole  public  niind,  than  as  a  sectarian  de- 
velopment more  or  less  ovgamzed.     In  the  former  sense  it 

Vol,  l~ll 


162  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

did  a  good  work  in  Scotland.  The  revivals  under  White- 
field's  preaching  spread  new  energy  through  much  of  the 
Kirk,  and  since  the  era  of  Methodism,  Scotland  has  shared 
that  mighty  influence  of  the  movement  which  has  been  man- 
ifest in  the  religious  progress  of  the  whole  United  Kingdom. 
Her  increased  spiritual  life,  her  foreign  miissions,  her  scarcely 
paralleled  fidelity  to  the  independence  and  integrity  of  the 
Church  in  the  organization  of  her  grand  "  Free  Kirk," 
show  that  she  has  felt  profoundly  the  religious  spirit  of  our 
times.  Arminian  Methodists  may  condemn  her  tenacious 
Calvinism,  but  they  should  remember  that  Methodism  itself 
proposes  to  ignore  the  Calvinistic  controversy  as  a  condition 
of  Church  communion.  If  Methodism  regrets  its  little  prog- 
ress in  Scotland,  it  may  at  least  console  itself  that  there  is 
less  reason  for  this  regret  there  than  in  any  other  country  in 
the  world. 

At  London  Whitefield  could  not  long  be  content  with 
nis  spacious  Tabernacle,  but  took  again  the  open  field.  The 
most  riotous  scenes  at  Moorfields  were  usually  during  the 
Whitsun  holidays.  The  devils  then  held  their  rendezvous 
there,  he  said,  and  he  resolved  "  to  meet  them  in  pitched 
battle."  He  began  early  in  order  to  secure  the  field  before 
the  greatest  rush  of  the  crowd.  At  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing he  found  ten  thousand  people  waiting  impatiently  for 
the  sports  of  the  day.  Mounting  his  field  pulpit,  and  assured 
that  he  "  had  for  once  got  the  start  of  the  devil,"  he  soon 
drew  the  whole  multitude  around  him.  At  noon  he  again 
took  the  field.  Between  twenty  and  thirty  thousand  swarmed 
upon  it.  He  described  it  as  in  complete  possession  of  Beel- 
zebub, whose  agents  were  in  full  motion.  Drummers, 
trumpeters,  merry-andrews,  masters  of  puppet  shows,  exhib- 
itors of  wild  beasts,  players,  were  all  busy  in  entertaining 
their  respective  groups.  He  shouted  his  text,  "  Great  is 
Diana  of  the  Ephesians,"  and  boldly  charged  home  upon 
the  vice  and  peril  of  their  dissipations.  The  craftsmen  were 
alarmed,  and  the  battle  he  had  anticipated  and  challenged 
now  fairly  began.     Stones,  dirt,  rotten  eggs,  and  dead  cats 


THE    CALVINISTIC    METHODISTS,  163 

"were  thrown  at  him.  "My  soul,"  he  says,  "was  among 
lions;"  but  before  long  he  prevailed,  and  the  imm.ense  mul- 
titude "were  turned  into  lambs."  At  six  in  the  eyening 
he  was  again  in  his  field  pulpit.  "  I  came,"  he  says,  "  and  J 
saw ;  but  what  ?  Thousands  and  thousands  more  than  be- 
fore." He  rightly  judged  that  Satan  could  not  brook  such 
repeated  assaults  in  such  circumstances,  and  never,  per- 
haps, had  they  been  pushed  more  bravely  home  against  the 
very  citadel  of  his  power.  A  harlequin  was  exhibiting 
and  trumpeting  on  a  stage';  but  was  deserted  as  soon  as  the 
people  saw  Whitefield,  in  his  black  robes,  ascend  his  pulpit. 
He  "  lifted  up  his  voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  many  heard  the 
joyful  sound."  At  length  they  approached  nearer,  and  the 
merry-andrew,  attended  by  others,  who  complained  that  they 
had  taken  many  pounds  less  that  day  on  account  of  the  preach- 
ing, got  upon  a  man's  shoulders,  and  advancing  toward  the 
pulpit,  attempted  several  times  to  strike  the  preacher  with 
a  long,  heavy  whip,  but  always  tumbled  down  by  the  vio- 
lence of  his  motion.  The  mob  next  secured  the  aid  of  a  re- 
cruiting sergeant,  who,  with  music  and  straggling  followers, 
marched  directly  through  the  crowd  before  the  pulpit. 
"Whitefield  knew  instinctively  how  to  manage  the  passions 
and  whims  of  the  people.  He  called  out  to  them  to  make 
way  for  the  king's  officer.  The  sergeant,  with  assumed  offi- 
cial .  dignity,  and  his  drum  and  fife,  passed  through  the 
opened  ranks,  which  closed  immediately  after  him,  and 
left  the  solid  mass  still  in  possession  of  the  preacher.  A 
third  onslaught  was  attempted.  Roaring  like  wild  beasts 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  assembly,  a  large  number  combined 
for  the  purpose  of  sweeping  through  it  in  solid  column.  They 
bore  a  long  pole  for  their  standard,  and  came  on  with  the 
sound  of  drum  and  menacing  shouts,  but  soon  quarreled 
among  themselves,  threw  down  their  pole  and  dispersed, 
leaving  many  of  their  number  behind,  "  who  were  brought 
over  to  join  the  besieged  party."  ^  At  times,  however,  the 
tumult  rose  like  the  noise  of  many  waters,  drowning  the 
4   Gillies's  Whitefield,  chap.  9. 


164  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

preacher's  voice ;  he  would  then  call  upon  his  brethren  near 
him  to  unite  with  him  in  singing,  until  the  clamorous  host 
were  again  charmed  into  silence.  He  was  determined  not 
to  retreat  defeated;  preaching,  praying,  singing,  he  kept  his 
ground  until  night  closed  the  strange  scene.  It  was  one  of 
the  greatest  of  his  field  days.  He  had  won  the  victory,  and 
moved  off  with  his  religious  friends  to  celebrate  it  at  night 
in  the  Tabernacle ;  and  great  were  the  spoils  there  exhibited. 
No  less  than  a  thousand  notes  were  afterward  handed  up  to 
him  for  prayers,  from  persons  who  had  been  brought  "  under 
conviction "  that  day ;  and,  soon  after,  upward  of  three  hun- 
dred were  received  into  the  society  at  one  time.  Many  of 
tliem  were  "the  devil's  castaways,"  as  he  called  them.  Some 
he  had  to  marry,  for  they  had  been  living  together  without 
marriage ;  and  "  numbers  that  seemed  to  have  been  bred  up 
for  Tyburn  were  at  that  time  plucked  as  brands  from  the 
burning."  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity affords  a  more  encouraging  example  of  the  power 
of  the  Gospel  over  the  rudest  minds,  and  in  the  most  hope- 
less circumstances.  The  moral  sense  will  respond  to  Divine 
truth  from  the  depths  of  the  most  degraded  soul,  and  ai^jid 
the  wildest  tumults  of  mobs.  The  response  may  not  be 
heard ;  it  may  be  stifled ;  but  it  is  felt.  Apostles  knew  the 
fact,  and  ancient  heathenism  fell  before  the  confidence  with 
which  it  inspired  their  ministrations.  The  charge  of  enthu- 
siasm applies  doubtless  to  these  labors  of  Whitefield ;  but  it 
IS  a  compliment  rather  than  a  detraction.  In  less  urgent 
circumstances  such  enthusiasm  might  appear  to  be  fanaticism, 
but  here  it  was  legitimate.  How  were  these  heathen  masses 
to  be  otherwise  reached  by  the  Gospel  ?  Thousands  of  them 
never  entered  the  churches  of  London.  Clothed  in  rags, 
their  very  persons  labeled  with  the  marks  of  vice  and  wretch- 
edness, they  would  have  hardly  found  admission  into  them 
had  they  sought  it.  Moorfields  must  be  invaded  if  it  were 
to  be  conquered,  and  no  less  energetic  invasions  than  those 
which  Whitefield  and  Wesley  made  there,  could  be  success- 
ful.    They  were  successful ;  and  the  suppression,  at  last,  of 


THE    CALVINISTIO    METHODISTS,  165 

the  enormous  scenes  of  that  and  similar  resorts  in  England, 
is. attributable  greatly  to  the  moral  triumphs  of  Methodism 
among  the  degraded  classes  of  the  common  people. 

Besides  his  labors  in  London  and  Scotland,  Whitefield 
traveled  extensively  in  England  before  his  next  embarka- 
tion for  Georgia,  in  1744.  His  popularity  had  fully  re- 
turned. At  Bristol  assemblies  more  numerous  than  ever 
attended  his  preaching.  Even  in  the  minor  towns  ten  or 
twelve  thousand  were  his  frequent  estimates  of  his  hearers, 
for  the  population  of  all  neighboring  villages  usually  thronged 
to  the  places  of  his  owt-door  sermons.  He  made  repeated 
tours  through  Wales,  and  each  time  with  increased  success. 
In  one  of  these  visits,  employing  three  weeks,  he  traveled 
four  hundred  English  miles,  preached  forty  sermons,  and 
spent  three  days  in  attending  Associations  of  the  new  socie- 
ties. "  At  seven  in  the  morning,"  he  writes,  "  have  I  seen 
perhaps  ten  thousand  from  different  parts,  in  the  midst  of  a 
sermon,  crying  Gogonniant  bendigedig^  (Glory  !  Blessed  !) 
ready  to  leap  for  joy."  "  The  work  begun  by  Mr.  Jones 
spreads  far  and  near  in  North  and  South  Wales." 

Though  Whitefield  designed  not  to  establish  a  Methodist        / 
sect,  circumstances  compelled  him,  after  his  separation  from       I 
Wesley,  to  give  a  somewhat  organized  form  to  the  results      I 
of  his  labors  among  the  Calvinistic  adherents  who  g^^heredj 
about  him.     Lady  Betty  Hastings  had  patronized  the  little 
band  of  Methodists  at  Oxford ;   Lady  Margaret  Hastings, 
her  sister,  had  adopted,  through  her  influence,  the  Methodist 
sentiments,  and  afterward  married  Ingham,  who  was  one  of 
the  Oxford  Methodists,  and  the  companion  of  Wesley  in 
Georgia.     Her  influence  over  her  sister-in-law  Selina,  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  led  the  countess,  during  a  serious 
sickness,  to  a  religious  life,  and  to  a  strong  sympathy  with 
the  Methodists.     Bishop  Benson,  who  had  oidained  White- 
field,  and  had  been  tutor  to  her  husband,  the  Earl  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, was  called  by  the  latter  to  restore  his  wife  to  a 
"saner"  mind.     The  good  bishop  failed  in  the  attempt,  and 
expressed  regret  that  he  had  ever  laid  his  hand  on  White- 


166  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

field.  "  Mark  my  words,  my  lord,"  replied  the  countess, 
"  when  upon  your  dying  bed,  that  will  be  one  of  the  ordina- 
tionl  upon  which  you  will  reflect  with  pleasure."  The  pre- 
diction was  fulfilled.  The  bishop,  when  he  came  to  die,  sent 
Whitefield  a  present  of  ten  guineas,  and  asked  an  interest 
in  his  prayers.  Lady  Huntingdon,  though  remotely  related 
to  the  royal  family,  and  moving  in  the  highest  circles  of 
aristocratic  life,  frequented  the  Moravian  societies  in  London, 
and  at  the  separation  of  Wesley  from  them,  co-operated  with 
the  Methodist  party.  She  invited  him  to  her  residence  at 
Domiington  Park,  where  he  often  pleached.  She  adopted 
heartily  his  doctrine  of  Christian  Perfection.  "The  doc- 
trine," she  wrote  him,  "  I  hope  to  live  and  die  by ;  it  is  ab- 
solutely the  most  complete  thing  I  know."^  She  encouraged 
him  in  his  extraordinary  labors,  and  especially  in  the  pro- 
motion of  a  lay  ministry  as  the  great  necessity  of  the  times. 
Her  Calvinistic  opinions  led  her  to  patronize  Whitefield 
when  he  separated  from  Wesley,  and  her  talents,  wealth, 
and  influence  placed  her  at  the  head  of  Calvinistic  Method- 
ism ;  but  she  endeavored  to  secure  a  good  understanding 
between  the  great  evangelists.  She  wrote  to  each,  recom- 
mending their  closer  co-operation,  and  not  without  effect. 
Whitefield  preached  in  Wesley's  chapel,  Wesley  reading  the 
prayers ;  the  next  Sunday  Wesley  officiated  at  the  Taber- 
nacle, assisted  by  Whitefield,  and  twelve  hundred  persons 
received  the  Lord's  Supper  at  the  conclusion  of  the  serm.on. 
The  reconciliation  was  further  strengthened  by  a  powerful 
sermon  to  an  overflowing  assembly  at  Wesley's  chapel  the 
next  day,  by  Howell  Harris,  the  Welsh  colaborer  of  both 
the  great  leaders.^  Their  personal  friendship  remained  un- 
interrupted during  the  rest  of  their  lives.  "  Thanks  be  to 
God,"  wrote  the  countess,  "  for  the  love  and  unanimity 
which  have  been  displayed  on  this  occasion.  May  the  God 
of  peace  and  harmony  unite  us  all  in  the  bond  of  affection." 
It  is  not  irrelevant  to  notice  here,  though  with  the  anticipa- 

s  Lady  Huntingdon  Portrayed,  chap.  3.     New  York,  1857. 

0  Life  and  Tinries  of  Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  vol.  i,  chap.  8. 


THE    CALVIKISTIC    METHODISTS.  167 

tion  of  some  dates,  the  early  development  of  tliis  part  of  tlie 
Methodistic  movement.  At  the  death  of  her  husband,  Lady 
Huntingdon  devoted  her  life  actively  to  religious  labors, 
and  in  1748  invited  Whitefield  to  preach  in  her  mansion  at 
Chelsea,  near  London,  hitherto  a  resort  for -the  highest  classes 
of  the  fashionable  and  aristocratic  world,  and  she  soon  after 
appointed  him  one  of  her  chaplains.  Paul  preached  privately 
to  those  that  were  of  reputation,  thought  Whitefield ;  he 
therefore  concurred  in  her  ladyship's  proposal  ^o  combine 
with  his  public  labors  among  the  crowds  at  the  Tabernacle, 
and  the  ten  thousands  at  Moorfields,  private  sermons  at  the 
Chelsea  mansion.  Notable  men  heard  there  the  truth  from 
his  eloquent  lips.  Chesterfield  listened  to  him  with  delight, 
and  gave  hin^  one  of  his  courtly  compliments :  "  Sir,  T  will 
not  tell  you  what  I  shall  tell  others,  hovv"  I  a23pro*re  you." 
He  opened  for  the  evangelist  his  chapel  at  Bretby  Hall, 
and  several  of  his  noble  relatives  were  claimed  by  White- 
field  as  his  spiritual  trophies  ;  his  wife  and  her  sister,  the 
Countess  Delitz,  died  in  the  faith.  Horace  Walpole  heard 
him  with  admiration,  though  his  rampant  wit  trifled  with 
him  behind  his  back.  Hume  listened  with  wonder,  and 
said  he  would  go  twenty  miles  to  hear  him.  Bolingbroke 
complimented  him,  approved  his  Calvinism,  and  received  his 
sermons  and  his  visits ;  his  brother.  Lord  St.  John,  became 
a  convert,  and  died  in  the  hope  of  the  Gospel. "^  Many  ladies  ' 
of  the  highest  aristocratic  rank  became  "  devout  women," 
and  ornaments  to  the  Christian  Church.  The  Marchioness 
of  Lothian  arrived  in  London  in  a  dying  condition  about 
this  time,  and  joined  with  the  Countess  of  Leven,  Lady 
Balgonie,  Lady  Frances  Gardiner,  Lady  Jane  Nimmo,  and 
Lady  Mary  Hamilton,  in  establishing  a  meeting  for  prayer 
and  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  to  be  held  alternately  at  each 
other's  houses,  wdiich  continued  to  be  well  attended  and  sin- 
gularly useful  for  many  years.  It  was  confined  to  a  select 
circle  of  women  of  high  station,  many  of  whom  adorned  the 
doctrine  which  they  professed  by  a  life  of  holiness  and  self- 

^  Life  and  Times  of  Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  vol.  i,  chap.  7. 


16S  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM. 

*  • 

denial  amid  their  distinguished  associates.     Still  later,  the 

Countess  of  Northesk  and  Hopetown,  the  daughters  of  Lord 

Leven,  the  Countess  of  Bachan,  Lady  Maxwell,  Lady  Glen- 

orchy,   Wilhelniina,    Countess  of  Leven,   (formerly  Lady 

Balgonie.)  with  her  sisters,  Lady  Ruthven  and  Lady  Banff, 

Lady  Henrietta  Llope,  and  Sophia,  Countess  of  Haddington, 

weie  devoted  members  of  this  select  band,^     Thus  while 

Methodism  was  gathering  its  societies  from  the  humiblest 

I   classes,    at    the   Tabernacle    and    the   Foundry,    it   bound 

\  together,  in  similar  assemblies,  a  few  of  the  "nobie"  in  the 

\  aristocratic  quarter  of  the  metropolis. 

Meanwhile  AYhitfield's  success  opened  the  way  for  the 
utmost  zeal  and  liberality  of  the  countess.  She  gave  away, 
for  religious  purposes,  more  than  five  huncft-ed  thousand 
dollars.^*'  She  sold  ail  her  jewels,  and  by  the  proceeds  erect- 
ed chapels  for  the  poor.  She -relinquished  her  aristocratic 
equipage,  her  expensive  residences  and  liveried  servants,  that 

8  "  These  have  all  long  since  joined  the  general  assembly  and  church  of 
the  redeemed  from  among  men,  and  are  now  uniting  in  ascriptions  of  praise 
to  Him  who  hath  redeemed  them  to  God  by  his  blood."  (Life  and  Times 
of  Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  vol.  i,  chap.  7.)  Many  flocked  from  the 
court  circle  to  the  Park-street  mansion  to  hear  Whitefield  ;  and,  as  might 
l:>e  expected,  found  the  truth  too  novel  and  keen  to  be  endured.  This 
author  (himself  "  a  member  of  the  House  of  Shirley  and  Hastings  ")  gives 
an  example  which  had  its  parallel  almost  daily  under  the  Methodist  preach- 
ing among  the  lowest  classes.  "  Mr.  Whitefield's  lectures  to  the  'bril- 
liant circle'  at  Lady  Huntingdon's  were  evidently  as  faithful  as  they  were 
eloquent.  The  well-known  Countess  of  Suffolk  found  them  so.  Lady 
Rockingham  prevailed  on  Lady  Huntingdon  to  admit  this  beauty  to  hear 
her  shaplain ;  he,  however,  knew  nothing  of  her  presence ;  he  drew  his 
bow  at  a  venture,  but  eveiy  arrow  seemed  aimed  at  her.  She  just  man- 
aged to  sit  out  the  service  in  silence,  and  when  Mr.  Whitefield  retired  sha 
flew  into  a  violent  passion,  abused  Lady  Huntingdon  to  her  face,  and  de- 
nounced the  sermon  as  a  deliberate  attack  on  herself.  In  vain  her  sister- 
in-law.  Lady  Betty  Germain,  tried  to  appease  the  beautiful  fury,  or  tc 
explain  her  mistake ;  in  vain  old  Lady  Eleanor  Bertie  and  the  Duchess 
Dowager  of  Ancaster,  both  relatives  of  Lady  Suffolk,  commanded  her' 
silence :  she  maintained  that  she  had  been  insulted.  She  was  compelled, 
however,  by  her  relatives  who  were  present,  to  apologize  to  Lady  Hun- 
tingdon. Having  done  this  with  a  bad  grace,  the  mortified  beauty  left  the 
place  to  return  no  more."  She  was  the  female  favorite  of  the  court  of 
George  II.,  and  Pope's  celebrated  "Mrs.  Howard." 

*  Life  and  Times  of  Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  vol.  i,  chap.  7. 


THE    CALVINISTIC    METHODISTS.  169 

her  means  of  usefulness  might  be  more  ample.  She  pur- 
chased theaters,  halls,  and  dilapidated  chapels  in  London, 
Bristol,  and  Dublin,  and  fitted  them  up  for  public  worship. 
New  chapels  were  also  erected  by  her  aid  in  many  places  in 
England,  Wales,  and  Ireland.  Distinguished  Calvinistic  cler- 
gymen, Churchmen  as  well  as  Dissenters,  co-operated  with 
her  plans,  and  were  more  or  less  under  her  direction.  Ro- 
maine,  Venn,  Madan,  Berridge,  Toplady,  Shirley,  Fletcher, 
Benson,  and  a  host  of  others,  shared  her  beneficent  labors. 
She  met  them  in  frequent  conferences,  attended  sometimes 
by  the  Wesleys.  She  made  tours  through  parts  of  England 
and  Wales,  accompanied  by  like-minded  noble  ladies  and 
by  eminent  evangelists,  who  preached  wherever  they  went, 
in  the  churches  and  in  the  open  air.  She  mapped  all  En- 
gland into  six  districts  or  circuits,  and  sent  out  six  "  can- 
vassers" from  among  her  most  successful  adherents,  to 
travel  them,  and  to  preach  in  every  community,  large  or 
small,  which  was  not  pre-occupied  by  similar  laborers ;  and 
at  the  time  of  her  death,  her  influence  had  extended  over 
the  four  sections  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

Her  zeal  and  munificence  provided  places  of  worship 
faster  than  they  could  be  supplied  by  her  preachers,  especially 
in  Wales.  A  college  for  the  preparation  of  clergymen  was 
therefore  opened,  in  a  romantic  and  dilapidated  castle  of  the 
twelfth  century,  at  Trevecca,  the  birth-place  of  Howell 
Harris,  the  Welsh  evangelist.  Its  preparation  for  the  pur- 
pose exhausted  all  the  available  means  of  the  countess; 
but  Ladies  Glenorchy  and  Chesterfield,  with  other  aristo- 
cratic but  devout  friends,  gave  her  large  contributions. 
Wesley  heartily  approved  her  plan.  She  submitted  it  also 
to  Fletcher  of  Madeley  ;  at  the  close  of  the  day  on  which  he 
received  her  letter  he  retired  to  his  rest  in  prayerful  medi- 
tation respecting  it.  In  the  dreams  of  the  night  the  scheme 
was  revolving  through  his  thoughts,  and  a  young  man, 
"James  Glazebrook,  collier  and  getter-out  of  iron-stone 
in  the  woods  of  Madeley,"  appeared  as  in  a  vision  before 
him — a  suitable  student  with  whom  to  begin  "the  school 


170  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

of  the  prophets."  "To  my  great  surprise,"  wrote  Eletcher 
to  the  countess,  ''he  came  hito  Madeley  the  next  mornmg. 
I  found,  upon  uiquiry,  that  he  was  as  much  drawn  to  come 
as  I  to  speak  of  him."  He  had  been  seven  years  converted, 
.had  "no  mean  gift  in  singing  and  prayer,"  and  his  "judg- 
iTLent  and  sense  were  superior  to  his  station."  Such  was  the 
first  pupil  of  Trevecca.  ^^ 

Fletcher  himself  became  its  president;  and  at  a  later 
date  Joseph  Benson,  the  Wesleyan  commentator,  was  ap- 
pointed its  head  master.  Students  soon  flocked  to  the 
school.  Religious  opinions  were  not  made  a  test  for  ad- 
mission; but  candidates  who  professed  to  have  been  truly 
converted  to  God,  and  were  resolved  to  devote  themselves 
to  the  ministry,  in  either  the  Established  Church  or  any 
denomination  of  Dissenters,  were  welcomed,  and  provided, 
at  the  countess's  expense,  with  board,  tuition,  and  a  yearly 
suit  of  clothes. 

Lady  Huntingdon's  "  Connection "  holds  an  important 
place  in  the  history  of  these  times.  It  spread  the  ]\Ieth- 
odist  movement  effectively  among  British  Calvinists, 
whether  within  or  without  the  Church,  and  thus  contrib- 
uted inestimably  to  that  general  but  potent  influence  which 
impartial  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  acknowledge  to  have 
been  exerted  by  Methodism  on  the  whole  later  prog- 
ress of  religion  in  Great  Britain.  ^^  Like  Wesley,  Lady 
Huntingdon,  with  Whitefield,  Howell  Harris,  and  most  of 

10  Lady  HiTntingdon  Portrayed,  chap.  8.  Glazebrook  became  one  of 
Lady  HuDtingdon's  preachers,  and  subsequently,  by  the  aid  of  Fletcher 
and  the  countess,  obtained  ordination  in  the  Established  Church.  He 
died  vicar  of  Belton,  Leicestershire.  He  was  distinguished  for  his  piety 
and  usefulness,  and  also  for  his  satirical  humor.  Works  from  his  pen 
on  extemporary  preaching,  infant  baptism,  and  other  subjects,  as  also  a 
posthumous  volume  of  sermons,  were  published.  A  memoir  of  him 
appeared  in  the  Evangelical  Eegister  (England)  in  1836. 

11  It  is  significant,  however,  that  Doddridge,  Watts,  and  other  great 
Dissenters  in  the  early  times  of  Methodism,  showed  publicly  but  httle 
sympathy  with  Whitefield,  though  they  acknowledged  much  privately. 
They  forfeited  their  right  to  an  honorable  place  in  the  history  of  the  new 
movement.    The  reason  of  the  fact  may  be  seen  in  Philip's  "Life  and 


THE    CALVINISTIC    METHODISTS.  171 

her  preachers,  was  strongly  attaclied  to  the  Church  of 
England.  They  wished  not  to  be  classed  with  Dissenters ; 
but  in  order  to  protect  her  chapels  from  suppression,  or 
appropriation  by  the  Established  Church,  she  had  to  avail 
herself,  in  1779,  of  the  "  Toleration  Act,"  a  law  by  which 
all  religious  societies  that  would  not  be  subject  to  the 
established  ecclesiastical  power,  could  control  their  ov/n 
chapels  by  an  avowal,  direct  or  virtual,  of  Dissent.  Her 
"  Connection "  thus  took  its  place  among  the  Dissenting 
Churches,  and  Romaine,  Townsend,  Venn,  and  many 
others  of  her  most  influential  colaborers  belonging  to  the 
Establishment,  ceased  to  preach  in  her  chapels. 

At  the  extreme  age  of  eighty-four  this  remarkable  woman 
died,  uttering  with  her  last  breath :  "  My  work  is  done. 
I  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  go  to  my  Father."  She  left 
twenty  thousand  dollars  for  charities,  and  the  residue  of 
her  fortune  for  the  support  of  sixty-four  chapels  which  she 
had  helped  to  build  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom.  No 
one  of  her  sex,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  cer- 
tainly none  of  modern  times,  has  done  more  by  direct 
labors  and  liberality  for  the  promotion  of  genuine  religion. 

Times  of  Whitefield,"  chap.  10.  They  were  endeavoring  to  repeat  the 
scheme  of  "  comprehension"  which  Bates,  Manton,  and  Baxter  had 
attempted  in  vain  with  Bishop  Stillingfleet.  Sympathy  toward  Method- 
ism might  have  compromised  them  with  the  Establishment,  whose  favor 
they  were  seeking.  The  facts,  as  given  by  Philip,  though  unfortunate 
for  these  great  and  good  men,  are  irrefutable. 


172  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

TRAVELS     AND     LABORS     OF    THE     WESLEYS    FROM 

1741    TO    1744. 

Lay  Preaching  —  Thomas  Maxfield  —  Susanna  Wesley  —  Her  Death- 
Wesley  itinerating — Introduction  of  Class-Meetings — John  Nelson  — 
His  History  —  Wesley  visits  him  in  Yorkshire  —  Wesley  in  the  North 
of  England  —  Newcastle  —  Its  degraded  Poor  —  Wesley  preaching  on 
the  Tombstone  of  his  Father — General  Rules  of  the  United  Societies  — 
Their  Catholicity  —  Physical  Phenomena  of  the  Excitement  at  New- 
castle—  Wesley  considers  them  Demoniacal  —  Charles  Wesley  mobbed 
at  Sheffield  —  He  goes  to  Cornwall  —  Is  mobbed  at  St.  Iv^es — John 
Wesley  and  John  Nelson  in  Cornwall  —  Their  Privations  —  Wesley 
mobbed  at  Wednesbury  —  Charles  Wesley  at  Wednesbury  —  Progress 
of  Methodism, 

We  have  followed  Whitefield  in  Ms  ministerial  travels 
from  the  date  of  his  separation  from  Wesley  in  1741,  to 
his  embarkation  for  America  in  1744.  This  interval  was 
filled  with  extraordinary  itinerant  labors  by  the  Wesleys 
and  their  coadjutors,  and  was  followed  by  a  memorable 
event,  the  first  session  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Con- 
ference. 

Notwithstanding  the  disturbances  occasioned  by  the  Cal- 
vinistic  dispute,  and  the  separation  of  Whitefield,  the 
year  1742  was  attended  with  increased  success.  It  was, 
however,  a  period  of  severer  trials  than  the  Methodist 
evangelists  had  hitherto  encountered.  Methodism  had 
achieved  moral  miracles  among  the  degraded  colliers  of 
Kingswood.  It  could  point  for  its  noblest  demonstra- 
tion to  such  abysses  of  popular  degradation,  into  which  it 
had  borne  the  cross,  as  almost  into  the  gates  of  hell. 
Its  satirists  were  compelled  to  acknowledge  its  mar- 
velous   and  salutary  power  over  classes  which  had   been 


PEOGKESS:    174:1-1744.  173 

considered  hopelessly  beyond  the  reach  of  any  moral  influ- 
ence that  either  the  Church  or  the  Dissenters  could  then 
exert.  But  the  lower  classes  of  England  generally  were 
sunk  in  scarcely  less  degradation,  and  there  were  espe- 
cially other  mining  regions  of  the  kingdom,  as  Newcastle 
and  Cornwall,  whose  denaoralization  was  notoriously  ex- 
treme. Wesley  and  his  colaborers  resolved  to  iBvade 
them  at  any  risk.  They  knew  that  in  the  condition  of 
these  districts,  at  the  time,  violent  opposition  must  be  ex- 
pected. The  magistrates  would  probably  be  hostile;  the 
clergy,  incapable  in  their  stately  churches  and  formalisms 
of  reaching  the  wretched  multitudes,  would  probably  de- 
nounce the  intruders,  a  probability  which  was  found  to  be 
too  true;  but  what  were  all  such  consequences,  compared 
with  the  results  of  the  continued  moral  neglect  of  these 
perishing  masses  ?  The  evangelical  itinerants  directed 
their  course,  therefore,  toward  the  mining  populations  of 
the  north  and  west,  prepared  for  mobs,  and,  if  need  be, 
for  martyrdom.  We  shall  see  that  they  recoiled  not  from 
either,  but  steadily  pushed  forward  their  conquests,  amid 
scenes  which  sometimes  resembled  the  tumults  of  battle- 
fields. 

Hitherto  Wesley's  lay  "helpers"  had  been  but  "exhort- 
ers,"  and  readers  and  "  expounders "  of  the  Scriptures ;  but 
"lay  preaching"  was  now  formally  begun.  Thomas  Max- 
field,  occupying  the  desk  of  the  Foundry  in  Wesley's  absence, 
had  been  led  to  deviate  from  these  restrictions.  Wesley 
received  a  letter  at  Bristol  informing  him  of  the  fact.  His 
prejudices  for  "church  order"  were  still  strong,  and  he 
hastened  to  London,  with  no  little  alarm,  to  check  the  new 
irregularity.  His  mother  was  still  at  hand,  however,  to 
guide  him.  Retired  in  the  parsonage  of  the  Foundry,  linger- 
ing at  the  verge  of  the  grave,  and  watching  unto  prayer  over 
the  marvelous  developments  which  were  occurring  in  the 
religious  world  around  her,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
her  family,  she  read  the  indications  of  the  times  with  a  wiser 
sagacity  than  her  son,  and  was  now  to  accomplish  her  last 


174  ^         HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

controlling  agency  in  ttie  Methodist  movement,  and  to  intro 
duce  an  iimovation  by  which,  more  than  by  any  other  fact 
in  its  ministerial  economy,  it  has  been  sustained  and  extended 
in  the  Vv^orld.  She  perceived  on  his  arrival  that  his  counte- 
nance expressed  dissatisfaction  and  anxiety,  and  inquired  the 
cause.  "  Thomas  Maxfield,"  he  replied,  with  unusual  abrupt- 
ness, "has  turned  preacher,  I  find."  She  reminded  him  of 
her  own  sentiments  against  lay  preaching,  and  that  he  could 
not  suspect  her  of  favoring  anything  of  the  kind.  But  take 
care,  she  added,  what  you  do  respecting  that  young  man; 
he  is  as  surely  called  of  God  to.  preach  as  you  are.  She 
counseled  him  to  examine  what  had  been  the  fruits  of  Max- 
field's  preaching,  and  to  hear  him  also  himself  He  heard 
him  :  "  It  is  the  Lord,  let  Him  do  what  seemeth  to  Him 
good,"  was  all  he  could  further  say,  and  Thomas  Maxfield 
became  the  first  of  that  host  of  itinerant  lay  preachers  which 
has  since  carried  the  standard  of  the  Gospel  more  triumph- 
antly over  the  world  than  any  other  class  of  the  modern 
Christian  ministry. 

Maxfield  was  not  the  first  of  Wesley's  lay  assistants, 
but  the  first  of  his  lay  preachers.  John  Cennick  and 
others  probably  preceded  him  in  the  former  capacity. 
Wesley,  in  his  last  Journal,  mentions  Joseph  Humphrys  as 
being  the  first  lay  preacher  that  assisted  him  "  in  England, 
in  the  year  1738,"  but  doubtless  refers  to  him  as  an  exhorter 
and  expounder,  for  his  scruples  in  the  case  of  Maxfield  prove 
that  he  would  not  have  tolerated  formal  preaching  by 
Humphrys  at  that  earlier  date ;  and  in  the  Conference 
Minutes  of  1766,  he  names  Maxfield  as  the  first  layman  who 
desired  to  help  him  "  as  a  son  in  the  Gospel."  "  Soon 
after,"  he  adds,  "  there  came  a  second,  Thomas  Richards, 
and  a  third,  Thomas  Westall." 

Lady  Huntingdon,  also,  had  the  good  sense  to  encourage 
this  important  innovation.  She  heard  Maxfield,  and  wrote 
to  Wesley  in  the -warmest  terms  respecting  him.  "  He  is," 
she  said,  "  one  of  the  greatest  instances  of  God's  peculiar 
favor  that  I  know.     He  has  raised  from  the  stones  one  to  sit 


PEOGRESS:    1V41-1744.  175 

among  the  princes  of  his  people ;  he  is  my  astonishment ; 
how  is  God's  power  shown  in  weakness !"  ^ 

Having  lingered  till  her  seventy-third  year,  counseling 
and  encouraging  her  sons,  and  having  at  last  aided  in  Secur- 
ing the  prospects  of  Methodism  indefinitely,  if  not  for  all 
time,  by  the  introduction  of  a  lay  ministry,  Susanna  Wes- 
ley died  this  year  on  the  premises  of  the  Foundry,  within 
sound  of  the  voices  of  prayer  and  praise  w^hich  were  ascend- 
ing almost  daily  from  that  memorable  edifice — the  first 
Methodist  chapel  opened  in  the  world,  the  scene  of  the  organi- 
zation of  the  first  of  the  "United  Societies,"  and  of  the  first 
session  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference.  It  was  a 
befitting  place  for  the  departure  of  the  mother  of  the  Wes- 
ley s  from  the  church  on  earth  to  the  church  in  heaven.  She 
had,  says  Wesley,  no  doubt,  or  fear,  or  any  desire  but  to 
depart  and  be  with  Christ.^  He  and  five  of  h^r  daughters 
stood  around  her  bed  when  she  expired,  on  the  23d  of  July, 
1742.  When  no  longer  able  to  speak,  but  apparently  still 
conscious,  her  look,  calm  and  serene,  was  fixed  upward,  while 
.they  commended  her  to  God  in  prayer.  She  died  without 
pain,  and  at  the  moment  of  her  departure  her  children, 
gathering  close  around  her,  sung  as  she  had  requested  with 
her  last  words,  "  a  psalm  of  praise  to  God."  Followed  by 
an  innumerable  concourse  of  people,  Wesley  committed  her 
remains  to  the  grave,  among  the  many  illustrious  dead  of 
Bunhill-fields. 

Wesley's  lay  ministry  comprised  during  the  year  no  less 
than  twenty-three  itinerants,  besides  several  local  preachefs.^ 
They  were  distributed  among  his  increasing  societies,  and 
traveled  and  preached  continually  in  the  adjacent  towns  and 
villages,  he  himself  affording  them  in  his  incessant  labors  an 
example  which  none  of  them  could  exceed.     He  made  a 

1  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  IV,  3.  Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon, 
vol.  i,  chap.  3.  This  writer  intimates  that  she  induced  Maxfield  to  take 
this  new  step. 

2  Journal,    July,  1742. 

^  Smith's  History  of  Methodism.  II,  2.  Myles's  Chronological  History 
ol  the  Methodists,  chap.  11. 


176  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

rapid  tour  in  Wales  during  the  early  part  of  the  year,  preach- 
ing often  in  the  open  air,  and  assailed  by  mobs,  but  was 
successful  in  building  up  and  multiplying  the  societies.  He 
visited  Bristol /epeatedly,  and  formed  there  the  first  "  Metho- 
dist  class-meeting,"  and,  on  returning  to  London,  introduced 
the  same  improvement  into  the  metropolitan  societies. 
^'  This,"  he  says,  "  was  the  origin  of  our  classes  in  London, 
for  which  I  can  never  sufficiently  praise  God.  The  unspeak 
able  usefulness  of  the  institution  has  ever  since  been  moro 
and  more  manifest."  The  Watclinight  was  also  held  this 
year  for  the  first  time  in  the  London  congregations. 

Under  Wesley's  first  sermon  in  Moorfields  John  Nelson, 
an  honest  Yorkshire  mason,  of  extraordinary  character  and 
powers  of  mind,  had  received  the  truth,  and  having  returned 
to  his  home  in  Birstal,  was  now  producing  no  little  sensation 
by  his  exhortations  and  prayers  among  his  rustic  neighbors.  ^, 
Wesley  set  out  in  May  for  Yorkshire,  to  visit  and  direct 
him. 

Nelson  had  led  an  upright  life  from  his  youth,  being 
trained  in  steady  habits  of  morality  if  not  piety,  by  religious 
parents.  His  faculties  were  strong,  and  marked  not  only  by 
good  common  sense,  but  an  aptitude  to  grapple  with  those 
agonizing  problems  respecting  the  soul  and  its  destiny,  evil 
and  good,  which  the  greatest  minds  can  neither  solve  nor 
evade.  He  had  a  humble  but  a  happy  home,  a  good  wife, 
good  wages,  good  health,  and  a  stout  English  heart;  but 
though  addicted  to  no  immoralities,  he  was  distressed  by  the 
sense  of  moral  wants,  which  his  life  failed  to  meet. 
"  Surely,"  he  said,  "  God  never  made  man  to  be  such  a  rid- 
dle to  himself,  and  to  leave  him  so."'^  Something  he  be- 
lieved there  must  be  in  true  religion  to  meet  these  wants  of 
the  soul,  otherwise  man  is  more  unfortunate  than  the  brute 
that  perishes.  Absorbed  in  such  meditations,  this  untutored 
mechanic  wandered  in  the  fields  after  the  work  of  the  day, 
discussing  to  himself  questions  which  had  employed  and  en- 
nobled the  thoughts  of  Plato  in  the  groves  of  the  Cephissiis, 
4  Nelson's  Journal,  p.  12,  American  edition. 


PROGRESS:    1741-1744.  177 

and  agitated  by  the  anxieties  that  had  stirred  the  souls  of 
Wesley  and  his  studious  associates  at  Oxford,  His  con- 
duct was  a  mystery  to  his  less  thoughtful  fellow-workmen. 
He  refused  to  share  in  their  gross  mdulgences ;  they  cursed 
him  because  he  would  not  drink  as  they  did.  He  bore  their 
insults  with  a  calm  philosophy ;  but  having  as  "  brave  a 
heart  as  ever  Englishman  was  blessed  with,"^  he  would 
not  allow  them  to  infringe  on  his  rights  ;  and  when  they  took 
away  his  tools,  determined  that  if  he  would  not  drink  with 
them  he  should  not  work  ^^■hile  they  were  carousing,  he 
fought  with  several  of  them  until  they  were  content  to  let 
him  alone  in  his  inexplicable  gravity  and  courage.  He 
went  also  from  church  to  church,  for  he  was  still  a  faithful 
Churchman,  but  met  no  answer  to  his  profound  questions. 
He  visited  the  chapels  of  all  classes  of  Dissenters,  but  the 
quiet  of  the  Quaker  worship  could  not  quiet  the  voice  that 
spoke  through  his  conscience,  and  the  splendor  of  the  Ro- 
man ritual  soon  became  but  irksome  pomp  to  him.  He 
tried,  he  tells  us,  all  but  the  Jews,  and  hoping  for  nothing 
from  them,  resolved  to^  adhere  steadily  to  the  Church,  re- 
gulating his  life  with  strictness,  spending  his  leisure  in  read- 
ing and  prayer,  and  leaving  his  final  fate  unsolved.  White- 
field's  eloquence  at  Moorfields,  however,  attracted  him 
thither,  but  it  did  not  meet  his  wants.  He  loved  the  great 
orator,  he  tells  us,  and  was  willing  to  fight  for  him  against 
the  mob,  but  his  mind  only  sunk  deeper  into  perplexity. 
He  became  morbidly  despondent ;  he  slept  little,  and  often 
awoke  from  horrible  dreams,  dripping  with  sweat,  and 
shivering  with  terror.  Wesley  came  to  Moorfields ;  Nel- 
son gazed  upon  him  with  inexpressible  interest  as  he  as- 
cended the  platform,  stroked  back  his  hair,  and  cast  his  eye 

s  Robert  Soutliey,  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  xiv.  John  Nelson's  whole  life 
proved  that  such  a  eulog'y  was  not  undeserved  from  the  biographer  of 
Lord  Nelson.  The  naval  conqueror  would  have  admired  the  evangelical 
hero,  and  have  acknowledged  him  his  equal  in  both  English  courage 
and  English  good  sense.  Smithey  delays  on  the  history  of  John  Nelson 
with  much  particularity  and  interest.  He  was  evidently  the  poet's  favorite 
among  the  many  heroes  of  early  iluthudisiii. 

Vol.  1.-12 


178.  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

directly  upon  him.  "  My  heart,"  he  says,  "  beat  like  the 
pendulum  of  a  clock,  and  when  he  spoke  I  thought  his  whole 
discourse  was  aimed  at  me."  "This  man,"  he  said  to  him- 
self, "  can  tell  the  secrets  of  my  breast ;  he  has  sho^n  me 
the  remedy  for  my  wretchedness,  even  the  blood  of  Christ." 
He  now  became  more  than  ever  devoted  to  religious  duties, 
and  soon  found  the  peace  of  mind  he  had  so  long  been  seek- 
ing. He  records  with  dramatic  interest  the  discussions  and 
efforts  of  his  acquaintances  to  prevent  him  from  going  too 
far  in  religion.  They  seem  to  have  been  mostly  an  honest, 
simple  class  like  himself;  they  thought  he  would  become 
unfit  for  business,  and  that  poverty  and  distress  would  fall 
upon  his  family.  They  wished  he  had  never  heard  Wesley, 
who,  they  predicted,  would  "be  the  ruin  of  him,"  He  told 
them  that  he  had  reason  to  bless  God  that  Wesley  was  ever 
born,  for  by  hearing  him  he  had  becom_e  sensible  that  his 
business  in  this  world  was  to  get  well  out  of  it.  The  family 
with  whom  he  lodged  were  disposed  to  expel  him  from  the 
house,  for  they  were  afraid  some  mischief  would  come  on 
either  themselves  or  him,  from  "  so  much  praying  and  fuss 
as  he  made  about  religion."  He  procured  money  and  went 
to  pay  them  what  he  owed  them,  and  take  his  leave ;  but 
they  would  not  let  him  escape.  "  What  if  John  is  right,  and 
we  wrong?"  was  a  natural  question  which  they  asked  among 
themselves.  "  If  God  has  done  for  you  anything  more  than 
for  us,  show  us  how  we  may  find  the  same  mercy,"  asked 
one  of  them.  He  was  soon  leading  them  to  hear  Wesley  on 
Moorfields,  One  of  them  was  made  partaker  of  the  same 
grace,  and  he  expresses  the  hope  of  meeting  both  in  heaven. 
With  much  simplicity,  but  true  English  determination,  he 
adhered  to  his  religious  principles  at  any  risk.  His  em- 
ployer required  work  to  be  done  during  the  Sabbath  on  the 
Exchequer  building,  declaring  that  the  king's  business  re- 
quired haste,  and  that  it  was  usual,  in  such  cases,  to  work  on 
Sunday  for  his  majesty.  Nelson  replied  that  he  would  not 
work  on  the  Sabbath  for  any  man  in  England,  except  to 
quench  fire,  or  something  that  required  the  same  immediate 


PROGRESS:    1741-1744.  179 

help.  His  employer  threatened  him  with  the  loss  of  his 
business.  He  replied  that  he  would  rather  starve  than  offend 
God.  "  What  hast  thou  done  that  thou  makest  such  an  ado 
about  religion  V  asked  the  employer  ;  "  I  always  took  thee 
for  an  honest  man,  and  could  trust  thee  with  five  hundred 
pounds."  "  So  you  might,"  replied  the  sturdy  Methodist, 
"  and  not  have  lost  one  penny  by  me."  "  But  I  have  a 
worse  opinion  of  thee  now  than  ever,"  resumed  the  em- 
ployer. "  Master,"  replied  Nelson,  "  I  have  the  odds  of  you 
there,  for  I  have  a  much  worse  opinion  of  myself  than  you 
can  have."  The  honest  man  was  not  dismissed,  nor  again 
asked  to  work  on  Sunday,  nor  were  any  of  his  fellow- work- 
men. 

He  now  wrote  to  his  wife,  who  was  in  the  country,  and  to 
all  his  kindred,  explaining  his  new  method  of  life,  and  ex- 
horting them  to  adopt  it.  He  fasted  once  a  week,  and  gave 
the  food  thus  saved  to  the  poor.  He  even  hired  a  fellow- 
workman  to  hear  Wesley ;  and  his  liberality  was  effectual, 
for  the  mechanic  afterward  assured  him  that  it  was  the  best 
deed,  both  for  himself  and  his  wife,  that  any  one  had  ever 
done  for  them.  He  read  the  Scriptures  with  increased  ardor, 
and  was  soon  abundantly  furnished  with  apt  texts  for  his 
opponents,  and  consoling  promises  for  his  own  inward  trials. 
He  had  formerly  had  frightful  dreams  of  contests  with 
Satan,  and  was  usually  worsted  in  the  combat ;  but  he  now 
became  the  victor  in  these  imaginary  conflicts.  He  dreamed 
that  he  saw  the  great  adversary  rampant  among  the  people, 
in  the  form  of  a  red  bull ;  he  seized  his  horns  with  good 
courage,  threw  him  upon  his  back,  and  trod  triumphantly 
upon  his  neck. 

Such  was  John  Nelson,  a  man  from  the  lowest  rank  of 
English  life,  but  whose  brave  heart  and  immovable  integrity 
fitted  him  to  have  taken  a  place  among  the  noblest  martyrs, 
had  he  been  called  to  it ;  and  whose  fervent  piety,  steadfast  . 
zeal,  and  Saxon  energy,  made  him  one  of  the  apostles  of 
early  Methodism.  His  natural  magnanimity,  good  sense, 
clear  apprehension  of  Scripture,  apt  style,  and  simple  man- 


180  HISTORY    OF    METHODIS]\r. 

ners,  rendered  liim  a  favorite  and  successful  preacher  among 
a  class  which  few  educated  clergymen  could  have  reached. 
A  Yorkshireman  by  birth,  he  became  the  chief  founder  of 
Methodism  in  that  county,  a  portion  of  England  in  which 
it  has  had  signal  success  down  to  our  day. 

As  his  family  resided  in  Birstal,  he  started,  after  his  con- 
version, to  visit  them  and  his  neighbors,  that  he  might  ro» 
commend  to  them  his  new  views  of  religion  in  person,  as  he 
had  done  in  letters.  They  met  him  with  no  little  opposition ; 
they  could  not  well  consider  him  a  maniac,  he  had  too  much 
good  English  sense  and  sobriety  for  such  a  suspicion ;  but 
he  might  be  under  a  strange  delusion  of  the  devil !  After 
no  little  hesitancy,  and  a  vast  amount  of  rustic  polemics,  his 
two  brothers,  an  aunt,  and  two  cousins  yielded,  and  became 
his  disciples.  He  sat  in  his  own  house  reading,  exhorting, 
and  praying  with  such  of  his  neighbors  as  came  to  hear. 
The  number  increased  so  much  that  he  had  soon  to  stand  at 
the  door  and  address  them  without  and  within.  Six  or  seven 
were  converted  weekly ;  the  ale-houses  were  deserted,  and  the 
moral  aspect  of  the  whole  town  was  changed.^  His  exhort- 
ations  became  more  topical  as  the  inquiries  of  his  hearers 
became  more  specific,  and  soon,  without  anticipating  it,  he 
was  addressing  them  in  formal  discourses.  He  had,  in  fact, 
become  a  Preacher,  and  his  sermons,  from  being  quite 
private,  had  become  public,  and  were  attended  with  such 
extensive  results  that  Wesley  started  from  London,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  visit  and  direct  him. 

On  arriving  at  Birstal  Wesley  was  surprised  to  find  a 
society  and  a  preacher  awaiting  him.  He  addressed  them 
and  hundreds  of  others  on  the  top  of  Birstal  Hill.     He 

8  Wesley  says,  (Short  History  of  the  People  called  Methodists,  sect.  20 :) 
"  Many  of  the  greatest  profligates  in  all  the  country  were  soon  changed ; 
their  blasphemies  were  turned  to  praise.  Many  of  the  most  abandoned 
drunkards  were  now  sober;  many  Sabbath  breakers  remembered  the 
Sabbath  to  keep  it  holy ;  the  whole  town  wore  a  new  faCe,  Such  a 
change  did  God  work  by  the  artless  testimony  of  one  plain  man !  And 
from  thence  his  word  sounded  forth  to  Leeds,  Wakefield,  Halifax,  and  all 
the  West  Hiding  of  Yorkshire." 


PKOGRESS:    1741-1744.  181 

rccognizfed  Nelson  as  one  of  his  "  Helpers,"  and  his  band  of 
rustic  followers  as  one  of  his  United  Societies.  Methodism 
thn«  took  root  in  Birstal,  and  has  since  spread  into  every 
village  of  Yorkshire. 

The  Moravians,'  with  their  London  errors,  thronged  about 
the  sturdy  mason,  and  perverted  many  of  his  converts ; 
but  he  himself  was  more  than  a  match  for  them,  with  his 
apt  <|^iaotations  of  Scripture.  His  sound  though  untutored 
mind  could  not  be  seduced  by  their  sophistries. 

Wesley  had  not  hitherto  visited  the  north  of  England. 
Leaving  Nelson,  with  full  confidence  in  his  steadfast  dis- 
cretion and  further  success,  he  hastened  to  Newcastle,  one 
of  those  degraded  mining  regions  which  Methodism  proposed 
to  invade  the  present  year.  He  v/alked  into  the  town,  and 
never,  he  says,  had  he  witnessed  so  much  drunkenness,  curs- 
ing, and  swearing,  from  the  mouths  of  little  children  as  well 
as  adults,  in  so  short  a  time.  "  Surely,"  he  exclaim.ed,  "  this 
place  is  ripe  for  Him  who  %came  not  to  call  the  righteous 
but  sinners  to  repentance,' "  '^ 

At  seven  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning  he  walked  down  to 
Sandgate,  the  most  degraded  part  of  the  town,  and  standing 
at  the  end  of  the  street  with  a  religious  friend,  began  to  sing 
the  Hundredth  Psalm.  Three  or  four  persons  came  out  to 
see  what  was  the  m.atter ;  they  soon  increased  to  four  or 
five  hundred ;  before  he  had  closed  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred 
stood  around  him.  He  discoursed  to  them,  as  usual  when 
he  addressed  the  vicious  poor,  on  one  of  the  most  consolatory 
texts :  "  He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions ;  he  was 
bruised  for  our  iniquities ;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was 
upon  him,  and  by  his  stripes  we  are  healed."  When  he 
had  concluded,  the  wretched  multitude,  who  had  never  before 
had  the  offers  of  the  Divine  compassion  thus  brought  to  them 
in  their  very  streets,  stood,  he  writes,  "  gaping  and  staring  " 
upon  him  with  astonishment.  "  If  you  desire  to  know  who 
I  am,"  he  cried,  "  my  name  is  John  Wesley ;  at  five  in  the 

"^  For  our  citations  from  John  Wesley  throughout  this  chapter,  see  his 
Joiimals,  1742-3-4, 


182  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

evening,  with  God's  help,  I  will  preach  here  again."  At 
five  o'clock  the  hill  upon  which  he  designed  to  preach 
was  covered  from  top  to  bottom.  He  says  he  never  saw 
siicii  a  multitude,  either  in  Moorfields  or  at  Kennington 
Common.  He  knew  that  one  half  could  not  hear  him, 
though  he  had  theno.  all  in  range  of  his  view,  as  he  stood  afe 
the  apex  of  the  living  pyramid.  It  was  an  occasion  to  in- 
spire such  a  m.an.  The  "  south  had  not  kept  hack ;"  it 
seemed  now  that  "  the  north  was  about  to  give  up "  to  the 
little  band  which  had  so  lately  commenced  its  march  from 
the  gates  of  Oxford,  and  had  already  spread  its  evangelical 
triumphs  in  England,  Wales,  and  America.  His  text  wi^j 
again  a  proclamatir'n  of  mercy,  for  these  poor  multitudes, 
he  believed,  were  not  the  worst  of  sinners ;  he  knew  thac 
imder  their  rude  and  boisterous  vices  were  hidden  crushed 
but  living  coiisciences ;  longings  for  better  things ;  generous 
sensibilities  that  vfould  respond  to  the  voice  of  God  or  mau 
whenever  they  could  hear  it  speaking  to  their  wants  and 
sorrows.  "  I  will  heal  their  backslidings ;  I  will  love  them 
freely,"  were  the  gracious  words  which  he  shouted  to 
them.  The  effect  justified  his  wisdom.  After  hearing 
his  message  of  mercy,  the  "  poor  people,"  he  says,  "  were 
ready  to  tread  me  under  foot  out  of  pure  love  and  kindness." 
It  was  some  time  before  he  could  make  his  w^ay  out  of  the 
eager  throng.  He  had  to  escape  by  another  street  than  that 
by  which  he  came,  but,  on  reaching  his  inn,  he  found  that 
several  of  his  hearers  had  got  there  before  him.  They 
vehemently  entreated  him  to  stay  with  them  at  least  a  few 
days,  or,  if  that  could  not  be,  yet  only  one  day  more ;  but 
he  could  not ;  he  had  promised  to  be  with  Nelson  again  im- 
mediately, and  was  compelled  to  leave  them  clamoring 
around  him  for  the  bread  of  life.  His  brother  came  among 
them  in  a  short  time,  and  before  the  year  closed  Wesley 
again  visited  them ;  he  saw  their  degradation  mo're  thorough-' 
ly  than  before;  he  found,  he  writes,  that  he  had  got  into 
the  very  Kingswood  of  the  north.  Twenty  or  thirty  "wild 
children"  ran  around  him  as  soon  as  he  entered  the  Common 


PROGRESS:    1741-1744.  183 

to  preach.  He  describes  them  as  neither  clothed  nor  naked. 
"  One  of  the  largest  (a  girl  about  fifteen)  had  a  piece  of  a 
ragged  dirty  blanket  some  way  hung  about  her,  and  a  kind 
of  cap  on  her  head,  of  the  same  cloth  and  color."  He  was 
deeply  aifected  by  the  sight  of  his  miserable  audience,  and 
they  looked,  he  says,  as  if  they  would  have  "  swallowed  him 
up,"  especially  while  he  was  applying  to  them  the  words ; 
"  Bo  it  known  unto  you,  men  and  brethren,  that  through  this 
man  is  preached  unto  you  forgiveness  of  sins."  He  imme- 
diately began  the  erection  of  a  chapel  among  them.  One  of 
those  "  Societies  "  which  he  had  providentially  found  ready 
for  him  in  London,  Bristol,  and  other  towns,  had  maintained 
a  lingering  existence  in  Newcastle.  It  now  became  the 
nucleus  of  Methodism  there,  and  a  profound  but  remarkably 
tranquil  religious  interest  spread  through  the  surrounding 
regions.  "  I  never  saw,"  he  writes,  "  a  work  of  God  in  any 
other  place  so  evenly  and  gradually  carried  on ;  it  continually 
rises,  step  by  step."  Instances,  however,  of  excitement,  and 
its  physical  effects,  afterward  appeared  at  Newcastle,  as  at 
other  places,  and  required  the  exercise  of  his  best  prudence. 
On  his  return  he  passed  rapidly  through  many  towns, 
preaching  daily.  He  stopped  at  an  inn  in  Epworth,  the 
parish  of  his  father  and  his  own  birthplace.  The  curate, 
who  was  a  drunkard,  refused  him  the  pulpit.  David 
Taylor,  Lady  Huntingdon's  servant,  was  with  him,  and 
announced,  as  the  congregation  retired  from  the  church, 
that  Wesley  would  preach  in  the  graveyard  in  the  after- 
noon. He  accordingly  stood  upon  his  father's  tombstone, 
and  preached  to  such  a  congregation  as  Epworth  had 
never  seen  before.  For  one  week  he  daily  took  his  stand 
above  'the  ashes  of.  his  father,  and  "cried  aloud  to  the 
earnestly  attentive  congregations."  He  must  have  deeply 
felt  the  impressive  associations  of  the  place,  but  paused  not 
to  record  his  emotions.  His  one  great  work  of  preaching, 
preaching  day  and  night,  seemed  wholly  to  absorb  him. 
His  hearers,  however,  felt  the  power  of  his  word  and  of 
the  scene.     God  bowed  their  hearts,  he  says,  and  on  every 


184  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

side,  as  with  one  accord,  they  lifted  up  their  voices  and 
wept;  several  dropped  down  as  dead.  A  gentleman  came 
to  hear  him  who  boasted  that  he  was  of  no  religion,  and 
had  not  been  in  a  church  for  thirty  years.  The  striking 
scene  of  the  churchyard  could  probably  alone  have  brought 
him  to  hear  Wesley.  He  was  smitten  under  the  sermon, 
and  when  it  was  ended  stood  like  a  statue,  looking  up  to 
the  heavens.  Wesley  asked :  "  Are  you  a  sirnier  *?"  "  Sin- 
ner enough,"  he  replied,  with  a  broken  voice,  and  remained 
gazing  upward  till  his  friends  pressed  him  into  his  car- 
riage and  took  him  home.  Ten  years  later  Wesley  saw 
him,  and  was  agreeably  surprised  to  find  him  strong  in 
faith,  though  fast  failing  in  body.  For  some  years,  he 
said,  he  had  been  rejoicing  in  God  without  either  doubt  or 
fear,  and  was  now  waiting  for  the  welcome  hour  when  he 
should  depart  and  be  with  Christ, 

Wesley  found  in  Epworth  an  old  servant  of  his  father, 
and  several  poor  people,  who  had  adopted  the  Methodistic 
views,  and  were  living  by  faith,  and  he  organized  societies 
throughout  a  wide  circuit  of  neighboring  towns,  in  which 
he  preached  daily  before  the  hour  of  his  evening  sermons  at 
his  father's  tom.b.  These  societies  were  mostly  composed 
of  the  lowest  people ;  but  such  salutary  effect  had  Method- 
ism on  their  daily  lives  as  to  commend  it  often  to  the 
respect  of  the  higher  classes,  and  almost  everywhere  a  few 
of  "  the  noble  "  shared  its  blessings.^ 

8  WMle'  on  his  present  visit  to  Epworth,  he  says  he  rode  over  to  a 
neighboring  town  to  wait  upon  a  justice  of  the  -peace,  a  man  of  candor 
and  understanding,  before  whom  their  angry  neighbors  had  earned  a 
whole  wagon  load  of  these  new  heretics.  But  when  the  magistrate  asked 
what  they  had  done  there  was  a  deep  silence,  for  that  was  a  point  their 
conductors  had  forgot.  At  length  one  said :  "  Why  they  pretend  to  be 
better  than  other  people ;  and  besides,  they  pray  from  morning  till  night." 

The  justice  asked :  "  But  have  they  done  nothing  besides  ?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  an  old  man;  "an  it  please  your  worship,  they  have 
convarted  my  wife.  Till  she  went  among  them  she  had  such  a  tongue, 
and  now  she  is  as  quiet  as  a  lamb." 

"  Carry  them  back !  carry  them  back !"  replied  the  magistrate,  "  an  i  let 
them  convert  all  the  scolds  in  the  town." 

Wesley's  Journal  abounds  with  similar  facts. 


PROaRESS:    1741-1744.  185 

The  foundations  of  Methodism  had  now  been  laid  in 
much  of  the  land.  Societies  were  springing  up  in  all  di- 
rections; Classes  were  generally  introduced  among  them; 
itinerant. lay  preachers  were  multiplying;  chapels  had  al- 
ready been  built  in  Bristol,  London,  Kingswood,  and  New- 
castle.  It  became  obvious  that  better  defined  terms  of 
membership  were  necessary  for  the  growing  societies. 
"Wesley,  therefore,  in  consultation  with  his  brother,  formed 
the  memorable  "  General  Rules  of  the  United  Societies,"  a 
document  which  has  become  a  part  of  the  constitutional 
law  of  the  Methodist  Episcop'kl  Church  of  America.  It 
defines  the  "  United  Society  "  to  be  "  no  other  than  a  com- 
pany of  men  having  the  form  and  seeking  the  power  of 
godliness ;  united  in  order  to  pray  together,  to  receive  the 
word  of  exhortation,  and  to  watch  over  one  another  in  love, 
that  they  may  help  each  other  to  work  out  their  salvation." 
Members  are  required  to  be  distributed  into  classes,  about 
twelve  to  each  class,  one  of  whom  is  styled  the  leader. 
He  is  to  meet  them  once  a  week  for  religious  inquiry  and 
conversation,  and  for  the  collection  of  their  contributions 
toward  the  expenses  of  the  Society,  reporting  the  result 
to  the  preacher  and  stewards  regularly.  But  one  con- 
dition is  previously  required  of  such  as  wish  admission 
to  the  classes — "a  desire  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come,  and  I 
to  be  saved  from  their  sins  ;"  but  this  desire  is  to  be  shown,  I 
first,  by  doing  no  harm;  by  avoidingevil  in  every  kind, 
especially  that  which  is  most  generally  practiced ;  such  as 
taking  the  name  of  God  in  vain;  profaning  the  Sabbath,  ■ 
either  by  doing  ordinary  work  thereon,  or  by  buying  or 
selling;  drunkenness,  buying  or  selling  spirituous  liquors, 
or  drinking  them,  unless  in  cases  of  extreme  necessity  ; 
fighting,  quarreling,  brawling,  brother  going  to  law  with  / 
brother;  returning  evil  for  evil,  or  railing  for  railing; 
u«ing  many  words  in  buying  or  selling ;  buying  or  selling 
uncustomed  goods ;  giving  or  taking  things  on  usury ;  un- 
charitable or  unprofitable  conversation,  particularly  speak- 
ing evil  of  magistrates  or  of  ministers ;  doing  to  others  as 


186  HISTORY    or    METHODISM. 

they  would  not  have  others  do  unto  them,  and  doing  what 
they  know  is  not  for  the  glory  of  God ;  as  the  putting  on 
of  gold,  or  costly  apparel ;  the  taking  such  diversions  as 
cannot  be  used  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus ;  the  singing 
those  songs,  or  reading  those  books  that  do  not  tend  to  the 
knowledge  or  love  of  God;  softness,  and  needless  self-in- 
dulgence ;  laying  up  treasure  on  earth ;  borrowing  without 
a  probability  of  paying,  or  taking  up  goods  without  a 
probability  of  paying  for  them.  Secondly,  the  sincerity  of 
their  profession  was  to  be  shown  by  doing  good^  by  being  in 
every  kind  merciful  after  tlleir  powetT'aiS- -"they*  had  oppor- 
tunity ;  doing  good  of  every  possible  sort,  and  as  far  as 
possible  to  all  men ;  to  their  bodies,  of  the  ability  that  God 
giveth,  by  giving  food  to  the  hungry^  by  clothing  the 
naked,  by  visiting  or  helping  the  sick,  and  prisoners ;  to 
their  souls,  by  instructing,  reproving,  or  exhorting  all  they 
had  any  intercourse  with ;  trampling  under  foot  that  enthu- 
siastic doctrine  of  devils^  that  we  are  not  to  do  good  unless 
our  hearts  be.  free  to  it;  by  doing  good,  especially  to  them 
that  are  of  the  household  of  faith,  or  groaning  so  to  be; 
employing  them  preferably  to  others ;  buying  one  of 
another;  helping  each  other  in  business,  and  so  much  the 
more,  because  the  world  will  love  its  owii,  and  them  only ; 
by  all  possible  diligence  and  frugality,  that  the  Gospel 
may  not  be  blamed;  by  running  with  patience  the  race 
that  was  set  before  them,  denying  themselves,  and  taking 
up  their  cross  daily ;  submitting  to  bear  the  reproach  of 
Christ ;  to  be  as  the  filth  and  offscouring  of  the  world,  and 
expecting  that  men  should  say  all  manner  of  evil  of  them 
falsely  for  the  Lord's  sake.  Thirdly,  by  attending  on  all 
the  ordinances  of  God,  such  as  public  worship,  the  ministry ' 
of  the  word,  either  read  or  expounded,  the  Lord's  Supper, 
family  and  private  prayer,  searching  the  Scriptures,  and 
fasting  or  abstinence.  "These,"  add  the  two  brothers, 
"  are  the  general  rules  of  our  societies ;  all  which  we  are 
taught  of  God  to  observe,  even  in  his  \vritten  word,  the 
only  rule  both  of  our  faith  and  practice ;  and  all  these  we 


PEOGRESS:    1741-1744.  187 

know  his  Spirit  writes  on  every  truly  awakened  heart.  If 
there  be  any  among  us  who  observes  them  not,  who  habitu- 
ally breaks  any  of  them,  let  it  be  made  kno\vn  unto  them 
who  watch  over  that  soul,  as  they  must  give  an  account. 
We  will  admonish  him  of  the  error  of  his  ways ;  we  will  bear 
with  him  for  a  season.  But  then  if  he  repent  not,  he  hath  no 
more  place  among  us.     We  have  delivered  our  own  souls." 

Such  was  the  original  platform  of  Methodism.  It  comprises 
not  one  dogmatic  statement,  nor  hardly  what  could  be  called 
an  ecclesiastical  requisition.  All  earnest  inquirers  after  re- 
ligious truth  and  spiritual  purification  throughout  the  world 
could  approve  it  with  scarcely  a  qualification.  It  was  a 
purely  catholic  and  apostolic  expression  of  Christianity.  At 
a  later  date  Wesley  exclaims  in  his  Journal :  "  0  that  w^e 
may  never  make  anything  more  or  less  the  term  of  union 
with  us,  but  the  having  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  and  the 
walking  as  he  walked."^ 

During  the  year  1743  Wesley  repeated  his  excursions  to 
Wales,  and  also  to  the  north  of  England.  He  visited  Ep 
worth,  and  again  preached  on  the  tomb  of  his  father.  He 
was  now  not  only  denied  the  pulpit,  but  even  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  was  again  with  Nelson  at  Birs- 
tal,  and  returned  thence  to  London,  proclaiming  his  mes- 
sage at  Sheffield,  Wednesbury,  Stratford-on-Avon,  Eves- 
ham, and  Bristol.  On  the  14th  of  February  he  directed  his 
course  toward  the  north,  and  in  five  days  was  preaching  at 
Newcastle,  where  he  found  that  his  previous  visit  had  left 
a  wide-spread  sensation.  He  perceived,  in  visiting  the  ad- 
joining towns,  the  necessity  of  reducing  his  "  itinerancy  "  to 
a  more  methodical  arrangement,  and  "resolved  not  to  strike 
one  sti'oke  in  any  place  where  he  could  not  follow  the  blow  ;" 
thence  sprung  up  his  regular  "  circuit  system,"  which  was 
subsequently  extended  to  the  labors  of  all  his  assistants. 

While  at  Newcastle  he  made  a  special  investigation  of  the 
remarkable  physical  effects  which  now  occurred  there,  as  else- 
where, under  his  preaching.     He  found,  first,  that  all  per- 

»  Journal,  September  29,  1745. 


188  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

sons  who  liad  been  thus  affected  were  in  perfect  health,  and 
had  not  before  been  subject  to  convulsions  of  any  kind. 
Second,  that  these  new  affections  had  come  upon  them  in  a 
moment,  without  any  previous  notice,  while  they  were  either 
hearing  the  preaching,  or  thinking  on  what  they  had  heard 
Third,  that  they  usually  dropped  down,  lost  their  strength, 
and  were  seized  with  violent  pain.  Their  feelings  they  de- 
scribed differently.  Some  said  they  felt  as  if  a  sword  was 
running  through  them ;  others  thought  a  great  weight  lay 
:  upon  them,  as  if  it  would  press  them  into  the  earth.  Some 
\  said  they  were  quite  choked,  and  found  it  difficult  to  breathe, 
I  that  their  hearts  swelled  ready  to  burst ;  others  that  the 
'  whole  body  seemed  rending  to  pieces.  These  symptoms  he 
still  attributed  to  a  preternatural  agency.  "  I  can  no  more 
impute  them,"  he  writes,  "  to  any  natural  cause  than  to  the 
Spirit  of  God,"  But  they  Avere  not  divine ;  they  were  de- 
moniacal ;  "  it  was  Satan  tearing  them  as  they  were  coming  to 
Christ."  1*^  His  Journal  abounds  in  candid  records  of  such 
phenomena ;  and  the  curious  who  would  study  these  extra- 
ordinary effects  (repeated  so  often  in  our  own  day)  for  the 
purpose  of  discovering  a  physiological  or  any  other  solu 
tion  of  them,  can  find  no  better  data  than  he  records. 

Charles  Wesley,  who  attached  less  importance  to  these 
marvels,  subsequently  found,  at  Newcastle,  that  the  propen- 
sity to  morbid  imitation,  which  played  so  many  and  even 
epidemic  follies  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  had  not  a  little  to  do  with  them.  He  also  detected 
among  them  some  deliberate  counterfeits.  One,  who  came 
drunk  from  an  ale-house,  was  pleased,  he  writes,  to  fall  into 
a  fit  for  his  entertainment,  and  beat  himself  heartily.  Wes- 
ley thought  it  a  pity  to  hinder  him,  and,  instead  of  singing 

10  As  late,  however,  as  1781,  when  he  published  his  Short  History  of 
the  People  called  Methodists,  he  gives  an  important  qualilication  to  this 
opinion.  "Satan,"  he  says,  ^^ mimicked  this  part  of  the  work  of  God, 
in  order  to  discredit  the  whole,  and  yet  it  is  not  wise  to  give  up  this 
part  any  more  than  to  give  up  the  whole."  Wesley  seemed  always  to 
be  puzzled  by  these  problems ;  his  opinions  respecting  them  were 
throughout  his  life  vague  if  not  contradictory. 


PKOGRESS:    1741-1744.  189 

over  him,  as  had  often  been  done,  left  him  to  recover  at  his 
leisure.  A  young  woman  began  to  cry  aloud;  he  ordered 
her  to  be  carried  away ;  her  convulsions  were  so  violent  as 
to  deprive  her  of  the  use  of  her  limbs,  till  they  laid  and 
left  her  without  the  door.  She  there  immediately  found  her 
strength  and  walked  off.  Some  very  unquiet  women,  who 
always  took  care  to  stand  near  him,  and  try  which  should  cry 
loudest,  became  "  as  quiet  as  lambs  "  when  removed  out  of 
his  sight.  The  first  night  he  preached  in  the  town  half  his 
words  were  lost  through  their  outcries.  Before  he  began  on 
another  evening,  he  gave  public  notice  that  whoever  cried 
so  as  to  drown  his  voice  should,  without  any  man's  hurting 
or  judging  them,  be  gently  carried  to  the  farthest  corner  of 
the  room.  His  porters  had  no  employment  during  the 
meeting ;  "  yet,"  he  writes,  "  the  Lord  was  with  us,  mightily 
convincing  of  sin  and  righteousness. "^^ 

John  Wesley  returned  to  his  lay  fellow-laborer.  Nelson, 
at  Birstal,  and  going  with  him  to  Leeds,  preached  his  first 
sermon  in  that  great  center  of  northern  Methodism. ^2  ^ 
society  had  already  been  formed  there,  probably  by  John 
Nelson  himself. 

On  Wesley's  return  to  Bristol,  his  brother  set  out  for  the 
north,  preaching  in  almost  every  town  on  his  route,  and 
was  repeatedly  beset  by  ferocious  mobs.  At  Wednesbury 
he  found  that  Methodism  was  accomplishing  its  salutary 
work  among  the  colliers.  More  than  three  hundred  had 
been  reformed  and  gathered  into  the  Society,  while  others 
raged  against  .the  itinerants,  like  untamed  beasts  of  the 
forest.  He  walked  with  his  Wednesbury  brethren  to 
Walsal,  singing  as  they  went ;  but  as  they  passed  through  the 
streets  of  the  latter  place,  they  were  hailed  by  the  shouts  of 
the  rabble.  He  took  his  stand  on  the  steps  of  the  market- 
house,  where  a  host  of  excited  men  rallied  against  him,  and 
bore  down  like  a  flood  to  sweep  him  away.  Stones  flew 
fast  and  thick.     Many  struck  without  hurting  him.     He 

"  Jackson's  Life  of  Charles  "Wesley,  chap,  10. 
12  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  2. 


190  *       HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

kept  his  ground  till  lie  was  about  to  close  liis  discourse,  whei. 
the  raging  stream  bore  him  from  the  steps.  He  regained 
them,  and  was  pronouncing  the  benediction  when  he  was 
again  swept  down ;  but  a  third  time  he  took  his  position,  and 
returned  thanks  to  God,  after  which  he  passed  through  the 
midst  of  the  rioters,  menaced  on  every  hand,  but  untouched. 
He  went  to  Sheffield,  where  worse  scenes  awaited  him. 
He  says :  "  Hell  from  beneath  was  moved  to  oppose  us." 
As  soon  as  he  was  in  the  desk,  "  the  floods  began  to  lift  up 
their  voice."  A  military  officer  contradicted  ,and  blas- 
phemed, but  the  preacher  took  no  notice  of  him,  and  sang 
on.  Stones  were  thrown,  hitting  the  desk  and  people.  To 
save  them  and  the  house,  he  gave  notice  that  he  should 
preach  out  of  doors,  and  look  the  enemy  in  the  face.  "  The 
whole  army  of  aliens  followed  me,"  he  says ;  their  leader 
laid  hold  of  him  and  reviled  him ;  he  gave  the  enraged  sol- 
dier "A  Word  in  Season,  or  Advice  to  a  Soldier,"  one  of  the 
tracts  of  his  brother  5  he  then  prayed  particularly  for  the 
king,  and  preached  on  amid  the  contention,  though  often 
struck  in  the  face  by  stones.  After  the  sermon  he  prayed 
for  simiers  as  servants  of  their  master,  the  devil,  upon  which 
the  officer  ran  at  him  with  great  fury,  threatening  revenge 
for  his  abuse,  as  he  called,  it,  of  the  king,  his  master.  He 
forced  his  way  through  the  crowd,  drew  his  sword,  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  preacher's  breast.  Wesley  threw  open  his 
vest,  and  fixing  his  eye  on  his  assailant,  calmly  said:  "I 
fear  God,  and  honor  the  king."  The  captain's  countenance 
fell  in  a  moment ;  he  put  up  his  sword  and  quickly  retreated 
from  the  scene.  Wesley  returned  to  the  house  of  a  friend ; 
but  the  rioters  followed,  and  exceeded  in  their  outrage  any- 
thing he  had  seen  before.  Those  of  Moorfields,  Cardiff,  and 
Walsal,  were  lambs,  he  says,  compared  to  these.  They  re- 
solved to  pull  down  the  preaching-house,  "  and  they  set  to 
their  work,"  he  ^viites,  "  while  we  were  praying  and  prais- 
'  ing  God.  It  was  a  glorious  time  with  us.  Every  word  ef 
exhortation  sunk  deep,  every  prayer  was  sealed,  and  many 
found  the  Spirit  of  glory  resting   on   them."     The   mob 


PROGRESS:    1741-1744.  191 

pressed  hard  to  break  open  the  door.  Wesley  would  have 
gone  out  to  them,  but  his  brethren  would  not  suffer  him. 
The  rabble  raged  all  night,  and  by  morning  had  pulled 
down  one  end  of  the  house.  "  Their  outcries  often  waked 
me  in  the  night,"  he  writes ;  "  yet  I  believe  I  got  more 
sleep  than  any  of  my  neighbors."  This  disgraceful  tumult 
he  ascribes  to  sermons  preached  against  the  Methodists  by 
the  clergy  of  Sheffield. 

The  next  morning  he  v/as  expounding  at  five  o'clock,  and 
later  the  same  day  he  preached  in  the  heart  of  the  town.  The 
mob  shouted  from  afar,  but  troubled  him  not.  On  return- 
ing to  his  lodging  he  passed  the  ruins  of  the  chapel ;  not  one 
stone  remained  upon  another.  The  rioters  again  rallied,  and 
following  him,  smashed  in  the  windows  of  his  lodging,  and 
threatened  to  tear  do-\\Ti  the  dwelling,  but  the  preacher, 
fatigued  and  courageous,  fell  asleep  "  in  five  minutes  in  the 
dismantled  room."  "  I  feared  no  cold,"  he  writes,  "  but 
dropped  asleep  with  that  word,  'Scatter  thou  the  people 
that  delight  in  war.'  "  Charles  Wesley  often  acknowledged 
himself  to  have  been  constitutionally  a  timid  mait,  but  his 
religious  feelings  made  him  heroic  whenever  danger  men- 
aced him  in  the  path  of  duty. 

The  next  morning  at  five  o'clock  he  counseled  and  com 
forted  the  little  company  of  his  brethren,  and  went  on  his 
way  to  other  labors  and  -perils.  He  saluted  Jolm  Nelson 
at  Birstal,  and  proclaimed  his  message  in  that  and  neighbor- 
ing towns  to  many  thousands.  He  preached  in  the  streets  at 
Leeds,  and  found  there  a  society  of  fifty  members.  At  New- 
castle, Sunderland,  Shields,  and  other  places,  his  labors  were 
successful,  and  he  returned  to  London  nothing  daunted  by 
the  stormy  trials  he  had  encountered. 

Though  bold  as  a  lion  in  perils,  Charles  Wesley  was  not 
only  naturally  timid,  but  subject,  like  most  men  of  poetic  sen- 
sibility, to  attacks  of  melancholy.  He  found  relief  in  activ- 
ity, and  in  a  short  time  was  again  on  his  route  from  London 
to  Cornwall.  Pausing  to  preach  at  Bristol,  Exeter,  and 
Bodmin,  he  arrived  by  the  middle  of  July  at  St.  Ives,  which 


192  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

had  become  the  center  of  Methodism  in  the  West.  One 
of  those  societies  which  had  been  formed  in  London  before 
the  date  of  Methodism,  had  been  kept  up  in  the  town,  and 
opened  the  way  for  the  Methodist  evangelists.  A  lay 
"  Helper "  was  on  hand  to  receive  him.  The  mob  was  also 
waiting  for  him  here,  and  in  several  neighboring  places 
At  St.  Ives  the  chapel  was  attacked,  its  windows  smashed 
in,  its  seats  torn  up,  and  the  fragments  borne  aw^ay,  with  the 
shutters,  poor-box,  and  all  but  the  stone  walls.  Wesley 
stood  silently  looking  on.  They  swore  bitterly  that  he 
should  not  preach  there  again,  an  assertion  w^hich  he  im- 
mediately disproved  by  proclaiming  that  Christ  had  died 
for  them  all.  Several  times  they  lifted  their  hands  and 
clubs  to  strike  him,  but  an  unseen  arm  restrained  them. 
They  beat  and  dragged  about  the  women,  particularly  one 
of  a  great  age,  and  trampled  on  them  without  mercy. 
Wesley  bade  the  people  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of 
God,  resolving  to  continue  with  them  until  the  end  of  the 
strife.  After  raging  about  an  hour,  the  ruffians  fell  to 
quarreling  among  themselves;  broke  the  head  of  the  town- 
clerk,  w^ho  was  their  capt^^in,  and  drove  one  another  out  of 
the  room.  "  Havmg  kept  the  field,  the  society  gave  thanks 
for  the  victory." 

The  converted  miners  were  a  courageous  class,  and  were 
unappalled  by  these  trials.  The  next  day  Wesley  writes : 
"  I  cannot  fmd  one  of  this  people  who  fears  those  that  can 
kill  the  body  only."  Some  of  their  bitterest  persecutors 
were  won  by  their  meek  endurance,  and  became  standard- 
bearers  of  the  Cross  among  them. 

Similar  assaults  were  made  in  other  places.  At  Poole  a 
drunken  hearer  attempted  to  drag  the  preacher  from  his 
stand,  and  a  church-warden,  heading  the  rabble,  drove  him 
and  his  congregation  out  of  the  parish.  The  church  record 
bears  to  this  day  an  entry  of  expenses  at  the  village  inn  for 
drink  to  the  mob  and  its  leader,  for  driving  out  the  Meth- 
odists. ^^  Several  weeks,  however,  did  Charles  Wesley  pur- 
"  Smith's  History,  etc.,  II,  2. 


PROGRESS:    1741-1744.  •  19o 

sue  his  labors  successfully  in  almost  every  part  of  West 
Cornwall.  Thousands  heard  the  word  amid  the  din  of 
riots ;  hundreds  from  the  most  degraded  classes  were  con- 
verted into  devout  Christians  and  exemplary  citizens,  and 
Cornwall  has  since  become  the  most  successful  arena  of 
Methodism  in  England.  Nowhere,  perhaps,  in  the  world 
has  it  more  strikingly  demonstrated  its  beneficent  power 
ever  the  common  people. 

Soon  after  the  return  of  Charles  Wesley  from  Cornwall, ; 
John  Wesley  arrived  there,  accompanied  by  Nelson.  They 
found  about  a  hundred  and  twenty  members  in  the  society 
at  St.  Ives.  Nelson  worked  during  the  day  at  his  trade,  and 
at  night  aided  Wesley  and  Shepherd,  another  lay  assistant, 
in  preaching  among  the  population  of  the  peninsula  of  West 
Cornwall.  Methodism  had  not  yet  penetrated  into  many  of 
the  villages,  and  the  itinerants  sometimes  suffered  for  want  of 
the  common  comforts  of  life.  Nelson  relates,  in  character- 
istic style,  examples  of  these  hardships.  "All  this  time," 
he  says,  "  Mr.  Wesley  and  I  lay  on  the  floor ;  he  had  my 
great-coat  for  his  pillow,  and  I  had  Burkitt's  Notes  on  the 
New  Testament  for  mine.  After  being  here  nearly  three 
weeks,  one  morning,  about  three  o'clock,  Mr.  Wesley  turned 
over,  and  finding  me  awake,  clapped  me  on  the  side,  saying. 
'  Brother  Nelson,  let  us  be  of  good  cheer ;  I  have  one  whole 
side  yet,  for  the  skin  is  off  but  one  side.'  We  usually 
preached  on  the  commons,  going  from  one  common  to  an- 
other, and  it  was  but  seldom  any  one  asked  us  to  eat  or 
drink.  One  day  we  had  been  at  St.  Hilary  Downs,  where 
Mr.  Wesley  preached  from  Ezekiel's  vision  of  dry  bones, 
and  there  was  a  shaking  among  the  people  while  he  preached. 
As  we  returned  Mr.  Wesley  stopped  his  horse  to  pick  the 
blackberries,  saying, '  Brother  Nelson,  we  ought  to  be  thank- 
ful that  there  are  plenty  of  blackberries,  for  this  is  the 
best  country  I  ever  saw  for  getting  a  stomach,  but  the  worst 
that  ever  I  saw  for  getting  food.  Do  the  people  think  we 
can  ii^e  by  preaching  V  1  said :  '  I  know  not  what  they  may 
think  ;  but  one  asked  me  to  eat  something  as  I  came  from 

Vol.  I.— 13 


194  .     HISTOET    OF    METHODISM. 

St.  Just,  when  I  ate  heartily  of  barley  bread  and  honey. 
He  said :  '  You  are  well  off;  I  had  a  thought  of  begging  a 
crust  of  bread  of  the  woman  where  I  met  the  people  at 
Morvah,  but  forgot  it  till  I  had  got  some  distance  from  the 
house.' "  1* 

Such  were  not  uncommon  privations  among  the  primitiTe 
Methodist  itinerants  of  both  hemispheres.  No  clergymen, 
however,  fare  better  than  have  Methodist  preachers  in  Corn- 
wall since  that  day ;  and  even  then,  wherever  the  common 
people  were  gathered  into  the  new  societies,  they  were 
ready  to  share  all  they  possessed  with  the  devoted  men 
who  brought  to  their  mines  and  hovels  the  bread  of  life. 
They  received  the  Gospel  with  a  heartiness  and  devotion 
which  have  never  been  surpassed.  Wesley  records  that  on 
the  morning  which  was  to  close  his  present-  visit,  he  was 
waked  between  three  and  four  o'clock  by  a  group  of  miners, 
who,  eager  for  the  five  o'clock  sermon,  were  waiting  and 
singing  hymns  beneath  his  windows. 

Leaving  Nelson  to  supply  the  societies,  Wesley  made 
rapid  visits  to  Bristol  and  Wales,  and  returned  again  to 
the  north.  At  Wednesbury  he  was  attacked  by  an  over- 
whelming mob  of  colliers  and  others.  He  was  pushed 
along  in  their  midst  from  one  magistrate  to  another  within, 
and  two  miles  beyond,  the  town,  during  several  hours  of 
the  night,  and  under  a  pelting  storm  of  rain.  These 
guardians  of  the  peace  were  in  bed,  and  refused  either  to 
hear  or  to  disperse  the  mob.  A  second  crowd  from 
Walsal  came  do^vn  upon  the  first,  and,  dispersing  it,  bore 
him  off.  A  stout  woman,  who  had  headed  the  first  mob, 
now  tried  to  rally  them  for  his  defense,  and  swearing 
that  none  should  touch  him,  ran  in  among  the  new  assail- 
ants, and  knocked  down  three  or  four  men  one  after 
another,  but  was  soon  herself  overpowered.  The  Walsal 
rabble  pressed  him  from  one  end  of  the  town  to  the  other. 
In  descending  a  steep  and  slippery  part  of  the  road  an 
attempt  was  made  to  throw  him  down ;  had  it  been  suo- 
"  Nelson's  Journal,  p.  85. 


progress:   1741-1744.  195 

cessful  lie  would  probably  have  been  trodden  to  death; 
One  of  the  female  members  of  the  society  was  thrown  into 
the  river.  A  strong  man  behind  Wesley  aimed  several 
blows  with  an  oak  bludgeon  at  the  back  of  his  head.  One 
of  ther-i  would  probably  have  been  fatal,  but  they  were  all 
turned  aside,  Wesley  says  he  knows  not  how.  He  was 
struck  by  a  powerful  blow  on  the  chest,  and  by  another 
on  the  mouth,  making  the  blood  gush  out ;  but  felt  no 
more  pain,  he  affirms,  from  either  than  if  they  had  touched 
him  with  a  straw  ;  not  certainly  because  he  was  over  ex- 
cited or  alarmed,  for  he  assures  us  that  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  he  was  enabled  to  maintain  as  much  presence  of 
mind  as  if  he  had  been  sitting  m  his  study,  but  his 
thoughts  were  entirely  absorbed  in  watching  the  move- 
ment of  the  rioters.  The  noise  on  every  side,  he  says,  was 
like  the  roaring  of  the  sea.  Many  cried :  "  Knock  his  brains 
out !  down  with  him !  kill  him  at  once !  crucify  him !" 
"  No,  let  us  hear  him  first,"  shouted  others.  He  at  last  broke 
out  aloud  into  prayer.  The  ruffian  who  had  headed  the 
mob,  a  bear-garden  prize-fighter,  was  struck  with  awe,  and 
turning  to  him  said :  "  Sir,  I  will  spend  my  life  for  you ; 
follow  me,  and  not  one  soul  here  shall  touch  a  hair  of  your 
head."  Several  others  now  rallied  for  his  protection.  An 
honest  butcher  cried  out  for  him,  and  laying  hold  bravely  on 
four  or  five  of  the  most  violent  of  the  rioters,  thrust  them 
away.  The  people  fell  back,  as  if  by  common  consent,  and, 
led  on  through  their  opened  ranks  by  their  champion,  he 
safely  escaped  to  his  lodgings. 

Notwithstanding  the  manifest  usefulness  of  Methodism  to 
the  lower  classes  of  the  English  population,  proved  in  the 
reformation  of  hundreds  of  them  at  Wednesbury,  as  else- 
where, the  clergy  and  magistrates  favored  the  mob.  The 
former  had  instigated  it,  and  the  latter  refused  to  suppress 
it.  The  Methodists  of  the  town  had  endured  intolerable 
wrongs  before  the  riot  reached  this  frightful  crisis. 
Women  and  children  had  been  knocked  down  and  dragged 
in  the  gutters  of  the  streets ;    their  houses  had  been  at- 


196  HISTORY    OF    METHODISiL 

'tacked,  their  AYinclows  broken,  their  furniture  demolished.^ 
Such  was  the  condition  of  the  English  police  in  that  day 
that  the  riotei's  wei-e  assejubled  by  the  blowing  of  a  horn, 
and  virtually  usurped  the  control  of  the  laws  for  nearly  half 
a  year.  They  drew  up  a  form  of  recantation,  which  they  de- 
clared all  Methodists  should  sign  ;  and  those  who  refused  to 
do  so  were  beaten,  and  placed  in  peril  of  their  lives.  Wes- 
ley, with  his  usual  courage  and  sagacity,  had  gone  to  Wed 
nesbury  to  confront  this  formidable  opposition.  He  knew 
that  if  Methodismx  were  of  God,  it  had  a  mission  to  perform 
toward  these  colliers,  and  their  long-neglected  and  brutal- 
ized class  throughout  the  land ;  that  in  approaching  them 
it  would  unavoidably  provoke  such  hostilities,  and  that  its 
only  policy  was  to  meet  and  conquer  thenri  till  it  should 
open  a  clear  field  for  itself  among  the  lower  classes  gener- 
ally. No  m.an  could  have  less  natural  disposition  for  what 
some  might  deem  the  m.inisterial  heroism  or  romance  of 
such  adventures  than  he.  The  scholar,  the  accomplished 
divine,  the  well-bred  gentleman,  fastidiously  nice,  even,  in 
matters  of  apparel  and  personal  manners,  these  scenes  of 
popular  derision  and  ruffianism  miust  have  been  most  re- 
pugnant to  him..  He  certainly  never  had  the  fanatical 
folly  to  court  them,  but  he  never  feared  them.  Calm 
in  temper,  keen  in  sagacity,  and  apposite  in  remark,  he 
knew  how  to  meet  them.  He  had  come  to  Wednesbury 
expressly  to  do  so  in  this  instance,  and  he  succeeded.  The 
mob  had  yielded,  and  its  very  leaders  had  become  his 
defenders.  A  less  sagacious  man  would  have  supposed  it 
well  to  remain  on  the  field  now  that  he  had  won  it ;  but 
Wesley  left  the  next  morning.  He  knew  that  though  the 
mass  had  been  conquered,  the  fermentation  in  some  minds 
had  not  yet  entirely  subsided,  and  might  easily  again  break 
out ;  but  that  a  few  days  of  delay  and  town  talk  over  the 
sufferings  of  the  Methodists,  and  the  cool  bearing  of  their 

15  Many  Methodist  families  in  Wednesbury  still  preserve  fragments  of 
furniture  as  precious  memorials  of  the  sufferings  of  their  fathers.  Wat- 
Bon's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  7. 


PKOGRESS:    1741-1744.  197 

leader,  could  not  fail  to  promote  the  favorable  turn  which 
the  popular  feelings  had  taken  toward  them.  He  therefore 
rode  away  the  next  day,  but  passed  through  the  town,  and 
says  that  "  every  one  I  met  expressed  such  cordial  appro- 
bation that  I  could  scarce  believe  w^hat  I  saw  and 
heard." 

He  went  to  Nottingham,  where  Charles  Wesley  was 
preaching.  "  He  looked,"  says  the  latter,  "  like  a  soldier  of 
Christ.  His  clothes  were  torn  to  tatters."  Charles  soon 
after  visited  Wednesbury  to  comfort  the  persecuted  so- 
ciety. He  found  its  members  assenabled,  nothing  terrified 
by  their  adversaries,  and  preached  to  them  from,  "  Watch 
ye,  stand  fast  in  the  faith ;  quit  yourselves  like  m.en ;  be 
strong."  "Jesus,"  he  says,  "was  in  the  midst,  and  covered 
us  with  a  covering  of  his  Spirit.  Never  was  I  before  in  so 
primitive  an  assembly.  We  sang  praises  lustily,  and  with 
a  good  courage,  and  could  all  set  our  seal  to  the  truth  of 
our  Lord's  saying :  '  Blessed  are  they  that  are  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake,'  We  laid  us  do"v>^i  and  slept,  and 
rose  up  again.  We  assembled  before  day  to  sing  hymns  to 
Christ,  as  God,".  As  soon  as  it  was  light  he  walked  down 
into  the  town,  and  preached  boldly  on,  "  Fear  none  of  those 
things  which  thou  slialt  suffer.  Behold,  the  devil  shall  cast 
some  of  you  into  prison  that  ye  may  be  tried ;  and  ye 
shall  have  tribulation  ten  days.  Be  thou  faithful  unto 
death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life,"  "  It  was,"  he 
says,  "a  most  glorious  time;  we  longed  for  our  Lord's 
coming  to  confess  us  before  his  Father  and  his  holy  angels. 
We  now  understood  what  it  was  to  receive  the  word  in 
much  affliction,  and  yet  with  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

He  received  several  new  members  into  the  society,  and 
among  them  was  the  late  captain  of  the  mob.  This  de- 
praved man  was  not  without  generous  feelings ;  he  had  been 
constantly  in  deep  religious  contrition  since  the  night  on 
which  he  had  attacked  and  rescued  Wesley.  Charles  asked 
him  what  he  thought  of  his  brother.  "  Think  of  him,"  said 
he ;  '"  that  he  is  a  mon  of  God  ;  and  God  was  on  his  side 


198  HISTOEY    OF     METHODISE 

wheii  so  many  of  us  could  not  kill  one  nion."^^  Tlius  did 
Methodism  pluck  "  brands  from  the  burning,"  and  lift  them 
up  before  the  astonished  mobs  and  magistrates  as  its  best 
trophies.  ^' 

John  Wesley  was  soon  again  in  Newcastle,  and  the  re- 
niainder  of  the  year  was  spent  in  undimmished  labors.  The 
persecutions  which  broke  out  in  many  places  increased  the 
popular  interest  in  the  new  movement  and  aroused  the 
energy  of  its  laborers.  The  year  closed  with  forty-five 
itmerants  in  the  field,  besides  naany  local  preachers.  Socie- 
ties had  sprung  up  in  many  of  the  principal  towns ;  their 
membership  camiot  be  ascertained,  but  it  must  have  mcluded 
many  thousands.  There  were  more  than  two  thousand  in 
London  alone. ^'^  Wesley  saw  that  a  great  work  had  begun; 
that  it  could  not  fail  to  affect  the  whole  kingdom  if  it  went 
on,  and  that  it  was  now  no  time  to  succumb  before  mobs  or 
any  other  difficulties.  Mobs,  he  knew,  could  not  last  long ; 
the  laws,  if  nothing  else,  must  sooner  or  later  suppress  them, 
and  they  could  only  result  in  greater  impetus  to  the  new 
movement.  They  afforded  the  most  conclusive  proof  of  the 
moral  degradation  of  the  com.mon  people,  and  therefore  the 
best  justification  of  the  extraordinary  efforts  by  which  Metho- 
dism attempted  to  awaken  the  inert  conscience  of  the  land. 
Steadfast  perseverance  in  these  efforts  was  what  the  times 
required;  with  Wesley  that  could  never  be  wanting,  and 
it  could  never  fail  among  his  subordinate  laborers  while 
their  leader  bore  their  standard  courageously  forward.  The 
next  year  was  to  open  with  new  "  fights  of  affliction,"  but 
with  still  greater  victories. 

"  "Wesley's  Journal,  Anno  1743.    Jackson's  Charles  "Wesley,  chap.  IC, 
"  Jackson'5  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  11. 


FIRST    WESLEYAN    COKFEREKCE.  199 


CHAPTEE  YL 

EVENTS    OF    1T44:     THE   FIRST    WESLEYAN"    COIST- 
FEREI^CE. 

Eeports  against  Wesley  —  Terrible  Mobs  in  Staffordshire  —  Charles  "Wes- 
ley among  the  Rioters  —  John  Wesley  in  Cornwall  —  Scenes  at  St. 
Ives  —  Wesley  preaching  at  Gwennap  —  John  Nelson  —  His  Power 
over  tte  Mob  —  He  is  impressed  for  the  Army  —  Characteristic  Inci- 
dents —  Thomas  Beard,  the  Protomartyr  of  Methodism  —  The  First 
Wesleyan  Conference  —  Its  Proceedings — Its  Policy  —  Lady  Hunting- 
don —  Ministerial  Education  approved  —  Wesley's  Earnest  Appeal  tc 
Men  of  Reason  and  Eehgion. 

The  year  1744  was  to  be  signalized  in  the  history  of  Metho- 
dism not  only  by  the  first  session  of  the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence, but  by  formidable  trials.  Before  the  Conference 
Wesley  made  rapid  excursions  into  various  parts  of  England 
and  Wales.  The  country  was  in  general  commotion,  occa- 
sioned by  threatened  invasions  from  Erance  and  Spain,  and 
by  the  movements  of  the  Scotch  Pretender.  Reports  were 
rife  that  the  Methodist  preachers  were  in  collusion  with  the 
papal  Stuart.  All  sorts  of  calumnies  against  Wesley  flew 
over  the  land.  He  had  been  seen  with  the  Pretender  in 
France ;  had  been  taken  up  for  high  treason,  and  was  at  last 
safe  in  prison  awaiting  his  merited  doom.  He  was  a  Jesuit, 
and  kept  Roman  priests  in  his  house  at  London.  He  was  an 
agent  of  Spain,  whence  he  had  received  large  remittances,  in 
order  to  raise  a  body  of  twenty  thousand  men  to  aid  the  ex- 
pected Spanish  invasion.  He  was  an  Anabaptist ;  a  Quaker ; 
had  been  prosecuted  for  unlawfully  selling  gin ;  had  hanged 
himself;  and,  at  any  rate,  was  not  the  genuine  John  Wesley, 
for  it  was  well  known  that  the  latter  was  dead  and  buried. 
TH,t  he  was  a  disguised  Papist,  and  an  agent  for  the  Pre- 


200  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

tender,  was  the  favorite  slander;  and  when  a  prociamation 
was  made  requiring  all  Roman  Catholics  to  leave  London, 
he  stayed  a  week  in  the  city  to  refute  the  report.  He  was 
summoned  by  the  justices  of  Surrey,  London,  to  appear  be- 
fore their  court,  and  required  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  king,  and  to  sign  the  Declaration  against  Popery. 
Charles  Wesley  was  actually  indicted  before  the  magistrates 
in  Yorkshire,  because  in  a  public  prayer  he  had  besought 
God  to  "  call  home  his  banished  ones."  This,  it  was  insisted, 
meant  the  House  of  the  Stuarts ;  and  he  had  to  explain,  at 
the  tribunal,  the  purely  spiritual  meaning  of  the  phrase, 
before  he  was  acquitted. 

f'  Mobs  raged,  meanwhile,  in  many  places.  In  Staffordshire 
/  the  Methodists  were  assailed  not  only  in  their  assemblies, 
I  but  in  the  streets,  and  at  their  homes.  At  Walsal  the  rioters 
planted  a  flag  in  public  and  kept  it  flying  during  several 
days.  In  Darlston  women  were  knocked  down,  and  abused 
in  a  manner,  says  Wesley,  too  horrible  to  be  related. ^  Their 
little  children,  meanwhile,  wandered  up  and  down,  no 
neighbor  daring  to  take  them  in  lest  he  should  hazard  his 
own  life.  Houses  were  broken  into,  and  furniture  destroyed 
and  thrown  out  into  the  street.  One  of  the  Methodists  says 
that  he  was  denied  shelter  in  his  o^\^l  father's  dwelling,  the 
latter  fearing  it  would  be  torn  dowai.  Charles  Wesley,  as 
we  shall  hereafter  see,  could,  at  a  later  date,  distinguish  the 
houses  of  Methodists  by  their  "  marks  of  violence,"  as  he 
rode  through  the  town.  In  Wednesbury  the  disorders  were 
again  frightful ;  and  for  nearly  a  week  the  mob  reigned  tri 
umphant.  They  were  gathering  all  Monday  night,  and  OQ 
Tuesday  began  their  riotous  work,  sanctioned,  if  not  led  on,  rsy 
gentlemen  of  the  town.  They  assaulted,  one  after  another, 
all  the  houses  of  those  who  were  called  Methodists.  They 
first  broke  the  windows,  suffering  neither  glass,  lead,  nor 
frames  to  remain.  Then  they  made  their  way  in,  and  all 
the  tables,  chairs,  chests  of  drawers,  with  whatever  was  not 
^ily  movable,  they  dashed  in   pieces,  particularly  shop 

*  Journal,  Anno  1744. 


FIRST    WESLEYAK    CONFERENCE.  201 

goods  and  furniture  of  every  kind.  What  they  could  not 
well  break,  as  feather  beds,  they  cut  in  pieces,  and  strewed 
about  the  room.  The  wife  of  a  Methodist  was  lying  in,  but 
that  was  nothing ;  they  pulled  away  her  bed  and  cut  it  in 
pieces.  Wearing  apparel  and  things  which  were  of  value  or 
saleable  were  carried  away,  every  man  loading  himself  wdth 
as  much  as  he  could  wxll  bear  of  whatever  he  liked  best.  All 
this  time  none  offered  to  resist  them.  Men  and  women  fled 
for  their  lives ;  only  the  children  remained,  not  knowing 
whither  to  go.  Some  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  instigated 
these  dreadful  scenes,  or  threatened  to  turn  away  collier  or 
miner  from  their  service  if  he  did  not  take  part  in  them,  now 
drew  up  a  paper  for  the  naembers  of  the  society  to  sign, 
importing  that  they  would  never  invite  nor  receive  any 
Methodist  preacher  again.  On  this  condition  it  was  prom- 
ised that  the  mob  should  be  checked  at  once,  otherwise  the 
victims  must  take  what  might  follow.  The  pledge  was  of- 
fered to  several ;  but  the  faithful  sufferers  declared,  one  and 
all,  "  We  have  already  lost  all  our  goods,  and  nothing  more 
can  follow  but  the  loss  of  our  lives,  which  we  will  lose  too, 
rather  than  wrong  our  consciences," 

The  mob  divided  into  several  companies,  and  marched 
from  village  to  village  within  a  range  of  four  or  five  miles, 
and  the  whole  region  was  in  a  state  little  short  of  civil  war. 

Wesley  was  justly  indignant  to  find  these  outrages  de- 
scribed the  next  week,  in  the  London  newspapers,  as  perpe- 
trated by  the  Methodists  themselves,  who,  "  upon  some  pre- 
tended insults  from  the  Church  party,"  had  risen  in  "  insur- 
rection" against  the  government.  He  hastened  from  Lon- 
don to  sustain  the  persecuted  societies  in  the  riotous  districts, 
for  it  was  his  rule,  he  wrote,  "always  to  face  the  mob." 
At  Dudley  he  learned  that  the  lay  preacher  had  been  cruelly 
abused  at  the  instigation  of  the  parish  minister ;  the  peace- 
able itinerant  would  probably  have  been  murdered,  had  not 
an  honest  Quaker  enabled  him  to  escape  disguised  in  his 
broad-brimmed  hat  and  plain  coat.^  At  Wednesbury  he 
8  Jackson's  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  11. 


202  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

found  none  of  the  magistrates  willing  to  protect  the  Meth- 
odists. One  of  these  functionaries  declared  that  their  treat- 
ment was  just,  and  offered  five  pounds  to  have  them  driven 
out  of  the  town.  The  spirit  of  the  converted  colliers  was 
rising,  and  Wesley  had  difficulty  in  restraining  them  from 
self-defense.  One  of  the  magistrates  refused  to  hear  a  Meth- 
odist who  came  to  take  oath  that  his  life  was  in  danger. 
Another  delivered  a  member  of  the  society  up  to  the  mob, 
and  waving  his  hand  over  his  head,  shouted,  "  Huzza,  boys ! 
well  done  !  stand  up  for  the  Church !"  The  sound  of  family 
worship  in  the  evening  was  the  signal  for  breaking  into  the 
Methodist  houses.  At  Walsal  Charles  Wesley  found  "the 
enemy's  head-quarters;"  the  flag  of  the  rioters  waved  in  the 
market-place.  He  passed  to  Nottingham,  and  there  also  the 
war  had  begun.  The  Methodists  were  driven  from  the  chapel 
and  pelted  in  the  streets.  They  would  have  avenged  their 
wrongs  had  it  not  been  for  the  restraining  efforts  of  another 
good  Quaker.  The  mayor  passed  by  laughing,  while  Charles 
Wesley  was  preaching  at  the  town-cross  amid  flying  mis- 
siles from  the  mob.  At  Lichfield  "all  the  rabble  of  the 
county  was  gathered  together  and  laid  waste  all  before  them;'^ 
not  one,  however,  of  the  Methodists  "  had  resisted  evil ;  they 
took  the  spoiling  of  their  goods  joyfully."  At  Sheffield  and 
Thorpe  he  found  the  mob  had  relented,  and  the  societies 
enjoyed  rest.  At  the  latter  place  a  persecutor  had  died  in 
despair,  and  the  rabble  had  been  appalled  into  quiet.  Some 
of  them  had  even  joined  the  society.  At  Wakefield  and 
Leeds  he  learned  that  the  Methodists  had  been  excluded 
from  the  Lord's  Supper  at  the  parish  churches.  At  Birstal 
he  found  John  Nelson's  hill  quite  covered  with  hearers ;  in 
the  midst  of  hi^  discourse  a  gentleman  "  came  riding  up, 
and  almost  over  the  people."  Speaking  of  temperance  and 
judgment  to  come,  Wesley  turned  and  said, " 'Thou  art  the 
man.'  His  countenance  fell,  and  he  fled  before  the  sword, 
of  the  Spirit.  The  power  of  God  burst  forth,  and  a  cry 
was  heard  throughout  the  congregation." 

He  pursued  his  way  to  Newcastle,  where  disturbances 


FIRST    WESLEYAN    COXFEEENCE.         20B 

were  also  breaking  out.  Taking  his  stand  in  the  public 
square,  he  proclaimed,  "  Ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for 
mj  name's  sake."  He  afterward  found  "a  great  mob"  at 
the  chapel,  and  "  spending  an  hour  in  taming  them,"  exhorted 
them  for  two  hours  more.  "  The  rocks,"  he  says,  "  were 
melted  on  ever}^  side,  and  the  very  ringleaders  of  the  rebels 
declared  they  would  make  a  disturbance  no  more."  The 
next  day,  however,  the  storm,  raged  again  among  another 
class.  The  people  had  given  themselves  up  to  drunken- 
ness, in  honor  of  a  supposed  victory  of  the  British  over  the 
French.3  They  thronged  about  the  chapel,  struck  several 
of  the  brethren,  and  threatened  to  pull  down  the  pulpit. 
He  afterward  learned  that  at  the  same  hour  the  chapel 
at  St.  Ives  was  pulled  down.  At  Epworth  he  met  on  the 
common  a  lay  preacher,  Thomas  Westall,  who  was  driven 
away  from  Nottingham  by  "  the  mob  and  mayor."  Wes- 
ley immediately  preached  to  the  panic-struck  society  and 
the  noisy  crowd  on  the  text,  "  Enter  into  the  rock,  and  hide 
yourselves  as  it  were  for  a  little  moment,  until  the  indignation 
be  overpast."  As  he  passed  through  Birstal  again  the  mob 
was  tearing  down  John  Nelson's  house,  but  fled  away  as 
Wesley  and  his  companions  approached  wdth  singing.  He 
returned  to  London,  and  collected  funds  for  the  relief  of  the 
persecuted  societies.  Some  of  his  finest  lyrics  were  com- 
posed during  his  travels  amid  these  tumults.  He  often  re- 
cited and  sometimes  sung  them  among  the  raging  crowds. 
Four  of  them  were  written  "  to  be  sung  in  a  tumult,"  and 
one  was  a  "  prayer  for  the  first  martyr ;"  it  was  soon  to  be 
found  appropriate. 

The  storm  meanwhile  swept  over  Cornwall  also.  The 
chapel  at  St.  Ives  was  entirely  destroyed.  John  Wesley 
went  thither ;  and  on  arriving  at  the  home  of  one  of  the 

s  Such  was  the  state  of  English  morals  at  this  period,  that  drunkenness 
was  a  fashionable  vice.  Nearly  thirty  years  later  Johnson  said  to  Boswell : 
"I  remember  when  all  the  decent  people  in  Lichfield  [Johnson's  native 
town]  got  drunk  every  night,  and  were  not  thought  the  worse  for  it." 
Bosw  ell's  Johnson,  vol.  i,  p.  840. 


204  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Methodists,  where  the  society  was  waiting  for  him,  he  was 
received,  he  writes,  "  with  a  loud  though  not  bitter  cry  ;  but 
they  soon  recovered,  and  we  poured  out  our  souls  together 
in  praises  and  thanksgivings."  As  soon  as  they  went  out 
fcliey  were  saluted  with  huzzas,  stones,  and  dirt.  He  was 
agreeably  surprised  at  the  Christian  ineekness  and  patience 
with  which  the  converted  miners,  once  degraded  and  violent 
men  themselves,  now  endured  persecution  for  righteousness' 
sake.  Some  who  had  been  the  worst  of  the  rabble,  had  be- 
come the  most  exemplary  sufferers.  He  records  that  "  the 
Methodists  of  St.  Just  had  been  the  chief  of  the  whole  coun- 
try for  hurling,  fighting,  drinking,  and  all  manner  of  wicked- 
ness ;  but  many  of  the  lions  had  become  lambs,  and  were 
continually  praising  God,  and  calling  their  old  companions 
in  sin  to  come  and  magnify  the  Lord  together."  Such  had 
been  the  general  state  of  religion  in  the  country,  that  many 
intelligent  men  could  not  comprehend  these  changes.  They 
were  anomalies  and  madness  to  them.  One  of  the  clergy  in 
Cornwall,  a  person,  says  Wesley,  of  unquestioned  sense  and 
learning,  and  a  doctor  of  divinity,  some  of  whose  most  aban- 
doned parishioners  had  been  reclaimed,  asked  a  devout  Meth- 
odist "  who  had  been  made  the  better  by  this  preaching  f 
"The  man  before  you,"  was  the  reply ;  "  one  who  never  before 
Imew  any  work  of  God  in  his  soul."  "  Get  along,"  cried  the 
learned  divine ;  "  you  are  all  mad,  crazy-headed  fellows,"  and 
seizing  him  by  the  shoulders  thrust  him  out  the  door. 

On  the  public  fast-day,  appointed  for  the  safety  of  the 
nation  against  the  menaced  invasion,  Wesley  listened  to  a 
sermon  in  the  Church  of  St.  Ives,  in  which  the  Methodists 
were  denounced  as  enemies  of  the  Church  and  state,  Jacob 
ites,  and  Papists.  But  the  sun  of  the  same  day  went  down 
upon  him,  as  he  stood  controlling  the  troubled  elements  at 
Gwennap.  "  I  stood,"  he  says,  "  on  the  wall,  in  the  calm 
still  evening,  with  the  setting  sun  behind  me,  and  almost 
an  ir.numerable  multitude  before,  behind,  and  on  either 
hand.  Many  likewise  sat  on  the  little  hills,  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  bulk  of  the  congregation.     But  they  could 


FIRST   WESLEYAN    CONFERENCE.  205 

all  hear  distinctly  while  I  read :  '  The  disciple  is  not  above 
his  Master,'  and  the  rest  of  those  comfortable  words  which 
are  day  by  day  fulfilled  in  our  ears.""^ 

Thus  did  he  maintain  his  ground :  to  retreat,  was  to 
abandon  *this  demoralized  populace  to  its  moral  wretched- 
ness ;  to  persevere,  he  knew  would  conquer  its  turbulence 
in  spite  of  the  influence  of  the  clergy.  He  did  persevere, 
and  at  last  won  the  well-deserved  victory.  Methodism,  pre- 
vailed through  all  Cornwall,  and  in  his  old  age  his  journies 
through  its  towns  and  villages  were  like  "  royal  progresses  " 
or  triumphal  marches.  The  descendants  of  those  who  had 
mobbed  him  crowded  his  routes,  and  filled  the  steps,  bal- 
conies, and  windows,  to  see  and  bless  him  as  he  passed ;  ^ 
and  in  our  day  Cornwall  witnesses  in  all  its  towns  and 
hamlets,  to  the  power  of  the  Gospel  as  preached  by  Wes 
ley  and  his  persecuted  itinerants. 

After  spending  three  weeks  in  the  west  he  went  to  Ep- 
worth,  where  he  found  that  one  of  his  preachers,  John 
Downes,  had  been  impressed  as  a  soldier,  and  placed  in 
Lincoln  jail.  An  "  inexpressible  panic,"  he  says,  prevailed 
in  all  places.  He  passed  to  Birstal,  the  home  of  John  Nel- 
son, but  there  learned  that  this  heroic  man  had  also  been 
seized  for  the  army,  and  carried  off  to  prison.  Soon  after 
he  heard  that  Thomas  Beard,  another  assistant,  had  shared 
the  same  fate. 

John  Nelson  had  been  traveling  about  the  land,  working 
by  day  and  preaching  at  night.  His  good  sense,  cool 
courage,  sound  piety,  and  apt  speech,  secured  him  success 
wherever  he  went.     He  had  spread  out  Methodism  exten- 

4  The  Gwennap  amphitheater  must  have  presented  a  grand  spectacle 
on  such  occasions ;  an  engraving  representing  Wesiey  preaching  there  is 
extant ;  in  the  latter  part  of  his  hfe,  aged,  and  venerated  by  the  people, 
tie  still  occupied  it  for  preaching  at  his  annual  visits.  "  I  think,"  he 
wrote,  "this  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent  spectacles  which  is  to  be 
seen  on  this  side  heaven."  The  Methodist  singing  there  especially  was 
sublime  to  him.  "No  music,"  he  said,  "is  to  be  heard  on  earth  com- 
parable to  the  sound  of  many  thousand  voices,"  as  he  there  heard  them, 
"  ail  harmoniously  joined  in  singing  praises  to  God  and  the  Lamb." 

s  Watson's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  7. 


206  HISTORY    OF    jVIETHODISM. 

sively  in  Yorkshire,  Cornwall,  Lincolnshire,  Lancashire, 
and  other  counties.  He  was  a  man  of  such  genuine  spirit 
and  popular  tact  that  his  worst  opposers  usually  became  his 
best  friends,  and  the  rudest  men  delighted  to  hear  him. 
He  passed  through  Wednesbury  soon  after  the  terrible 
riots  there,  and  preached  in  the  open  air.  The  mob  came, 
but  would  not  molest  him.  At  Nottingham  several  per- 
sons tried  to  throw  squibs  into  his  face  and  at  his  feet  while 
he  was  preaching,  but  others  threw  them  back ;  and  a  ser- 
geant of  the  army  came  to  him  with  tears,  and  said :  In 
the  presence  of  God  and  all  this  people  I  beg  your  pardon, 
for  I  came  on  purpose  to  mob  you ;  but  when  I  could  get 
no  one  to  assist  me  I  stood  to  hear  you,  and  am  convinced 
of  the  deplorable  state  of  my  soul ;  I  believe  you  are  a 
servant  of  the  living  God.  "  He  then  kissed  me,"  says 
Nelson,  "and  went  away  weeping."^  No  evidence  could 
better  prove  the  power  of  the  artisan  preacher.  He  jour- 
neyed on  to  Grimsby,  where  the  parish  clergyman  hired  a 
man  to  beat  the  to^vn  drum,  and  w^ent  before  it,  gathering 
together  the  rabble,  and  giving  them  liquor  to  go  with  him 
and  "  fight  for  the  Church."  When  they  came  to  Nelson's 
lodgings  they  set  up  three  huzzas,  and  their  clerical  leader 
cried  out  to  them  to  pull  down  the  house ;  but  no  one 
offered  to  touch  it  till  Nelson  had  done  preaching;  they 
then  broke  the  windows,  leaving  not  one  whole  square  of 
glass  in  the  building.  The  people  were  asgailed  as  they 
went  out;  but  the  mob  began  to  fight  one  another,  and 
thus  allowed  the  preacher  and  his  hearers  to  escape.  Not 
long  after  the  minister  gathered  the  rioters  together  again, 
and  gave  them  more  drink.  They  then  came  and  broke 
the  stanchions  of  the  windows,  pulled  up  the  paving  in  the 
streets,  threw  the  stones  into  the  house,  and  demolished  its 
furniture;  but  they  again  quarreled  among  themselves, 
and  dispersed  after  five  hours  of  tumult.  The  clergyman, 
who  was  a  representative  of  a  large  class  of  his  profession 
at  that  day,  hired  the  tow^l  drummer  to  disturb  the  evangel- 

6  Nelson's  Journal,  p.  90. 


FIKST    WESLEYAN    C  ONFERENCE.  207 

ist  again  the  next  morning;  but  after  beating  his  drum 
around  the  congregation  for  three  quarters  of  an  hour^  he 
yielded  under  Nelson's  eloquence,  threw  away  the  drum^ 
and  stood  listening  with  the  tears  running  down  his  cheeks. 
Such  was  the  power  of  this  extraordinary  man  over  hi3 
rudest  hearers. 

He  went  to  Epworth ;  both  the  clerk  and  clergyman  of 
that  parish  were  drunkards ;  the  former  ran,  as  Nelson  was 
preaching  in  the  open  air,  and  cried  to  the  congregation  to 
make  way  that  he  might  reach  the  itinerant  and  carry  him 
before  his  master,  who  Avas  at  the  village  ale-house.  The 
people  stood  up,  however,  for  the  eloquent  mason,  and  bade 
the  clerk  hold  his  peace  and  go  about  his  business.  He 
chose  to  become  still  ruder,  when  a  sturdy  yeoman  took 
him  up  and  threw  him  on  a  dung-hill. 

At  Pudsey  the  people  were  afraid  to  admit  him  to  their 
houses,  as  they  had  heard  that  constables  were  searching  for 
him.  Nelson  sat  upon  his  horse  in  the  street  and  exhorted 
them.  "The  Lord,"  he  assured  them,  "would  build  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem  in  these  troublesome  times."  He  passed 
on  to  Leeds,  where  he  "kept  hewing  stone  by  day  and 
preaching  every  night."  The  Methodists  of  Leeds  naay 
justly  boast  of  him  as  their  founder  and  apostle.  On  reach- 
ing his  home  at  Birstal,  he  was  met  with  warnings  that  he 
should  be  impressed  for  the  army  if  he  did  not  immediately 
escape.  The  ale-house  keepers  complained  of  the  loss  of 
their  customers  by  his  preaching,  and  the  parish  clergyman 
wished  not  such  a  rival  near  him.  "  I  cannot  fear,"  said  the 
brave  Yorkshireman ;  "  I  cannot  fear,  for  God  is  on  nay  side, 
and  his  word  hath  added  strength  to  my  soul  this  day."  He 
was  seized  the  next  day  while  preaching  at  Adwalton.  He 
was  miuch  esteemed  among  his  fellow-townsmen,  and  one  of 
them  offered  five  hundred  pounds  bail  for  him,  but  it  was 
refused,  and  he  was  marched  off  to  Halifax,  where  the  Birstal 
vicar  was  on  the  bench  as  one  of  the  Commission.  Nelson^s 
neighbors  came  to  bear  witness  for  him,  but  the  commis- 
sioDftrs  declined  to  hear  any  other  than  their  clerical  asso- 


208  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

ciate,  who  reported  him  to  be  a  vagrant,  without  visible 
means  of  living.  Nelson,  who  had  always  been  an  indus- 
trious w^orkman,  repelled  the  charge  manfully.  "I  am  as 
able  to  get  my  living  by  my  hands,"  he  said,  "  as  any 
man  of  my  trade  in  England  is,  and  you  know  it."  He  was 
ordered  to  Bradford.  On  leaving  Halifax  many  of  the  com- 
mon people  wept  and  prayed  for  him  as  he  passed  through 
the  streets.  "  Fear  not,"  he  cried  to  them  ;  "  God  hath  his 
way  in  the  whirlwind,  and  he  will  plead  my  cause ;  only 
pray  for  me  that  my  faith  fail  not."  At  Bradford  he  was 
plunged  into  a  dungeon,  into  which  flowed  blood  and  filth 
from  a  slaughter-house  above  it,  so  that  it  smelt,  he  says, 
"  like  a  pig-stye ;  but  my  soul,"  he  adds,  "  was  so  filled  with 
the  love  of  God  that  it  was  a  paradise  to  me."  There  was 
nothing  in  it  to  sit  on,  and  his  only  bed  was  a  heap  of  de- 
cayed straw.  But  even  there  his  manly  spirit  won  him 
friends;  a  poor  soldier  wished  to  become  responsible  for 
him ;  and  an  opposer  of  the  Methodists  offered  security  for 
him  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  sleep  in  a  bed.  Tlie  people 
handed  him  food,  water,  and  candles  through  a  hole  in  thev 
door,  and  stood  outside  joining  him  in  hymns  most  of  the  night. 
He  shared  their  charities  with  a  miserable  fellow-prisoner, 
who  might  have  starved  had  it  not  been  for  his  kindness. 

Nelson's  excellent  wife  came  to  him  early  the  next  morn- 
ing, and  showed  that  she  was  worthy  of  him.  She  had  two 
young  children  to  provide  for,  and  expected  soon  another, 
but  addressing  him  through  the  hole  in  the  door,  said :  "  Fear 
not ;  the  cause  is  God's  for  which  you  are  here,  and  he  will 
plead  it  himself.  Therefore  be  not  concerned  about  me  and 
the  children,  for  He  that  feeds  the  young  ravens  will  be 
mindful  of  us.  He  will  give  you  strength  for  your  day ; 
and  after  we  have  suffered  awhile  he  will  perfect  what  is 
lacking  in  our  souls,  and  bring  us  where  the  wicked  cease 
from  troubling  and  where  the  weary  are  at  rest." 

"  I  cannot  fear,"  responded  the  brave  man ;  "  I  cannot  fear 
either  man  or  devil  so  long  as  I  find  the  love  of  God  as  I 
now  do." 


FIRST    WESLEYAN    CONFERENCE.  209 

The  next  day  lie  was  sent  to  Leeds.  Multitudes  flocked 
to  see  him,  and  he  thought,  he  says,  of  the  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress, for  hundreds  of  people  in  the  street  stood  and  looked 
at  him  through  the  iron  gate,  and  were  ready  to  fight  about 
him.  Several  would  have  bailed  him  out.  A  stranger 
offered  a  hundred  pounds  security,  but  it  was  refused.  At 
night  a  hundred  persons  met  in  the  jail,  and  joined  him  ir. 
worship.  In  a  short  time  he  was  marched  off  to  York, 
where  violent  hostility  prevailed  against  the  Methodists. 
AYhile  he  was  guarded  through  the  streets  by  armed  troops, 
it  was,  he  says,  as  if  hell  was  moved  from  beneath  to  meet 
him  at  his  coming.  The  streets  and  windows  were  filled 
with  people,  who  shouted  and  huzzaed  as  if  he  had  been 
one  who  had  laid  waste  the  nation.  "  But,"  he  adds  sub- 
limely, "  the  Lord  made  my  brow  like  brass,  so  that  I  could 
look  upon  them  as  grasshoppers,  and  pass  through  the  city 
as  if  there  had  been  none  in  it  but  God  and  me."  Here  he 
was  again  sent  to  prison,  but  ceased  not  to  admonish  the 
officers  and  others  about  him  w^henever  they  swore,  and  they 
often  shrank  before  his  word  and  his  glance.  He  was 
ordered  to  parade.  The  corporal  who  was  commanded  to 
give  him  a  musket,  and  gird  him  with  his  military  trap- 
pings, trembled  as  if  he  had  the  palsy.  Nelson  said  he  would 
wear  them  "  as  a  cross,"  but  would  not  fight  as  it  was  not 
agreeable  to  his  conscience,  and  he  would  not  harm  his  con- 
science for  any  man  on  earth.  He  reproved  and  exhorted 
all  who  approached  him.  At  one  time  "  a  great  company" 
gathered  to  see  him,  and  wished  to  hear  his  opinions.  He 
preached  to  them,  and  they  retired,  declaring  "  this  is  the 
doctrine  which  ought  to  be  preached,  let  men  say  what 
they  will  against  it."  Before  long  he  was  preaching  in  the 
fields  and  the  streets,  and  no  remonstrances  of  his  officers 
could  stop  him.  He  replied  to  them  always  with  respect- 
fulness,  but  with  an  invincible  though  quiet  firmness. 

He  was  subjected  to  maltreatment,  which  his  brave  spirit 
would  have  resented  had  it  not  been  for  his  Christian  prin- 
ciples.     A   stripling    ensign,  especiallv,  took   pleasure   in 

Vol.  I,— 14 


210  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

tormenting  'him.  This  officer  had  him  put  in  prison  for  re- 
proving his  profanity  and  for  preaching,  and  when  he  was 
let  out  threatened  to  chastise  him.  Nelson  records  that 
"  it  caused  a  sore  temptation  to  arise  in  me,  to  think  that  a 
wicked,  ignorant  man  should  thus  torment  me,  and  I  able 
to  tie  his  head  and  heels  together.  I  found  an  old  man's 
bone  in  me ;  but  the  Lord  lifted  up  a  standard,  when  anger 
was  coming  on  like  a  flood,  else  I  should  have  wrung  his 
neck  to  the  ground  and  set  my  foot  upon  him." 

He  was  at  last  released  by  the  influence  of  Lady  Hunting- 
don with  the  government,  after  having  been  marched  about 
the  country  with  his  regiment  for  nearly  three  months. 
He  immediately  resumed  his  labors  as  a  good  soldier  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  On  the  night  of  his  discharge  he  was  preach- 
ing at  Newcastle ;  several  of  his  military  comrades  came  to 
hea^"  him,  and  parted  from  him  with  tears.  We  shall  meet 
him  again  amid  severer  scenes,  but  always  sublime  in  the 
calmness,  simplicity,  and  courage  of  his  noble  nature. 

Thomas  Beard,  his  fellow  evangelist,  had  also  been  his 
fellow-suflerer  in  the  regiment,  and  met  a  sadder  fate.  He 
mamtained  a  brave  spirit  under  his  sufferings,  but  his  health 
failed.  He  was  sent  to  the  hospital  at  Newcastle,  "  where," 
says  Wesley,  "he  still  praised  God  continually."  His 
fever  became  worse  and  he  was  bled,  but  his  arm  fes- 
tered, mortified,  and  had  to  be  amputated.  A  few  days 
later  he  died,  the  protomartyr  of  Methodism.''' 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  scholarly  mind  of  Wesley 
sometimes  revolted  from  such  scenes.  "  I  found,"  he  writes, 
"  a  natural  wish,  0  for  ease  and  a  resting-place !  Not  yet, 
but  eternity  is  at  hand."  Amid  these  very  agitations  he 
was  plamiing  for  a  still  more  energetic  prosecution  of  the 

''  "Wesley  refers  to  him  in  his  Journal,  1744,  with  much  feeling,  and 
quotes  the  Unes  : 

"  Servant  of  God,  well  done  !  well  hast  thou  fought 
The  better  fight ;  who  singly  hast  maintained, 
Against  revolted  multitudes,  the  cause 
Of  God,  in  word  mightier  than  they  in  arms." 

Charles  "Wesley  wrote  two  of  his  best  hymns  on  the  death  of  Beard. 


FIKST    WESLEYAN    CONFEEEKCE.          211 

great  work  which  was  "manifestly  henceforth  to  occupy  his 
life.  He  wrote  letters  to  several  clergymen,,  and  to  his  lay 
assistants,  inviting  them  to  meet  him  in  London,  and  to  give 
him  "  their  advice  respecting  the  best  method  of  carrying  on 
the  work  of  God."  ^  And  thus  was  called  together  the  Jlrsi 
Methodist  Conference  on  Monday,  the  25th  of  June,  1744, 
[t  was  held  in  the  Foundry,  London.  On  the  preceding 
day,  the  regular  clergymen  and  lay  preachers  who  had  re- 
sponded to  the  call  took  the  Lord's  Supper  together.  On 
the  morning  of  the  first  session  Charles  Wesley  preached 
before  them.^  Besides  the  Wesleys  there  were  present  four 
ordained  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England  :  John  Hod- 
ges, rector  of  Wenvo,  Wales,  a  friend  and  colaborer  of  the 
Wesleys  in  the  Principality,  who  not  only  opened  his  ow^i 
pulpit  to  them,  but  accompanied  them  in  their  different 
routes  and  out-door  preaching ;  Henry  Piers,  the  vicar  of 
Bexley,  a  convert  of  Charles  Wesley,  and  whose  pulpit  and 
home  were  ever  open  to  him  and  his  brother ;  Samuel  Tay- 
lor, vicar  of  Quinton,  .whose  church  the  Wesleys  always 
occupied  when  passing  through  that  parish,  and  who  himself 
w^as  known  as  an  itinerant  evangelist;  and  John  Meriton,  a 
clergyman  from  the  Isle  of  Man,  who  itinerated  extensively 
in  both  England  and  Ireland.  ^^  It  has  usually  been  supposed 
that  these  six  regular  clergymen  composed  the  first  Wes- 
ley an   Conference.  ^^     There  were   present,  however,   from 

8  The  Large  Minutes.     See  also  "Wesley's  Works,  vol.  v,  p.  220. 

®  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  11.  ^°  Ibid. 

"  Jackson  commits  this  mistake.  (Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  11.) 
The  error  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  names  of  the  lay  preachers  present 
were  not  given  in  the  cm-rent  Minutes.  Wesley's  first  edition  of  the  Minutes 
of  his  Conferences  was  issued  in  Dublin,  about  five  years  after  this  session. 
He  published  them  in  two  pamphlets,  one  containing  the  deliberations  of 
the  sessions  on  doctrinal  subjects,  the  other,  discussions  of  matters  of  disci- 
pline. The  first  was  afterward  comprised  in  the  current  Minutes,  and  was 
supposed  to  corLtain  the  only  remaining  record  of  the  early  conferences. 
The  second  was  entitled  the  "  Discipliliary  Minutes."  Its  existence  was 
forgotten  mitil  both  tracts  were  found,  bound  with  a  copy  of  the  early  hymn 
book,  at 'a  London  book-stall,  by  Eev.  Joseph  Hargreaves,  from  whom 
they  came  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  George  Smith,  who  has  made  important 
use  of  them  in  his  History  of  Methodism,  (book.  II,  chap.  3.)    There  can  be 


212  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

among  the  lay  preachers,  Thomas  Maxfield,  Thomas  Rich. 
ards,  John  Bennet,  and  John  Downes.^^ 

The  Conference  being  opened,  regulations  were  immediately 
adopted  for  its  o^vn  government.  They  were  marked  by  the 
simplicity  and  purely  evangelical  character  with  which  the 
Methodistic  movement  had  thus  far  been  characterized,  and 
also  by  that  charitable  freedom  of  opinion  which  it  has  ever 
since  been  at  least  an  indirect  tendency  of  Methodism  to 
promote.  "  It  is  desired,"  said  these  good  men,  "  that  every- 
thing be  considered  as  in  the  immediate  presence  of  God, 
that  we  may  meet  with  a  single  eye,  and  as  little  children 
w^ho  have  everything  to  learn ;  that  every  point  may  be  ex- 
amined from  the  foundation ;  that  every  person  may  speak 
freely  what  is  in  his  heart,  and  that  every  question  proposed 
may  be  fully  debated  and  'bolted  to  the  bran.'"  It  was  a 
question  formally  proposed.  How  far  does  each  agree  to 
submit  to  the  unanimous  judgment  of  the  rest  ?  The  answer 
is  worthy  of  perpetual  remembrance.  "  In  speculative  things 
each  can  only  submit  so  far  as  his  judgment  shall  be  con- 
vinced ;  in  every  practical  point,  so  far  as  we  can,  without 
wounding  our  several  consciences."  Should  they  be  fearful, 
it  was  asked,  of  thoroughly  debating  every  question  which 
might  arise *?  "What  are  we  afraid  of?  Of  overturning 
our  first  principles  ?  If  they  are  false,  the  sooner  they  are 
overturned  the  better.  If  they  are  true,  they  will  bear  the 
strictest  examination.  Let  us  all  pray  for  a  willingness  to  re- 
ceive light  to  know  every  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God."  ^^ 

no  doubt  of  the  geniiineness  of  this  interesting  document.  Its  intemrl 
evidence  is  conclusive.  Its  value  to  the  Methodist  historian  is  inestima- 
ble, as  it  gives  information  of  Conferences  respecting  which  we  have  no 
other  account  whatever. 

12  "Disciplinary  Minutes."     Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  3. 

13  Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conferences,  from  the  first  held  in  Lordou, 
by  the  late  Eev.  John  "Wesley,  A.M.,  in  the  year  1744  ;  vol.  i.  London : 
1812.  As  the  Minutes  of  the  first  Conference  were  not  published  till  1749, 
they  include  some  proceedings  which  took  place  at  other  sessions  prior  to 
this  date.  When  it  is  important  that  their  chronological  order  should  be 
observed,  I  refer  them  to  their  real  dates,  as  shown  in  the  "  Disciphnary 
Minutes,"  according  to  Dr.  Smith's  quotations. 


FIRST    WESLEYAN    CONFERENCE.         213 

Having  settled  its  own  regulations,  the  conference  sus- 
pended its  business  for  an  interval  of  prayer,  after  which  it 
proceeded  to  consider,  first,  What  to  teach ;  second,  What 
to  do,  or  how  to  regulate  the  doctrine,  discipline,  and  practice 
of  the  ministry  and  the  Society.  These  propositions  com 
prehended  the  scope  of  its  further  deliberations.  The  first 
two  days  were  spent  in  discussions  of  the  theology  necessary 
to  be  maintained  in  their  preaching ;  and  the  whole  record 
of  the  debate  vindicates  the  representation  already  made^* 
of  the  disposition  of  the  Methodist  founders  to  avoid  un- 
necessary Dogmatics,  by  confining  their  instructions  to  those 
vital  truths  which  pertain  to  personal  religion.  Eepentance, 
Faith,  Justification,  Sanctification,  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit 
were  defined  with  precision.  No  other  tenets  were  discussed 
except  as  they  were  directly  related  to  these. 

On  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  days,  questions  of  discip- 
line and  methods  of  preaching  were  examined.  The  relations 
of  the  Methodist  Societies  to  the  Church  of  England  were 
considered.  Secession  from  the  Establishment  was  discoun- 
tenanced, but  evidence  was  given  that  Wesley's  opinions  of 
"  church  order "  had  already  undergone  a  liberal  improve- 
ment. To  the  question.  How  far  is  it  our  duty  to  obey  the 
bishops?  the  answer  is,  "In  all  things  indifferent ;  and  on 
this  ground  of  obeying  them,  we  should  observe  the  Canons 
as  far  as  we  can  with  a  safe  conscience."  Intimations  are 
given  in  the  "  Disciplinary  Minutes "  of  a  classification  of 
the  Methodists  of  that  day,  which  was  doubtless  very  speedily 
changed,  for,  besides  the  United  Societies  and  Bands,  there 
were  "Select  Societies"  and  "Penitents,"  phrases  w^hich- 
seldom  or  never  afterward  appear  in  Methodist  records. 
The  rules  of  the  United  Societies  and  also  of  the  Bands  were 
approved.  The  suggestions  of  the  Conference  on  the  "  best 
general  method  of  preaching"  were  excellent  for  the  lay 
preachei"s.  They  were:  1.  To  invite;  2.  To  convince; 
3.  To  offer  Christ ;  lastly,  To  build  up ;  and  to  do  this  in 
some  measure  in  every  sermon.  Very  precise  rules  were 
"  See  Book  I,  chap.  1. 


214  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

prescribed  for  lay  assistants.  Vf esley  was  still,  however, 
reluctant  to  encourage  a  lay  ministry.  To  the  question 
whether  lay  assistants  are  allowable "?  the  Minutes  reply, 
"  Only  in  cases  of  necessity."  He  was  yet  hopeful  that  the 
clergy  of  the  national  Church  would  be  so  generally  reached 
by  the  extending  revival  as  to  supersede  that  necessity. 
"  We  believe,"  say  these  Minutes,  "  that  the  Methodists  will 
either  be  thrust  out  or  will  leaven  the  whole  Church."  The 
assistants  were  instructed  to  preach  against  Formality.  The 
questions,  "  Is  it  lawful  to  bear  arms  ?"  and  "  Is  it  lawful  to 
use  the  law  ?"  were  decided  affirmatively. 

It  is  a  fact  of  peculiar  interest  to  the  advocates  of  ministe- 
rial education  among  Methodists,  that  as  early  as  this,  the  first 
Confer.ence  of  the  denomination,  their  views  were  asserted  by 
their  great  founder,  and  apparently  without  a  dissent  from  his 
associates.  It  was  formally  asked,  "  Can  we  have  a  seminary 
for  laborers  ?"  Methodism  was  not  yet  sufficiently  mature, 
especially  in  its  finances,  for  the  important  design ;  the  answer 
was,  therefore,  "If  God  spare  us  till  another  Conference." 
Accordingly,  at  the  next  session  it  was  asked,  "  Can  we  have 
a  seminary  for  laborers  yet  ?"  "  Not  till  God  gives  us  a 
proper  tutor,"  was  the  reply.  ^^  The  inquiry  w^as  made  at 
subsequent  Conferences,  and  never  abandoned  till  it  was 
effectively  answered  by  the  establishment  of  the  present  two 
well-endowed  "Theological  Institutions"  in  England,  and 
the  two  "  Biblical  Institutes  "  in  America.  Methodism,  like 
the  "  Great  Reformation^"  commenced  its  work  within 
a  university,  and  has  always,  in  its  public  capacity,  zeal- 
ously promoted  useful  knowledge  and  educational  insti- 
tutions. Objections  to  even  theological  education  have  been 
comparatively  modern  and  mostly  personal. 

During  the  session  all  the  Conference  were  received  at 
Lady  Huntingdon's  mansion  in  London,  for  the  countess  still 
considered  Methodism  a  common  cause.     Wesley  preached 

^5  Watson's  Wesley,  chap.  9.  "  Wesley  looked  to  Kingswood  school," 
Bays  Watson,  "as  subsidiary  to  this  design,"  .  .  .  "  so  that  the  institution 
was  actually  resolved  upon,  and  delayed  only  by  circumstances." 


FIRST    WESLEYAN    CONFERENCE.         215 

there  from  a  befitting  text :  "  What  hath  God  wrought  1" 
Piers,  of  Bexley,  and  Hodges,  of  Wenvo,  took  part  in  the 
service ;  while  Maxfield,  Richards,  Bennet,  and  Dowries,  sat 
around  them,  recognized  as  genuine,  though  unordained  em- 
bassadors of  Christ,  This  was  the  first  of  those  household 
sermons  which  afterward,  under  Whitefield,  gave  to  her 
ladyship's  residence  in  London  the  character  of  a  chapel. 

On  Friday  the  little  band  dispersed,  to  proclaim  again 
their  m.essage  through  the  country.  They  made  no  pro- 
vision for  future  sessions;  they  apparently  had  no  definite 
conceptions  of  the  great  work  in  which  they  found  themselves 
involved,  except  the  suggestion  of  their  spiritual  faith, 
that  God  would  not  allow  it  to  come  to  naught  without 
first  morally  renovating  the  Churches  of  the  land.  Any 
organic  preparations  for  its  future  course  would  probably 
have  interfered  with  the  freedom  and  efficiency  of  its  devel- 
opment. History  teaches  that  men  raised  up  for  great  events 
are  usually  endowed  with  wisdom  and  energy  for  their 
actual  circumstances,  and  seldom  effect  momentous  changes 
on  hypothetical  schemes ;  and  that  even  the  constitutions 
of  states  are  best  when  they  arise  from  gradual  growths. 
Great  men  are  God's  special  agents,  and  they  are  not  only 
good,  but  great,  in  proportion  as  they  are  co-workers  together 
with.  Him,  using  to  the  utmost  their  present  resources,  and 
trusting  the  result  to  his  foreseeing  wisdom.  Such  an  antici- 
pation of  the  result  as  might  fit  them  intellectually  to  fore- 
cast it,  might  unfit  them  morally  to  achieve  it.  We  behold 
with  admiration  the  prodigious  agency  of  Luther  in  the 
modern  progress  of  the  world,  but  we  can  hardly  conceive 
that  he  could  have  anticipated  it  without  being  thereby 
morally  disqualified  for  it.  Most  of  the  practical  peculiarities 
of  Methodism  would  have  been  pronounced  impracticable  if 
suggested  before  the  exigencies  which,  originated  them.  To 
have  supposed  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  common 
people  could  be  gathered,  and  kept  from, year  to  year,  in 
weekly  Class-meetings,  for  direct  conversation  and  inquisition 
respecting  their  personal  religious  experience,  and  that  sucn  a 


216  HIST  OK  Y    OF    METHODISM. 

fact  should  become  the  basis  of  one  of  the  most  extended 
forms  of  English  Protestantism ;  that  a  ministry  for  these  mul- 
titudes could  be  raised  up  among  themselves,  a  ministry  with- 
out education,  many  of  its  members,  according  to  their  critics, 
eccentric,  and  predisposed  to  enthusiasm,  if  not  fanaticism, 
and  yet  kept  from  doctrinal  heresies ;  that  they  could  be 
trained  to  habits  of  ministerial  prudence  and  dignity,  and  to 
the  most  systematic  methods  of  evangelical  labor  known  in 
the  modern  Church ;  that  with  uncertain  salaries,  and  generally 
with  severe  want,  they  should  devotedly  adhere  to  their  w^ork ; 
that  generation  after  generation  they  should  consent  to  the 
extraordinary  inconveniences  of  their  ministerial  itinerancy, 
to  be  torn  up  with  their  families  every  two  or  three  years 
from  their  homes  and  churches,  and  dispatched  they  knew 
not  whither — such  unparalleled  measures,  proposed  before- 
hand, w^ould  have  seemed,  to  thoughtful  men,  preposterous 
dreams.  Yet  more  than  a  hundred  years  have  shown  them 
to  be  not  only  practicable,  but  effective  beyond  any  other 
contemporary  means  of  religious  progress.  That  Wesley 
did  not  seek  to  anticipate  the  w^ants  of  Methodism,  except  in 
the  most  obvious  instances,  was  both  a  reason  and  a  proof 
of  his  practical  ability  to  meet  them  when  they  came. 

In  this  year  he  published  his  "Earnest  Appeal  to 
Men  of  Reason  and  Religion."  It  is  mostly  a  defense  of 
the  opinions  and  practice  of  the  Methodists.  It  is  elo- 
quently written,  and  appeals,  with  justifiable  confidence,  to 
the  striking  results  which  had  already  attended  the  Meth 
odistic  movement.  "  Behold,"  he  writes,  "  the  day  of  the 
Lord  has  come !  He  is  again  visiting  and  redeeming  his 
people.  Having  eyes,  see  ye  not  1  Having  ears  do  ye  not 
hear,  neither  understand  with  your  hearts'?  At  this  hour 
the  Lord  is  rolling  away  our  reproach.  Already  his  standard 
is  set  up.  His  Spirit  is  poured  forth  on  the  outcasts  of  men, 
and  his  love  shed  abroad  in  their  hearts.  Love  of  all  man- 
kind, meekness,  gentleness,  humbleness  of  mind,  holy  and 
neavenly  affections,  io  ta^^e  the  place  of  hate,  anger,  pride, 
revenge,  and  vile  or  vain  affections.     Hence,  wherever  the 


FIKST    WESLEYAN    CONFERENCE.  217 

power  of  the  Lord  spreads,  springs  outward  religion  in  all 
its  forms.  The  houses  of  God  are  filled ;  the  table  of  the 
Lord  is  thronged  on  every  side ;  and  those  who  thus  shew 
their  love  of  God,  show  they  love  their  neighbor  also,  by 
being  careful  to  maintain  good  works,  by  doing  all  manner 
of  good,  as  they  have  time,  to  all  men.  They  are  likewise 
careful  to  abstain  from  all  evil.  Cursing,  Sabbath-breaking, 
drunkenness,  with  all  the  (however  fashionable)  works  of 
the  devil,  are  not  once  named  among  them.  All  this  is- 
plain,  demonstrable  fact.  I  insist  upon  the  fact ;  Christ  is 
preached,  and  sinners  are  converted  to  God.  This  none  but 
a  madman  can  deny.  We  are  ready  to  prove  it  by  a  cloud 
of  witnesses.  Neither,  therefore,  can  the  inference  be  denied 
that  God  is  now  visiting  his  people." 

Of  the  objections  to  the  Methodists  he  says:  "This  only 
we  confess,  that  we  preach  inward  salvation,  now  attainable 
by  faith.  And  for  preaching  this  (for  no  other  crime  w^as 
then  so  much  as  pretended)  we  were  forbid  to  preach  any 
more  in  those  churches  where,  till  then,  we  were  gladly  re- 
ceived. This  is  a  notorious  fact.  Being  thus  hindered  from 
preaching  in  the  places  we  should  first  have  chosen,  we  now 
declare  the  '  grace  of  God  which  bringeth  salvation  in  all 
places  of  his  dominion ;'  as  well  knowing  that  God  dwelleth 
not  only  in  temples  made  with  hands.  This  is  the  real,  and 
it  is  the  only  real  ground  of  complaint  against  us.  And 
this  we  avow  before  all  mankind,  we  do  preach  this  salva- 
tion by  faith.  And  not  being  suffered,  to  preach  it  in  the 
usual  places,  we  declare  it  wherever  a  door  is  opened,  either 
on  a  mountain,  or  a  plain,  or  by  a  river  side,  (for  all  which 
we  conceive  we  have  sufficient  precedent,)  or  in  prison,  or, 
as  it  were,  in  the  house  of  Justus,  or  the  school  of  one 
Tyrannus.  Nor  dare  we  refrain.  '  A  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel  is  committed  to  m.e ;  and  wo  is  me  if  I  preach  not 
the  Gospel.' " 

Of  the  conduct  of  the  national  clergy,  as  contrasted  with 
that  of  the  Methodists,  he  says :  "  Which  of  you  convinceth 
us  of  sin '?  Which  of  you  (I  here  more  especially  appeal  to 


218  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM. 

my  brethren,  the  clergy)  can  personally  convict  us  of  any 
ungodliness  or  unholiness  of  conversation  ?  Ye  know  in  your 
own  hearts,  (all  that  are  candid  men,  all  that  are  not  utterly 
blinded  with  prejudice,)  that  we  'labor  to  have  a  conscience 
void  of  offense  both  toward  God  and  toward  man.'  Brethren, 
I  would  to  God  that  in  this  ye  were  even  as  we.  But  indeed 
(with  grief  I  speak  it)  ye  are  not.  There  are  among  your- 
selves  ungodly  and  unholy  men;  openly,  undeniably  such; 
drunkards,  gluttons,  returners  of  evil  for  evil,  liars,  swear- 
ers, profaners  of  the  day  of  the  Lord.  Proof  hereof  is  not 
wanting,  if  ye  require  it.  Where  then  is  your  zeal  against 
these*?  A  clergyman,  so  drunk  he  can  scarce  stand  or 
speak,  may,  in  the  presence  of  a  thousand  people,  (at 
Ep worth,  in  Lincolnshire,)  set  upon  another  clergyman  of 
the  same  Church,  both  with  abusive  words  and  open  vio- 
lence. And  what  follows  1  Why,  the  one  is  still  allowed 
to  dispense  the  sacred  signs  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ : 
but  the  other  is  not  allowed  to  receive  them,  because  he  is 
a  field  preacher.  O  ye  pillars  and  fathers  of  the  Church,  are 
these  things  well  pleasing  to  Him  who  hath  made  you  over- 
seers over  that  flock  which  he  hath  purchased  with  his  own 
blood  ?  0  that  ye  would  suffer  me  to  boast  myself  a  little ! 
Is  there  not  a  cause  1  Have  ye  not  compelled  me "?  Which 
of  your  clergy  are  more  unspotted  in  their  lives,  which  more 
unwearied  in  their  labors,  than  those  whose  '  names  ye  cast 
out  as  evil,'  whom  ye  count '  as  the  filth  and  offscouring  of 
the  world  V  Which  of  them  is  more  zealous  to  spend  and 
be  spent  for  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel  1  Or  who 
among  them  is  more  ready  to  be  offered  up  for  their  flock 
*  upon  the  sacrifice  and  service  of  their  faith  V  "  ^^ 

16  Works,  vol.  V,  pp.  23,  24,  82. 


BOOK    III. 

PROGEESS  OF  METHODISM  FROM  THE  OONFEREiTCE 
OF  1744  TO  THE  CONFERENCE  OF  1T50.   ^ 


CHAPTEE  I. 


FEOM   THE  CONFERENCE    OF   1744  TO    THE    CONFER- 
ENCE  OP   1745. 

Charles  "Wesley  in  Cornwall  —  Triumphs  of  Methodism  —  John  Wesley 
preaches  for  the  last  Time  before  the  University  of  Oxford  —  Winter 
Itinerancy —  Impressment  and  Imprisonment  of  Preachers  —  Meriton  — 
Bennet  —  Maxfield  —  Wesley  arrested  —  He  is  mobhed  at  Falmouth — 
Success  in  Cornwall  and  Wales  —  John  ISTelson  itinerating  —  He  con- 
quers his  Persecutors  —  Methodism  in  the  British  Army  in  Flanders  — 
John  Evans  —  John  Haime  —  Samson  Staniforth  —  Mark  Bond  —  Ke- 
markable  Scenes  in  the  Battle  of  Fontenoy  —  Triumphant  Deaths  of 
Methodist  Soldiers  —  Deaths  of  Haime  and  Staniforth. 

The  Conference  of  1744  had  no  sooner  adjourned  than 
Charles  Wesley,  accompanied  by  another  of  its  members, 
the  Rev,  John  Meriton,  from  the  Isle  of  Man,  set  out  for 
Cornwall,  The  storm  of  persecution  which  had  broken  upon 
that  region  rendered  it  necessary  that  one  of  the  Wesleys 
should  be  frequently  present  to  comfort  and  advise  the  soci- 
eties. On  the  arrival  of  the  travelers  at  Middlesey  they 
met  John  Slocomb,  a  young  lay  preacher  who  had  just  es- 
caped from  the  fate  of  Nelson,  Beard,  and  Downes,  having 
been  imprisoned  as  a  vagrant  and  impressed  for  the  army. 
After  being  detained  some  time  he  was  brought  before  the 
Commissioners,  who  not  only  found  no  just  charge  against 


220  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM, 

him,  but  discovered  also  that  he  was  of  too  small  a  stature, 
too  nearly  "a  Zaccheus,"  for  the  military  rules,  and  allowed 
him  to  resume  his  Christian  labors.  He  became  a  useful 
itinerant  preacher,  and,  many  years  later,  John  Wesley  men- 
tions him  as  falling  in  the  work  at  Clones,  Ireland,  "  an 
old  laborer  worn  out  in  the  service  of  his  Master."  ^ 

As  they  entered  Cornwall  they  found  that  the  field  in  the 
West  had  yielded  a  rich  harvest.  On  arriving  at  Gwennap, 
Wesley  writes  :  "  Here  a  little  one  has  become  a  thousand ; 
what  an  amazing  work  has  God  done  in  one  year !  The 
whole  country  is  alarmed,  and  gone  forth  after  the  sound  of 
the  Gospel ;  in  vain  do  the  pulpits  ring  of  popery,  and  mad- 
ness, and  enthusiasm.  Our  pre§,chers  are  daily  pressed  to 
new  places,  and  enabled  to  preach  five  or  six  times  a  day. 
Persecution  is  kept  ofi"  till  the  seed  takes  root.  Societies 
are  springing  up  everywhere,  and  still  the  cry  from  all  sides 
is,  '  Come  and  help  us.' "  Methodism  had  produced  in 
all  parts  of  Cornwall  a  manifest  improvement  in  the 
moral  condition  of  the  people.  Many  who  had  not  joined 
the  societies  had,  nevertheless,  abandoned  their  gross  vices. 
"  Tlie  whole  country,"  continues  Wesley,  "  is  sensible  of  the 
change."  At  the  preceding  assize  there  was  a  "jail  deliv- 
ery," but  not  one  felon  was  to  be  found  in  the  prisons,  a 
fact  which  he  informs  us  was  unknown  before  in  the  memory 
of  man.  At  their  last  public  revel  enough  men  could  not 
be  rallied  to  make  a  wrestling  match,  "  all  the  Gwennap 
men  being  struck  off"  the  devil's  list,  and  found  wrestling 
against  him,  not  for  him."  When  he  took  his  leave  of  the 
reclaimed  populace  of  this  town,  they  came  forth  by  thou- 
sands to  the  field  preaching,  covering  all  the  green  plain 
and  hills  of  the  natural  amphitheater ;  "  they  hung,"  he  says, 
"  upon  the  word  of  life."  He  spake  for  three  hours,  yet 
knew  not  how  to  stop.  "Such  sorrow  and  love  as  they 
there  expressed  the  world  will  not  believe,  though  a  man 
declared  it  unto  them."  With  much  difficulty  he  was  able 
at  last  to  make  his  way  through  them,  and  pass  on  his 
1  Jackson's  Charles  "Wesley,  chap.  12. 


COKFERENCE    OF    1744    TO    1T45.  221 

journey ;  and  several  of  his  hearers,  women  as  well  as  men, 
kept  pace  with  the  horses  for  two  or  three  miles  of  the  road, 
then  "parted  in  body,  not  in  mind."^  The  minere  came 
out  unwashed  from  their  subterranean  dens,  some  still  to 
oppose,  but  most  by  this  time  to  welcome  and  hear  Mm. 
At  Crowan  he  preached  to  between  one  and  two  thousand, 
who  "  seemed  started  out  of  the  earth ;  several  hid  their 
faces  and  mourned  inwardly,  being  too  deeply  affected  to 
cry  out."  "The  poor  people,"  he  added,  "were  ready  to 
eat  us  up,  and  sent  us  away  with  many  a  hearty  blessing." 
The  storm  of  persecution  had  lulled  everywhere.  Even  at 
St.  Ives,  where  the  chapel  lay  in  ruins,  the  societies  had 
rest,  and  welcomed  him  with  grateful  tears.  At  St.  Just  he 
found  more  than  two  hundred  converts  gathered  into  the 
classes.  "  Our  Lord."  he  wrote,  "  rides  on  triumphant 
through  this  place."  The  parish  church  itself  had  become 
crowded  with  Methodist  hearers.  At  Morvah  he  found  a 
hundred  and  fifty  in  the  society,  and  a  chapel  commenced. 
The  Gospel  had  broken  the  ranks  of  the  mob,  hosts  of  riot- 
ers had  become  Methodists ;  and  at  Gulval  he  received  into 
the  society  one  who  had  been  the  greatest  persecutor  in  all 
Cornwall. 

Still  accompanied  by  Meriton,  he  left  Cornwall  for  Wales, 
where  they  traveled  and  preached  several  days.  Eeturning 
by  way  of  Bristol  and  Kingswood,  and  proclaiming  the  word 
daily  as  they  journeyed,  they  reached  Oxford,  where  they 
met  John  Wesley,  and  Henry  Piers,  another  clerical  mem- 
ber of  the  late  Conference.  An  interesting  event  drew 
them  to  this  celebrated  seat  of  learning,  the  scene  of  the 
early  studies  and  first  labors  of  the  Methodist  founders,  and 
where  they  had  received  the  derisive  name  which  they  were 
to  render  honorable  throughout  the  religious  world.  Ac- 
cording to  usage  it  was  John  Wesley's  turn,  as  a  Fellow  of 
Lincoln  College,  to  preach  before  the  University,  and  as  it 
would  probably  be  the  last  opportunity  of  the  kind  allowed 

2  His  beautiful  and  affecting  lyric,  "  Naomi  and  Eutti,  adapted  to  the 
Ministry  and  People,"  was  suggested  by  this  scene. 


222  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

him,  his  friends  gathered  there  to  witness  the  occasion.  It 
was  the  season  of  the  races.  Oxford  was  crowded  with 
strangers,  and  Wesley's  notoriety  as  a  field  preacher  excited 
a  general  interest  to  hear  him.  Such  was  the  state  of  morals 
at  the  time,  that  clergymen,  gownsmen,  and  learned  profess- 
ors shared,  with  sportsmen  and  the  rabble,  the  dissipations  of 
the  turf  Charles  Wesley  went  in  the  morning  to  the  pray- 
ers at  Christ  Church,  and  found  men  in  surplices  talking, 
laughing,  and  pointing,  as  in  a  playhouse,  during  the  whole 
service.  The  inn  where  he  lodged  was  filled  with  gownsmen 
and  gentry  from  the  races.  He  could  not  restrain  his  zeal, 
but  preached  to  a  crowd  of  them  in  the  inn  court-yard. 
They  were  struck  with  astonishment,  but  did  not  molest 
him.  Thence  he  went  to  St.  Mary's  Church,  with  Meriton 
and  Piers,  to  support  his  brother  in  his  last  appeal  to  their 
Alma  Mater.  Wesley's  discourse  was  heard  with  profound 
attention.  The  assembly  was  large,  being  much  increased 
by  the  races.  "  Never,"  says  Charles  Wesley,  "  have  I  seen 
a  more  attentive  congregation.  They  did  not  let  a  word  slip 
them.  Some  of  the  heads  of  colleges  stood  up  the  whole 
time,  and  fixed  their  eyes  on  him.  If  they  can  endure  sound 
doctrine  like  his  he  will  surely  leave  a  blessing  behind  him. 
The  vice-chancellor  sent  after  him  and  desired  his  notes, 
which  he  sealed  up  and  sent  immediately.  We  walked  back 
in  form,  the  little  band  of  us  four,  for  of  the  rest  durst  none 
join  us."  Wesley's  sermon  on  this  occasion  has  been  pub- 
lished. It  is  entitled  "  Scriptural  Christianity,"  and  is  a  calm 
and  able  discussion  of  the  subject,  and  of  the  means  of  dif- 
fusing genuine  religion  over  the  land.  It  concludes  with  a 
close,  and  powerful,  but  dignified  application  to  the  university 
dignitaries,  to  the  fellows,  tutors,  and  under-graduates,  refer- 
ring distinctly  but  not  invidiously  to  the  prevalence  of  for- 
mality and  worldliness  among  them,  and  to  the  decay  of 
Scriptural  piety  throughout  the  Church.  In  his  journal  of 
that  day  he  says :  "  I  preached,  I  suppose,  the  last  time  at 
St.  Mary's !  Be  it  so.  I  am  now  clear  of  the  blood  of 
these  men.     I  have  fully  delivered  my  o^V^  soul."     It  was 


CONFEKENC^    OF    1744    TO    1745.  223 

St.  Bartholomew's  day,  and  failed  not  of  suggestive  memo- 
ries. He  was  well  pleased,  he  says,  that  it  should  be  the 
very  day  on  which,  in  the  preceding  century,  near  two  thou- 
sand burning  and  shining  lights  were  put  out  at  one  stroke ; 
"  yet  what  a  difference  is  there  between  their  case  and  mine," 
he  adds ;  "  they  were  turned  out  of  house  and  home,  and  all 
that  they  had,  whereas  I  am  only  hindered  from  preaching, 
without  any  other  loss,  and  that  in  a  kind  of  honorable 
manner,  it  being  determined  that  when  my  next  turn  to 
preach  comes  they  would  pay  another  person  to  preach  for 
me."  3  This  they  did  twice  or  thrice,  till,  in  fine,  he  resigned 
his  Fellowship.  Such  was  the  treatment  he  received  from  the 
university,  to  which  he  has  given  more  historical  importance 
than  any  other  graduate  of  his  own  or  subsequent  times,  and 
more  perhaps  than  any  other  one  ever  will  give  it."* 

The  same  day  he  left  the  venerable  town,  the  scene  of  so 
many  of  his  early  reminiscences ;  left  it  wdth  his  final  testi- 
mony, to  pursue  his  apostolic  career  among  the  ignorant  and 
neglected  populace,  and  before  the  day  closed  was  preaching 
again  at  Wycomb. 

Methodism  had  extended  over  England  from  Land's  End 
to  Newcastle,  and  Wesley  was  now  continually  traversing  the 
country,  establishing  order  and  discipline  among  the  new 
societies,  and  preaching  two  and  often  three  sermons  daily, 
beginning  almost  invariably  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
The  latter  part  of  the  year  he  spent  in  the  north,  amid  the 
severities  of  an  unusual  winter.  Turnpikes  were  then 
unknown  in  that  section  of  England,  and  the  snows  were 
deep.  He  and  his  itinerant  companions  were  often  com- 
pelled to  walk,  leading  their  horses.  "  Many  a  rough  jour- 
ney," he  says,  "  have  I  had  before,  but  one  like  this  I  never 

3  Short  Histoiy  of  tlie  People  called  Methodists,  section  30.  Works, 
vii,  354,  American  edition. 

*  The  legislators  of  England  have  ordered  a  statue  of  Wesley,  to  adorn 
the  walls  of  the  new  Parliament  House ;  Oxford  still  declines  him  any 
honorable  recognition.  Such  is  the  difference  of  progress  between  Church 
and  state  in  England.  Parhamert  has  had  in  our  day  its  Peel,  Oxford 
its  Pusey. 


224  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

had,  between  wind,  and  hail,  and  rain,  and  ice,  and  snow,  and 
driving  sleet,  and  piercing  cold ;  but  it  is  past ;  those  days 
will  return  no  more,  and  are  therefore  as  though  they  had 
never  been."  His  brother  passed  through  similar  trials 
during  this  inclement  season ;  unable  to  ride  on  the  obstruct- 
ed roads,  and  sometimes  too  chilled  and  enfeebled  to  walk^ 
They  relaxed  not  their  energy,  however ;  every  city,  town, 
and  village  they  considered  their  parish,  and  wherever  they 
were  delayed  their  work  went  on. 

.  They  had  also  to  brave  severer  trials.  In  most  of  the 
localities  where  riotous  persecutions  had  prevailed,  the  soci- 
eties were  now  enjoying  comparative  rest;  but  mobs 
broke  out  in  other  places,  and  several  of  the  lay  preachers 
wej'e  driven  from  their  fields,  and  some  imprisoned.  Mer- 
iton,  accompanied,  by  a  youthful  itinerant,  was  interrupted, 
while  preaching  at  Shrewsbury,  by  a  constable,  who  seized 
the  young  man  to  impress  him  for  the  king's  service.  Mer- 
iton  himself  was  imprisoned,  and  his  companion  escaped 
only  by  running  from  street  to  street,  and  finally  taking 
refuge  at  a  private  house,  where  he  was  compassionately 
locked  up  in  a  closet  till  midnight,  when,  disguised  in  female 
dress,  he  made  his  way  out  of  the  town,  passing  sentinels 
who  were  appomted  to  watch  for  him  on  the  bridge. 

John  Bennet,  another  itinerant,  was  "impressed"  with 
three  of  his  lay  brethren  in  Cheshire.  His  good  courage  and 
prudence  disheartened  his  persecutors,  and  they  released  him, 
but  his  companions  had  to  stand  a  legal  trial.  Thomas 
Maxfield  and  seven  or  eight  members  of  the  society  at 
Crowan  were  seized  for  the  army.  He  was  sent  in  a  boat 
to  Penzance,  thrust  into  a  dungeon,  and  offered  to  the  com 
mander  of  a  ship  of  war  then  in  Mount  Bay,  but  the  officer 
was  shrewd  enough  to  know  that  such  a  recruit  would  be  of 
questionable  service  on  shipboard.  "  I  have  no  authority," 
he  said,  "  to  take  such  men  as  these,  unless  you  would  have 
me  give  them  so  much  a  week  to  preach  and  pray."  A 
humble  Cornish  preacher  was  pulled  do\\Ti  by  a  constable 
while  preaching  at  Corlam,  and  borne  off  to  the  House  of 


CONFERENCE    OF    1T44    TO    1745.  225 

Correction  at  Bodmin.  A  warrant  was  got  out  for  John  Wes- 
ley himself  in  Cornwall.  He  was  taken  into  custody,  but  his 
persecutors  were  surprised  to  find  him  a  gowned  clergyman 
and  a  well-bred  gentleman.  Instead  of  conducting  him  to 
the  magistrate  they  escorted  him  with  awkward  politeness 
to  his  inn,  with  a  promise  to  call  for  him  the  next  day.  They 
took  good  care,  however,  to  trouble  him  no  more.  He  took 
his  stand  the  same  e^'ening  in  the  open  air  at  Gwennap,  and 
while  preaching  to  a  great  assembly,  three  gentlemen,  so 
called,  rode  furiously  into  the  crowd  shouting,  "  Seize  him ! 
seize  him  for  his  majesty's  service !"  The  people  would  not 
obey  them,  but  sang  a  hymn.  Many  of  them  were  struck 
meanwhile  by  the  infuriated  riders.  One  of  the  horsemen 
seized  Wesley  by  the  cassock,  and  dismounting  dragged  him 
away  by  the  arm.  In  a  short  time  he  perceived  that  he  was 
dealing  with  no  fanatic,  but  a  gentleman  and  scholar,  and 
insisting  that  he  meant  no  harm,  requested  Wesley's  com- 
pany at  his  own  house.  Wesley  declined  the  dubious  polite- 
ness. His  persecutor  then  ordered  a  horse  for  each  of  them, 
and  drove  back  with  the  preacher  to  the  place  whence  he 
had  taken  him.  ^ 

The  next  day  a  more  serious  scene  awaited  him  at  Fal- 
mouth. An  innumerable  multitude  assailed  the  dwelling 
where  he  was  staying.  A  louder  or  more  confused  noise, 
he  says,  could  hardly  occur  at  the  taking  of  a  city.  The 
terrified  family  escaped,  leaving  only  Wesley  and  a  servant 
maid  in  the  house.  The  rabble  forced  open  the  door  and 
filled  the  passage.  Only  a  waifiscot  partition  remahied 
between  them  and  their  victim.  Wesley,  supposing  the 
wall  would  soon  fall,  showed  his  coolness  at  the  moment  by 
taking  down  a  large  looking-glass  which  hung  against  it. 
The  mob,  with  terrible  imprecations,  began  to  attack  the 
partition.  "  Our  lives,"  he  says,  "  seemed  hardly  worth 
an  hour's  purchase."  The  servant  entreated  him  to  hide 
himself  in  a  closet.  "  It  is  best,"  he  replied,  "■•  for  me  to 
stand  just  where  I  am."     The  crews  of  some  privateers, 

^  Journal,  Anno  1745, 
Vol,  L--15 


226  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

•which  had  lately  arrived  in  the  harbor,  were  in  the  street, 
and  being  impatient  at  the  slow  progress  of  the  rioters 
within,  drove  them  out,  and  undertook  the  assault  them- 
selves. Putting  their  shoulders  against  the  door,  and  shout- 
ing, '•  Avast,  lads !  avast !"  they  prostrated  it  upon  the 
floor  of  the  room.  Wesley  stepped  forward  immediately 
into  their  midst,  bareheaded,  and  said :  "  Here  I  am. 
Which  of  you  has  anything  to  say  to  me  ?  To  which  of 
you  have  I  done  any  wrong '?  To  you  ?  or  you '?  or  you "?" 
He  continued  speaking  till  he  reached  the  middle  of  the 
street;  there  he  took  his  stand,  and  addressed  them  as  his 
"neighbors 'and  countrymen."  He  had  his  usual  success. 
Several  of  the  crowd  cried  out :  "  He  shall  speak.  Yes !  yes !" 
Others  swore  that  no  man  should  touch  him.  He  vfas  conduct- 
ed in  safety  to  a  house,  and  soon  after  left  the  town  in  a  boat. 

Passing  along  from  town  to  town,  he  describes  the  so- 
cieties as  in  "  great  consternation."  All  kinds  of  reports 
and  alarms  were  spread.  The  news  of  former  mobs  created 
general  apprehensions  of  continued  riots ;  but  the  courage- 
ous perseverance  and  patient  endurance  with  which  they 
had  been  met  were  fast  subduing  them.  St.  Ives  was 
now  "  the  most  still  and  honorable  post,"  so  greatly  had 
the  times  changed.  At  Trewint  he  heard  that  Francis 
Walker  had  been  driven  thence,  but  had  since  been  an  instru- 
ment of  great  good  wherever  he  had  gone.  "  Indeed,"  he 
adds,  "  I  never  remember  so  gi^eat  an  awakening  in  Corn- 
wall wrought  in  so  short  a  time  among  young  and  old,  rich 
and  poor,  from  Trewint  quite  to  the  seaside."  He  passed 
into  Wales.  The  truth  had  spread  with  mighty  effect 
through  most  of  the  Principality.  "We  are  here,"  he 
wrote,  "  in  a  new  world,  as  it  were,  in  peace,  and  honor, 
and  abundance;  how  soon  should  I  melt  away  in  this  sun 
shine ;  but  the  goodness  of  God  suffers  it  not." 

While  the  Wesleys  were  thus  traversing  the  country, 
preaching  the  word  through  evil  report  and  good  report, 
their  lay  coadjutors  were  stimulated  by  their  example  to 
scarcely  less  indefatigable  labors.     Several  of  them,  as  we 


CONFERENCE    OF    1744-    TO    1T45.  227 

have  seen,  were  mobbed,  impressed,  or  imprisoned;  but 
their  numbers  continually  multiplied,  and  their  itinerant 
preaching  began  to  awaken  the  whole  country  with  interest 
for  or  against  the  Methodistic  movement. 

John  Nelson  had  been  released  from  his  impressment 
about  the  middle  of  the  preceding  year.  He  forthwith 
resumed  his  evangelical  travels,  preaching  with  great 
power,  mastering  extraordinary  rencounters,  sometimes  with 
rustic  polemics,  sometimes  with  the  mob ;  and  almost  always 
subduing  his  opponents  by  his  robust  sense,  his  calm, 
pious  courage,  and  a  natural  adroitness  which  seldom 
failed  to  excite  the  admiration  of  the  rabble,  and  convert 
them  into  clamorous  friends.  The  very  day  of  his  release 
from  his  regiment  he  preached,  as  we  have  seen,  at 
Newcastle.  He  returned  thence  to  his  home  at  Birstal, 
where  he  found  that  his  former  converts  had  been  seriously 
perverted  by  Antinomian  teachers  during  his  absence. 
He  went  out,  and  mounting  a  table  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  assembly,  recalled  them  to  their  former  faith.  He 
was  esteemed  as  an  apostle  by  the  simple  multitude, 
and  an  extraordinary  effect  was  produced  by  his  exhorta- 
tion. "  A  trembling,"  he  says,  "  spread  among  them ; 
many  fell  to  the  ground,  and  cried  out,  '  Lord,  save  or  I 
perish.' "  ^  Many  came  to  him  with  tears,  acknowledging 
that  they  had  been  deluded  in .  his  absence,  and  begging 
him  to  pray  for  them.  Nelson  was  a  thorough  student  of 
the  Bible,  and,  in  the  best  sense,  a  good  theologian,  though 
not  much  of  a  polemic.  His  sound  judgment  and  whole- 
some sentiments  soon  prevailed,  and  restored  the  society  at 
Birstal.  Having  achieved  this  salutary  work  he  went  to 
York,  in  the  streets  of  which  he  had  been  hooted,  while  led 
to  prison  by  soldiers,  six  months  before.  He  had  spoken 
some  words  of  exhortation,  and  scattered  some  small  books 
there  at  that  time,  and  now  he  was  welcomed  by  almost  a 
score  of  persons,  who  had  found  peace  with  God,  and  thrice 
as  many  who  were  seeking  it,  the  result  of  those  casual 
«  Nelson's  Journal,  p.  61. 


228  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

efforts,  for  no  one  had  been  there  to  instruct  them  since. 
He  received  a  letter  from  Sunderland,  inviting  him  thither. 
Two  men  had  conversed  with  him  as  his  regiment  passed 
through  that  town ;  his  exhortations  had  taken  effect  upon 
their  hearts  also,  and  they  now  opened  the  way  for  Method- 
ism among  their  neighbors.  On  his  return  from  Sunder- 
land he  preached  at  Nottingham  Cross.  His  eloquence 
subdued  the  crowd,  but  a  few  individuals  attempted  to 
burn  his  face  with  squibs.  They  failed,  however,  and  burn 
ing  themselves,  left  him  to  finish  his  discourse  in  quiet. 
When  he  had  concluded,  a  military  man  came  to  him,  and, 
kneeling  on  the  earth,  beseeched  him  with  tears  to  pray 
that  God  would  have  mercy  upon  his  soul,  for  he  had  come 
there  to  pull  him  down ;  "  but  your  words,"  he  continue(i, 
"  have  come  as  a  sword  to  my  heart,  and  I  am  convinced 
you  are  God's  servant.  I  hope  I  shall  begin  to  lead  a  new 
life  from  this  hour."  Nelson's  peculiar  power  was  con- 
tinually producing  such  effects,  and  none  seemed  to  feel  it 
more  readily  than  soldiers  and  rude,  hard-hearted  men.  At 
another  visit  to  Nottingham  about  this  time,  a  mob  rushed 
into  the  house  where  he  was  preaching  and  drowned  his 
voice  with  outcries.  He  endeavored  to  speak  on,  but  one 
of  the  rioters  came  behind  him  and  filled  his  mouth  with 
dirt.  "  I  think,"  he  says,  "  I  never  felt  myself  so  near 
being  choked  in  my  life ;  but  when  I  had  got  the  dirt  out 
I  spoke  on."  He  had  not  proceeded  long  before  the  ring- 
leader turned  about,  and  said :  "  Let  him  alone,  for  he  is 
right  and  we  are  wi^ong ;  and  if  any  of  you  touch  him  I 
will  knock  you  down."  He  guarded  Nelson  to  his  lodg- 
ings, and  bore  many  blows  for  him,  and  desired  the  faithful 
preacher  to  pray  for  him,  that  he  might  not  rest  till  he  had 
found  peace  with  God,  for  he  was  sure  he  had  fought 
asrainst  the  truth,  but  would  do  so  no  more. 

Nelson  returned  again  to  Sunderland,  and  standing  in  deep 
snow  preached  to  the  greater  part  of  the  town,  who  re- 
mained patiently  in  the  cold  to  hear  him.  At  Wednesbury 
he  found  that  several  of  the  fiercest  persecutors  were  now 


CONFERENCE    OF    1744    TO    1745.  229 

content  to  bear  themselves  the  reproach  of  the  Gospel.  In 
Birstal,  in  Somersetshire  and  Wiltshire,  and  in  many  other 
phices,  did  this  good  and  courageous  man  thus  pursue  his  in- 
cessant labors,  subduing  the  rudest  minds  by  his  homely 
sense  and  natural  eloquence. 

Meanwhile  Wesley  was  surprised  by  extraordinary  news 
from  the  Continent.  Methodism  had  broken  out  in  the 
British  army  in  Flanders,  and  was  achieving  m  camps  and 
on  battle-fields  the  moral  miracles  which  it  had  effected 
among  the  miners  of  Cornwall,  Kingswood,  and  Newcastle.'^ 
Some  six  or  seven  soldiers  had  begun  to  preach,  places  of 
worship  had  been  established  in  different  camps,  and  con- 
gregations of  a  thousand  hearers  at  a  time  gathered  in 
them ;  several  hundreds  of  converts  had  been  formed  into 
societies,  and  many  of  them  died  triumphing  in  the  faith 
amid  the  carnage  of  battle. 

John  Evans  had  heard  Wesley  on  Kennuigton  Common. 
His  religious  convictions,  which  had  been  strong  from  his 
childhood,  could  not  be  dissipated  in  the  camp.  At  the  bat- 
tle of  Dettingen  the  balls  flew  thick  about  him ;  his  com- 
rades fell  on  either  hand ;  but  he  was  spared,  and  felt  that 
his  remaining  life  must  be  consecrated  to  God.  He  found 
an  old  Bible  in  one  of  the  baggage-wagons  and  began  to 
study  it ;  the  pains  of  hell,  he  wrote  Wesley,  got  hold  upon 
him,  and  he  dared  no  longer  commit  any  outward  sin.  He 
met  John  Haime,  a  Methodist  soldier,  who  instructed  him 
and  led  him  into  the  path  of  life.  He  and  his  religious 
comrades  opened  two  places  of  worship  in  Ghent,  and  ser- 
vices were  held  by  them  there  every  day.  "  He  continued," 
says  Wesley,  "  to  preach  and  live  the  Gospel  till  the  battle 
of  Fontenoy."  He  fought  bravely  on  that  field,  and  died 
there,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  a  death  full  of  religious 
heroism, 

7  Letters  from  John  Evans  and  John  Ilaime,  in  "Wesley's  Journal, 
1744-5.  Haime' s  four  letters  are  given  with  only  his  initials,  as  he  was 
living  when  Wesley  published  them ;  but  their  contents,  compared  with 
his  autobiography,  (Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  vol.  i,)  prove  bo- 
yond  doubt  that  they  were  his. 


230  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

John  Haime,  the  chief  if  not  the  first  agent  in  these  ex- 
traordinary scenes,  was  afterward  noted  among  Wesley's 
lay  preachers.  He  was  one  of  those  remarkable  men  who, 
like  Nelson,  Bradburn,  and  Bramwell,  were  raised  up  by  . 
Methodism  from  humble  life  to  eminent  usefulness,  and 
who  characterized  its  early  lay  ministry  by  their  ow^i 
strongly -marked  traits. 

He  had  not  Nelson's  robust  healthfnlness  of  mind ;  his 
moral  sensibilities  were  often  rendered  morbid  by  constitu- 
tional nervous  disease,  and  unquestionably  took  at  times  the 
aspect  of  partial  insanity;  but  this  fact  only  renders  more 
admirable  the  religious  courage  with  which  he  combated  his 
own  infirmities,  and  persevered  through  a  long  and  afflicted 
life,  with  fidelity  to  his  conscience  and  his  duty.     In,  his 
childhood  he  was  inclined  to  religious  meditation,  and,  like 
Nelson,  "  wandered  about  on  the  river  sides  and  through 
woods   and   solitary   places,  looking   up  to  heaven   many 
times  with  a  heart  ready  to  break."^     The  morbid  tendency 
of  his  mind  led  him  to  despondence,  which  he  at  last  en- 
deavored to  dissipate  by  plunging  into  gross  immoralities. 
Suicide  itself  was  an  alternative  of  which  he  often  thought 
in  these  accesses  of  diseased  feeling.     He  believed  that  he 
had  passed  beyond  the  reach  of  the  Divine  compassion,  and 
represents  himself  as  tempted  to  blaspheme  God  and  die. 
At  one  time  having  a  stick  in  his  hand,  "  1  threw  it,"  he 
says,  "  toward  heaven  against  God  with  the  utmost  enmity." 
He  sought  relief  to  his  troubled  spirit  in  the  army,  and  en- 
listed as  a  dragoon ;  but  serious  thoughts  and  gross  excesses 
alternated  in  his  life  from  day  to  day.     Bunyan's  "  Grace 
abounding  to  the  chief  of  Sinners  "  fell  into  his  hands.     The 
Bedford  pilgrim  had  passed  through  similar  morbid  trials, 
and  his  book  was  prized  by  the  perplexed  and  desponding 
soldier  as  "the  best  he  had  ever  seen,"  for  it  comforted 

8  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  written  by  themselves,  vol.  i,  p. 
150.  London,  1837.  These  autobiographical  sketches  were  first  pub- 
lished by  "Wesley  in  his  Arminian  Magazine.  Many  of  them  possess  ex  • 
traordinary  interest,  both  as  illustrations  of  character  and  of  early  Meth  - 
odism. 


CONFEEENCE    OF    1744    TO    1745.  231 

Mm  "with  some  hopes  of  mercy."  But  his  despondence 
was  not  past ;  his  feelings  took  the  intensity  of  terror  ;  the 
"  hand  of  the  Lord,"  he  says,  "  came  upon  me  with  such 
weight  as  made  me  roar  for  very  anguish  of  spirit."  He 
now  read  and  fasted,  and  went  to  church,  and  prayed  seven 
times  daily.  One  day,  as  he  walked  by  the  Tweed  side,  he 
cried  aloud,  "  being  all  athirst  for  God, '  0  that  thou  wouldst 
hear  my  prayer,  and  let  my  cry  come  up  before  thee !' " 
"  The  Lord,"  he  writes,  "  heard ;  he  sent  a  gracious  answer ; 
he  lifted  me  up  out  of  the  dungeon.  He  took  away  my 
sorrow  and 'fear,  and  filled  my  soul  with  peace  and  Joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost.  The  stream  gBded  sweetly  along,  and  all 
nature  seemed  to  rejoice  with  me.  I  was  truly  free ;  and 
had  I  had  any  one  to  guide  m.e,  I  need  never  more  have 
come  into  bondage." 

Such  a  guide  he  needed  above  all  things;  an  intelligent, 
devoted,  healthful  mind,  sympathizing  with  and  counseling 
his  broken  and  lacerated  spirit,  would  have  saved  him  from 
years  of  anguish ;  but  the  only  religious  comrade  he  found 
in  his  barrack  met  his  grateful  acknowledgments  of  the 
grace  of  God,  with  the  admonitory  lesson,  "  Take  care,  for 
Satan  can  transform  himself  into  an  angel  of  light ;"  and 
his  sensitive  mind,  always  prompt  with  self-suspicions,  sank 
again  into  darkness.  He  met  in  the  street  at  Deptford 
John  Ceimick,  who  as  we  have  seen  had  left  Wesley  to  join 
Whitefield  in  the  Calvinistic  controversy.  Haime  told  him 
the  distress  of  his  soul.  "  The  work  of  the  devil  is  upon 
you,"  said  Cemiick,  and  rode  away.  "  It  was,"  writes  the 
heart-broken  soldier,  "  it  was  the  tender  mercies  of  God  that 
I  did  not  put  an  end  to  my  life.  I  cried,  '0  Lord,  my 
punishment  is  greater  than  I  can  bear.' "  Before  many 
days,  however,  he  was  again  comforted  with  peace  in  believ- 
ing. He  passed  over  to  the  Continent  with  his  regiment. 
Alternating  between  despondence  and  joy,  he  was,  mean- 
v/hile,  strict  in  his  religious  habits ;  he  reproved  vice  among 
his  fellow-soldiers,  and  became  practically  an  evangelist  in 
the  camp.     He  went  into  the  battle  of  Dettmgen  exclaim- 


232  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

ing :  "  In  Thee  have  I  trusted ;  let  me  never  be  confounded." 
"  My  heart,"  he  adds,  "  was  filled  with  love,  peace,  and  joy 
more  than  tongue  can  express.  I  was  in  a  new  world.  1 
could  truly  say :  '  Unto  you  who  believe  he  is  precious.' " 
Seven  hours  he  stood  amid  the  perils  of  the  field,  while  his 
comrades  fell  around  him;  the  one  at  his  left  hand  was 
struck  dead,  but  Haime  came  out  of  the  battle  safe,  and 
triumphant  in  his  faith. 

Soon  after  this  combat  Sampson  Staniforth,  another  mem- 
orable name  in  the  catalogue  of  Wesley's  lay  preachers, 
arrived  with  his  regiment  in  the  camp.  Unlike  Haime,  his 
youth' had  been  spent  with  scarcely  a  religious  impression. 
He  had  heard  the  Bible  read  in  the  family  of  his  employer, 
but  says  that  he  knew  not  what  it  meant,  nor  why  it  was 
called  the  word  of  God,  nor  why  people  went'  to  church. 
He  records  that,  during  his  early  life,  he  never  once  thought, 
What  was  I  born  into  the  world  for  1  What  is  my  business 
in  it  1  Or  where  shall  I  go  when  I  leave  it  ?  He  plunged 
into  the  worst  excesses,  and  felt  not  the  least  remorse  for  any  of 
his  sins,"  being  as  perfectly  without  God  in  the  world  as  the 
beasts  that  perish."  ^  He  enlisted  as  a  soldier,  and  in  one  of  his 
marches  heard  Whitefield  preach,  but  with  little  effect  upon 
his  conscience ;  down,  indeed,  to  his  arrival  in  the  camp  in 
Flanders,  when  he  was  twenty-five  years  old,  he  had  never 
uttered  a  prayer.  His  vices  in  the  camp  were  excessive, 
and  several  times  periled  his  life.  He  was  the  last  man  in 
the  army  whom  his  Methodist  comrades  could  have  hoped 
to  reclaim,  much  less  to  send  back  into  England  as  a  worthy 
and  heroic  recruit  for  the  host  of  lay  evangelists  which  was 
then  gathering  around  the  founders  of  Methodism,  la 
camps,  however,  are  found  those  contrasts  of  character 
which  we  detect  in  all  disguises,  and  in  all  scenes  of  this  our 
inexplicable  life ;  and  while  many  men  plunge  into  the  ex- 
citements of  a  military  career,  like  Staniforth,  from  sheer 
recklessness,  others,  like  Haime,  seek  in  them  relief  from  thf» 
restlessness  of  their  moral  sensibilities.  Methodism  has 
»  Lives  of  Earlj  Methodist  Preachera,  vol,  ii,  p.  148. 


CONFEKENCE    OF  1744    TO    1745.  238 

never  made  better  converts  than  among  soldiers.  In  the 
regiment  of  Staniforth  was  Mark  Bond,  his  contrast  in  all 
respects.  Bond  had  feared  God  from  his  third  year ;  in  his 
seventh  year  he  thought  he  was  tempted  to  curse  him,  and 
went  under  a  hedge  and  uttered  the  supposed  blasphemy. 
From  that  time  till  he  met  the  Methodists  in  the  army  he 
lived  in  daily  despair  of  the  Divine  mercy.  Afraid  to  com- 
mit suicide,  he  enlisted,  with  the  hope  of  being  killed  in  bat- 
tle. "  His  ways,"  says  Staniforth,  "  were  not  like  those  of 
other  men ;"  he  would  not  take  drams ;  he  was  always  sor- 
rowful ;  he  read  much,  prayed  often  in  private,  and  sent  his 
money  home  to  his  friends.  This  afflicted  man,  bound  down 
so  many  years  under  a  terrible  delusion,  was  to  reclaim  the 
reprobate  Staniforth.  Bond  went  to  hear  Haime,  Evans, 
Clement,  and  other  Methodists  of  the  camp.  "  With  them 
he  found,"  writes  Staniforth,  "  what  he  wanted.  God  soon 
spoke  peace  to  his  soul,  and  he  rejoiced  with  joy  unspeak- 
able." By  some  mysterious  sympathy  he  could  not  keep 
away  from  Staniforth,  but  followed  him  continually  with  ex- 
hortations and  warnings,  till  he  brousfht  him  to  the  meetings 
of  the  Methodist  soldiers. 

There  Staniforth  was  surprised,  the  first  time  in  his  life, 
with  religious  thoughts ;  the  tears  flowed  down  his  cheeks, 
the  rock  was  rent.  "  I  was  knocked  down,"  he  says,  "  like 
an  ox,  I  had  nothing  to  plead,  having  never  had  either  the 
power  or  the  form  of  godliness.  No  works,  no  righteous- 
ness was  mine.  I  could  only  say :  '  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner !' "  He  immediately  broke  away  from  all  his 
vices.  His  "  dear  companion,"  as  he  now  always  called 
Bond,  asked  him  if  he  had  a  Bible,  or  any  good  book.  He 
replied  that  he  had  none,  and  had  never  read  any  in  his 
life.  Bond  had  but  a  piece  of  an  old  Bible,  and  gave  it  to 
him ;  it  v/as  doubtless  the  dearest  gift  he  could  make,  short 
of  his  own  life,  but  "  I  can  do  better  without  it  than  you," 
was  his  just  remark.  Bond  took  him  as  his  comrade,  put 
his  own  pay  with  his,  to  help  him  out  of  debt,  and  treated 
him  with  the  tenderness  and  care  of  a  parent  toward  a  child. 


234  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

Stanifortli,  however,  saw  the  enormous  vices  of  his  life  iu 
such  a  light  as  appalled  him;  he  thought  he  must  have 
com.mitted  the  unpardonable  sin;  but  Bond  was  prepared 
for  him  on  that  point,  having  vanquished  the  same  delusion 
after  years  of  despair.  At  last,  in  secret  prayer,  he  was 
enabled  to  believe  his  sins  forgiven.  His  intense  thoughts 
portrayed  Christ  on  the  cross,  amid  the  opening  clouds,  as 
in  a  vision.  "  All  guilt,"  he  says,  "  was  gone,  and  my  soul 
was  filled  with  unutterable  peace." 

The  change  in  Staniforth's  life  wrought  "  quite  an  alarm ' 
throughout  his  regiment ;  he  had  been  their  leader  in  vice, 
and  no  one  could  gainsay  his  conversion ;  at  least  ten  of  his 
immediate  comrades  were  converted  through  his  example. 
and  "the  flame  spread  through  all  the  camp,  so  that  we 
had,"  he  "svrites,  "  many  hearers,  and  more  and  more  were 
continually  added  to  the  society."  The  army  was  divided, 
but  the  new  military  evangelists  were  also  providentially 
distributed ;  Haime  and  Evans  went  to  Bruges,  and  Clem- 
ents and  others  to  Ghent.  The  number  of  converts  in- 
creased daily ;  there  were  some  in  almost  every  regiment. 
At  least  three  hundred  were  united  in  societies,  and  seven 
preachers  were  almost  daily  proclaiming  the  word  among 
them.  Haime  preached  usually  five  times  a  day  at  different 
places,  walking  frequently  between  twenty  and  thirty  miles. 
He  hired  others  to  do  his  camp  duties,  that  he  might  have 
more  time  for  these  religious  services.  Tabernacles  con- 
taining several  rooms,  for  various  mieetings,  were  erected 
in  the  camps.  "I  had  now,"  he  says,  "three  armies 
against  me :  the  French  army,  the  wicked  English  army, 
and  an  army  of  devils."  The  latter  beset  him  yet  with 
religious  perplexity  and  dejection,  but  could  not  subdue 
him. 

At  Bruges  the  English  general  gave  him  permission  to 
preach  every  day  in  the  English  church;  the  Methodist 
soldiers  marched  on  Sundays  in  procession  to  the  service, 
and  their  good  singing  charmed  thither  the  officers  and  their 
fe,milies. 


CONFEKENCE    OF    1744   TO    1T45.  235 

A  severe  test  awaited  these  devoted  men,  but  they  met 
it  as  became  "good  soldiers  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  They  had 
become  marked  men  throughout  the  army,  by  their  absti- 
nence from  the  immoralities  of  the  camp,  and  their  earnest 
recommendation  of  religion  as  a  fitness  for  life  and  a  prepa- 
ration for  death.  On  the  1st  of  May,  1745,  the  battle  of 
Fontenoy  required  them  to  face  death  in  the  ranks  with  their 
'orty-six  thousand  comrades,  and  there  was  no  little  interest 
felt  among  officers  and  men  to  see  how  their  religion  would 
oear  the  trial.  The  day  before,  Staniforth,  who  was  now 
firm  in  his  faith,  was  in  the  ranks,  ready  to  be  led  on.  "  I 
stepped  out  of  the  line,"  he  says,  "  and  threw  myself  on  the 
ground,  and  prayed  that  God  would  deliver  me  from  all 
fear,  and  enable  me  to  behave  as  a  Christian  and  good 
soldier.  Glory  be  to  God,  he  heard  my  cry,  and  took 
away  all  my  fear.  I  came  into  the  ranks  again,  and  had 
both  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  They  lay  on  their 
arms  all  night.  Bond,  his  "dear  companion,"  was  by  his 
side,  for  their  friendship  had  become  like  that  of  Jonathan 
and  David.  "  We  had,"  says  Staniforth,  "  sweet  commu- 
nion together,  having  constant  and  strong  confidence  in  God." 
At  dawn  they  were  advancing  toward  Fontenoy,  and  al- 
ready the  terrors  of  battle  confronted  them ;  the  dead  were 
strewn  along  their  march ;  they  charged  the  trenches  of  the 
French,  and  many  of  the  Methodists  fell ;  but  the  two  friends 
survived  the  day,  though  Bond  received  two  musket  balls, 
one  striking  him  on  the  right  thigh,  and  hitting  two  pieces 
of  coin  which  were  in  his  pocket,  the  other  striking  a 
clasp-knife,  and  bending  the  blade,  but  doing  no  other 
harm.  "I  neither  desired  life  nor  death,"  says  Staniforth, 
"but  was  entirely  happy  in  God." 

Meanwhile  Haime  and  his  companions  were  in  similar 
perils  on  other  '"parts  of  the  field.  One  of  his  brethren, 
believing  his  death  at  hand,  went  into  battle,  exclaiming: 
"  I  am  going  to  rest  in  the  bosom  of  Jesus !"  and  was  in 
heaven  before  night.  "Indeed,"  writes  Haime,  "this  day 
God  was  pleased  to  prove  our  little  flock,  and  to  show  them 


236  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Ms  mighty  power.  They  showed  such  courage  _.and  bold- 
ness in  the  fight  as  made  the  officers,  as  well  as  soldiers, 
amazed.  When  wounded,  some  cried  out:  I  am  going  to 
my  Beloved!  Others,  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quick- 
ly !  And  many  that  were  not  wounded  earnestly  desired 
to  be  dissolved  and  to  be  with  Christ."  When  Clements, 
one  of  the  preachers,  had  his  arm  broken  by  a  musket-ball, 
they  would  have  carried  him  out  of  the  battle,  but  he  said, 
"  No ;  I  have  an  arm  left  to  hold  my  sword ;  I  will  not  go 
yet."  When  a  second  shot  broke  his  other  arm,  he  said: 
"  I  am  as  happy  as  I  can  be  out  of  paradise."  John  Evans, 
now  a  preacher  also,  having  both  his  legs  taken  off  by  a 
chain-shot,  was  laid  across  a  cannon  to  die ;  where,  as  long 
as  he  could  speak,  he  was  praising  God,  and  exhorting  all 
around  him.  Haime  stood  the  hottest  fire  of  the  enemy 
for  several  hours.  He  believed  he  should  not  die  that 
day.  After  about  seven  hours  a  cannon-ball  killed  his 
horse  under  him.  An  officer  cried  out :  "  Haime,  where  is 
your  God  now  1"  He  answered :  "  Sir,  he  is  here  with  me, 
and  he  will  bring  me  out  of  this  battle;"  presently  a 
cannon-ball  took  off  the  officer's  head.  Haime's  horse  fell 
upon  him,  and  one  cried  out :  "  Haime  is  gone !"  But  he 
replied :  "  He  is  not  gone  yet."  He  soon  disengaged  him 
self,  and  walked  on,  praising  God.  "I  was  exposed,"  he 
says,  "  both  to  the  enemy  and  to  our  own  horse ;  but  that 
did  not  discourage  me  at  all,  for  I  knew  the  God  of  Jacob 
was  with  me.  I  had  a  long  way  to  go,  through  all  our 
horse,  the  balls  flying  on  every  side ;  and  all  the  way  lay 
multitudes  bleeding,  groaning,  or  just  dead.  Surely  I  was 
as  in  the  fiery  furnace,  but  it  did  not  singe  a  hair  of  my 
head.  The  hotter  the  battle  grew  the  more  strength  was 
given  me ;  I  was  as  full  of  joy  as  I  could  contain."  As  he 
was  quitting  the  field  he  met  one  of  his  brethren,  seeking 
water,  and  covered  with  blood,  so  that  he  could  not  at  first 
recognize  him.  The  wounded  Methodist  smiled,  and  said  : 
"  Brother  Haime,  I  have  got  a  sore  wound."  "  Have  you 
ffot  Christ  in  your  heart '?"  asked  Haime.     "  I  have,"  was 


CONFEKENCE    OF    1744    TO    1745.  237 

the  reply ;  "  and  I  have  had  him  all  this  day.  I  have  seen 
many  good  and  glorious  days,  with  much  of  God  ;  "but  I 
never  saw  more  of  it  than  this  day.  Glory  be  to  God  for 
all  his  mercies !" 

Four  preachers  and  many  members  of  the  societies  fell 
on  the  field.  In  a  later  battle,  near  Maestricht,  Staniforth 
lost 'Bond,  his  companion  and  guide.  He  was  shot  through 
the  leg  by  a  musket  ball ;  as  his  friend  carried  him  away  the 
dying  man  exhorted  "  him  to  stand  fast  in  the  Lord."  Stan- 
iforth had  to  leave  him  and  resume  his  place  in  the  ranks, 
but  on  a  retreat  found  him  where  he  had  laid  him.  By  this 
time  he  had  received  another  ball  through  his  thigh.  They 
were  obliged  to  part,  for  the  enemy  was  pressing  on;  but, 
writes  Staniforth,  "  his  heart  was  full  of  love,  and  his  eyes 
full  of  heaven."  "  Here  fell,"  he  adds,  "  a  great  Christian,  a 
good  soldier,  and  a  faithful  friend." 

Staniforth  returned  to  England,  and  became  a  devoted 
Methodist  preacher. 

Haime  continued  his  labors  in  the  army  for  some  time; 
but  having  gone  to  Antwerp  for  forage,  he  made  some  small 
purchases  there  for  his  comrades  on  Sunday,  a  custom  al- 
most universal  among  both  Papists  and  Protestants  on  the 
Continent.  He  was  suddenly  seized  with  the  thought  that 
he  had  apostatized  by  this  act.  His  morbid  sensibilities 
were  so  affected  by  the  impression,  that  for  twenty  years  he 
suffered  despair  itself,  not  daring  even  to  pray  m.uch  of  that 
time.  He  maintained,  however,  the  strictness  of  his  external 
life,  and  he  ceased  not  to  preach,  though  bending  under  de- 
spondency. "  Frequently,"  he  says,  "  as  I  was  going  to 
preach,  the  devil  has  set  upon  me  as  a  lion,  telling  me  he 
would  have  me  just  then,  so  that  it  has  thrown  me  into  a 
cold  s^^ieat.  In  this  agony  I  have  caught  hold  of  the  Bi- 
ble, and  read,  '  If  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate 
with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous !'  I  have  said 
to  the  enemy,  'This  is  the  w^ord  of  God,  and  thou  canst  not 
deny  it!'  Thereat  he  would  be  like  a  man  that  shrunk 
back  from  the  thrust  of  a  sword.     But  he  would  be  at  me 


238  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

agaiii.  I  again  met  him  in  the  same  way ;  till  at  last,  bless- 
ed be  God,  he  fled  from  me.  And  even  in  the  midst  of  his 
sharpest  assaults  God  gave  me  just  strength  enough  to  bear 
them.  When  he  has  strongly  suggested,  just  as  I  was  go- 
ing to  preach,  '  I  will  have  thee  at  last !'  I  have  answered^ 
(sometimes  with  too  much  anger,) '  I  will  have  another  out  of 
thy  hand  first !'  And  m.any,  while  I  was  myself  in  the 
deep,  were  truly  convinced  and  converted  to  God."  On 
returning  to  England  he  entered  the  Methodist  ministry ; 
Wesley  endeavored  to  meet  the  peculiar  necessities  of  his 
case ;  and,  in  advanced  age,  the  suffering  soldier,  who  had 
shoA\"n  his  good  courage  on  the  field  and  in  the  itinerant  miin- 
istry,  conquered  his  constitutional  dejection,  the  terrible  foe 
before  which  his  brave  spirit  had  so  often  recoiled  but  never 
succumbed.  During  nearly  twenty  years  more. of  life  he 
presented  an  example  of  Christian  enjoyment  which  should  be 
an  encouraging  lesson  to  all  similar  sufferers.  The  comfort 
which  Methodism  brought  to  Bond  and  Haime,  it  has  af- 
forded to  thousands  of  such  despondent  minds ;  its  gene- 
rous theology  diso\vns  the  delusion  which  depressed  them ; 
and  its  vivid  spirit,  inspiring  the  heart  with  confidence  in 
the  Divine  love,  and  exalting  the  sensibilities  with  devotion- 
al and  joyful  emotion,  affords  the  best  moral  support  against 
the  influence  of  mental  disease. 

Many  of  these  Methodist  soldiers,  awaiting  the  naorning 
of  the  resurrection,  sleep  in  Christ  on  the  battle-fields  of  the 
continent ;  many  returned  home  when  the  war  ended,  some 
to  strengthen  the  growing  Methodist  Societies,  some  the  itin- 
erant ministry.  Six  months  after  the  battle  of  Fontenoy 
Charles  Wesley,  then  in  London,  wrote  in  his  journal:  "We 
had  twenty  of  our  brethren  from  Flanders  to  dine  with  us 
at  the  Foundry."  ^^  Still  later  he  met  a  number  of  them 
at  the  camp  at  Deptford,  on  their  way  to  suppress  the 
Northern  Rebellion.  They  assembled  in  the  society  there. 
*'  We  solemnly  commended  them,"  he  says  "  to  the  grace  of 
God  before  they  set  out  to  meet  the  rebels.     They  were 

"  Journal  of  Eev.  Charles  Wesley,  etc.,  vol.  i,  p.  407.    London,  1849. 


CONFEKENCE    OF    1744    TO    1745.  239 

without  fear  or  disturbance,  knowing  the  hairs  of  their  head 
are  all  numbered."  Several  others,  on  arriving  in  Lon- 
don, were  presented  by  Colonel  Gumley  (one  of  Whitefield's 
converts)  to  Lady  Huntingdon.  "I  was  truly  amazed," 
says  the  countess,  "  with  the  devotional  spirit  of  these  JDOor 
men,  many  of  whom  are  rich  in  faith  and  heirs  of  the  king- 
dom." ^1  Whitefield  met  some  of  them  in  Edinburgh  more 
than  three  years  after  the  battle  of  Fontenoy,  and  formed 
them  into  a  society.  On  leaving  that  city  he  addressed 
them  an  affectionate  pastoral  letter. 

Thomas  Rankin,  one  of  Wesley's  earliest  missionaries  to 
America,  formed  in  his  youth  a  society  of  them  at  Dunbar, 
his  native  town  in  Scotland.  They  had  hired  a  room  and 
met  for  worship  every  morning  and  evening.  A  great  relig- 
ious interest  extended  through  the  town  from  these  meetings, 
and  many  of  the  inhabitants  were  converted  and  gathered 
into  their  little  company. ^2  They  were  dragoons  of  John 
Haime's  regiment.  At  Musselborough  also  they  had  formed 
a  society,  and  were  instrumental  in  the  spread  of  vital  relig- 
ion among  the  townsmen.  Wesley's  preachers  visited  them 
and  formed  them  into  regular  "  appointments."  The  first 
Methodist  Societies  of  Scotland  were  the  two  at  Dunbar  and 
Musselborough.^^  Vfesley  found  them  prospering  twelve 
years  later,  and  the  invitation  which  led  to  his  first  visit  to 
that  country  came  from  a  military  officer  who  was  in  quar- 
ters at  Musselborough.  Some  who  were  in  the  same  regi- 
ment with  Haime,  but  resisted  if  they  did  not  resent  his 
exhortations,  joined  the  Methodists  after  they  returned  to 
England.  Eight  years  later  Wesley  found  seventeen  of 
Haime's  fellow-dragoons  in  the  society  at  Manchester,  where 
they  were  "patterns  of  seriousness,  zeal,  and  all  holy  con- 
versation." 14  Nearly  ten  years  later  he  met  at  Trowbridge 
one  who  found  peace  with  God  while  a  soldier  in  Flanders, 

11  Life  and  Times  of  Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  cliap.  7. 

12  Life  of  Thomas  Eankin,  in  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  writ- 
ten hy  themselves,  vol.  iii,  pp.  8-20, 

13  Coke  and  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  2,  sec.  2. 
"  Wesley's  Journal,  Anno  1753. 


240  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

and  having  been  much  prospered  in  business  since  his  dis- 
charge, had  built  a  preaching  house  at  his  own  expense.  He 
was  ambitious  that  Wesley  should  preach  the  first  sermon 
in  it,  but  it  was  so  excessively  crowded  before  the  introduc 
tory  hymn  was  finished,  that  he  had  to  disappoint  the  gen- 
erous soldier,  by  going  out  and  preaching  at  the  door  to  a 
"multitude  of  hearers,  rich  and  poor." 

A  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  battle  of  Fontenoy  an 
aged  preacher  wrote  to  Jolm  Wesley  that  "  all  the  promises 
of  Scripture  were  full  of  comfort  to  him,  particularly  this  : 
*■  I  have  chosen  thee  in  the  furnace  of  affliction  ;'  "  that  "  thf 
Scriptures  were  all  precious  to  his  soul  as  the  rain  to  the 
thirsty  land;"  that  he  "could  now  truly  say,  ''The  Lord  u 
Tny  shepherd^  therefore  shall  I  lack  nothing ;  he  maTceth  mt 
to  lie  down  in  green  pastures ;  he  leadeth  me  beside  the  still 
waters  ;  he  restoreth  my  soul ;  he  leadeth  me  in  the  paths  of 
righteousness  for  his  name'^s  sake.''''''  It  was  the  despondent 
but  brave  John  Haime  who  thus  wi'ote.  By  the  grace  of 
God  he  had  conquered  both  himself  and  the  devil,  and  was 
now  ready  to  conquer  "  the  last  enemy." 

In  the  Arminian  Magazine  for  1784  we  read:  "On  the 
18th  of  August,  1784,  died,  at  Whitechurch,  in  Hampshire, 
that  faithful  soldier  of  Christ,  John  Haime,  in  the  seventy- 
eighth  year  of  his  age.  He  preached  as  long  as  he  was 
able  to  speak,  and  longer  than  he  could  stand  without  sup- 
port." When  his  sight  and  speech  had  nearly  failed,  he 
exclaimed :  "  When  my  soul  departs  from  this  body  a  con- 
voy of  angels  will  conduct  me  to  the  paradise  of  God." 

More  than  forty  years  after  the  battle  of  Fontenoy,  another 
veteran  preacher  wrote  to  Wesley :  "  I  am  now  in  the  sixty- 
third  year  of  my  age,  and  glory  be  to  God,  I  am  not  weary 
of  well-doing !  I  find  my  desires  after  God  stronger  than 
ever ;  my  understanding  is  more  clear  in  the  things  of  God, 
and  my  heart  is  united  more  than  ever  both  to  him  and  his 
people.  I  know  their  religion  and  mine  is  the  gift  of  God 
through  Christ,  and  the  work  of  God  by  his  Spirit."  It  Avas 
Sampson   Staniforth;    and  in  the  Arminian  Magazine  for 


coinFEBEe'ce   of   1744  TO   1745.  241 

1799  we  read :  "  Thus  died  Sampson  Staniforth,  who  had 
steadily  walked  with  God  for  nearly  sixty  years.  He 
preached  the  Gospel  for  almost  fifty  years,  and  finished  his 
coorse  in  the  seventy-ninth  year  of  his  age.  He  possessed 
his  soul  in  patience,  and  looked  to  the  hour  of  his  disso- 
lution with  joyful  expectation  of  being  forever  with  the 
Lord.  He  w^as  neither  molested  with  gloomy  doubts  nor 
painful  fears,  nor  was  the  enemy  of  souls  permitted  to  dis- 
tress him  ;  but  as  his  heart  stood  fast,  believing  in  the  Lord, 
so  his  evidence  for  heaven  continued  unclouded  to  the  last 
moment  of  life." 

Such  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  passages  in  the  his- 
tory of  not  only  Methodism,  but  of  Christianity  in  any  age ; 
one  of  the  most  striking  proofs  of  the  inherent  and  inextin- 
guishable power  of  the  religious  instinct  in  the  most  de- 
graded natures  and  in  the  most  adverse  circumstances ;  one 
of  those  demonstrations  of  it  which  confirm  the  hope  of  good 
men  who  labor  for  the  final  and  universal  triumph  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  seemed  indeed  a  part  of  the  providential  design 
of  Methodism  that  it  should  multiply  these  demonstrations, 
as  preparatory  for  that  deepened  faith,  and  those  great  enter- 
prises of  Christian  propagandism  which  have  arisen  from  the 
impulse  that  it  gave  to  British  and  American  Protestantism. 
It  had  wrought  out  such  demonstrations  among  the  colliers 
of  Kingswood  and  Newcastle,  the  miners  of  Cornwall,  the 
peasants  of  Yorkshire,  and  the  drunken  m.ultitudes  of  Moor- 
fields  arid  Kennington  Com.mon ;  it  now  presented  another 
amid  the  vices  of  the  camp  and  the  carnage  of  battle,  rescuing 
scores  and  hundreds  of  ignorant  and  corrupt  men,  whom  ":t 
was  to  record  as  triumphing  in  death  amid  the  horrors  of 
war,  or  as  life-long  examples  of  Christian  purity  and  useful- 
ness. If  its  history  teaches  any  one  lesson  as  paramount  to 
all  its  other  suggestions,  it  is  that  good  men,  laboring  and 
suffering  for  the  salvation  of  their  race,  should  "  have  faith 
in  God"  by  having  it  in  humanity. 

Vol.  I.— 16 


242  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM, 


CHAPTEE  II. 

FROM   THE    CONFERENCE    OF    1745  TO    THE  CONFER- 
ENCE OF   iToO. 

The  Rebellion  under  Charles  Stuart  —  Wesley  abroad  amid  the  Public 
Alarm  —  His  Preaching  at  Newcastle  —  He  publishes  the  concluding  part 
of  his  Appeal  to  Men  of  Reason  and  Religion  —  Extensive  Results  of 
Methodism — Its  Exemption  from  Heresy — Its  Doctrinal  Liberality  — 
Charles  Wesley  —  John  Wesley  in  Cornwall  —  In  the  ^North  —  John 
Nelson  —  He  encounters  terrible  Mobs  —  Wesley  itinerating — -Mobs 
subdued  —  Success  of  Methodism  —  Vincent  Perronet  —  William  Grim- 
shaw  —  His  Eccentricities  —  His  extraordinary  Labors  —  He  is  mobbed 
with  Wesley  at  Roughiee  —  Charles  Wesley  itinerating  —  Extraordinary 
Riot  at  Devizes  —  The  Wesleys  in  Middle  Life  —  Marriage  of  Charlefi 
Wesley  —  John  Wesley  and  Grace  MuiTay. 

The  second  conference  met  in  Bristol  on  the  first  day  of 
August,  1745.  Metliodism  advanced  rapidly  during  the 
ensuing  ecclesiastical  year,  notwithstanding  the  general  agi- 
tation of  the  public  mind,  occasioned  by  the  attempt  of 
Charles  Stuart  to  regain  for  his  family  the  British  throne. 
He  had  taken  Edinburgh,  and  threatened  England  with  in- 
vasion. The  plans  of  Cope,  commander  of  the  government 
troops,  were  feebly  conceived  and  as  feebly  executed.  The 
possession  of  Edinburgh  and  the  victory  of  Preston  Pans 
inspired  the  rebels  with  confidence,  and  spread  alarm  through 
the  whole  country.  As  the  Pretender  was  a  Papist,  and  a. 
pensioner  of  France,  the  liberties  of  England  and  her  Pro- 
testant faith  would  be  endangered  by  his  success,  notwith- 
standing his  specious  promises.  Christian  Englishmen  could 
riot,  therefore,  but  consider  his  movements  as  imminently 
perilous  to  the  country,  and  an  alarming  retribution  from 
God  for  its  sins.     The  Wesleys  went  through  the  land  dis- 


FKOM    1745    TO    1750.  243 

tributmg  admonitory  tracts  and  hymns,  and  calling  the 
people  to  repentance  in  daily  sermons.  Newcastle,  situated 
far  in  the  north,  was  especially  exposed  to  the  enemy,  and 
was  in  great  commotion.  John  Wesley  went  thither  im- 
mediately after  the  Conference,  that  he  might  be  with  its 
Methodist  society  amid  the  agitation, ^  When  he  arrived 
he  f  }Tind  that  all  householders  were  summoned  to  meet  the 
mayor  to  devise  means  of  protection.  As  he  was  not  a 
to\vnsman  he  did  not  go,  hut  sent  a  loyal  letter.  The  people 
were  placed  under  arms ;  the  walls  were  fortified,  and  the 
gates  filled  up.  "  Many,"  he  says,  "  began  to  be  much  con- 
cerned for  us  because  our  society  house  was  without  the 
walls.  But  the  Lord  is  a  wall  of  fire  to  all  that  trust  in 
liim." 

Day  by  day  the  news  from  the  north  became  more 
alarming.  Citizens  who  had  the  necessary  means,  and  espe- 
cially the  gentry,  were  constantly  removing  their  goods  and 
hastening  to  the  south,  Wesley  meanwhile  preached  day 
and  night  in  the  streets  and  in  neighboring  villages,  encourag- 
ing the  loyalty/"  of  the  people,  and  calling  upon  them  to 
repent  of  their  sins,  and  put  their  trust  in  God.  News  came 
that  the  enemy  was  in  full  march,  and  would  reach  the  city 
the  next  day.  Instead  of  fleeing  away  for  safety  with  the 
many  who  were  leaving,  Wesley  stayed  in  the  city.  "  At 
eight  o'clock,"  he  says,  "  I  called  on  a  multitude  of  simiers 
in  Gateshead  to  seek  the  Lord  while  he  might  be  found. 
Mr.  Ellison  preached  another  earnest  sermon,  and  all  the 
people  seemed  to  bend  before  the  Lord.  In  the  afternoon  I 
expounded  part  of  the  lesson  for  the  day — Jacob  MTestling 
with  the  angeL  The  congregation  was  so  moved  that  I  be- 
gan again  and  again,  and  knew  not  how  to  conclude.  And 
we  cried  mightily  to  God  to  send  his  majesty  King  George 
help  from.  His  holy  place,  and  to  spare  a  sinful  land  yet  a 
little  longer,  if  haply  they  might  know  the  day  of  their  visi- 
tation." A  person  from  the  north  was  apprehended  and  put 
in  prison;    he  attempted  to  cut  his  throat,  but  was  saved 

*  Journal,  Anno  1745. 


244  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

from  death  by  the  physicians,  and  disclosed  plans  of  the 
rebels  which,  if  successful,  must  have  been  fatal  to  the  city. 
To  their  detection  Wesley  ascribes  its  escape.  Believing 
the  danger  over  for  the  present,  he  directed  his  course  else- 
where. 

Until  the  next  Conference  his  time  was  spent  in  unre- 
mitted travels  and  preaching.  He  prepared,  also,  during 
this  interval  the  concluding  part  of  his  "  Appeal  to  Men 
of  Reason  and  Religion."  It  is  eloquent  in  its  earnest 
ness.  After  describing  the  extreme  demoralization  whicl 
had  prevailed  through  the  nation,  he  vmtes  :  "  The  grace  of 
God  which  bringeth  salvation,  present  salvation,  from  in- 
ward and  outward  sin,  hath  abounded  of  late  years  in  such  a 
decree  as  neither  we  nor  our  fathers  had  known.  How  ex- 
tensive  is  the  change  which  has  been  wrought  on  the  minds 
and  lives  of  the  people !  Know  ye  not  that  the  sound  is 
gone  forth  into  all  the  land ;  that  there  is  scarce  a  city  or 
considerable  to^vii  to  be  found  where  some  have  not  been 
roused  out  of  the  sleep  of  death,  and  constrained  to  cry  out 
in  the  bitterness  of  their  soul,  '  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  V 
that  this  religious  concern  has  spread  to  every  age  and  sex ; 
to  naost  orders  and  degrees  of  men ;  to  abundance  of  those 
in  particular  who  in  time  past' were  accounted  naonsters  of 
wickedness,  drinking  in  iniquity  like  water,  and  committing 
all  uncleanliness  with  greediness."  ^ 

He  contends  that  this  remarkable  reformation  was  attended 
by  no  important  outbreaks  of  heretical  opinions  or  popular 
superstition.  "  In  former  times,"  he  remarks,  "  wherever 
an  miusual  concern  for  the  things  of  God  hath  appeared,  on  the 
one  hand  strange  and  erroneous  opinions  continually  sprung 
up  with  it ;  on  the  other,  a  zeal  for  things  which  were  no  part 
of  religion,  as  though  they  had  been  essential  branches  of  it. 
But  it  has  not  been  so  in  the  present.  No  stress  has  been 
laid  on  anything,  as  though  it  were  necessary  to  salvation, 
but  what  is  undeniably  contained  in  the  word  of  God.  And 
of  the  things  contained  therein,  the  stress  laid  on  each  has 

2  Wesley's  "Works,  vol.  v,  p.  M5. 


FEOM    1V45    TO    1750.  245 

been  in  proportion  to  the 'nearness  of  its  relation  to  wliat  is 
tliere  laid  do^vn  as  the  sum  of  all — the  love  of  God  and  our 
neighbor.  So  pure  ffom  superstition,  so  thoroughly  Scrip 
tural,  is  that  religion  which  has  lately  spread  in  this  nation," 
He  further  asserts  that  the  new  movement  was  singularly 
exempt  from  bigotry.  "The  Methodists  are  in  nowise 
bigoted  to  opinions.  They  do  indeed  hold  rigid  opinions, 
but  they  are  peculiarly  cautious  not  to  rest  the  weight  of 
Christianity  there.  They  have  no  such  overgro^vn  fondness 
for  any  opinions  as  to  think  those  alone  will  make  them 
Christians,  or  to  confine  their  affection  or  esteem  to  those 
who  agree  with  them  therein.  There  is  nothing  they  are 
more  fearful  of  than  this,  lest  it  should  steal  upon  them 
unawares.  They  contend  for  nothing  trifling,  as  if  it  was 
important ;  for  nothing  indifferent,  as  if  it  were  necessary ; 
but  for  everything  in  its  own  order." 

Such  was  the  very  genius  of  Methodism.  In  an  elo- 
quent concluding  passage  Wesley  asserts  its  liberality  with 
still  greater  emphasis.  He  asks  his  opponents  why  they 
will  persist  in  opposing  a  work  of  God  like  thisl  "  If  you 
say,  '  Because  you  hold  opinions  which  I  cannot  believe  are 
true,'  I  answer,  Believe  them  true  or  false,  I  will  not  quarrel 
with  you  about  any  opinion.  Only  see  that  your  heart  be 
right  toward  God,  that  you  know  and  love  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ;  that  you  love  your  neighbor,  and  walk  as  your 
Master  walked,  and  I  desire  no  more.  I  am  sick  of  opinions, 
I  am  weary  to  hear  them.  My  soul  loathes  this  frothy 
food.  Give  me  solid  and  substantial  religion ;  give  me  an 
humble,  gentle  lover  of  God  and  man,  a  man  full  of  mercy 
and  good  fruits,  without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy ; 
'  a  man  laying  himself  out  in  the  work  of  faith,  the  patience 
of  hope,  the  labor  of  love.  Let  my  soul  be  with  these 
Christians  wheresoever  they  are,  and  whatsoever  opinion 
they  are  of  '  Whosoever '  thus  '  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and 
mother.'  Inexcusably  infatuated  must  you  be  if  you  can 
ever  doubt  whether  the  propagation  of  this  religion  be  of 


246  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

God.     Only  more  inexcusable  are  those  unhappy  men  who 
oppose,  contradict,  and  blaspheme  it." 

Casting  forth  this  noble  appeal  before  the  nation,  he  went 
forward  prosecuting  his  evangelical  labors  among  the  com- 
mon people  in  almost  every  city,  town,  and  village  on  Ws 
course  from  the  Tweed  to  Land's  End.  Charles  Wesley 
spent  the  year  in  equal  labors.  A  great  religious  interest 
prevailed  at  Shepton-Mallet ;  he  hastened  from  the  Confer- 
ence at  Bristol  to  promote  it ;  but  in  going  to  the  place  of 
preaching  he  slippecT,  and  injured  one  of  his  legs  so  severely 
that  he  was  unable  to  walk  for  some  time.  He  was  carried 
about,  however,  from  place  to  place,  preaching  daily  on  his 
knees.  At  Cardiff  a  man  who  had  been  the  most  violent 
persecutor  of  the  Methodists  of  that  to^vn,  sent  his  Bath- 
chair  to  bear  the  disabled  evangelist  to  his  next  appoint- 
ment. "  Indeed,"  he  writes,  "  the  whole  place  seems  at 
present  turned  toward  us."^  During  several  weeks  he 
could  walk  only  by  the  aid  of  crutches,  but  preached  twice 
a  day  with  great  effect.  "  The  word  of  God,"  he  wrote, 
''  is  not  bound  if  I  am,  but  runs  very  swiftly.  I  have  been 
carried  to  preach  morning  and  evening."  In  Wales  and 
Cornwall,  in  London,  Bristol,  Kingswood,  and  many  other 
places,  did  he  pursue  his  labors  with  continually  increasing 
success  till  the  session  of  the  next  Conference. 

The  third  Conference  was'  held  on  the  twelfth  of  May,^ 
1746.  It  detained  the  itinerant  laborers  but  two  days  from 
their  fields.  Wesley  did  not  allude  to  it  in  his  Journal, 
but  hastened  forth  on  his  ministerial  routes,  which  now  ex- 
tended over  the  whole  of  England  and  Wales.  In  August 
he  traversed  a  large  part  of  the  Principality,  preaching  m 
churches,  on  tombstones,  and  on  the  highways,  to  greater 
congregations  than  he  had  ever  addressed  in  that  part  of 
the  kingdom.  He  was  mobbed  but  once  duriqg  this  excur- 
sion.    In  September  he  was  again  itinerating  in  Cornwall 

8  Jackson's  Life  of  Charles  "Wesley,  cliap.  12. 

4  Not  the  thirteenth,  as  the  bound  Minutes  state.     See  Smith's  His- 
tory, II,  3. 


FROM    1745    TO    1750.  247 

where  the  miners  still  crowded  to  hear  him.  The  amphi 
theater  at  Gwemiap  presented  greater  hosts  than  ever, 
and  peace  prevailed  everywhere.  He  was  not  disturbed  in 
a  single  instance  during  this  visit,  and  the  .worst  persecutors 
had  now  become  the  most  devoted  converts.  The  societies 
were  not  only  enjoying  rest  from  their  late  terrible  trials, 
but  were  gathering  strength  daily,  and  extending  to  all  the 
towns  and  villages.  Methodism  was,  in  fme,  talcing  uni- 
versal and  ineradicable  root  among  the  Cornish  population. 
The  clergy,  however,  very  generally  stood  aloof.  There 
was  one  notable  exception.  Thompson,  the  tolerant  and 
zealous  rector  of  St.  Gennis,  was  known  as  thorou^hlv 
Methodistic,  and  as  the  friend  of  Wesley,  Whitefield,  and 
Lady  Huntingdon.  He  was  a  man  of  genius,  and  had  been 
a  favorite  among  the  gentry  and  clergy,  though  debauched 
in  morals  while  in  the  ministry.  A  terrible  dream,  twice 
repeated,  led  him  to  reflection.  He  reformed  his  life,  and 
began  to  preach  in  earnest,  and  his  parishioners  were  gener- 
ally awakened  and  reformed.  He  befriended  Wesley  amid 
the  Cornish  persecutions,  and  was  soon  himself  honored  as 
a  "  Methodist."  All  the  neighboring  clergy  closed  their 
pulpits  against  him,  and  he  was  cited  at  last  before  Laving- 
ton,  his  diocesan,  the  noted  opponent  of  Methodism,  to  give 
an  account  of  his  conduct.  Lavington  threatened  to  "  strip 
the  gown  from  him  "  for  his  Methodistic  practices.  Thomp- 
son stripped  it  off  himself,  and  casting  it  at  the  prelate's 
feet,  said,  "  I  can  preach  the  Gospel  without  a  gown,"  and 
left  him  astonished  at  his  independence.  On  recovering 
from  his  amazement,  Lavington  recalled  him,  and  soothed 
him  with  explanatory  remarks.  The  zealous  rector  re- 
mained faithful  to  his  Methodist  friends  till  death,  and  did 
much  for  the  moral  improvement  of  CoruAvall.^ 

*  He  died  in  1782.  Wesley  says,  (Journal,  1782,)  "  I  preached  in  the 
street  at  Camelford.  Being  informed  here  that  my  old  friend  Mr.  Thomp- 
son, rector  of  St.  Gennis,  was  near  death,  and  had  expressed  a  particular 
desire  to  see  me,  I  judged  no  time  was  to  be  lost ;  so  borrowing  the  \  est 
Jaorse  I  could  find,  I  set  out  and  rode  as  fast  as  I  could."  He  found  the 
rector  just  alive,  and  troubled,  like  Buuyau's  pilgrim,  with  inward  con- 


248  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

During  the  winter  Wesley  directed  his  course  toward 
the  north,  through  severe  storms.  He  instituted  a  thor- 
ough pastoral  examination  of  the  societies  on  his  route ;  a 
small  one  at  Tetney  he  pronounced  the  best  in  the  country. 
Its  class-paper  showed  an  extraordinary  liberality  for 'so 
poor  a  people.  "Are  you  the  richest  society  in  England  f 
he  inquired.  "  All  of  us,"  replied  the  class-leader,  "  who 
are  single  persons,  have  agreed  together  to  give  both  our- 
selves and  all  we  have  to  God ;  and  v^e  do  it  gladly,  whereby 
we  are  able,  from  time  to  time,  to  entertain  all  the  strangers 
that  come  to  Tetney,  who  often  have  no  food  to  eat  nor  any 
friend  to  give  them  a  lodging."  At  Osmotherly,  a  large 
congregation  gathered  around  him,  and  "  those,"  he  wrote, 
"who  had  been  the  most  bitter  gainsay ers  seemed  now  to 
be  melted  into  love."  At  Newcastle  he  was  encouraged  to 
find  the  society  alive  with  zeal,  and  in  perfect  harmony. 
"They  are,"  he  writes,  "of  one  heart  and  of  one  mind.  I 
found  all  in  the  house  of  the  same  spirit,  pouring  out  their 
souls  to  God  many  times  in  a  day  together,  and  breathing 
nothing  but  love  and  brotherly  kindness."  Many  from  the 
higher  classes  assembled  at  the  society's  place  of  worship. 
"Surely,"  he  wrote,  "God  is  working  a  new  thing  in  the 
earth.  Even  to  the  rich  is  the  Gospel  preached ;  and  there  are, 
of  these  also,  who  have  ears  to  hear,  and  hearts  to  receive 
the  truth  as  it.  is  in  Jesus."  At  Blanchland  he  preached 
in  the  church-yard  to  a  great  crowd,  gathered  from  the  lead 
mines  of  all  the  neighboring  country  as  far  as  Allendale,  six 
miles  distant.  They  drank  in  his  words  as  if  athirst  for  the 
truth.  At  Sunderland,  where  Jolm  Nelson  had  founded 
Methodism,  as  we  have  seen,  by  a  passing  word  of  ex- 
hortation, while  led  through  the  place  in  his  regiment, 
Wesley  now  preached  in  the  streets  to  a  multitude  which 
reminded  him  of  the  living  seas  at  Kennington  Common. 
He  sought  out  the  neglected  and  degraded  towns  and  ham- 

fllcts.  "Wesley  proved  a  comforter  to  him ;  they  took  the  Lord's  Supper 
together  for  the  last  time ;  "  and  I  left  him,"  writes  he,  "  miick 
happ'ier  than  I  found  him,  calmly  waiting  till  his  change  should  come."* 


FROM    1745    TO    1750.  249 

lets,  and  penetrated  especially  into  the  mining  villages.  At 
Hexham,  he  says,  "  a  multitude  of  people  soon  ran  together, 
the  greater  part  mad  as  colts  untamed.  Many  had  prom- 
ised to  do  mighty  things.  But  the  bridle  was  in  their 
teeth.  I  cried  aloud :  '  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and 
the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts.'  They  felt  the  sharpness 
of  the  two-edged  sword,  and  sunk  into  seriousness  on  every 
side,  insomuch  that  I  heard  not  one  unkind  or  uncivil  word, 
till  we  left  them  standing  and  staring  one  at  another." 
Happily  he  was  now  able,  by  means  of  the  lay  ministry,  to 
send  laborers  into  the  fields  wherever  he  thus  broke  up  the 
fallow  ground ;  men  Avho  had  been  plucked  by  Methodism 
from  the  midst  of  these  same  heathen  crowds,  and  knew 
how  to  approach  them. 

John  Nelson  was  unquestionably  at  the  head  of  this  grow- 
ing corps  of  lay  evangelists.  Wesley  unexpectedly  met 
him  about  this  time  at  Osmotherly,  vfhither  the  good  stone- 
mason had  just  escaped  from  perils  such  as  he  had  never 
before  encountered,  and  which  could  not  have  failed  to  crown 
him  with  the  honors  of  martyrdom,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
Herculean  vigor  of  his  frame.  Since  we  last  parted  from 
him  he  had  been  pursuing  his  itinerant  labors  with  unfalter- 
ing energy  and  success  at  Birstal,  and  in  Somersetshire  and 
Wiltshire.  He  spent  four  months  in  these  localities,  and 
gathered  numerous  converts  into  societies  at  Poulton,  Cole- 
ford,  Oakley,  Shepton-Mallet,  Rood,  and  Bearfieid.  "  So  God 
doth  work,"  wrote  the  brave  man,  amid  these  successes ;  "  so 
God  doth  work,  and  none  can  hinder,  though  the  instruments 
be  ever  so  weak;  if  he  bids,  a  worm  shall  shake  the  earth."® 
In  his  own  town  of  Birstal,  contrary  to  the  usual  fate  of 
prophets,  he  was  held  in  high  honor,  and  saw  Methodism 
bpread  out  on  the  right  and  left.  No  bishop  of  the  realm 
could  have  wielded  a  stronger  influence  among  his  humble 
fellow-townsmen.  He  was  called  about  this  time  to  witness 
there  an  affecting  instance  of  the  power  of  religion.  An 
"old  gentleman"  who  had  been  among  his  opposers,  and 
6  Nelson's  Journal,  p.  165.    Am.  ed. 


250  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

had  aided  in  his  impressment,  was  prostrated  by  mortal 
sickness,  and  now  sent,  with  contrition,  for  his  prayers 
and  instructions.  Nelson  says,  "he  trembled  and  wept 
bitterly,  and  I  found  him  under  as  great  convictions 
as  I  ever  saw  a  man."  After  his  third  visit  the  aged 
sufferer  was  comforted  with  peace  in  believing,  and  for  five 
weeks  that  he  remained  on  earth  he  was  not  a  day  without 
some  divine  consolation,  and  continued  to  utter  praises  to 
God,  and  exhortations  to  his  family  and  visitors  till  he 
expired.  "He  seemed,"  says  Nelson,  "to  be  sanctified 
body,  soul,  and  spirit."  He  requested  Nelson  to  preach 
over  his  corpse.  The  scene  exhibited  by  the  humble  itin- 
erant as  he  stood  at  the  grave  of  the  old  but  reclaimed  per- 
secutor must  have  been  sublime.  He  had  gathered  many 
similar  trophies  from  the  ranks  of  his  enemies  while  they 
were  in  the  fullness  of  life  and  health,  but  here  was  one 
plucked  from  the  very  grasp  of  death.  The  discourse  was 
attended  with  extraordinary  effect.  Many  of  his  former 
enemies  were  smitten  under  it  with  remorse ;  and  a  "  great 
awakening,"  he  writes  to  Wesley,  "  followed  throughout  the 
town."'' 

In  the  former  strongholds  of  the  mob  quiet  now  prevailed* 
for  the  itinerants  had  won  the  field.  But  Nelson  was  a 
pioneer,  continually  penetrating  into  new  regions,  and  almost 
everywhere  riotous  outrages  were  enacted  at  his  coming. 
No  man,  not  even  Wesley  himself,  had  more  success  in 
mastering  such  hostilities ;  but  sometimes  they  were  uncon- 
trollable, and  his  escape  from  death  seemed  miraculous.  As 
he  advanced  about  this  time  toward  the  course  of  Wesley, 
he  was  assailed  at  Harborough  by  almost  the  "  whole  town, 
men,  women,  and  children."  The  young  men  and  appren- 
tices had  previously  combined  with  the  determination  to 
seize  the  first  Methodist  preacher  who  should  come  among 
them,  and   drag  him,  with   a  halter   round   his   neck,   to 

7  This  incident  is  not  related  in  his  Journal,  but  in  a  letter  to  Wesley, 
published  by  the  latter  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Arminian  Magazine, 
(1778,)  p.  259. 


FEOM    1745    TO    1750.  251 

the  river  to  drown  him,  thereby  deterring  any  others,  as 
they  hoped,  from  troubling  the  town.  A  son  of  the  parish 
clergyman  was  leader  of  the  mob.  A  partially  insane  man 
had  been  appointed  to  put  the  halter  on  the  preacher's  neck, 
and  now  assailed  Nelson  with  one  in  his  hand.  A  butcher 
stood  with  a  rope  to  aid  in  dragging  him  to  the  stream. 
But  Nelson's  power  over  his  hearers  was  invincible ;  while 
his  voice  was  heard  the  leaders  of  the  mob  could  do  noth- 
ing. They  procured  six  large  hand-bells  as  the  best  means 
of  breaking  the  spell  of  his  eloquence.  They  succeeded  in 
drowning  his  voice,  when  the  madman  rushed  in  and  put  the 
halter  to  his  throat.  Nelson  pushed  it  back,  and  the  maniac 
fell  to  the  ground  as  if  "  knocked  down  by  an  ax."  The 
butcher  stood  trembling  with  awe,  and  dared  not  touch  him. 
A  constable  who  was  disposed  to  favor  the  rioters  came,  but 
on  approaching  the  preacher  "  turned  pale,"  took  him  by  the 
hand,  led  him  through  the  mob,  and  helping  him  to  mount 
his  horse,  bade  him  "  go  on  in  the  name  of  the  Lord."  "  O- 
my  God!"  exclaimed  the  delivered  evangelist,  "hitherto 
thou  hast  helped  me !" 

Nelson  was  to  encounter,  however,  worse  perils  immedi- 
ately after  at  Hep  worth  Moor.  He  was  /assailed  there  with 
a  shower  of  stones  while  preaching  on  a  table  in  the  open 
air.  All  who  were  around  him  fled,  leaving  him  as  a  mark 
for  the  flying  missiles,  but  none  touched  him.  When  he 
descended  and  was  departing,  he  was  struck  on  the  back  of 
his  head  with  a  brick,  and  fell  bleeding  to  the  earth.  He 
was  unable  to  rise  for  some  time,  but  being  lifted  up,  stag- 
gered away,  the  blood  running  down  his  back  and  filling  his 
shoes,  and  the  mob  following  him  with  shouts  and  menaces 
that  they  would  kill  him  as  soon  as  he  passed  the  limits  of  the 
town.  "  Lord,"  cried  the  periled  Methodist,  as  he  tottered 
along,  "  thou  wast  slain  without  the  gate,  and  canst  deliver 
me  from  the  hands  of  these  bloodthirsty  men."  An  honest 
man  opened  his  door  and  took  him  in ;  a  surgeon  dressed 
his  wound,  and  the  same  day  he  was  on  his  way  to  preach 
at  Acomb.     There  his  trials  were  to  culminate,     A  coach 


252  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

drove  up  crowded  within  and  without  by  young  mei,  who 
sang  bacchanalian  songs  and  threw  rotten  eggs  at  the  women 
of  the  assembly.  Two  of  the  strongest  of  the  rioters  ap. 
proached  him,  one  of  them  swearing  that  he  would  kill  him 
on  the  spot.  Handing  his  coat  and  wig  to  his  associate,  he 
rushed  at  the  preacher  crying,  "If  I  do  not  kill  him  I  will 
be  damned."  Nelson  stepped  aside  and  the  assailant  pitched 
on  his  head ;  on  rising  he  repeated  the  attempt,  and  rent 
away  Nelson's  shirt  collar,  but  again  fell.  In  a  third  assault 
he  prostrated  the  preacher,  and  leaping  with  his  knees  upon 
him,  beat  him  until  he  was  senseless,  opening  meanwhile 
the  wound  on  his  head,  which  bled  freely.  The  ruffian  sup- 
posed he  was  dead  and  returned  to  his  associates,  seizing 
as  he  passed  one  of  Nelson's  friends,  whom  he  threw  against 
a  wall  with  such  violence  as  to  break  two  of  his  ribs.  The 
rest  of  the  mob  doubted  whether  Nelson  had  been  completely 
dispatched,  and  twenty  of  them  approached  him.  They 
found  him  bleeding  profusely,  and  lifted  him  up.  The 
brother  of  the  parish  clergyman  was  among  them,  and  de- 
nouncing him,  said :  "  According  to  your  preaching,  you 
would  prove  our  ministers  to  be  blind  guides  and  false 
prophets ;  but  we  will  kill  you  as  fast  as  you  come."  An- 
other said  :  "  If  Wesley  comes  on  Tuesday  he  shall  not  live 
another  day  in  this  world."  When  they  had  got  him  into 
the  street  they  set  up  a  huzza,  and  a  person  caught  hold  of 
his  right  hand  "  and  gave  him  a  hasty  pluck ;"  at  the  same 
time  another  struck  him  on  the  side  of  his  head  and  knocked 
him  down.  As  he  arose  they  again  prostrated  him.  No 
less  than  eight  times  did  they  fell  him  to  the  earth.  His 
robust  frame  alone  saved  him  from  death.  When  he  lay  on 
the  ground  unable  to  rise  again,  they  took  him  by  the  hair 
of  his  head  and  dragged  him  upon  the  stones  for  nearly 
twenty  yards,  some  kicking  him,  meanwhile,  with  merciless 
rage.  Six  of  them  stood  upon  him,  to  "tread  the  Holy 
Ghost  out  of  him,"  as  they  said.  "  Then  they  let  me  alone 
a  little  while,"  he  writes,  "  and  said  one  to  another,  '  We 
cannot  kill  him.'     One  said,  '  1  have  heard  that  a  cat  hath 


FKOM    1745    TO    1750.  258 

nine  lives,  "but  I  think  that  he  hath  nine  score.'  Another 
said,  ^  If  he  has  he  shall  die  this  day.'  A  third  said, '  Where 
is  his  horse,  for  he  shall  quit  the  town  immediately.'  And 
they  said  to  me,  '  Order  your  horse  to  be  brought  to  you, 
for  you  shall  go  before  we  leave  you.'  I  said,  '  I  will  not, 
for  you  intend  to  kill  me  in  private,  that  you  may  escape 
justice ;  but  if  you  do  murder  me  it  shall  be  in  public ;  and 
it  may  be  that  the  gallows  will  bring  you  to  repentance,  and 
your  souls  may  be  saved  from  the  wrath  to  come."  They 
attempted  then  to  drag  him  to  a  well  and  thrust  him  into 
it,  but  a  courageous  woman  who  was  standing  near  it,  de- 
fended him,  knocking  several  of  his  persecutors  down. 
These  ruffians  passed  in  the  community  for  gentlemen,  and 
while  still  harassing  Nelson  at  the  well,  they  were  recog- 
nized by  two  ladies  in  a  carriage  from  the  city,  whom  they 
knew;  they  slunk  away  confounded,  and  their  victim  es- 
caped. 

Such  was  John  Nelson's  most  perilous  itinerant  adventure. 
He  certainly  deserved  for  it  the  honors,  though  he  escaped 
the  fate  of  martyrdom.  His  powerful  constitution  rallied 
mmediately  from,  the'  effect  of  this  terrible  treatment,  and 
jhe  very  next  day  the  heroic  man  rode  forty  miles,  and 
stood,  with  unbroken  spirit,  at  evening,  resting  himself  against 
a  tombstone  in  Osmotherly  churchyard,  listening  to  Wesley 
as  he  proclaimed  from  it  the  word  of  life  to  the  assembled 
population  of  the  town.  "  I  found,"  he  writes,  "  his  word, 
to  come  with  power  to  my  soul,  and  was  constrained  to  cry 
out,  '  0  Lord  I  will  praise  thee  for  thy  goodness  to  me, 
for  thou  hast  been  with  me  in  all  my  trials ;  thou  hast 
brought  me  out  of  the  jaws  of  death ;  and  though  thou  didst 
permit  men  to  ride  over  my  head,  and  laid  affliction  on  my 
loins,  yet  thou  hast  brought  me  through  fire  and  water  into 
a  wealthy  place.' "  He  assures  us  that  in  all  these  perils  his 
soul  was  kept  in  peace,  so  that  he  felt  neither  fear  nor  anger, 
and  adds  with  grateful  emphasis :  "  So  far,  Lord,  I  am  thy 
witness;  for  thou  dost  give  strength  for  our  day  according 
to  thy  word,  and  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need.     O  my  dear 


254  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

Redeemer,  how  shall  I  praise  thee  as  thou  oughtest  to  be 
praised?  O  let  my  life  be  a  living  sacrifice  to  thee,  for  it 
is  by  thee  alone  that  I  have  escaped  both  temporal  and  eternal 
death,"  His  meekness  was  equal  to  his  courage,  and  both 
were  surpassed  only  by  his  charity. 

The  good  seed  scattered  by  this  noble  evangelist  amid 
".he  mobs  of  Yorkshire,  sprang  up,  however,  under  the  very 
storm,  in  rich  harvests.  His  fiercest  persecutors  became 
often  the  most  zealous  Methodists ;  they  were  sometimes 
sm.itten  by  their  consciences  in  the  act  of  assailing  or  bur- 
lesquing him  and  his  fellow-laborers.  John  Thorp  was  a 
frequenter  of  an  ale-house  in  Yorkshire,  where  such  bur- 
lesques were  the  entertainment  of  a  bacchanalian  company. 
One  after  another  mounted  a  table,  and,  with  the  Bible  in 
hand,  recited  a  text,  and  mimicked  the  itinerant  preachers. 
Three  had  done  so  when  Thorp  took  his  stand,  declaring  he 
would  excel  them  all  by  an  imitation  of  Whitefield.  He 
opened  the  book  by  hazard  for  his  text,  and  read  Luke 
xiii,  3:  "Except  ye  repent  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish."  The 
passage  struck  his  conscience  like  a  bolt  from  heaven.  He 
w^as  terrified  at  his  own  guilt,  but  proceeded  with  his  dis- 
course, to  the  astonishment  of  his  drunken  associates,  who 
were  spellbound  with  awe,  and  dared  not  interrupt  him. 
Some  of  his  sentences,  he  saysi,  made  his  own  hair  stand 
erect.  "  If  ever  I  preached  in  my  life,"  he  added,  "  by  the 
assistance  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  it  was  at  that  time."  Finish- 
ing his  discourse,  he  dismounted  from  the  table,  and  returned 
home  without  another  word  to  his  companions ;  he  forsook 
them  forever  and  immediately  joined  the  Methodist  Society. 
During  two  years  he  suffered  under  deep  anguish,  but  at 
last  found  peace  in  believing,  and  became  one  of  Wesley's 
preachers.^ 

Wesley  and  Nelson  took  counsel  and  comfort  together  at 

8  "  He  was  successful  wherever  he  went,"  says  a  writer  in  the  Armin- 
ian  Magazine.  He  afterward  ministered  to  an  Independent  church, 
and  died  in  1776.  A  brother  clergyman  says :  "  He  was  a  very  holy 
man,  much  respected  during  his  life,  and  made  a  glorious  end." 


FROM    1745    TO    IToO.  255 

Osmotherly  over  their  afflictions  and  successes,  and  separated 
immediately  for  other  trials  and  triumphs.  At  Leeds,  where 
Nelson  had  successfully  established  Methodism,  Wesley 
found  an  extraordinary  interest,  and  preached  to  an  immense 
assembly,  hundreds  of  whom  went  away  unable  to  hear  his 
voice.  At  Birstal,  Nelson's  home,  the  naultitude  was  scarcely 
less  numerous.  At  Keighley,  where,  during  a  previous  visit, 
lie  had  formed  a  society  of  ten  members,  he  now  met  more 
than  a  hundred.  At  Manchester,  where  Nelson  had  preached 
the  first  Methodist  lay  sermon  in  1743,  he  again  met  that 
noble  lay  laborer.  Nelson  had  announced  his  coming 
through  the  city,  and  gathered  a  vast  multitude  to  hear  him. 
Wesley  passed  on  to  Plymouth,  where  he  was  again  mobbed. 
A  lieutenant,  with  drummers,  and  a  retinue  of  soldiers  and 
rabble,  greeted  him  with  huzzas.  He  rode  into  the  midst  of 
them  and  conquered,  as  usual.  He  took  the  lieutenant  by  the 
hand,  and  subdued  him  by  a  few  gentle  words.  "  Sir,"  exclaimed 
the  soldier,  "no  man  shall  touch  you;  I  will  see  you  safe 
home.  Stand  off !  Give  back  !  I  will  knock  the  first  man 
down  that  touches  him  !"  and  led  him  safely  to  his  lodgings. 
"  We  then  parted,"  says  Wesley,  "  in  much  love."  After 
the  officer  had  left  him  he  still  kept  his  ground,  and  for 
half  an  hour  addressed  the  astonished  people,  who,  he  says, 
"had  forgotten  their  anger,  and  went  away  in  high  good- 
humor."  The  next  day  he  preached  on  the  common  to  a 
"  well-behaved  and  earnest  congregation." 

He  went  again  into  Cornwall.  There  the  field  had  been 
severely  contested,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  was  won  at  last. 
At  St.  Ives,  he  says,  "  vre  walked  to  church  without  so  much 
as  one  huzza.  How  strangely  has  one  year  changed  the 
scene  in  Cornwall !  This  is  now  a  peaceable,  nay,  honorable 
station.  They  give  us  good  words  almost  in  every  place. 
What  have  we  done  that  the  world  should  be  so  civil  to 
us?"  His  favorite  preaching  place,  the  natural  amphi- 
theater at  Gwennap,  was  again  filled  with  an  immense 
audience.  At  Bray,  he  says,  "  neither  the  house  nor  the 
yard  could  contain  the  congregation,  and  all  were  serious; 


256  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

the  scoffers  are  vanished  away  ;  I  scarce  saw  cne  in  the 
county.  I  preached  in  the  evening  at  Camborne  to  an 
equally  serious  congregation ;  I  looked  about  for  the  cham- 
pion who  had  so  often  sworn  I  should  never  more  preach  in 
that  parish ;  but  it  seems  he  had  given  up  the  cause,  saying, 
one  may  as  well  blow  against  the  wind."  There  were 
eighteen  exhorters  in  the  county,  some  of  whom  had  good 
talents,  and  did  valuable  service  for  the  Societies.  At  a  few 
new  points  he  met  with  mobs,  but  they  succumbed  quickly 
before  him.  Returning  to  Bristol,  he  found  the  largest  con- 
gregation he  had  ever  seen  there.  "  What,"  he  writes,  "  has 
God  wrought  in  this  city  !  And  yet,  perhaps,  the  hundredth 
part  of  his  work  does  not  now  appear."  From  Bristol  he 
passed  into  Wales,  and  thence  over  to  Ireland,  where  he 
spent  more  than  a  month. 

During  the  remainder  of  our  present  period,  down  to  the 
Conference  of  1750,  he  traveled  and  preached  with  augmented 
activity.  He  made  several  visits  to  Ireland.  In  England 
and  Wales  he  found  Methodism  everywhere  advancing,  and 
proving  its  evangelical  power  by  its  salutary  results.  At 
Coleford,  he  writes,  "  the  colliers  of  this  place  were  '  dark- 
ness,' indeed,  but  now  they  are  light."  At  Wednesbury, 
formerly  the  scene  of  the  worst  riots,  he  preached  to  vast 
congregations,  "  every  man,  woman,  and  child,"  he  says, 
"behaving  in  a  mamier  becoming  the  Gospel."  Even  in 
London  a  favorable  change  appeared.  St.  Bartholomew's 
Church  was  again  opened  to  him,  and  Bateman,  the  rector, 
had  become  known  as  a  "  Methodist."  "  How  strangely  is 
the  scene  changed !"  he  writes ;  "  what  laughter  and  tumult 
was  there  among  the  best  of  the  parish  when  we  preached 
in  a  London  church  ten  years  ago !  And  now  all  are  calm 
and  quietly  attentive,  from  the  least  even  to  the  greatest.' 
The  congregation  in  Moorfields,  he  adds  the  next  day,  was 
greatly  enlarged,  and  their  seriousness  increased  with  their 
numbers,  so  "that  it  was  comfortable  even  to  see  them." 
At  his  native  town  of  Epworth  he  was  once  more  allowed 
to  receive  the  Lord's  Supper.     He  preached  in  the  open  air 


FROM    1745    TO    1750.  257 

at  the  Cross,  for  the  church  could  not  contain  the  people  had 
it  been  open  to  him.  Almost  the  whole  to^vn  were  present. 
"  God  has  wrought,"  he  says,  "  upon  the  whole  place. 
Sabbath-breaking  and  drunkenness  are  no  more  seen  in 
these  streets ;  cursing  and  swearing  are  rarely  heard ; 
wickedness  hides  its  head  already.  Who  knows  but,  by  and 
by,  God  may  utterly  take  it  away  ?"  At  Grimsby,  where 
the  mob  had  repeatedly  triumphed,  his  hearers  crowded 
not  only  the  large  society  room,  but  adjacent  apartments,  the 
stairs,  and  the  street,  for  "  the  fear  of  God  had  spread  in  an 
uncommon  manner  among  this  people  also."  At  Newcastle, 
where  he  again  spent  considerable  time,  he  found  not  only  a 
great  increase  of  members  in  the  society,  but  also  more 
spiritual  life  and  zeal  than  he  had  ever  witnessed  there ; 
and  the  same,  he  records,  was  true  in  all  the  neighboring- 
country  societies.  At  Bolton  tranquillity  prevailed  after 
a  violent  storm  of  several  weeks,  during  which  many  were 
beaten  and  wounded,  but  none  turned  from  their  steadfast- 
ness. At  Bristol  the  society  had  increased  to  more  than  seven 
hundred  members.  At  Leeds  and  Birstal  his  congregations 
were  so  immense  that  two  thirds  of  them  could  not  hear  his 
voice.  "  Who,"  he  asks,  "  would  have  expected  such  an  incon- 
venience as  this,  after  we  had  been  twelve  years  employ- 
ed in  the  work.  Surely  none  will  now  ascribe  the  num- 
ber of  the  hearers  to  the  novelty  of  field  preaching." 

Wesley  received  important  assistance  during  these  times 
from  Eev.  Vincent  Perronet,  vicar  of  Shoreham,  a  man  of 
saintly  piety,  who  became  his  confidential  counselor,  and  gave 
two  sons  to  the  itinerant  ministry.  Perronet's  house  was 
often  the  resort  of  both  the  Wesley s  for  consultation.  He 
adopted  their  strongest  views  of  personal  religion,  and  wrote 
several  pamphlets  in  defense  of  Methodism.  Wesley  dedi- 
cated to  him  the  "  Plain  Account  of  the  People  called  Meth- 
odists." During  a  long  life,  this  venerable  man  maintained 
unbroken  friendship  with  the  Methodist  founders,  and  co- 
operated with  them  in  their  extraordinary  plans  of  evangeli- 
sation, though  they  were  condemned  bv  most  of  the  regular 

Vol.  I.— 17 


258  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

clergy  as  dangerousl  j  eccentric  if  not  insanely  fanatical.  So 
Important  were  liis  counsels  in  the  early  stages  of  Meth 
odism,  that  Charles  Wesley  used  to  call  him  its  Archbishop.^ 
A  still  more  active  coadjutor  of  the  Wesleys  among  the 
regular  clergy,  at  this  time,  was  Rev.  William  Crimshaw, 
curate  of  Haworth,  in  Yorkshire.  He  had  studied  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  went  from  the  university  to  his  clerical  duties, 
corrupt  in  his  morals  and  unsound  in  his  opinions.  Content 
with  the  perfunctory  attendance  on  his  parish  duties,  he 
considered  himself  a  fair  example  of  the  clerical  manners 
of  the  times ;  especially  as  it  is  said  that  he  refrained,  as 
much  as  possible,  from  gross  swearing,  unless  "  in  suitablB 
company,"  and  when  he  got  drunk  would  take  care  to  sleep 
it  off  before  he  went  home.^^  In  the  twenty-sixth  year  of 
his  age  he  was  arrested  in  this  negligent  and  depraved  course 
of  life  by  powerful  religious  impressions.  After  ten  years 
spent  in  orders,  and  a  protracted  period  of  mental  anguish, 
which  sometimes  seemed  to  verge  on  insanity,  he  found  con- 
solation and  purification  in  those  vital  doctrines  which  were 
distinctive  of  the  theology  of  Methodism,  though  he  had  not 
yet  heard  a  Methodist  preacher,  or  read  a  Methodist  publi- 
cation. In  1742  he  took  charge  of  the  curacy  of  Haworth, 
aiid  three  years  afterward  gave  in  his  adhesion  to  Wesley 
as  one  of  his  "  Assistants."  ^^  He  retained  his  parish  at 
Haworth,  but  superintended  two  Methodist  circuits  which 
included  it  and  extended  over  many  towns  in  Yorkshire, 
Lancashire,  and  Cheshire.  So  thorough  were  his  labors 
on  these  districts  that  they  usually  bore  the  name  of 
"  Grimshaw's  circuits,"  and  the  lay  itinerants  the  title  of 
"Grimshaw's  preachers."  He  regulated  the  Classes,  re 
newed  the  Tickets,  conducted  the  Love-feasts,  and  did  all  the 
other  duties  of  a  Methodist  preacher.  He  took  part  in  the 
proceedings  of  Wesley's  Conference  once  in  three  years 
when  it  was  held  at  Leeds.     When  it  sat  in  Bristol  oi 

» Jackson's  Centenary  of  Methodism,  chap.  5. 
10  Grimshaw's  Life,  by  Myles. 
"  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  H,  3. 


FEOM    1745    TO    1750.  259 

London,  his  incessant  itinerant  preaching  would  not  admit 
of  his  attendance. ^2 

He  was  an  original  character,  but  his  eccentricities  gen- 
erally took  a  useful  direction,  and  were  combined  with  much 
humility,  and  with  unusual  charity.  His  Haworth  parish- 
ioners are  said  to  have  been  as  ignorant  and  brutal  as  their 
country  is  wild  aM  rugged,  but  he  thoroughly  reformed  them. 
His  congregations  increased  so  much  that  they  could  not  get 
into  the  church,  but  crowded  the  doorways,  windows,  and 
adjacent  fields.  They  often  melted  under  his  preaching,  and 
many  of  his  hearers  fell  to  the  earth  as  dead  men.  Four 
hamlets  were  comprised  in  his  parish;  besides  his  regular 
church  services,  he  preached  in  these  villages  four  times 
monthly,  in  order  to  reach  the  aged  and  infirm,  and  such  as 
were  not  disposed  to  attend  the  regular  service.  Frequent- 
ly he  would  preach  before  the  doors  of  such  as  neglected  the 
parish  worship.  "  If  you  will  not  come  to  hear  me  at  the 
church,"  he  would  say  on  these  occasions,  "  you  shall  hear  me 
at  home ;  if  you  perish  you  shall  perish  with  the  sound  of  the 
Gospel  in  your  ears."  He  traveled  over  his  two  circuits 
every  two  weeks,  often  preaching  thirty  times  a  week,  and 
whenever  he  was  at  Haworth  he  held  a  meeting  in  the  par- 
sonage at  dawn  or  before  it.  If  idlers  loitered  in  the  church- 
yard during  worship,  when  the  building  was  not  crowded,  he 
would  go  out  while  the  congregation  was  singing,  and  compel 
them  to  go  in.  Sometimes  he  would  escape  from  the  church 
to  the  streets  and  ale-houses,  and  hunting  out  the  delin- 
quents, would  drive  them  before  him  to  the  service.  He 
held  a  Sunday  evening  meeting  expressly  for  such  parish- 
ioners as  excused  themselves  from  the  day  worship  on  ac- 
count of  their  poor  clothes.  He  sometimes  disguised  him- 
self, that  he  might  go  out  among  his  parishioners  and  detect 
and  reprove  their  vices.  To  a  family  who  were  noted  for 
their  supposed  liberality  to  the  poor,  he  went  in  the  charac- 
ter of  an  aged  beggar  and  asked  a  night's  lodging,  but  was 

12  ;By  Wesley's  regulations  the  Conference  sessions  were  held  for  some 
years  only  at  London,  Bristol,  and  Leeds. 


260  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

turned  away  with  harshness  :  he  knew  how  to  address  them 
afterward.  He  was  devoted  to  Wesley's  itinerants;  his 
house  was  their  home ;  he  performed  even  menial  services 
for  them,  and  when  the  parsonage  was  crowded,  as  it  ofte?> 
was  by  them  and  their  religious  followers,  he  would  give 
Tip  his  bed  and  sleep  in  the  barn.  He  cleaned  their  shoes ; 
he  opened  his  kitchen  for  their  preaching ;  and  as  the  rules  of 
the  Church  would  not  allow  them  to  be  introduced  into  his 
pulpit,  he  built  a  chapel  and  preaching-house  for  them  in  his 
parish.  When  one  of  them  had  preached  with  great  eifecty 
he  fell  down  at  his  feet,  declaring  that  he  was  not  worthy  to 
stand  in  the  presence  of  the  unordained  evangelist.  Another 
he  took  in  his  arms  with  grateful  admiration,  exclaiming : 
"  The  Lord  bless  thee !  this  is  worth  a  hundred  of  my  ser- 
mons." He  was  almost  recklessly  liberal,  denying  himself 
of  everything  but  the  sheerest  necessities  of  life  that  he 
might  aid  the  poor.  It  was  his  frequent  boast,  "  If  I  should 
die  to  day,  I  have  not  a  penny  to  leave  behind  me."  He 
was  as  honest  as  liberal,  however,  and,  contrary  to  the  ex- 
pectation of  his  friends,  died  without  debt.  He  usually  rose 
at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  the  hour  was  made  known 
through  the  parsonage  by  his  voice  singing  the  Doxology 

of  Ken : 

"  Praise  God  from  wljom  all  blessings  flow." 

He  lived  constantly  as  at  the  gate  of  heaven  and  about  to 
enter  it ;  standing  in  the  midst  of  his  household  at  the  close  of 
the  morning  devotions,  he  took  formal  leave  of  them  as  for  the 
last  time,  with  the  benediction,  "  May  God  bless  you  in  your 
souls,  and  in  your  bodies,  and  in  all  you  put  your  hands  to  to- 
day. Whether  you  live  or  die,  may  the  Lord  grant  that  you 
may  live  to  him,  and  for  him,  and  with  him  forever."  He 
was  a  natural  orator,  and  often  sublimely  eloquent,  though 
always  intelligible  to  the  rude  population  around  him.  He 
was,  says  one  who  knew  him  well,  "  the  most  humble  walker 
with  Christ  I  ever  met."  ^^  There  was  a  sort  of  reckless 
and  boundless  generosity  about  his  eccentric  nature,  and  it 
"  Arminian  Magazine,  1795. 


FKOM    1745    TO    1750.  261 

infected  and  won  all  who  approached  him.  Wesley  and 
Whitefield  often  visited  him ;  and  on  these  occasions  he  ral 
lied  the  population  of  all  the  neighboring  country.  The  pray- 
ers were  read  in  the  church,  but  as  only  a  small  portion  of 
the  assemblies  could  get  within  it,  a  platform  was  erected 
without  for  the  preaching.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  usually 
administered  afterward  at  the  altar,  the  congregation  filling 
the  house  repeatedly  to  receive  it. 

While  Wesley  was  prosecuting  his  travels  during  the 
present  period,  Grimshaw  encountered  with  him  a  severe 
assault  from  a  mob.  They  rode  to  Roughlee ;  again  and 
again  were  they  stopped  on  the  way  by  their  friends,  who 
entreated  them  not  to  proceed,  for  the  rioters  were  rising  at 
Colne  to  meet  them.  They  pressed  forward,  however,  and 
arrived  at  Roughlee  before  the  mob  appeared.  Wesley  says 
he  was  afraid  for  Grimshaw ;  but  his  apprehensions  were 
unfounded,  for  the  heroic  curate  was  "  ready  to  go  to  prison 
or  death  for  Christ's  sake."  Wesley  took  his  stand  and  be- 
gan to  preach.  Before  he  ended  his  sermon  the  mob  reached 
the  town,  and  came  pouring  down  the  hill-side  like  a  torrent. 
He  consulted  with  their  leader,  by  whom  he  was  borne 
off  with  Grimshaw  to  Barrowford,  two  miles  distant,  where 
"the  whole  army,  led  on  with  music,  drew  up  in  battle 
array  "  before  the  house  in  which  they  had  been  placed.  On 
the  way  one  of  the  rioters  struck  Wesley  a  severe  blow  in  the 
face,  another  threw  a  stick  at  him,  and  another  brandished  a 
club  over  his  head  with  threatening  oaths.  While  the  mob 
raged  around  the  house  the  magistrate  met  Wesley  and 
Grimshaw  within,  and  endeavored  to  extort  from  them  a- 
pledge  that  they  would  no  more  visit  the  neighborhood, 
Wesley  replied  that  he  would  sooner  cut  off  his  right  hand 
than  give  the  required  promise.  He  and  the  magistrate  went 
out  at  one  door,  Grimshaw  and  a  friend  at  another ;  but  the 
mob  immediately  crowded  upon  the  latter,  "tossed  them  to 
and  fro  with  the  utmost  violence,"  and  covered  them  with 
dirt  and  mire.  Grimshaw  was  knocked  down,  but  rose 
again  and  joined  Wesley.     At  their  request  the  leader  of  the 


262  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

mob  undertook  to  conduct  them  back  to  Kouglilee.  They 
were  followed  by  the  rioters  and  pelted  with  stones  and  dirt. 
Wesley  was  once  felled  to  the  ground.  Some  quiet  people 
who  were  his  friends  attempted  to  follow  at  a  distance,  in 
order  to  render  him  any  aid  that  might  be  in  their  power,  but 
they  were  driven  away  by  a  shower  of  stones.  Some  were 
trampled  in  the  mire  and  dragged  by  the  hair,  others  were 
struck  with  clubs.  One  was  forced  from  a  rock,  ten  or 
twelve  feet  high,  into  the  river.  Wesley  and  his  com- 
panions reached  Roughlee  at  last,  and  the  next  morning  rode 
away ;  but  one  of  their  number  was  knocked  from  his  horse 
while  they  were  escaping.  The  news  of  their  sufferings 
excited  sympathy  for  them  in  the  neighboring  towns.  "  At 
Widdop,"  says  Wesley,  "  it  made  us  all  friends ;"  and  the 
same  day  he  addressed  at  Heptonstall  bank  a  vast  congrega- 
tion, "  serious  and  earnest."  "  I  lifted  up  my  hands,"  he 
says,  "  and  preached  as  I  never  did  in  my  life !"  ^* 

Charles  Wesley  traveled  and  preached  during  this  period 
as  diligently  as  John,  making  several  excursions  to  the  north 
of  England,  to  Wales,  and  to  Ireland.  In  Cornwall  he  was 
surprised,  as  had  been  his  brother,  at  the  salutary  effects  of 
Methodism  among  the  mining  population.  They  crowded 
the  Gwennap  amphitheater  to  hear  him.  He  examined  the 
m.embers  of  the  society  there  separately,  and  fomid  it  in  con- 
firmed prosperity.  "  Their  sufferings,"  he  writes,  "  have  been 
for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel.  The  opposers  behold  and 
wonder  at  their  steadfastness  and  godly  conversation."^^ 
Four  exhorters  had  been  raised  up  among  them.  "Both 
sheep  and  shepherds,"  he  adds,  "had  been  scattered  m  the 
late  cloudy  day  of  persecution,  but  the  Lord  gathered  them 
again,  and  kept  them  together  by  their  own  brethren,  who 
began  to  exhort  their  companions,  one  or  more  in  every 
society."  At  a  still  later  date  he  says  of  Cornwall:  "The 
whole  county  finds  the  benefit  of  the  Gospel.  Hundreds 
who  follow  not  with  us  have  broken  off  their  sins,  and  are 
outwardly  reformed ;  and  though  persecutors  once,  will  not 

1*  Journal,  Anno  1748.  '^  Jackson's  Charles  Wofiley,  chap.  13. 


FEOM    1745    TO    1750.  263 

suffer  a  word  to.be  spoken  against  this  way."  At  St.  Ives 
he  writes  that  "the  whole  place  is  outwardly  changed.  I 
walk  the  streets  scarce  believing  it  is  St.  Ives.  It  is  the 
same  throughout  all  the  country.  All  opposition  falls  before 
us,  or  rather  is  fallen,  and  not  suffered  to  lift  up  its  head 
again."  At  Sithney  fierce  persecution  had  prevailed  against 
the  society,  and  women  and  children  had  been  struck  dow^n 
and  beaten  in  the  streets ;  now"  one  hundred  of  the  former 
rioters  gathered  about  him  to  fight  for  him  against  a 
threatened  mob  from  a  neighboring  town.  At  St.  Just  the 
society  had  been  overwhelmed  by  repeated  riots.  A  cler- 
gyman, wdio  was  also  a  magistrate,  was  the  instigator  and 
his  brother  the  captain  of  the  mob.  During  eighteen  months 
the  rabble  had  raged  and  apparently  conquered  all  before 
them.  Methodist  preaching  had  been  entirely  suppressed 
in  the  town,  but  Charles  Wesley  now  began  it  again  by 
"  crying  in  the  street  to  about  a  thousand  hearers,  '  If  God  be 
for  us  who  can  be  against  us  V  "  No  voice  was  raised  against 
him.  "  The  little  flock,"  he  writes,  ''  were  comforted  and 
refreshed  abundantly.  I  spake  with  each  of  the  society,  and 
w^as  amazed  to  find  them  just  the  reverse  of  what  they  had 
been  represented.  Most  of  them  had  kept  their  first  love 
even  while  men  were  riding  over  their  heads,  and  they  passed 
through  fire  and  w^ater.  Their  exhorter  appeared  a  solid, 
humble  Christian,  raised  up  to  stand  in  the  gap  and  keep  the 
trembling  sheep  together.  Here  is  a  bush  in  the  fire,  burn- 
ing, and  yet  not  consumed  !  What  have  they  not  done  to 
crush  this  rising  sect '?  but  lo,  they  prevail  nothing !  For 
one  preacher  they  cut  off,  twenty  spring  up.  Neither  perse- 
cutions nor  threatenings,  flattery  nor  violence,  dungeons  nor 
sufferings  of  various  kinds  can  conquer  them.  Many  waters 
cannot  quench  this  little  spark  which  the  Lord  hath  kindled; 
neither  shall  the  floods  of  persecution  drown  it." 

Leaving  Cornwall,  he  went  with  Edward  Perronet,  a  son 
of  the  vicar  of  Shoreham,  to  the  north  of  England.  Young 
Perronet,  who  afterward  entered  the  Methodist  ministry,  was 
initiated,  during  this   excursion,  into  the  persecutions  and 


264  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

other  trials  of  an  itinerant  preacher's  life.  Though  mobs 
had  subsided  at  their  former  centers,  they  still  broke  out 
occasionally  with  fierceness  in  other  places.  Perronet,  how- 
ever, showed  good  courage,  and  sometimes  intercepted  blows 
and  missiles  aimed  at  Wesley  by  receiving  them  himself. 
Cn  their  route  they  saluted  Grimshaw,  who  was  sick;  "his 
soul,"  writes  Wesley,  "was  full  of  triumphant  love.  1 
wished  mine  were  in  its  place.  We  prayed  believingly  that 
the  Lord  would  raise  him  up  again  for  the  service  of  his 
Church."  They  visited  Newcastle  and  most  neighboring 
towns,  preaching  in  the  new  chapels,  in  cockpits,  in  the 
streets,  and  in  the  fields,  and  witnessing  almost  everywhere 
the  prosperity  of  their  cause.  From  Newcastle  they  passed 
into  Lincolnshire.  At  Grimsby  they  were  attacked  by  a 
mob  of  "  wild  creatures,  who  ran  about  the  room  striking- 
do^vn  all  they  met."  The  uproar  lasted  nearly  an  hour. 
Several  caught  at  Wesley  to  drag  him  down.  He  put  his 
hand  on  the  leader  of  the  riot,  "  who  sat  down  like  a  lamb 
at  his  feet,"  and  the  rest  soon  fell  upon  each  other  and  fought 
themselves  out  of  the  house,  leaving  the  preacher  to  proceed 
A\dth  his  discourse.  At  Darlaston,  the  scene  of  former  and 
terrible  riots,  he  preached  before  a  house  which  had  been 
pulled  down  by  the  mob.  "  The  persecutors  in  this  place," 
he  writes,  "were  some  of  the  fiercest  in  Staffordshire.  I 
saw  the  marks  of  their  violence,  and  thereby  knew  our  peo- 
ple's houses  as  I  rode  through  the  town.  Their  windows 
were  all  stopped  up.  The  word  was  a  two-edged  sword. 
The  ringleader  of  the  mob  was  struck  down  and  convinced 
cf  his  lost  estate.     I  preached  again  with  double  power." 

Joined  by  Rev.  Mr.  Meriton,  they  set  out  for  Bristol. 
At  Devizes  they  were  assailed  by  a  terrific  mob,  in  the  midst 
of  which  the  parish  clergyman  was  conspicuous  as  a  chief 
actor.  It  was  a  day,  writes  Wesley,  never  to  be  forgotten. 
The  rioters  broke  open  and  ransacked  a  dwelling,  searching 
for  him  and  his  companions.  They  were  in  another  house, 
where,  however,  the  mob  soon  gathered;  durmg  four  or 
five  hours  the  storm  raged.     The  mayor  rode  out  of  the 


FROM    1745    TO    1750.  265 

town  ill  sight  of  the  rioters,  thereby  indirectly  encouraging 
them.  His  wife,  however,  sent  her  maid  to  Wesley,  entreat- 
ing him  to  escape  disguised  as  a  woman.  Her  heart  had 
been  touched  by  the  conversion  of  her  dissipated  son,  who 
had  intended  to  desert  his  home  for  the  seas,  but  had  been 
reclaimed  by  the  Methodists  of  the  town,  and  was  now  a 
member  of  their  society.  Wesley  declined  the  doubtful 
mode  of  escape  which  she  proposed;  and  meanwhile  the 
mob  brought  an  engine,  and,  breaking  in  the  windows,  flood- 
ed the  rooms,  and  spoiled  the  goods  of  the  house.  They 
demanded  that  Wesley  should  be  delivered  up  to  them,  to 
be  thrown  into  the  horse-pond.  A  leading  member  of  the 
society  was  dragged  away  and  cast  into  it,  and  was  saved 
from  death  only  by  the  courage  of  one  of  his  brethren,  who 
ran  through  the  mob  into  the  water  and  rescued  him.  The 
tumidt  raged  more  and  more  around  the  house ;  the  rioters 
got  upon  the  roof  and  were  tearing  up  the  tiles;  "we  saw 
not,"  says  Wesley,  "any  possible  way  of  escape,"  but 
when  the  rabble  seemed  on  the  point  of  breaking  into  the 
dwelling,  their  most  "respectable"  leaders  became  alarmed 
for  the  consequences  and  deterred  them.  After  a  cessation 
of  an  hour  or  more  the  tumult  was  renewed,  and  more  than 
a  thousand  men  joined  in  the  assault.  The  horses  of  the 
preachers  were  driven  into  the  pond,  and  left  up  to  their 
necks  in  the  water.  The  house  was  again  attacked  front  and 
rear.  "Such  threatenings,  curses,  and  blasphemies,"  writes 
Wesley,  "I  had  never  heard."  He  recalled  the  Eoman 
Senate,  sitting  in  the  forum,  when  seized  by  the  Gauls,  but 
told  his  companions  there  was  a  fitter  posture  for  Christians. 
They  should  be  taken  on  their  knees.  They  knelt  down 
and  waited  in  prayer,  believing  they  should  "  see  the  salva- 
tion of  God."  "They  were  now,"  he  writes,  "close  to  us 
on  every  side,  and  over  our  heads  untiling  the  roof.  We 
expected  their  appearance,  and  retired  to  the  furthermost 
corner  of  the  room ;  and  I  said,  '  This  is  the  crisis.'  In  that 
moment  Jesus  rebuked  the  winds  and  the  seas,  and  there 
was  a  great  calm."     It  lasted  three  quarters  of  an  hour  be- 


266  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

fore  any  person  came  to  inform  them  of  the  reason  of  the 
sudden  change.  A  constable  then  appeared,  demanding  a 
pledge  that  they  would  visit  the  place  no  more.  It  was 
manfully  refused ;  but  they  were  conducted  through  the 
mob  out  of  the  town,  and  went  on  their  way  rejoicing  to 
other  fields  of  conflict  and  conquest. 

In  a  few  months  Charles  Wesley  was  traversing  Ireland, 
and  before  the  Conference  of  1750  he  repeated  his  visit. 
He  met  there,  as  will  hereafter  be  shown,  outrages  similar  to 
those  he  had  so  successfully  braved  in  England,  but  succeed- 
ed in  planting  Methodisna  in  many  parts  of  the  island. 

Amid  these  scenes  of  labor  and  strife,  the  Wesley  s  enjoyed 
not  a  few  reliefs  and  consolations.  They  had  established 
their  cause  throughout  the  land ;  and  it  had  already  visibly 
changed  the  moral  aspect  of  much  of  the  nation,  elevating  the 
most  degraded  classes  of  its  population.  Tens  of  thousands, 
rescued  from  virtual  heathenismi,  blessed  them  as  they  passed 
along  their  extended  ministerial  routes.  They  had,  connected 
with  their  principal  chapels  at  London,  Bristol,  Kingswood, 
Newcastle,  and  other  places,  preachers'  houses  or  parson 
ages  for  themselves  and  their  assistants,  which,  if  destitute 
of  every  luxury,  were  nevertheless  conafortably  furnished, 
and  supplied  with  books.  They  cultivated  the  tastes  of 
scholars.  Charles  was  habitually  indulging  his  love  of  lyric 
poetry ;  he  composed  immortal  odes  as  he  rode  along  the 
highways  from  town  to  town,  and  mob  to  mob,  and  pub- 
lished' several  volumes  during  the  present  period.  John, 
though  preaching  twice  or  thrice  a  day,  beginning  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning  in  winter  as  in  summer,  and  traveling, 
mostly  on  horseback,  at  a  rate  more  than  equal  to  the  circum- 
ference of  the  globe  every  five  years,^^  remarked  that  few  men 
enjoyed  more  solitude  than  himself.  He  read  continually  as 
he  journeyed,  not  only  in  theology,  but  still  more  in  his  favor- 
ite studies  of  history,  antiquities,  and  the  classic  poets.  Both 
the  brothers  had  hitherto,  with  brief  exceptions,  enjoyed  good 
health.  Charles  found  relief  to  his  constitutional  sadness  in 
"  He  traveled  five  thousand  miles  a  year. 


FEOM    1745    TO    1750.  267 

habitual  travel.  John,  after  one  or  two  attacks  of  illness, 
was  confirmed  by  the  same  salutary  means  in  almost  unvary- 
ing bodily  vigor  1^  and  mental  serenity.  He  assures  us, 
about  this  time,  that  ten  thousand  cares  were  of  no  more  in- 
convenience to  him  than  so  many  hairs  on  his  head,  and  his 
continually  changing  intercourse  with  families  on  his  routes 
had  become  to  them  a  welcome  occasion,  not  only  of  relig- 
ious instruction  but  of  refreshing  cheerfulness.  A  contem- 
porary, who  was  both  an  eloquent  scholar  and  a  good  man, 
and  knew  Wesley  for  miore  than  twenty  years,  says  that  his 
countenance  as  well  as  conversation  expressed  an  habitual 
gayety  of  heart,  which  nothing  but  conscious  virtue  and  in- 
nocence could  have  bestowed  —  that  he  was  in  truth  the 
most  perfect  specimen  of  moral  happiness  he  had  ever  seen, 
and  that  his  acquaintance  with  him  taught  him  better  than 
anything  else  he  had  "  seen  or  heard  or  read,  except  in  the 
sacred  volume,,  what  a  heaven  upon  earth  is  implied  in 
the  maturity  of  Christian  piety."  ^^  Extremely  economical, 
the  limited  means  of  the  brothers  met  all  their  wants.  A 
bookseller  valued  their  publications  at  this  early  period  at 
£2,500.  Perronet,  of  Shoreham,  says  this  was  not  half  their 
value. ^^  The  growth  of  Methodism  had  unexpectedly  opened 
an  indefinite  market  for  their  literary  works.  Such,  however, 
was  Wesley's  charitable  use  of  this  source  of  income,  that 
it  is  estimated  he  gave  away  in  the  course  of  his  life  more 
than  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars ;  and  such,  mean- 
time, was  his  Christian,  not  to  say  philosophic  simplicity 
and  frugality,  that  when,  by  order  of  Parliament,  the  Com- 
missioners of  Excise  sent  out  circulars,  demanding  from 
families  an  account  of  their  taxable  plate,  and  addressed 

J-7  His  severest  sickness  was  during  the  next  year. 

18  Alexander  Knox,  Esq.  See  his  "  Eemarks,"  addressed  to  Soutbej, 
on  Wesley's  Life  and  Character:  Appendix  to  Southey's  Wesley.  See 
also  Knox's  allusions  to  Wesley  in  his  "Thirty  Years'  Correspondence 
with  Bishop  Jebb."  Knox  says  Wesley  was  always  the  presiding  mind 
at  dinner  parties,  as  well  by  the  good-humor  as  the  good  sense  of  his  con- 
versation. 

"  Letter  to  Madam  Gwynne.     Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  16. 


268  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

him  a  letter,  saying,  "  We  cannot  doubt  that  you  have  plate 
for  which  you  have  hitherto  neglected  to  make  an  entry,"  his 
laconic  reply  was,  "  I  have  two  silver  teaspoons  at  London, 
and  two  at  Bristol :  this  is  all  the  plate  which  I  have  at  pres- 
ent, and  I  shall  not  buy  any  more  while  so  naany  around 
me  want  bread."  ^o  In  his  Appeal  to  Men  of  Reason  and 
Religion,  he  had  said :  "  Hear  ye  this,  all  you  who  have 
discovered  the  treasures  which  I  am  to  leave  behind  me :  If 
I  leave  behind  me  ten  pounds,  (above  my  debts  and  my 
books,  or  what  may  happen  to  be  due  on  account  of  them,) 
you  and  all  mankind  bear  witness  against  me  that  I  lived 
and  died  a  thief  and  a  robber."  The  state  of  his  affairs  at 
his  death,  nearly  half  a  century  after,  fully  verified  this 
pledge.2i 

The  Wesleys  found  domestic  shelter  not  only  at  their 
"  Preachers'  Houses,"  but  in  many  comfortable  homes  among 
their  people;  and  at  Shoreham  with  Perronet;  at  Bexley 
with  Piers,  its  Methodist  vicar,  under  whose  roof  they 
wrote  many  publications ;  at  Haworth  with  Grimshaw,  and 
occasionally  with  Lady  Huntingdon  at  Doimington  Park. 
In  Wales  they  were  entertained  at  the  opulent  mansion  of 
Marmaduke  Gwynne,  a  magistrate  of  Garth.  His  princely 
establishment  usually  comprised,  besides  his  nine  children 
and  twenty  servants,  a  chaplain,  and  from  ten  to  fifteen 
guests.  The  inmates  of  the  household  formed  a  good 
congregation   in   the  domestic  worship,  and   the  Wesleys 

•o  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  VII,  S. 

21  AYesley  was  a  good  example  of  "  Systematic  Beneficence."  He  re- 
raarked  in  early  life  that  he  hkd  known  but  four  men  who  had  not  de- 
clined in  religion  by  becoming  wealthy ;  later  in  life  he  corrected  the 
remark,  and  made  no  exception.  He  himself,  therefore,  guarded  scrupu- 
lously against  the  danger.  "When  his  own  income  was  but  £S0  a  year  he 
gave  away  £2 ;  when  it  was  £60  he  still  confined  his  expenses  to  £28, 
and  gave  away  £32 ;  when  it  reached  £120  he  kept  himself  to  his  old  al- 
lowance, and  gave  away  £92.  The  last  insertion  in  his  private  journal, 
written  with  a  trembling  hand,  reads  thus :  "  For  upward  of  eighty-six 
years  I  have  kept  my  accounts  exactly.  I  will  not  attempt  it  any  longer, 
being  satisfied  with  the  continual  conviction  that  I  save  all  I  can  and  give 
all  I  can ;  that  is,  all  I  have.    J.  Wesley,  July  16, 1790." 


FROM    1745    TO    1750.  269 

preached  to  them  daily  while  seeking  repose  amid  their 
liberal  hospitality.  Mr.  Gwynne  zealously  promoted  their 
peculiar  views.  He  was  one  of  the  first  influential  citi- 
zens of  Wales  who  had  befriended  Howell  Harris  in  his 
evangelical  labors.  When  Harris  was  first  expected  to 
preach  near  Garth  Mr.  Gwynne  was  determined  to  air  est 
him,  not  doubting  from  the  current  reports  that  he  was  a 
madman,  or  "  an  incendiary  in  Church  and  state."  He  went 
out  with  the  Riot  Act  in  his  pocket,  but  said  to  his  lady  as  he 
left  her :  "I  will  hear  him  for  myself  before  I  commit  him." 
The  sermon,  however,  was  so  orthodox  and  powerful  that 
the  magistrate  was  deeply  affected,  and  "  thought  the  preach- 
er resembled  one  of  the  apostles."  At  its  conclusion  he 
stepped  up  to  Harris,  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  expressing 
his  favorable  disappointment,  asked  his  pardon,  bade  him 
Godspeed  among  the  people,  and,  to  the  surprise  of  the  as- 
sembly, invited  him  to  accompany  him  back  to  Garth  to 
supper.  The  Principality  owes  to  his  munificent  zeal  much 
of  the  evangelical  improvement  which  Methodism,  Calvinis- 
tic  and  Arminian,  has  effected  among  its  population. 22  He 
traveled  with  and  protected  the  evangelists,  and  his  name 
is  printed  in  Wesley's  early  Minutes  as  a  lay  member  of 
one  of  his  Conferences. 

On  the  eighth  of  April,  1749,  Charles  Wesley  married 
Sarah  Gwynne,  a  daughter  of  this  excellent  family.  The 
good  vicar  of  Shoreham  had  advised  the  marriage,  and  pro- 
moted it  by  letters  to  her  parents.  John  Wesley  approved 
it,  and  consecrated  the  ceremony.  He  describes  the  scene 
in  his  Journal  as  one  "  which  became  the  dignity  of  a  Chris- 
tian marriage."  Charles  said  his  brother  "  seemed  the 
happiest  person  among  us."  Their  union  was  in  all  re- 
spects a  fortunate  one ;  neither  of  the  parties  ever  had  any 
reason  to  regret  it.  They  established  a  comfortable,  but 
simple  home  at   Bristol,  where   Mrs.   Wesley  hospitably 

22  » T]^g  authority  and  countenance  of  Mr.  Gwynne  and  his  family 
now  became  highly  important  to  the  cause  of  religion."    Life  and  Times 

of  Selina  Countess  of  Tlnntirjgdon,"  ete./ehap.  7. 


270  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

entertained  the  lay  preachers  on  their  journeys ;  and  not- 
withstandmg  her  cultivated  tastes,  learned  to  admire  as 
among  the  noblest  of  men,  Nelson,  Downes,  Shent,  and 
their  heroic  fellow-laborers. ^3  To  the  end  of  her  life,  it  is 
said,  she  spoke  with  emotion  of  these  humble,  but,  in  many 
respects,  genuinely  great  and  apostolic  evangelists.  Her 
religious  temper  was  in  harmony  with  that  of  her  husband. 
She  often  accompanied  him  in  his  ministerial  travels.  She 
was  not  only  admired  but  beloved  by  her  humbler  sisters 
of  the  societies,  and  throughout  her  husband's  life  rendered 
his  home  a  sanctuary  of  repose  from  his  labors,  and  of  sym- 
pathy for  his  affections. 

John  Wesley  himself  found  it  not  impossible,  at  this 
stage  of  Methodism,  to  hope  for  the  blessed  consolations  of 
conjugal  life.  He  had  designed  to  marry,  in  1749,  Mrs. 
Grace  Murray,  his  housekeeper  at  Newcastle,  a  lady  eveTy 
way  fitted  for  him.  She  was,  however,  previously  engaged 
to  John  Bennet,  one  of  his  lay  preachers,  and  by  the  coun- 
sels of  Charles  Wesley,  Whitefield,  and  others,  adhered  tO' 
her  first  engagement.  Wesley  felt  profoundly  his  disap- 
pointment, and  afterward  contracted  a  m.arriage  which  was 
the  severest  misfortune  of  his  life.^* 

23  Jackson's  Cliarles  Wesley,  chap.  16. 

24  Tlie  anonymous  author  of  "Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon," 
(vol.  i,  chap.  3,)  says  of  Grace  Murray  that  "  she  possessed  superior  per- 
sonal accomplishments,  with  a  mind  cultivated  by  education,  and  an 
imagination  brilhant  and  lively  in  the  highest  degree.  She  was  em- 
ployed by  Mr.  Wesley  to  organize  his  female  societies,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose she  traveled  through  various  parts  of  both  England  and  Ireland. 
Mr.  Wesley  used  to  call  her  his  right  hand." 


TNTKODUCTION    INTO    lEELAND.  271 


CHAPTEE  III. 

INTEOBUCTION    OF    METHODISM    INTO    lEELAND. 

'Religious  Problem  of  Irisli  History  —  Wesley  comprehended  it  —  Bishop 
Berkeley  on  Irish  Evangelization  —  "Wesley  arrives  at  Dublin  —  His 
Views  of  the  Irish  Character  —  Charles  Wesley  in  Ireland  —  Mobs  and 
Murders  in  Dublin  —  "  Swaddlers  "  —  Power  of  Methodist  Music  — 
SecJond  Visit  of  John  Wesley  —  He  itinerates  in  the  Country  —  Second 
Visit  of  Charles  Wesley — Eiotous  Persecutions  at  Cork  —  Presentment 
by  the  Grand  Jury  against  Charles  Wesley  —  Triumphs  of  Methodism 
—  Singular  Conversions  —  John  Smith  at  Glenarm  —  Persecution  and 
Death  of  John  M'Burney  —  Hard  Fare  of  the  Preachers  —  Eobert  Swin- 
dells—  Thomas  Walsh  —  Sketch  of  his  Life — His  Conversion  from 
Popery  —  His  Biblical  Learning  —  Instances  of  the  Power  of  his  Preach- 
ing—  He  is  mobbed  and  imprisoned.  ■ 

The  religious  condition  of  Ireland  has  been  the  most  singu- 
lar anomaly  of  European  history  since  the  Eeformation. 
That  great  revolution  had  a  more  positive  effect  on  Scotland 
than  on  England  itself;  on  Ireland  it  had  scarcely  any  other 
than  a  disastrous  influence.  Ireland  refused  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  has  ever  since  been  blighted  under  the  retributive 
consequences  of  its  pertinacious  adherence  to  the  Church  of 
Rome.  It  is  the  only  country,  it  has  been  said,  in  which  the 
Reformation  produced  nothing  but  evil.^  Its  obstinate  te- 
nacity for  Popery  prevented  its  assimilation  with  the  rest  of 
the  empire,  and  thence  have  chiefly  arisen  those  abuses  in 
its  political  administration  which  have  filled  its  history  with 
oppression,  tumult,  and  wretchedness.  These  have  again 
exasperated  and  confirmed  its  Papal  proclivities,  and  have 
thus  acted  and  reacted  in  its  continual  degradation. 

Wesley  on  his  first  visit  to  Ireland  comprehended  the 
problem  of  its  religious  history ;  he  observed  that  at  least 
1  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  23. 


272  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  of  the  native  Irish  remained  in  the 
religion  of  their  forefathers.  The  Protestants,  whether  in 
Dublin  or  elsewhere,  had  almost  all  been  transplanted 
from  England.  "  Nor  is  it  any  wonder,"  he  adds,  "  that 
those  who  are  born  Papists  generally  live  and  die  such, 
when  the  Protestants  can  find  no  better  ways  to  convert 
them  than  penal  laws  and  acts  of  Parliament."  ^ 

Twelve  years  before  Wesley's  arrival  an  Irish  Protestant 
prelate  published  a  work^  in  which  he  suggested,  as  the  best 
means  for  the  conversion  of  the  country,  substantially  the 
same  measures  which  Methodism  provided — Lay  instructors 
taken  from  the  common  people,  and  thereby  the  better  able 
to  reach  them.  The  clerical  gradations  of  the  Church  of 
Kome,  from  Cardinals  down  to  Mendicants,  suited,  he  re- 
marked, her  mmistrations  to  all  ranks  of  men;  her  poor 
clergy  were  very  useful  in  missions,  and  of  "  especial  influ- 
ence with  the  people ;"  and  he  asked  the  questions  whether,  in 
default  of  abler  missionaries,  persons  conversant  with  low  life 
and  speaking  the  Irish  tongue,  if  well  instructed  in  the  first 
prmciples  of  religion  and  in  the  Popish  controversy,  though 
for  the  rest  on  a  level  with  the  parish  clerks  or  the  school- 
m.asters  of  charity  schools,  might  not  be  fit  to  mix  with  the 
poor  illiterate  natives,  and  bring  them  over  to  the  Established 
Church ;  -whether  it  were  not  to  be  wished  that  some  parts 
of  the  Liturgy  and  Homilies  should  be  publicly  read  in  the 
Irish  language,  and  whether  with  these  views  it  might  not  be 
desirable  to  train  up  some  of  the  better  sort  of  children  in  the 
the  charity  schools  to  be  missionaries,  catechists,  and  readers.* 

2  Journal,  August  15,  1747% 

3  Berkeley's  Querist.     Southey's  Wesley,  chap.  23. 

4  Southey  admits  "  that  what  Berkeley  desired  to  see,  Methodism  would 
exactly  have  supplied,  could  it  have  been  taken  into  the  service  of  the 
Church  ;  and  this  might  have  been  done  in  Ireland,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  follies  and  extravagances  by  which  it  had  rendered  itself  obnoxious 
in  England  at  its  commencement."  The  latter  remark  is  altogether  gratu- 
itous. It  was  not  the  "follies,"  or  rather  what  Southey  considers  "the 
folUes  of  Methodism,"  that  repelled  it  from  the  Church  in  England.  Tho 
Wesleys  and  Whitefield  were  excluded  from  the  pulpits  of  the  Establish- 
ment before  they  adopted  out-door  preaching,  or  any  other  novelly  which 


i:N'TIlODUCTION    INTO    IRELAND.  278 

II*  the  progress  of  Methodism  has  not  been  as  rapid  in 
Ireland  as  elsewhere,  notwithstanding  its  adaptation  in  these 
respects,  the  fact  is  owing  mostly  to  temporary  and  political 
causes,  which  have  perpetuated  to  our  day  the  resentments 
and  Papal  prejudices  of  the  people.  It  is  claimed,  however, 
by  Methodist  writers,  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  even  the 
forms  of  Protestantism  would  at  this  day  be  extant  in  most 
of  the  country,  had  it  not  been  for  the  energy  which  was 
infused  into  the  Irish  Protestant  Churches  by  Wesley  and 
his  associates,^  so  universally  enfeebled  and  tottering  was 
the  Establishment  in  Ireland  at  that  time.  With  the  polit- 
ical reliefs  and  social  ameliorations  of  the  island,  Methodism 
has  been  obtaining  ampler  sway,  and  its  history  is  important 
for  at  least  its  prospective  results. 

Wesley  arrived  in  Dublin  on  Sunday  the  ninth  of  August, 
1747.  The  bells  were  ringing,  and  he  went  immediately 
to  St.  Mary's  Church,  and  in  the  afternoon,  by  arrangement 
with  the  curate,  preached  to  "  as  gay  and  careless  a  congre- 
gation "  as  he  had  ever  seen.  The  curate  treated  him  politely, 
but  was  immovably  prejudiced  against  his  employment  of 
lay  preachers,  and  assured  him  that  the  archbishop  was 
equally  opposed  to  so  extraordinary  a  novelty.  Wesley 
sought  the  archbishop,  and  had  an  interview  with  him  ten 
miles  from  the  city.  Two  or  three  hours  were  spent  in  the 
consultation,  during  which  the  prelate  advanced,  and  Wes- 
ley answered  "abundance  of  objections."  Had  Berkeley 
been  the  bishop  Methodism  would  probably  have  taken  pos- 
session of  the  Church.  Wesley  gives  us  no  information  of 
the  result  of  the  interview;  he  immediately  began,  how- 
ever, his  usual  course  of  independent   labors. ^ 

A  lay  preacher  from  England,  Thomas  Williams,  had 
formed  a  society  in  Dublin  in  1747."^     Wesley  found  in  it 

Soutliej  would  call  a  "  folly."  The  zealous  and  liome  directed  style  with 
which  they  preached  the  doctrines  of  the  English  Articles  and  Homilies 
arrayed  the  clergy  and  church-wardens  against  tliem,  and  this  opposition 
eompelled  them  to  their  "follies  and  exti-avagances,"  so  called. 

^  Jackson's  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  15. 

«  Journal,  August  11, 1747.        ''  Mvles's  Chronological  History,  p.  56. 
Vol.  L— 18 


274  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

nearly  three  hundred  members.  He  examined  them  per- 
sonally, as  was  his  habit  in  the  principal  societies  at  London, 
Bristol,  and  Newcastle ;  for  none  of  his  "  assistants  "  or  suo- 
cessors  has  been  more  minute  and  faithful  in  such  pastoral 
labors.^  He  found  them  "strong  in  faith,"  and  admiied 
their  docile  and  cordial  spirit.  He  pronounced  the  Irish 
the  politest  people  he  had  ever  seen.  "  What  a  nation,"  he 
exclaims,  "  is  this ;  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  except  a 
few  of  the  great  vulgar,  not  only  patiently,  but  gladly  suffers 
the  word  of  exhortation."  He  had  not  yet  fully  learned 
their  character ;  the  "  roaring  lion,"  as  he  afterward  found, 
"  shook  himself  here  also." 

He  preached  repeatedly  and  without  molestation  at  the 
society's  chapel,  which  had  been  a  Lutheran  church.  The 
house  and  its  yard  were  crowded  with  respectful  hearers; 
many  wealthy  citizens  were  present,  and  his  reception  con- 
trasted strikingly  with  what  it  had  been  in  most  places  in 
England.  "If,"  he  wrote,  " my  brother  or  I  could  have 
been  here  for  a  few  months,  I  question  if  there  might  not 
have  been  a  larger  society  in  Dublin  than  even  in  London 
itself."  The  excessive  cordiality  of  the  people  soon  became 
a  reason  of  some  solicitude  to  him ;  "  on  that  very  account," 
he  says,  "  they  must  be  watched  over  with  the  more  care, 
being  equally  susceptible  of  good  or  ill  impressions." 
Having  spent  two  weeks  among  them  he  preached  his 
farewell  discourse  to  an  immense  assembly,  many  of  whom 
could  not  hear  him,  and  took  passage  for  England  on  Sun- 
day, the  23d  of  August. 

In  about  two  weeks  Charles  Wesley  arrived  in  Dublin, 
accompanied  by  Charles  Perronet,  another  of  the  sons  of 
the  Shoreham  vicar,  and  remained  more  than  half  a  year  in 

8  Smith  (History  of  Methodism,  II,  3)  says  :  "  The  steady  and  zealous 
attention  of  Wesley  to  the  character,  conduct,  and  spiritiial  state  of  the 
individual  memhers  of  his  societies  is  truly  remarkable.  In  1745  he  care- 
fully examined  the  society  in  London  one  by  one,  and  wrote  a  list  of  the 
whole  with  his  own  hand,  numbered  from  one  to  two  thousand  and  eight. 
In  1746  he  repeated  this  operation,  and  wrote  another  list,  in  which  the 
number  was  reduced  to  ore  thousand  nine  hundred  and  thiity-nine." 


INTKODUCTION    INTO    IRELAND.  275 

the  country.  During  the  "brief  interval  since  the  visit  of 
his  brother,  the  "roaring  lion"  had  raged  in  Dublin.  A 
Papi-st  mob  had  broken  into  the  chapel,  and  some  store- 
houses which  appertained  to  its  premises,  destroying  furni- 
ture, stealing  goods,  making  a  bonfire  of  the  seats,  window 
cases,  and  pulpit  in  the  streets ;  wounding  with  clubs  the 
members  of  the  society,  and%  threatening  to  murder  all 
who  assembled  with  them.  It  was,  in  fine,  a  thoroughly 
Irish  riot,  bristling  with  shillalahs  and  triumphant  with 
noise.  The  mayor  was  disposed  to  protect  the  Method- 
ists, but  was  powerless  before  the  great  numerical  force  of 
their  persecutors.  The  grand  jury  threw  out  bills  brought 
against  the  rioters,  and  thus  gave  indirect  encouragement 
to  their  violence.  Wesley  met  the  society  privately,  but 
was  followed  through  the  streets  to  his  lodgings  by  a  ret- 
inue of  the  rabble,  who  complimented  him  with  shouts  of 
derision. 

'  John  Cennick  had  preached  a  Christmas  sermon  in  Dublin 
on  "  the  babe  wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  lying  in  a 
manger."  A  popish  hearer,  who  knew  little  or  nothing  of 
his  Bible,  deemed  the  text  a  ridiculous  Protestant  invention, 
and  called  the  Methodists  "  Swaddlers,"  a  title  which  was 
immediately  adopted  by  the  mob.  "  Swaddler !  swad- 
dler !"  was  shouted  against  Wesley  by  the  children  in  the 
streets.  "The  word,"  he  says,  "sticks  to  us  all,  not  ex- 
cepting the  clergy."  9  pie  faced  the  persecutors  with  his 
usual  courage.  Meeting  privately  with  the  society,  and 
weeping  with  and  comforting  them,  he  went  forth  also 
daily  to  the  public  parks,  and  preached  the  word  amid 
shouts  and  showers  of  stones.  After  having  been  more  than 
a  week  in  Dublin,  struggling  daily  against  the  fiercest  odds, 
he  writes :  "  Woe  is  me  now,  for  my  soul  is  wearied  be- 
cause of  the  murderers  which  the  city  is  full  of."  The  miob, 
he  says,  seldom  parted  without  killing  one  or  more  per- 
sons. A  Methodist  was  knocked  down,  cut  severely  in  sev- 
eral places,  and  thrown  into  a  cellar,  where  stones  were  cast 
9  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap,  14. 


276  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

upon  him.  One  of  Cennick's  Calvinistic  brethren,  a  feeble 
man,  was  so  abused  by  his  neighbors,  who  prostrated  and 
stamped  upon  him,  that  he  died.  The  murderers  were  tried, 
but  acquitted,  "  as  usual,"  says  Wesley.  A  woman  was 
beaten  to  death  by  the  rioters  in  one  of  his  open-air  assem- 
blies. A  constable,  who  was  present  to  protect  him,  was 
knocked  down,  dragged  on  the  earth  till  dead,  and  then 
hung  up  with  triumph,  and  no  one  was  called  in  question 
for  the  deed.  Wesley  himself  was  in  the  midst  of  perils, 
but  escaped  without  a  blow,  except  once,  when  he  was 
stoned  through  the  length  of  a  street  or  two,  and  though 
screened  by  young  Perronet,  who  interposed  his  own  pei'- 
son  as  a  shield  for  him,  was  struck  by  a  missile.  Their 
firmness,  however,  could  discourage  even  an  Irish  mob. 
They  were  heard  at  last  on  the  public  green  with  quiet; 
and  Wesley  was  able  finally  to  record  that  never  had 
he  seen  a  more  respectful  congregation  at  the  Foundry 
in  London  than  -at  the  Dublin  green  and  in  the  society 
meetings  at  night.  The  word,  he  writes,  came  with 
power  irresistible,  and  the  prayers  and  sobs  of  the  people 
often  drowned  his  voice.  Additions  were  almost  daily 
made  to  the  band  of  converts,  and  the  "bulk  of  the  com- 
municants" at  St.  Patrick's  were  usually  Methodists,  led 
forward  to  the  altar  by  Wesley  himself  He  preached  con- 
tinually, and  sometimes  five  times  a  day.  He  collected 
subscriptions,  and  erected  a  better  house  of  worship,  and 
addressing  the  afflicted  but  growing  company  of  believers 
for  the  last  time  before  they  left  their  chapel  in  Marl- 
borough-street,  he  encouraged  them  from  the  appropriate 
text :  "  These  are  they  that  came  out  of  great  tribulation." 
It  was,  he  writes,  a  day  of  "  solemn  rejoicing  in  hope  of  His 
coming  to  wipe  all  tears  from  our  eyes."  Thus,  while  the 
Gospel  reclaimed  them,  did  persecution  bind  them  together 
iu  common  sympathy  under  their  common  sufferings,  and 
augment  among  them  the  fervor,  simplicity,  unworldli- 
ness,  and  mutual  tenderness,  which  marked  so  distinctly 
the   primitive   character   of  Methodism,   compelling   even 


INTRODUCTION    INTO    IRELAND.  277 

their  enemies  to  wonder,  and  exclaim,  See  liow  these  Chris- 
tians suffer  and  love  1 

Several  preachers  "^had  been  sent  out  into  the  country, 
and  news  came  of  great  "  awakenings "  in  various 
places.  Wesley  set  out  for  the  interior.  He  heard  the 
Methodist  tunes  sung  or  whistled  by  Catholic  children  on 
ills  route.  ^®  At  Tyrrell's  Pass  the  town  crowded  out  to 
hear  him.  "  Never,"  he  writes,  "  have  I  spoken  to  more 
hungry  souls.  They  devoured  every  word.  Some  ex- 
pressed their  satisfaction  in  a  way  peculiar  to  them,  and 
vjhistled  for  joy.  Few  such  feasts  have  I  had  since  I  left 
England.  It  refreshed  my  body  more  than  meat  or  drink. 
God  has  begun  a  great  work  here.     The  people  of  Tyrell's 

10  The  Wesleyaii  singing  was  a  source  of  great  power  to  early  Metlxod- 
iem.  Charles  Wesley's  hymns,  with  simple  hut  effective  tunes,  spread 
everywhere  among  the  societies ;  and  hundreds  of  hearers  who  cared  not 
for  the  preaching,  were  charmed  to  the  Methodist  assemblies  by  their 
music.  It  secured  them  much  success  among  the  susceptible  Irish.  A 
curious  example  of  its  power  is  told  by  one  of  the  Irish  preachers.  At 
Wexford  the  society  was  persecuted  by  Papists,  and  met  in  a  closed 
barn.  One  of  the  persecutors  had  agreed  to  conceal  himself  within  it 
beforehand,  that  he  might  open  the  door  to  his  comrades  after  the  people 
were  assembled.  He  crept  into  a  sack  hard  by  the  door.  The  singing 
commenced,  but  the  Hibernian  was  so  taken  with  the  music  that  he 
thought  he  would  hear  it  through  before  disturbing  the  meeting.  He 
was  so  much  gratified  that  at  its  conclusion  he  thought  he  would  hear 
the  prayer  also  ;  but  this  was  too  powerful  for  him  ;  he  was  seized  with 
remorse  and  trembhng,  and  roared  out  with  such  dismay  as  to  appal  the 
congregation,  who  began  to  believe  that  Satan  himself  was  in  the  sack. 
The  sack  was  at  last  pulled  off  of  him,  and  disclosed  the  Irishman, 
a  weeping  penitent,  praying  with  all  his  migM.  He  vfas  permanently 
converted.  (Arminian  Magazine,  1781,  p.  474.)  Southey  remarks  that 
"this  is  the  most  comical  case  of  instantaneous  conversion  that  ever 
was  recorded ;  and  yet  the  man  is  said  to  have  been  thoroughly  con- 
verted." A  tavern-keeper,  relishing  music,  went  to  one  of  the  meetings 
merely  to  hear  the  singing.  He  was  afraid  of  the  preaching,  and  that  he 
might  not  hear  it,  sat  with  his  head  inclined,  and  his  fingers  in  his  ears. 
But  a  ffy  lit  upon  his  nose,  and  at  the  moment  he  attempted  to  drive  it 
away  with  one  of  his  hands  the  preacher  uttered  with  power  the  text : 
"He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear."  The  word  took  hold  upon 
the  publican's  conscience,  and  he  found  no  relief  till  he  became  a  convert- 
ed man.  (Sketches  and  Incidents,  etc.,  p.  335.)  Such  anecdotes  abound 
in  the  publications  of  Methodism,  and  are  not  without  historical  significance 
as  illustrations  of  its  modus  operandi. 


278  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Pass  were  wicked  to  a  proverb — swearers,  drunkards,  Sab- 
bath-breakers, thieves,  etc.,  from,  time  immemLOrial.  But 
now  the  scene  is  entirely  changed.  Not  an  oath  is  heard, 
nor  a  drunkard  seen  among  them.  They  are  turned  from 
darkness  to  light.  Near  one  hundred  are  joined  in  society, 
and  following  hard  after  the  pardoning  God."  At  Athlone 
he  was  mobbed  and  struck  with  a  stone,  while  one  of  his 
companions  was  knocked  from  his  horse,  and  severely 
wounded.  The  mob  had  been  roused  by  a  Roman  priest; 
many  Protestants  turned  out  in  favor  of  the  Meth- 
odists, and  the  encounter  became  so  perilous  that  the 
dragoons  had  to  interfere.  Wesley  walked  through  the 
agitated  mass  to  the  market-house,  but  it  could  not  accom- 
modate a  third  of  his  hearers.  He  took  his  stand,  there- 
fore, in  the  window  of  a  dilapidated  building,  and  proclaimed 
his  message  to  thein.  At  Moat  he  preached  amid  weeping 
listeners,  while  the  mob  threw  stones,  and  tried  to  drown 
his  voice  with  drums.  At  Phillipstown  he  was  welcomed 
by  a  party  of  dragoons,  who  "  were  all  turned  from  dark- 
ness to  light,"  and  had  been  formed  into  a  Methodist  so- 
ciety. Returning  to  Dublin,  he  found  that  continual  acces- 
sions were  made  to  the  society.  His  brother  having  ar- 
rived, Charles  Wesley  left  for  England  with  the  bene- 
dictions of  hundreds  who  had  found  his  word  "  the  power 
o'f  God  unto  salvation."  Methodism  had  entered  Ireland 
never  to  be  overthrown  there. 

John  Wesley  reached  Dublin  on  his  second  visit,  in  com- 
pany with  his  clerical  friend,  Meriton,  and  Robert  Swin- 
dells, a  lay  preacher,  March  8,  1748.  He  entered  the  new 
place  of  worship  in  Cork-street  while  his  brother  was  con- 
ducting the  devotions  of  the  society,  and  immediately 
proceeded  to  preach.  But  such  was  their  joy  on  seeing  him 
again  among  them,  that,  he  writes,  his  "  voice  could  hardly 
be  heard  for  some  time,  for  the  noise  of  the  people  in  prais- 
ing God."  He  found  nearly  four  hundred  persons  united  in 
the  fellowship  of  the  Classes.  He  preached  daily,  beginning 
at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  a  measure  unheard  of  among 


INTRODUCTION  INTO  IBELAND.     279 

the  dilatory  Irish,  but  successful  wherever  he  went.  He 
was  undisturbed  on  the  public  green,  for  the  Dublin  mob 
had,  at  last,  been  conquered.  He  passed  rapidly  among  the 
country  towns.  At  Phillipstown  he  confirmed  the  society 
of  Methodist  dragoons,  and  preached  in  a  street  full  of 
attentive  hearers ;  at  Tullamore,  to  most  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  place  ;  at  Clara,  to  a  vast  congregation,  many  being 
wealthy  families  in  their  coaches ;  at  Athlone,  from  the 
window  of  the  unoccupied  house  where  his  brother  had 
stood,  to  an  assembly  immense  but  perfectly  respectful. 
"  I  scarce  ever  saw,"  he  says,  "  a  better  behaved  or  more 
attentive  congregation.  Indeed,  so  civil  a  people  as  the 
Irish  in  general  I  never  saw,  either  in  Europe  or  America." 
So  large  an  assembly  as  he  addressed  there  the  next  day 
had  never,  he  says,  been  seen  in  Athlone,  and  most  of  them 
were  Papists.  He  was  still  astonished  at  their  Irish  cor- 
diality. "Most  of  the  congregation,"  he  says,  "were  in 
tears."  Indeed,  almost  all  the  town  appeared  to  be  moved, 
being  full  of  good- will  and  desires  for  salvation,  but,  he  adds, 
"  the  waters  spread  too  wide  to  be  deep ;  I  found  not  one 
under  very  strong  conviction,  much  less  had  any  attained  the 
Knowledge  of  salvation  in  hearing  thirty  sermons."  He  now, 
in  fine,  perceived  the  real  Irish  character,  and  formed  no  very 
sanguine  hopes  of  the  immediate  success  of  Methodism, 
though  he  knew  that,  could  it  be  generally  established  in  the 
country,  it  would  ultimately  achieve  there  its  noblest  results. 
He'  was  astonished  at  the  simple  frankness  of  his  converts, 
and  had  some  difficulty  in  restraining  it  within  decorous 
limits.  Examining  one  of  the  classes,  he  says  he  found  a 
surprising  openness  among  them.  He  asked  one  of  them  in 
particular  how  he  had  lived  in  time  past ;  the  honest  man 
spread  abroad  his  hands  and  said,  with  many  tears,  "  Here 
I  stand,  a  gray-headed  monster  of  all  manner  of  wickedness," 
"  which,"  says  Wesley,  "  I  verily  believe,  had  it  been  de- 
sired, he  would  have  explained  before  them  all."  Much  in 
the  same  manner  spoke  one  who  came  from  Connaught,  but 
with  "  huge  affliction  and  dismay." 


280  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Traveling  rapidly  from  town  to  town  lie  soon  returned  to 
Athlone,  where  he  again  addressed  a  vast  congregation,  most 
of  whom  were  Romanists.  Their  priest  came  among  them 
and  drove  them  away  before  him  like  a  flock  of  sheep.  Wes- 
ley admired  their  friendly  attention,  but  could  perceive  none 
of  the  profound  effects  which  attended  his  discourses  among 
the  sturdier  sinners  of  England.  He  therefore  preached  in\ 
the  evening  on  a  threatening  text;  a  fact  which,  so  far  as 
can  be  traced  in  his  Journal,  had  occurred  seldom,  if  at  all, 
since  his  conversion  in  1738.  "  I  preached,"  he  writes,  "  on 
the  terrors  of  the  Lord  in  the  strongest  manner  I  was  able ; 
but  still,  they  who  are  ready  to  eat  up  every  word  do  not 
appear  to  digest  any  part  of  it."  At  a  subsequent  visit  he 
saw,  however,  some  good  results  from  his.  labors,  for  a  soci- 
ety had  been  formed,  and  he  preached  in  the  market-place 
to  a  large  congregation  of  Papists  as  well  as  Protestants. 
He  describes  them  as  "an  immeasurably  loving  people," 
and  it  was  difficult  for  him  to  escape  from  them.  When  he 
thought  he  had  effectually  done  so  he  found,  at  a  mile's  dis- 
tance from  the  town,  a  multitude  awaiting  him  on  a  hill-top 
over  which  the  road  passed.  They  opened  the  way  for  him 
till  he  had  reached  their  midst,  then  closed,  and  would  not 
let  him  proceed  till  he  had  united  with  them  in  singing  sev- 
eral verses.  When  he  left,  men,  women,  and  children  lifted 
up  their  voices  and  wept  as  he  "  never  heard  before ;"  his 
heart  was  touched  by  their  affectionate  simplicity;  "yet  a 
little  while,"  he  said,  "  and  we  shall  meet  to  part  no  more, 
and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away  forever."  At  TuUa- 
more  the  next  day  the  people  would  not  cover  their  heads  in 
a  hail-storm  while  he  preached,  though  he  requested  them 
to  do  so.  At  Edinderry  he  found  much  good  had  been 
done  by  his  lay  assistants,  but  it  was  not  as  profound  or 
vivid  as  he  had  expected;  "I  see,"  he  remarks,  "nothing 
yet  but  drops  before  a  shower." 

After  spending  three  months  in  traversing  Ireland,  he  re- 
turned to  England.  Numerous  societies  had  been  formed, 
and  a  corps  of  preachers  distributed  through  the  country.    In 


INTRODUCTION    INTO    IRELAND.  281 

about  two  months  diaries  Wesley  again  visited  Dublin, 
where  the  society  had  greatly  prospered.  He  left  it 
quickly  for  Cork,  where  the  lay  preachers  had  met  with 
much  success.  He  w^as  astonished  to  observe  the  impression 
which  they  had  produced.  A  visible  reformation  had  taken 
place  in  the  morals  of  the  populace ;  "  swearing  was  sel- 
dom heard  in  the  streets,"  and  the  churches  and  altars  were 
crowded,  to  the  astonishment  of  opposers.'^^  He  took  the 
open  field  and  preached  to  ten  thousand  hearers,  Protestants 
and  Papists,  high  and  low.  Two  hundred  members  v/ere 
enrolled  in  the  society,  yet  he  had  occasion  to  repeat  his 
brother's  complaint  of  the  superficiality  of  their  religious 
character,  for  "  all  seemed  awakened,  but  not  one  of  them 
justified."  The  door  appeared  wide  open  for  him,  however, 
and  he  writes  that  even  at  Newcastle  the  awakening  had  not 
been  so  general.  The  city  clergy  turned  out  to  hear  him 
with  unexpected  favor;  he  was  astonished  at  his  multitudi- 
nous congregations,  but  asked  himself,  "  How  few  will  own 
God's  messengers  when  the  stream  turns?"  He  knew 
human  nature  too  well  to  suppose  that  this  hearty  good- will, 
natural  as  it  was  to  the  Irish  character,  could  long  resist  the 
capricious  mutability  which  is  equally  natural  to  it;  and 
as  soon  as  he  began  to  gather  genuine  converts  into  the 
society,  he  prepared  for  the  usual  outbreaks  of  hostility. 
"  Hitherto,"  he  says,  "  they  seem  asleep,  but  the  witnesses 
of  Jesus  are  rising  to  rouse  them." 

Hardly  had  he  returned  to  England  when  the  storm 
gathered  and  burst  over  Cork.  During  about  three  months 
the  mob,  led  on  by  a  ballad-singer  by  the  name  of  Butler, 
and  indirectly  sanctioned  by  the  mayor,  kept  the  city  in  ex- 
citement by  a  series  of  riots  against  the  Methodists.  But- 
ler arrayed  himself  in  a  clerical  gown,  and  with  his  ballads 
in  one  hand  and  the  Bible  in  the  other,  went  about  pretend- 
ing to  preach  against  them.  The  excited  people,  armed  with 
swords  and  clubs,  fell  upon  them  without  mercy;  men, 
women,  and  children  were  knocked  doA\Ti  in  the  streets,  and 
"  Jackson's  Charles  "Wesley,  chap.  15. 


282  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

not  a  few  of  them  dangerously  wounded.  Their  houses 
were  assailed;  a  member  of  the  society,  who  was  a  well 
known  merchant,  applied  to  the  authorities  for  protection, 
but  was  sent  away  without  redress ;  another  member,  whose 
house  the  mob  were  pulling  down,  ran  to  the  mayor,  who 
accompanied  him  to  the  spot,  but  amid  the  rioters  cried  out 
to  the  helpless  Methodists,  "  It  is  your  o-v^m  fault  for  enter- 
taining your  preachers ;  if  you  will  turn  them  out  of  your 
houses,  I  will  engage  that  no  harm  shall  be  done,  but  if  you 
will  not  you  must  take  the  consequences."  A  respectable 
Methodist  citizen  replied,  very  relevantly,  that  this  was  ex 
traordinary  usage  for  a  Protestant  government ;  that  had  he 
a  Roman  priest  saying  mass  in  every  room  of  his  house  it 
would  not  be  touched.  The  only  response  of  the  mayor  was 
that  the  priests  were  protected,  but  the  Methodists  were  not. 
The  crowd,  hearing  the  reply,  huzzaed,  threw  stones  faster 
than  ever,  and  attacked  the  house  until  midnight. 

The  pusillanimous  conduct  of  the  authorities  continued  to 
mspirit  the  mob.  Butler  ranged  the  streets,  armed  with 
ballads  and  the  Bible,  and  followed  by  drunken  throngs 
shouting  "  Five  pounds  for  the  head  of  a  swaddler."  An 
Amazonian  woman,  indignant  at  the  cowardice  of  the  magis- 
trates, attempted  to  interfere,  but  was  carried  away  and 
inclosed  in  Bridewell.  Twenty-eight  depositions  were  pre- 
sented to  the  grand  jury  at  the  Assizes  against  these  dis- 
graceful proceedings,  but  they  were  all  thrown  out,  and  the 
jury  made  "  a  remarkable  presentment,"  which  still  stands 
on  the  city  records,  and  which  declares  that  "  we  find  and 
present  Charles  Wesley  to  be  a  person  of  ill-fame,  a  vaga- 
bond, and  a  common  disturber  of  his  majesty's  peace,  and 
we  pray  that  he  may  be  transported."  Nine  of  his  associ- 
ates were  denounced  in  the  same  terms.  All  were  preach 
ers  except  one,  whose  crime  was  his  hospitality  in  entertain 
ing  the  itinerants.  Butler  and  his  crew  were  now  more 
triumphant  than  ever;  but  at  the  Lent  Assize  all  the 
preachers  who  were  in  the  kingdom,  or  at  least  all  who  had 
been  in  Cork,  presented  themselves  in  a  body  before  the 


INTEODUCTION  INTO  IRELAND. 

court,  Tliey  had  now  to  deal  with  a  higher  authority,  the 
king's  judges.  Butler  was  the  first  witness;  to  the  ques- 
tion. What  is  your  calling'?  he  responded,  "I  sing  ballads." 
"  Here,"  exclaimed  the  judge,  lifting  up  his  hands  indignantly, 
*'  here  are  six  gentlemen  indicted  as  vagabonds,  and  the  first 
accuser  is  a  vagabond  by  profession !"  The  second  accuser 
replied  he  was  "  an  anti-swaddler,"  and  treated  the  courfc 
with  such  disrespect  that  he  was  ordered  away  for  con- 
tempt. The  preachers  were  triumphantly  vindicated,  but 
the  reign  of  the  mob  was  not  over.  John  Wesley  re- 
turned to  Cork  in  1750,  and  was  assailed  with  terrible  vio- 
lence. The  furniture,  windows,  and  floor  of  the,  chapel  were 
torn  out  and  burned  in  the  street.  He  went  to  Bandon  to 
preach,  but  the  Cork  m.ob  followed  him  thither  in  grand 
procession  and  hung  him  in  effigy.  ^^  During  nearly  a  week 
the  rioters  prevailed,  unchecked  if  not  encouraged  by  the 
mayor.  They  patrolled  the  streets  with  shouts  and  m.en- 
aces,  and  one  of  them  affixed  an  advertisement  at  the  Ex- 
change, subscribed  with  his  name,  proposing  assaults  on  the 
houses  of  "  Swaddlers,"  or  of  any  citizens  who  dared  to  en- 
tertain them.  But  the  excitement  exhausted  itself  at  last ; 
many  of  the  soldiers  in  garrison  at  Cork  attended  the  Meth- 
odist preaching ;  soldiers  made  stanch  Methodist  converts  in 
those  stormy  days,  and  the  mob  became  afraid  of  them. 
Butler  then  went  to  W,aterford  and  raised  similar  riots  there, 
but  in  a  quarrel  with  his  associates  lost  an  arm,  and  lingered 
out  the  remainder  of  his  life  disabled  and  miserable. 

John  Wesley  afterward  visited  the  city  without  molesta- 
tion. Methodism  took  permanent  root  there ;  a  spacious 
chapel  was  soon  erected,  and  there  are  few  places,  says 
his  Irish  biographer,^ ^  where  religion  has  prospered  more 
than  in  Cork ;  "  Being  reviled  for  the  name  of  Christ,  the 
spirit  of  glory  and  of  God  has  rested  upon  them,  and  many 
have  been  there  the  living  and  dying  witnesses  of  the  power 
of  true  religion."  On  a  subsequent  visit  Wesley  was  re- 
ceived at  the  mansion-house  by  the  mayor,  and  his  presence 
12  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  YI,  1.  is  ibid. 


284  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

was  considered  an  honor  to  the  city.  So  advanced,  in  fine, 
did  Methodism  become  in  its  social  position  in  Cork,  that 
five  years  later  Wesley  dreaded  that  city  as  the  Capua  of 
his  preachers.^* 

It  spread,  meanwhile,  rapidly  over  the  country.  It  was 
permanently  founded  about  this  time,  not  only  in  the  three 
southern  counties,  but  also  among  the  mountains  of  Ulster, 
where  it  found  sympathy,  and  wrought  its  usual  good^ffects, 
among  the  poorer  classes  of  Protestants,  Circuits  were 
formed  and  regularly  supplied,  and  several  effective  native 
preachers  were  raised  up.  The  peculiar  susceptibility  of  the 
Irish  character  afforded  continually  striking  cases  of  con 
version.  "  Are  there  any  drunkards  here  ?"  cried  an  itin- 
erant, as  he  preached  amid  a  mongrel  multitude.  "Yes, 
I  am  one,"  replied  a  sobbing  Irishman,  who,  returning  in- 
toxicated toward  his  home  had  stepped  aside  to  the  assem- 
bly, supposing  it  was  witnessing  a  cock-fight,  and  from  that 
day  he  was  not  only  reclaimed  from  his  long-confirmed  vice, 
but  became  a  genuine  Christian. ^^  Some  poor  natives  who 
could  not  understand  the  English  language  of  the  itinerants, 
were  awakened  and  effectually  turned  to  a  religious  life  by 
the  force  of  their  earnest  manner  of  address.  A  deaf  mute 
of  the  county  of  Antrim  was  thus  reclaimed  from  a  life  of 
excessive  profligacy  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He 
had  been  notoriously  addicted  to  cock-fighting,  horse-racing, 
drunkenness,  and  other  vices,  but  became  an  upright  citizen, 
a  devoted  member  of  the  Methodist  society,  and  its  success- 
ful promoter  among  his  tov^nismen.  Unable  to  speak  the 
word  of  exhortation  to  his  neighbors,  he  preached  by  his 
exemplary  life,  and  whenever  the  preacher  or  class-leader 
was  expected  in  the  town,  he  watched  for  his  arrival,  and 
hastened  from  house  to  house  to  summon  the  people  to  the 
place  of  prayer.  His  business  had  required  him  to  work  on 
the  Sabbath,  but  on  becoming  a  Methodist  he  would  no 
more  do  violence  to  the  Lord's  day.  Unable  to  read,  he , 
nevertheless  learned,  by  the  aid  of  his  Christian  brethren,  the 

'*  Journal,  Anno  1755.  '^  Arminian  Magazine,  1781,  p.  478. 


INTEODUCTION    INTO    IRELAND.  285 

precious  promises,  and  their  place  in  the  sacred  volume, 
and  would  often  turn  to  them  with  "  a  wild  screaming  voice 
and  floods  of  tears."  ^^ 

In  some  towns  Methodism  secured  a  permanent  lodgment 
in  a  most  unexpected  manner.  John  Smith,  a  zealous 
preacher,  who  had  been  rescued  from  desperate  vices,  felt 
"pressed  in  spirit"  to  preach  in  Glenarm,  a  neglected  town 
among  the  mountains  of  the  north.  As  he  rode  up  to  make 
his  evangelical  assault  on  the  place  he  met  a  young  lady  who 
was  riding  with  a  servant.  In  reply  to  his  inquiries,  she 
warned  him  that  it  was  a  very  wicked  community.  "Are 
there  no  good  men  there'?"  inquired  the  Methodist.  "Yes, 
there  is  one,  William  Hunter,"  was  her  only  encouragement. 
Eiding  into  the  town,  he  inquired  for  the  house  of  the  one 
pious  townsman.  At  the  door  he  met  a  young  woman,  and 
directed  his  horse  to  be  taken  to  the  inn ;  '"  and  tell  every 
one  you  meet,"  he  added,  "  that  a  visitor  at  your  house  has 
good  news  to  tell  all  at  seven  o'clock."  At  the  hour  the 
house  was  filled.  The  eccentric  evangelist  was  heartily 
welcomed  by  the  warm-hearted  Irishmen.  They  detained 
him  nine  days,  preaching  to  them  twice  daily,  and  a  society 
was  then  formed  which  continues  to  the  present  time. 
When  he  was  about  to  depart  he  had  but  threepence  in  his 
pocket.  He  asked  his  landlady  what  he  was  to  pay  for  his 
horse  ?  "  Nothing,  sir,"  she  replied ;  "  a  gentleman  has  paid 
all,  and  will  do  so  if  you  stay  a  month."  The  whole  inci- 
dent was  genuinely  Irish.  ^^ 

Mobs,  however,  continued  for  some  time  to  alternate  witn 
such  semi-humorous  scenes  of  Hibernian  good-nature,  and 
they  occasionally  assumed  a  frightful  and  perilous  severity. 
Another  of  them  at  least  was  fatal,  and  afforded  Methodism 

is  Arminian  Magazine,  1794,  p.  439. 

"  Coke's  and  Moore  Life  of  Wesley,  III,  1.  This  work  must  be  distin- 
gnisiied  from  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  a  later  production,  wliich  does  not 
contain  the  facts  referred  to.  The  zealous  John  Smith  died  in  the  faith 
in  1772.  Myles  (Chron.  Hist.)  says :  " He  was  a  remarkably  useful  man; 
many  hundreds  were  converted  by  his  instrumentality,  upward  of 
twenty  of  whom  became  preachers." 


286  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

its  first  Irish  martyr.  John  M'Burney  deviated  sometimes 
from,  his  circuit  to  preach  in  the  market-place  at  Clones. 
Many  people  attended,  and  much  good  was  done ;  but  the 
Papists  took  alarm,  and,  assembling  the  rabble,  persecuted 
the  assembly  so  violently  that  it  was  feared  the  worship 
must  be  abandoned,  especially  as  no  magistrate  would 
interfere.  When  about  to  give  up,  a  singular  incident  oc- 
curred to  restore  confidence  to  the  worshipers.  A  veteran 
military  pensioner  astonished  the  preacher  and  his  friends 
by  taking  his  post  at  a  tree  in  the  market-place,  musket  in 
hand,  and  proclaiming  with  a  terrible  oath  that  he  would 
shoot  the  first  man  who  should  pass  the  tree  to  disturb  the 
meeting.  He  was  a  Scotchman,  wicked,  but  with  high  hered- 
itary notions  of  religious  decorum,  and  good  courage  to 
mauitain  them.  "  His  word,"  says  a  contemporary  writer, 
"was  certainly  attended  with  power  of  some  kind,  for  not 
one  of  the  rioters,  although  they  shouted  from  a  distance, 
attempted  to  pass  the  prescribed  limits."  The  stanch  old 
soldier  mounted  guard  at  the  tree  regularly  at  every  visit 
of  the  preacher  for  several  weeks,  until  he  had  completely 
won  the  field.  "  What  strange  instruments,"  writes  a 
Methodist  preacher  who  .recorded  the  case  on  the  spot, 
"  what  strange  instruments  are  sometimes  raised  up  to  pre- 
vent or  defeat  the  designs  of  hell !"  ^^  But  the  cowed 
rioters  sought  revenge  elsewhere.  M'Burney  attempted  to 
preach  near  the  neighbouring  village  of  Enniskillen.  While 
the  congregation  was  singing,  the  mob,  armed  with  clubs, 
rushed  in,  breaking  the  windows  and  violently  thrusting  out 
men  and  women.  The  preacher  was  knocked  down  and 
dragged  on  the  earth.  He  lay  for  some  time  senseless 
under  the  blows  of  the  rioters.  On  becoming  conscious 
he  attempted  to  rise,  but  staggered  and  fell  again.  A 
ruffian  set  his  foot  upon  his  face,  swearing  he  would  "  tread 
the  Holy  Ghost  out  of  him."  "  May  God  forgive  you,  I 
do,"  exclaimed  the  sufferer,  as  soon  as  he  could  speak.  He 
was  then   placed  upon   his  horse,  and  one  of  the  rioters 

18  Life  of  Eev.  Henry  Moore,  p.  i8. 


INTEODUCTION    INTO    lEELAND.  287 

mounting  behind  him,  drove  him.  impetuously  do'v^ni  the 
mountain  side  to  the  town,  where  he  was  rescued  by  a 
hospitable  citizen.  Preaching  as  long  as  he  had  strength, 
and  rejoicing  that  he  had  been  counted  worthy  to  suffer 
for  Christ,  he  died  at  last  of  the  injuries  thus  received,  and 
claims  in  the  history  of  Irish  Methodism  the  honorable  rank 
accorded  to  Thomas  Beard  in  that  of  England. 

Notwithstanding  their  frequent  riots,  Wesley  always  con- 
tended that  the  Irish  were  the  politest  people  he  had  ever 
met;  and  that  in  their  wretched  cabins  could  be  seen  as 
thorough  courtesy  as  at  the  courts  of  London  or  Paris. 
"  The  damp,  dirty,  smoky  cabins  of  Ulster,"  said  one  of  the 
preachers,  "  were  a  good  trial ;  but  what  makes  double 
amends  for  all  these  inconveniences,  to  any  preacher  who 
loves  the  word  of  God,  is,  that  our  people  here  are  in  gene- 
ral the  most  zealous,  lively,  affectionate  Christians  in  the 
kingdom."  "  I  had  many  an  aching  head  and  pained  breast," 
wrote  another,  "but  it  was  delightful  to  see  hundreds  at- 
tending to  my  blundering  preaching  with  streaming  eyes  and 
attention  as  still  as  night."  ^^ 

Methodism  won  many  converts  from  Popery,  and  from 
among  them  secured  one  of  its  most  distinguished  early 
preachers,  an  extraordinary  man,  whose  name,  fragrant  with 
saintly  associations,  still  lingers  as  a  household  word  among 
its  families  in  both  hemispheres.  While  Eobert  Swindells, 
a  devoted  lay  preacher,^*^  who,  as  we  have  seen,  accompanied 

19  Southey's  Weslej,  cliap,  24. 

20  Swindells  was  one  of  Wesley's  test  lay  itinerants ;  he  tegan  to 
preacli  in  1741,  and  died  in  tlie  Itinerancy  in  1788.  (Myles's  Cliron.  Hist, 
of  tlie  Methodists,  p.  297.)  In  the  obituary  of  the  Minutes  for  1783, 
Wesley  says :  "  He  had  been  with  us  above  forty  years.  He  was  an 
Israelite  indeed.  In  all  these  years  I  never  knew  him  to  speak  a  word 
which  he  did  not  mean,  and  he  always  spoke  the  truth  in  love.  I  believe 
no  one  ever  heard  him  speak  an  unkind  word.  He  went  through  exquisite 
pain  (by  the  stone)  for  many  years,  but  he  was  not  weary.  One  thing 
was  almost  pecuhar  to  himself,  he  had  no  enemy ;  so  remarkably  was 
that  word  fulfilled,  '  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain 
mercy.'  "  (Arminian  Magazine,  1784,  p.  621.)  Besides  his  connection  with 
the  conversion  of  Thomas  Walsh,  this  good  man  did  important  service  for 


288  HISTORY    OF    METIIODIS^r. 

Wesley  to  Ireland  in  1748,  was  addressing  a  large  cougro- 
gation  on  the  parade  ground  at  Limerick  in  1749,  a  yoimg 
man  who  had  been  trained  a  strict  Roman  Catholic,  but 
whose  intelligent  and  melancholy  aspect  betrayed  an  un- 
settled and  inquiring  m.ind,  took  his  stand  amid  the  throng, 
attracted  among  them  not  more  by  the  novelty  of  the  scene 
than  by  the  hope  that  some  words  appropriate  to  his  religious 
anxieties  might  be  uttered  by  the  humble  preacher.  The 
needed  word  was  uttered,  for  the  text  of  the  itinerant  was : 
"  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  and  1 
will  give  you  rest."  Twenty  years  later  John  Wesley 
wrote,  respecting  this  Irish  youth,  that  he  knew  a  young  man 
who  was  so  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  Bible  that  if  he 
was  questioned  concerning  any  Hebrew  word  in  the  Old,  or 
any  Greek  in  the  New  Testament,  he  would  tell,  after  a 
brief  pause,  not  only  how  often  the  one  or  the  other  occurred 
in  the  Bible,  but  what  it  meant  in  every  place.  Such  a  mas- 
ter of  Biblical  knowledge  he  says  he  never  saw  before,  and 
never  expected  to  see  again.  His  name  was  Thomas  Walsh. 
His  parents  were  rigorous  Romanists  ;  when  a  child  they 
taught  him  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Ave  Maria  in  Irish, 
(his  native  tongue,)  and  also  the  one  hundredth  Psalm  in 
Latin.  He  learned  English  in  his  eighth  year,  and  after- 
ward the  Latin  grammar,  under  the  tuition  of  his  brother, 
a  school  teacher,  designed  for  the  Papal  priesthood,  but 
who,  by  reading  the  Scriptures,  had  discovered  reasons 
for  abandoning  the  faith  of  his  family.  Young  Walsh, 
whose  temper  was  constitutionally  serious,  if  not  mel- 
ancholy, had  deep  religious  solicitudes  in  his  childhood. 
He  describes  himself  as  often  terrified  by  his  apprehensions 
of  death  and  the  future  state,  and  as  strict  in  his  religious 
exercises,  but  "  a  small  part  of  them  only  was  addressed  to 
Ood,  the  rest  to  saints  and  angels."  ^i     From  his  fourteenth 

Methodism  in  Ireland.  He  deserves  a  fuller  notice,  but  I  have  teen  un- 
able to  find  any  available  records  for  it. 

21  Life  of  Thomas  "Walsh,  composed  in  great  part  from  his  own  accounts, 
by  James  Morgan.     New  York,  1848. 


INTRODUCTION  INTO  IRELAND.     289 

CO  his  sixteenth  year  he  was  more  than  ever  devoted  to 
the  requirements  of  his  faith,  particularly  the  Mass.  He 
was  scrupulous  against  most  ordinary  vices,  especially  pro- 
fanity, except  the  petty  forms  of  it,  with  which  the  native 
Irish  language  abounds  more  than  any  other  tongue. 
Meanwhile  his  religious  impressions  deepened  and  became 
intense.  "  The  arrows  of  the  Almighty,"  he  says,  "  stuck 
fast  in  me,  and  my  very  bones  trembled  because  of  my 
sins."  He  confessed  to  his  priest,  who  advised  "  many 
prayers,"  but  seemed  not  to  comprehend  his  case.  He 
strove  to  divert  himself  by  recreations,  but  "  a  hell,"  he  says, 
"  opened  in  my  breast."  He  fasted  rigorously  and  prayed 
nicessantly,  and  in  his  agony  sometimes  threw  himself  upon 
the  ground,  tearing  the  hair  from  his  head.  He  records 
with  morbid  scrupulosity  his  failings  and  sins ;  the  Confes- 
sions of  Augustine  scarcely  surpass  these  brief  records  in 
candor  and  compunction  ;  yet  he  says  he  "  was  as  one  who 
beateth  the  air,"  as  he  had  not  the  Bible  to  instruct  him. 

In  his  eighteenth  year  the  conversations  of  his  brother  led 
him  to  serious  doubts  respecting  the  pretensions  of  Popery. 
It  had  afforded  his  awakened  mind  no  satisfactory  relief,  and 
his  intelligence  revolted  from  its  manifest  absurdities  In  an 
appointed  interview  with  his  brother  and  other  Protestant 
friends,  at  which  the  Bible  and  Nelson's  Feasts  and  Pasts 
of  the  Church  of  England  were  consulted  and  discussed  till 
midnight,  he  was  constrained,  he  says,  "  to  give  place  to  the 
light  of  truth."  About  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  returned 
to  his  lodgings,  fell  upon  his  knees,  and  for  the  first  time 
prayed  to  God  alone.  No  saint  or  angel  was  ever  again 
invoked  by  him,  for  he  was  now  convinced  that  '•'■there  is  but 
one  God,  and  one  mediatoi-  between  God  and  man,  the  man 
Christ  Jesus^  He  resolved,  he  says,  to  suffer  no  man  to 
beguile  him  again  into  a  voluntary  humility  in  worshiping 
either  saints  or  angels.  His  father  attempted  to  reclaim 
him,  but  could  not  answer  his  arguments.  His  candid  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  entirely  overthrew  the  sophisms  by 
which  the  invocation  of  saints  and  the  other  errors  of  Pq 

Vol,  I.— 19 


290  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

pery  were  sustained.  His  quick,  discerning  intellect  was 
surprised  at  the  total  absence  of  any  intimations  of  these  er 
rors  in  the  divine  records. 

He  formally  abjured  the  creed  of  his  family,  and  united 
with  the  Established  Church.  But  his  sincere  heart  was  full 
of  charity ;  he  speaks  of  the  Papists  in  language  which  is 
iniusual  to  such,  converts  :  "  I  bear  them  witness,"  he  writes, 
"that  they  have  a  zeal  for  God,  though  not  according  to 
knowledge.  Many  of  them  have  justice,  mercy,  and  truth, 
and  m.ay,  (notwithstanding  many  errors  in  sentiment,  and 
therefore  in  practice,  through  invincible  ignorance,)  be  dealt 
with  accordingly,  since  as  is  God's  majesty  so  is  his  mercy." 
He  believed  that  after  his  enlightenment  he  could  not  be 
saved  among  them,  but  that  earnest  men  who  had  not  been 
thus  convinced,  would  be  accepted  of  Go(l  in  their  com- 
naunion ;  and  he  dismiisses  the  subject  with  a  pathetic  prayer 
in  their  behalf,  which  might  well  be  substituted  for  much  of 
the  severity  and  dogmatism  with  which  they  are  commonly 
treated.  His  renunciation  of  Popery  relieved  him  of  many 
superstitious  troubles  of  naind,  but  deepened  his  religious 
anxiety.  His  conscience,  he  says,  still  condemned  him ; 
"  There  was  no  rest  in  my  bones,  by  reason  of  my  sin."  It 
was  in  this  state  of  mind  that  he  heard  Robert  Swmdells  pro- 
claim on  the  parade-ground  at  Limerick,  "  Come  unto  m.e 
all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden." 

The  evangelical  itinerants  soon  penetrated  to  his  native 
village  of  Newmarket.  He  welcomed  them,  and  joined  the 
little  Methodist  society  there;  and  now,  he  says,  a  purer 
light  began  to  dawn  upon  him,  for  he  saw  not  his  "guilt  only, 
but  the  all-sufRciency  of  Christ."  The  itinerants,  true  to  the 
genius  of  Methodism,  wrangled  not  about  ecclesiastical  or  dog- 
matic questions  with  even  Papists,  but  proclaimed  the  vital 
doctrines  of  personal  religion.  In  one  of  their  assemblies, 
■"  I  was  divinely  assured,"  he  says,  "  that  God  for  Christ's 
sake  had  forgiven  me  all  my  sins ;  the  Spirit  of  God  bore 
witness  with  my  spirit  that  I  was  a  child  of  God.  I  broke 
out  into  tears  of  joy  and  love ;"  and  a  friend  bv  his  sidp 


INTEODUCTION    INTO    IRELAND.  291 

received  the  same  consolation  at  the  same  hom\22  He  lived 
now,  writes  his  biographer,  as  in  another  world.  A  more 
saintly  life  than  he  exemplified  from  this  time  down  to  his 
death  cannot  be  found  in  the  records  of  either  Papal  or 
Protestant  piety.  The  life  of  Thomas  Walsh,  says  Robert 
Southey,  "m.ight  indeed  almost  convince  a  Catholic  that 
saints  are  to  be  found  in  other  communions  as  well  as  in 
the  Church  of  Rome."  He  saw  in  Methodism  a  genuine 
reproduction  of  the  apostolic  Church,  and  he  gave  himself 
to  study  that  he  might  the  better  promote  its  marvelous 
mission.  Besides  his  native  Irish  language,  he  mastered 
the  English,  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew ;  the  latter  was 
especially  a  sublime  delight  to  him,  as  the  tongue  with 
which  God  himself  had  originally  spoken  to  man.  He 
rose  at  four  o'clock,  and  continued  to  do  so  the  remainder 
of  his  life,  to  study  it,  and  he  read  it  often  upon  his  knees. 
"0  truly  laudable  and  worthy  study!"  he  exclaims,  "where- 
by a  man  is  enabled  to  converse  with  God,  with  holy  angels, 
with  patriarchs  and  prophets,  and  clearly  to  unfold  to  men 
the  mind  of  God  from  the  language  of  God!"  He  believed 
even  that  a  divine  inspiration  helped  him  in  these  sacred 
studies ;  and  such  was  his  success  with  them,  that  probably 
no  man  ever  excelled  him  in  the  knowledge  of  the  word  of 
God.  His  memory  w^as  a  concordance  of  the  entire  Bible. 
No  Catholic  saint  ever  pored  more  assiduously  or  devoutly 
over  ills  Breviary  than  did  this  remarkable  man  over  the 
original  Scriptures  during  the  rest  of  his  life.  His  studies 
were  intermixed  with  ejaculations  of  praise  and  supplication, 
"  Turning  his  face  to  the  wall,  and  lifting  up  his  heart  and 
countenance  to  heaven,  with  his  arms  clasped  about  his 
breast,  he  would  stand  for  some  time  before  the  Lord  in 

5^1  Southey  (cliap.  23)  refers  to  the  passage  of  Scripture  at  the  utterance  of 
wL-oh  Walsh's  mind  was  relieved,  as  affording  to  the  psychologist  "  a 
curious  illustration  of  Methodist  conversions."  It  was,  "  Who  is  this  that ' 
cometh  from  Edom,  with  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah ;  this  that  is  glo- 
rious in  his  apparel,  traveling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength?"  Southey 
was  evidently  ignorant  of  the  evangelical  application  which  commentators 
and  Walsh  himself  gave  to  the  sublime  text. 


292  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

solemn  recollection,  and  again  return  to  his  work."  ^3  Mean- 
while his  cry  was,  "  I  fain  would  rest  in  Thee  !  I  thirst  for 
the  divine  life.  I  pray  for  the  Spirit  of  illumination.  I  cast 
my  soul  upon  Jesus  Christ,  the  God  of  glory,  and  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  world.  I  desire  to  be  conformable  unto  him, 
his  friend,  servant,  disciple,  and  sacrifice !"  Such  was  this 
good,  this  subli"me  man,  a  noble  trophy  won  by  the  illiterate 
preachers  of  Methodism  from  the  abject  superstitions  of 
Popery.  In  reading  the  brief  record  of  his  life,  we  seem  to 
have  before  us  a  combination  and  impersonation  of  the 
Hebraic  grandeur  of  the  old  prophets,  the  mystic  piety 
of  the  papal  saints,  and  the  Scriptural  intelligence  and 
purity  of  Protestantism. 

He  contemplated  with  a  sentiment  of  awe  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  entered  upon  it  with 
a  trembling  hesitancy  and  humility.  "  Lord  Jesus  !"  he 
prayed  in  view  of  it,  "  Lord  Jesus,  I  lay  my  soul  at  thy 
feet,  to  be  taught  and  governed  by  thee.  Take  the  vail 
from  the  mystery,  and  show  me  the  truth  as  it  is  in  thy- 
self; be  thou  my  sun  and  star  by  day  and  by  night." 
Once  in  the  ranks  of  the  lay  ministry  no  contemporary 
member  of  it  became  more  eminent  for  zeal,  labors,  or 
sufferings.  He  walked  thirty  miles  to  his  first  appoint- 
naent,  which  was  in  a  barn,  and  amid  the  contradictions  and 
mockery  of  some,  and  the  tears  of  others,  preached  with  an 
effect  that  demonstrated  the  genuineness  of  his  mission. 
He  proclaimed  his  message  with  remarkable  power  every 
day  for  some  weeks  at  Limerick ;  and  his  awakened  hear- 
ers sometimes  could  not  be  induced  to  leave  the  spot 
where  they  heard  him  till  they  received  the  peace  of  God. 
He  went  like  a  flame  of  fire  through  Leinster  and  Con- 
naught,  preaching  twice  and  thrice  a  day,  usually  in  the 
open  air.  Multitudes  of  all  denominations  attended  his 
ministrations,  and  before  long  he  was  known  all  around  the 
country.  His  command  of  the  Irish  tongue  gave  him 
great  advantage  with  the  native  Papists.  They  flocked  to 
23  Life,  etc.,  chap.  12. 


INTRODUCTION    INTO    IRELAND.  293 

hear  their  own  rude  but  touching  language ;  they  wept, 
smote  their  breasts,  and  invoked  the  Virgin  with  sobbing 
voices,  and  declared  themselves  ready  to  follow  him  as  a 
saint  over  the  world.  The  beggars  would  gather  around 
him  as  he  passed,  and,  melting  under  his  words,  would 
kneel  down  in  the  streets  and  weep  and  pray.  A  Papist 
who  had  saved  his  earnings  to  leave  to  a  priest  or  friar,  for 
masses  for  his  soul  when  he  should  be  dead,  called  upon 
Walsh,  begging  him  to  take  the  money  and  the  responsi- 
bility of  praying  his  soul  out  of  purgatory.  "  No  man  can 
forgive  your  sins,"  said  the  preacher ;  "  the  gift  of  God 
cannot  be  purchased  with  money ;  only  the  blood  of  Christ 
can  cleanse  from  sin."  The  astonished  Romanist  was 
deeply  affected,  and  cried  earnestly  to  God,  while  Walsh 
knelt  by  his  side,  and  prayed  for  him  in  Irish.  A  native, 
with  whom  he  was  conversing  in  English,  became  enraged 
at  his  religious  warnings,  and  declared  that  "  although  he 
should  be  shot  for  it  he  would  have  satisfaction,"  adding, 
with  an  oath,  "thou  shalt  never  deceive  another,  for  I  am 
resolved  to  be  the  death  of  thee  just  now."  Walsh  imme- 
diately reproved  him  in  Irish.  "  Why  didst  thou  not  speak 
so  to  me  in  the  beginning'?"  exclaimed  the  excited  man. 
"  The  lion  became  a  lamb,"  says  the  preacher,  "  while  I  let 
him  know  in  Irish  what  Christ  had  done  for  sinners.  He 
departed  with  a  broken  heart."  ^^  When  preaching  in  Irish, 
hearers  who  did  not  understand  his  speech  were,  neverthe- 
less, sometimes  smitten  by  his  earnest  and  affecting  man- 
ner, and  an  instance  is  related  of  a  man  who,  hearing  him  in 
Dublin,  was  thus  "  cut  to  the  heart." 

It  is  admitted  that  no  man  contributed  more  than  Walsh 
to  the  diffusion  of  Methodism  in  Ireland.^s  The  Roman 
priests  were  alarmed  at  his  success,  and  instigated  mobs 
against  him.     On  his  way  to  Roscrea  he  was  assailed  by 

24  "  It  is  an  old  maxim  in  Ireland,"  says  Sotitlaey,  "  When  yon  plead 
for  your  life,  plead  in  Irish."  "It  has  a  peculiarly  affecting  expressive- 
ness, particularly  with  reference  to  the  things  of  God."  Morgan's  Life 
of  Thomas  Walsh. 

'•^5  Southey's  Wesley,  chap.  23. 


294  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

seventy-eight  men  armed  with  clubs ;  he  was  surprised  at 
their  illogical  but  Hibernian  generosity,  for  they  pro- 
posed to  bring  a  <ilergyman  of  the  English  Church  and  a 
Roman  priest  to  convert  him  to  either  faith,  as  he 
pleased,  and  then  to  let  him  depart  in  peace.  He  told 
them  that  he  came  not  to  discuss  opinions,  but  to  preach 
against  the  wickedness  of  any  or  all  parties.  This  seemed 
incomprehensible  to  them.  They,  nevertheless,  offered  him 
his  liberty  if  he  would  swear  not  to  come  to  Roscrea  again ; 
but  he  would  have  suffered  martyrdom  rather  than  make 
such  a  pledge.  They  hurried  him  away,  therefore,  raging 
like  wild  beasts,  to  put  him  into  a  well,  which  they  had  se- 
cured for  the  purpose ;  but  his  calm  and  courageous  bearing 
excited  the  admiration  of  some  of  the  mob,  and  while  one 
party  cried  vehemently  that  he  should  go  into  the  water, 
another  swore  he  should  not.  The  parish  minister  inter- 
fered, and  had  him  taken  to  an  inn.  The  mob  brought  him 
out  again,  and  it  being  market-day,  he  bravely  took  his 
stand  among  the  throng  in  the  street  and  began  to  preach ; 
but  some  of  the  crowd  seizing  him  by  the  back,  hurried 
him  out  of  the  town.  He  at  last  got  upon  his  horse,  and, 
taking  off  his  hat,  prayed  for  some  time  in  their  midst,  and 
then  addressed  them  in  a  persuasive  exhortation.  "  I  came 
off  from  them  at  length,"  he  writes,  "  in  peace  of  conscience 
and  serenity  of  mind."  They  had  not  conquered  him ;  he 
resumed  his  labors  in  the  town,  and  Methodism  was  se- 
curely planted  there. 

He  traveled  toward  Cork,  proclaiming  the  Gospel  as  he 
went.  In  a  town  near  that  city,  sergeants,  sent  by  a  magis- 
trate, arrived  to  seize  him  as  he  was  about  to  preach 
beneath  a  tree.  He  opened  his  Bible  at  the  text,  Job 
xxi,  3  ;  "  Suffer  me  that  I  may  speaTc^  and  after  that  I  have 
spoTcen^  mock  onP  The  officers,  interested  at  first  by  the 
singularity  of  the  text,  and  afterward  by  his  eloquence, 
heard  him  attentively  through  the  sermon.  They  then 
conducted  him  to  the  magistrate,  who  demanded  a  promise 
that  he  would  preach  there  no  'more.     He  asked  if  there 


INTRODUCTION    INTO    lEELAND.  295 

were  no  swearers,  drunkards,  and  Sabbath-breakers  in  the 
town.  "There  are,"  was  the  reply.  He  refused  to  give 
the  required  promise,  but  intimated  that  if  no  reformation 
ensued  among  such  offenders  after  he  had  preached  there  a 
few  times,  he  would  trouble  them  no  more.  This, .  how 
ever,  was  not  satisfactory,  and  he  was  sent  away  to  prison. 
The  whole  town  seemed  moved  on  his  behalf,  for  his  re- 
markable character  and  talents  impressed  all  who  heard 
him.  Several  persons  accompanied  him  into  the  prison, 
where  they  spent  the  time  in  singing  hymns.  The  in- 
habitants of  the  town  sent  bedding  and  provisions  for 
him,  and  he  preached  to  a  multitude  without,  which  ex- 
tended as  far  as  his  voice  could  reach  through  the  grated 
window.  He  afterward  revisited  the  place  repeatedly, 
as  he  had  declared  he  would;  and  years  later,  his  biogra- 
pher records  that  there  were  yet  remaining  on  the  spot 
living  fruits  of  his  labors  and  sufferings.  In  the  north  of 
Ireland  he  was  still  more  severely  treated  by  Protestant 
assailants ;  his  life  was  periled  several  weeks  with  a  fever, 
occasioned  by  exposures  in  his  attempt  to  escape  his  Chris- 
tian persecutors. 

His  name  became  well  known  among  the  Roman  Catholic 
churches  throughout  the  country.  The ..  common  people 
would  hear  him  notwithstanding  the  remonstrances  of  their 
priests,  and  many  were  turned  not  only  from  Popery,  but 
from  flagrant  vices  to  repentance  and  a  holy  life.  All  kinds 
of  derogatory  reports  were  spread  abroad  to  deter  them  from 
his  preaching.  In  Clonmel  the  priest  assured  his  congre- 
gation that  the  eloquent  itinerant  had  been  a  servant  boy  to 
a  certain  priest,  and  that  having  stolen  his  master's  books, 
he  had  by  that  means  learned  to  preach,  and  was  now  avail- 
ing himself  of  his  newly-acquired  art  for  a  better  living.  At 
Cork  the  Papists  crowded  to  hear  him,  and  many  were  con- 
verted ;  the  priests  were  greatly  irritated,  and  one  of  'them 
affirmed  publicly  that  "  as  for  that  Walsh,  who  had  som^ 
time  before  turned  heretic,  and  went  about  preaching,  he  had 
been  dead  long  ago,  and  he  who  then  preached  in  this  way 


296  HISTORY    OF    METPTOI)IS:\r, 

was  the  devil  in  his  shape."  Such  was  the  only  manner  in 
which  they  could  account  to  the  ignorant  multitude  for  the 
power  of  his  discourses.  The  people,  neverthelesSj  ran  after 
him,  and  wept  and  cried  aloud  under  his  word  as  he  pro- 
claimed it  on  mountains  and  highways,  in  meadows,  private 
houses,  prisons,  and  ships.  They  often  followed  him  w^hen 
the  sermon  was  concluded,  begging  for  further'  instruction. 
They  would  come  to  his  rooms  to  entreat  his  counsels  and 
prayers,  and  kneeling  down  under  his  exhortations,  would 
begin  to  call  with  tears  upon  the  Virgin  and  Apostles,  till  he 
could  check  them  and  teach  them  better. 

As  it  was  Wesley's  habit  to  transpose  his  preachers  often, 
Walsh  was  sent  to  London,  where  he  did  nauch  good  among 
his  Irish  countrymen.  He  addressed  them  in  their  own 
language  in  Moorfields  and  at  Short's  Gardens,  and  they 
crowded  to  hear  their  native  tongue  so  eloquently  used.  He 
preached  constantly  twice  a  day,  and  with  such  fervor  that 
one  of  his  intimate  friends  says  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  en- 
able a  stranger  to  conceive  of  the  glow  of  his  soul,  and  the 
energy  of  his  spirit  on  these  occasions ;  "  such  a  sluice  of 
divine  oratory  ran  through  the  whole  of  his  language  as  is 
rarely  to  be  met  with."  ^e  Wesley  called  him  "  that 
blessed  man;"  "wherever  he  preached,"  he  adds,  "the 
word,  whether  in  English  or  Irish,  was  sharper  than  a  two- 
edged  sword.  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  known  a 
preacher  who  in  so  few  years  as  he  remained  upon  earth  was 
an  instrument  of  converting  so  many  sinners."  ^'^  In  Lon- 
don he  had  frequent  discussions  with  the  Jews.  He  attend- 
ed their  synagogues,  and  his  intimate  knowledge  of  Hebrew 
enabled  him  to  reason  with  them  out  of  their  own  original 
Scriptures. 

During  nine  years  did  this  remarkable  man  pursue  his 
tireless  and  luminous  course.  It  was  closed  at  last,  as  we 
shall  hereafter  see,  by  a  death  of  singular  mental  anguish,  but 
final  triumph,  presenting  a  startling  lesson  well  worthy  the 
study  of  the  best  of  men. 

sfl  Morgan's  Life  of  Walsh,  chap.  15.     27  Myles's,  Chron.  Hist.,  p.  64. 


INTRODUCTION    IXTO    IRELAND.  297 

The  Methodist  itinerants  in  Ireland,  visited  frequently  by 
the  Wesleys,  and  stimulated,  if  not,  indeed,  led  on,  by  this 
talented  and  flaming  native  preacher,  planted  their  cause  in 
most  of  the  country.  It  was  destined  to  pass  through 
many  vicissitudes,  and  to  show  its  energy  at  times  as  much 
by  endurance  as  by  progress;  but  its  root  struck  ineradicably 
into  the  soil,  and  it  is  not  perhaps  too  much  to  say  that  it 
saved  Protestantism  in  many  parts  of  the  island.  Perse- 
cutions subsided  ;  Wesley  in  later  life  was  received  with 
veneration  as  an  apostle ;  "  the  scandal  of  the  cross,"  he 
wrote,  "has  ceased,  and  all  the  kingdom,  rich  and  poor, 
Papists  and  Protestants,  behave  with  courtesy,  nay,  with 
good-will."  He  rejoiced  at  last  over  a  larger  society  in 
Dublin  than  anywhere  else  in  the  United  Kingdom,  except 
London.  He  directed  his  course  toward  the  island  al- 
ways with  a  peculiar  interest,  and  the  time  he  spent  there  in 
his  numerous  visits  amounted  to  at  least  six  years. 


298  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

LABOES    OF   THE    OALVINISTIC   METHODISTS*. 

1744-1750. 

Whitefield's  third  Visit  to  America  —  His  dangerous  Sickness  ir.  Maine  — 
Testimonials  against  him  —  His  Success  —  The  Cape  Breton  Expedi- 
tion—  His  Eeception  at  Philadelphia  —  Singular  Eeligious  Interest  in 
Virginia  —  Maryland  —  He  goes  to  Bermuda  —  He  embarks  for  England 
—  Labors  of  Howell  Harris  —  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon  traveling  iu 
Wales — "Whitefleld  arrives  in  London  —  Eev.  John  Newton  —  White- 
ficjd  in  Scotland  —  His  Travels  in  England  —  Eemarkable  Conversion  — • 
Bishop  Lavington's  Attacks  —  Charles  Wesley  and  Whitefield  preach- 
ing amid  the  Alarms  of  Earthquakes  in  London, 

While  Wesley  and  his  Arminian  colaborers  were  success- 
fully spreading  Methodisra  during  the  present  period, 
Whitefield  and  the  other  Calvinistic  agents  of  the  move- 
ment were  hardly  less  active.  Whitefield  re-embarked  for 
America  in  August,  1744.  He  arrived  at  York,  Maine,  in 
disabled  health,  after  a  passage  of  eleven  weeks.  Three 
weeks  he  lingered  between  life  and  death,  but  preached  re- 
peatedly though  he  had  to  be  carried  like  a  child.  After 
one  of  his  sermons  he  was  taken  honae  and  laid  near  the  fire ; 
his  friends  wept  around  him,  and  he  heard  them  say,  "  He  is 
gone."  He  supposed  himself  dying,  but  "  recollecting,"  he 
says,  "  th^  life  and  power  which  spread  all  around,  while 
expecting  to  stretch  into  eternity  I  thought  it  was  worth 
dying  for  a  thousand  times."  ^  The  venerable  Moody,  pas- 
tor of  York,  still  remembered  for  both  his  piety  and  his 
humor,  attended  him,  and  welcomed  him  in  the  name  of  "  all 
faithful  ministers  in  New  England."  But  on  arriving  at  Bos- 
ton he  found  the  good  pastor's  welcome  not  entirely  veri- 

*  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  Whitefield,  chap.  14. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISTS:    1744-1750.299 

lied.  Harvard  College  had  issued  a  "testimony"  against 
him,  and  not  a  few  clergymen  opposed  him  in  a  similar 
manner.  Hostile  "  testimonies  "  signed  by  ministers  came 
out  almost  every  day.^  Fifteen  pastors,  assembled  at  Taun- 
ton, Mass.,  published  a  testimony  in  his  favor.  "  But,"  he 
writes,  "  amid  all  this  smoke  a  blessed  fire  broke  out ;  the 
awakened  souls  were  as  eager  as  ever  to  hear."  He  was 
admitted,  though  with  reluctance,  to  the  pulpits  of  Coleman, 
Sewall,  Webb,  and  Gee.  He  began  to  expound  at  six  o'clock 
in  the  miorning,  as  ha  had  done  in  Scotland,  and  though  this 
hour  was  now  before  full  daylight  in  that  latitude,  he  usually 
had  two  thousand  hearers.  He  found  occasion  also  to  re 
joice  over  the  results  of  his  former  labors.  Twenty  pas- 
tors at  least  acknowledged  that  they  had  not  been  converted 
till  he  came  am,ong  them.  Teiment  had  been  abroad  itiner- 
ating since  his  last  visit,  and  so  extensive  had  been  the 
"  awakening,"  that  many  supposed  the  latter-day  glory  had 
come,  and  that  a  nation  was  to  be  born  in  a  day.  Fanatics 
marred  the  good  vrork,  and  hence  the  reaction  at  Harvard 
College  and  elsewhere. 

Whitefield's  presence  and  eloquence  could  not  long  be 
resisted  anywhere.  Some  favorable  incidents  also  occurred 
to  help  him  at  this  visit.  An  accomplished  wit  of  the  city 
used  to  entertain  convivial  parties  over  the  bottle  with 
scraps  from  his  sermons  and  imitations  of  his  manner.  He 
was  present  in  the  church  one  day  to  get  new  specimens, 
but  when  supplied  could  not  make  his  way  out  through  the 
crowd.  The  word,  meanwhile,  took  effect  on  his  conscience. 
He  went  afterward  to  one  of  the  city  pastors,  "  full  of  hor- 
ror;" and  seeking  Whitefield,  begged  his  pardon.  Other 
equally  remarkable  conversions  deepened  the  popular  inter- 
est. The  expedition  against  Cape  Breton  was  preparing  in 
the  city;  such  at  last  was  Whitefield's  power  over  the 
populace,  that  Sherburne,  one  of  the  commissioners,  insisted 
on  his  favoring  it  publicly,  as  "  otherwise  the  serious  people 
would  be  discouraged  from  enlisting."  He  gave  them  a 
2  Gillies's  Memoirs  of  Whitefield,  cliap.  12. 


300  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

motto  for  their  flag,^  after  "  which  great  numbers  enlist, 
ed."  They  wished  him  to  become  one  of  their  chaplains, 
but  he  had  better  work.  He  preached  a  sermon  to  them, 
and  sent  them  to  the  North  with  the  enthusiasm  of  crusaders. 
In  six  weeks  new^s  came  of  the  fall  of  Louisburgh,  when  he 
delivered  a  thanksgiving  sermon  to  a  great  multitude,  w^ho 
flocked  from  all  quarters.  The  spirit  of  the  Puritan  com- 
monwealth still  survived  in  New  England,  and  Whitefield 
evidently  relished  it. 

He  had  now  reconquered  the  peoples,  if  not  their  pastors. 
It  was  proposed  to  build  him  "  the  largest  place  of  worship 
that  was  ever  seen  in  America,"  but  he  left  them  for  other 
fields :  for  the  Eastward  as  far  as  Casco  Bay ;  for  Cape  Cod 
as  far  as  North  Yarmouth ;  for  Rhode  Island  and  Connecti- 
cut ;  preaching  twice  a  day  to  thousands.  "  And  though,"  he 
writes,  "  there  was  much  smoke,  yet  every  day  I  had  more 
and  more  convincing  proof  that  a  blessed  Gospel  fire  had 
been  kindled  in  the  hearts  of  both  ministers  and  people." 

At  Philadelphia  he  was  heartily  welcomed.  The  society 
which  occupied  the  house  that  had  been  erected  for  him  at 
his  former  visit,  wished  to  settle  him  there,  and  offered 
him  a  salary  of  four  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  and  half 
the  year  for  his  itinerant  labors.  He  found  that  his 
previous  visit  had  left  a  profound  effect ;  Gilbert  Tennent's 
"feet  were  blistered"  in  walking  to  and  fro  visiting  the 
awakened.* 

He  was  gratefully  surprised  on  reaching  Virginia  to  learn 
that  a  volume  of  his  sermons  had  produced  an  extraordinary 
religious  interest.  A  gentleman  who  had  obtained  a  copy  in« 
vited  some  of  his  neighbors  to  hear  them  read  at  his  house. 
Soon  it  could  not  accommodate  the  throng  who  gathered  for 
the  purpose  every  Sunday,  and  they  erected  a  "  meeting- 
house merely  for  reading."  No  one  dared  to  offer  public 
prayer  on  these  occasions,  as  none  had  ever  been  accus- 
toiQjed  to  do   so;    yet  deep   religious    convictions    spread 

3  Ml  desperan&wm^  Ghristo  duce :  Fear  nothing  wMle  Clirist  is  Captain. 

*  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  Whitefield,  chap.  14. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISTS:    1T44-1750.   801 

among  them,  and  "  they  could  not  keep  from  crying  out  and 
weeping  bitterly."  The  reader  was  invited  abroad  with 
his  volume,  and  the  "  awakening "  extended  to  several 
towns.  Tennent  and  Blair  visited  them  soon  after ;  a  pas- 
tor by  the  name  of  Robinson  took  charge  of  them  for  some 
time,  and  in  1747  there  were  four  chapels- in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Hanover  which  had  sprung  from  this  singular 
excitement.^ 

Whitefield  passed  on  rapidly  to  his  Orphan  House  at 
Bethesda,  near  Savannah,  but  paused  not  long  there.  Ke- 
turning  northward,  his  preaching  was  attended  with  great 
success  in  Maryland.  "  The  Gospel  is  moving  southward," 
he  writes  ;  "  the  harvest  is  promising  ;  the  time  of  the  sing- 
ing of  birds  has  come."  His  travels  in  that  region,  including 
some  excursions  into  Pennsylvania,  comprised  three  hundred 
miles.  "  Thousands  and  thousands  are  ready  to  hear  the 
Gospel,"  he  says,  "and  scarce  anybody  goes  out  but  my- 
self Now  is  the  time  for  stirring!"  It  is  not  surprising 
that  when  he  arrived  in  Philadelphia  again  he  wrote  that  he 
had  almost  continually  a  burning  fever.  Yet  he  expresses 
great  regret  that  he  omitted  one  night,  (to  oblige  his  friends,) 
and  purposes' to  do  so  once  more,  that  they  might  not  charge 
him  with  self-murder.  "  But,"  he  adds,  "  I  hope  yet  to  die 
in  the  pulpit,  or  soon  after  I  come  out  of  it.''"'  They  were 
prophetic  words. 

At  New  York  he  preached  with  his  usual  power  and  suc- 
cess, and  wrote,  "  I  shall  go  to  Boston  as  an  arrow  from  a 
bow,  if  Jesus  strengthen  me."  He  was  soon  there,  and 
found  all  opposition  subdued.  He  wrote  to  Tennent  that 
"  the  arrows  of  conviction  flew  and  stuck  fast,"  and  that  he 
was  "  determined  to  die  fighting,  though  it  be  upon  his 
stumps."     This  was  enthusiasm,  doubtless,  but  it  was  such 

5  Morris's  Narrative.  Philip's  Whitefield,  chap.  14.  Samuel  Morris 
"was  the  gentleman  who  obtained  and  read  the  sermons.  He  and  his 
associates  were  called  Lutherans.  They  were  required  by  law  to  attend 
the  Estabhshed  Church  or  take  some  dissenting  designation.  They  knew 
not  at  first  what  title  to  assume,  but  at  last  chose  the  great  Eeformer's 
name. 


302  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM.  ' 

enthusiasm  as  makes  heroes.  The  world  disdains  it  no- 
where but  in  religion,  where  it  is  most  befitting  and  most 
needed.  With  Whitefield  it  was  no  spasmodic  impulse; 
it  had  lasted  now  more  than  ten  years,  and  was  to  sustain 
him  in  scarcely  diminished  labors  during  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tii'ry  more,  till,,  in  accordance  ^\4th  his  expressed  hope,  he 
should  descend  from  the  pulpit  to  die. 

He  traveled  during  the  first  tour  of  his  present  American 
visit  about  eleven  hundred  miles ;  but  we  cannot  trace,  by 
the  slight  data  that  remain,  his  repeated  excursions  north 
ward  and  southward.  They  w^ere,  however,  incessant.  His 
passage  among  the  colonies  seemed  as  the  flight  of  an  arch- 
angel, beheld  with  delight  and  awe  by  the  wondering 
people. 

In  1748  he  departed  for  the  Bermudas  on  account  of  his 
health.  Before  leaving  he  wrote  from  North  Carolina : 
"  I  am  here  hunting  in  the  woods,  these  ungospelized  wilds, 
for  sinners.  It  is  pleasant  work,  though  my  body  is  weak 
and  crazy."  "  Pray  for  me,"  he  adds,  "  as  a  dying  naan ; 
but  O  pray  that  I  may  not  go  off  as  a  snuff.  I  would 
fain  die  blazing,  not  with  human  glory,  but  with  the  love  of 
Jesus."  But  never  did  "  a  dying  man  "  seek  health  as  did 
Whitefield  among  the  Bermudas.  He  spent  more  than 
three  months  on  the  islands,  preaching  almost  daily  twice 
or  thrice,  sometimes  in  the  churches,  sometimes  in  the  open 
air.  One  week,  he  says,  it  being  rainy,  he  preached  only 
five  times  in  private  houses ;  "  '  faint,  yet  pursuing,'  must 
be  my  motto  yet."  He  was  entertained  with  much  respect 
and  hospitality  by  the  island  dignitaries,  civil  and  clerical, 
and  the  common  people  soon  appreciated  his  remarkable 
talents  with  enthusiasm,  as  they  had  done  wherever  he  had 
been.  The  churches  were  crowded,  while  hundreds  usually 
thronged  about  the  doors  and  windows.  There  was  a 
visible  improvement  in  the  people  from  Sabbath  to  Sab- 
bath ;  they  were  "  affected  as  in  the  days  of  old  at  home." 
One  week  he  preached,  besides  the  Sabbath  services,  two 
funeral  sermons  and  five  discourses  in  private  houses.     Hi 


CALYINISTIC    METHODISTS:    1T44-1750.   803 

went,  in  fine,  from  island  to  island,  cliurch  to  church,  house 
to  house,  laboring  as  if  the  judgment  day  were  immediately 
to  be  revealed ;  and  when  he  preached  his  farewell  sermon, 
the  whole  audience  wept  aloud,  as  if  parting  from  an  old 
and  endeared  pastor.  He  could  hear  the  crowd  of  negroes 
outside  sobbing  with  grief,  and  wept  himself,  unable  to 
resist  the  general  and  contagious  sorrow.  "  Surely,"  he 
exclaimed,  as  he  left  them,  "  a  great  w^ork  has  been  begun 
in  some  souls  at  Bermuda."  A  hundred  pounds  were 
spontaneously  raised  for  his  Orphan  House,  and  the  ship  in 
which  he  departed  was  supplied  by  the  grateful  islanders 
with  a  superabundance  of  provisions  for  his  comfort  on  the 
passage.  He  had  extended  the  movement  of  MetLodism  to 
these  isles  of  the  sea;  in  a  few  years  more  Wesley's 
assistants  were  to  follow  him,  and  to  spread  it  through  all 
the  British  colonies  of  the  West  Indies.  He  embarked  for 
England  in  June,  1748. 

Meanwhile  Howell  Harris  was  pursuing  his  missionary 
itinerancy  in  Wales.  He  was,  says  Wesley,  a  powerful 
orator,  both  by  nature  and  grace ;  but  he  owed  nothing 
to  art  or  education.^  He  was  also  an  apostle  in  labors, 
travels,  and  trials.  Persecutions  and  mobs  opposed  him  in 
Wales,  as  they  had  Wesley  in  England.  In  Brecknock- 
shire and  Carmarthenshire  especially,  the  Methodists  "  were 
hunted  like  partridges."  Harris  gives  an  account  of  a  single 
"  round  "  of  his  travels  in  South  and  North  Wales,  in  which 
he  had  gone,  during  nine  weeks,  over  thirteen  counties, 
traveled  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  each  week,  and 
preached  twice  a  day,  and  some  days  three  or  four  times ; 
in  this  journey  he  had  not  taken  off  his  clothes  for  seven 
nights  together,  being  obliged  to  meet  the  people,  and 
preach  at  midnight,  or  very  early  in  the  morning,  to  a^oid 
persecution.  Many  of  his  followers  were  carried  before  the 
magistrates  and  fined  for  assembling  together.  Near  the 
town  of  Bala,  where  he  was  almost  murdered  at  a  former 
visit,  he  was  again  attacked,  and  struck  on  the  head  with  a 
8  Jonma],  Anno  1756. 


804  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

stone,  l>iit  escaped  unhurt.  "  I  never,"  he  writes,  "  saw 
such  crowds  come  to  hear.  Many  hearts  and  doors  have 
been  opened  lately."'^ 

In  May,  1748,  Lady  Huntingdon  started  on  a  tour 
through  Wales,  accompanied  by  two  noble  but  devout 
women.  Lady  Anne  and  Lady  Frances  Hastings.  They 
were  met  at  Bristol  by  the  leading  Welsh  evangelists, 
Howell  Harris,  Griffith  Jones,  Daniel  Rowlands,  and 
Howell  Davies.  They  journeyed  by  brief  stages,  stopping 
at  almost  every  village  for  a  public  religious  service.  Two 
of  the  preachers  proclaimed  the  word  every  day  as  they 
went,  and  thus  scattered  the  seed  of  the  truth  over  a  large 
range  of  the  country.  At  Trevecca,  afterward  noted  as  the 
seat  of  her  "school  of  the  prophets,"  she  passed  several 
days.  Some  eight  or  ten  clergymen  and  lay  evangelists 
met  her  there,  and  preached  four  or  five  times  daily  to 
great  congregations  gathered  from  all  the  surrounding 
country.  "The  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,"  writes 
Lady  Frances  Hastings,  "was  evidently  afforded  with  his 
word,  and  many  were  added  unto  the  Lord."  ^  Rowlands's 
sermons  seem  especially  to  have  been  attended  with  extra- 
ordinary effect;  immense  assemblies  were  moved  by  the 
truth,  as  a  forest  by  the  wind,  and  prayed  aloud  for  the 
Divine  mercy.  The  societies  were  encouraged  and  forti- 
fied by  this  seasonable  visit.  "  On  a  review  of  all  I  have 
heard  and  seen  during  the  last  few  weeks,"  wrote  the 
countess  on  her  return,  "  I  am  constrained  to  exclaim, 
'  Bless  the  Lord,  0  my  soul ;  and  all  that  is  within  me 
bless  his  holy  name !'  Many  on  these  solemn  occasions, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  were  brought  out  of  nature's 
deepest  darkness  into  the  marvelous  light  of  the  all-glorious 
Gospel  of  Christ." 

She  arrived  in  London  with  Howell  Harris  and  Howell 
Davis  in  time  to  receive  Whitefield,  who,  after  an  absence 
of  four  years,  reappeared  among  his  old  friends  flaming  with 

^  Letter  of  Howell  Harris.  Life  and  Times  of  Selina,  Ooimtess  of  ITuu- 
tiogdon,  chap.  7.  "  Ibid.  chap.  6. 


CALVIKISTIC  METHODISTS:   1745-1750.   805 

unabated  zeal.  He  was  received  with  enthusiasm,  and 
the  Tabernacle  was  soon  again  thronged.  John  Newton, 
one  of  the  ministerial  notabilities  of  the  last  century,  and 
the  well-known  friend  of  Cowper,  describes  the  scene  there 
as  quite  marvelous.  He  used  to  rise  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning  to  hear  the  great  orator  at  his  five  o'clock  service, 
and  says  he  has  seen  Moorfields  as  full  of  the  lanterns  of 
the  worshipers  before  daylight  as  the  Hay  market  was  full 
of  flambeaus  on  opera  nights.  "  I  bless  God,"  he  adds, 
"  that  I  have  lived  in  his  time." 

He  now  began  his  chaplaincy  at  Lady  Huntingdon's  resi- 
dence, but  could  not  long  be  content  with  the  city.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1748,  he  departed  on  his  third  visit  to  Scotland ; 
Bateman,  the  Methodist  vicar  of  St.  Bartholomew's,  and 
both  the  Wesleys  supplying  his  place  at  the  countess's  man- 
sion till  his  return.  His  zeal  and  eloquence  again  prevailed 
against  all  opposition  in  the  North.  Two  synods  and  one 
presbytery  discussed  the  propriety  of  discountenancing  him. 
All  unfavorable  rumors  were  canvassed  before  them,  but 
only  to  his  advantage,  for  a  more  disinterested,  guileless 
man  than  Whitefield  never  lived.  At  Edinburgh  and  Glas- 
gow he  was  greeted  by  congregations  almost  as  vast  as  had 
gathered  about  him  at  Moorfields  and  Kennington  Com- 
mon. Grateful  groups  came  to  inform  him  of  his  former 
usefulness  in  their  conversion.  At  Cambuslang  the  old 
scenes  of  interest  were  revived.  The  pertinacious  "  Seced- 
ers  "  still  complained  that  he  did  not  "  preach  up  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant."  "I  preach  up  the  covenant  of 
grace,"  replied  Whitefield,  and  sped  his  way,  superior  to  all 
partisan  and  polemic  strifes. 

He  returned  to  England,  where  he  was  attended  by  his 
old  triumphs.  There  was,  he  wrote  to  Lady  Huntingdon, 
a  great  stirring  among  the  dry  bones  at  Birstal  and  Kings- 
wood.  At  Plymouth,  the  scene  of  former  persecutions,  a 
"  tabernacle "  had  been  built  for  him,  and  the  city  "  seemed 
quite  a  new  place."  Kinsman,  afterward  distinguished  in 
England  as  a  successful  evangelist,  was  one  of  his  converts 

Vol.  L— 20 


306  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

there.  A  youth  had  climbed  a  tree  to  hear  and  mimic  him, 
Whitefield,  attracted  by  his  outrages,  cried,  "  Come  down, 
Zaccheus,  come  down,  and  receive  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
The  appeal  was  effectual,  and  the  young  man  became  not 
cnly  a  convert  but  a  zealous  preacher. 

At  Tavistock  he  was  mobbed.  A  bull  and  dogs  were 
brought  and  set  upon  the  assembly  while  he  was  praying. 
He  prevailed  over  the  rabble,  however,  and  delivered  his 
message.  At  Exeter  a  persecutor  came  to  the  iield-preach- 
ing  with  his  pocket  full  of  stones  to  throw  at  him ;  he  stood 
wdth  one  in  his  hand,  ready  for  the  convenient  moment,  but 
the  word  struck  his  conscience;  he  dropped  his  missiles  and 
made  his  way  to  the  preacher,  contritely  acknowledging, 
"  Sir,  I  came  here  to  break  your  head,  but  God  has  broken 
my  heart."  He  became  a  genuine  Christian  and  an  orna- 
ment to  the  Church.^ 

Having  traversed  the  v^est  of  England  to  the  extent  of  six 
hundred  miles,  spreading  through  all  his  course  a  marvelous 
sensation,  he  returned  to  London  in  March,  1749.  He  and 
Wesley  now  exchanged  pulpits.  They  were  bound  together 
by  their  common  Christian  spirit,  their  common  success,  and 
their  common  persecutions.  It  was  about  this  time  that  Lav- 
ington,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  sacrificed  the  dignity  of  his  office 
by  assailing  them  with  merciless  severity  in  his  pamphlet, 
entitled,  "  The  Enthusiasm  of  Methodists  and  Papists  com- 
pared," to  which  both  the  evangelists  wrote  replies.  Soon 
after  his  elevation  to  the  see  of  Exeter,  Lavington  delivered 
a  charge  to  his  clergy,  which  was  said  to  reflect  severely 
<m  the  Methodists.  A  forgery,  pretending  to  be  this  ad- 
dress, was  printed  in  London.  The  prelate  charged  the 
counterfeit  on  the  Methodist  leaders  in  a  public  "  Declara- 
tion." They  denied  it  peremptorily,  and  its  printer  after- 
ward confessed  the  fraud,  and  exonerated  them  from  any 
direct  or  indirect  collusion  with  him.  Lady  Huntingdon 
communicated  this  confession  to  Lavington,  and  demanded 
a  retraction  of  his  Declaration.  He  treated  her  appeal  with 
«  Gillies's  Whitefield,  chap.  14. 


CALVINISTIC   METHODISTS:    1745-1750.   807 

silent  contempt  till  she  threatened  to  make  public  the  actual 
state  of  the  ease,  when  he  sent  her  a  note  "  apologizing  to 
her  ladyship  and  the  Messrs.  Whitefield  and  Wesley  for  the 
harsh  and  unjust  censures  which  he  was  led  to  pass  on  them^ 
from  the  supposition  that  they  were  in  some  measure  con- 
cerned in  and  had  countenanced  the  late  imposition  on  the 
public."  He  even  requested  them  to  "  accept  his  unfeigned 
I  egret  at  having  unjiistly  wounded  their  feelings,  and  exposed 
them  to  the  odium  of  the  world."  ^^  This  acknowledgment 
was  not,  however,  made  by  him  publicly,  as  it  should  have 
been  in  order  to  counteract  his  hasty  "  Declaration."  The 
countess  herself  gave  the  recantation  to  the  public.  The 
bishop  would  not  pardon  this  necessary  act,  and  vented  his 
indignation  in  relentless  attacks  on  the  Methodists.  His 
tracts  on  their  "Enthusiasm"  exaggerated  their  real  faults, 
and  imputed  to  them  many  that  were  monstrous  fictions. 
The  historian  of  the  times  cannot  show  a  greater  kindness  to 
his  memory  than  to  pass  these  flagrant  publications  with  the 
least  possible  allusion.  They  are  known  in  our  day  only 
by  the  triumph  of  the  cause  they  impeached,  a  cause 
whose  early  incidental  defects  the  Christian  world  is  not 
willing  to  set  off  against  its  beneficent  results. ^^ 

Whitefield  could  not  remain  long  in  London;  he  was 
feeble  in  health  there,  and  soon  unable  to  hold  a  pen.  Again 
he  started  on  his  old  routes.  At  Portsmouth  he  preached 
to  a  great  assembly  amid  clamorous  outcries ;  but  before 
he  closed  the  leader  of  the  opposition  was  subdued,  and  "  re- 
ceived him  into  his  home  with  tears  of  shame  and  joy."^^ 
He   passed   into   Wales,  and   had  a  triumphant   progress 

1"  See  his  letter  in  Lady  Huntingdon's  Life  and  Times,  cliap.  1.  "  Such," 
says  the  author  of  this  work,  "  was  the  recantation  of  this  wily  prelate- 
but  it  was  only  in  the  language  of  hypocrisy." 

11  Wesley  showed  his  characteristic  kindness  of  heart  when,  some  years 
later,  while  at  Exeter,  he  wrote  in  his  Journal :  "  I  was  well  pleased  to 
partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper  with  my  old  opponent,  Bishop  Lavington. 
0  may  we  sit  dowm.  together  in  the  kingdom  of  our  Father !"  (Journal, 
Anno  1762.) 

12  Philip's  Whitefield,  chap.  16. 


308  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

tlirough  its  towns  and  villages.  "  Jesus,"  he  wrote,  "  rides 
on  in  the  chariot  of  the  everlasting  Gospel."  He  preached, 
mostly  out  of  doors,  in  eight  counties,  and  to  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  hearers.  Throughout  eight  hundred  miles 
ne  had  conquered  all  opponents ;  "  not  a  dog  Stirred  a 
tongue."  Magistrates  and  people  beheld  him  with  respect, 
If  not  with  awe.  Twenty  thousand  people  were  sometimes 
present,  and  many  prayed  and  wept  aloud  under  his  sermons. 
"  I  think,"  he  says,  "  we  had  not  one  dry  meeting."  Ee 
turning,  he  went  to  Exeter,  not  to  answer  Lavington's  slan- 
ders, but  to  counteract  them  by  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel. 
He  proclaimed  it  there  in  the  fields  with  great  power.  At 
one  of  his  sermons  the  prelate  and  some  of  his  clergy  stood 
near,  gazing  on  an  assembly  of  ten  thousand  of  the  common 
people,  many  of  whom  trembled  under  the  word,  while 
others  threw  stones  at  the  head  of  the  preacher.  He  went 
into  Yorkshire  and  preached  for  Grimshaw  at  Haworth  to 
six  thousand  hearers,  and  administered  the  Lord's  Supper  to 
a  thousand.  Wesley's  preachers  and  people  invited  him  to 
Leeds,  where  he  addressed  an  assembly  of  ten  thousand. 
Charles  Wesley  met  him  on  the  highway  and  took  him  to 
Newcastle,  where  he  preached  repeatedly  in  the  Wesleyan 
chapel,  but  finding  the  crowd  too  great  turned  out  into  the 
fields.  Many  were  his  converts,  through  all  these  regions, 
some  of  whom  afterward  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Dissent- 
ing Churches  which  now  flourish  there.  ^^ 

He  returned  frequently  to  London,  where  "  thousands  on 
thousands  crowded  to  hear,"  and  conversions  were  continu- 
ally occurring.  In  the  early  part  of  1750  repeated  earth 
quakes  alarmed  the  metropolis.  Charles  Wesley  and  White- 
field  were  in  the  city,  and  presented  a  sublime  example  of 
ministerial  faithfulness  amid  the  general  trepidation.  On  the 
8th  of  March,  while  the  former  was  rising  in  the  pulpit  of  the 
Foundry  to  preach,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  earth 
moved  through  all  Loifdon  and  Westminster  with  a  strong, 
jarring  motion,  and  a  rumbling  noise  like  distant  thunder. 
13  Philip's  Whitefield,  chap.  16. 


CAL7INISTIC  METHODISTS:   1745-1750.   809 

The  walls  of  the  Foundry  trembled ;  a  great  agitation  fol 
lowed  among  the  people ;  but  Wesley  cried  aloud  to  them, 
"Therefore  will  we  not  fear  though  the  earth  be  moved, 
and  the  hills  be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea,  for  the 
Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us,  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge." 
His  heart,  he  says,  was  filled  with  faith,  his  mouth  with 
words,  "  shaking  their  souls  as  well  as  their  bodies."  ^'^  The 
subterranean  shocks  recurred  during  several  days.  Multi- 
tudes flocked  to  the  early  Methodist  service  in  deep  alarm. 
The  Westminster  end  of  the  metropolis  was  crowded  with 
coaches  and  people  flying  precipitately,  and  London  "looked 
like  a  sacked  city."  Throughout  a  whole  night  many  of  the 
alarmed  people  knocked  at  the  Foundry  door,  entreating  ad- 
mittance, though  "  our  poor  people,"  writes  Wesley,  "  were 
calm  and  quiet  as  at  any  other  time."  During  one  of  those 
terrible  nights  Tower  Hill,  Moorfields,  and  Hyde  Park  were 
filled  with  lamenting  men,  women,  and  children ;  Whitefield 
stood  among  them  in  Hyde  Park  preaching  at  midnight.  A 
deep  moral  impression  followed  these  events.  They  gave 
origin  to  many  tracts  and  sermons,  and  the  courage  and 
labors  of  the  Methodist  evangelists  could  not  fail  to  secure 
the  reverence  of  the  people. 

On  the  morning  in  which  Charles  Wesley  stood  preaching 
amid  the  trembling  walls  of  the  Foundry,  John  Wesley  as- 
sembled the  Conference  of  1750  in  Bristol — a  date  at  w^hich 
opens  a  new  period  of  our  narrative. 

14  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  17. 


SIO  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 


CHAPTEE  Y. 

DEYELOPMENT  OF  OPIIS'IONS  ATTD  ECO]S^O]\IY  BY  THE 
CONFERENCES,    FEOM   1745    TO    1750. 

The  Conference  of  1745  —  Its  Composition  —  Its  Theological  Discussions  -~ 
Is  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit  invariable  in  Conversion  ?  —  Sanctiiica- 
tion  —  Terrible  Preaching  —  Church  Government  —  Wesley's  High 
Church  Views  —  Lord  King's  Primitive  Church  —  Wesley  still  designed 
not  to  form  a  permanent  Sect  —  The  Session  of  1746  —  Laymen  ad- 
missible—  Progress  of  Opinion  —  Faith  and  Works  —  jSTecessity  of  the 
Lay  Ministry  declared  —  Its  Divine  Eight  acknowledged  —  Ordination 
anticipated  —  Exhorters  recognized  —  Importance  of  Local  Preachers 
and  Exhorters  —  First  List  of  Circuits  —  Session  of  1747  —  Its  Mem- 
bers—  Private  Judgment  and  Free  Discussion  —  Eolation  of  Faith  to 
Assurance  —  Correction  of  Wesley's  Opinion  on  the  Subject  —  Cautions 
respecting  Sanctification  —  What  is  a  Church  ?  —  Divine  Eight  of  Epis- 
copacy .denied  —  Session  of  1748  —  Number  of  Circuits  —  The  Formation 
of  Societies  resumed  —  Conference  of  1749  —  A  Scheme  of  General 
Dnion  —  Assistants  distinguished  from  Helpers  —  Quarterly  Meetings 
ordered — Book  Distribution  —  Session  of  1750  —  Extraordinaiy  Eesults 
of  the  first  Decade  of  Methodism. 

The  second  Conference  was  held  in  Bristot,  August  1st,  1745. 
John  Hodges,  rector  of  Wenvo,  Wales,  was  the  only  regular 
clergyman  who  was  present  besides  the  Wesleys.  One  lay- 
man, Marmaduke  Gwyime,  ^  and  seven  lay  preachers,  Thomas 
Eichards,  Samuel  Larwood,  Thomas  Meyrick,  James  Wheat- 
ley  ,2  Richard  Moss,  John  Slocombe,  and  Herbert  Jenkins, 
met  with  them.  The  deliberations  related  to  questions  of 
theology  and  church  economy.  As  at  the  first  conference, 
all  dogmatic  subjects  not  immediately  concerned  in  personal 
religion  were  avoided;  Justification,  Sanctification,  and  the 

1  See  page  268. 

a  Wheatley's  name  is  omitted  by  Smith.  (Hist,  of  Meth.)    Myles  givea 
it.    (Chron.  Hist.,  p.  84.) 


OPINIONS    AND     ECONOMY.  811 

Witness  of  the  Spirit  were  especially  discussed.  It  was 
asked,  Is  assurance  absolutely  necessary  to  our  being  in  the 
favor  of  God?  or  may  there  possibly  be  some  exempt 
cases '?  We  dare  not  positively  say  there  are  not,  was  the 
answer.3  "  Is  it  indispensably  necessary  to  final  salvation  1 
Suppose  in  a  Papist,  or  in  general  among  those  who  never 
heard  it  preached  ?  Love  hopeth  all  things.  We  know  not 
how  far  any  of  these  may  fall  under  the  case  of  invincible 
ignorance.  Does  a  man  believe  any  longer  than  he  sees  a 
reconciled  God?  We  conceive  not.  But  we  allow  there 
may  be  infinite  degrees  in  seeing  God,  even  as  many  as 
there  are  between  him  who  sees  the  sun  when  it  shines  on 
his  eyelids  closed,  and  him  who  stands  with  his  eyes  wide 
open  in  the  full  blaze  of  his  beams.  Does  faith  supersede 
(set  aside  the  necessity  of)  holiness  or  good  v/orks  ?  In  no- 
wise ;  so  far  from  it  that  it  implies  both,  as  a  cause  does  its 
effect.  When  does  inward  sanctification  begin  ?  In  the 
moment  we  are  justified.  The  seed  of  every  virtue  is  then 
sown  in  the  soul.  From  that  time  the  believer  gradually 
dies  to  sin  and  grows  in  grace.  Yet  sin  remains  in  him, 
yea,  the  seed  of  all  sin,  till  he  is  sanctified  throughout  in 
spirit,  soul,  and  body.  Is  it  ordinarily  given  till  a  little  be- 
fore death?  It  is  not  to  those  that  expect  it  no  sooner, 
nor  consequently  ask  for  it,  at  least  not  in  faith.  But  would 
not  one  who  was  thus  sanctified  be  incapable  of  worldly 
business  ?  He  would  be  far  more  capable  of  it  than  ever, 
as  going  through  all  without  distraction." 

It  was  also  asked  whether  some  of  the  assistants  did  not 
preach  too  much  on  the  wrath  and  too  little  on  the  love  of 
God,  and  answered:  "We  fear  they  have  leaned  to  that 
extreme,  and  hence  some  of  their  hearers  may  have  lost 
the  joy  of  faith.  Need  we  ever  preach  the  terrors  of  the 
Lord  to  those  who  know  they  are  accepted  of  him  ?  No, 
it  is  foliy  so  to  do ;  for  love  is  to  them  the  strongest  of  all 
motives." 

While  the  conference  thus  avoided  as  much  as  possible 
«  Minutes  of  the  "Wesleyan  Conferences,  etc.,  vol.  i,  p.  22.  London,  1812. 


812  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

unessential  polemics — the  polemics,  however,  which  have 
most  engrossed  theological  parties,  and  most  distracted 
Christendom — it  showed  a  decided  progress  of  opinion  on 
ecclesiastical  questions.*  It  was  providential,  perhaps,  that 
Wesley's  sentiments  on  Church  order  and  ecclesiastical 
prerogatives  were  at  first  somewhat  rigid,  and  known  to  be 
so,  otherwise  he  might  have  suffered  more  seriously  in  his 
relation  to  the  national  Church,  and  swung  away,  with  his 
increasing  followers,  into  perilous  ecclesiastical  novelties 
and  experiments.  It  was  as  providential,  however,  that 
with  the  advancing  necessities  of  Methodism  he  was  led  to 
increasing  liberality  on  such  questions,  until  finally  he  was 
prepared,  when  the  great  exigency  which  required  the 
special  organization  of  American  Methodism  arrived,  to 
practically  disown  the  most  important  High-Church  preju- 
dices by  the  most  important  ecclesiastical  act  of  his  life — ■ 
an  act  which  has  given  to  the  world  an  example  of  Apos- 
tolic Episcopacy  without  the  usual  adventitious  dignities  or 
pretensions  of  prelacy,  or  even  a  claim  of  Apostolic  Succes- 
sion, or  of  any  Scriptural  or  other  authority  higher  than 
that  of  practical  expediency  itself 

At  the  present  Conference  it  was  asked :  "  Is  not  the  will 
of  our  governors  a  law  ?"  The  answer  was  emphatic :  "  No ; 
not  of  any  governor,  temporal  or  spiritual.  Therefore, '  if 
any  bishop  wills  that  I  should  not  preach  the  Gospel,  his 
•will  is  no  law  to  me.  But  what  if  he  produce  a  law  against 
your  preaching'?  I  am  to  obey  God  rather  than  man." 
To  the  question,  "  Is  Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  or  Independent 
Church  government  most  agreeable  to  reason'?"  a  reply 
was  given  which  presents  the  true  rationale  of  Church  order. 
"  The  plain  origin  of  Church  government,"  says  this  answer, 
"  seems  to  be  this :  Christ  sends  forth  a  preacher  of  the 
Gospel.     Some  who  hear  him,  repent  and  believe  the  Gos- 

4  The  bound,  or  "octavo  Minutes,"  as  they  are  usually  called,  contaio 
only  tlie  theological  part  of  the  deliberations  of  this  conference.  For  the 
remainder  of  its  proceedings  we  are  indebted  to  the  "  Disciplinary  Min- 
utes," lately  discovered.    tSee  note  on  page  211. 


OPINIONS     AND    ECONOMY.  813 

pel.     They  then  desire  him  to  watch  over  them,  to  "build 
them  up  in  the  faith,  and  to  guide  their  souls  in  the  paths 
of  righteousness.     Here,  then,  is  an  independent  congrega 
tion,  subject  to  no  pastor  but  their  own,  neither  liable  to  be 
controlled  in  things  spiritual  by  any  other  man  or  body  of 
men  whatsoever.     But  soon  after,  some  from  other  parts, 
who  are  occasionally  present  while  he  speaks  in  the  name 
of  Him  that  sent  him,  beseech  him  to  come  over  to  help 
them  also.     Knowing  it  to  be  the  will  of  God,  he  consents, 
yet  not  till  he  has  conferred  with  the  wisest  and  holiest  of 
his  congregation,  and  with  their  advice  appointed  one  or 
more  who  has  gifts  and  grace  to  watch  over  the  flock  till 
his  return.     If  it  please  God  to  raise  a  flock  in  the  new 
place  before  he  leaves  them,  he  does  the  same  thing,  ap- 
pointing one  whom  God  has  fitted  for  the  work  to  watch 
over  these  souls  also.    In  like  manner,  in  every  place  where 
it  pleases  God  to  gather  a  little  flock  by  his  word,  he  ap- 
points one  in  his  absence  to  take  the  oversight  of  the  rest, 
and  to  assist  them  of  the  ability  which  God  giveth.     These 
are  Deacons,  or  servants  of  the  Church,  and  look  on  the 
first  pastor  as  their  common  father.     And  all  these  congre- 
gations regard  him  in  the  same  light,  and  esteem  him  still 
as  the  shepherd  of  their  souls.     These  congregations  are  not 
absolutely  independent.     They  depend  on  the  pastor,  though 
not  on  one  another.    As  they  increase,  and  as  their  Deacons 
grow  in   years   and   grace,    they   need   other   subordinate 
Deacons  or  helpers,  in  respect  of  whom  they  may  be  called 
Presbyters  or  Elders,  as  their  father  in  the  Lord  may  be 
called  the  Bishop  or  overseer  of  them  all.     Is  mutual  con- 
sent absolutely  necessary  between  the  pastor  and  the  flock  ? 
No  question.     I  cannot  guide  any  soul  unless  he  consent  to 
be  guided  by  me.     Neither  can  any  soul  force  me  to  guide 
him  if  I  consent  not.     Does  the  ceasing  of  this  consent  on 
either   side  dissolve   the   relation^     It  must  in  the  very 
nature  of  things.     If  a  man  no  longer  consent  to  be  guided 
by  me,  I  am  no  longer  his  guide.    I  am  free.    If  one  will  not 
guide  me  any  longer,  I  am  free  to  seek  one  who  Will.     But 


814  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

is  the  shepherd  free  to  leave  his  sheep,  or  the  sheep  to  leave 
their  shepherd  ?  Yes,  if  one  or  the  others  are  convinced  it 
is  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  superior  good  of  their 
souls."  The  more  direct  question,  How  shall  we  treat 
those  who  leave  usl  was  answered  by  the  advice,  first, 
"  Beware  of  all  sharpness,  or  bitterness,  or  resentment ; 
second.  Talk  with  them  once  or  twice  at  least ;  third.  If 
they  persist  in  their  design  consider  them  as  dead,  and 
name  them  not  except  in  prayer."^ 

Notwithstanding  the  liberality  of  these  views,  Wesley  still 
believed  in  the  Apostolic  Succession,  in  the  priestly  character 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  the  essential  distinction  of  its 
three  orders.  He  explicitly  affirmed  this  belief  in  a  letter 
written  at  the  end  of  the  present  year.^  His  opinions,  how- 
ever, were  evidently  fast  being  unsettled  by  study,  and  by 
the  practical  difficulties  which  they  presented  in  the  moment- 
ous work  opening  before  him.  In  about  three  weeks  aftei 
^he  letter  alluded  to,  he  recorded  in  his  Journal  that  he 
had  recently  read  Lord  King's  Account  of  the  Primitive 
Church.  "  In  spite,"  he  says,  "  of  the  vehement  prejudice 
of  my  education,  I  was  ready  to  believe  that  this  was  a  fair 
and  impartial  draught ;  but  if  so, .  it  would  follow  that 
bishops  and  presbyters  are  (essentially)  of  one  order,  and 
that  originally  every  Christian  congregation  was  a  Church 
independent  on  all  others."  That  irrefutable  work  made  a 
profound  impression  on  his  mind,  and,  as  we  shall  here- 
after see,  thoroughly  dispelled  his  High-Church  errors. 

It  is  evident  from  the  Minutes  of  this  Conference  that 
Wesley  had  as  yet  no  settled  purpose  of  maintaining  a  per 
manent  organization  of  his  followers.  He  still  hoped  that 
the  general  revival  of  religion  would  prepare  the  Established 
and  Dissenting  Churches  to  take  charge  of  them,  and  obviate 
any  such  necessity.  It  was  therefore  suggested  that  his 
assistants  should  preach  without  forming  any  more  new 
societies  in  large  towns,  particularly  in  Wales  and  Corn- 

0  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  3. 
»  It  is  given  in  his  Journal,  1745. 


OPINIONS    AND    ECONOMY.  815 

wall.  In  the  preceding  Conference,  as  has  been  shown,  he 
opposed  any  unnecessary  increase  of  the  lay  ministry ; 
and  declared  that  "its  employment  at  all  was  allowable 
only  in  cases  of  necessity."  In  fine,  the  ambition  of  found- 
ing a  new  sect,  so  heedlessly  imputed  to  him  by  some  of 
his  critics,  had  not  entered  his  mind ;  his  one  purpose  was 
the  reformation  of  religion  and  morals  throughout  the  land ; 
and  his  policy,  pertinacious  even  with  High  Church  preju- 
dices, aimed  to  effect  this  reforriiation  as  far  as  was  at  all 
practicable  within  the  pale  and  under  the  auspices  of  the 
national  Church. 

The  third  Conference  assembled  at  Bristol  on  the  twelfth 
of  May,  1746.  John  Wesley,  Charles  Wesley,  John  Hod- 
ges, Samuel  Taylor,  Jonathan  Reeves,  Thomas  Maxfield, 
Thomas  Westall,  Thomas  Willis,  and  Thomas  Glascot  were 
present.  These  annual  assemblies  were  yet  designed  to  be 
quite  informal,  and  to  .include,  besides  regular  clergymen 
and  lay  preachers,  such  prominent  laymen  as  might  be 
within  convenient  reach.  At  the  preceding  session  Mar- 
maduke  Gwynne  attended,  as  we  have  seen,  and  on  the  pre- 
sent occasion,  to  the  question.  Who  are  proper  persons  to 
attend  any  Conference  1  It  was  replied,  that  besides  the 
preachers  conveniently  at  hand,  the  most  prudent  and 
devoted  of  the  Band-leaders  of  the  town  where  the  session 
might  be  held,  and  any  pious  and  judicious  stranger  who 
might  be  in  the  town,  should  be  invited.^ 

The  deliberations  lasted  but  two  days.  They  related,  as 
at  the  previous  sessions,  exclusively  to  questions  of  per- 
sonal religion,  and  to  ministerial  arrangements.  An  im- 
portant advancement  in  the  theological  development-  of 
Methodism  was  marked  here.  It  was  asked,  "Wherein  does 
our  doctrine  now  differ  from  that  we  preached  when  at  Ox- 
ford 1"  and  answered,  "Chiefly  in  these  two  points:  First, 
We  then  knew  nothing  of  the  righteousness  of  faith  in  justi- 
fication ;  nor,  second.  Of  the  nature  of  faith  itself,  as  imply- 
ing consciousness  of  pardon." 

^  "  Disciplinary  Minutes."    Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  3, 


316  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

To  the  question,  Is  not  the  whole  dispute  of  salvation  hj 
faith,  or  by  works,  a  mere  strife  of  words  ?  it  was  answered : 
"  In  asserting  salvation  by  faith  we  mean  this :  Eirst,  That 
pardon  (salvation  begun)  is  received  by  faith,  producing 
works ;  second,  That  holiness  (salvation  continued)  is  faith 
working  by  love ;  third.  That  heaven  (salvation  finished)  is 
the  reward  of  this  faith.  If  you,  who  assert  salvation  by 
works,  or  by  faith  and  works,  mean  the  sanie  thing,  (under 
standing  by  faith  the  revelation  of  Christ  in  us ;  by  salva- 
tion, pardon,  holiness,  glory,)  we  will  not  strive  with  you  at 
all.  If  you  do  n()t,  this  is  not  a  strife  of  words,  but  the  ver}' 
essence  of  Christianity  is  the  thing  in  question."  ^ 

Wesley's  conviction  of  the  importance  and  necessity  of 
the  lay  ministry  had  been  deepened  since  the  last  session. 
Providential  circumstances  every  day  rendered  it  more  evi- 
dent that  the  great  religious  interest  which  had  begun  in  the 
land  must  be  conducted  forward  chiefly  by  that  agency,  or 
be  generally  abandoned.  Next  to  revelation  itself,  such 
providential  indications  were  decisive  of  Wesley's  judgment. 
The  lay  ministry  was  then  God's  own  means,  because  the 
only  means  provided,  for  the  prosecution  of  the  growing 
work.  But  much  discrimination  was  necessary  to  ascertain 
the  fitness  of  untrained  men  for  such  a  momentous  responsi- 
bility. How  shall  we  try  those  who  think  they  are  moved 
.  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  called  of  God  to  preach  1  was  an 
anxious  question  asked  at  this  session.  Three  tests  were 
given  in  the  answer  :  Have  they  grace,  gifts,  and  fruits  ? 
"First,  Do  they  know  God  as  a  pardoning  God?  Have  they 
the  love  of  God  abiding  in  them  ?  Do  they  desire  and  seek 
nothing  but  God  1  And  are  they  holy  in  all  manner  of  con- 
versation *?  Second,  Have  they  gifts  (as  well  as  grace)  for 
the  work  1  Have  they  (in  some  tolerable  degree)  a  clear, 
sound  understanding  1  Have  they  a  right  judgment  in  the 
things  of  God  1  Have  they  a  just  conception  of  salvation  by 
faith?  And  has  God  given  them  any  degree  of  utterance? 
Do  they  speak  justly,  readily,  clearly  ?  Third,  Have  they 
8  "Wesleyan  Conferences  from  the  first,  etc.,  vol.  i,  p.  29. 


OPINIOKS    AND    ECONOMY.  817 

fruit?  Are  any  truly  convinced  of  sm,  and  ccin verted 
to  God  by  their  preaching'?"  "As  long  as  these  three 
marks  concur  in  any,  we  believe,"  affirmed  the  Conference, 
"that  he  is  called  of  God  to  preach.  These  we  receive 
as  a  sufficient  proof  that  he  is  7noved  thereto  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  1^^''  a  decision  which  has  never  been  essentially  modi- 
fied by  the  rapid  progress  of  ministerial  improvement  within 
the  pale  of  Methodism,  and  which  has  incalculably  tended  to 
its  success  by  the  great  variety  and  consequent  adaptation 
and  efficiency  of  the  natural  talent  embodied  in  its  ministry. 
Many  directions,  prescribing  the  studies  and  other  habits  of 
the  lay  ministry,  were  adopted  at  this  session,  but  they  will 
more  appropriately  come  under  consideration  elsewhere. 

It  is  evident  also  from,  the  proceedings  of  this  Conference, 
that  though  Wesley  still  believed,  as  he  did  through  the  rest 
of  his  life,  in  the  appropriateness  of  ordination,  and  the  usual 
orderly  distinctions  of  the  Christian  ministry,  they  were  no 
longer  essential  requisites  in  his  estimation.  His  lay  assist- 
ants were  "  moved  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  "  called  of  God  " 
to  their  work;  they  were,  therefore,  by  Divine  right  as 
legitimate  preachers  of  the  word  as  any  priest  or  bishop 
of  the  land.  Yet  he  did  not  ordain  them,  nor  by  any  anal- 
ogous ceremony  set  them  apart  for  their  office;  but  with 
the  reason  assigned  for  this  course  was  given  also  a  distinct 
intimation  that  a  more  formal  consecration  might  sooner  or 
later  becom.e  desirable.  To  the  question  why  they  did  not  use 
more  form  and  solemnity  in  receiving  a  new  laborer,  it  was 
answered  that  the  Conference  purposely  declined  it :  "  First, 
Because  there  is  something  of  stateliness  in  it ;  second.  Be- 
cause it  was  not  expedient  to  make  haste;  we  desire  barely  to 
follow  Providence  as  it  gradually  opens."  ^  At  a  later  date, 
as  we  shall  see,  Wesley  did  ordain  some  of  his  assistants. 

We  meet  in  the  Minutes  of  this  Conference  with  the  first 

intimation  of  another  class  of  lay  laborers,  which  has  since 

been  of  no  small  influence  in  the  progress  of  Methodism. 

(t  was  provided  that  none  should  be  allowed  to  exhort  in 

8  Disciplinary  Minutes.     Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  3. 


818  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

the  societies  without  a  note  of  authorization  from  the 
preacher,  and  that  this  license,  as  it  has  since  been  called, 
should  be  renewed  once  a  year.  Thus  arose  the  order  of 
"  Exhorters,"  a  notable  example  of  the  manner  in  which 
Methodism  appropriated  all  its  resources  of  talent.  The 
Local  Ministry  has  usually  graduated  from  the  class  of  Ex- 
horters, and  the  Itinerant  Ministry  from  the  class  of  Local 
Preachers,  while  men  incompetent  for  either  of  these  two 
offices  have  remained  with  usefulness  in  the  subordinate 
rank  of  Exhorters.  This  process  of  graduation  has  always 
been  a  process  of  preparation.  Thousands  of  able  Local 
Preachers,  whose  modesty  as  laymen  would  never  have 
allowed  them  to  begin  their  ministerial  labors  in  the  pulpit, 
have  effectually  begun  them  in  the  vestry  as  Exhorters ;  and 
hundreds  of  itinerants,  whose  ability  for  the  pulpit  would 
never  have  been  otherwise  ascertained,  either  by  themselves 
or  their  brethren,  have  disclosed  it  in  the  humbler  labors 
of  the  Local  Ministry,  and  gone  forth  from  them  as  high 
priests  of  the  Church.  The  history  of  Methodism  teaches 
few  lessons  more  emphatically  than  the  importance  of  main- 
taining these  practical  processes  and  distinctions,  so  effective 
in  its  past  progress,  and  so  evidently  essential  to  its  genius 
and  destiny. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Wesley,  observing  the  neces- 
sity of  repeating  his  labors  in  any  given  place  in  order 
to  secure  permanent  results,  had  resolved  to  "  strike  no 
blow  which  he  could  not  follow  up."  From  that  time  he 
endeavored  to  methodize  as  much  as  possible  the  itinerant 
labors  of  both  himself  and  his  associates.  The  Minutes 
of  the  present  Conference  give  us  the  first  intimation  of 
definitive  circuits,  though  it  is  supposed  they  existed  be- 
fore. ^^  The  whole  country  was  mapped  into  seven  of  these 
itinerant  districts.  Wales  and  Cornwall  each  constituted  one. 
Newcastle,  with  doubtless  many  neighboring  towns,  was  an- 
other. That  of  Yorkshire  included  seven  counties.  London, 
Bristol,  and  Evesham  were  the  head-quarters  of  others. 
10  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  11,  3. 


OPINIONS    AND    ECONOMY.  319 

The  fourth  Conference  assembled  at  the  Foundry  in  Lon- 
don, on  June  16, 1747,  and  was  numerically  the  most  impos- 
ing session  yet  held.  Besides  the  Wesleys,  their  venerable 
chief  counselor,  Perronet,  (vicar  of  Shoreham,)  Manning, 
(vicar  of  Hayes,)  Bateman,  (rector  of  St.  Bartholomew 
the  Great  in  London,  where  Wesley  now  often  preached,) 
and  Piers,  (vicar  of  Bexley,)  attended  it.  Howell  Harris, 
the  Methodist  apostle  of  Wales,  whose  capacious  soul  suf- 
fered no  loss  of  affection  for  Wesley  by  his  alliance  with 
Whitefield,  was  also  a  member.  The  other  lay  preachers 
present  were  Thomas-  Hardwick,  Thomas  Maxfield,  John 
Bennet,  John  Downes,  Thomas  Crouch,  Robert  Swindells, 
and  John  Madden.  ^^ 

The  first  question  was  how  they  should  render  the  Confer- 
ence "eminently"  an  occasion  of  "prayer,  watching,  and 
self  denial."  They  resolved  to  have  a  special  care  "  always 
to  set  God  before  them,"  and  to  spend  the  intermissions  of 
the  sessions  in  devotions  and  in  visiting  the  sick.  The  right 
of  utterly  free  discussion,  so  distinctly  stated  in  the  first 
Conference,  was  asserted  more  emphatically  than  ever. 
Unanimous  agreement  was  pronounced  desirable,  but  in 
speculative  matters  each,  it  was  affirmed,  could  only  submit 
so  far  as  his  judgment  should  be  convinced ;  in  every  prac- 
tical point,  so  far  as  would  not  wound  his  conscience.  It 
was  asked,  "  Can  a  Christian  submit  any  further  than  this  to 
any  man  or  number  of  men  upon  earth  f  "  It  is,"  they 
answered,  "undeniably  plain  he  cannot,  either  to  pope, 
council,  bishop,  or  convocation.  And  this  is  that  grand 
principle  of  every  man's  right  to  private  judgment  in  op- 
position to  implicit  faith  in  man,  on  which  Calvin,  Luther, 
Melancthon,  and  all  the  ancient  Reformers,  at  home  and 
abroad,  proceeded.  Every  man  must  think  for  himself, 
since  every  man  must  give  an  account  for  himself  to  God." 

Two  important  theological  themes  were  discussed:   the 

"  Disciplinary  Minutes.  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  3.  The 
"  Octavo  Minutes"  do  not  mention  the  names  of  the  lay  preachers  (except 
Harris  and  Hardwick)  nor  Perronet. 


320  BISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

relation  of  Assurance  to  Faith  in  Justification,  and  the  extent 
of  Sanctification.  It  was  admitted  that  justifying  faith  is 
itself  8b  divine  assurance,  but  not  without  evident  hesitancy, 
as  the  Conference  could  not  deny  that  some  good  men  give 
abundant  proof  of  Justification  while  they  deny  Assurance, 
"  There  may  be  exempt  cases,"  say  the  Minutes ;  but  they 
add,  "it  is  dangerous  to  ground  a  general  doctrine  on  a  few 
particular  examples."  ^^  To  the  question,  What  will  become 
of  them  if  they  die  in  this  state  ?  it  was  replied  :  "  This  is  a 
supposition  not  to  be  made.  They  cannot  die  in  this  state ; 
they  must  go  backward  or  forward.  If  they  continue  to 
seek  they  will  surely  find  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost.  We  are  confirmed  in  this  belief  by  the 
many  instances  we  have  seen  of  such  as  these  finding  peace 
at  the  last  hour;  and  it  is  not  impossible  but  others  may 
then  be  made  partakers  of  like  precious  faith,  and  yet  go 
hence  without  giving  any  outward  proof  of  the  change  which 
God  hath  wrought."  Wesley  himself  saw  the  vagueness 
and  difficulty  which  prevailed  in  the  deliberations  on  this 
subject,  and  in  less  than  a  month  his  reflections  corrected 
his  present  opinion.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother  he  denies 
that  "justifying  faith  is  a  sense  of  pardon."  "Every  one," 
he  writes,  "  is  deeply  concerned  to  understand  this  question 
well,  but  preachers  most  of  all,  lest  they  should  either  make 
them  sad  whom  God  hath  not  made  sad,  or  encourage  them 
to  say  peace  where  there  is  no  peace.  Some  years  ago  we 
heard  nothing  of  justifying  faith,  or  a  sense  of  pardon,  so 
that  when  we  did  hear  of  them  the  theme  was  quite  new  to 
us ;  and  we  might  easily,  especially  in  the  heat  and  hurry  of 
controversy,  lean  too  much  either  to  the  one  hand  or  to  the 
other.  By  justifying  faith  I  mean  that  faith  which,  whoso- 
ever hath  it  not  is  under  the  wrath  and  the  curse  of  God, 
By  a  sense  of  pardon  I  mean  a  distinct,  explicit  assurance 
that  my  sins  are  forgiven.  I  allow,  first,  that  there  is  such 
an  explicit  assurance ;  second,  that  it  is  the  common  privi- 
lege of  real  Christians ;  third,  that  it  is  the  proper  Christian 
"  Minutes  of  Wesleyan  Conferences  from  the  first,  etc.,  vol.  i,  p.  634, 


OPINIONS    AND    ECONOMY.  821 

faith  which  purifieth  the  heart  and  overcometh  the  world. 
But  I  cannot  allow  that  justifying  faith  is  such  an  assurance, 
or  necessarily  connected  therewith,  because  if  justifying  faith 
necessarily  implies  such  an  explicit  assurance  of  pardon,  then 
every  one  who  has  it  not,  and  every  one  so  long  as  he  has 
it  not,  is  under  the  wrath  and  under  the  curse  of  God.  But 
this  is  a  supposition  contrary  to  Scripture,  as  well  as  to 
experience."  ^^  This  matured  view  of  the  question  he  enter- 
':ained  during  the  rest  of  his  life,  but  he  always  taught  the 
blessing  of  assurance  as  the  privilege  and  right  of  every 
true  believer. 

The  doctrine  of  entire  Sanctification  was  mireservedly 
asserted,  but  with  several  important  cautions  against  its 
imprudent  treatment  either  in  the  pulpit  or  in  personal  life. 
To  the  question,  suppose  one  had  attained  to  this,  would  you 
advise  him  to  speak  of  it  1  it  was  replied :  "  Not  to  them 
who  know  not  God ;  it  would  only  provoke  them  to  con- 
tradict and  blaspheme :  nor  to  any  without  some  particular 
reason,  without  some  particular  good  in  view ;  and  then 
they  should  have  an  especial  care  to  avoid  all  appearance 
of  boasting,  and  to  speak  more  loudly  and  convincingly  by 
their  lives  than  they  can  do  by  their  tongues."  It  was 
asked,  "  Does  not  the  harshly  preaching  perfection  tend  to 
bring  believers  into  a  kind  of  bondage  or  slavish  fear  1  It 
does.  Therefore  we  should  always  place  it  in  the  most 
amiable  light,  so  that  it  may  excite  only  hope,  joy,  and  de- 
sire." It  was  further  asserted  that  "  we  may  continue  in  the 
joy  of  faith  even  till  we  are  made  perfect.  Since  holy  grief 
does  not  quench  this  joy,  and  since  even  while  we  are  under 
the  cross,  while  we  deeply  partake  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ, 
we  may  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable."  These  cautions  were 
pushed  even  further.  ^  It  was  insisted  that  to  "  teach  believers 
to  be  continually  poring  upon  their  inbred  sin,  is  the  ready 
way  to  make  them  forget  that  they  were  puj-ged  from  their 
former  sins.  We  find  by  experience  it  is  so,  or  to  make 
them  undervalue  and  account  it  a  little  thing.     Whereas, 

13  Mylca's  Chron.  Hist,  of  Methodism  p,  54, 
Vol.  I.— 21 


822  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

indeed,  (thoiigli  there  are  still  greater  gifts  behind,)  this  is 
inexpressibly  great  and  glorious."  ^^ 

Of  the  discussions  on  ecclesiastical  questions  we  have  no 
traces  in  the  current  Minutes,  but  in  the  "  Disciplinary 
Minutes"  are  evidences  of  important  progress.  The  term 
church  is  asserted  to  mean  in  the  New  Testament  "  a  single 
congregation.""^^  A  "national  church"  is  pronounced  "a 
merely  political  institution."  It  is  conceded  that  the  "  three 
orders"  of  deacons,  presbyters,  and  elders,  obtained  early 
in  the  Church,  but  are  not  enjoined  in  Holy  Scripture ;  that 
unformity  of  Church  government  did  not  exist  till  the  age 
of  Constantine,  and  was  not  taught  by  the  sacred  writers, 
for  the  reason  that  variety  in  ecclesiastical  administration 
was  necessary  for  the  varied  circumstances  of  different  ages 
and  countries.  We  have  also  positive  proof  that  Wesley 
had  abandoned  his  belief  in  the  divine  right  of  Episcopacy. 
He  declares  in  these  Minutes  that  it  was  not  asserted  in  En- 
gland till  about  the  middle  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign ;  and 
that  till  then  all  bishops  and  clergy  in  England  continually 
allowed  and  joined  in  the  ministrations  of  those  who  were 
not  episcopally  ordained.  The  arguments  of  the  "Irenicum" 
and  "The  Primitive  Church"  had  now  evidently  prevailed 
with  him,  and  not  these  so  much,  perhaps,  as  the  prov- 
idential arguments  afforded  by  the  increasing-  exigencies 
of  his  great  work,  and  by  his  growing  catholicity.  He  still, 
however,  repels  the  charge  of  schism.  "  You  profess,"  con- 
tinue these  Minutes,  "  to  obey  both  the  rules  and  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  Church,  yet  in  many  instances  you  do  not 
obey  them.  How  is  this  consistent  1  It  is  entirely  consist- 
ent. We  act  at  all  times  on  one  plain  uniform  principle.  ' 
We  will  obey  the  rules  and  governors  of  the  Church  when- 

14  By  a  singular  error  in  the  Bound  Minutes  (Minutes  of  the  Methodist 
Conferences  from  the  first,  etc.,  London,  1812)  the  report  on  Sanctifica- 
tion  is  numbered  ac  pertaining  to  the  next  Conference,  held  in  1748. 
There  are  no  Minutes  whatever  of  that  Conference  except  in  the  recently 
discovered  "Disciplinary  Minutes."  See  Smith's  Hist.,  II,  3.  Myles 
(^Chron.  Hist. )  gives  it  correctly. 

16  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  3. 


OPIKIOITS    AND    ECONOMY,  823 

ever  we  can  consistently  with  our  duty  to  God.  Whenever 
we  cannot,  we  quietly  obey  God  rather  than  man.  But 
why  do  you  say  you  are  thrust  out  of  the  churches  ?  Has 
not  every  minister  a  right  to  dispose  of  his  own  church  ? 
He  ought  to  have,  but  in  fact  he  has  not.  A  minister  de- 
sires that  I  should  preach  in  his  church,  but  the  bishop  for 
bids  him.  That  bishop  then  injures  him,  and  thrusts  me 
out  of  the  Church."  Still  thus  denied  the  churches,  they  re- 
solved to  limit  less  than  ever  their  field-preaching ;  reasons 
were  discussed  for  extending  it,  and  after  recording  some 
sixty  assistants  as  in  the  work,  besides  coadjutors  among 
the  regular  clergy,  they  dispersed  to  exemplify  these  convic- 
tions in  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 

On  the  second  of  June,  1748,  the  fifth  Conference  was  held 
in  the  Tower-street  Chapel,  London. '■^  John  Wesley,  Charles 
Wesley,  William  Felton,  Charles  Manning,  Thomas  Max- 
field,  John  Jones,  Tliomas  Meyrick,  John  Trembath,  Edward 
Perronet,  son  of  the  vicar  of  Shoreham,  Jonathan  Reeves, 
Richard  Thomas  Bateman,  John  Green,  William  Tucker, 
Howell  Harris,  Samuel  Larwood,  James  Jones,  and  William 
Shent  were  present.  No  theological  question  was  examined, 
as  the  time  was  mostly  employed  in  discussing  the  interests 
of  Kingswood  School.  Nine  circuits  were  reported :  Lon- 
don with  ten  towns  or  counties,  Bristol  with  thirteen,  Corn- 
wall with  nine,  Ireland  with  four,  Wales  with  four,  Shrop- 
shire with  seven,  Cheshire  with  five,  Yorkshire  with  nine, 
and  Newcastle  with  ten. 

The  Minutes  of  this  session  afford  one,  and  but  one,  very 
important  indication  of  the  progress  of  Wesley's  opinions 
respecting  the  distinct  mission  of  Methodism.  Taken  in 
connection  with  his  improved  views  on  ecclesiastical  ques- 
tions, it  has  not  a  little  significance.  At  a  previous  Confer- 
ence it  was  resolved,  as  has  been  shown,  to  preach  without 
forming  new  societies,  especially  in  the  larger  communities. 

ifl  As  the  Octavo  Minutes  contain  no  records  of  tliis  session,  we  are  in- 
debted for  them  exclusively  to  the  "Disciplinary  Minutes."  Smith's 
Hist.,  etc.,  II,  3. 


824  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM.- 

It  was  hoped  that  the  Methodists  might  be  thus  kept  in  closer 
sympathy  with  the  Established  Church,  and  that  tendencies 
to  secession  might  be  prevented.  It  was  a  concession  to  the 
many  devout  men  who  approved  the  opinions  and  usefulness 
of  Wesley  and  his  fellow-laborers,  but  who  recoiled  at  the 
prospect  of  a  Methodist  sect,  which,  by  its  separation  from 
the  national  Church,  could  not  fail  to  carry  with  it  the  sym- 
pathy of  a  large  proportion  of  the  common  people,  and 
might  in  the  future  shake  the  very  foundations  of  the  Estab- 
lishment. This  policy  w^as  now  abandoned.  It  had  been 
tried,  and  was  found  to  be  pernicious.  The  clergy  gener- 
ally continued  their  hostility  to  Methodism.  They  neglected, 
and  in  many  cases  maltreated  the  thousands  of  converts 
which  it  sent  to  their  communion  altars,  and  proffered  to 
their  pastoral  care.  "We  have  preached,"  says  the  Min- 
utes, "  for  more  than  a  year,  without  forming  societies,  in  a 
large  tract  of  land  from  Newcastle  to  Berwick-on-Tweed, 
and  almost  all  the  seed  has  fallen  upon  the  wayside  ;  there  is 
scarce  any  fruit  of  it  remaining."  Among  the  inconveniences 
arising  from  this  course,  it  was  affirmed  that,  first,  the 
preacher  could  not  give  proper  exhortations  and  instructions' 
to  those  who  were  convinced  of  sin,  unless  he  had  opportu- 
nities of  meeting  them  apart  from  the  mixed,  uliawakened 
multitude ;  second,  they  could  not  watch  over  one  another  in 
love  unless  thus  united  together ;  third,  nor  could  the  believ- 
ers build  up  one  another,  or  bear  one  another's  burdens. 
Wesley  still,  however,  clung  to  the  Church,  though  it  was  dif- 
ficult for  him,  with  even  such  concessions,  to  prevent  many 
of  his  people  from  resenting,  by  open  dissent,  its  stately  and 
obstinate  disdain  of  their  laborious  lay  preachers,  as  well 
as  of  the  Methodistic  clergy,  who  were  unimpeachably 
orthodox,  and  the  most  useful  ministers  of  the  realm. ^'^ 

17^  At  a  later  date,  "Wesley,  in  alluding  to  tlie  arguments  of  Methodists 
•who  advocated  open  dissent,  says  :  "  I  will  freely  acknowledge  that  I  can- 
not answer  these  arguments  to  ray  own  satisfaction.  As  yet  we  have  not 
taken  one  step  further  than  we  were  convinced  was  our  bounden  duty. 
It  is  from  a  full  conviction  of  this  that  we  have  preached  abroad,  prayed 
exiem/pore^  formed  societies,  and  permitted  preachers  who  were  not  eyis- 


OPINIONS    AND    ECONOMY.  325 

The  Conference  adjourned,  counseling  "a  closer  union 
of  the  assistants  with  each  other." 

About  eighteen  months  later,  November  16,  1749,.  it  as- 
sembled again  in  London.  ^^  A  measure  was  now  suggested 
which  would  have  tended  to  consolidate  the  societies,  and 
sever  them,  practically,  still  more  from  the  Established 
Church.  It  was  proposed  that  the  society  in  London  should 
be  considered  the  mother  church;  that  every  assistant  in 
country  circuits  should  send  reports  to  the  stewards  of  the 
London  circuit,  who  should  arrange  a  regular  correspondence 
with  all  the  provincial  societies.  With  this  scheme  was  to 
be  combined  an  annual  collection  throuo;hout  the  land  for 
the  relief  of  necessitous  societies.  Wesley  was  at  first 
greatly  pleased  with  the  plan.  "  Being  thus  united,"  he  said, 
".in  one  body,  of  which  Christ  Jesus  is  head,  neither  the 
world  nor  the  devil  will  be  able  to  separate  us  in  time  or  in 
eternity."  Its  possible  tendency  tovv^ard  a  separation  from 
the  Established  Church  was  probably  his  reason  for  not  ef- 
fectively adopting  it.  He  proposed,  however,  to  try  it 
by  appointing  one  of  his  "  Helpers  "  on  each  circuit  to  take 
charge  of  its  societies,  giving  him  exclusively  thereafter  the 
title  of  "Assistant,"  a  term  which  had  hitherto  been  applied, 
interchangeably  with  "  Helper,"  to  all  his  lay  preachers. 
Nine  such  were  designated  to  the  circuits,  which  still  contin- 

copcolly  ordained.  And  were  we  pressed  on  this  side,  were  there  no  alter- 
native allowed,  we  should  judge  it  our  bounden  duty  rather  wholly  to  sep- 
firate  from  the  Church  than  to  give  up  any  one  of  these  points  ;  therefore, 
if  we  cannot  stop  a  separation  without  stopping  lay  preachers,  the  case  is 
clear,  we  cannot  stop  it  at  all."  Letter  to  Eev.  Mr.  Walker,  September 
24,  1755.     Arminian  Magazine,  1779. 

18  The  Octavo  Minutes  cannot  be  relied  on  for  a  distinct  report  of  the 
proceedings  of  this  session,  for  many  of  the  proceedings  attributed  by  that 
work  to  this  year  belong  to  other  sessions.  They  are  a  compendium  of 
the  Minutes  from  1748  to  1703,  placed  together  for  convenience,  but  with- 
out discrimination.  For  the  real  Minutes  of  1749  we  are  indebted  to  a 
manuscript  report  appended  to  the  recently-discovered  "  Disciplinary 
Minutes."  (Smith's  Hist,  of  Meth.,  11,  3.)  As  the  Minutes  were  not 
usually  printed,  written  copies  alone  were  presented  to  new  members  of 
the  Conference  at  their  admission  on  probation.  (Watson's  Wesley, 
chap.  9.)    This  important  manuscript  is  doubtless  one  of  those  copies. 


326  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

ued  to  be  of  that  number.  The  proposed  relation  to  the 
London  circuit  was  not,  however,  realized.  The  annual  Con- 
ference became  more  appropriately  the  centre  of  unity  to 
the  societies. 

A  variety  of  minute  regulations  originated  at  this  session. 
Quarterly  meetings,  which  had  been  held  in  some  places, 
were  ordered  to  be  everywhere  observed.  Watch-nights  and 
lOve-feasts  were  to  be  held  monthly.  Every  circuit  was  to 
De  supplied  with  books  by  the  Assistant,  and  every  society 
v^^as  to  provide  "  a  private  room,"  and  also  books,  for  the 
Helper.  A  return  was  to  be  made  quarterly  of  money  for 
books  from  each  society,  and  thus  began  that  organized  sys- 
tem of  book  and  tract  distribution  which  has  secured  to 
Methodism  a  more  extensive  use  of  the  religious  press  than 
3an  be  found  in  any  other  Protestant  denomination  of  oui* 
day.  Wesley  had  already  issued  many  publications,  fron:. 
the  one-page  tract  to  the  stout  volume.  He  forthwith  began 
his  "  Christian  Library,"  in  fifty  volumes,  and  all  his  preach- 
ers were  soon  active  "  colporteurs."  Tracts  especially  did 
he  publish,  and  scatter  both  by  his  o^vn  hands  and  by  his 
preachers.  "  A  Word  to  a  Smuggler ;"  "  A  Word  to  a 
Swearer ;"  "  A  Word  to  a  Street- Walker ;"  "  A  Word  to  a 
Drunkard  ;"  "  A  Word  to  a  Malefactor ;"  "  A  Word  to  a 
Sabbath-Breaker ;"  such  were  the  titles  of  small  publications 
which  he  disseminated  over  the  kingdom.  "  He  thus,"  says 
his  best  biographer,  "  by  his  example,  was  probably  the  first 
to  apply,  on  any  large  scale,  this  important  means  of  useful- 
ness to  the  reformation  of  the  people."^^ 

On  the  8th  of  March,  1750,  was  held  the  seventh  Confer- 
ence. Only  four  months  had  passed  since  the  preceding 
session;  its  proceedings  seem  not  to  have  been  important., 
Not  a  trace  of  its  Minutes  is  preserved ;  nor  have  we  the 
Minutes  of  any  subsequent  sessions,  save  two,  before  the 
year  1765,  when  their  regular  publication  commenced. 

A  little  more  than  ten  years  had  passed  since  the  recog- 
nized epoch  of  Methodism.     The  results  thus  far  were  cer 
"  Watson's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  8. 


OPINIONS    AND    ECONOMY,  827 

tainly  remarkable.  A  scarcely  paralleled  religious  interest 
had  been  spread  and  sustained  throughout  the  United  King- 
dom and  along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  America.  The  Churches 
of  both  countries  had  been  extensively  reawakened.  The 
great  fact  of  a  Lay  Ministry  had  been  accomplished — great 
not  only  in  its  direct  results,  but  perhaps  more  so  by  its 
reacting  shock,  in  various  respects,  against  the  ecclesiasticism 
which  for  fifteen  hundred  years  had  fettered  Christianity 
with  bands  of  iron.  It  had  presented  before  the  world  the 
greatest  pulpit  orator  of  the  age,  if  not  of  any  age ;  also  one 
of  the  greatest  religious'  legislators  of  history ;  a  hymnist 
whose  supremacy  has  been  but  doubtfully  disputed  by  a 
single  rival  ;2o  and  the  most  signal  example  of  female  agency 
in  religious  affairs  which  Christian  history  records.  The 
lowest  abysses  of  the  English  population  among  colliers  and 
miners  had  been  reached  by  the  Gospel.  Calvinistic  Method- 
ism was  restoring  the  decayed  nonconformity  of  England. 
Wesleyan  Methodism,  though  adhering  to  the  Establishment, 
had  taken  an  organic  and  permanent  form ;  it  had  its  Annual 
Conferences,  Quarterly  Conferences,  Class  Meetings,  and 
Band  Meetings ;  its  Watch-nights  and  Love- feasts ;  its  Travel- 
ing Preachers,  Local  Preachers,  Exhorters,  Leaders,  Trus- 
tees, and  Stewards.     It  had  districted  England,  Wales,  and 

20  The  Presbyterian  Quarterly  for  March,  1858,  says:  "  We  regard  it  as 
a  great  loss  to  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  our  country  that  so  few, 
comparatively,  of  Charles  Wesley's  hymns  should  have  been  admitted 
into  their  collections.  It  may.  not  be  generally  known  that,  not  even  ex- 
cepting Dr.  Watts,  he  is  the  most  voluminous  of  all  our  lyrical  authors, 
and  it  were  only  justice  to  add,  that  he  is  the  most  equal.  .  .  .  We  have 
never  read  or  sung  a  finer  specimen  than  his  well-knoAvn  paraphrase 
of  the  24th  Psalm:  Our  Lord  is  risen  from  the  dead,  etc.  There  is 
another  objective  hymn  by  Charles  Wesley  which  is  among  the  finest  in 
tke  language.  We  wonder  that  it  has  not  found  its  way  into  American 
hymn  books :  Stand  the  o?iinipotent  decree,  etc.  Well  has  this  hymn 
been  spoken  of  as  being  ij.  a  strain  more  than  human.  There  is  the 
noble  hymn  by  Charles  Wesley,  Jacob  wrestling  with  the  Angel,  concern- 
ing which  Dr.  Watts  did  not  scruple  to  say  that  it  was  worth  all  the 
verses  he  himself  had  written.  James  Montgomery  declares  it  to  be 
among  the  poet's  highest  achievements.  Never  have  we  read  a  finer 
combination  of  poetic  taste  and  evangelical  sentiment." 


828  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Ireland  into  Circuits  for  systematic  ministerial  labors,  and 
now  commanded  a  ministerial  force  of  about  seventy  men.^i 
It  had  fought  its  way  through  incredible  persecutions  and 
riots,  and  had  won  at  last  a  general,  though  not  universal 
peace.  Its  Chapels  and  Preachers'  Houses,  or  parsonages, 
were  multiplying  over  the  country.  It  had  a  rich  Psalmody, 
which  has  since  spread  wherever  the  English  tongue  is 
used ;  and  a  well-defined  Theology,  which  was  without 
dogmatism,  and  distinguished  by  two  notable  facts,  that' 
could  not  fail  to  secure  popular  interest,  namely,  that  it 
transcended  the  prevalent  creeds  in  both  spirituality  and 
liberality  —  in  its  experimental  doctrines  of  Conversion, 
Sanctification,  and  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  and  in  the 
evangelical  liberalism  of  its  Arminianism.  It  had  begun  its 
present  scheme  of  Popular  Religious  Literature,  had  pro- 
vided the  first  of  that  series  of  Academic  institutions  which 
has  since  extended  with  its  progress,  and  was  contemplating ' 
a  plan  of  Ministerial  Education,  which  has  been  effectively 
accomplished.  Already  the  despondent  declarations  of 
Watts,  Seeker,  and  Butler,^^  respecting  the  prospects  of  re- 
ligion, might  be  pronounced  no  longer  relevant.  Yet  Watts 
had  been  dead  but  two  years,  and  Seeker  and  Butler  still 
survived.  2^ 

21  There  are  no  data  for  an  estimate  of  the  membership  of  its  societies. 

22  See  pages  28,  29. 

23  "Watts  had  lingered  in  his  hospitable  retirement  at  Abney  Park, 
whence  he  beheld  with  grateful  surprise  the  religious  revolution  which 
was  spreading  through  the  country.  He  received  there  occasional  visits 
from  Charles  Wesley,  Lady  Huntingdon,  and  other  leading  Methodists. 
Doddridge  still  survived,  welcoming  Whitefieldand  the  Wesleys  at  North- 
ampton and  corresponding  with  them.  He  revised  Whitefield's  journals, 
and,  in  his  occasional  visits  to  London,  found  religious  consolation 
au,  Dng  the  Methodists  at  Lady  Huntingdon's  mansion. 


BOOK    IV. 

PROGRESS  OF  METHODISM  FROM  1750  TO  THE 
DEATH  OF  WHITEFIELD  IN  1770. 


CHAPTER  I. 

METHODISM   IN   lEELAND  :    1750-1 760. 

Wesley  again  in  Ireland  —  John  Jane  —  Progress  of  Methodism  —  Ee- 
markable  German  Colony  —  It  gives  Birth  to  American  Methodism  — 
Methodism  in  the  Army  in  Ireland  —  Duncan  Wright,  a  Soldier,  be- 
comes a  Preacher  —  Sketch  of  his  Life  —  A  Military  Execution  induces 
him  to  preach  —  He  joins  the  Itinerancy  —  A  converted  Surgeon  — 
Thomas  Walsh  —  His  Sickness  —  His  saintly  Character — His  Dissent 
from  Fletcher  on  the  Death  of  Good  Men  —  His  own  Mental  Trouble 
in  Death. 

Immediately  after  the  Conference  of  1750  Wesley  again 
started  for  Ireland,  passing  through  Wales,  and  preaching 
with  much  success  on  his  route.  He  was  accompanied  by 
Christopher  Hopper,  a  man  of  note  among  the  early  Meth- 
odist itinerants.  Wesley  summoned  John  Jane,  a  self- 
sacrificing  evangelist,  to  meet  him  and  Hopper  at  Holy- 
head before  they  embarked.  Jane  gave  an  example  of  the 
usual  heroic  obedience  of  the  lay  preachers  to  their  great 
leader's  commands ;  he  made  the  journey  on  foot  with  but 
three  shillings  for  his  expenses.  The  devoted  man  could  not 
fail,  however,  to  secure  the  interest  of  humble  families  on 
the  route ;  he  was  entertained  six  nights  out  of  seven  by 
utter  strangers,  and  arrived  at  Holyhead  with  one  penny  in 


830  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

his  pocket.  In  a  few  months  he  sunk  under  excessive 
labors.  The  poverty  of  the  Methodist  itinerants  seldom 
allowed  them  to  use  horses  in  those  times,  and  John  Jane 
usually  traveled  on  foot ;  a  long  walk  to  a  preaching  place  on 
a  hot  day  produced  a  fever,  under  which  he  died  with  more 
than  resignation — "with  a  smile  on  his  face,"  said  one  of  his 
fellow-laborers,  leaving  as  his  last  utterance  the  words,  "  I 
find  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus."  Wesley  concludes 
a  notice  of  his  death  in  his  Journal  with  these  remarkable 
words :  "  All  his  clothes,  linen  and  woolen,  stockings,  hat, 
and  wig  are  not  thought  sufficient  to  answer  his  funeral  ex- 
penses, which  amount  to  £1  17s.  od.  All  the  money  he  had 
was  Is.  4d.,  enough  for  any  unmarried  preacher  of  the 
Gospel  to  leave  to  his  executors."  ^  St,  Francis  himself, 
adds  Kobert  Southe}^,  might  have  been  satisfied  with  such 
a  disciple. 

Wesley  spent  nearly  four  months  in  Ireland  during  this 
visit,  traveling  and  preaching  in  every  direction.  .  At  Dub- 
lin he  found  the  societies  in  a  m.ore  prosperous  state  than 
ever.  In  Cork  the  riots  had  not  yet  entirely  subsided ; 
their  contagion  had  also  spread  to  other  towns ;  and  he  was 
frequently  assailed  while  preaching  in  the  open  air  in  that 
part  of  the  island.  In  Limerick  the  foundations  of  Method- 
ism had  been  securely  laid ;  sixty  Highlanders  of  the  army 
had  joined  the  classes,  "and  by  their  zeal,  according  to 
knowledge,  had  stirred  up  many."  At  Newmarket,  the 
former  residence  of  Thomas  Walsh,  he  met  a  prosperous 
society,  and  was  so  deeply  afiected  among  them  as  to  be 
compelled  by  his  emotions  to  stop  short  several  times  in 
his  address.  At  Athlone,  he  says,  it  was  such  a  night  as 
he  had  seldom  known ;  the  stout-hearted  were  broken  down 
on  every  side.  In  Longford  a  storm  of  rain  could  not  drive 
the  people  from  the  out-door  services ;  the  word  cut  like  a 
two-edged  sword ;  several  persons  fell  as  if  smitten  with 
death,  and  some  were  carried  away  insensible.  Others,  he 
writes,  would  have  gone  away  but  could  not,  for  the  hand  of 
^  "Wesley's  Journal,  Anno  1750. 


METHODISM    IN    IRELAND:    1750-1760.    331 

the  Lord  pressed  them  to  the  earth.  Yet  such  were  his  views 
of  the  Irish  character  that  he  exclaimed,  amid  these  scenes : 
•'  0  fair  beginning  !  But  what  will  the  end  be '?"  '  Similar 
effects  attended  his  labors  at  Drumcree,  and,  indeed,  through- 
out  this  prolonged  visit.  As  he  passed  daily  from  town  to 
to\\ai,  preaching  morning,  noon,  and  night,  among  Papists 
and  Protestants,  h§  was  almost  everywhere  cheered  with 
evidences  of  the  triumph  of  the  Gospel.  The  work  of  God 
advanced,  he  writes,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  and  at  Water- 
ford  and  Limerick,  as  well  as  in  Mount  Mellick,  Athlone, 
Longford,  and  most  parts  of  the  province  of  Leinster.  He 
had  the  satisfaction  of  observing  how  greatly  God  had 
blessed  his  lay  fellow-laborers,  by  whom  multitudes  were 
saved  from  the  error  of  their  ways.  Many  of  these  had  been 
eminent  for  all  manner  of  sins ;  many  had  been  Roman 
Catholics ;  and  he  supposes  the  number  of  converts  among 
the  latter  would  have  been  far  greater  had  not  the  Prot- 
estant, as  well. as  the  Popish  priests,  taken  pains  to  hinder 
them. 2  The  dead  Protestantism  of  the  land  was  his  chief 
obstacle.  "  O  what  a  harvest  might  be  in  Ireland !"  he 
writes,  in  the  midst  of  these  tireless  labors,  "  did  not  the 
poor  Protestants  hate  Christianity  worse  than  either  Popery 
or  heathenism."  Before  leaving  Dublin  for  England  he  was 
heard  in  the  public  green  by  larger  congregations  than  he 
had  ever  addressed  in  the  city. 

In  1752  he  was  again  in  Ireland  visiting  most  of  the 
towns  of  his  former  route.  He  found  equal  reasons  for 
encouragement.  His  preachers  were  now  numerous  enough 
m  the  country  for  him  to  hold  an  informal  Conference 
among  them.  The  mobs  at  Cork  had  ceased,  and  he 
projected  a  new  chapel  in  that  city.  He  repeated  his 
visit  in  1750,  when  all  his  assistants  on  the  island  met 
him  at  Dublin,  and  planned,  with  good  courage,  for  still 
greater  labors.  Thomas  Walsh  accompanied  him  in  his 
excursions  among  the  towns,  preaching  in  Irish  with  great 

2  Short  History  of  the  Peoj  le  called  Methodists.  Works,  vol.  vii, 
page  366.  Am.  ed. 


832  HISTORY    OF    METHODIS^Vr. 

effect.  A-fter  visiting  the  societies  in  X,einster  and  Mun- 
ster,  the^  went  into  the  province  of  Connaught,  scattering 
the  good  seed  broadcast.  He  visited  also,  for  the  first 
time,  the  province  of  Ulster,  where  he  found  that  the 
labors  of  his  preachers  had  been  extensively  useful. 
Churchmen,  Dissenters,  and  reformed  Papists  constituted 
the  societies,  and  there  "was  no  striving  among  them 
except  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate." 

He  had  now  traversed  every  part  of  Ireland  except  the 
county  of  Sligo,  on  the  western  coast.  In  1758  he  returned 
in  order  to  visit  particularly  that  region — the  best  peopled, 
he  says,  that  he  had  seen  in  the  kingdom.  He  preached  in 
the  market-place  of  the  city  several  times  to  large  congrega- 
ations,  and  with  great  effect ;  and  from  that  time,  he  adds, 
there  have  never  been  wanting  a  few  in  Sligo  who  wor- 
ship God  in  spirit  and  in  truth;  and  in  many  other 
parts  of  the  county  numerous  converts  had  been  gathered 
into  classes. 

He  passed  to  Court  Mattress,  where  he  found  a  colony 
of  Germans,  whose  fathers  had  come  into  the  kingdom 
under  Queen  Aime,  from  the  Palatinate  on  the  Ehine. 
A  hundred  and  ten  families  had  settled  in  the  town 
and  in  the  adjacent  hamlets  of  Killiheen,  Ballygarrane, 
and  Pallas,  and  their  population  was  now  numerous. 
Having  no  minister  they  became  noted  for  drunkenness, 
profanity,  and  an  utter  contempt  of  religion ;  but  they  had 
changed  remarkably  since  they  had  heard  the  truth  from 
the  Methodist  itinerants ;  an  oath  was  now  rarely  heard 
among  them,  nor  a  drunkard  seen  in  their  borders.  They 
had  built  a  large  preaching-house  in  the  middle  of  Court 
Mattress.  Many  times  afterward  Wesley  preached  among 
them,  as  did  also  his  fellow-laborers,  and  with  lasting  effect. 
So  did  God  at  last  provide,  he  remarks,  for  these  poor 
strangers,  who  for  fifty  years  had  none  that  cared  for  their 
souls. 

At  a  later  visit,  he  says  that  three  such  towns  as  Killi- 
heen, Ballygarrane,  and  Court  Mattress  could  hardly  be  found 


METHODISM    IN    IKELAND:    1750-1760.     833 

elsewhere  in  Ireland  or  England  ;  there  was  no  profanity, 
no  Sabbath  breaking,  no  ale-house  in  any  of  them.  "  How/' 
lie  exclaims,  "will  these  poor  foreigners  rise  up  in  the 
day  of  judgment  against  those  that  are  around  about 
them!"  3 

But  the  most  extraordinary  fact  respecting  this  German 
colony  thus  found  out  and  evangelized  by  the  Methodist 
itinerants,  was  not  yet  apprehended  by  Wesley.  It  was  des- 
tined to  give  birth  to  Methodism  in  the  New  World.  Dur- 
ing his  visit  to  the  island  in  1752,  he  became  acquainted  with 
one  of  these  German  Irishmen,  who  was  afterward  licensed  as 
a  local  preacher  among  them.  -'Fourteen  years  later  this 
young  man  resided  with  a  small  company  of  his  countrymen 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  Strangers  in  a  strange  land, 
and  deprived  of  the  religious  aids  which  Methodism  had 
afforded  them  among  their  distant  brethren,  they  had  lost 
their  religious  zeal  and  strictness,  and  some  of  them  were 
playing  at  cards,  when  a  devout  woman,  a  later  emigrant 
from  Bally garrane,  reproved  them,  and  going  to  the  local 
preacher  entreated  him  to  resume  his  Methodist  labors. 
He  was  recalled  to  his  duty  by  the  seasonable  appeal. 
He  opened  his  own  house,  a  humble  one-story  building, 
for  w^orship,  preached  there,  and  formed  there  the  first 
Methodist  society  in  America.  In  two  years  more  he 
dedicated  the  first  American  Methodist  chapel,  and  thus 
founded  that  form  of  Methodism  which  was  destined  to  be- 
come, within  the  lifetime  of  many  then  born,  the  predom- 
inant Protestant  belief  of  the  New  World,  from  Newfound- 
land to  California.* 

On  one  of  his  visits  to  Ireland  Wesley  said  that  "  the  first 
call"  of  Methodism  there  was  to  the  soldiers.^     They  de- 

8  Journal,  Anno  1760, 

4  Wesley's  Journal,  1758,  1760,  1762.  Bangs's  History  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  vol.  i,  chap.  2.  "Wakeley's  Lost  Chapters  Re- 
covered from  the  Early  History  of  American  Methodism,  chaps.  2,  3, 13. 
See  also  two  letters  by  Eev.  C.  P.  Harrower,  in  the  Christian  Advocate 
and  Journal,  (New  York,)  May  13  and  20,  1858. 

6  Journal,  Anno  1756. 


S34:  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

fended  him  and  his  people  amid  the  mob  at  Cork,  where 
they  flocked  to  his  preaching,  and  where  the  rioters,  when 
fchey  saw  them  in  the  assembly,  lowered  their  shillalahs  or 
retreated.  Ordinary  Methodists  suffered  persecution  quietly ; 
but  these  stout-hearted  men  felt  that  their  Methodism  ought 
not  to  deprive  them  entirely  of  the  use  o^f  their  profes- 
sional license,  and  were  quite  ready  to  stop  praying  at  times 
in  order  to  fight  a  little  for  what  they  deemed  the  honor  of 
religion.  They  gathered  around  Wesley  at  Dublin,  where 
he  often  preached  near  their  barracks  for  safety  from  the 
rabble.  They  liked  him  heartily,  wdth  the  rough  generosity 
of  soldiers,  as  not  only  a  good  but  a  brave  man.  They 
made  a  way  for  him  with  their  swords  into  an  immense 
crowd  in  the  public  green  of  that  city,  and  preserved  order 
while  he  preached.  There  was  a  class  in  that  city  com- 
posed of  nineteen  of  them  who  "  were  resolved,"  he  says, 
"to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith."  At  Phillipston  they 
constituted  the  strength  of  his  society.  At  Limerick  ho 
formed,  as  we  have  seen,  a  class  of  sixty.  At  Kilkenny 
they  took  him  into  the  barracks,  and  had  him  preach  to 
them,  and  "  a  few  of  both  the  army  and  the  town  met 
together  "  as  a  society.  In  another  place  the  remnants  of 
John  Nelson's  regiment  gathered  to  hear  him.  At  Kinsalo 
they  rallied  around  him,  and  many  of  them,  he  writes, 
"were  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ." 

The  army  in  Ireland  afforded  to  Methodism,  during  our 
present  period,  one  of  its  most  useful  early  preachers.  Dun- 
can Wright,  a  brave  Scotchman,  had  early  a  "  bookish  incli- 
nation," and  in  his  childhood  "  read  and  wept  often  till  his 
head  ached  "  wishing  to  be  a  Christian,  "  and  to  be  easy  ind 
happy,  but  not  knowing  how."  He  resolved  to  dissipate  his 
anxieties  by  seeing  the  world  in  a  military  life,  and  enlisted 
in  his  eighteenth  year  in  a  regiment  of  foot.  The  next  year 
he  was  in  camp  near  Cashel,  Ireland,  but  found  no  escape 
there  from  his  religious  impressions,  for  a  good  corporal 
preached  frequently  to  the  troops,  Methodist  fellow-soldiers 
disturbed  his  conscience  when   the   regiment   removed  to 


METHODISM  IN  IRELAND:   1750-1760.      3S5 

Limerick.  He  attended  the  Methodist  society  in  that  cit},% 
and  at  last  sought  the  conversation  of  its  members  witb 
eagerness,  as  the  best  guidance  to  his  disturbed  mind.  He 
used  to  spend  his  wakeful  hours  at  night  in  weeping  and 
prayer,  and  it  was  on  one  of  these  "  weeping  nights,"  he 
says,  ''  that  the  Lord  brought  him  in  an  instant  out  of  dark  • 
ness  into  his  marvelous  light."  ^ 

During  the  ensuing  two  years  he  passed  through  many 
vicissitudes,  inward  and  outward,  and  was  deeply  inipressed 
with  the  thought  that  he  should  openly  proclaim  the  truth  to 
his  comrades.  He  resisted  the  impression,  however,  until  a 
melancholy  event  called  him  to  his  duty.  The  government, 
he  says,  had  resolved  to  shoot  a  deserter  in  every  city  of 
Ireland  as  an  example.  A  youth  but  twenty  years  old,  in 
Wright's  regiment,  was  among  the  condemned.  The  earnest 
Scotchman  hastened  with  trembling  to  converse  and  pray 
with  him,  though  he  was  surrounded  by  guards.  He  found 
the  unfortunate-  young  man  "weeping  as  if  his  heart  would 
break,  and  reading  '  The  Whole  Duty  of  Man '  with  all  his 
might,  like  a  drowning  man  catching  at  anything  to  save 
himself."  Wright  spoke  a  few  words  of  exhortation  to  him, 
and  returned  to  him  in  the  evening,  though  with  reluctance, 
as  there  were  many  soldiers  gazing  upon  them.  He  prayed 
with  him,  and  exhorted  all  w^ho  were  present.  The  doomed 
youth  saw  himself  an  undone  sinner,  w^ithout  help,  and  al- 
most without  hope.  Taking  with  him  some  of  his  comrades, 
Wright  visited  him  twice  or  thrice  a  day,  and  four  days  be- 
fore his  execution  he  received  the  peace  of  God.  From  that 
time  he  witnessed  a  good  confession  to  all  who  approached 
him.  Every  one  that  saw  him  go  to  the  place  where  he  was 
shot,  could  not  but  admire  the  serene  joy  that  appeared  in 
his  countenance.  He  said  but  little ;  but  his  calm,  happy 
death  made  a  deep  impression  on  many  of  the  soldiers,  for 
they  could  not  fail  to  discern  the  difference  between  him  and 
one  they  saw  die  shortly  before  at  Dublin,  who  showed  the 
greatest  reluctance,  the  field-officer  of  the  day  being  obliged 
6  Arminian  Magazine,  1781,  p.  868. 


836  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

to  ride  up  to  him  several  times  to  tell  liim  he  must  die, 
while  this  converted  victim  was  not  above  ten  minutes  on  his 
knees  before  "  he  dropped  the  signal  and  went  to  paradise." 

The  execution  of  this  young  man  induced  Wright  to  preach, 
and  at  last  to  enter  the  itinerant  ministry.  Every  night,  after 
the  call  of  the  roll,  he  held  a  meeting  at  his  quarters  for  hi? 
fellow-soldiers,  and  soon  formed  a  Methodist  class  among 
them.  He  at  first  only  sang,  prayed,  and  read  with  them  'j 
but  his  light  usually  went  out  early,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  lay  aside  his  book  and  exhort.  He  thus  became  known 
as  the  camp  preacher.  As  his  regiment  moved  from  town 
to  town  he  had  opportunities  of  spreading  the  truth.  He 
was,  in  fine,  already  an  itinerant  evangelist.  He  planted 
Methodism  in  Galway ;  no  Methodist  preacher  had  ever 
been  there  before  him,  yet  he  had  many  seals  to  his  min- 
istry in  that  city,  and  years  later  he  wrote:  "Some  of  them 
are  a  comfort  to  me  to'  this  day,  and  some  are  fallen  asleep 
in  Jesus."  He  did  good  service  also  in  Dublin  while  there 
with  his  regiment. 

His  colonel  endeavored  to  stop  his  preaching,  but  could 
not,  and  was  at  last  glad  to  get  him  out  of  the  army ;  and 
"thus  it  was,"  he  says,  "that  the  Lord  thrust  me  into 
the  harvest."  He  assisted  at  a  great  revival  in  Water- 
ford,  and  proved  himself  a  workman  that  needed  not  to  be 
ashamed,  so  that  Wesley  soon  sent  him  out  as  a  traveling 
preacher. 

His  loss  to  the  army  was,  however,  in  an  unexpected  man- 
ner supplied  for  a  time.  The  surgeon  of  a  regiment,  who 
was  the  favorite  wit  of  his  comrades,  went  to  hear  a  local 
preacher  in  order  to  procure  new  matter  of  merriment ;  out 
Avhile  leaning  on  his  cane,  and  looking  waggishly  at  the 
speaker  througii  his  fingers,  the  humble  man's  word  pierced 
his  heart  like  an  arrow.  He  became  a  zealous  Methodist, 
and  preached  to  the  soldiers  wherever  he  could  find  oppor- 
tunity, till  on  visiting  some  sick  prisoners  in  the  Dublin 
Newgate  he  contracted  a  malignant  fever,  and  "  finished  his 
course  rejoicing  in  God  his  Saviour." 


METHODISM    IN    IRELAND:    1750-1760.      837 

Duncan  Wright  proved  himself  a  good  soldier  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  He  traveled  extensively  in  Ireland,  sometimes 
accompanying  Wesley,  though  he  had  to  acknowledge  that, 
notwithstanding  his  own  military  training,  Wesley's  activit}^ 
gave  him  "  too  much  exercise,"  and  he  ''  had  to  give  it  up." 
Besides  his  useful  labors  in  Ireland  he  preached  in  Scotland, 
and  occupied  important  circuits  in  England,  and  after  thirt}' 
years'  service  fell  at  his  post. 

While  Methodism  was  thus  advancing  in  Ireland,  it  was 
destined  to  suffer  toward  the  close  of  the  present  period  an 
irreparable  loss.  Wesley  was  in  Limerick  in  the  spring  of 
1758;  he  met  there  Tliomas  Walsh,  "just  alive."  "Three 
of  the  best  physicians  in  these  parts,"  he  writes,  "  have 
attended  him,  and  all  agree  that  it  is  a  lost  case.  O  what 
a  man  to  be  snatched  away  in  the  strength  of  his  years  ] 
Surely  Thy  judgments  are  a  great  deep  !"  Thomas  Walsh 
died  a  martyr,  but  he  was  self-martyred.  His  constitution 
was  originally  feeble,  yet  he  used  it  in  his  mental  and  min- 
isterial labors  as  if  it  were  Herculean ;  he  preached  con- 
stantly twice,  and  often  thrice  a  day,  besides  visitmg  his 
people  from  house  to  house,  especially  the  sick  and  the 
dying,  from  some  of  whom  it  is  said  he  was  rarely  a  day 
absent  while  he  was  stationed  in  London.  Meanwhile  his 
studies  were  pursued  as  if  they  were  alone  the  occupation 
of  his  time.  He  rose  at  four  in  the  morning,  and  pored 
over  his-  books  late  into  the  night ;  and  preaching  and  pas- 
toral work,  assiduously  as  they  were  pursued,  seemed  but 
slight  intermissions  of  the  work  of  the  brain.  When  advised 
to  take  more  sleep,  he  replied,  "  Should  a  man  rob  God  ?" 
apparently  not  aware  that  his  extreme  self-denial  was  the 
most  effectual  robbery  of  God  by  the  abbreviation  of  his 
usefulness  and  life.  He  walked  the  streets  of  great  cities 
absorbed  in  introspection  and  prayer,  and  as  unobservant 
of  external  things  as  if  he  were  in  the  solitude  of  a  wil- 
derness. He  spent  much  time  reading  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  Scriptures  upon  his  knees.  He  seldom  smiled, 
and  perhaps    never  laughed   after  the    commencement  of 

Vol,  I.— 22 


838  HISTORY    OP    METHODISM. 

his  public  ministry.  This  habitual  self-absorption,  added 
to  excessive  labor,  produced  the  usual  consequences  of 
such  errors ;  his  health  failed,  and  his  nervous  sensibili- 
ties suffered  tortures  which  he  too  often  ascribed  to  demo 
niacal  agency. 

In  some  of  his  inward  combats  he  would  rise  at  night,  and 
prostrating  himself  with  his  face  upon  the  floor  would  pray 
and  weep  before  God  with  unutterable  agony.  He  needed 
rest  and  relaxation,  and  the  innocent  refreshments  of  social 
life.  Wesley,  who,  if  not  one  of  the  wisest,  was  one  of  the 
most  sagacious  of  men,  knew  what  was  requisite  in  a  case 
like  that  of  Walsh ;  he  took  prudent  care  of  his  own  health, 
and  wrote  the  best  sanitary  rules  for  his  preachers ;  but 
when  we  remember  that  Walsh  was  frequently  with  him  in 
Ireland,  and  labored  at  three  different  periods  in  London, 
the  last  time  for  nearly  two  years,  residing  there  in  Welsey's 
own  house,  we  are  surprised,  we  are  more  than  surprised, 
that  he  did  not  interpose  his  authority,  if  his  advice  were 
unavailing,  to  rescue  this  young  and  splendid  victim.  Wes- 
ley seemed  to  regard  him  with  a  sentiment  which  could 
hardly  be  called  respect ;  it  was  reverence,  if  not  awe.  Of 
no  other  one  of  his  contemporaries,  young  or  old,  has  he  left 
such  emphatic  expressions  of  admiration  as  for  this  young 
man — a  youth  of  hardly  twenty  years  when  he  began  his 
ministry,  and  but  twenty-eight  when  he  descended  into  the 
grave.'''  All  contemporary  allusions  to  him,  found  in  Meth- 
odist books,  express  similar  reverence,  if  not  indeed  wonder. 
Not  merely  his  great  learning,  nor  his  talents  in  the  pulpit, 
where  he  often  seemed  clothed  with  the  ardor  and  majesty 
of  a  seraph,  but  something  in  his  character,  something  of 
saintly  dignity  and  moral  grandeur,  impressed  thus  his/riends, 
and  those  most  who  were  most  intimate  with  him.^     His 

'■  In  a  letter  to  his  brother  Charles  he  says  of  Walsh :  "  I  love,  admire, 
and  honor  him !  and  wish  Ave  had  six  preachers  in  all  England  of  his 
epirit."     "Works,  vol.  vi,  p.  662. 

*  "He  was  a  person  of  a  surprising  greatness  of  soul,  for  which  the 
whole  circumference  of  created  good  was  far,  far  too  little.^'  Morgan's 
Life  of  Walsh,  chap.  15. 


METHODISM    IN    lEELAND:    1750-1760.      339 

Roman  Catholic  education  and  reading  seemed  to  have  given 
to  his  piety  an  ascetic  tinge,  which  the  confiding  and  joyous 
trustfdness  of  his  Methodistic  faith  could  not  entirely  cor- 
rect. He  fasted  and  denied  himself  excessively.  At  twenty- 
five  he  looked  like  a  man  of  forty.^  He  persisted  in  preach- 
ing when  "one  would  have  thought  he  must  drop  down  dead 
immediately  after."  His  friends  represent  him  as  seeming 
not  to  belong  to  this  world ;  nor  could  a  person  better  con- 
ceive of  him,  they  say,  than  by  forming  an  idea  of  one  who 
had  returned  from  the  happy  dead  to  converse  with  men. 
"  Thou  knowest  my  desire,"  he  wTote  ;  "  thou  knowest  there 
has  never  been  a  saint  upon  earth  whom  I  do  not  desire  to 
resemble,  in  doing  and  suffering  thy  whole  will,  I  would 
walk  with  thee,  my  God,  as  Enoch  did.  I  would  follow 
thee  to  a  land  unkno\^ii,  as  Abraham  did.  I  w^ould  renounce 
all  for  thee,  as  did  Moses  and  Paul.  I  w^ould,  as  did  Ste- 
phen, seal  thy  truth  with  my  blood  !"  One  who  from  study 
of  the  Scriptures  understood  what  manner  of  person  a  Chris- 
tian approved  of  God  must  be,  and  wdio  from  his  religious 
solicitude  read,  conversed,  and  thought  of  little  else,  says 
that  in  Thomas  Walsh  he  saw  clearly  what  till  then  he  had 
only  conceived ;  that  in  him  his  conceptions  w^ere  truly 
exemplified.  Prostrate  upon  his  face,  kneeling,  standing, 
walking,  eating — in  every  posture,  and  in  every  place  and 
condition,  he  was  a  man  mighty  in  prayer.  "  In  sleep  itself, 
to  my  certain  knowledge,"  says  one  of  his  associates,  "  his 
soul  went  out  (Cant,  v,  2)  in  groans,  and  sighs,  and  tears  to 
God.  His  heart  having  attained  such  a  habit  of  tendency 
to  its  Lord,  could  only  give  over  when  it  ceased  to  beat," 
He  is  represented  as  sometimes  lost  in  mental  absence  on 
his  knees,  with  his  face  heavenward,  and  arms  clasped  upon 
his  breast,  in  such  composure  that  scarcely  could  one  hear 
him  so  much  as  breathe ;  as  absorbed  in  God,  and  enjoying  a 
calmness  and  transport  which  could  not  be  expressed;  while 

9  With  the  exception  of  his  larger  and  more  hnninous  eye,  his  portraits 
might  he  taken  as  fac  similies  of  the  current  pictures  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards, whom  he  resembled  much  in  other  respects. 


340  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM. 

from  the  serenity,  and  something  resembling  splendor  which 
appeared  on  his  countenance,  and  in  all  his  gestures  after- 
ward, one  might  easily  discover  that  he  had  been  on  the 
Mount  of  Communion,  and  had  descended,  like  Moses,  with 
the  divine  glory  on  his  brow. 

His  public  prayers  w^ere  attended  with  such  ardor,  perti- 
nence, and  faith,  that  it  appeared,  says  his  biographer,  "  as 
though  the  heavens  were  burst  open,  and  God  himself 
appeared  in  the  congregation." 

He  was  sometimes  rapt  away,  as  from  earth,  in  his  de- 
votions, being  quite  lost  to  himself,  and  insensible  of  every- 
thing around  him,  absorbed  in  the  visions  of  God ;  and  in 
these  profound  and  solemn  frames  of  mind  he  has  remained 
for  hours,  still  and  motionless  as  a  statue. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  death  of  this 
saintly,  this  seraphic  man,  was  attended  by  circumstances 
deeply  afflictive  to  his  friends,  and  affording  a  suggestive 
lesson.  ^°  Bunyan  shows  his  sagacity  in  representing  his 
hero  as  beset  with  terrors  and  demoniacal  mockeries  be- 
fore his  final  triumph,  for  the  characters  of  neither  good 
nor  bad  men  can  be  inferred  from  their  dying  words.  It 
pleases  God  usually  to  comfort  exceedingly  his  children 
in  the  solemn  crisis  of  death;  and  even  the  phantasies  of 
the  struggling  and  disordered  mind  generally  .  then  take 
their  character  from  the  habitually  pious  or  godless 
course  of  the  preceding  life ;  but  it  is  sometimes  other 
wise;  disease  and  drugs  have  much  effect  on  the  shattered 
sensibilities,  and  Christian  biography  teaches  that  surviving 
friends  should  attach  but  little  significance,  whether  sadden- 
ing or  consoling,  to  the  last  expressions  of  the  dead.  Life, 
not  death,  reveals  the  probable  flite  of  the  soul. 

Thomas  Walsh  once  heard  Fletcher,  of  Madeley,  preach 
in  Wesley's  Chapel,  in  London,  on  the  dying  trials  of  good 
men.  Fletcher  supposed  that  some  comparatively  weak 
believers  might  die  most  cheerfully  ;  and  that  some  strong 
ones,   for    the   further  purification    of  their    faith,    or   foi 

10  See  page  296. 


METHODISM    IN    IKELAND:    1750-1760,    341 

inseriitable  reasons,  niiglit  have  severe  conflicts.  At  the 
ssubsequeiit  meeting  of  the  Bands,  Walsh  opposed  this 
opinion,  and  said  he  thought  it  bore  hard  against  God's 
justice,  faithfulness,  and  covenant  love  to  his  servants. 
Fletcker  modestly  observed  that  God's  wisdom  is  sover- 
eign and  unsearchable;  and  though  he  was  sorry  he  had 
given  offense,  yet  lie  could  not,  with  a  good  conscience, 
retract  what  he  had  said.  With  some  degree  of  warmth 
Walsh  replied :  "  Be  it  done  unto  you  according  to  your 
faith ;  and  be  it  done  unto  me  according  to  mine !"  and 
here  the  matter  rested.  ^^ 

Two  years  afterward  Walsh  needed  in  death  the  con- 
solatory opinion  of  Fletcher.  During  some  months  he 
struggled  with  what  were  doubtless  the  agonies  of  a  dis- 
ordered nervous  system.  He  v/as  brought  almost  to  the 
extremity  of  mental  anguish,  if  not  despair  of  his  salvation. 
To  his  Christian  brethren  it  was  a  mysterious  spectacle,  and 
public  prayers  were  offered  up  for  him  in  Dublin,  London, 
and  other  places,  "  His  great  soul,"  says  his  biographer, 
"  lay  thus,  as  it  were,  in  ruins  for  some  considerable  time, 
and  poured  out  many  a  heavy  groan  and  speechless  tear 
from  an  oppressed  heart  and  dying  body.  He  sadly  be- 
wailed the  absence  of  Him  whose  wonted  presence  had  so 
often  given  him  the  victory  over  the  manifold  contra- 
dictions and  troubles  which  he  endured  for  his  name's 
sake," 

But  as  sometimes  the  clouds,  thick  on  the  whole  heavens, 
are  rent  at  the  horizon  the  moment  the  sun  seems  to  pause 
there  before  setting,  and  his  last  rays  stream  in  and  flood 
with  effulgence  and  joy  the  entire  sky,  so  was  the  darkness 
lifted  from  the  last  hour  of  this  good  man.  After  prayers 
had  been  offered  in  his  chamber  by  a  group  of  sympathizing 
friends,  he  requested  to  be  left  alone  a  few  minutes  that  he 
might  "  meditate  a  little."  They  withdrew,  and  he  re- 
mained in  profound  prayer  and  self-recollection  for  some 
time.  At  last  he  broke  out  with  the  rapturous  exclama- 
"  Kev:  Melville  llorne :  Aj^pendix  to  Walsh's  Life. 


342  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM.  , 

tion :  "  He  is  come  I — he  is  come  ! — my  beloved  is  mine^  and 
I  am  his  ; — his  forever  /"  and  died. 

Thus  lived  and  thus,  in  his  early  manhood,  died  Tliomas 
Walsh,  a  man  whose  memory  is  still  as  ointment  poured 
forth  in  the  sanctuaries  of  Methodism  J  2 

Before  the  conference  of  1760  Wesley  again  passed  rapid- 
ly over  much  of  Ireland.  He  found  the  societies  in  Dublm 
larger  than  they  had  ever  been.  Connaught  enrolled  more 
than  three  hundred  members ;  Ulster  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  ;  Leinster  a  thousand;  Munster  about  six  hundred. 
Methodism,  he  remarks,  had  now  successfully  made  its  way 
into  every  county  in  Ireland,  save  Kerry,  and  many  were 
its  exemplary  witnesses  in  most  large  towns,  as  well  as  in 
the  rural  districts.  He  doubted  not,  however,  that  there 
would  have  been  double  the  number  had  it  not  been  for  the 
hostility  of  Protestants,  who,  with  an  infatuation  which 
blinded  them  against  their  own  interest,  had  endeavored 
to  defeat  the  Methodistic  movement  in  almost  every  im- 
portant place  of  the  kingdom.  ^^ 

12  The  last  mental  sufferings  of  "Walsh  "  spread  a  very  strong  sensation 
among  his  brethren,"  says  Home.  Fletcher,  whose  wise  remarks  in 
London  he  had  so  hastily  challenged,  was  deeply  affected  by  his  friend's 
sad  verification  of  them.  He  wrote  a  heart-touching  letter  to  Charles 
Wesley  on  the  occasion,  and  expressed  himself  as  despondent  in  \'iew  of 
his  own  death  after  such  a  fact ;  yet  no  more  triumphant  death  is  re- 
corded in  Christian  biography  than  that  which  awaited  the  pious  vicar  of 
Madeley.  See  Melville  Home's  remarks,  Appendix  to  Walsh's  Life. 
Home's  irrelevant  supposition  as  to  the  cause  of  Walsh's  despondence  is 
sufficiently  refuted  by  Jackson:   Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  21. 

13  See  his  "  Short  History  of  the  People  called  Methodists."  Works, 
vol.  vii,  p.  373,  Am.  ed. 


ENGLAND   AND   SCOTLAND:   1750-1760.    843 


CHAPTEE  II. 

ARMINIAN    METHODISM     IN     ENGLAND     AND    SCOT- 
LAND I    1750-1760. 

Success  in  Cornwall  —  Wesley  in  Scotland  —  His  slight  Success  —  He 
itinerates  in  England  —  State  of  the  Societies  —  Proselytism  of  the 
Baptists  —  Nathaniel  Gilbert  and  Methodism  in  the  West  Indies  — 
First  African  Methodist  —  Happy  Deaths  of  Methodists  —  James 
Wheatley  the  first  expelled  Methodist  Preacher — Johii  Bennet's  Se- 
cession—  Grace  Murray  —  Wesley's  fraternal  Disposition  toward  Cal- 
vinists  —  Whitefield  —  Wesley  preaches  and  administers  the  Sacrament 
to  the  Calvinistic  Leaders  at  Lady  Huntingdon's  House  —  Sketches  of 
Thomas  Lee  and  Christopher  Hopper  —  Charles  Wesley  ceases  to 
itinerate  —  Death  of  Meriton  —  Fletcher  of  Madeley  —  Wesley's  Desire 
for  Rest  and  Solitude  —  His  unfortunate  Marriage  —  His  serious  Sickness 
—  His  Epitaph  —  His  Notes  on  the  New  Testament  —  James  Hervey  — 
Wesley's  Address  to  the  Clergy  —  His  Views  of  Ministerial  Quali- 
fications. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  period  of  our  narrative 
Wesley  wrote  to  one  of  his  preachers  that  from  Newcastle 
to  London,  and  from  London  to  Bristol,  God  was  every- 
where reviving  his  work.^  He  visited  Cornwall  repeatedly 
during  this  time.  ^  At  St.  Just  he  still  found  the  largest  of 
his  societies  in  the  west ;  so  great  a  proportion  of  believers 
he  had  not  seen  in  any  other  part  of  the  nation,  nor  "  any 
society  so  alive  to  God,"  He  laid  there  the  foundation  of 
a  new  chapel,  and  when  it  was  completed  pronounced  it 
the  best  in  the  country.  Preaching-houses  had  begun  to 
dot  the  west  generally,  but  they  were  as  yet  very  humble 
structures,  and  scarcely  distinguishable  as  chapels. 

He  assembled  at  St.  Ives  the  stewards  of  all  the  Cornish 

1  Letter  to  Joseph  Cownley.    Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers, 
vol.  i,  p.  100. 
3  Journal,   1750,  1758,  1757. 


844  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

societies  in  a  quarterly  meeting,  and  held  with  them  the 
first  Watch-night  known  in  that  region.  Only  slight  and  oc- 
casional attempts  were  now  made  at  persecution,  for  Meth.. 
odism  had  triumphed  generally  in  this  once  degraded  section 
of  the  land.  "  What  now,"  wrote  Wesley,  "  can  destroy 
the  work  of  God  in  these  parts  but  zeal  fc»r  and  contending 
about  opinions."  He  had  as  great  an  antipathy  against  doc- 
trinal controversies  as  most  theologians  have  zeal  for  them. 
Crowds  of  tinners  attended  him  wherever  he  appeared. 
Gwennap  assembled  still  its  immense  hosts.  At  Camel- 
ford  he  preached  in  the  market-place,  and  had  occasion  to 
exclaim,  "How  are  the  lions  in  this  town  become  lambs!" 
Port  Isaac,  long  a  barren  soil,  promised  now  to  bring 
forth  abundant  fruit.  At  St.  Agnes  the  knowledo-e  of  God 
had  already  "  traveled  from  the  lowest  to  the  greatest." 
He  was  surprised  at  the  talents  of  the  Cornish  local  preach- 
ers ;  he  heard  extempore  preaching  from  a  reformed  timier 
as  correct  as  "  most-  men  of  learning  could  w^rite."  Some 
of  the  old  persecutors  in  high  life  had  become  changed ;  and 
the  one  who  imprisoned  Maxfield  no  longer  molested  the 
Methodists  nor  allowed  others  to  oppose  them,  but  had  be- 
come noted  by  his  ciiarities  to  the  poor.  At  one  place  he 
found,  in  his  usual  pastoral  examination  of  the  society,  that 
some  of  its  members  were  in  the  practice  of  using,  if  not  of 
dealing  in  "  uncustomed  goods,"  then  a  general  vice  on  the 
Cornish  coast.  He  stopped  short  in  his  inquiries,  and  told 
them  they  should  see  his  face  no  more  unless  the  accursed 
thing  were  entirely  abandoned ;  and  Methodism,  more  than 
any  other  means,  has  corrected  the  evil  throughout  Corn- 
wall.^ At  St.  Mewen  and  St.  Austle  his  congregatiuns  were 
too  large  to  be  accommodated.  At  St.  Ewe  some  fell  to 
the  earth  under  the  preached  word,  and  the  whole  assembly 
seemed  awe-struck.  At  Redruth  he  addressed  in  the  open 
street  a  crowd  who  wept  around  him.  At  Falmouth  he 
found  that  the  former  riots  were  followed  by  reverent  atten- 
tion ;  the  town  was  "  quiet  from  one  end  to  the  other ;"  not 
'  It  reformed  also  the  barbaroxis  cruelties  of  the  wreckers  on  that  coast. 


ENGLAND    AND    SCOTLAND:    1750-1760.    345 

only  his  chapel,  but  the  yard  and  the  neighboring  houses 
were  crowded  with  eager  hearers.  At  Breage  a  great  refor- 
mation had  taken  place ;  it  had  been  noted  for  its  violence 
against  the  Methodists ;  its  clergyman  instigated  mobs  and 
fabricated  the  basest  slanders  respecting  W.esley  and  his 
societies,  charging  him  with  having  been  expelled  from 
Oxford  for  a  crime,  and  his  people  with  extinguishing  the 
lights  in  their  private  meetings  like  the  ancient  heathen. 
After  bringing  upon  the  inoffensive  society  much  suffering 
by  these  reports,  the  clerical  persecutor  had  sunk  into  de- 
spondence and  hanged  himself  The  people  now  flocked 
around  Wesley ;  he  had  not  intended  to  stop  among  them, 
but  they  constrained  him.  He  preached  in  the  street,  and 
gratefully  recorded  that  "  the  lions  of  Breage  too  were  now 
changed  into  lambs."  Everywhere,  in  fine,  on  the  west 
coast  did  he  find  the  power  of  the  truth  prevailing. 

In  April,  1751,  he  first  visited  Scotland,  accompanied  by 
Qiristopher  Hopper,  who  had  returned  with  him  from  Ire- 
land. It  has  already  been  stated*  that  Methodist  dragoons 
from  the  regiment  of  Jolm  Haime,  in  Flanders,  had  found- 
ed societies  at  Dunbar  and  Musselborough.  A  colonel,  now 
in  quarters  at  the  latter  place,  invited  Wesley  to  the  North. 
Whitefield  w^arned  him  not  to  go,  as  his  Arminian  principles 
would  "  leave  him  nothing  to  do  but  to  dispute  from  morn- 
ing till  night."  ^  Wesley  replied  that  he  would  go  ;  that  he 
would  studiously  avoid  controverted  points,  and,  according 
to  his  custom,  keep  to  the  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity. 
He  went,  and  was  welcomed  to  Musselborough.  He  preached 
while  the  people  stood  as  statues  around  him,  respectful,  but 
too  cold  for  his  Methodistic  ardor ;  nevertheless,  the  preju- 
dice which,  as  he  says,  the  devil  had  been  several  years 
planting,  w^as  plucked  up  in  an  hour.  A  bailiff  of  the  town 
and  an  elder  of  the  kirk  waited  upon  him  with  the  request 
that  he  should  stay  with  them  for  some  time,  or  at  least 
two  or  three  days  longer,  and  ofiered  to  fit  up  a  larger 
place  for  his  congregations.  His  engagements,,  however, 
*  See  page  239.  *  Coke  and  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  III,  2. 


346  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

called  him  away ;  but  Hopper  returned  and  preached  among 
them  to  large  congregations.  This,  says  the  lay  itinerant, 
was  the  beginning  of  a  good  work  in  Scotland.^  Still  later 
Hopper  preached  at  Edinburgh,  Dunbar,  Leith,  Dundee,  and 
Aberdeen.  God,  he  wrote,  blessed  his  word,  "  and  raised 
up  witnesses  that  he  had  sent  us  to  the  North  Britons  also." 

In  April,  1753,  Wesley  again  entered  Scotland.  He  was 
received  courteously  by  Gillies  of  Glasgow.  -  He  preached 
early  in  the  morning  outside  the  towai ;  the  weather  and  the 
hour  did  not  suit  the  Scotch,  and  his  congregation  was  small ; 
but  at  the  service  under  a  tent  in  the  afternoon  he  had  "  six 
times  as  many,"  and  his  word  Avas  "  in  power."  It  rained 
the  next  day,  and  Gillies  had  the  courage  to  open  the  kirk 
for  him.  A  few  years  earlier  it  would  have  required  equal 
courage  on  the  part  of  Wesley  to  enter  it,  such  had  been 
his  "High-Churcn  principles."  "Surely,"  he  said  at  the 
close  of  the  day,  "  with  God  nothing  is  impossible !  Who 
would  have  believed,  five  and  twenty  years  ago,  either 
that  the  minister  would  have  desired  it,  or  that  I  should 
have  consented  to  preach  in  a  Scotch  kirk  !"  His  next  con- 
gregation was  too  large  for  the  church,  and  he  addressed 
them  in  the  open  air.  On  the  Sabbath  more  than  a  thousand 
people  listened  to  him  in  a  shower  of  rain,  and  at  his  last 
sermon  the  meadow  on  which  he  preached  was  filled  from 
side  to  side.  He  believed  that  a  great  and  effectual  door 
was  opened  for  Methodism  in  the  north,  _^but  the  apparent 
respectfulness  of  the  Scotch  was  mostly  indifference.  Their 
cold  courtesy  denied  to  Methodism  even  the  stimulus  of 
riots.  They  did  not  persecute  him,  but  they  would  not  fol- 
low him.  On  another  occasion  he  remarked  that  they  know 
ever^T^thing  and  feel  nothing.  It  became,  indeed,  a  problem 
to  him  "  why  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  who  does  nothing  with- 
out a  cause,  was  almost  entirely  stayed  in  Scotland  ?" 

He  persisted,  however,  in  his  visits  to  the  north.  In  1757 
he  was  again  welcomed  by  Gillies  to  Glasgow,  and  the  kirk 
could  not  accommodate  his  numerous  but  impassive  congre^- 

6  Hopper's  Life.    Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  vol.  i,  p.  SO. 


EI^OLAND  AND    SCOTLAND  :    1 750-1760.    847 

gations.  A  tent-pulpit  was  placed  for  liim  in  the  large  and 
commodious  yard  of  the  poor-house,  where  a  singular  spec- 
tacle was  presented.  Around  him  stood  the  collected  peo- 
ple ;  in  front  was  the  infirmary,  with  its  windows  crowded 
with  the  sick,  while  adjacent  to  it  was  the  lunatic  hospital  with 
its  inmates  reverently  listening.  Amid  these  scenes  he  not 
only  proclaimed  his  message,  but  what,  perhaps,  had  never 
been  done  before  by  a  Methodist  preacher  in  Scotland,  bap- 
tized several  children.  His  congregations  grew  daily,  not- 
withstanding the  comparatively  slight  effect  of  his  word. 
At  one  time  his  voice  could  hardly, reach  their  outmost  limit ; 
at  another  two  thousand  people  retired,  unable  to  hear, 
though  the  evening  was  calm  and  clear.  He  discovered  a 
small  obscure  society  in  the  city,  but,  with  the  characteristic 
national  taste,  they  met  mostly  to  discuss  some  general  or 
difficult  point  of  religioii.  He  directed  them  to  confine  their 
attention  to  matters  of  personal  piety,  after  the  example  of 
the  Methodists  in  England,  and  placed  them  under  the  care 
of  Dr.  Gillies.  He  was  agreeably  surprised  to  find  the 
society  founded  by  John  Haime's  fellow  dragoons  at  Mus- 
selburgh, zealous  for  the  faith ;  "  and  there,"  he  adds,  "  the 
tree  was  known  by  its  fruits ;  the  national  shyness  and  stub- 
bormiess  were  gone,  and  they  were  as  open  and  teachable  as 
little  children."  At  Dunbar  he  met  equal  encouragement — "a 
little  society,  most  of  them  rejoicing  in  God  their  Saviour." 
The  men  whose  piety  had  be@n  tried  in  the  fires  ofFontenoy 
had  introduced  into  both  these  ;places  the  living  faith. 

Wesley  traversed  England  during  the  present  period  in 
every  direction,  and  found  the  societies  almost  everywhere 
advancing.  His  preachers  were  still  occasionally  mobbed, 
but  he  himself  was  generally,  if  not  universally,  received 
with  a  respect  which  was  fast  growing  into  a  national 
sentiment  of  reverence.  At  Birmingham  the  chapel  could 
not  contain  half  his  congregation,  and  he  had  to "  go  into 
the  street.  "  How  has  the  scene  changed  here !"  he 
writes  ;  "  the  last  time  I  preached  at  ^  Birmingham .  the 
stones  flew  on  every  side ;  if  any  disturbance  were  made 


848  HISTORY    OF     METHODISM. 

now  the  disturber  would  be  in  more  danger  than  the 
preacher,"  In  meeting  the  society  there,  he  says,  the  hearts 
of  msinj  were  melted  within  them,  so  that  neither  they  nor 
he  CGuid  refrain  from  tears.  •  At  Wednesbury  and  Dar- 
iaston,  formerly  the  strongholds  of  the  Staffordshire  mobs, 
God  had  summoned  away,  by  "  a  train  of  amazing  strokes, 
most  of  the  old  persecutors,  and  those  that  remained  were 
not  only  respectful  but  cordial."  He  preached  to  a  large 
congregation  in  the  open  air  at  the  former  place,  amid  a 
rain  storm,  but  every  man,  woman,  and  child  stayed  till  the 
end  of  the  discourse.  Peace,  however,  had  brought  greater 
perils  than  persecution.  It  was  necessary  for  him  to  sift 
out  Antinomian  and  Anabaptist  errors,  which  had  been 
brought  in  among  them  from  abroad.  At  a  later  visit  to 
Wednesbury  he  found  a  new  chapel  erected,  and  remarked 
that  few  congregations  exceeded  this  either  in  numbers  or 
seriousness.  At  Wakefield,  where,  a  few  years  before,  the 
people  were  "  as  roaring  lions,"  and  the  honest  vicar  would 
not  allow  him  to  preach  in  his  yard  lest  the  mob  should 
pull  down  the  house,  he  was  now  heard  attentively  in  the 
church.  At  Hull  he  met  a  very  different  reception,  for  it 
was  his  first  appearance  there.  As  he  landed  on  the  quay 
it  was  crowded  with  staring  and  laughing  groups  inquiring 
"  Which  is  he  ?  Which  is  he  V  An  immense  multitude, 
rich  and  poor,  horse  and  foot,  with  many  coaches,  gathered 
to  hear  him  in  the  fields,  half  a  mile  out  of  the  city.  He 
cried  to  them,  "  What  shali  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  V  Some  thousands 
heard  seriously,  but  "  many  behaved  as  if  possessed  by 
Moloch."  Stones  and  clods  flew  on  every  side.  When  he 
had  finished  the  mob  followed  him,  throwing  missiles  into  his 
coach  windows.  The  house  in  which  he  was  entertained  was 
attacked  until  midnight,  and  its  windows  broken  to  the  third 
story.  Hull,  however,  speedily  redeemed  itself,  and  has 
ever  since  maintained  the  honor  of  Methodism.  At  his  next 
visit  he  was  respectfully  heard  by  its  best  citizens ;  and  even 
the  rich,  he  says,  had  the  Gospel  p-eached  unto  them  in  the 


ENGLAND  AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1760.    849 

streets.  At  Sunderland  he  found  John  Nelson's  society  to 
be  "  one  of  the  liveliest  in  the  north  of  England."  It  in- 
cluded two  hundred  and  fifty  members.  At  Biddick  a  mul- 
titude of  colliers  stood  to  hear  him  in  a  drenching  rain 
storm,  and  melted  like  wax  under  the  word.  At  Barnard 
Castle  he  held  his  ground  and  preached  through  his  discourse^ 
though  the  mob  played  an  engine  upon  the  assembly.  At 
Chester  he  saw  the  Methodist  chapel  in  ruins ;  two  days 
before  his  arrival  the  mob  had  pulled  it  down ;  but  he  took 
his  stand  near  the  wreck,  and  defended  "  the  sect  everywhere 
spoken  against."  The  mob  was  subdued,  and  Methodism 
again  reared  its  standard  there  never  to  be  struck.  At  his 
next  visit  the  scene  was  quite  changed ;  "  there  was  peace 
through  all  the  city."  At  Bolton  the  society  had  doubled 
since  his  preceding  visit;  they  were  increased  in  grace  as 
well  as  in  numbers,  "walking  closely  Ayith  God,  lovingly 
and  circumspectly  with  one  another,  and  wisely  toward 
those  w^ho  were  without."  At  Charlton  he  addressed  a  vast 
congregation  gathered  from  all  the  towns  and  country  for 
many  miles  around.  Methodism  had  recently  made  its  way 
into  the  neighborhood  against  the  m.ost  discouraging  odds. 
All  the  farmers  had  entered  into  a  joint  engagement  to  dis- 
miss from  their  service  any  one  who  should  dare  to  hear  the 
itinerant  preachers ;  but,  providentially,  the  chief  man  of 
the  combination  was  soon  after  smitten  by  the  truth,  and 
sent  for  these  very  men  to  preach  in  his  house.  Many  of 
the  other  confederates  came  to  hear,  and  their  servants  and 
laborers  gladly  followed  their  example ;  "  so  the  whole  de- 
vice of  Satan  fell  to  the  ground,  and  the  word  of  God  grew 
and  prevailed."  At  Manchester  Methodism  still  had  severe 
struggles ;  the  mob  stood  quiet  and  awe-struck  while  he 
preached  in  the  street,  but  when  he  closed  "  raged  horribly." 
He  made  his  first  visit  to"  Liverpool,  (April,  1755,)  though 
he  had  now  been  itmerating  over  the  realm  for  more  than 
fifteen  years  ;  but  that  great  commercial  metropolis  was  yet 
in  its  infancy.  He  found  there  a  Methodist  chapel  larger 
than  that  at  Newcastle,  and  the  hearts  of  the  whole  congre- 


850  HISTOKY    OP    METHODISM. 

gation  "  seemed  to  be  moved  before  the  Lord  and  the  pres- 
ence  of  his  power."  He  spent  nearly  a  week  among  them, 
preaching  to  crowds  morning  and  evening.'' 

At  Keighley,  famous  for  riots,  he  preached  v/ithout  moles- 
tation; "such  a  change,"  he  writes,  "has  God  wrought  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people  since  John  Nelson  was  in  the  dun- 
geon here."  At  York,  which  formerly  repelled  Methodism 
at  every  point,  he  now  found  the  "  richest  society,  number 
for  number,"  which  it  possessed  in  England.  At  Sheffield, 
which  had  been  unvisited  by  a  Methodist  itinerant  since  he 
himself  had  been  there  two  years  before,  the  little  society 
had  not  only  sustained  itself,  but  had  made  progress  in  num- 
bers and  grace  by  its  own  efforts,  under  the  guidance  of  its 
Class-leaders.  As  he  passed  and  repassed  Haworth,  he  fre- 
quently paused  to  preach  for  Grimshaw.  He  usually  ad- 
miinistered  the  Lord's  Supper  there  to  a  thousand  communi- 
cants, and  preached  in  the  church-yard  to  many  thousands  of 
hearers,  gathered  from  all  the  adjacent  towns  and  villages. 
At  Placey  Methodism  had  demonstrated  its  efficacy,  as  at 
Kingswood,  and  a  society  of  redeemed  colliers  welcomed 
him.  It  was  a  "  pattern  to  all  the  societies  in  England ;"  no 
menfiber  ever  missed  his  band  or  class  ;  they  had  no  discord 
of  any  kind  among  them,  but  with  one  heart  and  one  mind 
provoked  each  other  to  love  and  good  works.  At  Hornby 
he  found  that  the  landlords  had  turned  all  the  Methodists  out 
of  their  houses ;  but  it  proved  "  a  singular  kindness,"  for 
they  built  small  houses  at  the  end  of  the  town,  in  which 

T  His  remarks  on  the  growth  and  prospects  of  Liverpool  are  a  curiosity 
in  our  day.  He  says :  "  Liverpool  is  one  of  the  neatest,  best  built  towns  I 
have  seen  in  England.  I  think  it  is  full  twice  as  large  as  Chester ;  most 
of  the  streets  are  quite  straight.  Two-thirds  of  the  town,  we  were  in- 
formed, has  been  added  within  these  forty  years.  If  it-  continue  to  in- 
crease in  the  same  proportion^  in  fifty  years  more  it  will  nearly  equal 
Bristol.  The  people  in  general  are  the  most  mild  and  courteous  I  ever 
saw  in  a  seaport  town ;  as  indeed  appears  by  their  friendly  behavior,  not 
only  to  the  Jews  and  Papists  who  live  among  them,  but  even  to  the 
Methodists,  (so  called.)  Many  of  them,  I  learned,  were  dear  lovers  of 
controversy ;  but  I  had  better  work.  I  pressed  upon  them  all  '  repent- 
ance toward  God,  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  " 


ENGLAND    AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1760.     851 

forty  or  fifty  of  them  lived  together,  a  little  Christian  com- 
munity, as  comfortable  and  devoted  as  a  station  of  Mora- 
vians. At  Wandsworth, "  a  desolate  place,"  an  effectual  door 
was  opened  for  him  by  a  West  India  planter,  several  of 
whose  negroes  were  present  and  awakened  by  the  word.  He 
baptized  two  of  them,  one  a  convert  and  the  first  regenerated 
African  he  had  ever  known.  She  returned  to  the  West  In- 
dies with  her  master,  and  was  the  first  of  that  innumerable 
host  of  her  people  which  Methodism  has  ever  since  been 
leading  into  heaven  from  Africa  and  America.  "  Shall  not  his 
saving  health  be  made  known  to  all  nations  ?"  wrote  Wesley, 
after  preaching  to  them.  The  words  were  more  prophetic 
than  he  supposed.  This  American  gentleman  was  Nathaniel 
Gilbert,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Assembly  in  Antigua. 
He  became  a  local  preacher,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
notice,  and  introduced  Methodism  into  the  West  Indies, 
where  it  has  since  spread  among  all  the  English  colonies. 

Such  are  but  a  few  glimpses  of  Wesley's  incessant  travels 
and  labors  during  this  period.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
follow  him  in  their  detail  and  in  their  results,  without  filling 
volumes.  One  interesting  fact  enhanced  the  encouragement 
of  this  general  prosperity  ;  Methodism  had  now  been  suffi- 
ciently long  in  progress  to  afford  many  ripe  sheaves  for 
heaven.  It  had  been  signalized  by  remarkable  conversions ; 
it  had  now  become  noted  by  triumphant  deaths.  "^Our 
people  die  well,"  has  always  been  a  grateful  remark  of 
Methodists.  As  they  were  expected  to  maintain  a  good  "  as- 
surance "  of  the  Divine  favor  in  life,  it  was  hardly  possible 
they  should  falter  on  entering  into  the  eternal  life.  By  the 
year  1751  good  John  Nelson  had  a  catalogue  of  more  than 
seventy  who  had  ascended  to  their  rest  in  triumph  from  his 
prosperous  society  at  Birstal.^  In  Bristol,  London,  and 
Dublin,  the  societies  now  frequently  recorded,  with  mourn- 
ful joy,  the  departure  of  their  brethren  beloved  into  the 
"  general  assembly,  and  Church  of  the  first-born  which  are 
written  in  heaven."  The  Journals  of  both  the  Wesleys 
8  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  17. 


852  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

abound  in  such  notices.  Charles '  Wesley  especially  took  a 
melancholy  pleasure  in  recording  them,  and  in  no  place 
more  than  among  the  reclaimed  colliers  of  Kingsw^ood,  as 
yet  the  most  interesting  field  of  the  triumphs  of  Methodism 
over  the  barbarism  of  the  British  populace.  Many  of  his  ele- 
gies, written  on  such  occasions,  have  an  unearthly  power;  a 
sadness  of  the  grave  pervaded  by  the  rapture  of  heaven. 
On  the  death  of  nearly  every  Methodist  preacher,  from 
Thomas  Beard,  the  martyr,  who  was  the  first  that  died,  till, 
with  an  elegiac  verse  on  hi-s  lips,  he  lay  down  himself  to  die, 
he  wrote  not  one  only,  but  usually  two  or  three  of  these  af- 
fecting and  beautiful  memorials.  His  "  Funeral  Hymns," 
occasioned,  with  hardly  an  exception,  by  actual  deaths, 
constitute  the  most  perfect  part  of  the  Methodist  psalmody, 
and  for  a  hundred  years  and  more  these  testimonials  of  the 
dying  triumphs  of  their  early  brethren  have  been  sung  at  the 
death-beds  and  funerals  of  Methodists  throughout  the  world. 
These  encouraging  evidences  of  prosperity  in  most  of  the 
land  were  contrasted,  however,  by  frequent  instances  of 
discord  and  delusion.  At  Bristol  serious  disturbances  oc- 
curred, and  its  nine  hundred  Methodists  were  diminished  in 
1757  to  but  half  the  number;  but  a  day  of  fasting  and 
prayer  was  observed,  an  extraordinary  revival  ensued,  and 
the  strength  of  the  society  was  restored.  The  society  at 
Norwich  was  rent  and  almost  destroyed  in  1751,  by  the  de- 
fection and  apostasy  of  James  Wheatley,  who  fell  into  scan- 
dalous  vices  and  has  the  peculiar  distinction  of  being  the  first 
Methodist  preacher  expelled  from  the  Connection.  Tlie  se- 
cession broke  to  pieces ;  Wesley  gathered  its  remnants  to- 
gether, incorporated  them  into  his  remaining  societies,  and 
left  the  latter  nearly  six  hundred  strong.^  In  Lancashire  the 
classes  were  disturbed  by  the  secession  of  John  Bennet  and  a 
large  part  of  the  Methodists  at  Bolton.  Bennet  was  a  man  of 
classical  education  and  superior  native  talents.    He  had  been 

'  Short  History  of  the  People  called  Metliodists.  Works  vol.  vii,  p.  373. 
American  Edition.  My  other  data  are  from  his  Journal,  from  1750  U> 
1760.     Works,  vol.  iii. 


ENGLAND    AND    SCOTLAND:    1750-1760.     353 

led  into  the  Metliodist  ministry  by  Lady  Huntingdon.  His 
correspondence  with  Wesley  shows  him  to  have  been  opposed 
to  Calvinism,  but  at  his  defection  he  assailed  the  Methodists 
violently  for  their  Arminianism,  and  imputed  Papistical  doe-- 
tiines  to  Wesley.  He  had  been  a  useful  man  in  Lancashire, 
Derbyshire,  and  Cheshire,  but  his  new  course  w^as  proper- 
tionally  disastrous.  ^^ 

In  many  of  the  country  tovms  Wesley's  most  onerous 
work  was  the  administration  of  Discipline,  especially  along 
the  coasts,  where  the  crime  of  smuggling  was  hardly  recog- 
nized by  the  common  people  as  a  vice.  He  showed  it  no 
forbearance.  He  nearly  broke  up  whole  Classes  in  order  to 
suppress  the  evil,  and  his  societies  did  more  than  all  the  po- 
lice  of  the  realm  to  abate  it. 

He  was  also  compelled  to  labor  indefatigably  to  reclaim 
his  incipient  Churches  from  doctrinal  wranglings.^^  The«e 
he  would  not  tolerate ;  Methodism  disowned  their  import- 

1"  He  was  the  husband  of  Grace  Murray,  to  whom  Wesley  had  made 
overtures  of  marriage.  He  died  in  about  eight  years  after  his  separation 
from  the  Methodists.  His  excellent  wife  lived  for  more  than  fifty  yearr^, 
in  Christian  retirement,  near  Chapel-en-le-Frith,  honoring  religion  by  her 
daily  example.  She  remained  partial  to  the  Methodist  usages  to  the  last, 
and  maintained  a  class-meeting  in.  her  house  for  mauy  years.  She  died 
in  1803,  aged  89.  Her  last  words  were,  "  Glory  to  thee,  my  God;  peace 
thou  givest  me."  Wesley  undoubtedly  loved  her,  and  she  deserved  his 
affection  and  his  name.  See  Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon, 
vol.  i,  p.  45. 

11  The  catholic  reader  will,  perhaps,  be  surprised  to  learn  that  Wesley's 
chief  vexation  in  this  respect  was  from  evangelical  parties.  He  frequently 
refers  to  them  as  inveigling  away  his  converts,  or  "  making  havoc"  of  his 
societies ;  and  on  one  occasion  (Journal,  April  3, 1751)  latnents  that  he 
liadto  "  spend  near  ten  minutes  in  controversy  with  them,"  more  than 
lie  imd  "  done  in  public  for  many  months,  perhaps  years  before."  Charles 
Wesley  seldom  alludes  to  these  proselyters  without  a  tinge  of  bitter- 
ness. They  seem  to  have  vexed  his  righteous  soul  more  than  any 
other  class  of  Christians,  except  tliose  lay  Methodist  preachers  who 
favored  Dissent.  He  calls  them  "  caviling,  contentious,  always  watching 
to  steal  away  our  children."  (Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  20.) 
Methodism,  has  largely  recruited  its  sister  evangelical  Chui'ches  for  a 
liundred  years,  but  has  characteristically  avoided  proselytism,  though 
it  has  not  deemed  it  right  to  repel  applicants  for  membership  from  other 
denominations. 

Vol.  L— 23 


854  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

ance;  it  would  not  admit  that  dogmas,  except  the  most 
fundamental  and  generally  received,  should  be  considered 
conditions  of  Christian  communion,  or  of  membership 
in  its  Classes.  Calvinistic  Antinomianism  beset  him  at  al- 
most every  turn,  and  ravaged  his  most  promising  societies. 
With  the  evangelical  Calvinists  of  his  day  he  maintained, 
however,  the  most  harmonious  relations.  He  ministered 
often  during  the  present  period  in  Whitefield's  chapels,  and 
Whitefield  in  his.  After  preaching  in  Whitefield's  Taber 
nacle  in  Plymouth,  he  said  :  "  Thus  it  behoveth  us  to  trample 
on  bigotry  and  party  zeal.  Ought  not  all  who  love  God  to 
love  one  another?"  "Mr.  Whitefield,"  he  wrote,  during  a 
visit  to  London,  "  called  upon  me ;  disputings  are  now  no 
more ;  we  love  one  another,  and  join  hand  in  hand  to  promote 
the  cause  of  our  common  Master."  ^^  He  met  Whitefield 
and  the  Calvinistic  leaders  on  all  convenient  occasions,  and 
at  one  time  preached  and  administered  the  Lord's  Supper, 
at  Lady  Huntingdon's  house  in  London,  to  Whitefield,  Ma- 
dan,  Romaine,  Downing,  Venn,  Griffith  Jones,  and  others. ^^ 
Tenacious  as  these  good  men  were  of  what  they  called  the 
"Doctrines  of  Grace"  they  could  not  well  quarrel  while  they 
saw  that  the  great  "  Work  of  Grace  "  was  so  triumphantly 
advancing  through  the  country  by  the  labors  of  both  parties. 
Though  Wesley's  reputation  and  years  now  commanded 
too  much  public  respect  to  allow  of  frequent  disturbances 
from  mobs,  his  lay  preachers  had  still  often  to  encounter 
them,  especially  in  towns  and  villages  where  they  preached 
for  the  first  time.  Among  the  bravest  of  the  brave  of  these 
heroic  men  was  Thomas  Lee.  Yew  of  his  fellow-laborers 
endured  severer  "  fights  of  affliction."  From  his  childhood 
he  had  feared  God,  and  maintained  an  admirable  purity  of 
conduct.  He  uttered  an  oath  when  but  four  years  old,  but 
felt  such  compunction  for  it  that  he  never  swore  again 
throughout  his  life.     As  early  as  his  tenth  or  eleventh  year 

12  Journal,  Anno  1755. 

13  Wesley's  text  on  this  occasion  showed  his  spirit.  It  was  1  Corin- 
thians, xiii,  13  :  "  Now  abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three;  but  the 
meatest  of  these  is  charity." 


ENGLAND    A.ND    SCOTLAND:   1Y50-1V60,     855 

he  experienced  deep  religious  impressions,  and  the  words 
"  everlasting  "  and  "  eternal "  were  much  upon  his  mind.  In 
his  fifteenth  year,  while  an  apprentice  to  the  "  worsted  trade," 
he  gave  himself  with  fondness  to  books,  and  spent  much  of 
his  leisure  in  reading  the  Scriptures.  He  also  found  delight 
in  prayer,  and  had  many  inward  consolations,  though  he  had 
never  then  heard  any  one  speak  of  the  comforts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  was,  in  fine,  one  of  those  earnest,  sensitive 
minds,  numerous  in  all  communities,  present  in  nearly  all 
congregations,  who  are  ready  to  respond  to  the  first  faithful 
appeals  of  the  pulpit,  and  who  sprang  forth  everywhere  with 
ardor  on  the  first  appearance  of  the  Methodist  itinerants  of 
those  times,  recognizing  their  apostolic  character,  ready  to 
weep  at  their  feet,  and  to  die  with  them  in  their  persecu 
tions.  He  heard  Grimshaw,  and  made  many  good  resolu- 
tions, which  were  revived  and  deepened  when  he  heard 
some  of  the  humbler  Methodist  evangelists.  "  From  that 
time,"  he  writes,  "my  heart  was  so  united  to  them  that 
I  dropped  at  once  all  my  former  companions,  and,  blessed 
be  God !  I  have  not  from  that  hour  had  one  desire  to 
turn  back." 

His  scrupulous  conscience  was,  however,  a  long  time  trou- 
bled with  religious  anxieties.  He  suspected  that  he  was  a 
hypocrite,  and  mentioned  his  fears  to  a  friend,  but  got  no  com- 
fort from  the  ambiguous  reply  given  him.  It  was  impossi- 
ble, he  says,  to  express  the  anguish  he  fel^ ;  he  longed  for 
death,  though  he  believed  himself  unfit  for  it.  But  he 
omitted  no  religious  duty ;  with  the  consent  of  his  master, 
who  had  the  good  sense  to  esteem  him  highly,  he  prayed 
daily  in  the  family,  and  soon  conducted  domestic  worship  in 
neighboring  households.  Being  alone  a  great  part  of  one 
day,  and  much  engaged  in  meditation  and  prayer,  he  felt  a 
persuasion  that  God  was  willing  to  receive  him.  He  left 
his  business  immediately  and  went  to  his  usual  place  of 
prayer;  "in  a  moment,"  he  says,  "God  broke  in  upon  my 
soul  in  so  wonderful  a  manner  that  I  could  no  longer  doubt 
of  his  forgiving  love.     I  cried,  '  My  Lord  and  my  God  1' 


356  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

And  with  the  spirit  I  was  then  in,  I  could  have  praised,  and 
loved,  and  waited  to  all  eternity."  ^^ 

His  habit  of  praying  in  families  had  now  prepared  him  to 
conduct  prayer-meetings,  and  as  Methodism  pressed  all  its 
available  talent  into  use,  he  was  soon  holding  such  serv- 
ices among  his  neighbors.  He  was  in\dted  to  Harding 
Moor,  Lingobin,  and  Thornton.  No  Methodist  itinerant 
had  yet  appeared  in  these  places,  but  the  faithful  young 
evangelist  was  enabled  in  a  short  time  to  deliver  up  a  !so- 
ciety  in  each  of  them  to  the  traveling  preachers.  Work 
ing  at  his  business  half  the  time  for  his  subsistence,  and 
exhorting  and  praying  up  and  down  the  country,  he 
founded  Methodism  not  only  in  the  villages  named,  but  also 
at  Long  Addingham,  at  Greenough  Hill,  at  Hartwith,  and 
other  places.  At  Pateley  Bridge  he  was  initiated  into  the 
common  lot  of  the  Methodist  evangelists,  and  received  his 
first  baptism  of  persecution  from  the  clods,  clubs,  and  stones 
of  the  mob.  His  meek  and  pure  spirit  was  not  weak,  but 
displayed  durmg  this  and  later  trials  a  heroism  which  John 
Nelson  would  have  admired.  "We  have  done  enough," 
cried  the  mob,  who  were  instigated  by  the  parish  clergy- 
man ;  "  we  have  done  enough  to  make  an  end  of  him."  "  I 
did,  indeed,"  he  says,  "  reel  to  and  fro,  and  my  head  was 
broken  with  a  stone.  But  I  never  found  my  soul  more 
happy,  nor  was  ever  more  composed  in  my  closet.  It  was 
a  glorious  time,  and  there  are  several  who  date  their  con- 
version from  that  day."  Such  tests  were  very  salutary  to 
the  early  Methodist  ministry.  They  drove  cowards  quickly 
from  the  ranks  and  made  heroes  of  all  others.  He  went  to 
a  neighboring  town,  had  his  wounded  head  dressed,  and  the 
same  day  bravely  preached  in  the  street  to  a  large  crowd, 
many  of  whom  had  come  with  him  from  the  scene  of  his 
sufferings.  Some  of  the  rioters  had  followed  with  them,  but 
as  their  clerical  leader  was  not  present  they  were  restrained, 
"  and  the  Lord  blessed  us  much,"  says  the  evangelist. 

During  four  years  did  this  good  man  travel  about  on  foot, 
"  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  vol.  ii,  p.  196. 


ENGLAND   AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1760.     857 

preaclimg  and  founding  societies  in  neglected  and  obscure 
places.  He  was  often,  he  says,  thoroughly  wet,  and  obliged 
to  preach  in  his  damp  clothes  from  appointment  to  appoint- 
ment He  worked  at  night  that  he  might  travel  and  preach 
by  day.  His  appointments  multiplied  so  fast  that  he  was  at 
last  obliged  to  give  up  business,  buy  a  horse,  and  take  the 
field  as  an  itinerant ;  it  was  much  against  his  will,  for  though 
he  had  made  full  proof  of  his  ministry  his  modesty  shrunk 
from  an  honor  so  high,  as  he  deemed  it.  The  eccentric  but 
generous  Grimshaw  could  not  fail  to  love  such  a  man ;  driv- 
ing about  Yorkshire  night  and  day  on  his  evangelical  tours, 
he  witnessed  the  usefulness  of  Lee,  and  inspiriting  him  by 
his  own  example,  sent  him  out  on  one  of  his  extended  circuits 
for  a  month.  He  thus  appeared  formally  among  the  travel- 
ing preachers  of  the  day,  and  never  disappeared  from  their 
ranks  until  he  was  summoned  away  to  his  final  rest. 

We  cannot,  by  tracing  the  travels,  of  Whitefield  and 
Wesley  during  this  period,  obtain  a  correct  impression  of 
the  times.  Their  comparatively  few  persecutions  would 
lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  populace  had  been  almost  uni- 
versally subdued,  but  the  subordinate  laborers  were  still 
in  many  places  confronting  the  fiercest  mobs.  It  is  incred- 
ible what  trials  Thomas  Lee  encountered  during  most  of 
these  years.  In  the  winter  of  1752  and  1753  the  work  of 
God  prospered  exceedingly,  he  writes,  throughout  his  long 
routes  in  Yorkshire ;  "  but  persecution  raged  on  every 
side."  Wherever  he  went  he  was  in  perils,  "  carrying, 
his  life  in  his  hands."  One  day  as  he  was  going 
through  Pateley  the  captain  of  the  mob,  who  was  kept  in 
constant  pay,  pursued  him,  and  pulled  him  from  his  horse. 
The  crowd  soon  collected  about  him,  and  one  or  another 
"  struck  up  his  heels,"  he  says,  "  more  than  twenty 
times  upon  the  stones."  They  pulled  him  into  a  house 
by  the  hair  of  his  head,  then  pushed  him  back  with  one  or 
two  upon  him,  and  threw  him  upon  the  edge  of  the  stone 
stairs.  The  fall  nearly  broke  his  back,  and  for  many 
years  he  suffered  from  the  injury.     Thence  they  dragged 


358  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM.  ^ 

him  to  the  common  sewer,  rolled  him  in  it  for  some  time, 
and  then  drove  him  to  the  bridge  and  threw  him  into  the 
water.  When  they  drew  him  out  he  was  imable  to  rise 
from  the  ground,  his  strength  being  quite  spent.  His  wife, 
who,  like  Nelson's,  was  worth}^  of  him,  now  came  to  his 
relief  with  a  few  friends.  Seeing  her  helping  him,  some  of 
the  rioters  asked,  "  What,  are  you  a  Methodist  ?"  and  giving 
her  several  blows,  which  made  her  bleed  at  the  mouth,  swore 
they  would  put  her  into  the  river.  All  this  time  he  lay  upon 
the  ground,  the  mob  being  undetermined  what  to  do  with  him. 
Some  cried,  "Make  an  end  of  him;"  others  were  for  sparing 
his  life ;  but  the  dispute  was  cut  short  by  their  agreeing  to 
put  other  Methodists  into  the  river ;  and  taking  a  number 
of  them  away  for  the  purpose,  they  left  him  and  his  wife 
together.  She  endeavored  to  raise  him  up,  but  having 
no  strength  he  ^dropped  to  the  ground  again.  She  again 
raised  him,  and  supported  him  some  distance,  when  by  her 
assistance  he  was  enabled  to  mount  a  horse,  and  made  out 
to  ride  to  the  house  of  a  friend,  where  he  was  stripped  from 
head  to  foot  and  washed.  He  left  his  wet  clothes,  and  rode 
courageously  to  Greenough  Hill,  where  a  congregation  was 
waiting  for  him,  and  though  "much  bruised  and  very 
weak,"  he  preached  from  Psalm  xxxiv,  19 :  "  Many  are 
the  afflictions  of  the  righteous ;  but  the  Lord  delivereth  him. 
out  of  them  all."  He  was  not  to  be  discouraged,  and  tbo 
next  day  was  again  proclaiming  his  message.  His  brethren 
followed  him  to  a  neighboring  appointment ;  but  the  leader 
of  the  mob  came  also,  and  with  a  long  stick  broke  the  glass 
of  the  windows  while  he  preached.  "This,"  he  says,  "m^de 
a  little  confusion  at  first,  but  afterward  the  Lord  pou^^d 
down  his  blessing  in  an  uncommon  manner.  Almost  "ill 
were  in  tears,  and  the  people  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of 
their  goods."  Thence  he  rode  to  Hartwith,  where,  he 
writes,  "we  had  peace,  and  the  power  of  the  Lord  was 
with  us ;"  but  when  the  preaching  of  the  day  was  over  he 
was  so  bruised  and  sore  that  he  could  not  undress  himself 
without  aid.     Nearly  a  whole  year  "  hot  persecutions  "  pr&' 


ENGLAN'D   AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1760.     859 

vailed  around  him.  The  Methodists  were  violently  abused 
in  the  streets.  They  applied  to  the  dean  of  Ripon  for  pro- 
tection, but  got  none,  for  the  Church  would  have  suffered 
in.  the  investigation.  "  But,"  remarks  the  persecuted 
preacher,  "what  made  amends  was,  the  members  of  the 
society  loved  each  other  dearly,  and  had  exceedingly  com- 
fortable  seasons  together;"  and  after  one  of  his  days  of 
sore  trial,  he  says  of  their  meeting,  "  it  seemed  to  us  little 
less  than  heaven ;  and  though  it  was  a  hard  day,  it  was  a 
blessed  one  to  my  soul."  In  later  life  he  wrote  that  he 
remembered  that  once,  during  these  times  of  trouble, 
when  his  life  continually  hung  in  suspense,  a  demurring 
thought  occurred  to  him — "  It  is  hard  to  have  no  respite, 
to  be  thus  perpetually  suffering."  Immediately  it  was 
impressed  upon  his  mind :  "  Did  you  not,  when  you  were 
on  the  borders  of  despair,  promise  the  Lord  that  if  he 
would  give  you  an  assurance  of  his  favor  you  would  count 
no  suffering,  sorrow,  nor  affliction  too  great  to  be  endured 
for  his  name's  sake"?"  This  reflection  at  once  silenced  all 
murmuring,  and  thenceforth  he  bore  whatever  befell  him 
with  patience  and  joy,  and  felt  willing  to  bear  it  as  long  as 
God  saw  meet,  if  it  were  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

During  the  remainder  of  this  period  Thomas  Lee 
preached  on  the  Birstal,  Leeds,  Lincolnshire,  Newcas- 
tle, and  Manchester  Circuits.  His  labors  were  greatly 
effective,  his  circuits  incredibly  long.  We  may  judge 
somewhat  of  the  labors  of  the  Methodist  preachers  of  that 
d^j  from  the  fact  that  his  "  Leeds  round "  comprehended 
Sheffield  and  York,  and  extended  into  Derbyshire  on  the 
south,  to  Hull  on  the  east,  and  to  Newton  on  the  north. 
His  Manchester  Circuit  included  Lancashire,  Cheshire, 
parts  of  Shropshire  and  of  Wales,  Staffordshire,  and  part 
of  Derbyshire.  Throughout  most  of  these  years  he  suf- 
fered from  mobs ;  sometimes  the  pulpit  was  torn  out  of 
the  preaching-house,  and  burned  in  the  street;  at  others 
eggs,  "  filled  with  blood,  and  sealed  with  pitch,"  were 
thrown  in   upon   the   assemblies,    "making   strange  work 


360  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

wherever  they  alighted."  Mire,  clods,  ai.d  stones  flew 
about  him  as  he  rode  into  or  out  of  the  towns ;  the  rioters 
beat  him  and  his  horse,  knocked  him  off  his  horse,  dragged 
him  on  the  earth,  poured  water  upon  him  from  his  head  to 
his  feet,  covered  him  with  paint,  "  laying  it  on  plenteously." 
Such  was  the  treatment  he  received,  particularly  in  Newark, 
in  1760.  He  was  offered  immediate  relief  if  he  would  only 
promise  to  preach  there  no  more ;  but  this,  he  says,  he  could 
not  do.  He  suffered  on  till  he  conquered,  and  could  write : 
"  Thus  ended  the  trouble  in  Newark ;  since  then  the  word 
of  God  has  prospered  greatly,  and  a  convenient  preaching- 
house  has  been  built,  in  which  numerous  congregations  meet 
without  disturbance," 

After  years  of  such  labors  and  trials,  Thomas  Lee  wrotft 
to  Wesley  :  "  If  I  this  moment  saw  all  the  sufferings  I  have 
had  for  His  name's  sake ;  if  they  were  now  spread  before 
nae  I  would  say,  '  Lord,  if  thou  wilt  give  me  strength  I  will 
now  begin  again,  and  thou  shalt  add  to  them  lions'  dens  and 
fiery  furnaces,  and  by  thy  grace  I  will  go  through  them  all.' 
My  life,  though  attended  with  many  crosses,  has  been  a  life 
of  mercies.  I  count  it  one  of  the  greatest  favors  that  he 
still  allows  me  to  do  a  little  for  him,  and  that  he  in  any 
measure  owns  the  word  which  I  am  able  to  speak  in  his 
name.  I  beg  that  I  may  be  humble  at  his  feet  all  the  days 
of  my  life,  and  may  be  more  and  more  like  Him  whom  my 
soul  loveth."  15 

One  of  the  lay  heroes  of  Methodism,  especially  in  the 
north,  during  this  period,  was  Christopher  Hopper,  a  n^aii 
distinguished  through  many  years  of  faithful  service.  He 
describes  his  early  life  as  especially  wicked. ^^  He  was 
prone  to  anger  and  of  a  cruel  disposition,  and  took,  he  says, 
a  diabolical  pleasure  in  hanging  dogs,  worrying  cats,  and 

15  Ho  died  in  1786.  Mary  Lee,  his  devoted  wife,  who  had  stood  "by 
him  amid  mobs,  wrote  to  Wesley  of  his  last  moments,  that  "  he  sobbed 
several  times,  looked  up  once  and  smiled,  closed  his  eyes,  and  gently  fell 
asleep."  Wesley  records  his  death  in  the  Minutes  of  1787,  and  calls  him 
"  a  faithful  brother,  and  a  good  old  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ." 

i«  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  vol.  i,  p.  25. 


ENGLAND    AKD    SCOTLAND:   1750-1760.     861 

Killing  birds  and  insects,  wringing  and  cutting  them  to  pieces. 
These,  however,  were  the  freaks  of  his  misdirected  childhood, 
for  his  heart  was  naturally  tender,  and  his  robust  soul  full 
of  beneficent  energy,  and  during  his  youth  his  religious  im- 
pressions were  frequent  and  sometimes  intense.  He  endeav  • 
ored  to  stifle  them  in  singing,  dancing,  fishing,  fowling,  in 
hunting,  cock-fighting,  card-playing,  racing,  or  "  whatever  the 
devil  brought  to  town  or  country,"  but  could  not  succeed. 
The  universe  appeared  to  him,  he  writes,  as  a  vault  wherein 
true  comfort  was  entombed,  and  the  sun  itself  as  a  lamp  to 
show  the  gloomy  horrors  of  a  guilty  mind.  "  I  was  not 
happy,"  he  adds,  "  yet  I  believed  there  was  something 
that  could  make  m.e.  so,  but  I  knew  not  what  it  was  nor 
where  to  find  it."  His  vigorous  mind  had  meanwhile 
acquired  no  small  amount  of  scientific  knowledge,  and  he 
became  a  school-teacher.  Wesley  passed  through  his  neigh- 
borhood ;  "  he  made  a  short  blaze,"  says  Hopper,  "  soon 
disappeared,  and  left  us  in  consternation."  But  Hopper  felt 
the  impression  of  his  sermon.  "At  this  time  there  was  a 
great  bustle,''  he  adds,  "  among  all  sorts  and  parties  about 
religion,  and  I  made  a  bustle  among  the  rest.  I  said,  I  will 
read  my  Bible,  say  my  prayers,  go  to  the  parish  church,  and 
reform  my  life."  This,  however,  he  soon  perceived,  was 
not  sufficient  to  appease  the  naoral  cravings  of  his  awakened 
spirit.  Reeves,  one  of  the  heroic  itinerants  who  had  been 
indicted  at  Cork  as  a  vagabond,  passed  through  the  town, 
and  undfir  his  preaching  the  baffled  penitent  saw  what  he 
yet  needed.  "  I  ana  broken  to  pieces,"  he  said ;  "  I  am  sick 
of  sin,  sick  of  myself,  and  sick  of  a  vain  world.  I  will 
therefore  look  unto  the  Lord."  In  deep  compunction  he 
called  upon  God  for  relief,  and  soon  found  it.  God,  angels, 
n:ien,  and  the  whole  creation,  he  writes,  appeared  then  to  him 
in  a  new  light,  and  stood  related  to  him  in  a  manner  he 
never  before  knew.  This  was  what  Wesley  and  the  Meth- 
odists called  conversion ;  the  renovation  of  the  soul,  by 
which  it  is  placed  in  harmony  with  all  its  just  and  pure  rela- 
tions to  men  and  to  God,  and,  in  the  consciousness  of  that 


362  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

harmony,  has  a  peace  which  passes  expression.  Wesley 
made  him  a  Class-leader.  He  began  also  to  exhort  with 
great  success.  His  "poor  old  mother"  was  among  the  first 
fruits  of  his  zeal.  His  brother  and  sister  also  soon  acknowl- 
edged him  the  instrument  of  their  conversion.  Many  of  his 
former  companions  were  reclaimed  from  their  vices.  The 
"  fire  kindled,  and  the  flame  spread,"  and  he  was  called  to 
Low-Spenn,  Barlow,  Woodside,  Prudhoe,  Newlands,  Blanch- 
land,  Durham,  Sunderland,  and  many  other  places,  and  be- 
fore he  was  hardly  aware  what  the  result  would  be,  he  found 
himself  preaching  and  itinerating.  Persecutors  attempted 
to  seize  and  impress  him  for  the  army,  but  he  escaped  them 
in  remarkable  ways,  sometimes  leaving  them  to  quarrel 
among  themselves  respectmg  him,  and  to  end  their  disputes 
with  "blows  and  bloody  faces."  Rectors  and  curates  headed 
mobs  to  assail  him,  and  answered  his  arguments  with  hard 
words  and  hard  blows.  He  was  indicted  before  a  court,  but 
nothing  could  be  found  against  him.  None  of  these  things 
moved  him ;  "  I  gave,"  he  says,  "my  soul,  body,  and  substance 
to  my  adorable  Saviour,  and  I  grieved  I  had  no  more  to  give." 
Thus  did  Christopher  Hopper  do  good  service  during 
these  times,  in  founding  and  spreading  Methodism  in  scores 
of  towns  and  villages.  He  usually  led  a  class  every  night, 
and  preached  three  or  four  times  every  Sabbath.  He  made 
excursions  to  Newcastle,  Sunderland,  and  Durham,  and 
towns  and  villages  around  his  home  to  the  distance  of  twenty 
or  thirty  miles,  preaching  with  great  power.  He  did  not, 
he  says,  regard  much  a  little  dirt,  a  few  rotten  eggs,  the- 
sound  of  a  cow's  horn,  the  noise  of  bells,  or  a  few  snow-balls 
in  their  season,  but  he  found  occasion  sometimes  to  think 
more  seriously  of  salutations  from  the  mob  in  blows, 
stones,  brickbats,  and  bludgeons.  When  he  had  to  preach 
with  a  patch  on  his  wounded  head  he  gloried  in  it  as  a  badge 
for  his  Lord.  He  spread  Methodism  greatly  in  Allendale, 
"  where  a  glorious  work  broke  out."  He  went  from  town 
to  town,  and  from  house  to  house,  "  singing,  praying,  preach- 
ing," and  large  multitudes  followed  him  from  place  to  place, 


ENGLAND   AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1T60.    863 

weeping  and  praying.  Whole  congregations  were  some- 
times melted  into  tears  under  his  discom-ses,  and  "bowed 
down  before  the  Lord  as  the  heart  of  one  man."  He 
preached  in  barns,  cock-pits,  ale-houses,  and  wherever  he 
eouid  find  a  door  open  for  him. 

It  would  require  many  pages  to  detail  the  travels  and 
labors  of  this  faithful  itinerant  in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scot- 
land ;  the  many  mobs  he  encountered,  and  the  many  socie- 
ties he  founded.  He  was  the  first  Methodist  lay  preacher,  as 
we  have  recorded,  who  went  into  Scotland ;  and  all  the  north 
of  England  still  cherishes  his  memory.  He  did  much  dur- 
ing our  present  period  to  extend  Methodism  in  that  part  of 
the  country.  Cownley,  who  had  been  his  fellow-laborer  in 
Ireland,  was  also  with  him,  and  they  formed  several  societies 
which  continue  to  this  day.  On  the  banks  of  the  Tyne,  in 
Prudhoe  and  Nafierton,  besides  a  variety  of  other  places  in 
that  neighborhood,  numbers  were  awakened  and  converted. 
They  endured  no  little  persecution  also.  In  one  of  Cown- 
ley's  excursions  into  the  Dales  he  was  assaulted  by  a  mob, 
which  was  headed  by  a  clergyman.  'Warm  from  the  village 
tavern,  this  zealous  son  of  the  Church  advanced  to  the  attack 
with  the  collected  rabble.  Cownley  was  preaching  near  the 
door  of  an  honest  Quaker,  when  the  minister  insisted  that  he 
was  breaking  the  order  of  the  Church,  and  began  to  recite  the 
canon  against  conventicles.  "  If  I  am  disorderly,"  answered 
the  preacher,  "you  are  not  immaculate;"  and  he  reminded 
him  of  the  canon  "  for  sober  conversation,  and  against  fre- 
quenting ale-houses."  Confounded  with  the  pertinent  repiy 
the  parson  retired  for  a  while ;  but  mustering  up  his  courage 
ftnd  his  ale-house  friends  he  returned,  and  with  threats  of 
prosecution  began  to  take  down  the  names  of  the  hearers. 
A  Quaker,  who  was  one  of  the  congregation,  hearing  the 
menace,  stepped  up  and  with  unruffled  gravity  clapped  the 
curate  on  the  back  and  said,  "  Friend  John,  put  my  name 
down  first."  This  ended  the  contest ;  quite  disconcerted,  the 
clergyman  withdrew  and  left  the  field  to  the  Methodist,  and 
it  was  never  afterward  yielded. 


364  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

Both  these  noted  itinerants  were  chief  founders  of  Meth- 
odism in  the  Dales.  During  these  years  they  met  formid- 
able difficalties,  but  left  the  region  to  their  successors  cov 
ered  with  a  rich  harvest,  and  the  "  Dales  "  soon  stood  promi 
nently  on  the  list  of  circuits  in  the  Conference  Minutes. ^'^ 

Of  Charles  Wesle/'s  labors  during  the  present  decade 
we  have  but  discomiected  traces  in  fragments  of  journals 
and  undated  letters.  His  family  resided  at  Bristol,  and  as 
Methodism  had  now  spread  over  the  country,  and  was  gen- 
erally settled  and  systematized,  and  its  superintendence  by  his 
brother  was  almost  ubiquitous,  he  ceased  to  itinerate  in  the 
latter  part  of  1756,  and  thenceforward  mostly  confined 
himself  to  its  head-quarters  in  London  and  Bristol. "^^  His 
passages  between  these  cities  were  continual ;  his  pulpit  and 
pastoral  labors  in  each  more  arduous,  if  possible,  than  when 
he  traveled  more  at  large.  In  the  metropolis  he  had  charge 
of  four  principal  chapels,  besides  other  preaching-places,  and 
the  communion  was  administered  by  him  every  Sabbath, 
beginning  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  After  the  expul- 
sion of  Wheatley  he'  made  an  excursion  over  most  of 
England  expressly  to  ascertain  the  moral  condition  of  the 
lay  ministry.  Wheatley  had  reported  that  his  own  private 
flagrancies  were  common  among  these  laborious  and  devoted 
men.  Charles  Wesley  himself  was  suspicious  that  they 
were  at  least  becoming  disaffected  toward  the  national 
Church,  his  prejudices  for  which  were  now  more  strenuous 
by  far  than  those  of  his  brother.  He  assembled  them  in 
small  conferences,  at  various  points,  and  was  surprised  at 
their  usefulness,  integrity,  and  talents.  He  speaks  of  only 
two  or  three  as  deficient  in  abilities,  and  one  he  sent  back 
to  his  secular  employment  as  intellectually  incompetent  for 
the  mmistry;    but  he  brought  to  London  only  favorable 

"  After  laboring  more  than  half  a  century  in  the  itinerant  ministry,  Hop- 
per died  in  1802,  aged  eighty.  While  on  his  death-bed,  the  veteran  said  to 
a  friend :  "  I  have  not  a  doubt,  no,  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt ;  and  as  foi 
the  enemy,  I  know  not  what  has  become  of  him.  I  have  neither  seen  him 
nor  heard  from  him  for  some  time.     I  think  he  has  quitted  the  field." 

*8  Jackson's  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  21. 


ENGLAND    AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1T60.    865 

reports  of  the  piety  and  ministerial  decorum  of  them 
all.i9 

Wesley  lost  during  the  present  period  one  of  the  earliest 
coadjutors  which  the  Established  Church  had  afforded  him. 
Rev.  John  Meriton  died  on  the  10th  of  August,  1753.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  first  Wesley  an  Conference,  and  attend- 
ed most  of  the  subsequent  sessions  down  to  the  year  of  his 
death.  He  itinerated  extensively  in  England,  Wales,  and 
Ireland.  He  was  mobbed  and  imprisoned  for  the  Gospel, 
^nd  deserves  a  fuller  record  in  the  history  of  the  great  revi- 
val for  which  he  labored  and  suffered  so  much ;  but  no  traces 
of  his  useful  life  remain,  except  in  brief  yet  frequent  allu- 
sions of  contemporary  Methodist  documents.  -Even  the 
place  of  his  death  is  unmentioned,  and  we  know  nothing  of 
his  last  hours.  Charles  Wesley,  however,  has  embalmed 
his  memory  in  an  immortal  elegy. 2*^ 

His  place  in  the  Methodist  ranks  was  more  than  supplied 
by  another  Churchman,  who  came  to  Wesley's  assistance 
during  the  present  period.  In  the  "  Short  History  of  the 
People  called  Methodists,"  Wesley  says  :  "  March  13, 1757, 
finding  myself  weak  at  Snowsfields,  I  prayed  that  God,  if 
he  saw  good,  would  send  me  help  at  the  chapels.  He  did 
so.  As  soon  as  I  had  done  preaching  Mr.  Eletcher  came, 
who  had  just  then  been  ordained  priest,  and  hastened  to  the 
chapel  on  purpose  to  assist  me,  as  he  supposed  me  to  be 
alone.  How  wonderful  are  the  ways  of  God !  When  my 
Dodily  strength  failed,  and  no  clergyman  in  England  was 
able  and  willing  to  assist  me,  he  sent  me  help  from  the 
mountains  of  Switzerland !  and  a  helpmeet  for  me  in  every 
respect!  Where  could  I  have  found  such  another!" 
Fletcher  thus  comes  upon  the  scene,  and  comes  as  an  angel 
of  light. 

As  the  traveler  sails  along  the  North  shore  of  the  Lake 
of  Geneva,  Switzerland,  interested  in  its  rare   scenery  as 

"  Jackson's  Charles  "Wesley,  chap.  17. 

20  See  it  in  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  18,  English  edition.  It  is 
omitted  in  the  American  edition. 


866  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

well  as  in  the  literary  associations  whicli  Gibbon,  De  Stael, 
and  others  have  left  to  Lausanne  and  Coppet,  his  eye  is 
attracted  by  Nyon,  a  beautiful  village  betvi^een.  these  towns. 
The  large  homestead  of  the  Flecheres,  descendants  of  a  noble 
Savoyard  house,  stands  prominently  out  among  the  humble 
dwellings  of  the  villagers,  and  is  still  occupied  by  the  fam- 
ily, who  continue  to  maintain  the  name  and  religious  repu- 
tation of  their  house.  John  William  de  la  Flechere  was 
born  there  in  1729.2^  He  was  early  religiously  inclined, 
and  was  designed  by  his  parents  for  the  Church.  His  supe»- 
rior  intellect  gave  him  distinguished  success  in  the  prize 
competitions  of  the  University  of  Geneva.  On  completing 
his  studies  he  abandoned  his  intention  of  entering  the  minis- 
try, one  of  his  objections  being  his  Arminian  sentiments, 
and  his  consequent  inability  conscientiously  to  subscribe  to 
the  Calvinistic  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  his  country.  He 
chose  a  military  life,  and  going  to  Portugal,  received  a  cap- 
tain's commission  for  Brazil,  but  accidentally  failing  to  sail 
at  the  appointed  time,  he  departed  for  Germany ;  a  similai 
disappointment  there  induced  him  to  go  over  to  England. 
In  London  he  heard  the  Gospel  faithfully  preached,  and  be- 
came convinced  that  notwithstanding  his  strict  religious  hab 
its  he  was  yet  a,n  unregenerated  man.  "  Is  it  possible,"  he 
wrote,  "  that  I  who  have  always  been  accounted  so  religious ; 
who  have  made  divinity  my  study,  and  received  the  premium 
of  piety  from  my  university  for  writings  on  divine  subjects; 
is  it  possible  that  I  should  yet  be  so  ignorant  as  not  to  know 
what  faith  is  ?"  After  a  protracted  struggle  he  was  enabled 
to  "  believe  with  the  heart  unto  righteousness."  Never  was 
the  doctrine  of  faith  as  the  condition  of  spiritual  life,  the  po- 
tent element  which  "  works  by  love,"  and  secures  both  inward 
holiness  and  outward  good  works,  more  demonstrably  exem- 
plified  than  in  the  subsequent  career  of  this  rare  man.  At 
Wesley's  instance  he  took  orders  in  the  national  Church. 
On  March  6,  1757,  he  was  ordained  a  deacon,  and  on  the 

"  Life  of  Kev.  John  William  de  la  Flechere,  etc.,  by  Joseph  Benson, 
cliap.  i. 


ENGLAND   AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1V60.     S67 

following  Sabbath  a  priest.  He  hastened  the  same  day  to 
Wesley  at  West-street  chapel,  and  assisted  him  in  his  serv- 
ices. Thenceforward  he  was  Wesley's  most  ardent  coadjutor 
in  the  Establishment;  his  counselor,  his  fellow-traveler  at 
times  in  his  evangelical  itinerancy,  an  attendant  at  his  Con- 
ferences, the  champion  of  his  theological  views,  and,  abovo 
all,  a  saintly  example  of  the  life  and  power  of  Christianity 
as  taught  by  Methodism,  read  and  known,  admired  and 
loved  by  Methodists  throughout  the  world.  Madeley,  his 
vicarage,  is  familiar  and  dear  to  them  next  to  Ep worth 
itself  He  will  reappear  often  in  our  narrative,  and  always 
with  a  reflection  of  the  glory  of  that  Divine  Presence  with 
which  he  habitually  lived  in  an  intimacy  and  purity  rarely 
if  ever  excelled  by  even  the  holiest  men  who  have  walked 
with  God  on  earth. 

Wesley  could  not  but  be  deeply  impressed  at  the  present 
time  by  the  remarkable  results  of  the  Methodistic  move- 
ment. He  began  his  career  without  an  anticipation  of  its 
consequences,  but  the  nation  had  now  been,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, naorally  awakened,  and  the  future  was  apparently  preg- 
nant with  greater  results  than  the  past.  Keflecting  on  the 
subject  while  in  London,  he  says :  "  From  a  deep  sense  of 
the  amazing  work  which  God  has  of  late  years  wrought 
in  England,  I  preached  on  those  words.  Psalm  cxlvii,  20  : 
'  He  hath  not  dealt  so  with  any  nation ;'  no,  not  even  with 
Scotland  nor  New  England.  In  both  these  God  has,  indeed, 
made  bare  his  arm,  yet  not  in  so  astonishing  a  manner  as 
among  us."  This  must  appear,  he  argued,  to  all  who  im- 
partially consider,  1.  The  number  of  persons  who  had  been 
reformed ;  2.  The  swiftness  of  the  work  in  many,  who  were 
both  convinced  and  truly  converted  in  a  few  days ;  3.  Its 
depth  in  most  of  these,  changing  the  heart,  as  well  as  the 
whole  conversation ;  4.  Its  clearness,  enabling  them  boldly 
to  say :  "  Thou  hast  loved  me  ;  thou  hast  given  thyself  for 
me;"  5.  Its  continuance.  In  Scotland  and  New  England, 
revivals  had  occurred  at  several  times,  and  for  some  weeks 
or  months   toget]ier;    but   the  Methodist  movement   had 


868  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

lasted  for  about  eighteen  years  without  any  observable 
intermission.  Above  all,  he  adds,  let  it  be  remarked  that 
a  considerable  number  of  the  regular  clergy  were  engaged 
in  the  great  Revival  in  Scotland,  and  in  New  England  above 
a  hundred,  perhaps  as  eminent  as  any  in  the  whole  provino«.^ 
not  only  for  piety,  but  also  for  abilities  ;  whereas  in  England 
there  were  only  two  or  three  inconsiderable  clergymen,  witn 
a  few  young  unlettered  men,  and  these  were  opposed  by 
well-nigh  all  the  clergy  as  well  as  laity  in  the  nation. 
"  He  that  remarks  this  must  needs  own  both  that  this  is  a 
wprk  of  God,  and  that  he  hath  not  wrought  so  in  any 
other  nation." 

Wesley  had  now  passed  the  middle  period  of  life ;  his 
opinions  had  in  some  respects  moderated,  but  not  his 
earnestness  nor  his  labors.  An  habitual  cheerfulness 
marked  his  daily  life.  His  continual  intercourse  with  all 
classes  of  men  made  him  at  home  with  all.  He  relished  a 
good  story,  and  could  tell  one  with  zest ;  and  his  conversa- 
tion was  often  anecdotal  and  playful.  Both  his  religious 
feelings  and  natural  temperament  were  exempt  from 
gloominess.  He  loved  children,  and  they  never  failed  to 
love  him.  Books  were  his  daily  entertainment,  and  a 
relief  to  his  increasing  cares ;  he  indulged  m  not  only  the 
graver  kinds  of  reading,  but  in  poetry,  the  drama,^^  fiction 
somewhat,  and  especially  the  curious  and  entertaining  re 
searches  of  antiquaries.  But  notwithstanding  these  reliefs, 
his  natural  love  of  retirement  and  of  studious   habits  led 

22  The  pious  zeal  of  one  of  his  preachers  deprived  him  of  the  honor  of 
taking  rank  among  the  nimierous  commentators  of  Shakspeare.  John 
Pawson,  a  very  holy  man,  had  charge  of  City-Eoad  Chapel  after  Wes- 
ley's death,  and  occupied  the  adjacent  parsonage,  Wesley's  London 
home.  He  expurgated  its  library  with  iconoclastic  zeal.  Wesley's  inti- 
mate friend  and  executor,  Eev.  Henry  Moore,  says  that  "among  the 
books  which  Mr.  Pawson  laid  violent  hands  on  and  destroyed,  was  a 
fine  quarto  edition  of  Shahspeare' s  Flays^  (presented  to  Mr.  Wesley  by 
a  gentleman  in  Dublin,)  the  margin  of  wMeh  was  filled  with  critical  note& 
by  Mr.  Wesley  Jdmself.''^  The  good  man  judged  them,  and  the  work  it- 
self, "  as  among  the  things  which  tended  not  to  edification."  Life  ol 
Kev,  Henry  Moore,  p.  180.     New  York. 


ENGLAND    AND    SCOTLAND:    1750-1760,     869 

him  often  to  long,  amid  his  daily  preachings  and  travels, 
and  the  care  of  all  his  Churches,  for  leisure  and  a  place  of 
rest.  Wh'le  hastening,  like  a  courier,  over  Ireland,  he 
paused  on  his  way  to  Dublin  in  a  village,  among  "a  little 
earnest  company,"  and  wrote :  "  O,  who  should  drag  me 
into  a  great  city  if  I  did  not  know  there  is  another  loorlc  ? 
How  gladly  could  I  spend  the  remainder  of  a  busy  life  in 
solitude  and  retirement !"  Entering  a  solitary  house  on 
the  romantic  coast  of  Wales,  where  no  other  dwelling 
could  be  seen,  he  envied  its  humble  tenants ;  "  here  1 
was,"  he  wrote,  "  in  a  little,  quiet,  solitary  spot,  maxime 
animo  exoptatum  meo  ! — most  heartily  desired  by  me,  where 
no  human  voice  was  heard  but  those  of  the  family."  Rest 
in  this  life  he  knew  could  never  be  his  lot,  but  he  still 
hoped  for  a  home. 

In  1749,  as  has  been  stated,  he  designed  to  marry 
Grace  Murray,  who  would  have  made  him  a  congenial  wife ; 
her  natural  amiability,  her  accomplishments  and  piety  had 
evidently  won  his  affection ;  and  he  felt  profoundly  his 
disappointment,  but  relieved  it  by  pursuing,  with  undi- 
minished energy, his  accustomed  labors.^^ 

Wit|i  the  advice  of  his  friend  and  counselor,  Perronet, 
of  Shoreham,  he  married  in  1752  Mrs.  Vizelle,  a  widow 
lady  oif  wealth,  of  intelligence,  and   of  apparently  every 

23  Watson  (Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  10)  gives  an  extract  from  an  unpub- 
lished letter  of  Wesley,  which  proves  both  how  deeply  he  felt,  and  how 
resolutely  he  bore  his  disappointment.  "  The  sons  of  Zeruiah  were  too 
Btrong  for  me.  The  whole  world  fought  against  me,  but,  above  all,  7ny 
own  familiar  friend^  [Charles  Wesley.]  Then  was  the  word  fulfilled: 
'  Son  of  man,  behold  I  take  from  thee  the  desire  of  thine  eyes  at  a  stroke, 
yet  shalt  thou  not  lament,  neither  shall  thy  tears  run  down.'  The  lata], 
irrevocable  stroke  was  struck  on  Thursday  last.  Yesterday  I  saw  my 
friend,  (that  was,)  and  him  to  whom  she  is  sacrificed.  But  why  should  a 
living  man  complain,  a  man  for  the  punishment  of  his  sins?"  Jackson 
(Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  17)  says  that  several  letters  of  Wesley  to 
his  termagant  wife,  during  his  worst  trials  from  her,  sliow  "  the  utmost 
tenderness  of  affection,  such  as  few  female  hearts  could  have  withstood, 
and  justify  the  opinion  that  had  it  been  his  happiness  to  be  married  to  a 
person  who  was  worthy  of  him,  he  could  have  been  one  of  the  most 
atfectionate  husbands  that  ever  k'ved.  Those  who  think  that  he  wab 
oonstitutionallv  cold  and  repulsive  utterly  mistake  liis  character." 

Vol.  I.— 24 


370  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

qualification  necessary  to  render  his  home  happy  and 
exemplary.  At  his  own  instance,  her  ample  property  was 
secured,  before  the  marriage,  to  herself  and  her  children. 
She  understood  that  he  was  not  to  abate  his  itinerant 
labors.  He  pursued  them  as  usual,  and  in  about  two 
months  after  his  marriage  wrote  in  his  Journal :  '*  I  cannot 
understand  how  a  Methodist  preacher  can  answer  it  to 
God  to  preach  one  sermon  or  travel  one  day  less  in  a 
married  than  in  a  single  state.  In  this  respect  surely,  '  it 
remaineth  that  they  who  have  wives  be  as  though  they  had 
none.' "  His  wife  traveled  with  him  for  some  time,  but 
soon  very  naturally  grew  dissatisfied  with  a  life  so  rest- 
less and  so  incompatible  with  the  tastes  and  convenience  of 
her  sex.  Unwilling  to  travel  herself,  she  became  equally 
dissatisfied  with  her  husband's  habitual  absence.  Her  dis- 
content took  at  last  the  form  of  a  monomaniacal  jealousy. 
During  twenty  years  she  persecuted  him  with  unfounded 
suspicions  and  intolerable  annoyances,  and  it  is  among  the 
most  admirable  proofs  of  the  genuine  greatness  of  his  char 
acter  that  his  public  career  never  wavered,  never  lost  one 
jot  of  its  energy  or  success,  during  this  protracted  domestic 
wretchedness.  She  repeatedly  deserted  him,  but  returned 
at  his  own  earnest  instance.  She  opened,  interpolated,  and 
then  exposed  to  his  enemies  his  correspondence^*  and 
sometimes  traveled  a  hundred  miles  to  see,  from  a  window, 
who  accompanied  him  in  his  carriage.  At  last,  taking 
with  her  portions  of  his  Journals  and  papers,  which  she 
never  restored,  she  left  him  with  the  assurance  that  she 
would  never  return.  His  allusion  to  the  fact  in  his  Journal 
is  characteristically  laconic.  He  knew  not,  he  says,  the 
im  niediate  cause  of  her  determination,  and  adds :  "  Non 
earn  reliqui.  non  dimissi^  non  revocabo''^ — I  did  not  forsake 
her,  I  did  not   dismiss  her,   I  will   not   recall   her.      She 

24  See  resided  in  "Wesley's  parsonage  at  the  Foundry.  Charles  Wesley, 
whose  family  still  continued  at  Bristol,  found  it  necessary  to  guard  them 
against  allusions  to  her,  in  their  correspondence  with  him,  as  she  opened 
his  letters.     Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  21. 


ENGLAND   AND    SCOTLAND:   1750-1760.    871 

lived  about  ten  years  after  leaving  liim.  Her  tombstone 
^commemorated  her  virtues  as  a  parent  and  a  friend^  bufc 
not  as  a  wife.^^ 

To  his  domestic  trials  were  added,  in  the  latter  part  of 
1753,  the  sufferings  and  anxieties  of  a  perilous  sickness.  His 
symptoms — pains  in  the  chest,  cough,  fever  and  debility — in- 
dicated a  rapid  consumption,  and  his  physicians  required  an 
entire  cessation  of  his  labors  and  retirement  in  the  country. 
The  London  societies  became  alarmed,  and  great  anxiety 
soon  spread  among  his  people  throughout  the  nation,  for 
never  before  was  his  continued  agency  so  apparently  neces- 
sary to  the  stability  of  Methodism.  Public  prayers  were 
offered  for  his  restoration  at  the  Foundry,  and  throughout 
the  land  as  the  afflicting  intelligence  extended.  Charles 
Wesley  hastened  to  the  metropolis,  hardly  expecting  to  see 
him  alive.  Unable  to  sit  on  his  horse,  he  was  conveyed  to 
the  country  in  a  coach.  On  one  day  his  death  was  hourly 
expected  by  his  attendants ;  he  was  conscious  of  his  danger, 
and,  to  prevent  "  vile  panegyric,"  wrote  for  his  own  epitaph 
this  remarkable  passage :  "  Here  lieth  the  body  of  John 
Wesley,  a  brand  plucked  from  the  burning,^^  who  died  of  a 
consumption  in  the  fifty-first  year  of  his  age ;  not  leaving, 
after  his  debts  are  paid,  ten  pounds  behind  him.^'^  Praying 
God  be  merciful  to  me,  an  unprofitable  sinner,  he  ordered 
that  this,  if  any  inscription,  should  be  placed  on  his  tomb- 
stone." 

With  his  usual  equanimity  he  pursued  his  literary 
labors  during  this  season  of  general  anxiety  among  his  peo- 
ple. He  finished  the  books  which  he  designed  to  insert  in 
his  "  Christian  Library,"  transcribed  a  part  of  his  Journals 

25  Soiitliey  is  candid  in  his  account  of  this  case,  (Life  of  Wesley,  chap, 
24.)  Watson  supplies  additional  and  necessary  facts.  (Life  of  Wes- 
ley, chap.  10.)  There  is  an  intimation  in  Wesley's  Journal  as  late  as 
June  30,  1772,  which  seems  to  imply  a  temporary  reconciliation.  "  Call- 
ing," he  says,  "  at  a  little  inn  on  the  Moors,  I  spoke  a  few  words  to  an 
old  man  there,  as  my  wife  did  to  the  woman  of  the  house."  At  her 
death  she  left  him  a  ring     Coke  and  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  II,  4. 

28  See  note  on  page  60.  27  gee  page  268. 


I 

372  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

for  the  press,  and  retiring,  by  order  of  his  physician,  to  the 
Hotwelis  near  Bristol,  began  there  his  Notes  on  the  New 
Testament,  with  a  new  version  of  the  text;  a  work  un- 
rivaled among  Biblical  commentaries  for  its  terseness,  con- 
densation, and  pertinency,  and  a  recognized  standard  of 
Methodist  theology  throughout  his  "  Connection."  In  the 
spring  he  resumed  his  itinerant  labors  with  renewed  health 
and  undiminished  energy. 

To  his  many  other  trials  was  added  during  this  period  one 
which,  by  its  undeserved  and  unexpected  severity,  and  its 
pernicious  public  influence,  occasioned  him  no  little  suffering. 
Hervey,  the  author  of  the  "  Meditations "  and  "  Contempla- 
tions," "  Theron  and  Aspasio,"  and  other  works  noted  more 
for  their  meretricious  style  than  for  any-  intrinsic  excellence, 
had  been  a  member  of  the  "  Holy  Club  "  at  Oxford.  Emi- 
nently pious,  but  feeble  in  health,  he  pursued,  after  leaving 
the  university,  a  course  of  clerical  labor  in  a  retired  parish ; 
he  continued,  however,  to  maintain  a  deep  interest  in  the 
progress  of  Methodism,  and  sharing  the  Calvmistic  opin 
ions  of  Whitefield,  was  in  habitual  correspondence  with 
him  and  Lady  Huntingdon.  He  acknowledged  himself  to 
be  under  the  greatest  obligations  to  Wesley  till  he  entered 
the  controversial  lists  against  his  Arminianism.  He  had 
admitted  to  his  confidence  William  Cudworth,  a  man  who 
was  chiefly  responsible  for  his  alienation  from  the  Wesleys, 
and  at  whose  instigation  he  commenced  his  unfortunate 
"  Eleven  Letters."  Hervey  died  in  1758 ;  as  his  end  ap- 
proached he  directed  that  the  manuscript  of  this  work 
should  be  destroyed.  His  brother,  however,  judged  that  it 
would  be  a  desirable  pecuniary  speculation  to  publish  it,  and 
placed  it  in  the  hands  of  Cudworth  to  be  fuiished,  giving  him 
liberty  "  to  put  out  and  put  in "  whatever  he  judged  expe- 
dient.28  Cudworth's  Antinomian  sentiments  led  him  to  abhor 
Wesley's  opinions ;  he  caricatured  them  relentlessly  by  his 
interpolations  of  Hervey's  pages,  and  sent  forth  in  Hervey's 

28  See  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  21 ;  and  Coke  and  Moore's  Life 
of  Wesley,  HI,  2. 


ENGLAND  AND    SCOTLAND:    1760-1770.     373 

name  the  first  and  most  reckless  and  odious  caveat  against 
Methodism  that  ever  emanated  from  any  one  who  had  sus- 
tained friendly  relations  to  it.  It  was  republished  in  Scot- 
land, and  tended  m.uch  to  forestall  the  spread  of  Methodism 
there.  Wesley  felt  keenly  the  injustice  and  heartlessness 
of  this  attack,  but  his  sorrow  was  mitigated  by  the  knowl- 
edge that  most  of  the  abuse  in  the  publication  was  interpo- 
lated, and  that  Hervey,  who  had  delighted  to  call  him  his 
"  friend  and  father,"  knew  him  too  well  to  have  thus  struck 
at  him  from,  the  grave.  He  answered  the  book ;  but  time 
has  answered  it  more  effectually — time,  the  invincible  guard.- 
ian  of  the  characters  of  great  men. 

Wesley  had  now  the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of  some 
zealous  and  able  m.en  among  the  regular  clergy.  He  was 
still  anxious  that  the  momentous  work  on  his  hands  should 
at  last  obtain  the  patronage  and  be  continued  under  the 
auspices  of  the. Church.  He  lamented  the  general  lack  of 
zeal,  the  inefficiency,  the  secular  motives,  the  ignorance  and 
stupidity  which  characterized  many  of  its  pastors.  In  1756 
he  sent  forth  his  "Address  to  the  Clergy;"  it  pleads  earnestly 
for  the  best  intellectual  qualifications  of  their  office,  and  con- 
tends that  without  a  knowledge  of  the  original  tongues  of 
the  Scriptures  no  clergyman  can,  "  in  the  most  effectual 
manner,"  expound  and  defend  them  ;  "  for  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  literal  meaning  of  every  word,  verse,  and 
chapter,  there  can  be  no  firm  foundation  on  which  the 
spiritual  meaning  can  be  built."  But  not  for  Biblical  knowl- 
edge only  does  he  plead ;  Logic,  History,  and  the  Natural 
Sciences  are  advocated  with  much  earnestness.  He  also 
insists  upon  the  highest  style  of  manners  as  necessary  in  the 
office;  "all  the  courtesy  of  the  gentleman  joined  with  the 
correctness  of  the  scholar."  St.  Paul,  he  says,  showed  him- 
self before  Felix,  Festus,  and  Agrippa,  "  one  of  the  best 
bred  men,  one  of  the  finest  gentlemen  in  the  world."  He 
rebukes  with  a  tone  of  severe  scorn  the  common  remark  of 
English  families  in  high  life,  that  "the  son  who  is  fit  for 
nothing  else  will  do  well  enough  for  a  parson."     But  on  no 


374  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

prevalent  evil  of  the  order  does  he  spend  more  remark  and 
force  than  on  the  practical  simony  with  which  preferment 
was  conducted.  Gain,  as  a  motive  to  the  office,  beyond  a 
comfortable  subsistence,  he  reprobates  as  a  disgrace  to  the 
profession,  a  profanation  of  its»apostolic  prestige,  and  a  prov- 
ocation of  the  ill-will  of  the  people.  The  moral  standard 
of  qualification  for  the  ministry  he  lifts  to  the  highest  alti- 
tude. He  would  have  his  clerical  brethren  return  to  the 
simplicity,  self-sacrifice,  and  martyr-spirit  of  the  first  ages, 
and  this  he  pronounced  the  great  requisite  of  the  times  for 
the  salvation  of  the  Church  and  the  nation.  He  would  have 
them,  in  other  words,  become  genuine  Methodist  preachers. 
"  Is  not,"  he  asks,  "  His  will  the  same  with  regard  to  us  as 
with  regard  to  His  first  embassadors  1  Is  not  His  love  and 
is  not  His  power  still  the  same  as  they  were  in  the  ancient 
days  1  Know  we  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  forever  ?  Why  then  may  not  you  be  as 
burning  and  as  shining  lights  as  those  that  shone  seventeen 
hundred  years  ago  ?  Do  you  desire  to  partake  of  the  same 
burning  love '?  of  the  same  shining  holiness  *?  Do  you  design 
it,  aim  at  it,  press  on  to  this  mark  of  the  prize  of  the  high 
calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  Do  you  constantly  and 
earnestly  pray  for  it  ?  Then,  as  the  Lord  liveth,  ye  shall 
attain  it!"29  His  hope  of  an  evangelical  clergy  in  the 
national  Establishment  was  not,  however,  to  be  verified  in 
his  own  day,  and  Methodism  was  compelled  to  take  care  of 
itself. 

•     a»  Works,  vol.  vi,  p.  217.    American  edition. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM    1750-1760.    875 


CHAPTER  III 

CALVINISTIC   AND    MOEAVIAN    METHODISM  I 

1750-1760. 

Whitefield  "ranging" — His  Good-Humor  —  His  Health  —  His  steady 
Zeal — The  New  Tabernacle  —  Cordiality  between  Welsey  and  White- 
field —  Whitefield  in  America  —  In  Ireland  —  Terrible  Mob  in  Dublin 
—  Distinguished  Methodistic  Churchmen  —  Berridge  —  Extraordinary 
Eeligious  Interest  at  Everton — 'Singular  Conversion- — Eomaine — ■ 
His  Persecutions  —  His  Labors  —  His  Writings  —  Madan  — His  Con- 
version —  His  Eloquence  —  His  Labors  —  Venn  —  His  Connection  with 
the  Methodist  Founders  —  Moravian  Methodism  —  Ingham  —  His  Nu- 
merous Societies  in  Yorkshire  —  Their  Discipline  —  Their  attempted 
Union  with  Wesley —  Their  Overthrow  by  Sandemanianism  —  Wesley's 
Legislative  Ability  —  Death  of  Lady  Ingham  —  Ingham's  Death  and 
Character. 

Early  in  1750  Whitefield  went  forth  from  London  "  rang- 
ing," as  he  called  it,  through  the  land,  and  preaching  with  his 
usual  power  at  Gloucester,  Bristol,  Exeter,  Plymouth,  Not- 
tingham, Manchester,  and  other  places,  till  he  reached  Edin- 
burgh. "  Invitations,"  he  wrote,  "  came  from  every  direc- 
tion. ...  I  want  more  tongues,  more  bodies,  more  souls  for 
the  Lord  Jesus."  ^  He  preached  on  his  route  about  one 
hundred  sermons,  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  hearers, 
in  less  than  three  months.  It  was  amazing,  he  said,  to  see 
how  the  people  were  prepared  for  him  in  places  which  he 
had  never  visited  before ;  the  Methodist  lay  preachers  had 
been  over  most,  if  not  all  the  ground,  had  triumphed  over 
persecutions,  and  had  prepared  the  whole  land  for  him. 

His  labors  in  Scotland  at  this  visit  are  not  minutely  re- 
corded, but  are  said  to  have  left  a  deep  impression;  he 
preached  from  two  to  four  times  a  day  till  his  health  yielded. 
1  Gillies's  Whitefield,  chap.  14. 


876  HISTORY    OF    METHODISif. 

Many,  he  wrote,  were  under  conviction,  and  hundreds  received 
benefit  and  consolation  from  the  word.  In  a  few  months  he 
was  ranging  through  Wales,  where  he  rode  five  hundred 
miles,  preaching  twice  every  day. 

In  1751  he  passed  over  to  Ireland;  he  found  in  Dublin 
'•  many  converted  souls,"  and  his  congregations  were  large, 
and  "  heard  for  eternity."  He  hastened  among  the  country 
towns,  preaching  daily,  .and  in  the  most  of  the  island  he 
discovered  that  a  great  evangelical  work  had  been  advancing, 
though  through  prodigious  opposition.  Large  numbers  were 
converted  not  only  from  Popery,  but  to  a  truly  spiritual  life, 
at  Athlone,  Dublin,  Limerick,  Cork,  and  various  other 
places.  Wesley  and  his  lay  preachers  had  stood  the  brunt  of 
the  first  mobs,  and  had  at  last  conquered,  so  that  at  this  visit 
Whitefield  scarcely  met  with  opposition.  Hundreds  prayed 
for  him  as  he  left  Cork ;  and  it  is  said  that  many  Papists 
promised  to  leave  their  priests  if  he  would  stay  among  them. 
He  preached  eighty  times  during  his  short  stay  of  less  than 
two  months,  and  left  the  island  for  Scotland,  well  satisfied 
with  the  brief  retrospect.  "  Providence,"  he  wrote,  "  has 
wonderfully  prepared  my  way,  and  overruled  everything  for 
my  greater  acceptance.  Everywhere  there  seems  to  be  a 
shaking  among  the  dry  bones,  and  the  trembling  lamps  of 
God's  people  have  been  supplied  with  fresh  oil.  The  word 
ran  and  was  glorified." 

On  reappearing  in  Glasgow,  he  was  received  with  renewed 
enthusiasm.  Thousands  attended  his  services  every  morn- 
ing and  evening,  and  seemed  never  to  be  weary.  He  was 
followed  from  town  to  town  ;  and  many  influential  clergymen 
shared  the  popular  enthusiasm,  admiring  his  devout  spirit, 
and  delighting  in  his  extraordinary  eloquence  and  his  social 
qualities ;  for  in  the  latter  respect  one  of  them  describes  him 
as  exceedingly  entertaining,  and  as  "reviving"  as  in  his 
sermons.  A  playful  humor,  rich  in  evangelical  sentiment, 
strange  as  the  collocation  may  seem,  enlivened  his  social  in- 
tercourse, and  especially  his  dinner-table  converse.  "  One 
might  challenge,"  says  Gillies,  alluding  to  this  visit,  "  one 


CALVII^ISriC  METHODISM:   1750-1Y60.     877 

might  challenge  the  sons  of  pleasure,  with  all  their  wit, 
good -humor,  and  gayety,  to  furnish  entertainnaent  so 
agreeable."  2 

At  Edinburgh,  the  longer  he  stayed  the  larger  were  his 
congregations.  In  about  twenty-eight  successive  days  ho 
preached  to  nearly  ten  thousand  hearers  a  day.  It  was  dur- 
ing; these  excessive  labors  that  we  first  hear  of  his  habit  of 
"  vomiting  blood  "  after  preaching.  It  would  have  terrified 
and  sent  into  retirement,  or  to  a  healthier  climate,  any  ordi- 
nary man;  by  Whitefield  it  now  came  to  be  considered  a 
relief  to  his  over-excited  system,  and  seems  to  have  con- 
tinued during  most  of  the  remainder  of  his  life.^ 

He  returned  to  London  to  embark  again  for  America, 
where  he  spent  the  winter,  laboring  chiefly  in  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina.  Unhappily  we  have  no  important  records 
of  this  visit;  but  it  was  doubtless,  like  all  the  rest  of 
his  career,  a  series  of  unintermitted  labors.  The  epistolary 
fragments  which  afford  glimpses  of  his  movements,  palpitate 
with  life.  "  I  intend  to  begin,"  he  wrote,  on  hearing  of  the 
death  of  Doddridge,  "I  intend  to  begin,  for  as  yet  I  have 
done  nothing;  God  quicken  my  tardy  pace,  and  help  me 
to  do  much  work  iji  a  little  time."  In  June,  1752,  he 
was  again  in  London,  planning  tours  of  the  whole  country. 
"  0  that  I  could  fly  from  pole  to  pole  publishing  the  ever- 
lasting Gospel !"  he  wrote,  as  he  left  the  city  to  "  range " 
through  the  west.  At  Bristol  he  stood  up  amid  "Moor- 
fields  congregations,"  and  saw  the  "  old  times  revived  again," 
and  during  a  fortnight  flew  like  a  herald  over  Wales,  preach- 
ing twenty  times  and  traveling  on  horseback  three  hundred 
miles.  We  next  hear  of  him  in  Scotland  again,  where  he 
rejoices  over  immense  congregations,  and  the  news  of  "  a 
dozen  young  men  "  who  were  awakened  under  his  preaching 
ten  years  before,  and  were  now  useful  preachers.  But  soon 
ho  is  on  his  southern  route,  passing  as  "  a  flame  of  fire." 
The  enthusiasm  which  had  now  borne  him  along  as  on  wings 

8  Memoirs  of  Whitefield,  note,  chap.  15. 

'  Memoirs  of  Eev.  Cornelius  Winter,  by  Eev.  William  Jay. 


878  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

for  fifteen  years  suffered  no  abatement,  but  seemed  rather 
to  kindle  into  increased  fervor.  As  he  hastened  southward, 
from  town  to  to^na,  he  wrote  at  Sheffield:  "Since  I  left 
Newcastle  I  have  scarce  known  sometimes  whether  I  was  in 
heaven  or  on  earth.  At  Leeds,  Birstal,  Haworth,  and 
Halifax,  thousands  and  thousands  have  flocked  twice  a  day 
to  hear  the  word  of  life.  The  word  has  run  so  swiftly  at 
Leeds  that  friends  are  come  to  fetch  me  back,  and  I  am 
now  going  to  Rotherham,  Wakefield,  Leeds,  York,  and  Ep- 
worth.  O  that  I  had  as  many  tongues  as  there  are  hairs 
upon  my  head !  Pain  would  I  die  preaching."  In  fine,  the 
whole  temperament  and  genius  of  the  man,  as  well  as  his 
religious  sentiments,  were  suited  to  the  extraordinary 
course  of  life  he  had  adopted.  Preaching  was  as  natural 
to  him  as  flight  to  an  eagle. 

On  the  first  of  March,  1753,  he  laid  the  foundation-stone 
of  the  new  Tabernacle,  in  London,  on  the  site  of  the  old 
structure  which  had  been  the  theater  of  his  eloquence 
and  usefulness.  Wesley  lent  him  the  use  of  the  Spital- 
field's  Chapel  while  the  new  edifice  was  rising,  and  their 
harmony  became  more  than  ever  manifest.  Whitefield 
continually  revealed,  during  these  times,  the  magnanimity 
of  his  great  soul  by  proofs  of  liberality  toward  his  Ar- 
minian  coadjutors.  He  visited  Norwich  at  the  crisis  of  the 
trouble  of  Wheatley,  and  Bolton  at  the  defection  of  Bennet, 
and  in  both  cases  pleaded  with  the  societies  to  maintain  their 
union  and  their  fidelity  to  Wesley.  As  he  formed  few 
societies  himself,  miost  of  his  preaching  excursions  were,  in 
effect,  recruiting  tours  for  the  Wesleyan  societies  and  the 
evangelical  Dissenters.  When  Wesley  was  sick  he  hast- 
ened to  visit  him,  but  first  sent  a  letter,  written  from  the 
fullness  of  his  heart.  "  If,"  he  said,  "  you  will  ■  be  m  the 
land  of  the  living,  I  hope  to  pay  my  last  respects  to  you 
next  week.  If  not,  farewell !  My  heart  is  too  big!  Tei^rs 
trickle  down  too  fast ;  and  I  fear  you  are  too  weak  for  me 
to  enlarge.  May  underneath  you  be  Christ's  everlasting 
arms !     I  commend  you  to  his  never-failing  mercy,  and  am 


CALVI]SriSTIC  METHODISM:    1750-1760.     879 

your  most  affectionate,  sympathizing,  and  afflicted  younger 
brother  in  the  Gospel." 

During  this  year  he  made  what  is  supposed  to  have  been 
his  most  successful  campaign  in  England;  we  have  not  its 
details,  but  know  that  in  three  months  he  traveled  twelve 
himdred  miles,  and  delivered  a  hundred  and  eighty  discourses 
to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  hearers.*  The  Arminian  Meth- 
odists welcomed  him  everywhere  to  their  chapels,  but  no 
chapels  could  accommodate  the  people.  At  Leeds  twenty 
thousand  hung  upon  his  word.  All  Yorkshire  was  roused 
with  interest;  the  Methodists  thinned  out  the  Minster,  and 
overawed  the  mob,  says  one  of  his  biographers.^  Glasgow 
and  Edinburgh  again  poured  their  tens  of  thousands  out 
upon  the  public  green  to  hear  his  thrilling  words,  and  Lon- 
don rallied  its  still  greater  hosts. 

In  March,  1754,  he  was  again  on  the  deck  for  America, 
accompanied  by  a  score  of  poor  children,  who  were  to  re- 
ceive shelter  in  the  Orphan  House  at  his  Bethesda,  where  he 
found  a  hundred  and  six  persons  in  his  family,  "  black  and 
white."  He  was  soon  ranging  northward.  At  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York  the  former  scenes  of  enthusiastic 
interest  were  again  enacted.  Everywhere,  he  wrote,  "  a 
Divine  power  accompanied  the  word;  prejudices  were  re- 
moved, and  a  more  effectual  door  opened  than  ever  for 
preaching  the  Gospel."  He  projected  a  tour  of  two  thou- 
sand miles  to  Boston,  and  back  again  to  Georgia,  and 
passed  over  it  as  on  a  triumphal  march.  In  Rhode  Island 
and  Massachusetts  he  found  "  souls  flying  like  doves  to  the 
windows,"  and  opposition  everywhere  falling  before  him. 
President  Burr  accompanied  him,  and  says  that  his  magical 
eloquence  attracted  in  the  eastern  metropolis  weeping  thou- 
sands every  morning  to  his  ante-breakfast  sermons.  White- 
field  writes  that  he  never  saw  a  naore  effectual  door  opened 
for  the  truth.  The  godless  were  awakened,  believers  quick- 
ened, and  enemies  made  at  peace  with  him.  Such  was  the 
eagerness  of  the  crowd  that  it  was  often  impossible  for  him 

*  Philip's  Life  and  Times  of  WMtefield,  chap.  19.  s  ibid. 


880  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

to  get  into  the  pulpit  except  by  climbing  into  the  windows. 
He  went  as  far  as  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  where  a 
cavalcade  came  out  to  meet  him  ;  and  returning  he  preached 
two  or  three  times  a  day  through  his  entire  route.  It  was 
perhaps  his  most  effective  campaign  in  America.  The  trumpet 
of  the  truth  was  sounded  along  its  whole  Atlantic  coast,  and 
the  religious  interest  of  all  the  colonies  was  roused.  He  him- 
self regarded  it  as  the  most  important  of  his  evangelical  ex- 
peditions :  "  What  have  I  seen  *?  Dagon  falling  everywhere 
before  the  ark  ;  enemies  silenced  or  made  to  own  the  finger 
of  God ;  and  the  friends  of  Jesus  triumphing  in  his  glorious 
conquests.  A  hundredth  part  cannot  be  told.  We  had 
scarcely  one  dry  meeting."  On  his  southern  route  hearers 
flocked  forty  and  fifty  miles  to  the  points  at  which  he  was  to 
pass.  Unquestionably  these  mighty  labors  did  much  to  sus- 
tain and  project  forward  those  evangelical  agencies  which 
have  since  m.ade  the  nation  an  arena  of  religious  revivals 
and  philanthropies.  They  were  especially  a  fitting  prelimi- 
nary to  the  more  systematic  evangelization  which  Arminian 
Methodism  was  about  to  extend  over  the  continent. 

In  May,  1755,  he  was  again  in  London,  and  began  to 
preach  amid  the  uproar  of  mobs  at  Longacre,  near  the  thea- 
ters ;  drums,  bells,  and  yells  saluted  him  whenever  he  ap- 
peared there.  Foote  caricatured  him  on  the  boards  of 
the  theater.  Letters  threatening  his  life  were  sent  to  him, 
and  a  ruffian  came  into  the  pulpit  to  attack  him  with  clenched 
fist ;  but  he  persisted  till  at  last  he  saw  rise,  as  his  battery 
at  the  West  End,  the  Tottenham-court  Chapel,  subsequently 
renowned  in  the  history  of  religion  in  London. 

In  1757  he  revisited  both  Scotland  and  Ireland;  the 
former  with  a  heartier  reception  than  ever  before,  the  latter 
with  an  Irish  welcome  of  stones,  clods,  and  shillalahs.  The 
Lord  High  Commissioner  at  Edinburgh  treated  him  with  dis- 
tinction, and  the  clergy  invited  him  to  a  public  dimier.  They 
also  flocked  to  hear  him,  and  as  many  as  a  hundred  were 
present  at  a  time  in  his  immense  congregations.  On  passing 
from  these  hospitalities  into  Ireland,  he  expected  the  cordial 


CALVINISTIC  METHODISM:   1750-1T60.      881 

treatment  he  had  received  at  his  preceding  visit ;  but  while 
preaching  on  Oxmantown  Green,  in  Dublin,  he  received 
what  was  nearly,  as  he  said,  his  "  parting  blow  from  Satan." 
He  finished  his  sermon,  but  could  not  return  to  his  lodgings 
by  the  way  he  came.  It  was  barricaded  by  the  solid  mass 
of  the  mob,  so  that  he  had  to  go  nearly  half  a  mile  from  one 
end  of  the  Green  to  the  other,  through  hundreds  of  excited 
Papists.  A  soldier  and  four  Methodist  preachers  accom- 
panied him  part  of  the  way,  but  fled  for  their  lives  and  left 
him  to  the  mercy  of  the  rioters.  Stones  flew  about  him  from 
all  directions,  and  he  reeled  under  them  till  he  was  breath- 
less and  dripping  with  blood.  His  strong  beaver  hat  pro- 
tected his  head  for  some  time,  but  was  at  last  knocked  ofl", 
and  left  it  defenseless.  He  received  several  severe  wounds, 
one  near  his  temples.  He  thought  of  Stephen,  he  says,'  and 
as  he  believed  that  he  received  more  blows  than  the  ancient 
martyr,  he  had  great  hopes  that  like  him  he  should  "  be  dis- 
patched, and  go  off  in  this  bloody  triumph  "  to  the  presence 
of  his  Lord ;  but  he  staggered  at  last  to  a  door  and  was 
sheltered.  Meanwhile  the  mob  broke  up  his  field-pulpit, 
and  severely  beat  and  wounded  his  servant  with  the  frag- 
ments. Whitefield  lay  speechless  and  panting  for  some 
time  in  the  house  where  he  had  taken  refuge.  A  few  of  his 
friends  had  followed  him,  and  now  washed  the  blood  from 
his  wounds ;  but  as  soon  as  he  revived,  the  family,  fearing 
their  house  would  be  demolished,  entreated  him  to  leave 
them.  As  it  was  perilous  for  him  to  go  out,  a  mechanic 
offered  him  his  wig  and  cloak  as  a  disguise.  He  put  them 
on,  but  ashamed  of  such  apparent  cowardice  threw  them  ofi* 
with  disdain,  determined  to  face  the  populace  in  his  proper 
habit.  A  Methodist  preacher  brought  a  coach  to  the  door, 
Whitefield  leaped  in  and  rode  unhurt,  and  with  what  he 
calls  "  Gospel  triumph,"  through  whole  streets  of  Papists, 
who  threatened  him  at  every  step  of  the  way.  None,  he 
says,  but  those  who  were  spectators  of  the  scene  could  form 
an  idea  of  the  affection  with  which  he  was  received  by  the 
weeping,  mourning,  but  now  joyful  Methodists.     A  Chris- 


882  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

tian  surgeon  was  ready  to  dress  liis  wounds,  after  which  he 
went  into  the  preaching-house,  and  having  given  a  word  of 
exhortation,  "joined  in  a  hymn  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  to 
Him  who  makes  our  extremity  his  opportunity,  who  stills 
the  noise  of  the  waves  and  the  madness  of  the  people." 

Under  this  memorable  sermon  John  Edwards,  one  of  Wes 
ley's  ablest  preachers,  received  the  truth,  and  afterward  de- 
voted himself  to  similar  labors  and  trials.  Whitefield  escaped 
from  Dublin,  but  immediately  resumed  his  work,  preaching 
with  great  power  at  Athlone,  Limerick,  and  Cork,  but  soon 
left  the  island  for  more  inviting  fields  and  returned  no  more. 

During  the  remainder  of  our  present  period  he  made 
several  tours  in  England,  Wales,  and  Scotland,  and  the  pub- 
lic interest  augmented  with  every  visit ;  but  in  the  north, 
with  undiminished  popularity,  he  had  to  adopt  Wesley's 
lamentation  over  the  moral  insensibility  of  the  Scotch. 
They  crowded  to  hear  him;  "but  it  is  a  dead  time,"  he 
wrote;  "little  or  no  stirring  among  the  dry  bones."  He 
comforted  himself,  however,  by  his  Calvinistic  opinion  of  the 
Divine  sovereignty.     Wesley  declined  that  consolation. 

It  was  during  these  times  that  some  of  the  most  import- 
ant coadjutors  afforded  by  the  national  Church  to  the  Cal- 
vinistic Methodists  became  prominently  identified  with  the 
Methodistic  movement.  The  names  of  Berridge,  Romaine, 
Madan,  and  Venn  are  consecrated  in  its  annals. 

Rev.  John  Berridge,  vicar  of  Everton,  had  been  preaching 
for  years  without,  as  he  believed,  a  true  knowledge  of  personal 
religion.  In  1758  he  invited  a  visit  from  Wesley.  "  A  few 
months  ago,"  writes  the  latter,  "  he  was  thoroughly  convinced 
that  by  grace  are  we  saved  through  faith.  Immediately  he 
began  to  proclaim  the  redemption  that  is  in  Jesus,  and  God 
confirmed  his  own  words,  exactly  as  he  did  at  Bristol  in  the 
beginning,  by  working  repentance  and  faith  in  the  hearers, 
and  with  the  same  violent  outward  symptoms."  ^  These  vio- 
lent symptoms  were,  indeed,  more  extraordinary  than  had 
occurred  under  the  preaching  of  either  Wesley  or  Whitefield. 
8  JoTirnal.  Anno  1758. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:   1750-1760.     883 

VVesley  has  recorded  tliem  with  much  minuteness,  and 
while  it  cannot. be  denied  that  they  sometimes  took  an  ex- 
treme and  even  fanatical  form,  yet  they  were  but  the  con- 
comitants, the  human  infirmities,  of  a  profound  and  wide- 
spread religious  reformation.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hicks,  vicar  of 
Wrestlingworth,  Berridge's  neighbor,  entered  zealously  into 
the  excitement.  The  whole  region  round  about  was  astir. 
Curious  or  anxious  multitudes  came  ten,  twenty,  and  even 
thirty  miles,  to  hear  these  awakened  clergymen,  and  witness 
the  wonders  which  attended  their  labors,  and  few  came  who  did 
not  return  to  spread  the  excitement  by  a  renewed  religious 
life.  Berridge's  church  was  usually  thronged,  aisles,  portals, 
and  windows.  The  hearers  crowded  up  the  pulpit  steps 
until  the  preacher  was  sometimes  nearly  stifled  with  their 
breath,  and  scores  fell  helplessly  to  the  floor,  and  were 
carried  to  the  parsonage.  The  assembly  was  ,  often  svf ayed 
with  irrepressible  emotion,  sometimes  crying  out  with 
groans  and  sobs,  at  others  pervaded  by  a  sound  of  "  loud 
breathing,  like  that  of  people  gasping  for  life."  A  spectator 
describes  the  faces  of  "all  the  believers  present  as  really 
shining  at  times ;"  and  he  adds,  "  such  a  beauty,  such  a  look 
of  extreme  happiness,  and  at  the  same,  time  of  Divine 
love  and  simplicity,  did  I  never  see  in  human  faces  till 
now."  Berridge  soon  began  to  itinerate  almost  as  ener- 
getically as  Grimshaw;  and  Everton,  like  Haworth,  became 
the  center  of  an  extensive  range  of  evangelical  labors.  He 
often  rode  a  hundred  miles  and  delivered  ten  or  twelve 
sermons  a  week.  He  preached  much  in  the  open  air.  At 
Cambridge,  standing  upon  a  table,  he  addressed  ten  thousand 
hearers.  At  Staflford,  where  he  had  been  curate,  he  was  de- 
termined to  preach  "  a  Gospel  sermon,"  such  as  he  declared 
he  had  never  preached  there  when  responsible  for  the  souls 
of  the  people ;  he  did  so  in  a  field  to  a  host  of  won- 
derino;  hearers.  A  robust  man,  who  had  been  "chief 
captain  of  Satan's  forces"  in  the  town,  and  was  noted 
for  his  profanity  and  readiness  to  horsewhip  the  Meth- 
odists, was  suddenly  seized  with  the  "violent  symptoms" 


384  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

which  had  before  excited  his  mirth  or  his  wrath.  "  I  heard," 
says  a  correspondent  of  Wesley  who  was  present, ''  a  dread- 
ful noise  on  the  farther  side  of  the  congregation,  and,  turning 
thither,  saw  him  coming  forward,  the  most  horrible  human 
figure  I  ever  saw.  His  large  wig  and  hair  were  coal-black ; 
his  face  distorted  beyond  all  description.  He  roared  inces- 
santly, throwing  and  clapping  his  hands  together  with  his 
whole  force.  Several  were  terrified  and  hastened  out  of  his 
way.  I  was  glad  to  hear  him  after  a  while  pray  aloud. 
Not  a  few  of  the  triflers  grew  serious,  Avhile  his  kindred  and 
acquaintance  were  unwilling  to  believe  even  their  own  eyes 
and  ears.  They  would  fain  have  got  him  away,  but  he  fell 
to  the  earth,  crying,  '  My  burden !  my  burden !  I  cannot 
bear  it!'  Some  of  his  brother  scoffers  were  calling  for 
horsewhips  till  they  saw  him  extended  on  his  back  at  full 
length.  His  agonies  lasted  some  hours  ;  then  his  body  and 
soul  were  eased." 

It  was  estimated  that,  during  one  year,  at  least  four  thou- 
sand souls  had  been  awakened  in  this  revival.  Wesley 
returned  to  the  scene  repeatedly  to  aid  his  two  clerical 
brethren.  He  was  startled  at  its  marvels,  and  acknowl- 
edged the  human  infirmity  which  mixed  with  them,  but 
accredited  not  only  as  a  Christian,  but  as  a  Christian  philos- 
pher,  the  inestimable  good  which  attended  the  excitement. 
Its  excesses  subsided,  but  its  blessings  remained.  At  a 
visit,  after  the  novelty  of  the  excitemes.t  had  passed,  Wesley 
preached  for  Berridge,  and  observed  "  a  remarkable  difference 
as  to  the  manner  of  the  work.  None  now  were  in  trances, 
none  cried  out,  none  fell  down.  A  low  murmur  was  heard, 
and  many  were  refreshed  with  the  multitude  of  peacey 

Reviewing  the  case,  he  remarked  that  more  or  less  of 
these  outward  symptoms  had  usually  attended  the  beginning 
of  a  general  religious  interest.  So  it  had  been  in  New 
England,  Scotland,  Holland,  Ireland,  and  many  parts  of 
England,  but  after  a  time  they  gradually  decreased,  and  the 
revival  proceeded  more  quietly.  Those  whom  it  pleases  God 
to  employ  on  such  occasions  ought,  he  adds,  to  be  "  quite 


CALYINISTIC    METHODISM:    1750    1760.     385 

passive  in  this   respect;   they   should  choose   nothing,  but 
leave  entirely  to  him  all  the  circumstances  of  his  own  work." 

Berridge  continued  his  zealous  course  during  more  than 
twenty  years.  His  theological  opinions  allied  him  with 
Whitefield,  and  he  became  a  notable  champi(m  of  Calvin 
istic  Methodism.  He  was  rich,  but  liberal  to  excess,  and 
rented  preaching  houses,  supported  lay  preachers,  and  aided 
poor  societies  with  an  unsparing  hand.  He  was  a  laborious 
student,  and  nearly  as  familiar  with  the  classic  languages  as 
with  his  native  tongue.  Like  most  good  men  whose  tem- 
perament renders  them  zealous,  he  had  a  rich  vein  of  humor, 
and  his  ready  wit  played  freely  but  harmlessly  through  both 
his  public  and  private  discourse.'^ 

Romaine  had  distinguished  himself  at  Oxford,  and  as 
curate  in  Devonshire  and  Essex.  He  had  met  Warburton 
in  controversy  on  the  "  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,"  In  the 
metropolis  he  was  appoined  to  the  Lectureship  of  St.  Bo- 
tolph's,  and  that  of  St.  Dunstan  in  the  West,  as  also  to  St. 
George's,  Hanover  Square,  where  he  was  morning  preacher. 
His  discourses  were  original  and  powerful,  and  his  eloquence, 
inspired  as  much  by  his  earnestness  as  by  his  genius,  soon 
attracted  larger  crowds  than  could  be  accommodated  in  his 
churches.  He  had  caught  the  Methodistic  spirit  of  the  times, 
and  was  now  found  to  be  too  zealous,  too  urgent  a  preacher, 
and  too  strict  a  pastor  for  the  satisfaction  of  his  patrons.  At 
St.  Dunstan,  where  he  held  two  lectureships,  clamorous  op- 
position was  raised  against  him,  and  his  rector  refused  him 
admission  to  the  pulpit.  The  dispute  was  brought  before  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  and  one  of  his  lectureships  was  taken 
from  him  by  the  decision ;  but  the  other  was  confirmed,  and 
endowed  with  a  salary  of  eighteen  pounds  a  year,  which,  not- 
withstanding his  exalted  talents  and  devoted  character,  was 
Iiis  chief  support  from  the  Church.     On  being  removed  from 

7  Bemdge  died  in  1793,  aged  76.  A  host  of  evangelical  clergymen  had 
Iby  that  time  appeared  in  the  national  Church,  chiefly  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Methodism.  The  venerable  Simeon,  of  Cambridge,  and  several 
others  of  them,  bore  Berridge  to  the  grave,  with  the  tears  of  thousands. 

Vol.  I.— 25    . 


386  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

Hanover  Square,  Lady  Huntingdon  appointed  him  one  of 
her  chaplains.  He  thus  became  openly  connected  with  the 
Methodists,  but  retained  some  time  the  lectureship  of  West 
Doinstan,  where,  however,  his  evangelical  zeal  and  doctrines 
gave  such  offense  to  the  rector  that  he  usually  took  posses- 
sion of  the  pulpit  before  Romaine  could  finish  the  liturgy, 
and  thereby  prevented  his  preaching.  Another  ruse  of  his 
opponents  was  to  keep  the  church  doors  closed  till  the  latest 
moment,  while  the  crowds  congregated  in  the  streets,  and  at 
last  rushed  into  the  doors  so  precipitately  as  to  endanger  their 
lives.  The  wardens  sometimes  refused  to  light  the  church,  and 
often  did  Romaine  address  the  multitude  with  but  a  sinrle 
taper,  which  he  held  himself  in  one  hand,  while  gesticulating 
with  the  other  in  those  powerful  appeals  that  sent  trembling 
amid  the  multitude,  and  at  once  astonished  and  exasperated 
his  enemies. 

It  was  about  the  begimiing  of  our  present  period  that 
he  entered  the  Methodist  ranks  as  chaplain  to  Lady  Hunt- 
ingdon. He  preached  often  with  Whitefield,  the  Wesleys, 
Fletcher,  and  others  at  her  mxansion.  He  made  frequent 
evangelical  tours  into  the  country,  and  proclaimed  the  word 
at  all  opportunities  with  signal  effect.  He  first  took  his 
stand  as  an  "  open-air  "  preacher  at  Haworth  with  his  friend 
Grimshaw.  He  labored  with  Ingham's  Moravian  Methodist 
societies  in  Yorkshire,  and  traveled  extensively  in  Sussex 
and  Hampshire  with  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  preaching 
incessantly.  He  accompanied  Madan  to  Everton,  and  co- 
operated with  Berridge  amid  the  extraordinary  scenes  that 
occurred  there  and  throughout  the  neighboring  region.  His 
opinions  were  strongly  Calvinistic,  and  he  was  unreserved 
in  his  dissent  from  some  of  the  peculiar  sentiments  of  Wes- 
ley, but  met  him  frequently  in  the  catholic  services  of  Lady 
Huntingdon's  mansion,  sharing  in  his  prayers  and  preaching, 
and  receiving  from  his  hands  the  Lord's  Supper.  Romaine 
became  rector  of  St.  Andrew,  Wardrobe,  and  St.  Anne's, 
Blackfriars,  and  died  a  faithful  adherent  to  the  national 
Church.    His  numerous  works  — "  The  Life  of  Faith,"  "  Walk 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1750-1760.      887 

of  Faith,"  "Triumph  of  Faith,"  "  Self  existence  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  "Sermons  on  the  Hundred  and  Seventh  Psalm," 
and  others — are  precious  exponents  of  the  resuscitated  evan- 
gelical spirit  of  the  times,  and  continue  to  have  a  salutary 
influence  on  the  Calvinistic  piety  of  England  and  America. 

A  young  lawyer  of  brilliant  talents  and  aristocratic  rela- 
tions was  in  the  habit  of  meeting  with  his  gay  associates  at 
a  coffee-house  in  London.  He  was  the  wit  of  the  'company, 
and  at  one  of  their  meetings,  when  Wesley  was  to  preach 
in  the  neighborhood,  his  companions  sent  him  to  hear  the 
intinerant  apostle,  in  order  to  give  them  a  mimicked  speci- 
men of  his  preaching.  Just  as  he  entered  the  place  of  wor- 
ship Wesley  announced  as  his  text,  '-'- Prepare  to  meet  thy 
GodP''  It  struck  the  young  man's  conscience;  he  listened 
with  emotion  to  the  sermon,  and  thenceforward  the  career 
of  his  life  was  changed.  On  returning  as  a  necessary 
courtesy  to  his  company  at  the  coffee-house,  they  asked 
him  if  he  had  "  taken  off  the  old  Methodist  V  "  No,  gen- 
tlemen," was  his  reply,  "but  he  has  taken  me  off,"  and  he 
retired  from  their  circle  to  return  no  more. 

Lady  Huntingdon  was  personally  intimate  with  his  moth- 
er, and  the  young  convert  found  in  the  friend  of  his  parent 
a  religious  guide ;  he  became  a  faithful  attendant  at  the 
devotional  meetings  which  were  held  continually  at  the 
house  of  the  countess.  The  possessor  of  an  opulent  fortune, 
he  had  no  pecuniary  motive  to  seek  a  lucrative  position  in 
the  Church;  and  being  a  superior  scholar,  he  had  little 
need  of  preliminary  training  for  the  pulpit.  He  quickly 
owned  his  Methodistic  principles,  and  sought  ordination, 
not,  however,  without  some  obstructions,  though  his  brother 
was  a  bishop.  He  delivered  his  first  sermon  at  Allhallows, 
London,  to  a  large  assembly,  attracted  mostly  by  the  novelty 
of  the  fact  that  a  lawyer  had  turned  preacher.  But  his 
power  as  a  pulpit  orator  was  immediately  revealed,  and 
thenceforward  could  not  fail  to  secure  him  crowds  of  hearers. 
Tall  and  commanding  in  stature,  majestic  in  countenance, 
unusually  dignified  and  graceful  in  manner,  and,  above  all, 


888  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

profoundly  impressed  himself  with  the  truth  he  delivered, 
his  audience  was  struck  with  surprise,  and  his  entrance  upon 
the  sacred  office  was  "  hailed  with  the  acclaims  of  the  friends 
of  religion,  who  heard  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  nobly 
defended  by  an  able  advocate,  whose  knowledge  was  equal 
to  his  zeal."  ^  Wesley  had  scarcely  made  a  more  notable 
convert,  and  had  never  given  to  his  Calvinistic  brethren 
a  more  important  trophy.  Such  was  Rev.  Martin  -Madan. 
During  the  present  decade  of  our  narrative  he  was  prominent 
in  the  Methodistic  movement.  He  traversed  much  of  the 
country  with  Romaine,  Venn,  Lady  Huntingdon,  and  Wesley, 
proclaiming  the  truth  with  great  effect.  He  continued  to  la- 
bor as  an  evangelist,  and  as  chaplain  to  the  celebrated  Lock 
Hospital,  till  the  publication  of  his"  Thelypthora;  or.  Treat- 
ise on  Female  Ruin,"  a  work  of  benevolent  intention  but  of 
fallacious  theories,  which  greatly  diminished  his  usefulness. 
Rev.  Henry  Venn  was  curate  of  Clapham,  and  served 
three  lectureships  in  the  metropolis.  He  heard  Whitefield 
often  in  both  places,  and  his  intimacy  with  Bryan  Broughton, 
one  of  the  original  Methodists  at  Oxford  and  a  coadjutor 
and  correspondent  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  led  him  to 
sympathize  with  the  great  revival  which  Methodism  Avas 
extending  over  the  land.  He  accompanied  Whitefield  and 
Madan  on  an  itinerant  excursion  into  Gloucestershire,  and 
was  thus  initiated  into  those  "  novel "  methods  of  ministerial 
labor  which  distinguished  his  new  friends,  and  which  he 
pursued,  as  he  found  opportunity,  the  remainder  of  his  useful 
life.  Whitefield,  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Huntingdon,  describes 
him  as  "  valiant  for  the  truth,  a  son  of  thunder  ;  he  labors 
abundantly,  and  his  sincerity  has  been  owned  of  the  Lord 
in  the  conversion  of  simiers.  Thanks  be  to  God  for  such  an 
instrument  as  this  to  strengthen  our  hands  !"  During  more 
than  thirty  years  he  co-operated  zealously  with  Whitefield, 
the  Wesleys,  and  Howell  Harris  in  many  parts  of  England 
and  Wales.  He  adhered  steadflistly  to  the  Church  after 
the  necessary  secession  of  Lady  Huntingdon's  societies, 
8  Life  and  Times  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  chap.  10. 


CALVIKISTIC    METHODISM:    1750-1760.     389 

but  continued  tlie  "  irregularities "  of  his  labors,  preaching 
ill  private  houses,  barns,  and  sometimes  in  the  open  air,  till 
the  disabilities  of  age  compelled  him  to  retire.^  Like  Ber 
ridge  and  Grimshaw,  he  made  his  parish  at  Huddersliehl 
the  kead-quarters  of  extensive  labors  in  all  the  neighboring 
region.  No  less  than  thirteen  young  men,  who  had  been 
converted  by  his  instrumentality,  entered  the  ministry,  chiefly 
in  Independent  churches.  Besides  his  regular  Sabbath  serv- 
ices, he  usually  preached  eight  or  ten  sermons  each  week 
in  remote  parts  of  his  parish,  and  many  of  them  were  deliv- 
ered in  the  open  air.  He  found,  he  says,  his  "  out-door 
preaching  much  owned  of  the  Lord."  ^^  He  was  the  corre- 
spondent as  well  as  co-laborer  of  the  Wesleys,  and  his  name 
continually  recurs  on  the  pages  of  their  Journals  during  these 
times.  In  the  theological  world  he  is  noted  as  the  author 
of"  The  Complete  Duty  of  Man,"  an  able  attempt  to  correct 
the  defects  of  the  miore  famous  "  Whole  Duty  of  Man." 

Thus  did  an  illustrious  constellation  of  Churchmen — ■ 
Fletcher,  Grimshaw,  Berridge,  Thompson,  Romaine,  Madan, 
Venn,  and  others — gather  around  the  elder  lights  of  Method- 
ism in  this  memorable  decade  of  its  history.  They  reflected 
much  luster  upon,  but  borrowed  more  from  it ;  and  they  owe 
their  chief  importance  in  ecclesiastical  history  to  the  fact  that 
they  were  Methodists  as  well  as  Churchmen. 

We  have  contemplated  the  Methodistic  movement  thus 
far  as  advancing  chiefly  in  two  separate  though  nearly 
parallel  lines — Arminian  and  Calvinistic.  We  have  had 
occasional  glimpses,  however,  of  a  third  development  of 
the  great  revival,  one  which  reached  a  crisis,  worthy  of  par- 
ticular attention,  toward  the  end  of  this  period.     Both  the 

8  See  page  171,  The  attempt  of  Venn's  biographers  (his  son  and 
grandson)  to  clear  him  from  the  noble  reproach  of  Methodism  is  too 
futile  to  need  remark.  The  reader  will  find  it  answered  in  Lady  Hnn- 
tingdon's  Life  and  Times,  chap.  17,  and  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap. 
18.  The  motive  of  his  biographers  was  as  reprehensible  as  their  attempt 
was  unsuccessful.  Venn  corresponded  through  thirty  years  with  Lady 
Huntingdon,  but  not  one  of  the  letters  is  inserted  in  his  Memoir. 

1"  Letter  to  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon :  Life  andTiraes,  etc.,  chap,  17. 


890  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Arminiaii  and  the  Calvinistic  Methodist  bodies  suffered  no 
little  ineonvenience  from  the  English  excesses  of  Moravian- 
ism,  after  the  separation  of  Wesley  and  Lady  Huntingdon 
from  it  in  London.  The  most  difficult  cases  of  discipline  in 
their  respective  communities  came  from  this  source.  These 
excesses  were  temporary,  however,  and  no  desirable  pur- 
pose could  be  pronaoted  by  a  record  of  them  in  our  pages. 
Ingham,  one  of  the  Oxford  Methodists,  and  the  companion 
of  Wesley  in  Georgia,  was  impressed,  like  Wesley  himself, 
on  the  sea  and  at  Savannah,  by  the  simplicity  and  moral 
beauty  of  the  Moravian  religious  life.  On  their  return  to 
England  he  accompanied  Wesley  to  Herrnhut,  and  so 
strong  became  his  sympathies  with  this  excellent  people 
that  he  could  not  sacrifice  his  attachment  to  them  when  the 
Methodists  revolted  from  the  disorders  of  the  Fetter-lane 
society.  He  went  into  Yorkshire,  and  with  incredible  itin- 
erant labors,  assisted  by  Moravian  companions,  he  founded 
there  what  may  be  called  a  Moravian  form  of  Methodism. 
Preaching  stations  were  established  throughout  the  county 
and  in  neighboring  shires.  At  Birstal  he  took  Nelson  pub- 
licly by  the  hand,  and  gave  him  liberty  to  speak  in  all  his 
chapels.  The  Wesleys,  Whiteneld,  Madan,  and  Romaine 
often  preached  for  his  societies,  and  they  seem  to  have  been 
generally  recognized  by  the  Methodistic  leaders  as  a  legiti- 
mate branch  of  the  great  revival,  notwithstanding  Wesley's 
people  in  Yorkshire  experienced  many  vexations  from  the 
eccentricities  of  individual  preachers,  who  retained  some  of 
the  London  Moravian  follies.  The  student  of  the  contem- 
porary Methodist  documents  is  surprised  at  the  frequent 
allusions  made  to  these  "  Inghamite  societies,"  and  their 
numerical  and  moral  importance.  They  multiplied  till  no 
less  than  eighty-four  were  reported.  John  Cennick  joined 
them,  after  leaving  successively  Wesley  and  Whitefield. 
Grimshaw  delighted  to  mount  his  itinerant  steed  and  scour 
the  country  among  them,  for  his  great  soul  could  never 
pause  to  consider  merely  geographical  or  ecclesiastical  dis- 
tinctions.    Their  preachers  often  accompanied  Wesley  in  his 


MOKAVIAN    METHODISM:    1750-1760.      891 

travels  in  that  part  of  the  kingdom ;  two  of  them,  Batty  and 
Colbeck,  stood  with  him,  like  good  soldiers  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
in  the  fiery  fight  of  affliction  which  he  and  Griiiishaw  encount- 
ered from  the  Colne  mob  at  Eoughlee,  and  Grimshaw  and  lug- 
ham  had  a  severe  conflict  previously  with  the  same  rabble. 

Count  Zinzendorf  and  his  son-in-law.  Bishop  Joannes  do 
Watteville,  visited  them,  and  assisted  in  the  organization  of 
their  discipline.  On  the  accession  of  a  new  member  he 
vras  presented  with  a  ticket,  by  which  he  had  admission 
to  all  their  services,  consisting  of  public  meetings,  choir 
meetings  of  men  and  choir  meetings  of  women,  and  many 
other  peculiar  occasions.  They  had  circuits  for  preaching, 
which  comprised  Yorkshire,  Westmoreland,  Cumberland, 
and  Lincolnshire,  with  portions  of  Cheshire  and  Derby- 
shire. Ingham  was  admitted  to  Wesley's  Conference  in 
Leeds,  but  the  precise  relation  of  his  societies  to  the  Wes- 
leyan  body  was  never  defined.  He  had  his  own  Confer- 
ences also,  and  at  one  of  them  was  elected  a  general  overseer^ 
or  bishop.  Lady  Huntingdon,  who  could  not  approve  all 
the  disciplinary  features  of  his  societies,  attempted  to  pro- 
mote a  union  of  them  with  Wesley,  and  she  sent  White- 
field  to  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  to  meet  the  Wesleys  for 
consultation  on  the  subject.  Charles  assented,  but  John 
declined  the  overture.  He  was  sagacious  enough  to  per- 
ceive its  dangerous  liabilities,  for  he  knew  well  the  inco- 
herent elements  of  the  mongrel  association,  and  the  impos- 
sibility of  subordinating  them  to  the  strict  regimen  which 
he  had  been  able  to  establish  among  his  own  people,  and 
by  which  alone  these  reclaimed  multitudes  could  be  kept 
together.     Events  soon  confirmed  his  wise  judgment. 

In  1759  Ingham  read  "  Sandeman's  Letters  on  Theron 
and  Aspasio,"  and  "  Glass's  Testimony  of  the  King  of 
Martyrs."  These  works  produced  such  an  impression  on 
his  mind  that  he  deputed  two  of  his  preachers  to  Scotland 
to  learn  more  fully  the  views  of  their  authors.  At  Edin- 
burgh they  miet  Sandeman,  and  Glass  at  Dundee.  They 
<feturned  converts  to  the  Sandemanian  principles,  and  imme- 


392  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

diately  spread  discontent  and  disputes  among  the  societies. 
Ingham's  authority  could  not  control  the  partisan  violence 
which  soon  broke  out.  He  called  in  the  assistance  of  his 
friends.  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon  wrote  them  letters. 
Whitefield  felt  deeply  for  them,  "wept  and  prayed,"  and 
used  his  influence  to  save  them.  Eomaine  hastened  into 
Yorkshire,  but  could  not  restrain  them.  Ingham  attempted 
to  excommunicate  the  disturbers,  but  it  was  an  endless  task. 
The  whole  order  was  wrecked  and  sunk.  Thirteen  societies 
only  remained  from  more  than  eighty  which  had  flourished 
with  all  the  evidences  of  permanent  prosperity.  ^^ 

Discipline  and  authority,  such  as  Wesley  alone  among 
the  Methodist  founders  seemed  capable  of  establishing, 
were  necessary  to  any  enduring  organization  of  the  various 
and  crude  elements  w^hich  Methodism  gathered  from  the 
degraded  masses  of  the  English  populace.  The  Countess 
of  Huntingdon  resembled  him  most  in  capacity  for  govern- 
ment. She  attempted,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  to  give  an 
organized  unity  to  the  Calvinistic  Methodists,  but  her  effort 
was  too  late  to  prevent  the  threefold  division  which  at  last 
took  place  among  them,  and  their  consequent  declension. 

The  fate  of  Ingham's  societies  is  one  of  the  best  vindica- 
tions of  Wesley's  wisdom  as  an  ecclesiastical  legislator. 
The  dispersion  of  these  societies,  however,  left  some  good 
results.  Many  of  them  were  merged  in  the  Wesleyan  or 
Dissenting  bodies,  especially  in  the  class  of  Scotch  Presby- 
terians called  Daleites.  Many  of  their  preachers  remained 
useful  men,  and  the  disaster  was  much  relieved  by  the  con- 
sideration that  Wesleyan  Methodism  took  general  posses- 
sion of  Yorkshire,  and  that  two  Methodistic  orders  were 
hardly  necessary  at  the  time  of  Ingham's  failure. 

Ingham  left  the  Moravians  through  Lady  Huntingdon's 
influence.     He  sank  into  temporary  despondence  after  the 

"  Sandemanianism  was  afterward  introduced  into  New  England,  but 
failed  by  its  own  distractions.  Sandeman  died  in  Danbury,  Connecticut, 
His  tomb  is  still  preserved  there,  and  slight  traces  of  Sandemanianism 
linger  in  the  vicinity. 


MORAVIAN    METHODISM:    1750-1760.        393 

"breaking  up  of  his  societies.  lie  deemed  their  overthrow  a 
divine  judgment  upon  himself,  and  seemed  inconsolable  for 
some  time,  but  recovered  his  tranquillity  at  last.  Plis  wife, 
Lady  Margaret  Hastings,  sister-in-law  of  the  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  and  the  instrument  of  introducing  the  latter  to 
the  Methodists,  rapidly  declined  in  health  soon  after  these 
events,  but  her  afflicted  husband  was  comforted  by  the 
moral  beauty  with  which  the  sun  of  her  life  went  down. 
"  Thanks  be  to  God,"  she  exclaimed  in  her  agony,  "  Thanks 
be  to  God,  the  moment  has  come,  the  day  is  dawning!"  and 
died.  "  When  she  had  no  longer  strength  to  speak  to  me," 
wrote  Ingham,  "  she  looked  most  sweetly  at  me  and  smiled.' 
On  the  Tuesday  before  she  died,  when  she  had  opened  her 
heart  to  rhe  and  declared  the  ground  of  her  hope,  her  eyes 
sparkled  with  divine  joy,  her  countenance  shone,  her  cheeks 
were  ruddy ;  I  never  saw  her  look  so  sweet  and  lovely  in 
my  life.  All  about  her  were  affected ;  no  one  could  refrain 
from  tears,  and  yet  it  was  a  delight  to  be  with  her."^^  She 
occupies  a  conspicuous  place  among  the  "elect  ladies"  of 
early  Methodism. 

Four  years  later  Ingham  followed  her  into  the  rest  that 
romaineth  for  the  people  of  God.  He  is  reported  to  have 
been  in  person  imcommonly  handsome — "  too  handsome  for 
a  man" — a  gentleman  in  manners,  a  saint  in  temper,  and  an- 
apostle  in  labors.  He  contributed  greatly  to  the  Methodistic 
revival,  and,  notwithstanding  some  errors,  deserves  an  hon- 
orable record  in  its  annals. 

12  The  pious  Eomaine  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  I  got  a  good  advancement  by 
the  death  of  Lady  Margaret,  and  was  led  into  a  sweet  path  of  meditation, 
in  which  I  went  on  contemplating  till  my  heart  burned  within  me.  .  .  . 
Many  a  time  my  spirit  has  been  refreshed  with  hearing  her  relate  simply 
ard  feelingly  how  Jesus  was  her  life." 


394  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF     OPINIOl^TS     AND     EC0N0:MY     Bl 
THE    conferences:    1150-1160. 

Deficient  Records  of  the  Conferences  — Salary  of  the  Preachers  —  Promi- 
nent Members  at  the  Session  of  1753  —  Separation  of  prominent  Preachers 
— Tendency  to  Dii^sent— The  Perronets — Charles  Wesley's  High-Church 
Prejudices  —  Critical  Importance  of  the  Session  of  1755  —  Question  of 
Separation  from  the  National  Church — Charles  Wesley's  hasty  Conduct 
—Was  Dissent  expedient  at  this  Time?  —  Wesley  writes  his  "  Twelve 
Reasons  against  a  Separation  from  the  Church  of  England"  — Wesley  as 
a  Reformer — 'His  Opinion  of  John  Knox  —  Historical  Importance  of  his 
Conservatism — His  Ecclesiastical  Opinions  at  this  Time  —  Subsequent 
Sessions — Conference  Examination  of  Character  introduced. 

Conferences  were  held  annually,  and  oftener  during  the 
present  period,  but  no  authentic  Minutes  remain  of  any  ses- 
sions except  two,  and  of  these  our  accounts  are  very  meager. 
To  the  session  of  1750  allusion  has  already  been  made. 
Respecting  that  of  1751,  held  at  Bristol,  Wesley  expressed 
much  anxiety ;  many  of  his  preachers  were  tired  of  his  for- 
bearance with  the  national  clergy,  and  of  the  dependence  of 
the  Methodist  societies  upon  them  for  the  sacraments,  and 
some  of  both  preachers  and  societies  were  eager  for  open 
Dissent.  He  also  suspected,  though  erroneously,  other 
grievances.  He  says :  "  My  spirit  was  much  bowed  down 
among  them,  fearing  some  of  them  were  perverted  from  the 
simplicity  of  the  Gospel ;  but  I  was  revived  by  the  sight  of  • 
John  Haime  and  John  Nelson,  knowing  they  held  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  did  not  hold  it  in  unrighteousness.  The 
more  we  conversed  the  more  brotherly  love  increased.  1 
expected  to  have  heard  many  objections  to  our  first  doc- 
trines, but  none  appeared  to  have  any;  we  seemed  to  be 


COKFEKENCES    FROM    1750    TO    1760.       895 

all  of  one  mind,  as  well  as  one  heart."  ^  He  held  a  second 
Conference  the  same  year  at  Leeds ;  thirty  preachers  were 
present ;  he  particularly  inquired  "  concerning  their  grace, 
gifts,  and  fruits,  and  found  reason  to  doubt  of  one  only."    0 

At  the  Conference  of  1752  an  attempt  was  made  to  pro- 
vide better  support  for  the  preachers.  Hitherto  their  only 
pecuniary  claim  was  for  the  payment  of  their  traveling  ex- 
penses by  the  Stewards  of  Circuits ;  their  board  was  gratui- 
tously given  by  members  of  the  societies  as  they  passed 
along  from  town  to  town ;  any  other  assistance  was  in  the 
form  of  donations,  and  was  scarcely  enough  to  provide  them 
with  clothing  and  books.  It  was  now  ordained  that  each 
preacher  should  be  supplied  with  twelve  pounds  per  animm. 
For  many  years,  however,  this  meager  allowance  was  seldom 
provided,  and  the  self-denying  itinerants  had  to  be  content 
with  what  partial  payments  their  brethren  could  make. 

We  have  a  list  of  the  mem.bers  present  at  the  tenth  Con- 
ference, held  May  22, 1753,  at  Leeds.  Grimshaw,  Hopper, 
Shent,  Walsh,  Nelson,  Hampson,  Edward  Perronet,  John 
Haime,  with  many  others,  attended.  Twelve  local  preachers 
and  four  laymen  were  also  recognized  as  mLcmbers.  At  this 
session  it  was  resolved  that  the  Conference  should  thereafter 
sit  successively  at  London,  Bristol,  and  Leeds.  Some  sug 
gestions  were  adopted  respecting  the  best  modes  of  suppress- 
ing discords  in  the  societies  which  were  occasioned  by 
Moravian  and  Calvinistic  influences.^  The  eleventh  ses- 
sion was  held  in  London,  May  22,  1754.  Wesley  says : 
"  The  spirit  of  peace  and  love  was  in  the  midst  of  us.  Be- 
fore we  parted  we  all  willingly  signed  an  agreement  not  to 
act  independently  of  each  other,  so  that  the  breach  lately 
made  has  only  united  us  more  closely  than  ever."  Five 
able  preachers,  Jonathan  Reeves,  John  Edwards^  Samuel 
Larwood,  Charles  Skelton,  and  John  Whitforth,  had  retired 
from  the  itinerancy.  Tlie  lack  of  pecuniary  support  for  their 
families  seems  to  have  been  the  chief  motive  for  their  seces- 
sion.    Reeves  became  a  useful  minister  of  the  Established 

1  Journal,  Anno  1751.  ^  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  II,  3. 


396  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Church ;  the  others  were  settled  as  Independent  pastors, 
The  written  pledge  mentioned  by  Wesley  seems  to  have  been 
designed  as  a  guard  against  any  future  liability  of  the  kind. 
#  The  ensuing  year  was  attended  by  new  difficulties.  Some 
of  the  ablest  of  the  lay  preachers  were  disposed  to  concede 
the  reasonable  demand  of  the  people  for  the  sacraments  from 
their  own  pastors.  In  many  cases  the  national  clergy,  upon 
whom  the  societies  were  dependent  for  these  means  of  grace, 
were  flagitiously  immoral ;  they  had  been  often  found  at 
the  head  of  mobs  attacking  the  Methodists  who  were  to  re- 
ceive the  Eucharist  from  their  hands  the  next  Sabbath.  In 
notfc  a  few  instances  the  Methodists  were  denied  the  right  of 
communion.  Wesley  himself  had  been  repelled  from  the 
sacramental  altar  by  the  drunken  curate  of  Epworth ;  his 
brother  had  been  treated  in  like  manner  in  Wales ;  his  ad- 
'herents  were  so  treated  in  Bristol,  Leeds,  and  parts  of  Der- 
byshire. Neither  the  good  temper  nor  the  good  sense  of 
his  people  could  require  them  to  submit  to  this  privation 
and  such  outrages.  Joseph  Cownley,  whom  Wesley  con- 
sidered  one  of  the  best  preachers  in  England,  demanded  for 
himself  and  his  brethren  the  right,  as  legitimate  ministers  of 
the  Gospel,  to  supply  their  persecuted  people  with  the  sacra- 
ments ;  Thomas  Walsh,  and  Edward  and  Charles  Perronet, 
joined  him  in  this  demand,  and  actually  began  to  administer 
them.3  Charles  Wesley,  whose  mind,  less  noble  than  his 
heart,  was  perpetually  fettered  by  his  High- Church  senti- 
ments, became  alarmed.  His  influence  over  his  brother  on 
any  disputed  question  was  feeble,  and  deservedly  so,  for  on 
ecclesiastical  questions  especially  he  seemed  incapable  of 
progress,  only  because,  through  his  stron^prejudices,  he  was 
incapable  of  logic.  He  endeavored  to  influence  his  brother  by 
correspondence  with  his  friends.  Walter  Sellon,  who  had 
been  a  Methodist  itinerant,  but  was  now  a  curate  in  Leices- 

3  Edward  Perronet  afterward  ceased  to  travel,  through  his  opposition 
to  "Wesley's  adherence  to  the  Church.  He  settled  at  Canterbury  as  a 
Dissenting  pastor,  and  wrote  a  severe  satire  against  the  Establishment, 
entitled  The  Miter.  Charles  Perronet  continued  in  the  itinerancy  till 
1776,  when  he  died  at  his  post. 


CONFEKENCES    FEOM    1750    TO    1760.       897 

tershire,  and  retained  much  influence  with  Wesley,  was 
employed  by  Charles  to  defeat  the  new  tendencies.'*  Charles 
also  meanwhile  remonstrated  with  his  brother.  He  knew 
that  John  had  declared  his  belief  in  the  equality  of  presby- 
ters and  bishops,  and  suspected  that  he  had,  as  a  presbyter, 
secretly  ordained  some  of  the  malcontent  preachers. 

As  the  Conference  of  1755  approached  much  anxiety  was 
felt  for  the  decision  which  might  be  reached  on  the  question. 
It  was  likely  to  be  an  important  crisis  in  the  history  of 
Methodism,  and  the  correspondence  between  Charles  Wesley 
and  Sellon  became  eager.  The  latter  was  to  attend  the  Con- 
ference and  plead  for  "  the  Church ;"  Grimshaw  was  to  be 
present  only  to  take  leave  of  them  if  they  took  leave  of  the 
Church.  The  session  began  on  the  6th  of  May,  1755,  at 
Leeds.  Its  prospective  importance  brought  together  no  less 
than  sixty-three  preachers,  the  largest  number  that  had  yet 
assembled  at  any  Conference.  The  main  question  proposed 
for  discussion  was  whether  they  ought  to  separate  from  the 
Establishment.  It  was  debated  through  three  days.  John 
Weslfey  records  the  result ;  whatever  was  advanced,  he  says, 
on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  was  seriously  and  calmly  con- 
sidered ;  and  on  the  third  day  they  were  all  fully  agreed  in 
the  general  conclusion  that,  whether  it  was  lawful  or  not, 
it  was  no  way  expedient  to  separate  from  the  Church.-^ 
Walsh  and  his  associates  consented,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  to 
cease  to  administer  the  sacraments.  John  Wesley  said  that 
when  he  reflected,on  their  answer  he  admired  their  spirit 
and  was  ashamed  of  his  own.  He  acknowledged  that 
though  he  "did  not  fluctuate,  yet  he  could  not  answer  the 
arguments"  on  their  side  of  the  question;  but  his  brother 
seemed  incapable  of  understanding  his  liberality.  "  I  have 
no  fear  about  this  matter,"  wrote  John ;  "  I  only  fear  the 
preachers'  or  the  people's  leaving,  not  the  Church,  but  the 
love  of  God  and  inward  or  outward  holiness.  To  this  1 
press  them  forward  continually.  I  dare  not  in  conscience 
spend  my  time  and  strength  on  externals.     If,  as  my  lady 

Jackson's  Cliarles  Wesley,  chap.  19.        ^  "Wesley's  Joi;rnal,  Anno  1755. 


898  HISTORY   OF   METHODISM. 

says,  all  outward  establisliments  are  Babel,  so  is  this  estab- 
lishment. Let  it  stand,  for  me ;  I  neither  set  it  up  nor  pull 
it  down.     But  let  you  and  I  build  up  the  city  of  God." 

In  another  letter,  alluding  to  the  excommunication  of  a 
clergyman  by  the  Bishop  of  London  for  preaching  "  without 
license,"  he  wrote :  "  It  is  probable  the  point  will  now  be 
determined  concerning  the  Church,  for  if  we  must  either 
dissent  or  be  silent^  actuam  est.  We  haye  no  time  to  tri- 
fle." "Church  or  no  Church,"  he  again  wrote,  "we  must 
attend  to  the  work  of  saving  souls."  ^  This  was  as  gen- 
erously as  it  was  bravely  said ;  and  especially  does  it  appear 
so  when  we  consider  the  coolness  of  his  temper  and  the 
tenacity  of  his  attachment  to  the  Church. 

Though  Charles  Wesley  had  secured  his  main  design,  he 
perceived  that  it  was  a  concession  made  by  the  Christian 
spirit  of  the  discontented  preachers.  Their  manly  good 
sense  had  not  yielded  to  new  convictions  respecting  the 
right  they  claimed.  Some  of  them  were  as  able  men  as  the 
pulpits  of  England  could  present.  They  and  their  people 
had  borne  long  and  patiently  the  maltreatment  of  the  Estab- 
lished clergy ;  they  could  make  out  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment from  the  best  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the  Anglican 
Church  for  "their  new  claim;  they  proved*  both  their  good 
sense  and  good  temper  by  suspending  it  for  the  sake  of 
peace ;  but  Charles  Wesley  saw  clearly  enough  that  it  was 
only  suspended,  that  such  men  could  not  always  be  treated 
as  children,  and  unwilling,  if  not  incapable,  through  his  obsti- 
nate "  Churchmanship,"  of  sharing  their  generous  spirit  of 
concession,  he  had  no  sooner  secured  his  purpose  than  he 
retired  from  the  Conference  and  left  the  town  without  taking 
leave  of  even  his  brother.  "  I  took  French  leave  this  morning," 
he  wrote  to  his  family:  "the  wound  is  healed — sligkil'if!'^ 
And  at  a  subsequent  date  he  declared  himself  "done  with 
Conferences  forever,"  a  rash  assertion,  which  he  afterward 
practically  recalled.  The  pertinacity  and  precipitancy  of  his 
conduct  in  this  whole  affair  is  in  unfortunate  contrast  with 
0  Smith's  History,  etc.,  II,  3. 


CONFEKEXCES    FROM    1750    TO    1760.       899 

the  charitable  and  considerate  course  of  the  lay  preachers. 
Methodism  owes  inestimable  obligations  to  Charles  Wesley 
for  the  unrivaled  Psalmody  which  he  gave  it,  and  for  his  elo- 
quence, his  travels,  and  his  sufferings  in  its  behalf  His 
ecclesiasticism,  however,  continually  retarded  its  develop- 
ment, and  had  he  ultimately  prevailed  he  would  have  defeat- 
ed one  of  the  most  momentous  measures  in  its  history — its 
American  organization.  While  the  moderation  of  the  lay 
preachers  cannot  fail  to  command  our  admiration,  its  expe- 
diency is  not  unquestionable.  Had  Methodism  taken  a 
more  independent  stand  at  this  early  period,  when  it  had  so 
many  intolerable  provocations  from  the  Establishment,  and 
the  popular  mind  so  little  ground  of  sympathy  with  the 
Qergy,  it  is  the  opinion  of  not  a  few  wise  men  that  it  might 
before  this  time  have  largely  superseded  the  Anglican  hie- 
rarchy, and  done  much  more  than  it  has  for  the  dissolution 
of  the  unscriptural  connection  of  the  Church  and  state.  The 
measure  demanded  by  its  lay  ministry  at  this  Conference, 
and  by  many  of  its  societies,  it  was  compelled  subsequently 
to  adopt,  but  at  so  late  a  date,  and  with  such  precautions, 
that  it  has  ever  since,  wisely  or  unwisely,  maintained  an 
ambiguous  relation  toward  both  Churchmen  and  Dissenters. 

The  thirteenth  annual  Conference  was  held  at  Bristol 
August  26,  1756.  Fifty  preachers  were  present,  including 
Charles  Wesley,  notwithstanding  his  precipitate  retirement 
from  the  preceding  session  and  his  equally  hasty  resolution 
to  attend  no  more.  The  propriety  of  adhering  to  the 
Church,  and  of  treating  "  the  clergy  with  tenderness,"  was 
again  considered.  God  gave  us  all  to  be  of  one  mind,  says 
Wesley.  The  Rules  of  the  Society,  of  the  Bands,  and  of 
Kingswood  school,  were  examined  and  confirmed,  and  the 
Conference  was  adjourned  with  a  declaration  from  both  the 
Wesleys  of  their  purpose  never  to  separate  from  the  Church. 

To  confirm  this  conclusion  Wesley  wrote  at  this  time 
his  "  Twelve  Reasons  against  a  Separation  from  the  Church 
of  England,"  though  they  were  not  published  till  1758. 
They  are  a  remarkable  example  of  his  terse  style,  his  pre- 


400  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

cise  habit  of  thinking,  and  his  large  charity.  He  dreaded 
the  controversies  which  a  separation  would  'occasion,  and 
his  consequent  diversion  from  his  better  work;  the  offense 
it  would  give  to  many  devout  minds ;  the  scorn  it  would 
provoke  among  gainsayers ;  the  difficulties  of  constructing 
an  independent  Church,  and  the  internal  disccrds,  experi- 
ments, and-  excesses  it  might  induce  among  his  own  people 
and  preachers.  Moving  as  Wesley  did  amid  mobs  and 
tumults,  no  man  in  public  life  ever  maintained  more  self- 
recollection  or  a  finer  sense  of  order.  He  abhorred  disputa- 
tion, and  even  controversy.  He  contemned  the  vulgar  idea 
that  rudeness  is  essential  to  energy,  or  an  anarchical  spirit  to 
the  heroism  of  great  reformers.'  He  repressed  with  calm 
but  prompt  determination  any  appearance  of  such  a  spirit 
among  his  associates.  When,  in  Scotland,  viewing  the  ruins 
of  Aberbrotheck,  "  God  deliver  us,"  he  exclaimed,  "  from 
reforming  mobs."  He  acknowledged  the  usefulness  of 
John  Knox,  but  reprobated  his  spirit.  "  I  know,"  he  wrote, 
"it  is  commonly  said  the  work  to  be  done  needed  such  a 
spirit.  Not  so  ;  the  work  of  God  does  not,  cannot  need  tho 
work  of  the  devil  to  forward  it.  And  a  calm  even  spirit 
goes  through  rough  work  better  than  a  furious  one.  Al- 
though, therefore,  God  did  use,  at  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, some  overbearing,  passionate  men,  yet  he  did  not  use 
them  because  they  were  such,  but  notwithstanding  they  were 
so.  And  there  is  no  doubt  he  would  have  used  them  much 
more  had  they  been  of  a  humbler,  milder  spirit." 

If  his  temper  in  this  respect  led  to  too  much  moderation 
in  the  present  instance,  it  was,  nevertheless,  of  great  im- 
portance to  the  future  course  of  Methodism ;  it  infused  into 
the  systena  that  spirit  of  conservatism  vrhich,  without  neu-° 

7  Ono  of  his  critics,  Isaac  Taylor,  has  rightly  estimated  him  in  this 
respect  at  least.  "  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  all  regard,  that  when  Heaveu 
sends  its  own  chosen  men  to  bring  about  needed  reformations  at  the 
cost  of  a  momentary  anarchy,  it  does  not  give  any  such  commission  as 
this  to  those  who  by  temper  are  anarchists.  .  .  .  The  Wesleys  present  a 
notable  illustration  of  this  principle.  Great  innovators  indeed  they  were, 
but  anarchists  they  were  not."     Wesley  and  Methodism,  p.  58. 


CONFERENCES    FROM   1750    TO    1760.       401 

Iralizing  its  force,  has  preserved  it  from  the  peril  of  those  in- 
congruous elements  which  it  has  necessarily  gathered  under 
its  extended  sway.  The  proverbial  conservatism  of  ]\Ieth- 
odism,  notwithstanding  its  equally  proverbial  energy,  has 
been  owing  almost  as  much  to  the  impression  which  Wes- 
ley's personal  character  has  left  upon  its  ministry,  as  to  the 
discipline  which  he  gave  it.  His  fidelity  to  the  Church  is  the 
more  striking,  as  it  was  not  at  this  date  the  result  of  any  ec- 
clesiastical opinion,  but  of  that  expediency  which  with  him  was 
always  a  moral  law.  He  had  been  convinced,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  the  recognized  distinction  between  the  orders  of  bishops 
and  presbyters  was  a  fallacy,  that  the  apostolic  succession 
-was  a  "  fable,"  and  that  the  doctrine  that  "none  but  episcopal 
ordination  was  valid"  was  "an  entire  mistake,"  as  proved 
by  Bishop  Stillingfleet.^  Admirable,  then,  if  even  mistaken, 
was  the  caution  with  which  he  avoided  every  violent  meas- 
ure not  forced  upon  him  by  absolute  necessity,  and  the  un- 
swerving self-control  by  which  he  controlled  all  around  him. 
The  fourteenth  session  w^as  held  on  August  4,  1757. 
We  have  no  trace  of  its  Minutes.  Of  the  fifteenth  session, 
held  at  Bristol  on  August  10,  1758,  we  have  but  a  single 
sentence :  "  It  began  and  ended  in  perfect  harmony."  The 
sixteenth,  held  in  London  on  August  8,  1759,  was  equally 
harmonious.  We  have  no  intimation  of  its  proceedings, 
except  that  the  time  w^as  almost  entirely  employed  in  the 
personal  examination  of  the  characters  of  the  preachers, 
a  usage  which  has  ever  since  been  annually  maintained  in 
Methodist  Conferences  throughout  the  world.  The  seven- 
teenth session  was  held  at  Bristol,  August  29,  1760.  Wes- 
ley arrived  late  in  the  week  from  Ireland,  and  the  delibera- 
tions continued  but  tw^o  days.  "The  love  and  unanimity" 
of  its  members,  he  says,  "  was  such  as  soon  made  me  forget 
all  raiy  labors."     Such  is  its  brief,  its  only  record. 

8  A  Letter  to  a  Friend;  Works,  vol.  vii,  p.  301.     "I  firmly  believe  I 
am  a  Scriptwal  episcopos^  as  much  as  any  man  in  England,  or  in  Europe. 
For  tlie  uninten-upted  succession  I  know  to  be  a  fable,  which  no  man  ever 
did  or  can  •Drove."     Ibid.,  p.  312. 
Vol.  I.— 26 


402  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 


CHAPTEE  7. 

AEMIKrAN    METHODISM   i^TvOM    1Y60    TO    lYYO. 

Great  Eevivals  —  The  Doctrine  of  Sanctification  —  "Writers  on  the  Subject 

—  Disturbance  in  the  London  Society  —  George  Bell's  Delusions — ■ 
Thomas  Maxfield's  Separation  from  Wesley  —  Fanaticism  respecting 
the  End  of  the  World  —  George  Story  —  Fate  of  Bell  and  Maxfield  — 
Wesley  itinerating  —  His  large  Congregations  in  England  and  Ireland 

—  He  visits  Scotland  —  Christopher  Hopper  —  Cudworth's  Letters  of 
Hervey  —  Thomas  Taylor  —  Sketch  of  his  Life  —  His  Adventures  in 
Scotland  —  Duncan  Wright  among  the  Highlanders  —  Dissent  among 
Wesley's  Societies  —  Death  of  Grimshaw —  Death  of  Coates,  the  oldest 
Lay  Preacher  of  the  Connection  —  Wesley  and  Warburton  —  Fletcher 
at  Madeley —  His  Persecutions  —  His  Liberality — His  Pastoral  Habits  — 
His  Preaching — His  Piety  —  Wesley  at  Madeley  —  Condition  of  Meth- 
odism in  1770  —  It  is  introduced  into  America  —  Barbara  Heck — Philip 
Embury — Wesley's  Eegard  for  Military  Men —  Captain  Webb. 

The  year  1760  was  signalized  by  a  more  extraordinary  re- 
ligious interest  than  had  hitherto  prevailed  among  the  Meth- 
odist societies.  "  Here  began,"  says  Wesley,  "  that  glorious 
work  of  sanctification  which  had  been  nearly  at  a  stand  for 
twenty  years.  From  time  to  time  it  spread,  first  through 
various  parts  of  Yorkshire,  afterward  in  London,  then 
through  most  parts  of  England,  next  to  Dublin,  Lim- 
erick, and  through  all  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland. 
And  wherever  the  work  of  sanctification  increased,  the 
whole  work  of  God  increased  in  all  its  branches."  ^  It  con 
tinned  to  advance  with  deepening  effect  for  several  years. 
In  1762  he  remarks  that  his  brother  had  some  years  before 
said  to  him  that  the  day  of  the  Methodist  Pentecost  had  not 
fully  come ;  but  he  doubted  not  it  would,  and  that  then  they 
should  hear  of  persons  sanctified  as  frequently  as  they  had 
thus  far  heard  of  them  justified.  "  It  was  now  fully  come," 
1  Myles'3  Chronological  History  of  the  Methodists,  p.  72. 


ARMINIAN    METHODISM:    1760-17T0.       403 

acids  Wesley.  His  Journal  for  successive  years  records 
the  spread  of  this  higher  Christian  experience,  and  its  salu- 
tary effects  on  all  the  interests  of  his  societies.  Wherever 
he  went  he  preached  on  the  subject  as  particularly  appro- 
priate to  the  present  development  of  the  Methodistic  move- 
ment. In  March,  1761,  he  called  many  of  his  preachers 
together  at  Leeds,  and  inquired  into  the  state  of  the  societies 
in  Yorkshire  and  Lincolnshire ;  they  were  pervaded  by  the 
new  interest.  He  found,  he  writes,  the  work  of  God  increased 
on  every  side,  particularly  in  Lincolnshire,  where  there 
had  been  no  such  interest  since  he  had  preached  at  Epworth 
on  his  father's  tomb.^  At  Manchester  he  exhorted  the  soci- 
eties to  "  go  on  unto  perfection,"  and  a  flame  was  kindled 
which  he  trusted  neither  "  men  nor  devils  would  ever  be 
able  to  quench."  In  London  all  the  societies  were  revived ; 
"  many  believers  entered  into  such  a  rest  as  it  was  not  in 
their  hearts  before  to  conceive ;"  the  congregations  were  in- 
creased, and  while  Christians  sought  a  more  entire  consecra- 
tion, the  godless  were  awakened  more  numerously  than 
ever.  At  Bristol  he  made  the  same  record ;  the  society 
was  larger  than  it  had  been  for  many  years.  "  God  was 
pleased  to  pour  out  his  Spirit  this  year,"  he  writes,  "  on 
every  part  of  England  and  Ireland,  perhaps  in  a  manner  we 
had  never  seen ;  certainly  not  for  twenty  years."  At  Liv- 
erpool prevailed  such  a  religious  excitement  as  had  never 
been  known  there  before.^  In  1762  he  ascertained  that  there 
were  about  four  hundred  witnesses  of  sanctification  in  the 
London  societies,  and  on  his  visit  to  Ireland  the  same  year 
he  found  the  classes  almost  everywhere  quickened  with  the 
same  aspirations  after  holiness.  Such  times  were  never  be- 
fore in  Limerick,  wrote  one  of  his  Irish  correspondents  ; 
"  the  fire  which  broke  out  before  you  left  us  is  now  spread- 
ing on  every  side.  Blessed  be  God,  his  word  runs  swiftly."* 
Wesley  records  his  opinion  that  this  great  revival  was  more 
remarkable  in  Dublin  than  even  in  London,  far  greater  in 
proportion  to  the  members  in  the  societies,  and  more  exempt 
»  Jounml,  Anno  1761.  ^  Journal,  August,  1762.  *  Ibid,  July. 


404  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

from  objectionable  features;  none  there  were  headstrong  or 
unadvisable ;  none  were  wiser  than  their  teachers ;  none 
dreamed  of  being  infallible  or  above  temptation ;  none  were 
whimsical  or  enthusiastic ;  "  all  were  calm  and  sober-mind- 
ed," At  the  close  of  the  year  1763  he  says :  "  Here  I  stood 
and  looked  back  on  the  late  occurrences.  Before  Thomas 
Walsh  left  England  God  began  that  great  work  which  has 
continued  ever  since  without  any  considerable  intermission. 
During  the  whole  time  many  have  been  convinced  of  sin, 
many  justified,  and  many  backsliders  healed.  But  the  pecu- 
liar work  of  this  season  has  been  what  St.  Paul  calls  the 
perfecting  of  the  saints.''''  Many  persons,  he  adds,  in  Lon- 
don, in  Bristol,  in  Yorkshire,  and  in  various  parts  both  of 
England  and  Ireland,  experienced  so  deep  and  universal  a 
change  as  it  had  not  entered  into  their  hearts  to  anticipate. 
After  a  deep  conviction  of  inbred  sin,  they  had  been  so  filled 
with  faith  and  love  that  sin  vanished,  and  they  found  from 
that  time  no  pride,  anger,  or  unbelief  They  could  rejoice 
evermore,  pray  without  ceasing,  and  in  everything  give 
thanks.  "  Now,"  he  continued,  "  whether  we  call  this  the 
destruction  or  suspension  of  sin,  it  is  a  glorious  work  of 
God ;  such  a  work  as,  considering  both  the  depth  and  extent 
of  it,  we  never  saw  in  these  kingdoms  before." 

Some,  he  admits,  had  lost  the  blessing;  a  few,  "very  few 
compared  to  the  whole  number,"  had  given  way  to  enthusi- 
asm and  separated  from  their  brethren;  but  though  these 
errors  formed  a  serious  stumbling-block,  yet  the  work  went 
on,  "  nor  has  it,"  he  says,  "  ceased  to  this  day  in  any  of  its 
branches.  God  still  convinces,  justifies,  sanctifies.  We  have 
lost  only  the  dross,  the  enthusiasm,  the  offense.  The  puie 
gold  remains,  faith  working  by  love,  and  we  have  reason  to 
believe  increases  daily."  And  as  late  as  1768  he  writes  to 
a  friend,  blessing  God  that  if  a  hundred  enthusiasts  were 
set  aside,  they  were  still  encompassed  with  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses who  have  testified,  and  do  testify  in  life  and  in  death, 
the  Perfection  he  had  taught  for  forty  years. ^ 
s  Journal,  August,  1768. 


ARMINIAN    METHODISM:    1760-1770.        405 

It  was  indeed  remarked  that  the  professors  of  santification 
were  generally,  as  at  Dublm,  distinguished  more  than  other 
Methodists  as  "  calm  and  sober-minded."  Quietness  without 
"  quietism "  became  a  characteristic  of  them  as  a  class,  and, 
among  preachers  and  people,  they  were  considered  by  Wes- 
ley to  be  his  most  prudent,  most  reliable  coadjutors.  During 
forty  years  he  had  been  preaching,  as  he  says,  this  doctrine 
of  Christian  Perfection,  and  throughout  that  period  many 
exemplary  witnesses  of  it  had  lived  and  died  in  his  societies. 
While  at  Oxford,  as  we  have  seen,  he  became  convinced 
that  the  Mystic  writers,  with  all  their  errors,  had  apprehended 
h,  great  truth  of  Christianity  in  this  tenet.  The  sketch  of 
a  perfect  Christian  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus  had  excited 
his  ardent  aspirations.  Bishop  Taylor  had  irradiated  that 
ideal  of  religious  character  by  his  rare  eloquence.  William 
Law  had  written  ably  upon  it.  Thomas  a  Kempis  and  other 
Catholic  saints  had  taught  and  exemplified  it.  Fenelon  had 
been  an  illustrious  example  of  it  in  both  his  writings  and 
life.  Wesley  translated  the  life  of  Fenelon's  friend.  Madam 
Guyon,  and  gave  it  to  his  people  as  a  practical  demonstra- 
tion of  the  great  truth.  He  also  published  in  his  Christian 
Library  the  essay  of  Dr.  Lucas  on  Religious  Perfection,^  as 
presenting  generally  the  Scriptural  view  of  the  subject.  The 
Scriptural  phrases  "  Sanctification,"  "  Perfection,"  "  Perfect 
Love,"  would,  independently  of  these  authorities,  have  sug- 
gested to  him  a  pre-eminent  standard  of  spiritual  life,  but  these 
writers  had  given  a  specific  and  even  technical  character  to 
the  words.  Their  opinions,  glowing  with  the  very  sanctity 
of  the  Gospel,  and  aspiring  to  what  most  men  deemed  an 
altogether  preter-human  virtue,  have  been  rendered  familiar 
to  the  Methodist  itinerants  throughout  England,  and  later 
throughout  the  world,  in  the  writings  of  Law,  Fletcher,  and 
Wesley.  Every  one  of  them,  at  his  reception  into  the  trav- 
eling ministry,  avows  his  belief  in  the  doctrine,  and  that  he 
is    "  groaning    after,"  if  he  has   not  already  attained,  this 

«  The  third  part  of  "  An  Inquiry  after  Happiness,"  by  Dr.  Lucas,  pre- 
bend  of  "Wed minster. 


406  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

exalted  grace.  Perhaps  no  single  fact  affords  a  better  ex- 
planation of  the  marvelous  success  of  Methodism.  Wesley 
observed  and  declared  that  wherever  it  was  preached  revi- 
vals usually  prevailed.  "  It  is,"  he  said,  "  the  grand  deposi 
turn  which  God  has  given  to  the  people  called  Methodists, 
and  chiefly  to  propagate  this,  it  appears,  God  raised  them 
up.  Their  mission  was  not  to  form  a  religious  party,  but 
to  spread  holiness  over  these  lands."  The  doctrine  of  per- 
sonal sanctiiication  was,  in  fine,  the  great  potential  idea  of 
Methodism.  It  not  only  gave  it  life  and  energy,  by  inspir- 
ing its  congregations  vrith  devout  and  transforming  aspira- 
tions, but  it  was  the  precise  sentiment  needed  as  the  basis 
of  its  ministry.  Nothing  short  of  entire  self-sacrifice  could 
consist  with  the  duties  and  privations  of  that  ministry ;  and 
according  to  their  doctrine  of  Perfection,  entire  consecration 
was  the  preliminary  of  entire  sanctification.  These  holy  men, 
then,  in  making  an  entire  public  sacrifice  of  themselves,  did  so 
as  a  part  of  an  entire  consecration  to  God,  for  the  purpose  of 
their  own  entire  personal  sanctification,  as  well  as  their  use- 
fulness to  others.  What  ideal  of  ministerial  character  and 
devotion  could  be  more  sublime  or  more  effective'?  And 
this  ideal  they  realized  in  the  exceeding  labors  and  purity  of 
their  lives,  and  the  martyr-like  triumphs  of  their  deaths. 

Wesley  defined  this  Scriptural  truth  more  clearly  than 
any  other  modern  writer.  Evangelical  theologians  cannot 
deny  his  definition  of  the  doctrine.  They  can  dissent 
from  him  only  in  respect  to  the  time  in  which  entire 
sanctification  may  be  practically  reached  by  the  believer. 
All  admit  it  as  at  least  an  ideal,  yet  Scriptural  standard 
of  spiritual  life,  to  be  habitually  aspired  to  by  good  men, 
though  attained,  with  rare  exceptions,  only  at  death. 
Wesley  claimed  it  as,  like  justification,  an  attainment  of 
Faith,  and  practicable  at  any  moment.'^ 

''Alexander  Knox,  Esq.,  the  friend  and  correspondent  of  Bishop  Jebh, 
says,  (Thirty  Years'  Correspondence  with  Bishop  Jebb,  Letter  XIX.,) 
"Nay,  the  very  point  you  aim  at  in  them,  I  mean  tlieir  view  of  Christian 
Perfection,  is  in  my  mind  so  essentially  right  and  important,  that  it  is  ob 


AEMINIAK  METHODISM:   1760-1770.       407 

The  "  enthusiasm "  to  which  Wesley  alludes  as  having 
marred  this  special  revival,  was  mostly  limited  to  London, 
where  George  Bell,  a  life-guardsman  and  an  honest  mad- 
man, had  become  one  of  his  local  preachers.  Bell  supposed 
he  had  effected  a  miraculous  cure ;  he  attempted  another  on 
a  blind  man,  but  j)ronounced  in  vain  the  Ephphatha.  His 
failure  in  the  last  case  did  not  correct  his  delusion  respecting 
the  first.  It  arose,  he  argued,  from  the  patient's  want  of 
faith.  His  language  became  fanatical  in  public  meetings. 
He  asserted  that  his  "Perfection"  rendered  him  infallible, 
above  temptation,  and  superior  to  the  instructions  of  all 
persons  who  were  not  perfect,  and  to  the  rules  of  the  Bands 
and  of  the  United  Society.^  Wesley  admonished  him,  and 
visited  London  repeatedly  to  restrain  him.  His  forbear- 
ance shows  the  kindness  of  his  heart,  but  was  injudicious. 

Fanaticism  is  always  infectious.  In  this  instance  it 
spread  rapidly,  and  Wesley  was  surprised  to  learn  that 
Thomas  Maxfield  was  allied  with  the  enthusiasts.  Maxfield 
had  been  converted  under  his  preaching  at  his  first  visit  to 
Bristol.  He  ranked  as  his  earliest  lay  preacher,  and  Wes- 
ley had  promoted  his  welfare  in  all  possible  respects.  He 
introduced  him,  in  London,  to  a  social  position  above  his 
birth,  by  which  he  had  secured  an  advantageous  marriage ; 
and  obtained  ordination  for  him  m  Ireland  from  the  Bishop 
of  Londonderry,  who  favored  Wesley's  labors  in  that  coun- 
try, aird  who,  in  laying  hands  on  Maxfield,  said :  "  Sir,  I  or- 

this  account  particularly  I  value  them  above  other  denominations  of  the 
sort.  I  am  aware  that  ignoi'ant  individuals  expose  what  is  in  itself  true 
by  their  unfounded  pretensions  and  irrational  descriptions  ;  but  with  the 
Bincerest  disapproval  of  every  such  excess,  1  do  esteem  John  "Wesley'H 
stand  for  holiness  to  be  that  which  does  immortal  honor  to  his  name.  .  .  . 
In  John  Wesley's  views  of  Christian  Perfection  are  combined,  in  sub- 
stance, all  the  sublime  morality  of  the  Greek  fathers,  the  spirituality  of  tho 
Mystics,  and  the  divine  philosophy  of  our  favorite  Platonists.  Macarius, 
Fenelon,  Lucas,  and  all  of  their  respective  classes,  have  been  consulted 
and  digested  by  him,  and  his  ideas  are  essentially  theirs,"  See  also 
Knox's  Essay  on  Wesley's  Character,  addressed  to  Southey.  Appendix 
to  Southey' s  Wesley, 
e  Wesley's  Journal,  February,  March,  and  April,  1763. 


408     ■  IIlSTOllY    OF    METHODISM. 

dain  you  to  assist  that  good  man,  that  he  may  not  work 
himself  to  death."  Maxfield  was  not  naturally  an  enthusiast, 
and  how  far  he  shared  the  fanaticism  of  Bell  and  his  associ- 
ates it  is  difficult  to  ascertain.  He  seems  to  have  been,  per- 
haps unconsciously,  inclined  to  side  with  them  more  from 
discontent  with  Wesley's  authority,  than  from  any  sympathy 
Vtith  their  errors.  Being  now  an  ordained  clergyman,  well 
married,  and  with  good  resources,  it  was  natural  that  he 
should  dislike  his  subordinate  position  and  wish  an  independ- 
ent one.  Whatever  was  his  motive,  he  took  side  with  the 
enthusiasts  and  i-eally  became  their  head,  though  Bell  con- 
tinued to  furnish  by  his  ravings  the  chief  stimulus  of  their 
extravagances. 

Wesley  was  compelled  at  last  to  expel  the  latter,  and  to 
disclaim,  in  the  provincial  newspapers,  a  prophecy  which  he 
had  spread  that  the  world  would  end  on  a  given  day.  A 
great  panic  arose  from  this  prediction.  The  news  of  it  ex- 
tended into  the  interior,  injuring  the  reputation  of  the  Meth- 
odists, till  Wesley's  disclaimer  could  follow  and  counteract 
it.  George  Story,  one  of  Wesley's  best  itinerants,  reached 
Darlington  on  the  predicted  day,  and  found  many  of  the 
people  terrified,  and  others  indignant  and  threatening  to 
tear  doMTi  the  preaching-house  and  kill  the  first  preacher 
who  should  appear  in  the  neighborhood.  Story  was  a  dis- 
passionate man,  and  telling  the  mistress  of  the  house  that  if 
she  would  venture  the  building  he  would  venture  himself^ 
he  confronted  the  mob  with  the  newspaper  containmg  Wes- 
ley's advertisement  in  his  hand.  He  could  not  otherwise 
have  prevailed  over  the  uproar  and  delivered  his  sermon. 

In  London,  meanwhile,  the  terror  of  the  people  was  too 
great  for  the  logic  of  even  Wesley,  though  he  endeavored 
Jay  and  night  to  dispel  the  delusion.  Scores  of  members 
withdrew  from  the  societies,  giving  up  their  tickets.  "  Blind 
John,"  they  exclaimed,  "  is  incapable  of  teaching  us ;  we 
will  keep  to  Mr.  Maxfield."  On  the  dreaded  day  Wesley 
preached  against  the  prophecy,  but  many,  he  says,  were  afraia 
to  go  to  bed.     Some  betook  themselves  to  prayer-meetings 


AEMINIAX   METHODISM:    1760-1770,      409 

which  were  continued  through  the  night ;  and  others  went 
out  into  the  fields,  believing  that  if  the  world  was  not 
destroyed,  London  at  least  would  be  by  an  earthquake. 

The  failure  of  the  prediction  did  not  wholly  disconcert 
Bell's  party,  for  insanity  in  the  form  of  fanaticism  has  a  sub- 
tie  shrewdness  at  sophistry.  Prayers  might  have  prevailed 
to  avert  the  threatened  doom,  or  it  might  have  been  post- 
poned for  some  new  reasons ;  or  the  prophecy  might  have  been 
designed  as  a  trial  of  the  faith  of  believers,  like  the  demand 
for  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac.  In  the  course  of  time.  Bell  lost 
his  religious  ardor.  From  being  a  fanatic,  he  became  a 
skeptic;  he  turned  politician,  was  rampant  for  ultral  opin- 
ions, and  died  at  an  extreme  age  a  "  Radical  Reformer." 

Maxfield  gathered  round  him  the  alienated  members  of  the 
London  Society,  and  opened  an  independent  chapel  in  Moor- 
fields,  where  he  continued  to  labor  for  about  twenty  years. 
He  became  Calviliistic  in  his  opinions,  and  published  a  severe 
pamphlet  against  Wesley.  Some  of  the  Methodists  who 
seceded  with  him  continued  with  him  to  the  last,  but  most 
of  them  returned.^  Wesley  treated  him  throughout  this 
disturbance  with  extreme  forbearance,  and  when  he  chose 
the  alternative  of  preaching  for  the  followers  of  Bell,  rather 
than  for  the  Methodists  at  the  Foundry,  went  thither  himself 
from  Westminster,  and  preached  with  deep  affliction  from 
the  text,  ^'•If  I  am  bereaved  of  my  children  I  am  hereavedP 

If  Wesley's  treatm.ent  of  these  disturbances  was  at  first 
too  indulgent,  his  final  course  was  characteristically  decisive, 
and  soon  extinguished  the  evil.  He  then  went  forth  travers- 
ing the  land,  and  found  the  societies  flourishmg,  the  revival 
extending  into  many  new  places,  and  his  congregations  lai^ger 
than  ever  before.  In  some  towns  even  his  five  o'clock 
morning  assemblies  were  so  great  that  he  had  to  leave  the 
chapels  for  the  open  air.  'The  Birstal  hill  was  thronged 
with  twenty  thousand  hearers.  At  Leeds  his  out-door 
assembly  was  almost  as  large,  and  surpassed  all  preced- 
ing congregations  there.  At  Newcastle,  he  says,  he  knew 
8  Coke  and  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  II,  4. 


410  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

not  that  he  had  ever  preached  to  three  such  congregations  in 
one  day  as  met  him  at  the  outside  of  Pandon  Gate ;  he  was 
obliged  to  speak  to  the  utmost  reach  of  his  voice  from  the 
first  to  the  last  word.  On  Calton  Hill,  at  Edinburgh,  he 
addressed  the  largest  throng  he  had  ever  seen  in  the  king- 
dom, and  the  most  deeply  affected.  Throughout  Cornwall 
the  interest  of  preceding  years  was  unabated.  His  congre- 
gations, in  some  instances,  were  too  large  to  be  able  to  hear 
him,  and  in  his  favorite  amphitheater  at  Gwennap  he 
preached  to  thousands,  whom  he  supposed  no  human  voice 
could  reach  on  any  level  ground. 

In  Ireland  he  was  greeted  with  similar  encouragements. 
At  Cork  many  of  the  chief  of  the  citizens,  clergy  as  well  as 
laity,  were  present  at  his  street  preaching.  "  What  a 
change,"  he  writes ;  "  formerly  we  could  not  walk  through 
these  streets  but  at  the  peril  of  our  lives."  At  Kilfillan  nearly 
all  the  tow^n,  Irish,  English,  Germans,  Protestants  and  Pa- 
pists, gathered  around  him  in  the  market-place,  and  many 
followed  him  to  his  lodgings,  where  he  continued  to  pra}^ 
with  and  exhort  them  till  bedtime ;  and  the  next  day,  as 
early  as  four  o'clock,  the  "  to\vn  seemed  all  alive,"  and 
audible  sobs  and  ejaculations  were  heard  from  "  old  and 
young,  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left."  At  Limerick  he 
addressed,  "  amid  a  solemn  awe,"  the  largest  congregation  he 
had  ever  seen  there ;  and  in  Dublin  he  preached,  in  Barrack- 
square,  to  "such  a  congregation  as  he  never  saw  in  Dublin 
before."  "  What  a  change,"  he  adds,  "  since  Mr.  Whitefield 
a  few  years  ago  attempted  to  preach  near  this  place  !" 

He  visited  Scotland  several  times  during  this  period,  with 
better  success  than  in  former  years,  but  with  none  compar- 
able to  that  which  attended  him  in  other  parts  of  the  realm. 

Christopher  Hopper  had  not  labored  in  vain  in  Edinburgh. 
"  Many  poor  sinners,"  says  this  noted  lay  preacher,  "  were 
converted  to  God,"  and  a  society  was  formed.  He  extended 
his  labors  to  Dundee,  Musselburgh,  Leith,  Aberdeen,  and 
other  places,  and  when  Wesley  arrived  he  saw  a  better 
prospect  for  Methodism  in  the  North  than  at  any  earlier 


AEMINIAN    METHODISM:    iTeO-lTTO.       411 

period.^^  In  1764  the  society  at  Aberdeen  was  able  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  its  first  chapel,  "the  Octagon,"  as  the 
preaching-houses  were  then  called  from  their  peculiar  archi- 
tecture. The  next  year  a  similar  building  arose  at  Edin- 
burgh. A  Scotch  edition  of  Cudworth's  Letters  of  Hervey 
was  extensively  circulated,  and  damaged  the  influence  of 
Methodism  seriously.  The  devoted  lay  preachers,  attending 
to  their  one  work,  and  indisposed  to  waste  their  time  in 
polemics,  were  met  at  all  points  and  deeply  afflicted  by  the 
influence  of  this  unfortunate  book.  "  0,"  wrote  one  of  them, 
"  the  precious  convictions  which  these  letters  have  destroyed  ! 
Many  who  .have  often  declared  the  great  profit  they  have 
receive(J  under  our  m,inistry  were  by  these  induced  to  leave 
us.  This  makes  us  mourn  in  secret  places."  ^^  Hervey 
himself,  were  it  possible,  shared  their  mourning  in  heaven 
over  the  heedless  and  heartless  stratagem. 

The  opposition,  however,  gave  way,  though  slowly.  A 
new  champion  entered  the  field,  one  who  had  been  well  tried 
in  itinerant  labors  and  sufferings,  and  who  could  not  be  in- 
timidated by  the  adversities  which  so  peculiarly  beset 
Methodism  in  Scotland.  Thomas  Taylor  was  a  Yorkshire 
man,  a  fact  of  considerable  significance  in  the  history  of  a 
Methodist  preacher  of  those  days.  His  parents  died  in  his 
infancy  and  his  education  was  neglected.  He  was  early  of 
a  turbulent  and  daring  disposition.  At  seven  years  of  age 
he  was  habitually  profane  in  his  language,  and  being  of  a 
passionate  temper — "  O  that  I  could  wiite  this  in  tears  of 
blood,"  he  says — ^he  frequently  swore  "in  a  most  dreadful 
manner,"  nor  did  he  "  stick  at  lying."  One  of  his  brothers 
took  him  to  his  house  and  attempted  to  teach  him  the  busi- 
ness of  a  clothier;  but  he  disliked  work,  and  ran  away 
several  times,  suffering  severely  from  cold  and  hunger  in  his 
wanderings.  As  he  advanced  in  youth  his  evil  habits 
strengthened,  and  his  "mouth,  was  fraught  with  oaths,  lies, 
and  deceit"  He  became  a  dexterous  gambler,  and  having' 
much  pride  and  little  money,  was  the  more  intent  on  furnish- 

w  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  vol.  i.        "  Coke  and  Moore's  "Wesley, 


412  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

ing  himself  with  resources  by  that  art.  He  was,  in  fine,  on^ 
of  those  reckless  cases  of  early  vice  which  Methodism  alone 
seemed  at  that  day  adapted  to  reach.  Whitefield  passed 
through  his  neighborhood  about  his  seventeenth  year ;  there 
was  an  immense  multitude  of  hearers ;  the  great  preacher's 
"  voice  was  like  a  trumpet,"  and  the  discourse  was  attended 
with  "  an  amazing  power  "  to  the  conscience  of  young  Taylor, 
He  made  the  best  resolutions ;  but  they  soon  failed,  and  left 
him  in  such  wretchedness  that  he  sought  relief  by  attempting 
to  enlist  in  the  army,  but  fot'tuna.tely  he  was  half  an  inch  too 
short  for  the  standard  of  the  recruiting  service. 

He  afterward  heard  a  sermon  from  an  earnest  Independent 
preacher,  which  revived  and  sealed  upon  his  conscience  the 
impressions  of  Whitefield's  discourse.  While  under  deep 
religious  convictions  he  met  with  a  Methodist  layman,^  who 
maintained  a  public  meeting  in  his  own  house  every  Sunday 
evenmg,  and  who  instructed  him  respecting  his  religious 
duties.  His  reformation  was  at  once  visible  to  all,  but  he 
had  many  inward  conflicts  before  his  awakened  conscience 
found  rest.  While  in  retirement,  reading  his  Bible  and 
praymg,  one  evening,  he  was  enabled  to  apprehend  by  faith 
the  atonement.  "  I  saw,"  he  says,  "  the  Lord  hanging  upon 
the  cross,  and  the  sight  caused  such  love  to  flow  into  my 
soul  that  I  believed  that  moment,  and  have  never  since  given 
up  my  confidence.  I  was  enabled  to  cast  my  soul  upon  that 
atoning  sacrifice  which  I  saw  was  made  for  my  offenses."  ^^ 

Thus  introduced  into  the  Christian  life,  Thomas  Taylor 
soon  began  to  travel  about  Yoncshire,  preaching  the  Gospel 
to  rustic  assemblies,  as  John  Nelson  had  done  before  him. 
He  heard  Thomas  Hanby,  a  veteran  of  the  early  Methodist 
ministry,  and  was  so  impressed  by  the  evangelical  character 
of  his  preaching  and  the  heroism  of  the  "  Itinerancy,"  that  he 
resolved  to  join  it.  Walking  to  London,  he  was  received 
at  the  Conference  in  1761,  and  sent  into  Walfes.  Two  years 
he  traversed  the  mountains  of  the  Principality,  enduring 
hardships  from  hunger  and  cold,  from  journeys  among  bleak 
"  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  vol.  iii. 


ARMINIAK    METHODISM:    1760-1770.      413 

and  almost  trackless  hills  in  winter,  and  at  times  from  mobs ; 
but  his  success  was  great ;  he  formed  numerous  societies,  and 
proved  himself  one  of  the  best  of  the  Methodist  itinerant  host. 

In  1763  he  was  sent  to  Ireland,  where  he  labored  two 
years,  suffering  not  a  little  from  Papists  whose  tenets  his 
Yorkshire  hardihood  led  him  oO  attack  imprudently,  as  he 
c<)nfesses.  He  preached  abroad  in  towns  and  villages, 
sometimes  depending  upon  the  troops  for  protection.  His 
tare  was  often  very  hard,  and  he  lost  for  a  time  his  speech 
and  hearing,  and  came  near  losing  his  life,  through  sickness 
occasioned  by  sleeping  in  damp  beds.  At  Cork  he  w^as  es- 
pecially successful ;  he  preached  abroad  in  every  part  of  the 
city,  and  the  society  was  greatly  enlarged. 

During  his  laborious  ministry  thus  far  he  had,  by  his 
diligence  and  that  systematic  improvement  of  time  which 
Wesley  continually  enjoined  upon  his  preachers,  gathered  a 
large  amount  of  valuable  knowledge,  and  acquired  the  use 
of  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages. 

It  was  in  1765  that  he  entered  Scotland.  Wesley  sent 
him  to  introduce  Methodism  into  Glasgow.  Thoroughly 
tried  as  he  had  been  by  the  hardships  of  the  itinerant  ministry 
in  Wales  and  Ireland,  he  says  that  his  new  field  in  Scot- 
land presented  tests  severer  than  any  he  had  yet  known. 
The  winter  w^as  at  hand ;  he  was  in  a  strange  land ;  there 
was  no  society,  no  place  for  the  preacher's  entertainment, 
no  place  even  to  preach  in,  and  no  friend  to  consult.  He 
took  a,  private  lodging,  and  gave  out  that  he  would  preach 
on  the  Green,  a  public  resort  hard,  by  the  city.  A  table 
was  caTried  to  the  place,  and  at  the  appointed  time  he 
found  two  baker's  boys  and  two  old  women  waiting.  His 
soul  sunk  within  him.  He  had  traveled  by  land  and  by 
water,  near  six  hundred  miles,  to  this  city,  and  such  was  his 
congregation !  At  length,  however,  he  mounted  his  table 
and  began  the  singing,  which  he  had  entirely  to  himself  A 
few  more  hearers  crept  together,  all  seemingly  very  poor 
people,  till  at  length  he  had  about  two  hundred  around  him. 
His  natural  energy,  as  well  as  his  Christian  zeal,  was  not  to 


414  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

be  defeated,  and  the  night  followmg  he  had  a  more  promi^ 
ing  congregation.  The  third  night  it 'rained  violently  ;  this 
quite  cast  him  do^vn.  "  The  enemy,"  he  says,  "  assaulted 
me  sorely,  so  that  I  was  ready  to  cry  out,  '  It  is  better  for 
nie  to  die  than  to  live.'  But  God  pitied  my  weakness." 
The  next  day  the  sky  cleared  up,  and  he  took  the  field  again 
and  kept  it  steadily  every  day  for  about  three  months.  He 
soon  rallied  large  congregations,  and  on  one  occasion  the 
largest  assembly  he  had  ever  seen  gathered  to  hear  him. 
He  mounted  his  table,  but  found  it  too  low ;  a  chair  was 
then  set  upon  it,  but  even  this  did  not  enable  him  to  com- 
m.and  the  vast  multitude.  He  then  ascended  a  high  stone 
wall  and  cried  aloud,  "The  hour  is  coming,  and  now  is 
when  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God ;  and 
they  that  hear  shall  live."  He  conceived  great  hopes  from 
the  effects  of  this  appeal,  as  the  multitude  stood  rapt  in 
silence  and  attention;  but  when  he  concluded  he  was 
astonished  to  see  them  quietly  open  a  lane  for  him  through 
their  midst,  and  stand  calnily  staring  at  him  as  he  walked 
through  it,  no  one  inquiring,  "  Where  dwellest  thou  ?"  "  I 
walked  home,"  he  says,  "  much  dejected."  His  ardent 
Yorkshire  nature  could  not  at  first  interpret  this  Scotch 
■  apathy.  He  solved  the  problem  afterward,  however,  for 
he  discovered  that  the  most  important  part  of  a  Scotch- 
man's religion  is  his  creed,  and  the  popular  creed  was 
thoroughly  Calvinistic,  notwithstanding  Socinianism  pre- 
vailed among  the  upper  classes.  The  Scotch  wept  aloud  and 
fell  like  dead  men  under  Whitefield's  preaching,  for  White- 
field  was  a  good  Calvinist,  though  he  cared  little  about  the 
"  League  and  Covenant."  But  Wesley,  whose  preaching 
was  attended  in  England  with  more  such  phenomena  than 
Whitefield's,  was  powerless  among  them  except  to  command 
their  phlegmatic  attention. 

Hervey's  Eleven  Letters,  garbled  by  Cudworth,  met  Tay 
lor  at  Glasgow.  They  carried  gall  and  wormwood  wherever 
th6y  went.  Arminianism  was  a  fatal  heresy,  and  the  best  dis- 
posed  of  his  hearers  seemed  perplexed  with  the  difficult  prob- 


AEMIXIAN   METHODISM:   1760-17T0.      415 

lena  that  so  much  zeal  and  devotion  as  he  and  his  fellow- itin- 
erants showed  could  co-exist  with  such  amazing  heterodoxy. 

A  generous  instance  of  ministerial  conduct  involved  the 
persevering  Yorkshireman  in  still  greater  difficulties.  A 
Scotchman  was  condemned  for  murder ;  Taylor  visited  him 
in  prison,  and  attended  him  to  the  gallows,  where,  according 
to  the  barbarous  law  of  that  day,  the  unfortunate  man's 
right  hand  was  struck  off  with  an  ax,  and  attached  on  the 
gibbet  before  he  himself  was  suspended ;  Taylor  had  reason 
to  believe  that  "  the  Lord  had  plucked  him  as  a  brand  from 
the  burning,"  and  published  an  account  of  his  case.  The 
popular  theology  revolted  at  this  charity  for  a  penitent  naal- 
efactor.  "  It  is  amazing,"  says  the  itinerant,  "  what  a  cry 
was  raised  against  me  for  saying  that  God  had  m.ercy  on 
such  a  sinner."  Scurrilous  papers  were  cried  up  and  down 
the  streets  against  him,  and  a  zealous  Scot  commenced  a 
weekly  publication  to  oppose  him.  His  case,  he  says,  was 
now  deplorable,  for  he  had  famine  within  doors  and  plenty 
of  reproach  without.  He  was  compelled  to  practise  the 
closest  economy  to  save  himself  from  extreme  want.  He 
sold  his  horse  to  pay  for  his  lodging,  yet  he  shared  his  little 
stock  of  funds  with  a  poor  brother  preacher,  who,  passing 
through  Glasgow  for  Ireland,  had  lamed  his  own  horse,  and 
had  not  money  enough  left  to  bear  him  forward.  Tay- 
lor confesses  that  he  never  kept  so  many  fast  days  either 
before  or  afterward.  It  was  important,  but  next  to  impos- 
sible, for  him  to  keep  up  his  credit.  He  resorted  to  a  little 
artifice  to  do  so :  frequently  requesting  his  landlady  not 
to  prepare  his  humble  dinner,  he  would  dress  himself  bo- 
fore  noon  and  walk  out  till  after  dinner  time,  and  then 
return  to  his  "hungry  room  with  a  hungry  stomach,"  his 
hostess  supposing  he  had  dined  elsewhere. 

For  some  time  it  seemed,  indeed,  that  he  was  attem.pting  a 
hopeless  task.  The  severe  weather  was  approaching,  and  his 
funds  were  diminishing.  He  was  beset  also  with  characteris- 
tic examples  of  Scotch  economy,  which  confounded  his  own 
frugal  experiments.     Though  his  voice  was  poor  he  had  to  do 


416  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

his  singing  mostly  alone,  as  the  Scotch  did  not  know  the 
Methodist  hymns  or  tunes.  One  of  his  hearers  proposed 
to  become  his  precentor,  after  the  Kirk  custom,  and  "  lead 
the  psalms."  Taylor  supposed  it  was  an  act  of  Christian 
compassion,  and  the  experiment  proceeded  very  well  for  a 
time,  but  he  was  surprised  at  last  by  a  bill  from  his  precen- 
tor for  "thirteen  shillings  fourpence,  which  was  just  four- 
pence  a  time."  Taylor  dismissed  him  and  the  Scotch  psalms 
together,  and  began  again  to  sing  the  Methodist  melodies, 
"the  people  liking  them  right  well."  They  soon  became  fa- 
miliar, and  have  never  since  ceased  to  be  heard  in  Glasgow. 
A  few  stout  mobs  and  downright  persecutions  would  have 
suited  the  evangelist  better  than  these  vexatious  trials ;  but 
though  he  was  perplexed  he  could  not  be  discouraged.  Hv. 
continued  to  preach  in  the  streets  night  and  morning  till  tht^ 
November  weather  rendered  it  impossible.  Throngs  gath 
ered  to  hear  him,  to  scent  out  his  heresy  if  for  no  othei 
purpose;  but  some  were  awakened  and  converted,  and  at 
last  the  obstinate  opposition  gave  way  so  far  that  when  no 
longer  able  to  preach  abroad  a  room  was  provided  for  his 
meetings,  and  furnished  by  his  hearers  with  seats  and  a 
pulpit.  His  labors  now  began  to  yield  fruit;  his  friends 
continually  increased ;  the  Methodist  Society  of  Glasgow 
was  formed,  and  Methodism  founded  there,  never,  he  trust- 
ed, to  be  overthrown,  however  feebly  it  had  to  struggle 
against  the  formidable  odds  which  still  encompassed  it.  It 
is  a  curious  fact,  however,  that  not  till  the  society  had  in- 
creased to  forty  or  fifty  members  did  any  one  inquire  how 
he  was  maintained.  They  then  asked  him  if  he  had  an 
estate,  or  supplies  from  England.  "  I  told  them,"  he  says, 
"  I  had  neither ;  but  having  sold  my  horse,  I  had  made  what 
little  I  had  go  as  far  as  I  could.  I  then  explained  our  cus- 
tom to  them.  I  told  them  of  the  little  matter  we  usually 
received  from  our  people.  The  poor  souls  were  much 
affected,  and  they  very  liberally  supplied  my  wants,  as  also 
those  that  came  after  me."  He  labored  mightily  with  them 
during  the  ensuing  winter,  and  left  them  in  the  spring  with 


AEMINIAN    METHODISM:     1760-1770.        417 

seventy  members.  He  had  fought  a  good  fight,  and  he  had 
also  kept  his  faith,  for  during  the  severest  period  of  his  suf- 
ferings a  new  kirk  was  opened  in  Glasgow,  an  influential 
member  of  which  had  appreciated  his  fine  talents,  and  offered 
to  settle  him  as  its  pastor,  with  a  good  salary.  "  It  was," 
he  says,  "honor  and  credit  on  the  one  hand,  and  hunger  and 
contempt  on  the  other ;"  but  to  accept  it  appeared  a  "  be- 
trayal of  the  trust  which  was  reposed  in  him  "  by  his  breth- 
ren. The  sentiment  of  honor  was  higher  among  these  noble 
men  than  honor  itself 

Such  were  Thomas  Taylor's  "adventures"  in  Glasgow ;^''' 
such  the  history  of  the  origin  of  Methodism  in  that  city. 
He  went  elsewhere  in  Scotland,  laboring  for  some  years 
with  similar  trials  and  success.  At  Edinburgh  he  preached 
usually  in  the  "  Octagon  "  in  the  morning,  and  on  Castle  Hill 
in  the  evening.  Between  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  he  formed  a 
circuit,  including  Burrowstounness,  Linlithgow,  Falkirk,  and 
Kilsyth.  Thomas  Olivers  and  other  itinerants  came  to  his 
help,  and  through  many  obstacles  made  some  progress.^"* 

After  Taylor's  partial  success  in  Glasgow  the  Methodist 
itinerants  penetrated  to  the  Highlands,  and  at  his  next  visit 
Wesley  preached  at  Inverness,  where  a  society  was  formed 
which  continues  to  this  day.    His  reception  was  now  cordial 

'3  So  Soutliey  not  unjustly  calls  them.  He  refers  to  tiiem  with  his  usual 
invidiousness,  but  with  evident  admiration  of  the  heroic  Methodist. 

14  During  fifty-five  years  did  Taylor  pursue  his  itinerant  ministrations 
in  Scotland,  England,  Wales,  and  Ireland,  encountering  mobs,  founding 
societies,  and  enduring  all  kinds  of  hardships.  He  was  a  thorough  disci- 
plinarian, a  great  economist  of  time,  an  indefatigable  student,  and  a  pow- 
erful preacher.  He  was  among  the  first,  if  not  the  first  after  Wesley^s 
death  to  introduce  the  sacraments  among  the  Methodists,  and  to  break 
away  from  the  disadvantageous  custom  till  then  strictly  maintained  among 
their  societies,  (except  in  London,  where  Charles  Wesley  officiated  as  a 
Churchman,)  of  never  assembling  during  "Church  hours"  on  the  Sab- 
bath. He  was  nearly  eighty  years  old  when  he  died,  honored  and  beloved 
as  a  veteran  throughout  the  connection.  In  a  sermon  a  short  time  before 
Ills  decease  he  raised  his  venerable  form  in  the  pulpit,  and  said  with  great 
emphasis:  "I  should  like  to  die  like  an  old  soldier,  sword  in  hand." 
He  was  soon  after  found  dead  in  his  chamber.  IMontgomery's  well-kiaown 
ode,  "  Servant  of  God,  well  done,"  etc.,  was  writter  on  his  death. 

Vol.  I.-  -27 


418  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

everywhere,  and  his  "  High-Churchism "  had  so  f'lr  relaxed 
that  he  "  laid  aside  his  last  portion  of  bigotry,"  ^^  and  shared 
in  the  communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper  at  the  West  Kirk, 
Edinburgh.  At  a  subsequent  visit  the  magistrates  of  Perth 
and  Arbroath  conferred  upon  him  the  freedom  of  those  cities. 

In  1769  the  Methodist  preachers  pushed  their  labors 
with  much  energy  among  the  Highlanders.  Alexander  Mac- 
Nab,  followed  by  Duncan  Wright,  formed  many  classes. 
Wright  reacquired  the  Erse  language,  and  traveled  over  the 
country  preaching  from  town  to  town  three  times  a  day  in 
houses,  and  usually  once  a  day  in  the  open  air.  "Though 
by  this  means,"  he  writes,  "  I  had  many  an  aching  head  and 
pained  breast,  yet  it  was  delightful  to  see  hundreds  of  them 
attending  w^ith  streaming  eyes,  and  attention  still  as  night, 
or  to  hear  them  in  their  simple  way  singing  the  praises  of 
God  in  their  own  tongue.  If  ever  God  said  to  my  heart,  Go, 
and  I  will  be  with  thee,  it  was  then.  I  extol  the  name  of  my 
adorable  Master  that  my  labors  were  not  in  vain.  How 
gladly  would  I  have  spent  my  life  with  these  dear  souls." 

While  Wesley  and  his  fellow-laborers  were  thus  extend- 
ing their  cause  in  all  the  land,  they  were  called  to  bear,  dur 
ing  the  present  decade,  not  a  few  adversities  which  w^ere 
severer  than  any  local  inhospitalities  or  mobs.  The  societies 
were  in  many  places  distracted  by  disputes  respecting  the 
propriety  of  dissent  from  the  national  Church.  Members 
who  had  joined  them  from  among  Dissenters,  especially, 
could  not  approve  Wesley's  extreme  loyalty  to  the  Estab- 
lishment, which  still  disowned  and  often  persecuted  his  meas- 
ures and  his  people,  and  such  members  had  the  peculiar  in 
convenience  of  being  under  the  necessity  of  going  for  the 
sacraments  back  to  the  sects  which  they  had  left,  or  to  the 
Church,  which  many  of  them  had  never  attended.  Some  of 
his  preachers,  tired  out  by  his  persistence  in  this  question 
able  policy,  deserted  him  to  take  charge  of  independent 
churches,  where  they  could  maintain  their  self-respect  as  gen- 
uine ministers  of  the  Gospel  by  administering  the  sacraments 
i5  Coke  and  Moore's  Wesley,  III,  2. 


AEMINIAN    METHODISM:     1760-1770.      419 

to  their  hearers,  and  in  not  a  few  places. discontented  Meth- 
odists resorted  to  their  ministry. 

He  was  called  also  to  mourn  over  the  death  of  some  of 
his  most  esteemed  fellow-laborerfe.  In  1762  the  eccentric 
but  indefatigable  and  useful  Grimshaw  died  in  the  peace 
of  the  Gospel.  Wesley  felt  deeply  his  loss,  and  devotes 
several  pages  of  his  Jotirnal  to  an  affectionate  notice  of 
him — more  than  to  the  death  of  any  other  one  of  his 
friends.  "  In  sixteen  years,"  says  Wesley,  "  he  was  only 
once  suspended  from  his  labor  by  sickness,  though  he 
dared  all  weathers  upon  the  bleak  mountains,  and  used  his 
body  with  less  compassion  than  a  merciful  man  would 
use  his  beast.  His  soul  at  various  times  enjoyed  large 
manifestations  of  God's  love,  and  he  drank  deep  into  his 
Spirit.  His  cup  ran  over,  and  at  some  seasons  his  faith  was 
so  strong,  and  his  hope  so  abundantj  that  higher  degrees 
of  spiritual  delight  would  have  overpowered  his  mortal 
frame."  Besides  his  unusual  labors  in  his  own  parish,  he 
preached  about  three  hundred  times  a  year  in  other  places. 
He  fell  at  last  a  victim  to  his  pastoral  labors  during  an  epi- 
demic fever.  His  old  friend  Jeremiah  Robertshaw,  a  vet- 
eran Methodist  preacher,  approached  him  on  his  death-bed ; 
"  God  bless  you,  Jerry,"  he  said ;  "  I  will  pray  for  you  as 
long  as  I  live,  and  if  there  is  praying  in  heaven  I  will  pray 
for  you  there  also."  "  I  am  as  happy  as  I  can  be  on  earth," 
he  declared  to  another,  "  and  as  sure  of  glory  as  if  I  were  in 
it."  "  Here  goes  an  unprofitable  servant^''''  were  his  last 
and  characteristic  words.  It  would  have  been  impossible 
for  such  a  man  not  to  have  thrown  himself,  soul  and  body, 
into  the  Methodist  movement.  A  loyal  Churchman,  he  was 
imbued  nevertheless  with  the  catholic  spirit  of  Methodism. 
While  driving  about  his  circuits,  like  a  horseman  on  the  field 
of  battle,  he  co-operated  with  all  good  men  who  came  upon 
his  track.  "  I  love  Christians,"  he  used  to  say,  "  true  Chris- 
tians of  ail  parties ;  I  do  love  them,  I  will  love  them,  and 
none  shall  make  me  do  otherwise." 

At  his  own  request  his  remains  were  carried  to  the  res! 


420  HISTORY    OE    METHODISM. 

deuce  of  his  son  at  Ewood,  a  parish  of  Halifax,  where  they 
were  followed  by  a  vast  and  weeping  procession  to  Lndden- 
den  church.  According  to  his  dying  wish,  the  mourning  crowd 
sang  as  they  bore  his  corpse  along  on  the  highway.  Venn 
preached  his  funeral  sermon,  in  the  churchyard,  as  the  mul 
titude  could  not  be  accommodated  in  the  church.  He  re- 
peated  it  the  next  day  at  Haworth,  where  thousands  assem 
bled  from  all  the  neighboring  country,  and  wept  as  at  the 
death  of  a  parent.  Romaine  lamented  him  in  an  eloquent 
funeral  discourse  at  St.  Dunstan's,  in  London.  Both  Caivm- 
istic  and  Arminian  Methodists  universally  felt  that  a  prince 
and  a  great  man  had  fallen  in  Israel. ^^ 

In  1764  died  John  Manners,  a  humble  laborer  w^ho  had 
spent  five  years  of  great  usefulness  in  the  lay  ministry. 
Wesley  said  that  he  seemed  expressly  raised  up  for  the  ex- 
traordinary revivals  of  1760,  1761,  and  1762.  During  these 
three  years  he  preached  in  Dublin,  amid  a  religious  interest 
seldom  or  never  equaled  in  that  city.  He  was  not  eloquent, 
but  rather  rude  in  speech,  yet  he  labored  with  his  might,  and 
walked  intimately  with  God.  "  The  way  is  quite  clear,"  he 
said,  as  he  descended  into  the  valley  and  shadow  of  death. 
"My  soul  is  at  liberty." i^ 

The  next  year  Alexander  Coates,  the  oldest  lay  preacher 
then  in  the  Connection,  departed  to  his  rest,  venerable  with 
years  and  usefulness.  He  had  preached  about  a  quarter 
of  a  century.  His  pulpit  talents  are  said  to  have  been 
very  extraordinary ;  he  was  exceedingly  popular,  and  his 
conversation  "  wonderfully  pleasant  and  instructive."  He 
always    called    Christ    his    "  Master."      He   was   one   of 

16  He  left  an  only  son,  who,  notwithstanding  his  strict  religious  educa- 
tion at  Wesley's  school  in  Kingswood,  became  a  drunkard.  He  revered, 
however,  the  example  of  his  parent's  piety.  While  riding  home  drunk 
on  the  old  circuit  horse  of  his  deceased  father,  he  used  to  say,  "  Once 
thou  carried  a  saint,  but  now  thou  carriest  a  devil."  Such  recollections 
and  the  many  prayers  that  ascended  for  him  at  last  prevailed.  He  re- 
pented with  bitter  anguish,  and  died  exclaiming,  "  What  will  my  father 
say  when  he  sees  that  I  have  got  to  heaven?" 

"  Myles's  Chronological  Histoiy  of  the  Methodists,  chap.  4. 


ARMINIAN    METHODISM:     1760-1770.      421 

kke  many  humble  founders  of  Methodism,  who  left  no 
account  of  their  laborious  lives,  but  whose  record  is  on 
high.  One  of  his  brethren  inquired,  a  short  time  before  he 
ceased  to  breathe,  if  he  had  followed  cunninglj  devised 
fables  I  "  No !  no !  no  !"  was  his  emphatic  reply,  "  Do 
you  see  iandf  he  was  then  asked.  "Yes,  I  do,"  he  an- 
swered, and  "after  waiting  a  few  moments  at  anchor,  he  put 
into  tlie  quiet  harbor."  His  old  friend  and  faithful  co-laborer, 
Christopher  Hopper,  says,  v^ith  an  affection  and  pathos  which 
only  such  fellow-laborers  and  fellow-sufferers  could  feel,  "  I 
saw  him  fall  asleep  in  the  arms  of  our  adorable  Saviour 
without  a  doubt  Farewell,  my  brother,  for  a  season.  But 
we  shall  meet  again  to  part  no  more."  ^^ 

Wesley  continued  to  be  attacked  with  fierceness  through 
the  press.  He  had  effectually  answered  Lavington ;  during 
the  present  period  he  replied  to  a  more  able  and  influential 
prelate,  Warburton,  bishop  of  Worcester.  Warburton  had 
assailed  him  in  a  tract  "  On  the  Office  and  Operations  of 
the  Holy  Spirit"  It  was  remarkable  chiefly  for  its  per- 
sonal misrepresentations  of  Wesley,  and  the  indication 
which  it  affords  of  the  low  standard  of  religious  opinion  at 
the  time  among  the  highest  functionaries  of  the  national 
Church.  The  bishop's  theology  appears  but  little  above 
the  ethics  of  natural  religion.  He  cites  whatever  his  ration- 
alistic sagacity  could  detect  in  Wesley's  writings  as  liable 
to  be  construed  into  credulity  or  enthusiasm ;  and  the 
frankness  with  which  Wesley  recorded  extraordinary  facts, 
afforded  abundant  m.aterials  for  his  invidious  purpose. ^^ 

Wesley  is  classed  as  "special  among  modern  fanatics," 

19  Wesley's  Journal,  Anno  1765 ;  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  vol.  1. 

19  It  is  noticeable  that  Wesley  records  in  but  comparatively  few  instances, 
bis  own  opinion  of  the  many  marvels  related  in  his  Journal.  Never  was 
a  more  Baconian  record  made  of  such  phenomena;  they  are  usually 
given  circumstantially  as  facts,  for  the  examination  of  the  learned  or  the 
curious,  and  are  of  no  small  value  in  this  respect.  He  has,  however, 
given  us  sufficient  evidence  of  his  belief  respecting  supernatural  agency 
in  physical  phenomena;  this  fact  has  already  been  shown  m  the  text, 
and  will  be  further  examined  in  its  appropriate  place. 


422  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

and  as  "  claiming  almost  every  apostolic  gift  in  as  full 
and  ample  a  manner  as  tliey  were  possessed  of  old." 
His  reply  not  only  "  fairly  meets  the  attack,"  as 
Souttiey  admits,2^  but  fairly  refutes  it  in  the  most  essen- 
tial points.  Wesley  could  not,  either  as  a  Christian  or  as 
a  philosopher,  agree  with  the  prelate's  Deistical  views  of 
Scriptural  phenomena,  and  contends,  with  what  his  friends 
should  esteem  admirable  frankness,  though  his  enemies 
would  call  it  weakness,  for  several  remarkable  facts  which 
he  had  recorded,  and  which  Warburton  condemned  as  im- 
possible, unless  they  were  miraculous,  and  incredible  if 
they  were  claimed  to  be  so.  Wesley  was  vague  if  not 
contradictory  in  his  judgment  respecting  the  swoons  and 
convulsions  of  his  hearers  at  Bristol,  Newcastle,  and  other 
places.  He  w^as,  as  has  been  showii,  not  a  little  perplexed 
by  them.  At  Newcastle  he  ascribed  them  mostly,  if  not 
entirely,  to  demoniacal  agency.  At  Everton  he  seems  to 
have  supposed  some  of  them  to  be  the  effect  of  di"sdne 
influence.  Warburton  had  advantao;e  from  these  facts  ;  but 
the  phenomena  were  new  to  Wesley ;  they  have  been  more 
common  in  our  day,  yet  even  our  later  science  is  baffled  by 
them.  Wesley's  "  Letter "  to  the  bishop  was  long  and 
elaborate,  and  remarkable  for  its  candor  and  respectfulness. 
It  is  a  fine  example  of  both  his  style  and  logic,  though  it 
consists  chiefly  of  citations  and  concise  comments. 

Fletcher  was  zealously  at  work  during  the  present 
period.  He  had  joined  a  Methodist  class  in  London,  and 
his  first  public  exercise,  after  his  ordination,  had  been,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  one  of  Wesley's  chapels.  He  continued 
some  time  in  the  metropolis  assisting  Wesley,  and  preach- 
ing and  administering  the  Lord's  Supper  at  Lady  Hunt- 
ingdon's mansion.  On  returning  to  Tern  Hall,  Shropshire, 
his  liberal  patron,  in  whose  family  he  had  been  tutor, 
offered  him  the  living  of  Dunham;  the  parish  was  small, 
its  labor  light,  and  its  income  good  being  £400.  But 
Fletcher  had  previously  preached  several  times  in  the 
20  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  24. 


ARMINIAK    METHODISM:     1760-1770.      423 

populous  and  degraded  parish  of  Madeley,  and  had  con- 
ceived such  sympathy  for  its  wretched  inhabitants  that  he 
declined  the  offer  of  Dunham  as  affording  "  too  much  money 
and  too  little  work."  His  patron  then  proposed  to  give 
Dunham  to  the  vicar  of  Madeley,  and  secure  the  latter  for 
him.  He  thus,  by  an  act  of  self-sacrifice,  became  settled  in 
the  obscure  parish  which  his  name  has  rendered  familiar  in 
all  the  Protestant  world.  Few  places  in  England  needed 
more  the  labors  of  such  a  man.  It  was  a  region  of  mines 
and  manufactures.  Its  population  was  debased,  and  its 
congregation  small.  For  months  he  went  about  his  parish 
early  on  the  Sabbath  morning,  with  a  bell  in  his  hand,  to 
awake  such  parishioners  as  excused  their  neglect  of  worship 
by  alleging  that  they  could  not  wake  early  enough  to 
prepare  their  families  for  the  service.  The  vicious  began 
to  be  reclaimed,  and  persecutions  arose.  Sometinaes  his 
public  services  were  interrupted  by  outbreaks  of  scurrilous 
language  from  offended  hearers.  A  bull-bait  was  attempted 
on  one  occasion,  near  the  spot  where  he  had  announced  a 
public  service,  and  a  part  of  the  rabble  was  appointed  to 
"bait  the  parson;  to  pull  him  from  his  horse,  and  to  set 
the  dogs  upon  him."  He  escaped  only  by  a  providential 
detention  at  the  funeral  of  a  parishioner.  His  preaching 
against  drunkenness  aroused  all  the  malt  Inen  and  publicans 
of  the  town  against  him.  A  magistrate  threatened  him 
with  his  cane  and  with  imprisonm.ent,  and  many  of  the 
neighboring  gentry  and  clergy  joined  his  persecutors. 
A  clergyman  posted  on  the  church  door  a  paper,  charging 
him  with  schism  and  rebellion.  Some  of  his  friends  were 
arrested.  He  was,  in  fine,  subjected  to  the  usual  treatment 
of  the  Methodist  clergy  of  the  times,  and  he  labored  with 
their  usual  zeal  and  success.  Like  Grimshaw  and  Berridge, 
Tliompson  and  Venn,  he  established' preaching  appointments, 
at  Madeley  Wood,  at  Coalbrook  Dale,  and  most  other 
places  within  ten  miles  of  his  parish,  and  Madeley  became, 
like  Haworth,  Everton,  St.  Gennis,  and  Huddersfield,  a 
radiating  point  of  Methodist  influence  and  labors  for  the 


424  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

whole  region  around  it.  With  incessant  preaching  he  com 
bined  the  most  diligent  pastoral  labors.  He  went  from 
house  to  house,  sympathizing  with  the  afflicted,  helping  the 
poor,  ministering  to  the  sick,  and  admonishing  the  vicious. 
His  liberality  to  the  poor  is  said,  by  his  successor  in  the 
parish,  to  have  been  scarcely  credible^}  He  led  a  life  of 
severe  abstinence  that  he  might  feed  the  hungry ;  he 
clothed  himself  in  cheap  attire,  that  he  might  clothe  the 
naked ;  he  sometimes  unfurnished  his  house  that  he  might 
supply  suffering  families  with  necessary  articles.  Thus 
devoted  to  his  holy  office,  he  soon  changed  the  tide  of 
opposition  which  had  raged  against  him,  and  won  the 
reverence  and  admiration  of  his  people,  and  many  looked 
upon  their  homes  as  consecrated  by  his  visits. 

His  preaching  is  described  as  greatly  effective.  He  spoke 
the  English  language  not  only  with  correctness,  but  with  elo- 
quence. There  was,  says  Gilpin,  who  heard  him  often,  an 
energy  in  his  discourse  which  was  irresistible ;  to  hear  him 
without  admiration  was  impossible.  Powerful  as  are  his 
writings,  his  preaching  was  mightier;  his  "living  word  soared 
with  an  eagle's  flight ;  he  basked  in  the  sun,  carried  his  young 
ones  on  his  wings,  and  seized  the  prey  for  his  Master." 

Meanwhile  his  devout  habit  of  mind  quickly  matured 
into  saintliness  itself.  We  look  in  vain  through  the  records 
of  Roman  or  Protestant  piety  for  a  more  perfect  example 
of  the  consecration  of  the  whole  life,  inward  and  outward. 
For  a  time  he  erred  by  his  asceticism,  living  on  vegetables 
and  bread,  and  devoting  two  whole  nights  each  week  to 
meditation  and  prayer,  errors  which  he  afterward  acknow- 
ledged. He  received  Wesley's  doctrine  of  Perfection,  and 
not  only  wrote  in  its  defense,  but  exemplified  it  through  a 
jife  of  purity,  charity,  and  labor,  which  was  as  faultless, 
perhaps,  as  was  ever  lived  by  mortal  man. 22  Even  in 
theological  controversy  his  spirit  was  never  impeachable. 

21  Gilpin's  Biographical  Notes  in  Fletcher's  "Portrait  of  St.  Paul." 
32  Southey  says  :  "  No  age  or  country  has  ever  produced  a  man  of  more 

fervent  piety  or  more  perfect  charity ;  no  Church  has  ever  possessed  a 

more  apostolic  minister."     Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  25. 


AEMINIAN    METHODISM:    1760-1770,      425 

"Sir,  he  was  a  luminary,"  said  Venn  to  a  brother  clergy- 
man ;  "  a  luminary,  did  I  say '?  He  was  a  sun.''''  "  I  have 
known,"  he  added,  "  all'  the  great  men  for  these  fifty  years, 
but  I  have  known  none  like  him."  ^3 

It  was  during  our  present  period  (in  1768)  that  the  theo- 
logical school  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  at  Trevecca,  was  opened, 
and  Fletcher  appointed  to  its  presidency.  Benson,  the 
Methodist  commentator,  and  its  head  master,  says  that 
Fletcher  was  received  there  at  his  frequent  visits  as  an 
angel  of  God.  Sober  and  reserved  as  was  the  usual  style 
of  Benson,  his  pen  glows  when  he  writes  of  those  occasions. 
"The  reader,"  he  says,  "will  pardon  me  if  he  thinks  I 
exceed ;  my  heart  kindles  while  I  write.  Here  it  was  that 
I  saw,  shall  I  say,  an  angel  in  human  flesh  1  I  should  not 
far  exceed  the  truth  if  I  said  so.  But  here  I  saw  a  descend- 
ant of  fallen  Adam  so  fully  raised  above  the  ruins  of  the 
fall,  that  though  by  the  body  he  was  tied  down  to  earth,  yet 
was  his  whole  conversation  in  heaven  ;  yet  was  his  life  from 
day  to  day  hid.  with  Christ  in  God.  Prayer,  praise,  love, 
and  zeal,  all  ardent,  elevated  above  what  one  would  think 
attainable  in  this  state  of  frailty,  were  the  elements  in  which 
he  continually  lived.  Languages,  arts,  sciences,  grammar, 
rhetoric,  logic,  even  divinity  itself,  as  it  is  called,  were 
all  laid  aside  when  he  appeared  in  the  school-room  among 
the  students.  And  they  seldom  hearkened  long  before  they 
were  all  in  tears,  and  every  heart  caught  fire  from  the  flame 
that  burned  in  his  soul." 

Closing  these  addresses,  he  would  say  :  "  As  many  of  you 
as  are  athirst  for  the  fullness  of  the  spirit  of  God  follow  me 
into  my  room."  Many  usually  hastened  thither,  and  it  was 
like  going  into  the  Holiest  of  Holies.  Two  or  three  hours 
were  spent  there  in  such  prevailing  prayer  as  seemed  to 
bring  heaven  down  to  earth.  "Indeed,"  says  Benson,  "I 
frequently  thought,  while  attending  to  his  heavenly  discourse 
and  divine  spirit,  that  he  was  so  different  from,  and  superior 
to,  the  generality  of  mankind,  as  to  look  more  like  Moses 
25  Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  chap.  30. 


420  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

or  Elijah,  or  some  prophet  or  apostle  come  again  from  th(3' 
dead,  than  a  mortal  man  dwelling  in  a  house  of  clay !" 

Besides  his  labors  in  Madeley  and  the  region  round  about, 
and  his  important  services  among  the  ministerial  candidates 
at  Trevecca,  Fletcher  made  preaching  visits  to  London,  Bath, 
Kingswood,  Bristol,  Wales,  and  Yorkshire.  He  sometimes 
accompanied  Wesley  and  Lady  Huntingdon  in  their  travels, 
attended  the  annual  Conferences,  was  indefatigable  in  the  use 
of  his  pen  for  the  promotion  of  Methodism,  and  took  rank 
as  one  of  its  most  conspicuous  representatives.  Madeley 
became  one  of  Wesley's  favorite  stopping  places  in  his  min- 
isterial travels.  The  church  could  not  contain  the  congrega- 
tion which  flocked  to  hear  him  there,  and,  as  in  his  visits 
to  Grimshaw,  at  Haworth,  he  had  to  stand  on  a  platform  in 
one  of  its  windows,  preaching  to  them  within  and  without. 
"  I  found,"  he  says  on  one  of  his  visits,  "  employment  enough 
for  the  intermediate  hours  in  praying  with  various  compa- 
nies who  hung  about  the  house,  insatiably  hungering  and 
thirsting  after  the  good  word.  Mr.  Grimshaw,  at  his  first 
coming  to  Haworth,  "had  not  such  a  prospect  as  this.  There 
are  many  adversaries  indeed,  but  yet  they  cannot  shut  the 
open  and  effectual  door." 

Wesley  had  passed,  during  the  present  decade,  through 
many  trials :  domestic  troubles  Avhich  would  have  made 
life  a  burden  to  most  men ;  disturbances  in  some  of  his  soci- 
eties which  had  thus  far  no  parallel  in  their  history ;  perse- 
cutions from  the  mob  which,  if  less  severe  toward  himself 
personally,  were  more  so  toward  his  lay  preachers  than 
ever ;  and  travels  and  labors  which  surpassed  those  of  any 
preceding  years  of  his  life.  But  he  closed  this  period,  at  the 
Conference  of  1770,  wdth  results  and  prospects  such  as  had 
never  before  cheered  him.  He  could  hardly  now  fail  to 
perceive  that  Methodism  was  to  be  a  permanent  fact  in  the 
religious  history  of  his  country.  Without  design  on  his 
part,  its  disciplinary  system  had  developed  into  consistency 
and  strength;  its  chapels  dotted  the  land;  its  ministerial 
plans  formed  a  net-work  of  religious  labors  which  extended 


ARMIJSTIAN    METHODISM:    1760-1770.      427 

over  England,  Wales,  Ireland,  a  part  of  Scotland,  and  reached 
even  to  North  Americ^and  the  West  India  islands.  Seven 
years  before,  when  the  number  of  its  circuits  was  first  re 
corded,  thej  were  but  thirty-one;  they  now  amounted  to 
(ifty.  Its  corps  of  lay  itinerants  included  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  m.en,  besides  as  many,  perhaps  more,  local 
preachers,  who  were  usually  diligent  laborers  in  their 
sectional  spheres.  The  membership  of  its  societies  was 
nearly  thirty  thousand  strong. 

Toward  the  close  of  this  period  he  was  further  cheered 
by  an  extraordinary  opportunity  for  the  enlargement  of  his 
great  work,  one  which  has  been  attended  with  its  grandest 
results.  A  new  sign  appeared  in  the  western  sky,  and  was 
hailed  by  the  Conference  with  thanksgiving,  with  prayers, 
and  contributions  of  men  and  of  money.  The  little  colonies 
of  German  "Palatines,"  which  Methodism  had  redeemed 
from  gross  demoralization  in  Ireland,  had  been  mostly  dis- 
persed. Wesley,  as  he  year  after  year  passed  over  that 
country,  lamented  their  gradual  disappearance,  but  he  saw 
not  then  the  special  design  which  divine  Providence  was  to 
accomplish  by  them.  In  1760  some  of  them,  among  whom 
was  Philip  Embury,  emigrated  to  New  York.^* "  Subsequently 
another  company  arrived,  among  whom  was  Barbara  Heck,^^ 
through  whose  instrumentality  Embury  and  his  Methodist 
associates  were  led,  in  1765,  to  resume  in  the  New  World 
tlie  Methodistic  discipline  and  labors  which  they  had  adopted 
in  Ireland.  Some  years  before  Captain  Webb,  of  the  British 
army,  had  been  converted  under  Wesley's  preaching  in  Bris- 
tol-. Wesley  had  a  strong  regard  for  military  men ;  he 
liked  authority,  obedience,  methodical  habits,  and  courage ; 
he  found  that  soldiers  had  made  good  Methodists  in  Ireland 

24  Not  1765,  as  heretofore  stated  in  Methodist  publications.  See  letter 
to  the  author  from  Dr.  G.  C.  M.  Eoberts,  of  Baltimore,  in  the  Christian 
Advocate  and  Journal  for  Sept.  2,  1858. 

2«  Not  Hick,  as  she  is  called  in  all  former  Methodist  books  which  men- 
tion her.  The  Heck  family  emigrated  to  Canada,  and  retain  the  orig- 
inal name. 


428  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

and  Scotland,  as  well  as  in  Flanders,  and  that  Methodist 
soldiers  made  good  preachers,  and  especially  good  disciplin 
ariaiis,  as  in  the  example  of  John  flaime,  Sampson  Stani- 
forth,  Duncan  Wright,  and  others.^^  Captain,  then  Lieu- 
tenant Webb  was  therefore  soon  licensed  by  him  as  a 
local  preacher.  Being  sent  on  military  duty  to  New 
York,  he  preached  in  his  uniform,  and  with  great  suc- 
cess, for  the  newly-organized  society.  He  sent  a  call 
to  Wesley  for  preachers,  two  of  whom  were  dispatched 
from  the  Conference  of  1769.  Previous  to  the  Confer- 
ence of  1770  Wesley  received  letters  from  these  mes- 
sengers, reporting  a  society  in  New  York  of  about  one 
hundred  members,  and  a  chapel  which  accommodated 
seven  hundred  hearers,  and  yet  only  a  third  part  of  those 
who  crowded  to  the  preaching  could  get  in.  "There  ap- 
pears," wrote«one  of  the  newly-arrived  preachers,  "such  a 
willingness  in  America  to  hear  the  word  as  I  never  saw"  be- 
fore." 27  Whitefield  had  spread  the  influence  of  the  Method- 
ist revival  in  the  American  Churches  from  Maine  to  Georgia, 
but  his  mission  was  ending,  he  was  dying  in  New  England. 
The  great  work  of  Arminian  Methodism  in  the  New  World 
had  begun,  and  already  two  young  men,  Francis  Asbury 
and  Richard  Whatcoat,  who  were  to  be  among  its  earliest 
bishops,  were  traveling  circuits  in  England. 

26  "Wesley  advised  the  Methodists  to  learn  the  military  exercise,  that 
they  might  the  better  defend  their  country  when  the  French  threatened 
to  invade  it  in  1756.  (Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  20.)  He  made  an 
offer  to  the  Government,  "  when  the  kingdom  was  in  imminent  danger," 
to  raise  troops  among  his  people.  ("Works,  vol.  vii.  p.  81.)  He  was  a 
stanch  English  patriot,  and  believing  that  fighting  was  sometimes  necessary, 
believed  also  that  none  were  fit  for  it  but  such  as  were  fit  to  die.  Like 
Uncle  Toby,  he  thought  soldiers,  above  all  other  men,  should  be  saints. 

27  See  the  correspondence  of  Pilmoor  and  Boardman,  in  Coke  and 
Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  III,  3. 


CONFEREKCES    FROM    1760    TO    IVTO,      4:29 


CHAPTER  YI. 

CO]S"FERE]N^GES    FROM    1760    TO    177 0. 

The  Greek  Bishop,  Erasmus  —  Wesley's  Proposition  of  Union  with  Evan- 
gelical Clergymen — Twelve  of  them  meet  at  the  Conference  of  1764 

—  They  decline  his  Terms  —  Proceedings  of  the  Session  of  1765  —  Tick- 
ketS  —  First  Temperance  Societies  —  Reports  of  Members  first  made  in 
1766  —  Wesley's  Views  of  his  own  Authority  —  He  requires  his  Preach- 
ers to  Study  —  Whitefield,  Howell  Harris,  and  Laymen  present  at  the 
Session  of  1767  —  Its  Statistics  —  The  Circulation  of  Books — Term 
of  Circuit   Appointments  —  The   Conference  of  1768  —  Its   Statistics 

—  The  Preachers  required  to  abandon  secular  Business  —  John  Nelson 
and  William  Shent  —  Origin  of  Methodism  at  Leeds — Books — Field 
Preaching  —  Early  Rising  —  Sanctifl cation  —  Session  of  1769  —  Preach- 
ers sent  to  America — First  Provision  for  Preachers'  Wives — Wesley 
laments  the  Unwillingness  of  the  Regular  Clergy  to  co-operate  with 
him  —  He  proposes  a  Plan  for  the  Perpetuation  of  his  Lay  Ministry 

—  Session  of  1770 — Its  Minute  on  Calvinism. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  no  Mmutes  remahi  of  the 
Conferences  held  in  the  present  decade  before  the  year 
1765.  Of  the  session  of  August  29,  1760,  Wesley  gives 
but  a  passing  intimation  in  his  Journal.  His  allusion 
to  that  of  September  1,  1761,  is  but  a  sentence.  That  of 
August  9,  1762,  was  held  at  Leeds. ^  It  is  an  interesting 
proof  of  the  mutual  good  understanding  of  the  Calvin- 
istic  and  Arminian  Methodists,  that  most  of  the  leaders  of 
the  former  were  present  with  Wesley  at  this  Conference. 
Lady  Huntingdon,  Whitefield,  Romaine,  Madan,  and  Venn 
attended  it.^  Wesley  only  says  of  it:  "Our  Conference 
began  on  Tuesday  morning,  and  we  had  great  reason  to 
bless  God  for  his  gracious  presence  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end."     It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  demand  of  both 

1  Not  at  Bristol,  as  Smith  says  :    History  of  Methodism,  II,  3.    See 
Wesley's  Journal,  and  Myles's  Chronological  History,  chap.  §. 

2  Life  and  Times  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  chap.  17. 


4r>0  HISTORY  OF   methodis:m. 

people  and  preachers  for  a  more  general  administration  of 
the  sacraments  in  their  societies  had  by  this  time  become 
still  more  urgent,  for  early  in  the  next  year  Wesley  obtained 
the  ordination  of  Dr.  Jones,  one  of  his  preachers,  and  classi 
cal  teacher  at  Kingswaod  school,  from  a  Greek  bishop  by 
the  name  of  Erasmus,  who  was  traveling  at  the  time  in  En- 
gland. Several  other  lay  preachers  received  ordination  from 
him  also,  and  some  clamor  arose  from  the  fact,  but  their 
sufficient  apology  was  that  the  prelates  of  the  national 
Church  still  refused  them  this  courtesy. ^  Charles  Wesley, 
however,  would  not  recognize  the  ordination  of  Dr.  Jones, 
nor  share  with  him  in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments. 
Jones,  who  was  a  man  of  piety  and  learning,  was  justly 
offended  by  this  ungenerous  treatment,  and  left  the  Connection. 
The  Conference  of  July  19,  1763,  was  held  at  London, 
amid  the  ferment  occasioned  by  Maxfield's  secession.  "  It 
was  a  great  blessing,"  says  Wesley,  "that  we  had  peace 
among  ourselves,  while  so  many  were  making  themselves 
ready  for  battle."  The  circuits  now  numbered  twenty 
in  England,  two  in  Scotland,  two  in  Wales,  and  seven  in 
Ireland;  in  all  thirty-one.  At  this  session  the  first  pro- 
vision for  "  old,  worn-out  preachers "  was  made,  by  the 
establishment  of  a  general  fund,  to  which  each  preachei 
contributed   ten  shillings.      It  was   the  beginning  of  that 

3  Toplady  attacked  Wesley  severely  on  this  occasion.  Thomas  Ohversi 
conclusively  answered  the  attack.  See  Myles's  Chron,  History,  chap.  8. 
Southey  affects,  without  reason,  to  doubt  the  episcopal  character  of  Eras- 
mus. It  was  satisfactorily  ascertained  by  Wesley  before  the  ordinations. 
Compare  notes  to  Southey's  Wesley,  chap.  26,  with  Myles,  as  above.  It 
is  one  of  the  characteristic  blunders  of  the  author  of  "  The  Life  and  Times 
of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon"  that  he  says  :  "  Wesley  was  accused  of 
a  breach  of  the  oath  of  supremacy  by  thus  availing  himself  of  the  powers 
of  a  foreign  prelate  ;  and  accused  also  of  pressing  the  prelate  to  maktj 
him — Wesley —  a  bishop.  The  former  charge  was  denied  by  Mr.  Olivers.^ 
and  the  latter  justified,"  etc.  This  statement  is  absolutely  false ;  Olivers 
denied  the  latter  accusation  on  the  authority  of  Wesley.  Wesley  himself, 
in  reply  to  an  attack  from  Eowland  Hill,  declared :  "  I  never  entreated  any- 
thing from  Bishop  Erasmus,  who  had  abundant  unexceptionable  creden- 
tials as  to  his  episcopal  character.  Nor  did  he  ever  '  reject  any  overture  * 
made  by  me.  Herein  Mr.  Hill  has  been  misinformed.  I  deny  the  tact.; 
let  him  produce  the  evidence."     Works,  vol.  vi,  p.  196. 


CONFERENCES    FROM    1760    TO    ITTO.       431 

series   of  " Connectional  Funds"  which  has  since  "become 
so  extended  and  effective  among  British  Methodists.* 

To  the  session  of  August  6,  1764,  Wesley  devotes  but 
three  brief  sentences  in  his  Journal.  "The  great  point," 
he  says,  "  I  now  labored  for,  was  a  good  understanding  with 
our  brethren  of  the  clergy  who  were  heartily  engaged  in 
propagating  vital  religion."  Seven  years  before.  Walker, 
of  Truro,  a  devout  man  but  rigid  Churchman,  had  proposed 
that  he  should  abandon  all  his  societies  in  parishes  over 
which  evangelical  clergymen  presided.  Wesley's  good  sense 
led  him  to  see  that  this  course  would  soon  result  in  their 
extinction,  and  the  defeat  of  the  great  work  for  which  God 
had  thrust  him  out.  He  desired  their  continued  connection 
with  the  Church ;  he  desired  the  co-operation  of  pious  cler- 
gymen in  their  local  management,  for  thereby  he  could 
secure  the  sacraments  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  most  of 
them,  but  he  could  not  abandon  his  own  responsibility  for 
them ;  for  how  few  of  even  the  evangelical  clergy,  if  disposed, 
were  capable  of  sustaining  them  in  the  special  work  to  which 
they  were  providentially  designated,  and  what  certainty 
could  he  have  that  their  successors  would  do  so  1  He  there- 
fore declined  the  proposition  of  Walker.  A  more  prudent 
and  important  act  had  hardly  occurred  in  his  history.  He 
was,  however,  still  intent  on  the  union  of  all  evangelical  . 
clergymen  in  the  great  revival  which  he  was  conducting, 
and  on  the  steadfast  union  of  his  people  with  the  Church. 
He  therefore  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  many  of  the  most 
evangelical  clergy  of  the  Establishment,  proposing,  not  any 
concession  of  opinions,  for  "  they  might  agree  or  disagree 
touching  absolute  decrees  on  the  one  hand  and  perfection 
on  the  other,"  but  a  more  catholic  spirit,  and  better  co-oper« 
ation  with  him,  as  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  in 

*  It  was  during  this  year  that  the  Minutes  of  preceding  Conferences  from 
1748  "were  compiled  and  placed  in  the  "  Octavo  Minutes,"  with  the  date 
of  1749,  (see  page  212,)  a  fact  which  has  inextricably  confused  their  data. 
1  have  chosen,  therefore,  to  use  whatever  material  they  may  afford  for  the 
historical  illustration  of  Methodism,  in  distinct  chapters  on  its  doctrines 
and  economy. 


432  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

the  spread  of  true  religion  throughout  the  land.^  It  is  to 
this  correspondence  that  he  refers  in  the  brief  allusion  of  his 
Journal  to  the  present  Conference.  Though  only  three  cler 
gymen  had  responded  to  his  overtures,  no  less  than  twelve 
met  him  at  the  session,  but  not  in  the  catholic  spirit  which 
he  himself  had  manifested.  They  insisted,  in  fine,  upon  the 
very  course  which  Walker  had  proposed  and  Wesley  had 
rejected  seven  years  before.  It  was  a  momentous  juncture 
to  Methodism ;  and  to  Wesley's  calm  steadfastness  subse- 
quent generations  owe  the  fact  that  it  was  not  then  absorbed 
into  the  Establishment,  and  that  the  organic  consolidation 
which  it  had  been  for  some  time  assuming  was  not  effectu- 
ally counteracted.  Charles  Wesley  himself  had  the  indiscre- 
tion to  take  side  with  these  clergymen  against  him,  and  the 
heedlessness  to  declare  that  if  he  were  a  parish  minister  the 
lay  itinerants  "should  not  preach  in  his  parish." ^  The  lay 
preachers  showed  both  their  good  sense  and  self-respect  by 
unanimously  agreeing  with  Wesley ;  and  as  the  clerical  visit- 
ors would  not  unite  with  him,  except  on  their  own  conditions, 
he  determined  to  pursue  his  providential  course  without 
them.  And  thus  was  another  step  taken  forward  toward 
the  legitimate  independence  and  permanence  of  Methodism. 

With  the  twenty-second  Conference,  held  at  Manchester 
August  20,  1765,  began  the  regular  annual  publication  of 
the  Minutes.  They  now  assumed  more  than  ever  the  form 
of  business-like  documents.  Theological  and  ecclesiastical 
questions  are  seldom  discussed  in  them,  as  these  subjects 
had  already  been  settled  with  sufficient  definiteness  for  the 
present  progress  of  the  body.  The  names  of  Preachers 
admitted  on  trial,  of  the  Assistants,  Helpers,  and  Circuits, 
the  appointments  for  the  ensuing  year,  and  financial  arrange- 
ments, with  singularly  minute  rules  of  discipline  for  the  so- 
cieties as  well  as  for  the  preachers,  make  up  their  substance. 

At  the  session  for  this  year  were  reported  twenty-five 
circuits,  with  seventy-one  preachers,  in  England ;  four,  with 

8  See  the  whole  correspondence  with  "Walker  and  others  in  Coke  and 
Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  II,  4.  «  Myles's  Chron.  History,  chap.  4« 


CONFERENCES    FKOM    1760    TO    1770.        433 

four  preachers,  in  Scotland ;  two,  with  two  preachers,  inWales ; 
and  eight,  with  fifteen  preachers,  in  Irelaiid,  making  thirty- 
nine  circirts  and  ninety-two  lay  ithierants,  besides  the  Wes- 
ley d,  their  clerical  coadjutors,  and  a  numerous  corps  of  local 
preachers,  many  of  whom  effectively  devoted  a  large  portion 
of  i^lieir  time  to  itinerant  labors.  The  title  of  "  Supei  an 
nuated  Preachers"  occurs  this  year  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Minutes,  and  the  financial  plan  f<jr  their  relief  was  further 
matured.  The  certificate,  or  "  Ticket,"  by  which  members 
of  the  societies  could,  in  removing,  transfer  their  membership 
to  their  new  places  of  residence,  was  adopted,  and  became  a 
permanent  custom.  In  1749  the  chapels  had  been  legally 
settled  upon  trustees.  A  person  was  now  appointed  to  exam- 
ine their  deeds,  and  see  that  vacancies  among  their  trustees 
were  filled.  It  was  ordered  that  men  and  women  should 
sit  apart,  that  field-preaching  should  be  maintained  wher- 
ever possible,"^  and  love-feasts  not  be  continued  longer 
than  an  hour  and  a  half,  as  "  every  person  should  be  home 
by  nine  o'clock."  Preachers  were  directed  to  "  exhort  all 
that  could,  in  every  congregation,  to  sing,"  and  to  see  that 
they  were  taught  to  sing  by  note ;  to  enjoiii  upon  the  heads 
Df  families  the  duty  of  family  prayer,  with  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  night  and  morning,  and  to  recommend  them  to 
be  good  "economists."  The  phrases  "brother"  and  "sister" 
were  to  be  used  '•''  'prudently  ;''"'  tobacco  and  drams  were  not 
to  be  touched  by  preachers  on  "  any  pretense,"  and  were  to 
be  denounced  among  the  people.^ 

The  twenty-third  session  was  held  in  Leeds,  August  12, 
1766 ;  forty  circuits  were  reported.  For  the  first  time  we 
now  have  an  attempt  at  a  census  of  the  societies,  but  it  is 
too  imperfect  to  afford  an  aggregate  estimate  of  their  mem- 
bers.    Ireland  and  Wales,  as  also  London  and  other  circuits, 


'  Wesley  wrote  to  one  of  his  preachers :  "If  you  desire  to  promote  the 
work  of  God  you  should  preach  abroad  as  often  as  possible.  Nothing 
destroys  the  work  of  the  devil  like  this."    Letter  'iTS ;  Works,  vol.  vii. 

8  "  So  that  in  fact  the  Methodist  societies  were  the  first  ten:>perance  su- 
jieties."     Watson's  Life  of  Wesley,  chap.  9, 
Vol.  I.— 28 


434  HISTORY    OF    ^ilETHODISM. 

made  no  returns  ;  Cornwall  reported  over  twenty-two  hun- 
dred ;  Grimshaw's  Haworth  circuit  more  than  fifteen  hundred ; 
Nelson's  Birstal  circuit  nearly  fourteen  hundred ;  Leeds 
more  than  one  thousand ;  Newcastle  eighteen  hundred ; 
Lancashire  seventeen  hundred  and  forty-two  ;  Edinburgh  one 
hundred  and  five,  and  Dundee  three  hundred  and  twenty-one. 

During  several  years  subscriptions  had  been  made  for  the 
relief  of  suffering  societies.  The  amount  reported  at  the  pre- 
sent year  was  seven  hundred  pounds,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
of  which  were  sent  to  Aberdeen  and  Edinburgh.  The  whole 
debt  of  the  societies  for  their  chapels  and  preachers'  houses 
was  £11,383.  "  We  shall  be  utterly  ruined,"  said  Wesley, 
"if  we  go  on  at  this  rate;"  and  it  was  ordered  that  no  build- 
ing should  be  undertaken  till  two  thirds  of  the  necessary 
money  should  be  subscribed.  It  was  again  asserted  that  the 
Methodists  were  not  Dissenters ;  they  were  recommended 
to  attend  the  Church  service  every  Sabbath,  and  the  preach- 
ers were  directed  to  hold  their  Sunday  worship  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  the  same  hour  in  the  evenuig,  to 
avoid  interference  with  the  Church  w^orship. 

In  a  concludmg  address,  remarkable  for  its  length  and 
pointedness,  Wesley  stated  the  grounds  of  his  power  as 
providentially  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Arminian  Method- 
ist societies,  and  exhorted  the  preachers  to  more  faithfulness, 
detailing,  as  reasons,  the  prevalent  faults  of  their  people. 

After  describing  the  unavoidable  mamier  in  which  the 
societies  and  Conferences  had  involved  him  in  his  present 
responsibility,  and  the  impossibility  of  his  now  abandoning 
it  with  a  good  conscience,  he  remarked :  "  I  did  not  seek  any 
part  of  this  power ;  it  came  upon  me  unawares ;  but  when 
it  was  conae,  not  daring  to  bury  that  talent,  I  used  it  to  the 
best  of  my  judgment.  Yet  I  never  was  fond  of  it ;  I  always 
did,  and  do  now,  bear  it  as  my  burden,  the  burden  which 
God  lays  upon  nae,  and  therefore  I  dare  not  yet  lay  it  down. 
But  if  you  can  tell  me  any  one,  or  any  five  men,  to  whom  I 
may  transfer  this  burden,  who  can  and  will  do  just  what  I  do 
now,  I  will  heartily  thank  both  them  and  you."     "  Preaching 


CONFERENCES    FROM    1760    TO    1770.        435 

twice  or  thrice  a  day,"  he  added,  "  is  no  burden  to  me  at 
all ;  but  the  care  of  all  the  preachers  and  all  the  people  is 
a  burden  indeed."  As  he  advances  in  his  exhortations  to 
the  preachers  his  sentences  grow  ardent  with  earnestness. 
He  insists  on  increased  pastoral  labor,  visits  from  honse  to 
house,  and  the  instruction  of  the  children  of  their  people. 
After  answering  the  objection  that  this  thorough  work  would 
preclude  all  study,  he  proceeds  to  complain  of  their  want  of 
diligence  in  the  latter  respect  and  of  their  desultory  habits 
of  reading.  "  Why  are  we  not .  more  knowing  ?"  he  asks  ; 
"  we  talk,  talk,  read  history,  or  what  comes  next  to  hand. 
"We  must,  absolutely  must,  cure  this  evil  or  give  up  the 
wdiole  work. 9  But  how  ?  Read  the  most  useful  books, 
and  that  regularly  and  constantly.  Steadily  spend  all  the 
morning  in  this  employment,  or  at  least  five  hours  in  twenty- 
four.  '  But  I  have  no  taste  for  reading.'  Contract  a  taste 
for  it  by  use  or  return  to  your  trades.  '  But  different  men 
have  different  tastes.'  Therefore,  some  may  read  less  than 
others,  but  none  should  read  less  than  this." 

He  finally  urges  them  to  go  "  into  every  house  and  teach 
every  one  therein,  young  and  old ;"  to  spend  at  least  an  hour 
twice  a  week  with  the  children  of  the  societies  wherever  ten 
of  them  could  be  assembled  ;  to  rise  at  four  in  the  morn- 
ing ;  to  observe  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  for  private 
prayer,  and  to  bear  in  mind  that  any  time  for  this  duty  is 
no  time.  "  O  let  us,"  he  concludes,  "  stir  up  the  gift  of 
God  that  is  m  us  !  Let  us  no  more  sleep  as  do  others  !  But 
whatsoever  our  hand  findeth  to  do  let  us  do  it  with  our  might !" 

On  August  18,  1767,  was  held  in  London  the  twenty- 
fourth  annual  Conference. ^^  The  continued  harmony  of  the 
two  sections  of  Methodism  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  both 
Whitefield  and  Howell  Harris  were  present.     Several  lay 

9  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  tliis  sweeping  declaration  was  uttered  by 
him  in  the  same  address  in  which  occurs  the  much-abused  passage: 
"  Gaining  knowledge  is  a  good  thing,  but  saving  souls  is  better." 

io  It  is  numbered  by  mistake  as  the  twenty-third  in  the  Octavo  Minutes, 
edition  of  1812  :  London. 


486  HISTOBY    OF    METHODISM. 

itinerants  and  local  preacliers  also  attended  it.  Nine  ne"^ 
preachers  were  "  admitted  on  trial,"  among  whom  was 
Francis  Asbury,  afterward  the  chief  founder  of  American 
Methodism.  Two  desisted  from  traveling,  and  six  proba- 
tioners were  admitted  to  full  membership.  Forty  circuits 
were  reported.  Their  number,  however,  does  not  show  the 
extent  of  the  field,  for  they  were  continually  changing,  and 
two  or  three  were  often  combined  in  one.  England  had 
twenty-five,  Ireland  nine,  Scotland  five.  All  Wales  was 
this  year  included  in  one.  Twenty-five  preachers  were  des- 
ignated to  those  of  England,  nineteen  to  those  of  Ireland, 
seven  to  Scotland,  and  three  to  Wales.  There  were  22,410 
members  in  the  English  societies,  2,801  in  the  Irish,  468  in 
the  Scotch,  and  232  in  the  Welsh.  The  comparatively 
small  number  reported  from  Wales  arose  from  the  fact 
that  while  Calvinistic  Methodism  formed  but  few  societies 
in  the  rest  of  the  country,  it  had  begun  in  Wales,  under 
Howell  Harris,  by  their  organization,  and  as  Wesley  dis- 
owned dogmatic  terms  of  membership,  and  recognized  the 
whole  Methodistic  revival  as  a  unit,  the  Welsh  converts  of 
his  preachers  very  naturally  resorted  to  the  societies  of  Har- 
ris.   It  seems  never  to  have  occasioned  a  demur  on  his  part. 

The  membership  of  the  societies  amounted  to  25,911  :^^ 
London  circuit  reported  2,180;  Bristol  1,177;  Cornwall, 
2,038;  Staffordshire,  1,994;  Lancashire,  2,000;  Leeds, 
1,088;  Bristol,  1,476 ;  Haworth,  1,356;  Newcastle,  1,910. 

The  examination  of  the  characters  of  preachers,  now  an 
invariable  part  of  the  proceedings,  seems  to  have  occupied 
most  of  the  time  of  the  session,  as  but  few  other  important 
items  of  business  are  recorded.  Among  these  was  the 
better  circulation  of  books ;  a  means  of  usefulness  which 
began  almost  at  the  origin  of  Methodism,  and  may  thus  be 
considered  the  commencement  of  the  popular  and  systematic 
use  of  the  religious  press  by  evangelical  Protestantism. 
Hitherto  books    had   been    sold  on   all   the   circuits ;    the 

"  This  is  Myles's  estimate.    (Chron.  Hist.)    Tke  aggregate  given  in 
the  Octavo  Minutes  is  26,341. 


I 


CONFERENCES    FROM    1760    TO    1770.      437 

Assistants  were  now  instructed  to  "  give  them  away 
prudently,"  and  beg  money  from  the  rich  to  pay  for  them 
for  the  poor. 

A  singular  apprehension  had  been  expressed  by  the  trus- 
tees of  the  Wednesbury  Society,  that  the  conference  might 
impose  the  same  preacher  upon  them,  for  many  years.  They 
seem  to  have  prized  the  itinerancy,  and  the  Conference,  to 
relieve  their  fears,  allowed  to  be  inserted,  in  the  deeds  of 
"  Preaching  Houses,"  the  promise  "  that  the  same  preacher 
shall  not  be  sent  ordinarily  above  one,  never  above  two  years 
together."  English  Methodists  afterward  found  it  convenient 
to  change  the  term  to  three  years.  Quarterly  fasts  in  all  the 
.  societies  were  ordered  at  this  session.  "  Love  and  harmony," 
says  Wesley,  "  reigned  from  tlie  beginning  to  the  end." 

The  twenty -fifth  Conference  was  held  at  Bristol,  August 
16,  1768.  Eleven  probationers  were  admitted  to  member- 
ship, and  twelve  candidates  were  received  on  trial,  among 
whom  was  George  Shadford,  another  name  known  in  Ameri- 
can Methodist  history.  Two  desisted  from  traveling.  The 
contributions  toward  the  payment  of  debts  on  chapels  and 
preaching  houses  were  £5,666,  besides  the  collection  of 
£173  for  Kingswood  school.  The  financial  system  which 
has  since  been  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  English 
Methodism,  had  already  begun  to  take  efficiency  under  the 
systematic  genius  of  Wesley.  The  whole  debt  remaining 
in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  was  £7,728.  Forty  cir- 
cuits were  reported,  and  27,341  members,  showing  a  gain 
of  1,430  over  the  returns  of  the  preceding  session. 

While  some  circuits  returned  an  increase,  others  reported 
a  declension,  and  an  inquiry  was  made  why  the  preachers 
were  not  more  effective.  The  reason  most  discussed  was  the 
fact,  hitherto  quite  geneial,  of  their  partial  devotion  to  secular 
business.  This  had  been  to  some  extent  necessary,  their  sup- 
port by  the  societies  having  been  quite  deficient.  John  Nel- 
son, as  we  have  stated,  worked  as  a  mason  during  the  day  and 
preached  at  night.  William  Shent,  one  of  the  earliest  of 
the  itinerants,  had  maintained  himself  by  a  humble  craft 


438  HISTORY    OF    METHODIS:\r. 

in  Leeds.  He  kept  it  up  by  hiring  assistants,  and  bj 
returning  frequently  to  his  shop  from  his  distant  fields 
of  labor,  and  at  last  gave  his  entire  time  to  it,  except 
ing  such  intervals  as  he  could  spare  for  preaching  ex- 
cursions  in   the    vicinity  —  a    fact    which   seems    to    have 

had  a  serious  if  not  fatal  effect  on  his  religious  char- 
acter.^2  ^ 

Wesley  now  saw  that  the  time  had  come  to  correct  this 
inconvenience.  He  did  not  deny  its  necessity  under  some 
circumstances,  as  in  the  ease  of  St.  Paul,  but  the  keeping  of 
shops,  or  dealing  in  merchandise,  he  pronounced  "  an  evil  in 
itself,  an  evil  in  its  consequences."  Those  views  of  their 
character,  as  legitimate  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  which  he 
had  already  expressed,  were  again  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
he  applied  to  them  the  passages  of  Holy  Scripture  which 
assert  the  right  of  Christian  pastors  to  a  pecuniary  sup- 
port from  the  Church.  He  even  appealed  to  the  office  of 
Ordination  in  the  Liturgy  of  the  national  Church  as  rele- 
vant to  the  case,  thereby  classing  his  itinerants,  in  this  re- 
spect, with  the  regular  clergy.  "  Therefore,"  he  concludes, 
"  give  up  all,  and  attend  to  the  one  business,  and  God  will 
recompense  you  a  hundred  fold  in  this  world  as  w^ell  as  in 
the  world  to  come." 

The  increased  circulation  of  books  was  urged  as  a  means 
of  checking  the  lamented  declension.  Wesley,  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  public  career,  seemed  to  have  a  sublime  idea 
of  the  power  c^f  the  religious  press ;  he  used  it  continually, 
and  never  ceased  to  exhort  his  preachers  to  circulate  books 
and  tracts.  "  Carry  them  with  you  in  every  round,"  he 
said;  "leave  not  a  stone  unturned."  They  were  to  be 
presented  everywhere  among  the  people,  and  even  portions 

12  Three  female  1116101)618  of  Ms  family  were  the  first  Methodists  of 
Leeds,  und  are  still  held  in  affectionate  remembrance  there  as  "the  three 
Marys."  On  hearing  of  the  fame  of  John  Nelson,  when  he  began  to  exhort 
among  his  neighbors  at  Birstal,  they  went  thither  to  see  him,  and  soon 
after  opened  the  way  for  him  at  Leeds.  He  preached  his  first  sermon 
there  in  front  of  Shent's  shop.  See  Pawson's  Life  in  Lives  of  Early 
Wesleyan  Preachers,  vol.  ii,  p.  60. 


CONFERENCES    FROM    1760    TO    1770.       439 

of  them  read  by  the  preachers  in  the  congregations,  in  order 
to  promote  their  sale. 

Field  preaching  was  to  be  kept  up  diligently,  and  it  is 
evident  that  Wesley  intended  it  should  never  be  abandoned, 
never,  at  least,  while  any  considerable  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation neglected  the  house  of  God.  The  morning  five  o'clock 
preaching  was  to  be  maintained  wherever  twenty  persons 
could  be  found  to  attend  it.  This  he  deemed  absolutely  ne- 
cessary for  the  success  of  Methodism  ;  "  it  is,"  he  says,  "  the 
glory  of  the  Methodists.  Rising  early  is  equally  good  for 
soul  and  body.  It  helps  the  nerves  better  than  a  thousand 
medicines ;  and  in  particular  preserves  the  sight,  and  pre- 
sents lowness  of  spirits  more  than  can  well  be  imagined." 

He  exhorted  them  to  give  more  attention  than  ever  to  the 
doctrine  of  sanctification.  "  I  ask,  once  for  all.  Shall  we  de- 
fend this  perfection  or  give  it  up  ?  You  all  agree  to  defend 
it,  meaning  thereby,  as  we  did  from  the  beginning,  salvation 
from. all  sin  by  the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbor  filling  the 
heart.  The  Papists  say, '  This  cannot  be  attained  till  we  have 
been  in  purgatory.'  The  Dissenters  say,  'It  will  be  attained 
as  soon  as  the  soul  and  body  part.'  The  old  Methodists 
said,  '  It  may  be  attained  before  we  die,  a  moment  after  is 
too  late.'  You  are  all  agreed  we  may  be  saved  from  all  sin 
before  death.  The  substance  then  is  settled."  As  to  the 
question.  Is  the  change  instantaneous  or  gradual '?  he  argues 
that  it  is  both;  that  from  the  moment  of  justification  there 
may  be  a  gradual  sanctification,  a  daily  growth  in  grace; 
but  that,  if  sin  ceases  before  death,  there  must,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  be  an  instantaneous  change ;  there  must  be  a  last 
moment  wherein  it  does  exist,  and  a  first  moment  wherein 
it  does  not.  But  should  the  preacher  insist  upon  both  one 
and  the  other  1  Certainly,  he  replies ;  he  should  insist  on  the 
gradual  change,  and  that  earnestly  and  continually.  But  there 
are  reasons  why  he  should  insist  on  the  instantaneous  one  also. 
If  there  be  such  a  blessed  change  before  death,  all  believers 
should  be  encouraged  to  expect  it,  because  the  more  earn- 
estly they  expect  it,  the  more  steadily  and  swiftly  does  the 


440  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

gradual  experience  of  grace  go  on  in  their  hearts,  the  more 
watchful  are  they  against  all  sin  the  more  zealous  of  good 
works ;  whereas  the  contrary  effects  were  usually  observed 
when  this  expectation  ceased.  They  are  saved  by  hope  ;  by 
this  hope  of  a  total  renovation  saved  with  a  gradually  in- 
creasing salvation.  Destroy  this  hope,  and  that  salvation 
usually  stands  still.  Therefore,  he  concludes,  whoever 
would  advance  the  gradual  salvation  of  believers  should 
strongly  insist  upon  the  instantaneous  one. 

On  the  first  day  of  August,  1769,  began  at  Leeds  the 
twenty-sixth  Conference.  The  number  of  circuits  reported 
was  forty-six,  showing  a  gain  of  six.  The  aggregate  of 
members  was  28,263,  showing  an  increase  of  922.  Ten  pro- 
bationers were  admitted,  and  twelve  candidates  received  on 
trial.     Six  ceased  to  travel. 

It  was  at  this  Conference  that  the  first  appeal  for  Meth- 
odist preaching  from  America  was  presented  by  Wesley. 
"  Who  is  willing  to  go  f  he  asked.  Richard  Boardman  and 
Joseph  Pilmoor  responded,  and  were  appointed  to  the  dis- 
tant field.  The  occasion  could  not  fail  to  produce  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  assembly.  Methodism  had  already  begun  its 
work  in  the  West  Indies  by  Nathaniel  Gilbert,  who  had 
formed  a  society  of  two  hundred  negroes  in  Antigua. 
Whitefield  had  spread  it  in  spirit  and  power  among  the  in- 
dependent churches  of  North  America,  where  he  was  about 
to  die.  It  was  now  to  take  an  organic  form  in  the  New 
World  by  the  agency  of  Wesley's  lay  preachers.  "  What 
can  we  do  further  in  token  of  our  brotherly  love?"  he 
asked,  after  the  appointment  of  Boardman  and  Pilmoor. 
"  Let  us  now  make  a  collection  among  ourselves,"  was  the 
prompt  response,  and  the  liberal  sum  of.  £70  was  collected 
among  these  generous  men,  most  of  whom  were  habitual 
sufferers  from  want.  Twenty  of  the  seventy  pounds  were 
appropriated  for  the  voyage  of  the  two  missionaries,  and 
fifty  were  sent  toward  paying  the  debt  of  "  Wesley  Chapel," 
the  first  that  ever  bore  that  name,  and  the  first  Methodist 
church  of  the  Western  hemisphere. 


CONFERENCES    FROM    1760    TO    17T0.      441 

As  measures  had  been  adopted  at  the  preceding  Confer- 
ence to  relieve  the  preachers  from  dependence  upon  secular 
business  for  a  maintenance,  another  step  forward  for  their 
support,  and  toward  the  permanent  organization  of  the  lay- 
ministry,  was  now  taken  by  the  enactment  of  a  regular  cir- 
cuit collection  for  an  "  allowance "  to  their  wives.  Only 
about  one  third  of  them  seem  yet  to  have  been  married 
men ;  but  as  these  had  thus  far  been  appointed  only  to  the 
wealthiest  circuits,  in  order  that  their  families  might  not  un- 
necessarily suffer,  the  effective  operation  of  the  itinerant  sys- 
tem had  been  seriously  restricted,  and  its  talents  distribu- 
ted not  so  much  according  to  the  need  of  the  societies  as  to 
the  necessities  of  the  preachers.  The  allowance  now  made 
for  a  wife  was  small,  being  but  ten  pounds  a  year ;  but  it 
was  the  beginning  of  a  better  provision,  which  in  our  day 
has  secured  to  Wesleyan  preachers  and  their  families  a  more 
competent  and  more  reliable  average  support  than  is 
afforded  perhaps  by  any  other  religious  community  of  En- 
gland, not  excepting  the  national  Church  itself 

Wesley  was  now  sixty-six  years  old.  It  was  prudent  to 
think  of  the  means  necessary  to  perpetuate  the  unity  of  his 
preachers  and  people  after  his  death.  He  read  a  paper  to 
the  Conference  on  this  subject.  He  referred  to  the  failure  of 
all  his  efforts  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  even  the  "  evan- 
gelical "  portion  of  the  clergy  of  the  Establishment,  and  the 
fact  that  from  among  the  fifty  or  sixty  to  whom  he  had  ad- 
dressed his  circular  letter  on  the  subject  only  three  had  re- 
sponded. "So  I  give  this  up,"  he  said,  with  undissembled 
grief:  "  I  can  do  no  more.  They  are  a  rope  of  sand,  and 
such  will  they  continue."  But  it  was  otherwise  with  his 
own  traveling  fellow-laborers.  They  were  one  body,  acting 
in  concert  and  by  united  counsels.  And  now  was  the  time 
to  consider  what  could  be  done  in  order  to  continue  this 
union.  As  long  as  he  lived  there  would  be  no  great  diffi- 
culty, for  he,  under  God,  was  a  center  of  union  to  them. 
They  all  knew  him,  they  all  loved  him  for  his  work's  sake, 
and  therefore,  were  it  only  out  of  regard  to  him,  would  con- 


442  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

tinue  connected  with  each  other.     But  by  what  means  might 
this  connection  be  preserved  when  God  should  remove  him '? 

He  proposed  that  on  notice  of  his  death  all  the  preachers 
in  England  and  Ireland  should  repair  to  London  within  six 
weeks ;  that  they  should  seek  God  by  solemn  fasting  and 
prayer ;  draw  up  articles  of  agreement,  to  be  signed  by  those 
who  chose  to  act  in  concert;  dismiss  in  a  friendly  mamier 
those  who  should  not  so  choose ;  select  by  votes  a  committee 
of  three,  five,  or  seven,  each  of  whom  was  to  be  a  moderator 
in  his  turn — to  do  what  he  did :  "  propose  preachers  to  be 
tried,  admitted,  or  excluded ;  fix  the  place  of  each  preacher 
for  the  ensuing  year,  and  the  time  of  the  next  Conference." 

It  was  further  proposed  that  a  document  should  be  signed 
by  all  who  agreed  to  these  suggestions,  pledging*  them, 
first.  To  devote  themselves  entirely  to  God ;  denying  them 
selves,  taking  up  their  cross  daily ;  steadily  aiming  at  one 
thing — to  save  their  own  souls  and  the  souls  of  their  hearers ; 
secondly.  To  preach  the  old  Methodist  doctrines^  as  contained 
in  the  Minutes,  and  no  other;  thirdly.  To  observe  and  enforce 
the  whole  Methodist  discipline  as  defined  in  the  Minutes." 

It  was  finally  ordered  that  this  plan  should  be  issued  in 
the  Minutes,  and  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  the 
preachers,  many  of  whom  were  not  present  at  the  session. 
It  was  held  in  suspense  by  Wesley  during  several  years,  but 
was  brought  up  for  consideration  at  the  Conferences  of  1773, 
1774,  and  1775,  and  signed  by  all  the  preachers  present  at 
those  sessions,  amounting  to  one  hundred  and  one.  The  ar- 
rangement was  afterward  superseded  by  Wesley's  Deed  of 
Declaration,  but  it  is  worthy  of  this  passing  notice,  as  a  proof  of 
his  growing  conviction  that  Methodism  would  be  compelled, 
sooner  or  later,  to  take  an  independent  and  permanent  form.^® 

The  twenty-seventh  Conference  was  held  in  London,  Au- 
gust 7,  1770.  Eighteen  candidates  were  received  on  proba- 
tion, and  sixteen  probationers  admitted  into  membership. 
Five  members  ceased  to  travel.  Eifty  circuits  were  re- 
ported, being  an  increase  of  four.  The  last  in  the  list  is  e^*- 
18  Myles's  Chron.  Ilist.,  etc.,  chap.  5. 


CONFERENCES    FROM    1760    TO    1770.       448 

pecially  significant ;  it  reads :  "  Fiftieth,  America,  Joseph  Pil- 
moor,  Richard  Boardman,  Robert  Williams,  John  King." 
Volumes  of  history  were  anticipated  in  that  brief  sentence. 

The  returns  of  members  of  societies  amounted  to  29,179, 
allowing  a  gain  of  1143.  The  payments  on  society  debts 
amounted  to  £1700,  but  the  sum  remaining  unpaid  was 
nearly  £7000.  A  resolution,  characteristic  of  Wesley's 
strict  economy,  was  adopted,  putting  a  stop  to  all  building 
for  the  ensuing  year.  No  new  house  was  to  be  erected,  no 
alteration  nor  addition  made  in  any  old  one,  unless  the 
society  concerned  should  defray  the  expense,  without  less- 
ening its  yearly  collections. 

Forty-three  preachers'  wives  were  to  be  provided  for 
during  the  ensuing  year,  and  the  former  regulation  respect- 
ing them  was  re-enacted.  The  children  of  preachers  were 
to  be  supported  by  the  circuits  on  which  their  fathers 
labored.  An  illustration  of  the  financial  condition  of  the 
raiinistry  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that  only  twelve  pounds  a 
year  were  allowed  for  a  preacher's  wife,  and  four  pounds  for 
each  of  his  children;  and  the  latter  sum  was  to  be  paid  for 
boys  only  till  their  eighth  year,  when  they  were  to  be  sent 
to  Kingswood  school ;  and  for  girls  till  their  fourteenth  year, 
after  which  no  provision  was  yet  made  for  them. 

To  prevent  scandal,  it  was  enacted  that  in  all  eases  of 
insolvency  among  members  of  the  societies,  a  committee 
should  examine  their  accounts,  and  bankrupts  were  to  be 
imnaediately  "  expelled,"  if  their  failure  should  be  seen  to 
have  occurred  from  any  unjust  cause. 

While  the  Minutes  showed  an  increase  of  members,  ten 
circuits  reported  a  decrease.  It  was  therefore  ui^ently 
asked :  "  What  can  be  done  to  revive  the  work  of  God 
where  it  has  decayed  V  And  the  preachers  pledged  them- 
selves anew  to  pastoral  diligence,  visiting  from  house  to 
house,  to  increased  care  of  the  religious  training  of  the 
children  of  their  societies,  to  field  preaching,  early  morning 
services,  and  the  circulation  of  religious  books. 

This  session  was  memorable  for  the  occasion  which  it 


444:  HISTORY    OF    METPIODISM. 

gave  for  the  revival  of  the  Calvinistic  controversy.  No 
man  of  his  age  had  clearer  views  of  the  great  doctrine  of  the 
Reformation — Justification  by  faith — than  John  Wesley. 
But  he  knew  its  liability  to  Antinomian  abuse.  As  early 
as  1738  he  guarded  it  against  this  perversion,  with  no  little 
emphasis,  in  his  sermon  before  the  University  of  Oxfjrd, 
and  in  his  first  Conference  he  admonished  his  preachers 
against  it.  At  that  session  (1744)  it  was  declared  that  they 
had  "leaned  too  much  toward  Calvinism."  He  believed 
that  the  Calvinism  of  his  day  tended  to  Antinomianism, 
and  the  "  leaning  toward  Calvinism,"  to  which  he  objected, 
w^as  such  a  representation  of  the  relation  of  works  to  faith 
as  tended  to  supersede  the  former  by  the  latter.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  "  imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness,"  upon 
which  American  Calvinists  have  in  latter  years  very  largely 
adopted  his  opinions,  was  particularly,  as  he  thought, 
abused  by  contemporary  Calvinists,  and  the  theological 
world  owes  him  no  small  obligation  for  the  discrimination 
wdth  which  he  guarded  the  Methodistic  movement  against 
this  Antinomian  tendency. 

The  Minute  on  the  question  at  the  present  Conference 
was  not  designed  as  a  popular  view  of  the  subject ;  it  was 
liable  itself  to  abuse  in  that  respect;  but  as  a  brief,  dog- 
matic statement,  made  for  his  preachers  as  students  of 
theology,  it  is  safe  and  Scriptural.  It  produced  the  most 
violent  theological  controversy  known  in  the  history  of 
Methodism,  in  which  Shirley,  Toplady,  Hill,  Eletcher,  and 
Olivers  were  the  champions.  It  has  tended,  more  than  any 
other  occasion  for  a  hundred  years,  to  fortify  evangelical 
Arminianism  in  the  Protestant  world.  It  forecast,  per- 
haps irrevocably,  the  theological  character  of  Methodism, 
and,  by  Arminian  Methodists,  at  least,  must  be  considered 
one  of  those  special  providences  which  have  developed  and 
determined  its  history.  As  this  memorable  controversy 
did  not  take  place  till  the  next  Conference,  and  forms  one 
of  the  most  interesting  facts  in  our  narrative,  the  Minute 
which  produced  it  will  be  given  at  that  period. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770,  446 


CHAPTEE  yn. 

CALVINISTIC    METHODISM    EKOM    1760    TO   lllO. 

"Mutual  Eelations  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodist  Societies  —  Position  of  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon  —  She  itinerates  with  her  Preachers  in  York- 
shire—  They  attend  "Wesley's  Conference  —  Venn  —  Grimshaw  — 
Pletcher  —  Sketch  of  Captain  Scott  —  Adventures  of  Captain  Joss  — 
The  Countess  and  her  Preachers  at  Cheltenham  —  Lord  Dartmouth  — 
A  great  "  Field  Day"  —  "  Quadruple  Alliance"  between  the  Wesleys 
and  Wliitefield  and  Lady  Huntingdon  —  Trevecca  College — ^ Expulsion 
of  Methodist  Students  from  Oxford  —  Scenes  at  Trevecca  —  Whitefield's 
Declining  Health  —  He  again  Visits  America  —  Eeturns  to  England  in 
1765  —  Last  Interviews  with  Wesley  —  Last  Voyage  to  America —  Hap- 
piness of  his  Keligious  Frame  as  he  approached  his  End  —  His  Excur- 
sion up  the  Hudson  —  Last  Sermon — Character  —  Eesults. 

It  would  ,be  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  define  the 
mutual  relations  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodist  societies. 
Calvinism  has  always  tended,  by  some  occult  law,  to 
ecclesiastical  independence,  and  has  thereby  favored  freedom 
of  thought  rather  than  effectiveness  of  organization.  White- 
field  and  Howell  Harris  were  the  apostles  of  Calvinistic 
Methodism;  Romaine,  Madan,  Venn,  and  Berridge,  their 
coadjutors;  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  was  their  most 
important  center  of  unioij.  Her  good  sense,  the  influ- 
ence of  her  social  position  as  a  member  of  the  British 
aristocracy,  (an  important  consideration  to  the  English 
mind,)  and,  still  more,  her  munificence,  upon  which  most 
of  the  Calvinistic  chapels  were  more  or  less  dependent, 
enabled  her  to  centralize  their  sympathies  around  her  own- 
person,  and  she  never  abused  the  moral  power  which  she 
thus  commanded.  No  formal  conferences  were  held ;  few, 
if  indeed  any,  representative  consultations  were  had ;  but 
the  Calvinistic  evangelists  naturally  resorted  to  her  house 


446  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

for  counsel  with  each  other,  and  always  with  her.  Most 
of  their  leaders  were  her  chaplains,  a  fact  which  gave  her  a 
paramount  influence.  Severely  practical,  and  never  whim- 
sical in  her  judgments,  she  added  to  her  other  sources  of 
power  a  moral  authority  to  which  all  reverently  deferred. 

While  really  directing  the  whole  Calvinistic  movement 
of  Methodism,  she  never  transcended  what  was  deemed  the. 
propriety  of  her  sex  by  any  activity  in  the  public  assem- 
blies of  her  societies.  She  often  "itinerated"  among 
them,  but  was  always  accompanied,  not  by  Whitefield,  for 
his  movements  were  too  rapid  for  her,  but  by  Harris, 
Romaine,  Vemi,  Fletcher,  or  Madan,  they  preaching,  while 
she  maintained  her  womanly  decorum  as  a  hearer,  planning 
their  labors  and  counseling  the  societies  privately. 

Her  excursions  among  them  were  frequent  during  the 
present  period.  In  1760  she  went  into  Yorkshire  with  Bo- 
maine  and  Venn,  and  was  joined  there  by  Whitefield.'^  One 
object  of  their  visit  was  to  harmonize  the  distracted  societies 
of  Ingham.  In  1762  she  again  visited  that  county,  and,  with 
Venn,  Romaine,  Madan,  and  Whitefield,  was  present  at  the 
Conference  at  Leeds.  Their  attendance  seems  to  have  been 
purely  one  of  courtesy  and  Christian  fellowship.  No  dis- 
sentient opinion  disturbed  the  deliberations  ;  Wesley  ex- 
j)ressed  in  his  Journal  thankfulness  to  God  for  "  his  gracious 
presence,  which  attended  it  from  the  beginning."  The  occa- 
sion must  have  been  one  of  deep  interest,  presenting,  as  it 
did,  an  imposing  representation  of  the  whole  Methodist 
naovement,  in  the  persons  of  most  of  its  great  leaders, 
and  crowded  by  an  unusual  attendance  of  local  preachers, 
class-leaders,  and  stewards. 

After  the  session  Whitefield  went  to  Scotland,  rousing 
the  towns  and  villages  in  his  course.  The  countess  hast- 
ened to  Knaresborough,  where  she  had  frequent  meetings 
with  the  evangelical  clergy  of  the  shire,  inspiriting  them 
to  more  energetic  labors.  Romaine  continued  with  her, 
preaching  daily  and  with  powerful  effect.  Venn,  who  had 
1  Life  and  Times  of  the  Countess  of  Hmitingdon,  chap.  17. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:   1760-lTTO.    447 

charge  of  the  parish  of  Huddersfield,  wrote  to  her,  after 
her  departure,  with  an  overflowing  heart,  respecting  the 
"light  and  life"  w^hich  her  visit  had  spread  among  the 
Yorkshire  Churches,  The  catholic-minded  Grimshaw,  who 
was  evangelically  the  archbishop  of  Yorkshire,  and  was  now 
about  to  depart  to  the  Church  triumphant,  rejoiced  to  see 
any  new  laborer  enter  his  great  Methodist  diocese.  He 
wrote  to  the  countess,  after  her  visit,  that  the  "  Lord's 
work  prospers  amazingly  among  us,"  and  that  the  societies 
were  everywhere  in  a  good  state.  So  pure  at  this  time  was 
the  charity,  so  fervent  the  zeal  of  both  classes  of  Methodists, 
that  it  was  indeed  difhciilt  for  either  themselves  or  their 
enemies  to  distinguish  between  them.  Grimshaw  wrote, 
with  a  sort  of  rapture,  of  the  blessings  showered  by  the 
Lord  upon  them  all  while  the  countess  and  her  chaplains 
were  in  Yorkshire.  "  How,"  he  says,  "  did  our  hearts  burn 
within  us  to  proclaim  his  love  and  grace  to  perishing  sinners. 
Come  and  animate  us  afresh;  aid  us  by  your  counsels  and 
your  prayers ;  and  stir  us  up  to  renewed  activity  in  the 
cause  of  God.  All  the  dear  apostles  go  on  well ;  all  pray  for 
your  dear  ladyship,  and  all  long  for  your  coming  among 
us  again."  He  had  been,  he  continues,  a  "  long  round " 
since  she  was  with  them,  and  had  seen  Ligham,  Venn, 
Conyers,  and  Bentley  "  all  alive,  and  preaching  Christ 
crucified  with  wonderful  success."  Nelson,  Grimshaw, 
Ingham,  and  Venn  had  kindled  a  flame  of  Christian  charity 
and  zeal  in  Yorkshire  which  still  glows  over  their  graves. 
Not  only  these  early  and  beautiful  examples  of  religious 
fellowship,  but  the  abiding  results  of  Methodism  in  that 
region  are  among  its  best  vindications. 

Fletcher  proposed,  at  the  next  visit  of  the  countess  to 
Yorkshire,  to  accompany  her  to  that  "  Goshen  of  the  land, 
to  learn  the  love  of  Christ  at  the  feet  of  his  brethren  and 
fathers  there."  She  was  also  attended  by  Whitefield,  Venn, 
Howell  Harris,  Townsend,  Dr.  Conyers,  and  Lady  Anne 
Erskine,  daughter  of  Lord  Buchan ;  and  Madan  joined  them 
afterward.     They  had  public  worship  twice  a  day,  Fletcher 


448  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

being  the  chief  preacher,  as  Whitefield  left  them  early  for 
Wales.  They  paused  at  Venn's  parish,  in  Huddersfiekl, 
where  Fletcher  preached  twice  to  large  congregations  and 
with  manifest  effect.  They  also  entered  the  parish  of  Grim- 
shaw,  who  had  now  gone  to  his  rest.  Fletcher  and  Town- 
send  addressed  thousands  there  who  had  assembled  from 
the  towns  and  villages  round  about.  Madan,  Fletcher,  and 
Venn,  assisted  by  several  Yorkshire  clergymen,  preached 
incessantly  for  some  weeks,  not  only  in  that  county,  but  in 
the  adjacent  shires  to  vast  multitudes.  It  was,  in  fine,  a  reli- 
gious jubilee  throughout  that  part  of  England.  Whitefield 
again  joined  them,  and  spread  widely  the  public  interest. 
The  Churches  were  quickened,  hundreds  if  not  thousands  of 
hearers  were  awakened,  and  the  whole  region  aroused. 

Two  interesting  laymen,  one  a  military  man.  Captain 
Jonathan  Scott,  and  the  other  a  mariner.  Captain  Torial 
Joss,  were  conspicuous  among  the  Calvinistic  laborers  about 
this  time.  The  former  was  with  the  catholic  band  in  York 
shire,  where  he  preached  with  great  usefulness  and  popular 
ity.  Whitefield  had  said  of  them  that  God,  who  sitteth 
upon  the  flood,  can  bring  "a  shark  from  the  ocean,  and  a 
lion  from  the  forest,  and  make  them  to  show  forth  his  praise." 
Methodism  hesitated  not  to  use  any  talent  which  Providence 
thrust  in  its  way,  though  it  took  good  caution  against  eccen- 
tricities which  were  not  well  guarded  by  prudence  and  piety. 
Both  these  remarkable  men  became  powerful  laborers  in  its 
field,  and  never  betrayed  its  confidence.  Their  personal 
histories  are  striking  illustrations  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  Methodistic  ;:*evival  reached  all  classes  of  men,  and 
turned  to  account  all  kinds  of  talent. 

Captain  Scott  was  descended  from  an  ancient  and  opulent 
family  in  the  county  of  Salop.  He  was  well  educated,  and 
in  his  seventeenth  year  adopted  a  military  life  as  a  cornet, 
but  was  soon  promoted  to  the  rank  of  captain  of  dragoons. 
He  fought  in  the  battle  of  Minden  in  1759.  Of  vivid  tem- 
perament, courageous  and  ambitious,  he  was,  nevertheless, 
addicted  to  religious  reflection,  and  in  the  midst  of  battle 


CALVINISTIC  METHODISM:   1760-1770.     449 

saw  the  folly  of  bravery  itself,  when  it  is  without  moral 
fitness  for  its  perilous  contingencies.  He  desired  to  be  a 
genuine  Christian,  but  knew  not  the  power  of  faith  as  "  the 
victory  which  overcometh  the  world."  He  read  punctilious- 
ly the  Psalms  and  Lessons  of  the  Liturgy,  and  his  fellow- 
officers  usually  accosted  him  w^ith  the  pleasantry,  "  Well, 
Scott,  have  you  read  your  Psalms  and  Lessons  to-day  V  Per- 
sisting, against  the  banter  of  his  comrades,  in  these  honest 
attempts  to  make  himself  righteous,  he  felt,  nevertheless, 
from  day  to  day,  that  he  had  no  success.  While  quartered 
near  Oathall,,he  was  overtaken,  on  a  shooting  excursion,  by 
a  storm  that  drove  him  into  a  farm-house,  the  humble  tenant 
of  which  was  a  Methodist  and  conversed  with  such  good 
sense  on  religious  subjects  that  Scott  inquired  where  he  had 
got  his  information.  Pointing  to  a  neighboring  hall,  the 
farmer  replied  that  a  famous  man,  Mr.  Romaine,  was  now 
preaching  there.  The  next  Sunday  the  officer  w^as  present, 
and  was  struck  by  the  devout  order  of  the  assembly,  but  still 
more  by  the  text:  "/  am  the  way.''''  It  was  precisely  what 
he  needed,  and  led  him  at  last  to  a  saving  faith  in  Christ. 

During  some  time  he  remained  in  the  army,  but  while  in 
Leicester  with  his  regiment,  he  began  openly  to  preach  to 
his  men.  A  good  but  eccentric  man  having  observed  his 
ability  and  usefulness,  one  day  shut  him  in  an  apartment 
alone  with  his  God,  a  Bible,  and  a  hymn-book,  and  declared 
that  he  must  inevitably  preach  there  that  evening.  He  did 
so,  and  thus  took  his  commission  as  an  embassador  of  Christ. 
From  this  hour  he  never  swerved,  but  zealously  preached 
in  his  regimentals  wherever  he  moved  with  his  troops.  The 
novelty  of  the  sight  of  a  military  officer  preaching  in  cos- 
tume, excited  the  liveliest  interest  among  the  common  peo- 
ple. Nearly  all  Leeds  turned  out  to  hear  him,  and  he 
addressed  "  amazing  crowds."  Wherever  he  labored  with 
Lady  Huntingdon's  clerical  attendants,  during  her  present 
visit  to  Yorkshire,  he  was  a  center  of  attraction  to  the  mul- 
titude. He  accompanied  the  countess  to  Madeley,  where, 
as  he  could  not  canonically  occupy  the  church,  he  preached 

Vol.  L— 29 


450  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

at  the  invitation  of  Fletcher  twice  on  Sunday  from  the  hors^ 
block  at  its  door  to  an  immense  assembly,  and.  the  next  day 
in  Madeley  Woods  to  a  still  larger  concourse.  Fletcher 
v^-rote  of  him  as  "  a  captain  of  the  truth,  a  bold  soldier  of 
J  esus  Christ.  God  had  thrown  down  before  him  the  middle 
wall  of  bigotry,  and  he  had  boldly  launched  into  an  irregular 
usefulness.  For  some  mionths  he  had  exhorted  his  dragoons 
daily,  for  some  weeks  he  had  preached  publicly  at  Leicester, 
in  the  Methodist  meeting-house,  in  his  regimentals,  to  numer- 
ous congregations  with  good  success."  "  The  stiff  regular 
ones  pursue  liim,"  he  adds,  "  with  hue  and  cry,  but  I  believe 
ho  is  quite  beyond  their  reach.  I  believe  his  o-ed  coat  wdll 
shame  many  a  black  one.     I  am  sure  he  shames  me." 

Whitetield  could  not  but  rejoice  in  such  a  fellow-laborer. 
He  gave  a  public  account  of  him  in  London.  "  I  have  in- 
vited Xh^Q.  captain,"  he  added,  "to  bring  his  artillery  to  the 
Tabernacle  rampart,  and  try  what  execution  he  can  do  here." 
Scott  went  to  the  metropolis,  and  a  great  assembly  welcomed 
him  in  the  Tabernacle,  The  brave  man's  heart  melted  as  he 
rose  before  them ;  he  burst  into  tears,  and  lost  the  control 
of  his  voice ;  but  recovering  his  composure,  he  delivered  a 
discourse  which  produced  a  lasting  impression,  and  rendered 
him  thenceforth  one  of  the  most  popular  preachers  of  the 
city.  He  sacrificed  for  the  Gospel  flattering  prospects  in 
the  army,  sold  his  commission,  and  gave  hinaself  to  the  Chris- 
tian ministry.  During  more  than  twenty  years  he  was  one 
of  the  most  successful  supplies  of  Whitefield's  Tabernacle, 
and  went  to  and  fro  through  the  country  preaching  in  both 
Calvinistic  and  Arminian  chapels. 

Captain  Joss  was  another  example  of  the  Methodistic 
.spirit  of  the  times.  He  was  an  energetic  Scotchman,  and 
trained  to  maiitime  life.  He  vfas  early  inclined  to  religion 
but  being  discouraged  at  home,  he  hid  his  Bible  out  of  the 
house,  and  reading  it  clandestinely,  received  from  it  impres- 
sions which  he  never  lost.  He  was  sent  to  sea  when  quite 
young ;  it  was  at  a  time  of  war,  and  being  taken  by  the  en- 
emy, he  was  carried  to  a  foreign  port  and  suffered  a  severe 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770.     451 

imprisonment.  Returning  to  Scotland  during  the  Stuart 
rebellion,  he  was  immediately  impressed  and  sent  on  board 
Ml  English  ship  of  war.  He  made  his  escape,  and  connected 
himself  with  a  coasting  vessel  which  belonged  to  Robin 
Hood's  Bay,  in  Yorkshire.  Wesley  records,  in  his  Journal, 
frequent  visits  to  this  place,  where  he  preached  in  the  mar- 
ket  square  and  on  the  Quay  till  he  succeeded  in  founding  a 
society.  Joss,  who  had  strictly  maintained  his  morals,  and 
even  his  religious  scrupulousness,  in  all  his  adventures,  and 
had  been  a  diligent  student  during  the  winter  suspensions  of 
navigation,  joined  the  Methodists,  and  became  noted  in  the 
town  for  the  ability  of  his  exhortations.  Wesley  discerned 
his  talents  and  encouraged  him.  He  retained  his  Scotch 
Calvinism,  but  as  he  did  not  dispute  about  it,  it  was  no 
obstacle  among  his  brethren. 

Still  pursuing  his  sea-faring  life,  he  preached  on  board  his 
vessel,  and  became  known  as  an  evangelist  in  all  the  har- 
bors which  he  frequented.  His  first  regular  sermon  was  de- 
livered at  Boston,  Lincolnshire,  where  he  produced  an  extra- 
ordinary impression.  On  being  appointed  to  the  command 
of  a  ship,  he  established  regular  worship  among  his  crew, 
and  became  at  once  captain  and  chaplain,  and  soon  trained 
a  band  of  his  converted  tars  to  exhort  and  pray  publicly. 

He  was  a  good  sailor,  and  had  accumulated  enough  prop- 
erty to  become  owner,  in  part,  of  his  ship,  with  a  fair  pros- 
pect of  wealth.  But  now  disasters  beset  him  continually,  as 
if  providentially  to  drive  him  from  the  seas.  He  made  un- 
fortunate voyages,  and  was  repeatedly  wrecked.  At  one 
time  he  lost  his  ship,  and  with  difficulty  saved  himself  and 
his  crew ;  but,  courageous  against  all  odds,  he  went  to  Ber- 
wick for  the  purpose  of  building  a  still  larger  vessel.  While 
there  he  preached  to  great  crowds,  and  when  about  to  leave, 
the  common  people  mourned  as  at  the  loss  of  a  faithful  pas- 
tor. After  he  had  sailed,  a  friend  wrote,  without  his  knowl- 
edge, to  London,  respecting  his  successful  labors  in  Berwick 
during  the  preceding  nine  months.  The  letter  came  under 
Whitefield's  eye,  and  when  he  heard  of  the  arrival  of  the 


452  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

preaching  captain  in  the  Downs,  he  announced  in  his  Taber- 
nacle that  Joss  would  preach  there  the  next  Saturday  even- 
ing, and  dispatched  a  messenger  to  the  ship,  which  had 
already  received  among  sailors  the  name  of  "The  Pulpit," 
to  summon  him  to  London.  His  modesty  was  startled  at 
the  unexpected  honor,  and  he  refused  to  go,  but  the  messen- 
ger would  not  leave  the  deck  till  he  consented.  Amid  won- 
dering throngs  the  sailor  proclaimed  the  Gospel  from 
Whitelield's  pulpit,  not  only  on  Saturday  but  on  Sunday, 
and  Whitefield  insisted  that  he  should  at  once  abandon  the 
chart  and  compass,  and  give  himself  wholly  to  the  ministry. 
He  shrank  from  the  proposition,  but  on  his  next  voyage' 
met  with  an  accident  which  Whitefield  deemed  a  warning. 
On  his  return  to  London  still  greater  crowds  gathered  to 
hear  him.  Whitefield  again  urged  him  to  confine  himself 
to  preaching,  but  he  again  resisted  the  call,  and  his  following 
voyage  was  attended  with  a  still  worse  disaster.  On  his 
third  arrival  at  London  his  word  was  heard  by  yet  greater 
throngs,  and  with  still  greater  effect.  While  in  the  city  his 
brother,  a  pious  young  man,  fell  overboard  and  was  drowned 
in  the  Thames.  "  Sir,"  said  Whitefield,  "  all  these  disasters 
are  the  fruits  of  your  disobedience,  and  let  me  tell  you  that 
if  you  still  refuse  to  hearken  to  the  call  of  God,  both  you 
and  your  ship  will  soon  go  to  the  bottom."  He  yielded  at 
last,  and  after  his  fourth  voyage  gave  up  the  deck  and  took 
the  pulpit.  In  1766  Whitefield  had  the  happiness  to  recog- 
nize him  as  his  colleague  at  the  Tabernacle  and  Tottenham 
Court,  and  Captain  Joss  became  the  Rev.  Torial  Joss,  of 
famous  memory  in  the  religious  history  of  the  times. 

During  thirty  years  he  was  Whitefield's  associate  pastoi 
of  the  London  Calvinistic  Methodist  societies,  and  his  popu 
larity  was  only  second  to  that  of  Whitefield  himself.  The 
crowd  ran  after  him,  and  his  word,  delivered  with  great 
native  eloquence,  was  successful  in  the  conversion  of  multi- 
tudes of  souls.  Berridge  called  him  "  Whitefield's  Arch- 
deacon of  Tottenham."  He  not  only  spread  Methodism  ex- 
tensively in  the  metropolis,  but  made  preaching  excursions 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770.     453 

into  the  country.  He  usually  spent  four  or  five  months 
of  each  year  in  itinerating  in  England  and  Wales.  The 
Welsh  especially  delighted  in  his  simple  eloquence.  Many 
came  twenty  miles  on  foot  to  hear  him,  and  wherever  he 
went  he  left  seals  of  his  ministry.  He  was  a  good  man, 
mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  and  faithfal  to  the  end.  After 
preaching  the  Gospel  more  than  thirty  years,  he  was  smitten 
down  by  sudden  disease.  "  O  the  preciousness  of  faith  !"  he 
exclaimed  to  the  groups  around  his  death-bed.  "I  have 
finished  my  course.  My  pilgrimage  is  ended.  O  thou 
Friend  of  sinners,  take  thy  poor  old  friend  home!"  As  if 
rapt  in  visions  of  the  celestial  world,  he  at  last  uttered  the 
word  "  Archangels,"  and  expired. ^ 

Thus  did  Methodism  gather  its  trophies  from  the  sea  and 
the  land,  and  while  the  "  regular "  clergy  treated  with  scorn 
its  "  irregularities,"  and  bishops  wrote  diatribes  against  its 
"  enthusiasm,"  but  failed  to  save  the  heathen  masses  around 
them,  it  went  forward,  redeeming  the  people. 

In  1768  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  made  excursions  into 
Gloucestershire  and  neighboring  counties,  attended  by  a 
corps  of  regular  and  irregular  preachers  whose  ministry 
spread  a  great  sensation  throughout  their  course.  "A  re- 
markable power  from  on  high,"  wrote  the  Countess,  "ac- 
companied the  message  of  His  servants,  and  many  felt  the 
arrows  of  distress."  ^  Shirley,  Eomaine,  Madan,  Venn,  and 
Maddock  were  with  her,  and  Whitefield  joined  them  at 
Cheltenham,  They  preached  in  the  churches  when  they 
could  obtain  permission ;  when  it  was  denied  they  betook 
themselves  to  Methodist  and  Dissenting  chapels,  to  church- 
yards, to  highways,  and  fields.  At  Cheltenham  the  church 
was  refused  them  by  its  rector  and  wardens,  but  Lord 
Dartmouth,  noted  as  a  Methodist  himself,  opened  his 
mansion  for  them.  Downing,  his  chaplain,  was  a  Meth- 
odist evangelist,  and  had  done  much  good  in  the  neigh- 
borhood.    His   lordship  hoped  to   obtain  the   church   for 

^  Gillies's  WhitejBeld,  ch.  19  ;  Life,  etc.,  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  ch.  12, 
3  Life  and  Times  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  chap.  25. 


454  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Whitefield,  but  when  the  latter  arrived  it  was  denied  to  him 
also.  An  immense  assembly  had  been  attracted  by  the 
fame  of  the  preacher  and  the  exertions  of  the  earl ;  finding 
the  church  door  closed,  Whitefield  mounted  a  tombstone  and 
cried  aloud,  "  Ho !  every  one  that  thirsteth  come  ye  to  the 
waters !"  A  singular  spectacle  v/as  it — the  closed  church, 
the  graves  covered  with  thousands  of  the  people,  and  such 
churchmen  as  Venn,  Madan,  Shirley,  Maddock,  Talbot, 
Rowlands,  and  Whitefield,  ordained  and  gowned,  and  yet 
proscribed  for  preaching  to  the  famishing  multitudes  the 
doctrines  of  the  Anglican  Reformation ;  and  this,  too,  while 
a  peer  of  the  realm,  a  nobleman  distingaished  for  his  wealth 
and  dignity,  admired  by  the  king,  the  first  Lord  of  Trade, 
sworn  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  Princij^al  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  American  Department,  stood  with  his  family 
among  them,  their  friend  and  patron.*  Such  was  the  treat- 
ment of  Methodism  by  the  Established  Church  of  the  land. 
Venn  spoke  of  this  "  field  day,"  and  those  which  imme- 
diately ensued,  as  remarkable  for  interest  and  success  beyond 
what  his  "powers  could  describe."  He  says  he  was  over- 
whelmed by  a  sense  of  the  awful  power  and  presence  of 
Jehovah;  that  the  effect  of  Whitefield's  discourse  was  so 
irresistible  that  some  of  the  hearers  fell  prostrate  upon  the 
graves,  others  sobbed  aloud,  some  wept  in  silence,  and  al- 
most the  whole  assembly  seemed  struck  with  awe.  When 
the  preacher  came  to  the  application  of  his  text  to  the  un- 
godly, "his  word  cut  like  a  sword."  Many  cried  out  with 
anguish.  At  this  juncture  Whitefield  made  an  "  awful  pause  " 
of  a  few  seconds,  then  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears.     Madan 

*  America  still  respects  the  name  of  the  noble  Methodist  at  the  college 
(Dartmouth,  Hanover,  N.  H.)  which  he  patronized.  It  was  to  him  that 
Cowper  alluded  in  the  verses  :  ' 

•'  We  boast  some  rich  ones  whom  the  Gospel  sways, 
And  one  who  wears  a  coronet  and  prays." 

"  Thev  call  my  Lord  Dartmouth  an  enthusiast,"  said  George  Til. ;  "but 
surely  he  says  nothing  on  religion  but  what  any  Christian  may  and  ought 
to  say."  There  was  a  vein  of  outright  good  sense  running  through  the 
insanity  of  the  aged  king. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770.     455 

and  Venn  stood  up  during  this  short  interval  and  exhorted 
the  people  to  restrain  as  much  as  possible  their  emotions. 
Twice  afterward  they  had  to  repeat  the  same  advice.  "  O 
^with  what  eloquence,"  writes  Venn,  "  what  energy,  what 
melting  tenderness  did  Whiteiield  beseech  sinners  to  be  re- 
conciled to  God,  to  come  to  him  for  life  everlasting,  and  rest 
their  weary  souls  in  Christ  the  Saviour."  When  the  sermon 
was  ended  the  people  seemed  spell-bound  to  the  ground. 
Madan,  Talbot,  Downing,  and  Venn  found  ample  employ- 
m.ent  in  endeavoring  to  comfort  those  who  had  broken  dovvai 
under  a  sense  of  guilt.  They  separated  in  different  directions 
among  the  crowd,  and  each  v/as  quickly  surrounded  by  an 
attentive  audience  still  eager  to  hear  the  word  of  life. 

Turned  away  from  the  church,  the  evangelists  found 
shelter  at  Lord  Dartmouth's  mansion.  Whiteiield  adminis- 
tered the  sacrament  there  the  same  evening.  Talbot  "  ex- 
horted," and  Venn  closed  the  day  with  prayer  and  thanks- 
giving. The  next  day  was  equally  interesting.  Whitefield 
addressed  "  a  prodigious  congregation "  in  the  church-yard, 
and  Talbot  preached  at  night  at  the  earl's  residence,  where 
all  the  rooms  and  the  adjacent  grounds  were  crowded.  A 
table  was  brought  out  before  the  door,  and  Whitefield 
mounting  it,  again  addressed  them  with  overwhelming  effect. 
Intelligence  of  these  extraordinary  scenes  soon  spread  abroad, 
and  the  next  day  Charles  Vf  esley,  and  many  Methodists  from 
Bristol,  Gloucester,  Tewkesbury,  Rodborough,  and  their  ad- 
jacent villages,  arrived  and  shared  in  the  Pentecost ;  but  all 
"loud  weeping  and  piercing  cries  had  subsided,  and  the  work 
of  conversion  went  on,  and  much  solid  good  was  done." 

On  leaving  Cheltenham  Madan  and  Talbot  itinerated 
through  Wiltshire,  Oxfordshire,  and  Northamptonshire. 
"  They  went,"  says  Hervey,  who  met  them,  "  like  men  bap- 
tized with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,"  and  through  all 
those  regions,  as  well  as  Gloucestershire  and  Worcestershire, 
they  sounded  the  alarm  day  and  night,  and  woke  up  slumber- 
ing thousands.  Tliese  proceedings  seemed,  indeed,  dis- 
orderly to  grave  Churchmen,  but  Whitefield  expressed  the 


456  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

just  view  of  them  :    "  This  order  undoes  us.     As  things 
now  stand  we  must  be  disorderly  or  useless." 

It  is  supposed  that  there  were  about  forty  clergymen  of 
the  Establishment  publicly  known  about  this  period  as 
"evangelical."^  Wesley  had  tried  in  vain  to  introduce 
among  them  some  plan  of  co-operation  which  should  not 
compromise  their  opinions.  With  Whitefield  and  Lady 
Huntingdon  he  had  better  success.  He  frequently  met  them 
in  London,  and  preached  at  the  residence  of  the  Countess  amid 
throngs  not  only  of  the  aristocracy,  but  of  the  Calvinistic 
Methodist  ministers  ;  he  occupied  their  pulpits,  also,  in  his 
ti-avels  through  the  country.  About  1766  the  Countess, 
Whitefield,  and  the  two  Wesleys  cemented  their  Christian 
harmony  by  something  like  a  formal,  "a  quadruple  alliance," 
as  Charles  Wesley  called  it.^  They  agreed  to  meet  as  often 
as  convenient  and  co-operate  in  their  common  work. 

Lady  Huntingdon  prized  highly  Wesley's  counsels.  She 
could  not  fail  to  perceive  his  peculiar  ability  as  an  ecclesias- 
tical administrator,  and,  more  than  any  other  leader  of  Cal- 
vinistic Methodism,  shared  his  legislative  and  executive 
genius ;  but  her  sex  did  not  admit  of  its  exertion  to  the 
extent  needed  by  her  societies.  She  consulted  him  often  on 
important  occasions.  In  1767  she  submitted  to  him,  and  also 
to  Venn,  Eomaine,  and  her  other  conspicuous  associates,  a 
plan  for  the  education  of  preachers,  from  which  arose  her 
Trevecca  College.  Wesley  heartily  approved  the  scheme ;  it 
was,  in  fact,  the  exemplification  of  a  design  which  he  himself 
had  propounded  in  his  first  and  second  Conferences. 

A  provision  of  this  kind  was  the  more  needed  as  it  had 
become  manifest  that  the  Methodists  could  expect  no  treat- 
ment, compatible  with  their  self-respect,  for  their  ministerial 
candidates  at  the  English  universities.  About  the  time  that 
Lady  Huntingdon  and  Wesley  were  consulting  respecting  Tre- 
vecca, a  conclusive  motive  for  the  project  was  given  at  Ox- 

^  Life  and  Times  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  chap,  27. 
"  See  his  letter  (tinged  not  a  little  with  his  characteristic  discontent,  to- 
ward Ms  brother)  in  the  Life  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  chap.  27. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:   1760-1770.     457 

ford.  Methodism  had  again  revealed  itself  within  its  learned 
cloisters,  as  also  at  Cambridge ;  in  the  latter  the  noted  Row- 
land Hill  headed  a  band  of  devout  youth  who  were  stigma- 
tized by  the  title.  At  Oxford,  Halward,  of  Worcester 
College,  led  a  little  company  who  were  reproducing  "  The 
Holy  Club,"  to  the  dismay  of  its  clerical  and  literary  digni- 
taries. Hill  and  Halward  were  in  constant  correspondence ; 
Whitefield,  also,  had  influential  relations  with  them,  and  the 
new  revival  began  to  assume  much  prospective  importance 
when  it  was  summarily  arrested  by  the  collegiate  authorities 
of  Oxford.  Six  students  of  St.  Edmund's  Hall  were  cited 
to  trial  "  for  holding  Methodistic  tenets,  and  taking  upon 
therh.  to  pray,  read,  and  expound  the  Scriptures  in  private 
houses."  ^  Dr.  Dixon,  Principal  of  St.  Edmund's,  defended 
the  accused  students  from  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  spoke 
in  the  highest  terms  of  their  piety  and  exemplary  lives;  but 
his  motion  for  their  acquittal  was  overruled,  and  they  were 
expelled.  The  proceeding  produced  a  general  sensation  in  re- 
ligious circles  throughout  the  country.  Sir  Richard  Hill  ded- 
icated to  the  Earl  of  Litchfield,  Chancellor  of  the  University, 
a  pungent  pamphlet,  entitled  "  Pietas  Oxoniensis."  Home, 
afterward  Bishop  of  Norwich,  entered  into  the  controversy 
in  favor  of  the  expelled  young  men.  Macgowan,  who  had 
been  a  local  preacher  among  the  Methodists,  but  was  now  a 
Baptist  pastor  in  London,  published  against  the  University 
a  satirical  sermon,  famous  in  that  day,  under  the  title  of 
"  The  Shaver,"  which,  with  Aristophanic  humor,  but  scathing 
logic,  showed  the  Oxford  proceedings  to  be  not  only  impious 
but  supremely  ridiculous ;  many  thousands  of  the  publication 
flew  over  the  land.  Whitefield  addressed  a  published  and 
forcible  letter  to  the  Vice-Chancellor.  Most,  if  not  all  these 
young  men  had  been  sent  to  Oxford  under  the  auspices  of 
Lady  Huntingdon ;  and  the  Oxford  authorities,  as  also  the 
public  journals,  accused  her  of  "  seducing  young  men  from 

"f  St.  James's  Chronicle.  Philip's  Whitefield,  chap.  27.  The  chief 
charges  against  one  of  them  was  that  "  he  had  been  instructed  by  Mr. 
Fletcher,  a  decided  Methodist,"  and  had  "associated  with  Methodists." 


458  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

their  respective  trades  and  avocations  and  sending  them  to 
the  University,  where  they  were  maintained  at  her  expense, 
that  they  might  afterward  skulk  into  orders."  It  was  time, 
therefore,  that  Trevecca  should  be  opened.  In  three  months 
it  was  dedicated  by  Whitefield,  several  of  the  persecuted 
students  resorted  to  it,  and  most  of  them  became  useful 
ministers  in  the  national  Church  or  among  the  Dissenters. 

In  August,  1769,  a  remarkable  scene  was  exhibited  at 
Trevecca.  It  was  the  celebration  of  the  first  anniversary 
of  the  college;  and  so  catholic  was  yet  the  whole  Meth- 
odist movement,  that  both  its  Calvinistic  and  Arminian 
leaders  met  there  in  harmony,  and  gave  an  exaniple 
of  Christian  charity  which  should  never  be  forgotten  by 
their  successors.  Nearly  a  week  before  the  celebration 
many  of  the  naost  distinguished  evangelists  had  arrived, 
and  vast  congregations,  sermons,  exhortations,  prayers, 
and  conversions,  in  the  court-yard  of  the  castle,  marked 
these  preliminary  days.  Early  in  the  morning  of  the 
anniversary  the  Eucharist  was  administered,  and  shared 
b}^  Methodists  of  all  opinions.  Its  administrators  were 
Wesley  and  Shirley,  the  exponents  of  the  Calvinism  and 
Arminianism  of  the  day.  A  large  company  of  clergymen 
first  partook  of  it,  then  the  students,  and  afterward  the 
countess,  and  a  train  of  "  elect  ladies,"  mostly  of  high 
rank,  followed  by  the  people.  Fletcher  preached  in  the 
court  at  two  o'clock,  and  was  succeeded  by  a  sermon  in 
Welsh,  after  which  all  the  clergymen  dined  with  Lady  Hun- 
tingdon, while  bread  and  meat  were  distributed  from  ample 
baskets  to  the  multitude  without.  In  the  afternoon  Wes- 
ley preached,  and  Fletcher  followed  with  a  second  sermon. 
The  evening  was  devoted  to  a  "love-feast,"  the  primitive 
Agape,  derived,  in  a  simplified  form,  through  the  London 
Moravians ;  it  was  an  occasion  of  extraordinary  interest ; 
all  classes  sat  "together  as  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ 
Jesus."  Howell  Harris,  with  a  band  of  his  Welsh  con- 
verts, took  part  in  the  exercises  in  their  own  language,  and 
narratives  of  Christian  experience,  prayers,  and  hymns  occu 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770.    459 

pied  the  hours.  Wesley,  always  on  the  wing,  left  the  next 
day;  but  Fletcher,  Shirley,  and  other  clergymen  tarried 
several  days  in  brotherly  devotions,  preaching  from  a 
platform  in  the  court-yard  to  the  multitudes  who  still  lin- 
gered with  them  in  deep  religious  interest. 

But  let  us  return,  and  for  the  last  time,  to  the  hero  of 
Calvinistic  Methodism.  It  pleases  God,  in  accommodation 
to  the  infirmities  of  our  fallen  humanity,  that  his  most 
eminent  servants  should  not  be  entirely  exempt  from  its 
common  imperfections,  otherwise  they  could  not  so  well 
command  our  common  sympathies,  and  do  us  the  good  for 
which  they  are  sent ;  but  often,  as  their  appointed  work  is 
closing,  does  he  put  upon  their  brows  an  unearthly  glory, 
as  if  crowning  them  among  men  for  their  admission  among 
angels.  Even  in  private  life,  when  the  aged  pilgrim,  or  the 
long-suffering  saint,  or  sanctified  childhood  itself,  seems  pre- 
paring to  depart,  it  is  often  thus ;  .but  still  more  among  the 
good  and  noted,  of  public  Christian  usefulness.  Whitefield 
has  appeared  and  reappeared  amid  the  scenes  of  our  narra- 
tive with  continually  increasing  interest — an  interest  which 
the  historian,  while  he  may  well  apprehend  that  he  shall  be 
suspected  of  exaggeration,  knows  equally  well  to  be  short 
of  the  original  reality.  We  come  now  to  follow  him  to  his 
grave,  or  rather  to  the  scene  of  his  ascension ;  and  as  we 
trace  him  through  his  last  days,  and  behold  his  eloquence, 
his  devotion,  his  heroism,  taking  a  character  of  sublimity 
from  the  approach  of  death,  w^e  shall  find  that  the  ground 
upon  which  we  tread  becomes  more  holy,  and  should  be 
walked  with  unsandaled  feet. 

We  parted  from  him  last  in  1760.  His  health  was 
feeble ;  the  asthma  oppressed  him,  and  his  chronic  hemor- 
rhage, "  vomiting  of  blood,"  was  considered  by  him  a 
fortunate  relief  after  the  excitement  of  his  discourses. 
In  1761  he  was  reduced  almost  to  extremity,  and  ex- 
pected death.  Berridge,  Romaine,  Madan,  and  his  other 
associates,  had  to  sustain  the  services  of  the  Tabernacle 
and  Tottenham  Chapel,  and  for  the  first  time  in  his  minis- 


460  HISTORY    OF    METHODIS:^!. 

terial  career  lie  preached  not  for  several  weeks.  In  1762 
he  considered  it  a  sign  of  some  improvement  that  he  could 
resume  his  "  ranging,"  and  preach  some  "  five  times  a 
week."  He  could  "  take  the  open  field "  occasionally. 
"  O  for  power  equal  to  my  will !"  he  wrote  ;  "  I  would  fly 
from  pole  to  pole  publishing  the  everlasting  Gospel  of  the 
Son  of  God."  He  made  a  voyage  to  Holland  for  his  health 
this  year,  and  on  his  return  was  soon  again  in  Scotland,  and 
could  write :  "All  my  old  times  have  returned."  Edinburgh, 
Glasgow,  Cambuslang,  again  rejoiced  under  his  ministrations. 
On  returning  to  England,  it  is  recorded  that  he  was  able  to 
preach  "  hut  once  a  day,"  in  extreme  weakness. 

In  1763  he  was  again  on  the  ocean.  It  was  his  sixth  ex- 
pedition. At  Philadelphia  he  preached  twice  a  week,  though 
still  very  feeble.  Forty  preachers,  of  various  denominations, 
who  had  been  regenerated  in  the  American  revival,  congratu- 
lated him  on  his  arrival.  He  passed  through  New  York, 
Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island,  to  Boston,  welcomed  by  tens 
of  thousands.  At  New  York  he  wrote  that  such  a  flocking 
of  all  ranks  he  never  saw  before.  At  Boston  his  reception 
was  more  cordial  than  ever.  Even  Harvard  College, 
which  had  issued  its  "  testimony "  against  him,  voted  him 
thanks  for  his  Journal  and  other  books,  and  received  hino 
as  an  embassador  of  Christ.  On  leaving  the  city  for  the 
south,  messengers  were  sent  after  him ;  he  went  back  and 
preached  to  immense  crowds  for  several  weeks. 

In  his  southward  tour  the  whole  population  on  his  route 
seemed  swayed  with  interest.  On  reaching  New  York  he 
wrote :  "It  would  astonish  you  to  see  above  a  hundred  car- 
riages at  every  sermon  in  the  New  World."  Before  the  end 
of  1764  he  reached  his  beloved  Bethesda,  near  Savannah, 
having  preached  all  along  his  course  from  Boston  to  innum- 
erable multitudes. 

In  the  spring  of  1765  he  again  swept  over  the  colonies 
northward  as  far  as  New  York.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
estimate  the  influence  of  his  powerful  discourses  on  the 
Churches,  and  the  religious  interests  of  the  Atlantic  settle- 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770.     461 

merits  generally.  The  population,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest,  gathered  at  all  the  prominent  points  of  his  passage. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  heard  the  highest  evangelical  truths 
uttered  with  an  eloquence  probably  never  equaled.  Writ- 
ing from  Philadelphia,  he  says :  "  All  along  from  Charles- 
ton to  this  place  the  cry  is,  '  For  Christ's  sake,  stay  and 
preach  to  us.' "      .  « 

In  July,  1765,  he  again  landed  in  England.  He  was  still 
broken  in  health, .but  as  ardent  as  ever  with  the  devout 
enthusiasm  which  had  borne  him  through  unflagging  labors 
for  nearly  thirty  years.  "  0  to  end  life  well !"  he  wrote  on 
his  arrival ;  "  methinks  I  have  now  but  one  river  to  pass 
over,  and  we  know  of  One  that  can  carry  us  over  without 
being  ankle  deep."  During  the  ensuing  four  years  he 
itinerated  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales,  repeating  his 
excursions  whenever  -his  health  rallied  sufficiently  to  allow 
him  to  mount  his  "field-throne,"  as  he  called  his  out-door 
pulpit.  .  The  enthusiasm  of  the  people  to  hear  him  increased 
with  the  increased  fame  which  years  had  given  him.  They 
gathered  by  ten  thousands  and  twenty  thousands  around 
him,  and  he  speaks  of  "  light  and  life  flying  in  all  directions," 

Cornelius  Winter,  a  distinguished  Calvinistic  Methodist, 
gives  us  some  glimpses  of  his  more  personal  life  about  this 
period.  He  was  avaricious  of  time,  and  his  expectations  gen- 
erally went  before,  the  ability  of  his  assistants  to  perform  his 
commands.  He  was  very  exact  to  the  time  appointed  for  his 
meals ;  a  few  minutes'  delay  would  be  considered  a  great 
fault.  He  was  irritable,  but  soon  appeased.  Not  patient 
enough  one  day  to  receive  a  reason  for  his  being  disappointed 
under  a  particular  occurrence,  he  hurt  the  mind  of  one  who 
was  studious  to  please  him;  he  discovered  it  by  the' tears 
it  occasioned,  and,  on  reflection,  he  himself  burst  into  tears, 
saying,  "I  shall  live  to  be  a  poor  peevish  old  man,  and 
everybody  will  be  tired  of  me."  He  never  indulged  parties 
at  his  table;  a  select  few  might  now  and  then  breakfast 
with  him,  dine  with  him  on  a  Sunday,  or  sup  with  him  on 
a  Wednesday  night.     In  the  latter  indulgence  he  was  scru- 


462  HISTOKY    OF    METHODISM. 

pulously  exact  to  retire  early.  In  the  height  of  a  conversa- 
tion he  would  abruptly  say,  "  But  we  forget  ourselves,"  and 
5-ising  from,  his  seat,  and  advancing  to  the  door,  add,  "  Come, 
gentlemen,  it  is  time  for  all  good  folks  to  be  at  home,'"' 
Whether  by  himself,  or  having  but  a  second  person  at  his 
table,  it  must  be  spread  elegantly,  though  it  presented  but 
a  loaf  and  a  cheese.  It  never  presented  much  variety. 
A  cow-heel  was  his  favorite  dish,  and  he  has  been  known 
cheerfully  to  say,  "  How  surprised  would  the  world  be,  if 
they  were  to  peep  upon  Dr.  Squintum,^''  and  see  a  cow-heel 
only  u|fon  his  table."  He  was  fastidiously  neat  in  his  per- 
son and  every  thing  about  him.  Not  a  paper  could  be  out 
of  place  or  put  up  irregularly.  Every  part  of  the  furniture 
m'ast  be  in  order  before  he  retired  to  rest.  He  said  he 
did  not  think  he  should  die  easy  if  he  thought  his  gloves 
were  out  of  their  place.  There  was  no  rest  in  the  house 
after  four  in  the  morning,  nor  sitting  up  after  ten  in  the 
evening.  He  never  made  a  purchase  without  paying  the 
money  for  it  immediately.  He  was  truly  generous,  and  sel- 
dom denied  relief.  He  often  dined  among  his  friends,  when 
he  usually  connected  a  comprehensive  prayer  with  his 
thanksgiving  at  the  table,  noticing  particular  cases  connected 
with  the  family  :  he  never  protracted  his  visit  long  after 
dinner.  He  often  appeared  tired  of  popularity,  and  said  he-^ 
envied  the  man  who  could  take  his  choice  of  food  at  an  eat- 
ing-house, and  pass  unnoticed.  He  apprehended  he  should 
not  glorify  God  in  his  death  by  any  remarkable  testimony, 
and  was  desirous  to  die  suddenly. 

His  wife  died  in  1768 ;  he  writes  of  her  with  regret, 
but  suffered  scarcely  an  intermission  of  his  labors  by  the 
event.  His  marriage  was  not  as  unfortunate  as  that  of 
John  Wesley,  nor  as  fortunate  as  that  of  Charles.  ^^  If  it 
yielded  him  no  great  happiness  it  did  not  interfere  with 

"  One  of  his  eyes  was  defective.     See  p.  92. 

11  "Winter,  wlio  lived  in  his  family,  represents  it  as  unhappy.  ("Win- 
ter's Memoirs,  by  Jay.)  Philip  (Life  of  Whitefield,  chap.  11)  attempts 
an  elaborate  and  plausible,  if  not  successful  defense. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1Y70.     4:6S 

the  great  work  to  which  everything  else  had  to  bend. 
At  the  death  of  his  only  child,  his  friends  united  in  the 
request  that  he  should  decline  preaching  till  it  was  buried ; 
but  he  preached  twice  the  day  after  its  death,  and  once  the 
following  day,  and  the  bell  was  tolling  for  the  funeral  before 
he  left  the  pulpit ;  this  was  zeal,  but  not  a  lack  of  tender- 
ness, for  in  a  few  minutes  he  was  on  his  knees  by  the  side 
of  the  corpse,  shedding  "  many  tears,  though  tears  of  resig- 
nation." The  next  day  he  was  agam  in  the  pulpit.  Never 
was  there  a  man  so  entirely  of  one  work  as  Whitefield. 

Tills,  his  last  sojourn  in  England,  was  of  incalculable  ad- 
vantage to  Methodism.  He  consecrated  new  chapels,  pro- 
vided by  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon;  he  promoted  the 
success  of  the  college  at  Trevecca ;  he  stimulated  his  fellow- 
laborers,  Romaine,  Venn,  Berridge,  Madan,  and  their  asso- 
ciates ;  he  called  out  Scott,  Joss,  Rowland  Hill,  and  other 
extraordinary  laborers  into  his  London  pulpits,  and  spread 
renewed  interest  through  most  of  the  land.  Meanwhile  his 
generous  spirit,  fast  ripenmg  for  heaven,  sought  every  oppor- 
tunity of  promoting  the  catholicity  of  the  great  revival.  He 
not  only  attended,  and  drew  his  most  eminent  associates  to 
Wesley's  Conferences,  but  met  him  often  in  private  inter- 
\'iews.  Wesley's  equally  charitable  heart  was  touched  by 
these  Christian  courtesies,  and  by  the  reminiscences  of  their 
long  and  common  labors  and  sufferings.  He  saw  that  his 
eloquent  friend  was  hastening  to  his  rest,  and  that  the  op- 
portunities for  such  brotherly  amenities  should  be  prized 
as  soon  to  be  had  no  more.  In  1769  he  records  in  his 
Journal  that  he  spent  "  a  comfortable  and  profitable  hour " 
with  Whitefield  in  "  calling  to  mind  the  former  times''^ 
and  the  mamier  in  which  God  had  prepared  them  for 
"  a  work  which  it  had  not  entered  into  their  hearts  to  con- 
ceive." Whitefield  was  at  this  time  sinking  fast.  Two 
years  earlier  Wesley  speaks  of  breakfasting  with  him,  and 
of  his  appearing  to  be  "  an  old,  old  man,  fairly  worn  out  in 
his  Master's  service."  In  February,  1769,  he  says :  "  I  had 
one  m.ore  agreeable  conversation  with  my  old  friend  and 


464  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM.. 

fellow-laborer,  George  Whitefield.  His  soul  appeared  to 
be  vigorous  still,  but  his  body  was  sinking  apace." 

In  September,  1769,  the  mighty  apostle  was  again  on  the 
deck  for  America.  He  took  affectionate  leave  of  Wesley 
in  a  farewell  letter  as  he  embarked.  After  a  tedious  and 
perilous  voyage,  he  was  cheered  to  find  Bethesda  in  unpre- 
cedented prosperity.  For  about  thirty-two  years  he  had 
cherished  it  as  one  of  the  fondest  objects  of  his  life.  It  was 
almost  clear  of  debt,  with  two  new  wings,  each  nearly  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  length,  and  smaller  buildings 
in  much  forwardness,  and  the  whole  executed  "  with  taste 
and  in  a  masterly  mamier."  The  governor  and  council  of 
the  colony  received  him  with  public  ceremonies,  and  adopted 
his  plans  for  the  re-organization  of  the  institution  as  a  college. 
He  seemed  never  more  contented.  "  I  am  happier,"  he  wrote, 
"  than  words  can  express."  "  O  Bethesda !  my  Bethel ! 
my  Peniel !  my  happiness  is  inconceivable  !"  This  year  he 
was  to  die,  and  it  was  well  that  his  last  days  were  not  to 
be  clouded  by  an  anticipation  of  the  fate  which  awaited  this 
his  favorite  project. ^^  He  felt  a  momentary  temptation  to 
repose  in  its  tranquil  retirement,  "  but  all  must  give  way 
to  Gospel  ranging,  divine  employ !"  and  soon  he  was  again 
moving  northward.  Early  in  the  morning  on  which  he 
started  he  wrote  the  prophetic  words :  "  This  will  prove  a 
sacred  year  for  me  at  the  day  of  judgment.  Hallelujah ! 
Come,  Lord,  come !" 

This  last  tour  befitted  his  whole  religious  history.  He 
was  in  improved  health ;  never  did  his  spirit  soar  more  loft- 
ily ;  never  did  such  frequent  ejaculations  of  zeal  and  rap- 
ture appear  in  his  correspondence.  "  Hallelujah !  hallelu- 
jah!" he  wrote  to  England ;  "let  Chapel,  Tabernacle,  heaven, 
and  earth  resound  with  hallelujah!  I  can  no  more;  my 
heart  is  too  big  to  speak  or  add  more !"  To  Charles  Wes- 
ley he  wrote :  "  I  can  only  sit  down  and  cry,  *  What  hath 
God  wrought !'     My  bodily  health  is  much  improved,  and 

12  It  was  destroyed  by  fire  two  or  three  years  later,  and  scarcely  a  trace 
of  its  i-ulns  remains. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770.    465 

ray  soul  is  on  the  wing  for  another  Gospel  range.    Unutter 
able  love  !    I  am  lost  in  wonder  and  amazement !" 

In  May  he  appeared  again  among  the  enthusiastic  crowds 
of  Philadelphia,  preaching  twice  on  Sunday,  besides  three 
or  four  times  during  the  rest  of  the  week.  All  ranks  flocked 
to  hear  him,  and  now  even  the  Episcopal  churches  were  all 
open  to  him.  The  salutary  effects  of  his  former  labors 
were  everywhere  obvious.  He  made  an  excur^on  from  the 
city  over  a  circuit  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  preaching 
every  day.  So  many  doors  were  open,  he  wrote,  that  he 
knew  not  which  way  to  turn.  He  turned  finally  to  New 
York,  where  he  preached  "  to  congregations  larger  than 
ever."  He  passed  up  the  Hudson  River,  and  made  a 
tour  of  more  than  five  hundred  miles,  preaching  at  Albany, 
Schenectady,  Great  Barrington,  and  many  other  places. 
He  had  reached  the  New  York  frontier  of  that  day ;  for  as 
late  as  the  Revolution  the  white  population  west  of  the 
Hudson  scarcely  extended  back  sixty  miles  to  Cherry  Val- 
ley, Johnstown,  and  some  scattered  settlements  in  Otsego, 
Montgomery,  and  Herkimer  counties ;  and  such  was  still 
the  power  of  the  Indian  tribes,  that  during  the  war 
Schenectady  itself  was  likely  at  one  time  to  become  the 
prominent  point  of  the  Western  boundary  of  the  state. 
*•'  O  what  new  scenes  of  usefulness  are  opening  in  various 
points  of  this  world,"  wrote  Whitefield,  as  he  returned. 
He  saw  the  gates  of  the  Northwest  opening,  those  mighty 
gates  through  which  the  nations  have  since  been  passing, 
as  in  grand  procession,  but  he  w^as  not  to  enter  there ;  the 
everlasting  gates  were  opening  for  him,  and  he  was  hast- 
ening toward  them.  The  last  entry  in  his  memoranda 
relates  to  his  labors  on  this  tour  up  the  Hudson :  "  I  heard 
afterward  that  the  word  ran  and  was  glorified.  Grace !  grace !" 
He  had  preached  with  his  usual  zeal,  and  at  every  possible 
point,  in  churches,  in  streets,  in  fields,  and  at  one  time  on 
the  coffin  of  a  criminal,  beneath  the  gallows,  to  thousands 
of  hearers ;  "  Solemn !  solemn !"  he  wrote ;  "  effectual  good, 
I  hope,  was  done,     Grace!  grace!" 

Vol-,  1.— 30 


4:6Q  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

From  New  York  he  went  to  Boston,  and  wrote  in  one  of 
his  latest  letters  that  never  was  the  word  received  with 
greater  eagerness  than  now,  and  that  all  opposition  seemed 
to  cease.  He  passed  on  to  Newbury,  where  he  was  attacked 
with  sudden  illness ;  hut  recovering,  he  resumed  his  route 
to  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  During  six  days  he  preached  there 
and  in  the  vicinity  every  day.  Returning  he  addressed  a 
vast  assembly  in  the  open  air  at  Exeter.  His  emotions 
carried  him  away,  and  he  prolonged  his  discourse  through 
two  hours.  It  was  an  effort  of  stupendous  eloquence — his 
lastjield  triumph;  the  last  of  that  series  of  mighty  sermons 
which  had  been  resounding  like  trumpet  blasts  for  thirty- 
four  years  over  England  and  America. 

He  departed  the  same  day  for  Newburyport,  where  it 
was  expected  he  would  preach  on  the  morrow.  While  at  sup- 
per the  pavement  in  front  of  the  house,  and  even  its  hall, 
were  crowded  with  people,  impatient  to  hear  a  few  words- 
from  his  eloquent  lips ;  but  he  was  exhausted,  and  rising 
from  the  table,  said  to  one  of  the  clergymen  who  were  with 
him,  "  Brother,  you  must  speak  to  these  dear  people ;  I  can- 
not say  a  word."  Taking  a  candle  he  hastened  toward  his 
bed-room,  but  before  reaching  it  he  was  arrested  by  the  sug- 
gestion of  his  o^vii  generous  heart  that  he  ought  not  thus  to 
desert  the  anxious  crowd,  hungering  for  the  bread  of  life 
from  his  hands.  He  paused  on  the  stairs  to  address  them. 
He  had  preached  his  last  sermon;  this  was  to  be  his  last 
exhortation.  It  would  seem  that  some  pensive  misgiving, 
some  vague  presentiment  touched  his  soul  with  the  saddening 
apprehension  that  the  moments  were  too  precious  to  be  lost 
in  rest;  he  lingered  on  the  stairway,  while  the  crowd  gazed 
up  at  hinl  with  tearful  eyes,  as  Elisha  at  the  ascending 
prophet.  His  voice,  never,  perhaps,  surpassed  in  its  music 
and  pathos,  flowed  on  until  the  candle  which  he  held  in  his 
hand  burned  away  and  went  out  in  its  socket  1"^'^  The  next 
morning  he  was  not,  for  God  had  taken  him ! 

^2  This  final  scene  in  liis  ministry  is  given  in  none  of  his  memoirs.  It 
was  related  by  a  daughter  of  Eev.  Mr.  Parsons,  in  whose  house  he  died. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1Y60-1770.     467 

He  died  of  an  attack  of  asthma,  September  30th,  1770, 
*is  the  Sabbath  sun  was  rising  from  the  neighboring  sea. 
The  effulgence  of  the  eternal  day  had  risen  upon  his  benefi- 
cent, his  fervid,  his  consecrated  life.  He  had  slept  comfort- 
ably till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  he  awoke  his  trav- 
eling attendant,  and  told  him  that  his  "  asthma  was  coming  on 
again."  His"  companion  recommended  him  not  to  preach 
so  often  as  he  had.  "  I  would  rather  wear  out  than  rust 
out,"  he  replied.  He  had  expressed  a  desire  to  die  suddenly, 
and  now  realized  his  wish.  He  sat  in  his  bed  some  time, 
praying  that  God  would  bless  his  preaching,  his  Bethesda 
school,  the  Tabernacle  congregation,  and  "  all  connections  on 
the  other  side  of  the  M^ater."  He  attempted  again  to  sleep, 
but  could  not ;  he  hastened  to  the  open  window,  panting  for 
breath.  "  I  am  dying,"  he  exclaimed.  A  physician  was 
called,  but  could  give  him  no  relief.  At  six  o'clock  he 
"  fetched  one  gasp,  stretched  out  his  feet,  and  breathed 
no  more." 

While  at  the  dinner-table  of  Finley,  at  Princeton,  he  had 
remarked :  "  I  shall  die  silent.  It  has  pleased  God  to  enable 
me  to  bear  so  many  testimonies  for  him  during  my  life  that 
he  will  require  none  from  me  wha.  1  die."  The  only  words 
he  uttered  during  his  agony  were,  "  I  am  dying." 

Many  hundreds  followed  him  to  the  grave.  All  the  bells 
of  the  town  were  tolled ;  the  flags  of  the  shipping  in  the ' 
harbor  were  hung  at  half  mast,  and  mourning  guns  were 
fired  from  their  decks.  Funeral  sermons  were  preached 
in  the  principal  cities  of  America.  The  magistrates  of 
Georgia  assembled  in  mourning  at  the  State  House,  and  led 
a  procession  to  hear  his  funeral  sermon  at  the  church,  which 
was  hung  in  black ;  and  it  is  said  that  all  the  cloth  suitable 
for  mourning  in  the  stores  of  the  colony  was  bought 'up. 

The  news  of  his  death  reached  London  early  in  Novem- 
ber. The  Methodist  chapels  were  hung  with  mourning 
drapery.  He  left  Wesley  a  mourning  ring,  and  had  ap- 
pointed him  to  preach  his  funeral  sermon.  Wesley  pro- 
nounced the  discourse  at  the  Tabernacle,  and  repeated  it  at 


468  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

Tottenham  Court,  Greenwich  Tabernacle,  Deptford,  and 
elsewhere,  remarking  in  his  Journal :  "In  every  place  1 
wish  to  show  all  possible  respect  to  the  memory  of  that 
great  and  good  man."  Charles  Wesley  published  an  elegy 
on  his  death,  which  does  as  much  credit  to  his  own  genius 
and  heart  as  to  the  character  of  his  friend. 

Whitefield's  remains  rest  beneath  the  pulpit  of  the  Fed- 
eral-street Church,  Newburyport.  A  massive  marble  ceno- 
taph commemorates  him  near  the  altar.  Many  pilgrims  visit 
the  venerable  chur.ch  to  honor  his  memory.  Passing  into 
an  adjacent  vestry,  the  visitor  descends,  with  his  guide  and 
lanterns,  through  a  door  in  the  floor  into  a  crypt,  and  thence, 
by  a  side  door,  into  the  vault,  extending  under  the  pulpit, 
where,  between  two  ancient  pastors  of  the  church,  lies  the  open 
coffin  of  the  great  evangelist.  The  bare  and  decaying  bones 
lie  upon  a  slight  bed  of  mold  formed  of  the  dust  of  the  body. 
As  the  thoughtful  spectator  gazes  upon  the  full-orbed  cranium, 
or  takes  it  into  his  hands,  many  an  eager  inquiry  is  startled 
within  him.  What  thoughts  of  power  and  grandeur  ema- 
nated from  tills  dome  of  the  mind,  thoughts  that  have  stirred 
the  depths  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  souls,  and  will 
quicken  their  immortality  !  What  were  the  attributes  of  his 
character ;  what  the  sources  of  his  wonderful  power  ? 

Sufficient  has  already  been  said,  in  the  course  of  this 
volume,  to  answer  somewhat  these  questions ;  but  we  may 
welt  pause  at  the  grave  of  so  conspicuous  a  character  in  our 
narrative,  the  man  who  was  the  herald  of  Methodism, 
sounding  the  trumpet  before  its  march  in  both  hemispheres, 
and  ask  again,  whence  was  his  unrivaled  power  ? 

Whitefield  was  a  man  of  no  great  intelligence,  and  of 
less  learning,  but  of  unquestionable  genius ;  perhaps  the 
greatest  known,  in  the  greatest  or  at  least  the  rarest  power 
of  genius  —  eloquence. 

He  was  born  an  orator.  The  qualities  of  the  orator 
made  up  his  whole  genius ;  they  were  the  first  naental  mani- 
festations of  his  childhood,  but  were  pent  up  in  his  heart,  a 
magazine  of  energies,  until  kindled  by  the  influence  of  relig- 


CALVINISTIC   METHODISM:    1760-1770.     469 

ion,  when  they  broke  forth  like  the  fires  of  a  volcano.  He 
was  a  man  of  boundless  soul.  He  was  a  host  of  generous 
sympathies;  and  every  sympathy  in  him  was  a  passion. 
This  was  the  secret  of  his  eloquence.  The  Athenian  orator 
said  that  action  is  eloquence.  Perhaps  antiquity  has  given 
undue  authority  to  the  saying.  The  pantomime  is  not  elo- 
quent ;  but  strong  passion  always  is,  and  always  would  be, 
had  it  the  expression  of  neither  hand  nor  feature,  but  only 
the  tremulous  tones  of  the  excited  voice  coming  from  an 
unseen  source  upon  the  ear.  There  is  no  eloquence  without 
feeling.  Even  the  histrionic  orator  must  feel — not  affect  to 
feel,  but,  by  giving  himself  up  to  the  illusion  of  reality  in 
ideal  scenes,  actually  feel.  Whitefield's  whole  Christian 
course  showed  the  prevalence  of  mighty  feelings. 

While  eloquence  is  the  rarest  if  not  the  greatest  power  of 
genius,  pathos  is  the  greatest  if  not  the  rarest  power  of  elo- 
quence. And  remarkable,  indeed,  is  the  fact  that  a  quality 
so  rare,  and  therefore  so  precious,  in  oratory  and  literature, 
should  be  the  most  common  of  the  sensibilities  of  the  popu- 
lar mind,  the  masses  with  whom  the  pulpit  orator  pre-emi- 
nently has  to  do.  The  strength  of  the  natural  affections,  the 
prevalence  of  common  sufferings  among  the  common  people, 
keep  sacred  within  them  the  sense  of  sorrow  and  of  pity  even 
when  most  other  virtues  are  gone ;  and  the  rudest  natures 
usually  weep  the  most  readily,  as  they  do  the  most  sincerely. 

Precisely  in  this  greatest  power  of  eloquence  did  White- 
field  most  excel.  His  thoughts,  his  whole  mighty  soul, 
flowed  in  his  tears.  He  paused  often  in  his  sermons  to 
weep,  the  people,  meanwhile,  sobbing  aloud,  or  sinking  to 
the  earth  under  insupportable  emotions. 

While  pathos,  from  its  relation  to  the  natural  affections 
and  to  the  common  sorrows  of  men,  affords  to  any  orator  his 
chief  power,  from  its  congeniality  with  the  religious  affec- 
tions— contrition  for  sin,  habitual  trust  in  an  atonement  made 
by  suffering,  sympathy  with  erring  men  and  periled  souls, 
and  the  tenderness  which  essentially  belongs  to  all  religious 
affections — it  is  in  a  special  manner  the  great  power  of  pulpit 


470  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

eloquence ;  incomparably  more  so  than  terror,  which,  while  a 
less  general  susceptibility,  is  related  to  but  a  single  religious 
idea.  The  profound  religious  feeling  of  Whitefield  was  there- 
fore an  important  element  of  his  pulpit  power.  There  was  in 
him  a  remarkable  combination  of  the  unction  from  above, 
the  "Holy  Ghost  and  power,"  with  intense  natural  sensibil- 
ity. He  was  "full  of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost."  In  him 
religipn  was  from  the  time  of  his  conversion  till  his  death  a 
continual  impulse ;  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  men  an  un- 
broken spell.  All  his  theological  opinions,  his  ideas  of  sin 
and  holiness,  of  heaven  and  hell,  were  not  merely  thoughts 
but  sentiments ;  not  speculations,  but  unquestionable  realities. 
They  were  appreciated  by  him  as  directly  as  sensible  facts 
are  by  ordinary  men.  This  vivid  spirituality  inflamed  his 
entire  soul.  A  spiritual  unction  seemed  to  drip  down,  his 
whole  person,  like  the  anointing  oil  that  "  went  down  to  the 
skirts  of  Aaron's  garments."  Hervey  has  left  a  remarkable 
testimony  to  his  Christian  character.  "For  my  part,"  he 
says,  "  I  never  beheld  so  fair  a  copy  of  our  Lord ;  such  a 
living  image  of  the  Saviour ;  such  exalted  delight  in  God  ; 
such  enlarged  benevolence  to  man ;  such  a  steady  faith  in 
the  Divine  promises,  and  such  a  fervent  zeal  for  the  Divine 
glory ;  and  all  this  without  the  least  moroseness  or  extrava- 
gance, sweetened  with  the  most  engaging  cheerfulness, 
and  regulated  by  all  the  sobriety  of  reason  and  wisdom 
of  Scripture."^* 

And  it  is  an  extraordinary  fact  that  the  fervor  of  his  zeal 
suffered  no  appreciable  abatement  throughout  his  long  min- 
istry of  thirty-four  years ;  not  even  the  effect  which  age  and 
disease  might  naturally  have  had  upon  it.  His  last  year 
showed  more  zeal,  if  possible,  than  any  before  it ;  his  last 
sermon,  two  hours  long,  in  the  open  air,  was  more  powerful 
than  his  first  one  at  Bristol ;  like  the  sun,  he  went  down  with 
undiminished  force,  as  majestically  as  he  rose. 

He  wal  an  enthusiast,  doubtless,  but  in  the  best  sense,  and 
in  no  sense  a  fanatic.     His  whole  soul  seemed  incandescent 
14  Gillies' 8  Whitefield,  chap.  20. 


CALVINISTIC  METHODISM:    1760-1770.     471 

with  a  divine  fire ;  yet  the  most  remarkable  thing  about  him, 
when  we  consider  the  natural  constitution  of  his  mind,  is  the 
perfect  good  sense  with  which  he  prosecuted  a  career  so  long, 
so  fervid,  and  so  novel.  When  he  started  at  Bristol  on  his  min- 
isterial course,  or  took  the  open  field  at  Kingswood,  a  severe 
prudence  would  have  predicted  some  signal  folly  or  failure 
in  his  life ;  some  perilous  extravagance  of  opinion  or  conduct. 
But  what  one  can  be  recorded  against  him ;  what  more 
than  the  common  and  petty  defects  of  the  best  of  men  ?  ^^ 
Without  apparent  sagacity,  or  even  usual  caution,  the 
simplicity  and  entire  purity  of  his  conscience  supplied  him 
with  protections  which  the  most  consummate  wisdom  sel- 
dom so  well  affords,  and  no  extravagance  can  be  imputed  to 
him,  except  a  boundless  charity  and  a  zeal  which  enabled 
him  to  reach  the  maximum  capacity  of  his  life  for  labor 
and  travel. 

He  had  not  only  the  soul  of  eloquence,  but  also  the  art. 
Elocution  is  not  eloquence;  a  speaker  may  be  eloquent 
without  it;  he  may  have  it  in  perfection,  and  not  be  elo- 
quent. But  Whitefield,  while  possessing  the  moral  and  in- 
tellectual elements  of  the  orator,  neglected  not  the  practical 
principles  of  the  art.  It  is  said  that  he  studied  and  privately 
practiced  the  prescribed  rules  of  public  speaking.  His  ges- 
tures are  reported  to  have  been  remarkably  appropriate; 
Eranklin,  who  heard  him  often,  says  that  each  repetition  of 
the  same  sermon  showed  a  studied  improvement,  and  that 

1*  In  even  Ms  controversy  with  Wesley  his  faults  are  excusable,  if  not 
admirable,  on  account  of  the  occasions  they  afterward  afforded  for  the 
exercise  of  the  generosity  and  tenderness  of  his  noble  heart.  When  he 
was  departing  on  his  first  American  voyage,  Wesley  admonished  him  not 
to  go,  because  of  a  warning  which  Wesley  himself  had  received  by  sorti- 
lege. In  the  Calvinistic  controversy  Whitefield  published  the  confidential 
fact ;  but  perhaps  no  event  in  his  life  called  forth  more  magnanimous  and 
-affecting  expressions  of  regret  and  self-condemnation.  He  says  of  it,  in 
his  reply  to  Lavington  :  "For  this  I  have  asked  both  God  and  him  par- 
don years  ago,  and  although  I  believe  both  have  forgiven  me,  yet  I  be- 
lieve I  shall  never  be  able  to  forgive  myself"  Sortilege  was  not  an  un- 
common folly  of  that  day.  See  a  ludicrous  example  of  it  on  the  part  of 
Berridge,  in  the  Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  chap.  22. 


4:72  HISTOKY     OF     METHODISxM. 

several  repetitions  were  necessary  to  perfect  it ;  Foote  and 
Garrick  said  that  his  eloquence  advanced  up  to  the  for 
tieth  repetition  before  it  reached  its  full  height.  ^^  His 
voice  was  laboriously  cultivated,  and  became  astonish- 
ingly effective.  Garrick,  who  delighted  to  hear  him,  said 
that  he  could  make  his  audience  weep  or  tremble  merely  by 
varying  his  pronunciation  of  the  word  Mesopotamia.  His 
style,  both  of  language  and  gesture,  was  natural,  and  it  per- 
fectly comported  with  his  strong  natural  feeling ;  for  though 
he  studied  the  art  of  eloquence,  he  was  not  artificial.  The 
ornate,  the  florid  style,  so  commonly  received  from  the 
pulpit  as  eloquence,  was  never  used  by  him.  No  one  study- 
ing his  genius  can  conceive  for  a  moment  that  it  was  possi- 
ble for  him  to  use  it;  he  was  too  much  in  earnest,  too  in- 
tent on  the  object  before  him.  His  language  is  always 
simple  and  colloquial,  not  fitted  for  books,  but,  therefore, 
the  better  fitted  for  speech ;  abounding  in  abrupt  transitions, 
and  strongly  idiomatic ;  such  language,  in  fine,  as  a  sincere 
man  would  use  in  earnestly  entreating  his  neighbor  to  escape 
some  impending  disaster.  Though  he  did  not  like  his  re- 
ported sermons,  they  are  evidently  fac-similes  of  his  style ; 
direct,  abrupt,  full  of  local  allusions,  and  presentmg  scarcely 
a  single  ornamented  passage,  the  very  speech  of  the  common 
people.  It  would  appear  homely,  even  meager,  did  not  the 
reader  supply,  in  his  imagination,  the  conversational  manner, 
the  tears,  and  the  entreating  voice  of  the  speaker.  It  would 
be  folly  to  say  that  a  more  refined  style  is  not  appropriate 
to  the  pulpit,  popular  as  should  be  its  address ;  but,  let  its 
refinement  be  what  it  may,  it  should  have  these  character 
istics  of  simplicity,  point,  and  colloquial  directness.  This  is 
the  style  of  true  eloquence ;  ornament  pertains  to  imagina- 
tion, and  imagination  belongs  to  poetry;  but  poetry  and 
oratory  are  distinct.  Genuine  oratory  is  too  earnest  to 
admit  of  much  ornament.  Its  figures  are  few  and  always 
brief.  Its  language  is  the  language  of  the  passions,  not  of 
the  fancy,  and  the  passions  never  utter  themselves  in  embel- 
16  Philip's  Life,  etc.,  claap.  22. 


CALVINISTIC  METHODISM:   1760-1770,    473 

lished  phrases,  but  always  directly,  pmigently.  It  is  the 
great  mistake  of  modern  oratory,  especially  in  the  puipit, 
that  it  confounds  eloquence  with  poetry,  but  it  was  never 
the  mistake  of  this  greatest  of  preachers. 

There  was  a  species  of  humor,  or  rather  popular  aptness. 
in  his  discourse,  which  could  not  fail  to  interest  the  com- 
mon people ;  for  nowhere  else  can  be  found  more  mother 
wit,  or  readier  repartee,  than  in  large  popular  assemblies. 
Pulpit  buffoons,  however,  can  never  claim  sanction  from 
his  example ;  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  made  a  con 
gregation  laugh ;  but  the  oddity  of  his  illustrations,  the 
appositeness  of  his  local  or  casual  allusions,  the  colloquial 
familiarity  of  his  address,  the  hearty  "human  nature"  of 
his  habitual  tone  of  mind,  and  his  abundant  anecdotes, 
kept  the  compact  thousands  in  an  attitude  of  eager  interest 
and  charmed  attention.  They  felt  that  though  he  had 
come  down  to  them  from  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
and  was  shining  with  its  glory,  yet  he  had  gone  up  to 
it  from  among  themselves,  and  was  still  one  of  them. 
Through  all  his  unusual  f(^rms  of  expression  and  surprising 
illustrations,  was  heard  distinctly  the  undertone  of  his  pathos 
and  solemn  earnestness.  Vulgarity  was,  with  him,  next  im- 
possible to  profanity  itself.  Cornelius  Winter,  who  accom- 
panied him  in  his  last  voyage  to  America,  says  that  some- 
times he  wept  exceedingly,  stamped  loudly  and  passionately, 
and  he  was  frequently  so  overcome  that  for  a  few  seconds  it 
seemed  he  never  could  recover;  and  when  he  did,  nature 
required  some  time  to  compose  herself  He  hardly  ever 
ended  a  sermon  without  weeping  more  or  less.  Winter 
adds  that  he  has  known  him  avail  himself  of  the  formality 
of  the  judge  putting  on  his  black  cap  to  pronounce  sentence. 
With  eyes  full  of  tears,. and  his  heart  almost  too  big  to 
admit  of  speech,  he  would  say,  after  a  momentary  pause,  "  I 
am  now  going  to  put  on  my  condemning  cap.  Sinner,  I  must 
do  it !  I  must  pronounce  sentence !"  Then,  in  a  strain  of 
tremendous  eloquence,  he  would  repeat  our  Lord's  words, 
"  Depart,  ye  cursed,"  and  not  without  a  powerful  descrip- 


474  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

tion  of  the  nature  of  that  curse.  But  it  was  only  by  hearing 
him,  and  by  beholding  his  attitude  and  tears^  continues  this 
writer,  that  any  person  could  conceive  of  the  effect.^' 

This  dramatic  power  was  another  of  his  extraordinary 
talents.  Not  only  every  accent  of  his  voice,  remarks  Gillies, 
spoke  to  the  ear,  but  every  feature  of  his  face,  every  motion 
of  his  hands,  every  gesture  spoke  to  the  eye,  so  that  tSe 
most  thoughtless  found  their  attention  involuntarily  fixed. 
Hume  reports  that  once,  after  a  solemn  pause,  he  ex- 
claimed :  "  The  attendant  angel  is  just  about  to  leave  the 
threshold  of  this  sanctuary  and  ascend  to  heaven.  And  shall 
he  ascend  and  not  bear  with  him  the  news  of  one  sinner 
among  all  this  multitude  reclaimed  from  the  error  of  his 
ways'?"  To  give  the  greater  effect  to  this  exclamation,  he 
stamped  with  his  foot,  lifted  up  his  hands  and  eyes  to 
heaven,  and  cried  aloud,  "  Stop,  Gabriel,  stop,  ere  you 
enter  the  sacred  portals,  and  yet  carry  with  yoa  the  news 
of  one  sinner  converted  to  God."  "  This  address,"  says 
Hume,  "  was  accompanied  with  such  animated  yet  natural 
action,  that  it  surpassed  anything  I  ever  saw  or  heard  in 
any  other  preacher." 

At  Lady  Huntingdon's  he  was  once  illustrating  the  perils 
of  the  sinner  who  is  led  on  by  inadequate  views  of  religion  ; 
he  drew  the  picture  of  a  blind  beggar,  guided  along  the 
brink  of  a  deep  precipice  by  a  string  around  the  neck  of  his 
dog ;  the  dog  escapes ;  the  blind  man  lifts  his  foot  over  the 
precipice — "  Heavens !  he  is  gone !"  shouted  Chesterfield, 
leaping  up  before  the  assembly.  ^^    As  though  it  were  no  dif- 

1'  Memoirs  of  Winter,  Ly  "William  Jay. 

18  The  effect  of  his  eloquence  on  polished  or  shrewd  minds  seems  to 
have  been  as  irresistible  as  on  the  common  people.  Franklin's  example 
is  well  known,  but  deserves  requoting.  He  went  to  hear  him  in  Philadel- 
phia :  "  At  this  sermon,"  he  says,  "  there  was  also  one  of  our  club,  who, 
being  of  my  sentiments  respecting  the  building  in  Georgia,  and  suspect- 
ing a  collection  might  be  intended,  had,  by  precaution,  emptied  his  pock- 
ets before  he  came  from  home ;  toward  the  conclusion  of  the  discourse, 
however,  he  felt  a  strong  inclination  to  give,  and  applied  to  a  neighbor, 
who  stood  near  him,  to  lend  him  some  money  for  the  purpose.  The  re- 
quest was  fortunately  made  to,  perhaps,  the  only  man  in  the  company 


CALVINISTIC  METHODISM:   iTeO-lVTO.    475 

ficult  matter,  remarks  Winter,  "  to  catch  the  sound  of  the 
Saviour  praying,  he  would  exclaim  :  '  Hark !  hark  !  do 
not  you  hear  him  V  You  may  suppose  that  as  this  occurred 
frequently,  the  efficacy  of  it  was  destroyed ;  but,  no  ;  though 
we  often  knew  what  was  coming,  it  was  as  new  to  us  as 
though  we  had  never  heard  it  before.  That  beautiful  apos- 
trophe, used  by  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  '  O  earth,  earth,  earth, 
hear  the  words  of  the  Lord,'  was  very  subservient  to  him, 
and  never  used  impertinently." 

Newton,  of  Olney,  said :  "  As  a  preacher,  if  any  man  were 
to  ask  me  who  was  the  second  I  ever  had  heard,  I  should  be 
at  some  loss ;  but  in  regard  to  the  first,  Mr.  Whitefield  ex- 
ceeded so  far  every  other  man  of  my  time  that  T  should  be 
at  none.  He  was  the  original  of  popular  preaching,  and  all 
our  popular  ministers  are  only  his  copies."  ^^ 

Such  was  the  man ;  the  results  of  his  influence  on  his  age 
and  ours  it  would  be  impossible  to  estimate,  not  only  be- 
cause he  did  not  give  them  any  aggregate  form  by  the 
general  organization  of  societies,  but  because  of  their  great 
extOTLt.  It  has  been  shovm  that  he  led  the  Methodistic  move- 
ment over  the  first  barriers  in  its  way,  and  by  field  and 
itinerant  preaching,  broke  open  for  it  an  unrestricted  career. 
While  in  England  he  was  almost  as  ubiquitous  as  Wesley, 
and  in  scarcely  any  part  cf  the  island  did  he  fail  to  give 
impulse  and  energy  to  that  evangelical  reanimation  which 
continues  to  our  day.  Writers  who  are  not  Methodists 
admit  that  Methodism  saved  the  Nonconformity  of  En- 
gland,20  and  Whitefield  was  its  chief  representative,  and 
promoter  among  the  Nonconformists.  The  whole  evangel 
ical  Dissent  of  England  feels  his  power  to-day. 

In  Scotland,  where  his  fellow-laborers  in  the  revival  had 
but  slight  agency ,•  and  where  the  Established  Kirk  was 
spiritually  dead,  and  the  zeal  of  the  Seceders  was  more  the 

who  liad  the  firmness  not  to  be  affected  by  the  preacher.  His  answes! 
was,  '  At  any  other  time,  friend  Hopkinson,  I  would  lend  to  thee  freely, 
but  not  now  ;  for  thee  seems  to  me  to  be  out  of  thy  right  senses.'  " 

"  See  his  letter  in  Lady  Huntingdon's  Life  and  Times,  chap.  7. 

so  See  page  30.. 


476  HISTORY    OF    METHODISM. 

result  of  tenacity  for  opinions  than  of  spiritual  fervor,  he  may 
be  considered  the  first  great  agent  of  that  resuscitation  of 
religion  which,  since  the  date  of  Methodism,  has  effectually 
counteracted  the  Socinian  and  semi-infidel  tendencies  which 
were  once  prevalent  there,  and  has  infused  new  and  uni- 
versal life  into  its  Churches. 

Wales  is  inscribed  all  over  with  the  signatures  of  his 
usefulness.  Jones,  Harris,  and  Rowlands  had  begun  its 
evangelical  regeneration,  but  their  labors  were  disconnected, 
and,  if  we  except  Jones's  itinerant  schools,  without  definite 
scope.  Whitefield's  Calvinism  gave  him  power  in  the  Prin- 
cipality; he 'brought  the  three  Welsh  evangelists  into  co- 
operation with  each  other,  and  into  communion  with  Method- 
ism, and  thence,  in  connection  with  Wesleyan  Methodism, 
]ias  arisen  that  extraordinary  religious  progress  by  which 
the  thirty  Dissenting  Churches  of  1715  have  increased  to 
twenty-three  hundred ;  by  which  a  chapel  now  dots  nearly 
every  three  square  miles  of  the  country,  and  over  a  million 
people,  nearly  the  whole  Welsh  population,  are  found  attend- 
ing public  worship  some  part  of  every  Sabbath. ^i 

The  Calvinistic  Methodists,  who  had  generally  recognized 
ill  Lady  Huntingdon's  patronage  and  superintendence  a  bond 
of  miity,  were  resolved,  after  Whitefield's  death,  into  three 
sects:  The  first  was  known  as  Lady  Huntingdon's  Connec- 
tion; it  observed  strictly  the  liturgical  forms  of  the  English 
Church,  and  its  ministry  ceased  to  itinerate ;  it  possesses  in 
our  day  about  sixty  chapels ;  Cheshunt  College,  in  Hertford- 
shire, belongs  to  it,  and  was  substituted  for  Trevecca,  when 
the  lease  of  the  latter  expired.  The  second  was  called  the 
Tabernacle  Connection,  or  Whitefield  Methodists.  Some  of 
its  churches  used  the  national  Liturgy,  but  many  adopted 
the  forms  of  the  Congregational  Independents,  and  most  of 
them  have  been  absorbed  by  the  latter  denomination.  The 
third  is  known  as  the  Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists ;  it  has 
continued  to  prosper  down  to  our  day.  Its  chapels  are  found 
in  almost  every  village  in  Wales,  and  are  alone  equal  to 
21  See  pages  119,  120. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1770.     477 

more  than  two-thirds  the  number  "belonging  to  the  Establish- 
ment. Its  first  Association  was  held  in  1743 ;  in  1785  it 
was  more  thoroughly  organized  by  Eev.  Thomas  Charles, 
whose  legislative  genius  has  thus  perpetuated  in  effective 
vigor  the  usefulness  of  Griffith  Jones,  Howell  Harris,  Daniel 
Rowlands,  and  their  Calvinistic  Methodist  coadjutors.  Ac- 
cording to  the  official  statistics  of  the  British  Government 
respecting  Wales,  for  1857,  there  were  in  the  Principality, 
Calvinistic  Methodists,  52,670  communicants,  462  preachers, 
and  794  churches  ;  Wesleyan  Methodists,  19,014  com- 
municants, 424  preachers,  and  400  churches. 

The  extent  of  Whitefield's  influence  in  America  is  still 
less  appreciable,  but  perhaps  still  greater.  Tlie  "  Great 
Awakening"  here  had  commenced  before  his  arrival,  but 
it  was  comparatively  local,  and  its  visible  interest  at  least 
had  mostly  subsided.  Edwards  and  some  of  his  minis- 
terial associates  were  yet  praying  and  writing  respecting  it 
in  New  England;  and  the  Tennents,  Blairs,  Finley,  Row- 
land, and  others,  were  devotedly  laboring,  in  detail,  in  the 
Middle  States,  against  the  moral  stupor  of  the  times ;  but 
Whitefield's  coming  at  once  renewed  the  revival  and  gave  it 
universality  if  not  unity.22  He  alone  of  all  its  promoters 
represented  it  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  at  every  re- 
peated visit  renewed  its  progress.  In  the  South  he  was 
almost  its  only  laborer;  his  preaching,  and  especially  his 
volume  of  sermons,  read  by  Morris,  ^^  founded  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Virginia ;  for  before  that  period  there  was 
not  a  Dissenting  minister  settled  in  the  colony.^* 

In  the  Middle  States  Whitefield's  labors  had  a  profoimd 
effect.  He  was  an  apostle  to  Philadelphia ;  he  rallied  around 
him  its  preachers,  and  stimulated  them  by  his  example.  In 
New  Jersey  and  New  York  he  exerted  a  similar  influence, 

22  For  an  account  of  tlie  schisms  and  other  troubles  of  the  Amerioaii 
Churches  about  this  time,  see  Tracy's  Great  Awakening,  etc., passim, 

23  See  page  301. 

24  Letter  of  President  Davies  to  Eev.  Mr.  Bellamy,  now  in  the  Old  South 
Church  Library,  Boston ;  see  Tracy's  Great  Awf^kening,  chap.  19. 


478  HISTOEY    OF    METHODISM. 

and  the  frequent  repetition  of  his  visits  through  about  thirty 
years  did  not  allow  the  evangelical  interest  of  the  Churches 
to  subside.  The  ministers  in  the  synod  of  New  York  more 
than  tripled  in  seven  years  after  his  first  visit.^s  In  New 
England  the  effects  of  Edwards's  labors  were  reproduced 
and  rendered  general  by  Whitefield's  frequent  passages. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  Congregational  Churches  were  founded 
in  less  than  twenty  years ;  ^^  and  it  has  been  estimated  that 
between  thirty  thousand  and  forty  thousand  souls  were  con- 
verted in  New  England  alone.^"^ 

The  effects  of  the  great  revival,  of  which  he  had  thus  be- 
come the  ostensible  representative,  have  been  profound 
and  permanent.  In  fine,  the  Protestantism  of  the  United 
States  has  taken  its  subsequent  character  from  it,  and  the 
"  Holy  Club "  at  Oxford  may  be  recognized  as  historically 
comiected  with  the  evangelical  Christianity  of  all  this  con- 
tinent, not  only  by  the  later  influence  of  Arminian  Meth- 
odism, but  still  more  variously,  if  not  more  intimately,  by 
the  agency  of  Calvinistic  Methodism.  Wesley's  charitable 
prediction  that  the  breach  between  him  and  Whitefield,  on 
account  of  Calvinism,  would  be  a  providential  blessing, 
stands  verified  throughout  the  American  Eepublic. 

The  effect  of  the  Awakening  on  the  character  of  the  minis- 
try was  one  of  its  greatest  results.  Since  that  period  the 
"  evangelical "  character  of  the  American  pastorate  has  not 
as  before,  been  exceptional,  but  general.  Twenty  clergy 
men  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston  alone  acknowledged,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  Whitefield,  at  his  third  visit,  that  he  had  been 
the  means  of  their  conversion. 

The  Baptist  denomination  in  the  colonies  received  nsvf 
energy  from  the  "Great  Awakening."     Benjamin  iKandall 
was  converted  through  the  last  sermons  and  death  of  White- 
ns Tracy's  Great  Awakening,  chap.  19. 

28  Such  was  the  estimate  of  President  Styles.    See  Tracy,  chap.  20. 
27  Trumbull  (History  of  Connecticut)  gives  this  estimate  for  '^nly  twf 
or  three  years ;  others  place  the  number  at  fifty  thousand.     Any  sucb 
numerical  estimates  can  be  of  little  importance. 


CALVINISTIC    METHODISM:    1760-1Y70.     479 

Beld,28  and  soon  after  founded  the  Free -Will  Baptist 
Churcli,  now  fifty  thousand  strong  in  the  United  States. 

Whitefield's  labors  prepared  the  way  for  Wesley's  itiner- 
ants. They  had  arrived  before  his  last  visit ;  he  gave  them 
his  blessing,  as  he  passed  through  Philadelphia,  and  it  has 
never  failed  them. 

The  revival  had  a  salutary  effect  on  education.  It 
gave  origin  to  Princeton  College  and  its  distinguished 
Theological  Seminary,^^  and  also  to  Dartmouth  College. 
Whitefield's  fellow-laborers  founded  both,  and  the  Meth- 
odists of  England  contributed  their  money  to  both. 

One  of  its  most  important  blessings  was  its  influence  on 
the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  especially  on  its  relation  to 
the  state  in  New  England.  It  banished  the  "  Halfway  Cove- 
nant," which  had  filled  the  eastern  Churches  with  uncon- 
verted members ;  it  made  personal  regeneration  a  requisite 
among  the  qualifications  for  the  Christian  ministry,  and  it 
introduced  that  general  and  profound  conviction  of  the  essen- 
tial spirituality  of  religion,  and  the  necessary  independence 
of  Church  and  state,  which  soon  after  began,  and  has 
since  completed,  the  overthrow  of  all  legal  connection  be- 
tween the  two  throughout  the  country. ^° 

Thus  lived  and  died,  and  in  the  results  of  his  labors  lives 
still  and  will  live  forever,  George  Whitefield,  the  "  Com- 
mon Drawer  "  of  the  Bristol  Inn,  the  "  Poor  Scholar,"  or 
Servitor  of  Pembroke  College,  the  "Methodist"  of  the 
Holy  Club  of  Oxford  and  the  "  Prince  of  Preachers."  In 
proportion  as  the  historian  of  his  times  should,  by  the  sober- 
est study  of  facts,  approximate  an  exact  estimate  of  his  life 
and  its  consequences,  would  he  incur  the  suspicion  of  exag- 
geration. It  is  not  only  questionable  whether  any  other  one 
man  ever  a(Mressed  by  the  voice  so  many  of  his  fellow-men, 

28  "  The  death  of  Whitefield  slew  EandaU,"  says  a  late  writer,  (Chris- 
tian Eeview,  April  1858.)  The  last  sermons  of  Whitefield,  at  Portsmouth, 
N.  H.,  impressed  him  deeply  ;  but  the  death  of  the  great  preacher  sealed 
the  impression,  and  resulted  in  his  conversion. 

29  Tracy's  Great  Awakening,  chap.  20  ^'^  Ibid. 


480  HISTORY   OF   METHODISM. 

but  whether  any  other  ever  swayed  them  more  irresistibl> . 
It  has  been  estimated  that  he  preached  eighteen  thousand 
sermons,  which  would  be  ten  a  week  for  the  thirty-four  years 
of  his  ministry.  He  crossed  the  Atlantic  thirteen  times. 
The  preaching  tours  he  made  through  the  colonies,  frora 
Maine  to  Georgia,  would,  with  our  modern  means  of  travel, 
signalize  before  the  country  any  clergyman's  life ;  but  the 
inconvenience  and  labor  which  they  then  involved  can 
scarcely  now  be  conceived.  He  has  the  grand  distinction 
of  having  traveled  more  extensively  for  the  Gospel,  preached 
it  oftener,  and  preached  it  more  eloquently,  than  any  other 
man,  ancient  or  modern,  within  the  same  limits  of  life.  A 
nobler  eulogy  could  not  crown  his  memory. 

And  here  we  may  appropriately  drop  the  curtain  on  the 
first  act  of  this  extraordinary  drama  in  the  modern  history 
of  religion.  But  the  paramount  man  of  the  great  movement 
was  still  abroad ;  a  long  period  of  life  was  yet  to  be  allotted 
him ;  he  was  to  survive  nearly  all  his  early  fellow-laborers  > 
to  preach  under  trees  which  his  own  hands  had  planted  at 
Kingswood,  to  the  second  and  third  generations  of  his  people ; 
and  by  his  farther  labors,  to  give  to  Methodism  an  organic 
form,  which  should  secure  efficiency  and  perpetuity  to  its 
mission.  Li  turning  from  the  grave  of  Whitefield  we  shall 
meet  the  fullest  and  noblest  life  of  Wesley. 


END  OF  VOL.  I. 


i< 


yJl 

Date 

Due 

j^^p;t    f,     - 

i^iv7 

oECie'iTl 

APH  15  7 

MAY  2  6  7^ 

o. 

ffEcT?T9 

m- 

: 

i 

I 

Library  Bureau  Cat.   No.  1137 

W PELLS  BINDERY  INC. 
ALTHAM.  MASS. 
SEPT.  1961 


3  5002  00361   3242 

Sstorof  the  rengious  movement  0^ 


BX 

8231 

.  S7 

1858  1 

Stevens^ 

Abel, 

1815- 

-1897. 

The 

hist 

ory 

of 

the 

re 

ligioue  movement 

of 

the 

5.